Rory's Quest for #1-Sunday, -Golf With Jay Delsing

This is golf with Jay Delsingh. A two-time college All-American at UCLA. A participant in nearly 700 PGA Tour events. Seven professional wins to his credit. Over 30 years of professional golf experience.

This is Sports Hall of Fame. This is Golf with Jay Delsingh. Hey good morning and good afternoon. It's really let's just call it in for good afternoon.

It's Golf with Jay Delsingh. What's happening? Ready to do one of our more interesting shows in an unbelievably beautiful little windy location.

Absolutely folks we are broadcasting our second live remote. We haven't died so it's a live remote from the loading dock in beautiful Grafton, Illinois at the confluence of the Mississippi and the Illinois Rivers. And Pearl, how pretty is this? It's absolutely gorgeous. I thought you were going to ask me what confluence meant because I actually know what it meant. It's coming together like you and I come together for the radio show.

The rivers come together and all these people are coming together to enjoy this beautiful day. How's that for defining the definition? I love it. I love it. So folks we break the show down like around the golf and this first segment is called the on range segment brought to you by the Gateway section of the PGA. You know there's over 300 men and women in our section. That work tirelessly to make our golf experiences better. And we appreciate their support on the show. Anytime you pull up to a driving range, your country club, your muni, chances are one of the men and women are with the Gateway section and we appreciate them. We also are giving away a dozen golf balls this week. And we do it every week. They're TP5 golf balls.

They're awesome. Because he doesn't get any. But our buddy Jeff Thornhill with TaylorMade Golf has made this possible. And we are in week 43, John.

And we've given away 43 dozen. Should we just go ahead and announce the winner right now? As long as it's me. It's not you, but it is Jerry Pearson. So Jerry Pearson wins the golf balls this week. So Jerry, stand by your mailbox and wait for those balls. And then you can now give you Pearly's number. You can call Pearly and tell them what they look like and how straight they fly. They do fly straight. I got to find one one time in the bushes and I played it for a couple holes and I enjoyed it.

First of all, I've looked for a long time to try to find the right mix for our show. And the Allens. We just got to spend, oh what, 15 minutes with Peter Allen is my buddy.

His parents Ben and Trudy are the founders of this property here. Gosh, it sits right on the river. It's absolutely beautiful. We're on this Friday afternoon.

It is spectacular at 80 degrees. Completely full. We've got people playing washers over there, John. We've got people playing bags. We got a little Tom Petty. We got a little wind. We got a little cocktail.

What else do we need? I want to talk about Ben and Trudy. We got to hear the history of when this place started when it was just a thought some 35 years ago. Absolutely intriguing as heck.

And what was interesting is they have no interest in slowing down. As a matter of fact, his eyes just started beaming. Trudy did walk away when he got to his next couple of ideas. But it's inspirational to see that gentleman with the energy he's got for what's yet to come. He enjoys and appreciates what he's accomplished. But he's more excited about what's yet to come. That's an entrepreneur for sure.

Absolutely. There's Riverside Condos up here. There's all sorts of, you know, I don't know how many, five or six different bars in this place. They've got a flea market on the weekends. They've got a skating rink as the weather gets colder like now. Yeah, so we are delighted to be up here.

Family owned. The loading dock. Come on up.

Have a cocktail. Check it out. It is just spectacular. It's really clear to me, and I haven't brought this up in any shows recently, but it's really clear to me that Rory McIlroy is on a mission. He's on a mission in several areas. Which one are you thinking about? Well, he's on a mission to be the spokesperson, so to speak, for the PGA Tour versus LIV, and that is awesome. But he's on a mission to regain world number one. I was hoping you're going to say both because I think it's both. And somehow he's making them fit together, which I think is a little bit dangerous.

You can easily get to street. He's getting distracted from his plan, but he is not pulling any punches. He's standing his ground on the whole LIV thing, and I love what's going on. He's re-inspired. You and I talk about how there's that change of life with having kids, marriage, etc. Well, apparently he's just gotten over that hump on that and seeing how he can get golf to fit back in there, and it's exciting.

He's definitely taken the leadership role. You know, John, sometimes you just need something to get you reinvigorated. Now, as you said, you're dealing with some of the life changes.

You have children. Your priorities get shifted around a little bit, but it's really clear. So, he jumps out to a lead at the CJ Cup, and we are a tape show, so we're not going to be able to know the results, but it's really interesting too, John, because the current world number one, Scottie Scheffler, went through one of the, not strange, but a very drastic equipment change this week. Yeah, scary, scary, but he did.

He did it. He went with the mallet. He went to a mallet-headed putter, guys. He's putted with a blade for so long, won the Masters Player of the Year last year, but to his, I read quite a few articles on this, and it's interesting because he just considered himself way too streaky with the other. But, John, if you think about it, it's only about streaks, isn't it, on the PGA Tour? Well, it's a lot, I guess, unless you're number one in the world.

Your streak is to stay number one, and you're super at the top, but I have a couple things to think about. Do the Cowboys change their horses? No, he changes putter. How about changing girlfriends?

Well, yes and no. You've got to be a little bit careful about that. Drivers changing their favorite car? What do you think about that? How about the Cowboys changing out their six shooters?

I don't know about that either. I mean, here's a guy that's at the top of his game, and he's changing out equipment. I'm not sure if that's brave or if that's just scary, not so smart. Do you get scared by a cowboy? Did you see a cowboy movie last night? What are the cowboy references?

Who would have thought it? I like it. The six shooter. Well, changing your main go-to is a tough deal.

Okay, just like changing a driver is not quite as hard, but almost. What's the most strokes you take of any club in your bag? By a long shot. It's the putter. By the long shot.

There's no question. But, John, in terms of confidence and things like that, I mean, that is one of the things that, you know, and if you start losing, maybe just completely lost confidence with that thing. I don't know because his play has been extremely spotty in the last three months.

Okay, maybe a little here and there, but I like to ask the other guys. He's kicking their butts every week. When he starts talking about being spotty and slowing his putter and stuff like that, 99.9% of them are going to go like, sorry, I didn't notice.

He keeps kicking my butt. And we don't care. We're spending less time on you and more time on ourselves.

That is no question about that. Guys, we are broadcasting from the loading dock here in Grafton, Illinois. As you may or may not have known, they are the official sponsor of the 19th hole with golf with Jay Delson.

So we are going to get the owner Peter Allen on a little later. But so, John, Phil Mickelson, I mean, we touched briefly about it last week, but I don't know if he stepped two feet into complete delusion or semi quasi delusional thinking, but what's going on in your take? Well, I don't know what's going on other than maybe it's just continued heightened with pressure that's going on in his life and stuff.

But you know, Jay started thinking, what about some other sports where there's guys that really stepped out of the mainstay and tried to make a statement and that kind of stuff? I'm not remembering too many of them that turned out all that well. Normally, it's these guys that ended up kind of crash and burn and disappear and then trying to reinvent themselves and say, hey, I'm sorry, I lost my way. But I'm not seeing this ending well for Phil at all. I don't know that I care one way or other, but I think some of the damage along the way is unfortunate. Well, you hate to see someone who has who has was on such a high and so beloved by so many people just go squirrely. I mean, it's a family show. We can't we can't describe it a whole lot of other ways.

But I mean, denying the fact that he gave the interview to Alan Shipnut, which we all know is a big fat lie. And then it is weird tattoo on his left hand that thank God is temporary. It just some of the things about the trending of this tour. I mean, it's so transparently crazy job. There's something going on. It's a little deeper.

And hopefully you can figure it out before the whole world rest of the world gets to see it, unfortunately, in some big splash and mess. Yeah, so we're we we we I really I gotta tell you, as much as you know, I feel like we do more reporting than editorializing on him. He's given so much fodder for the airwaves in the last two or three weeks. His play is diminished so much, John, that we're not even referring to much of his what he's actually doing with his golf clubs. It's more about what he's doing at the microphone.

Well, we've been talking about that for a little while. I mean, he's obviously had the points where he rose up and had some great events, but it seems to be fewer and fewer, far further and further between. I guess he might be going on under the no press is bad press mentality to kind of keep himself relevant. We've talked about it, I think between him and Norman, relevance is a big deal. You know, John, I think you're absolutely right. I mean, it's clear to me at least that Greg Norman is struggling to try to keep his foot involved in the game, 68 years old and just, you know, now he's in bed with the Saudis and he's, you know, $2 billion fund and doing the face of of live golf.

But, John, one of the things that's not my opinion is live still doesn't have a TV deal. Well, Jay, I think you were kind of tipping around what's actually happening as well, too, because when you hear people just constantly spread, stretch the truth, flat out lies, lies of omission, et cetera, which is what they're all about. It just tells you something's really kind of going bad over there. So that's where it's headed. And I think we just want to try to stay above. But we're not looking for anybody to splash and burn. But something needs to change here. But I think the change is coming. Yeah, no question. All right.

So that's going to wrap up the the on the range segment. Guys, we're going to tip our cap today and a tip of the cap is brought to you by the Dean Team Volkswagen of Kirkwood three one four nine six six zero three zero three. Colin Burnt is your car guy. Folks, you need anything.

You can email me. J J. Delson golf dot com. We'll personally introduce you to Colin. He's just terrific. So I am tipping my cap to our local golf associations and organizations, the Gateway Section, the Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association Association, the Missouri Golf Association and all of the entities that organize, develop and then execute events for for all of us, whether it's at your local country club level, whether it's at your Muni level, whether it's at the driving range level.

The weather has been especially warm in the Midwest. The rounds of golf are still up and these folks are still working their butts off, making our golf experience better. So we are tipping our cap to them. Colin and Dean Team Volkswagen of Kirkwood at three one four nine six six zero three zero three. Thank you so much for supporting the show. This is going to wrap up the on the range segment.

Come back for more of golf with J. Delson. Folks, are you in the market for some additional protection for your ride? You need to call my friends at Vehicle Assurance.

Their number is eight six six three four one nine two five five. Sherry Fane is the owner and president, and she and her team are committed to helping you with your unexpected auto repair bills. They are committed to finding the right protection for you, your budget and your family. They only work with the top vehicle service providers in the country.

Get the protection and the peace of mind you deserve. That's Vehicle Assurance eight six six three four one nine two five five for a free quote eight six six three four one nine two five five. How would you like access to 90 holes of golf? Well, that's what happens when you join at Whitmore Country Club. You get access to the Missouri Bluffs, the links to Dardeen and the Golf Club of Wentzville.

And guess what? No cart fees included in that deal. There's no food and beverage minimums.

There's no assessments. They have a 24 hour fitness center, two large pool complexes, three tennis courts. Year round social calendar includes holiday parties, picnics, date nights, live music. They even have a kids club for your children and much, much more. There's junior golf, junior tennis and swim teams available.

This is a family friendly atmosphere, and they have a wonderful staff. If you get out there, you've got to poke your head in the golf shop and say hello to my friend Bummer. He is a terrific guy and he will help you with your game and show you around. And don't forget, there are golf leagues, skins games, members tournaments and couples events available all year round. Visit whitmoregolf.com.

That's whitmoregolf.com. Hey, this is Jay Delsing for SSM Health Physical Therapy. Our golf program has the same screening techniques and technology as the pros on the PGA Tour use. SSM Health Physical Therapy has the Titleist Performance Institute trained physical therapist that can perform the TPI screening on you, as well as use a KVEST 3D motion capture system. Proper posture, alignment, etc.

can help you keep your game right down the middle. We have 80 locations in the St. Louis area. Call 800-518-1626 or visit them on the web at ssmphysicaltherapy.com. Your therapy, our passion. Good morning, this is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host Jay and I'm sitting down this morning on the Gateway Spotlight with Jack Connell from the Dalhousie Golf Club. Jack, good morning. Good morning, sir. Hey, first of all, thanks so much for all you do in the game. Congratulations on the name change down at your member member at Dalhousie.

Talk to us a little bit about what's going on at Dalhousie and some of the things that the folks may not know about you guys. Well, it was it was an honor and quite a surprise. They kind of kept it from me, but they named the member member, which we had had a little bit of trouble kind of getting off the ground, tried it all kinds of different ways. And and Core Dombrowski, our owner, as well as Bill Morrow, our director of golf operations, basically got together with a couple of members and they said, hey, let's just call it something like the Connell and we'll get the membership behind it. And I've been here 21, almost 20, 20 years, 21 years. Actually, I was here before we even opened and they said, we'll call it the Connell member member. And and then came to me and of course, got to play with my two sons and then court is my partner and and it's just a two person event.

But oh, my gosh, what an honor that my my daughter got to come up from Atlanta and and then we had a nice membership appreciation dinner that night. And a few people thought I was retiring on here. But I said, well, I don't think so. But but no, I'm not. And it was but it's it's so fun to be a part of Dalhousie.

Oh, we don't want you retiring anytime soon. Jack, what court is doing down at Dalhousie and the great Bill Morrow, who has been involved in a game and a good buddy and doing just wonderful things for the for the golf for golf in general are really special. And Dalhousie is such a feather in our golf cap here in this region, isn't it? Well, I think so. It's quite a great golf course. I get a lot of I get a lot of play from St. Louis and southern Illinois and, you know, really all over. And they look at me, you know, and go, Do you realize how good this is?

And I said, Well, you know, I when I first started, I was very nervous. I wanted him to have a good time. And to be honest, if they don't like this, they don't like golf. I mean, it's so good and so fair, and so well manicured our superintendent Todd Ellis has worked from the get go. And he's just, he's just does a fantastic job and we're in the middle of a drought. We haven't had rain in over 60 days. So for the golf course to still be this good, it's it's it's quite a feather in cord and Todd's caps to, you know, to to make the commitment to keep the golf course really good.

And they have, first of all, that's not easy to do when the weather is good. And these challenges, they really the cream really rises to the top. I think, Jack, let's talk just a little bit about some of the things that you guys offer at Dalhousie. I've had multiple friends go down and do this day and play, you know, where you get to go down, you play on a Tuesday, you stay overnight, have a great dinner, a lot of camaraderie, maybe a cocktail or two.

And then you get out and play the next day. There's overnight accommodations, lots to offer at Dalhousie Golf Club. Yes, we started out with with two buildings with four rooms total with two, you know, queen beds and, you know, accommodations right here at the golf course.

And then they built another building with four rooms and two beds in each room and a common area, you know, a little bit of different style. But it allows us for a little larger group that come in from mostly from golf clubs that we reciprocate with in St. Louis and they get a hold of Bill and Bill Morrow. And he basically works out situations where hopefully, you know, at certain times we can we can accommodate and enjoy. You know, everybody gets to enjoy this good for us and it's good for the players coming in. Well, and I think this reciprocal that you guys do with I know, gosh, at least 15 or 20 of my friends that have that reciprocal membership, it really gives people an opportunity to expand their golf experiences.

Yes. And we have also have a working relationship with Norwood, Persimmon Woods, as well as the math. It allows it allows a lot of people.

We're about two thousand rounds, you know, already ahead of schedule. Not that we have a whole lot of play, which makes it a great golf course for, you know, for having a national membership. We have a lot of players from St. Louis that realize that it's so easy to get down here and then we're uncrowded enough to where they usually don't have, you know, trouble deciding the day of. Wow, I could get down there, play and get back, you know, and we're usually not so crowded that that can't happen. And Jack, that says a lot about the facility when you guys can get people down there on such a championship style course in great kind of condition, but also get them through where they're not spending five and six hours on the golf course. That's a big deal in today's world.

Yes. When he first built it, he realized that there would be different levels of play. We can stretch the golf course out to almost seventy four hundred yards and then shorten it to fifty three hundred. So there's five sets of tees to where just about any player and even have two sets of family tees that, you know, that are out in the fairways that we that we can get, you know, families and ladies and juniors and seniors and good players around. And everybody have a chance to have a great experience. Well, it's such my hat's off to the folks at Dalhousie.

Cord, you can't do this without a great core owner and Cord has done such a great job. You've had I know that you had the Rolex girls event down there not long ago. I know the state, the Boys State High School played there, I think last year. And please keep doing what you're doing. Jack, congratulations on your success. And it's fun to be able to talk and to highlight the Dalhousie Golf Club. We thank you, Jay. And Cord has always had a heart for golf and for sharing. We do many Missouri Golf Association as well as members of the St. Louis district. And it's just fun to take care of all the people and get to see their smiles when they get done.

So again, Jay, thanks for all you're doing. I am proud to welcome the Gateway section of the PGA back to my show. Whether you're pulling into your favorite driving range, public golf course or country club, there is an excellent chance that the staff there is part of the over 300 men and women PGA professionals at over 100 facilities that make up our Gateway section.

I grew up watching so many of these fine men and women getting to the golf course at dawn, leaving at dusk, spending their entire day running events, giving lessons and growing this great game. PGA Reach, Drive Chip and Putt, PGA Hope and the fantastic PGA Junior League are a few of the examples of the programs run by these same PGA professionals. Go to Gateway PGA dot org to learn more or to find your next PGA professional for your next lesson. Go to PGA dot com. The Gateway PGA. Growing the game we love.

Hello, friends, this is Jim Nance and you are listening to golf with my friend Jay Delson. I want to officially welcome Darty Business Solutions as the new title sponsor of this show. So who are they? Well, first of all, they've been headquartered in St. Louis for the last 37 years. They're the number one largest I.T. consulting firm per the St. Louis Business Journal. They're also the number one largest software development company for the St. Louis Business Journal. They were voted number one top workplace in St. Louis for large companies.

There's over twenty five hundred teammates in 30 states and three countries. There are 11 Darty regional development hubs in and around the world. If you live and or work in the St. Louis area, chances are that through their business or their extensive community work, Darty Business Solutions has done something positive near you. Check us out at Darty dot com.

That's d a u g h e r t y dot com. We are still waiting for the final numbers to come in from the 2022 Ascension Charity Classic. But I want you to keep in mind a couple of these points in 2020 because of the global pandemic. The Ascension Charity Classic was postponed for a year. No stroke was played. But Ascension donated two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars to our three charitable partners, which are Boys and Girls Club of St. Louis, Marygrove and the Urban League. By the way, that has never happened in the history of the PGA Tour or the PGA Tour champions. In twenty twenty one, our inaugural event, it was incredible. Over eight hundred thousand dollars was donated among these three charities, as well as to the first tee and to PGA reach. So after two years, we have raised over one million dollars. This year, we expect to double that total with over one million dollars raised in twenty twenty two alone.

And folks, we have at least two more years to come. Thank you, Ascension, for all you do. And thank you, Ascension Charity Classic.

Hey, welcome back. This is golfer Jay Nelson. Pearly's with me. And we're at the loading dock in beautiful Grafton, Illinois, right on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. And man, it's just a beautiful day. Eighty, what is it? Eighty two degrees pro. Lots of people out here having a cocktail, enjoying one another.

It's fantastic to watch the boats go by. It is a little breezy. You know, Jay, we talk about how wins the equalizer in the golf game. It's it it really exposes your weakness.

Well, guess what? It's it's we've got plenty of weaknesses doing this radio show, but this wind is exposing the next level of it. Absolutely. All right. So, John, a couple of things.

Let's talk about. Oh, I want to I want to thank the Ascension Charity Classic for sponsoring the show. September 5th through 12th, 2023, Norwood Hills.

Guys, come out to the show. Year three is going to be bigger and better. I've heard a couple of the things that we're going to implement this year, and it's just going to be awesome. And Padraig Harrington will be our defending champ. I mean, how does it get better than that?

I don't think it does. That guy's awesome. And he's kind of got the fire still going in the belly, which is fun to see. Yeah. So, John, Jack Nicklaus came out a couple of weeks ago.

We talked about it briefly, but I want to revisit it. He talked about how, in his opinion, the PGA Tour now has become a tiered sponsorship format system. And, John, my take is it's been like that for years.

This has just accentuated the differences now in the haves and the have nots from our sponsorship level. Well, I think it's happened, to your point, through the years slowly. But now they're kind of coming out and making these statements and they're kind of taking it to the next level. So it's not a slow move.

It's fairly drastic. But talk about that, Jay. I've heard you talk through the years about your passion for certain sponsors in certain cities. Because you know what they did from the beginning to make it happen. Then they make it happen and all of a sudden somehow they get kind of casted aside by having a, explain that to everybody, a worse time of the year for their tournament or less pressure to get certain players there, etc.

Talk about the ins and outs that most folks aren't going to know much about. Yeah, so first of all, then that's a great point. So first of all, the schedule all depends on when and where your tournament falls on it. So, for example, John, there are opposite field events, which we played in UCAT before me quite often, when I didn't go over to the British Open and we'd play, say, the Milwaukee Open at the same time. So that, obviously, the Milwaukee Open is running that tournament with their eyes wide open, knowing that, you know, even though it was one of Tiger Woods' first events, Tiger's never going to come.

And they're okay with that because they understand what they're dealing with. John Deere is very similar, John. They get what would be considered a lower quality date on the schedule, very few of the top 30 in the world ever showing up, yet they run a phenomenal event. They raised millions of dollars. And, John, they're the longest term tenured sponsor on the PGA Tour.

That says a ton about John Deere and their involvement in the Midwest, in the Quad Cities area, and it's fantastic. So let's talk about a sponsor like RBC, Royal Bank of Canada. They've been a great sponsor in front of golf for a long time. They've sponsored the Canadian Open for multiple, multiple years. And they also sponsor the Heritage Tournament down in Hilton at the week after Augusta.

Well, these guys get a blow to the gut, John, when LIV comes out and they lose their number one guy, DJ. He's got RBC plastered all over him, and now they drop the sponsorship the next day. GMAC, same way, GMAC was one of their guys, dropped the sponsorship the next day. But here's a group of people that are spending tens of millions of dollars a year, John, sponsoring PGA Tour events, and getting lousy dates up in Canada. Canada used to be, the Canadian Open used to be the fifth major when I first got on tour. And it was also considered significant because Jack Nicklaus had never won that event, John.

And now that thing has been a forgotten guy. And so what happened is the PGA Tour, in my opinion, kind of tossed RBC a bone and made the event at Hilton Head, the week after the Masters, an elevated event, which gives them a ton of certainty with field strength and who will play that event as we move forward. And that's a huge deal for the sponsors for the week of the tournament, for the draw, John, for their television ratings. It all gets tied in to the importance there. Well, there's been a lot of wrangling through the years.

I can remember listening to Jack Nicklaus talk about the timing for his tournament and et cetera. So there's always some wrangling. But it's definitely a reshuffle now, as you're mentioning.

And we'll see. I think for the spectator, I don't know how much it's going to matter. But for that, I think you're talking about the integrity of the business relationships more so than anything else. But sometimes that doesn't matter like tomorrow. But long term, it can matter a lot when other things start changing. No, it absolutely doesn't.

I mean, John, you know better than I and better than anybody that the relationship between businesses and business people, that's a delicate balance. And sometimes the pendulum shifts in one direction and it needs to shift back or else this is not going to work long term. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. I mean, things change.

So that's what this is. And there's just so much, you know, that wasn't planned for, you know. So these things, a lot of times when you make these big changes, they're going to be years in the works. Well, LIV showed up and all of a sudden the PGA, in my opinion, blinked, to say the least. And there's a lot of changes really quick.

Some are going to work out great, I bet, Jay, and some probably are going to be a little stinky. Yeah, just pretty much like all the times. They're not all home runs or not all hits, and we'll have to break those down as it happens.

John, I get so much mail on my website, and some of the questions are just fantastic. But one of the recurring ones is how the difference between how long it takes, the difference between how you hit the ball during the round and how you practice in your warm-up, and also how long that walk seemed from the practice tee to that first tee shot. John, gosh, the anxiety, the mental gymnastics that it puts you through, man, it's amazing, isn't it?

It sure is, and I don't have the sense of that transition. I'm normally shocked that all of a sudden I made the swing and I'm like, why did that feel completely different than all the other swings I just made in the practice range? So I don't actually sense that anxiety walking from the practice range to the first tee.

But certainly something's changed, so I'm probably in a worse place because I don't have that somatic awareness, if you will, which doesn't help me. And it's such a sinking feeling because it's like, well, what do I do then? I've just practiced, I've practiced really well, I'm feeling prepared, and after one swing I'm like, I have no idea what I'm doing out here.

Well, and I think you mentioned something to me before. It actually feels like I have a broom or a hockey stick in my hand. It almost feels like you're swinging such a foreign object that you just have no sense as to where and what to do. John, I've got to tell folks, I have had some of my best hitting rounds after my absolute worst practice sessions. And so you and I have had this conversation, and I know you were privy to this several times with the great Bob Rotella, leading world-renowned sports psychologist, and he said, make sure your warm-up is a warm-up.

It is not indicative of just get your body loose, get physically loose, make sure your mind is there, and don't put a lot of credence, either good or bad, into what happens. Way easier said than done, Pearl. When did he say that? I think I missed that somehow. It's probably in his book, and I'm sure I've heard it from him a half dozen times. I've read it twice because I read his book twice, and somehow I've missed that. Because right now when you say that to me, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to go do that next time.

I like that idea. Well, you know what, John, you played a lot of basketball. I played a lot of basketball, and I remember going out there and going, man, I'm clanking them from the free throw line, and then go out and hit 10 for 10 in the game. You were 10 for 10 in the game?

Come on, now. Probably not. Probably not. How about 3 for 3? How about 3 for 10? How about 3 for 10? All right, how about 2 for 10? I don't want you to look too fast.

You've got your buddies listening to this show. You just blew my gaskets on my basketball prowls, which I didn't have anyway. Yeah, 10 for 10? Nah. 10 for 10 is tough. Let's say 3 for 10.

But I felt good about it. Hi, this is Peter Jacobson, and you're listening to Golf with Jay Delsing. Folks, do you need a new car, truck, or SUV? Then the Dean Team of Kirkwood is the place for you to go. 314-966-0303 and go see Colin Burke. He just got me into a new SUV, and I love it.

Boy, did they make the experience painless and super, super easy. Most dealers don't have any cars in their lots, but at Dean Team of Kirkwood, Colin has an entire parking lot full of new and used cars. You don't want a VW?

That's no problem. They have Audis, BMWs, Mercedes, anything you want. Colin and the Dean Team of Kirkwood will go get it if they don't have it. Call them at 314-966-0303 or go to DeanTeamVWKirkwood.com.

The Dean Team, for all your car buying needs. I want to summarize some of the fantastic things at Marcon, your hometown company that is the largest distributor of General Electric compliance parts in North America has done this year. We started out with CEO Jim Sowers donating two service dogs to the wounded service men and women heroes in our country. We followed that up with a raffling of two suites at St. Louis Blues Home Games with Danny Mac and myself, and with all of those proceeds, headed to the Backstoppers organization. Lastly, the Marcon first responder military, police, and firefighters viewing deck at the Ascension Charity Classic was a huge success. So much so that this idea and model is being implemented at other PGA Tour Champions events.

Thank you, Marcon, for your support, and thank you for your tireless giving in our community. Powers Insurance is a family-owned agency right here in St. Louis that specializes in providing personalized coverage for the client who has a lot going on. At Powers, they understand that you and your life do not fit in a simple box.

So guess what? Neither should your insurance coverage. Go to powersinsurance.com or call 314-725-1414 and ask for Tim Davis.

That's powersinsurance.com. Hey, welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host, Jay. And I dumped Pearly, and I got my buddy, Vice President of Sales of Emerson, Steve Burke, joining me for the back line.

Burkey, thanks for jumping in here. Hey, Jay, thanks for having me. How nice is the loading dock here? What a day we have, and oh, God, it's just absolutely beautiful. Sure is a beautiful day. My wife and I came over here from St. Charles County this afternoon and took the ferry across. It was an incredible experience. Great place here.

I heard it's really fun. So, guys, the back line is brought to you by Pro-Am Golf. 314-647-8054. Guys, call CJ and get fitted. He's the best. We've been in there, gosh, I've seen CJ like three times in the last two weeks. So give him a call.

Pro-Am Golf's got everything you need to improve your game. So, Burkey, let's talk a little bit about you've been worth Emerson for how long? 17 years now.

Congratulations. First of all, a great company, a great corporate citizenry company for the loo and what they do for us in town. But tell us how you have seen golf and your business get blended in and have both kind of levels rise.

Sure. So Emerson's been very involved in the golf community for a very long time. We use it as an opportunity to entertain our customers. I'm in sales at Emerson, so I view this as a great company.

I'm in sales at Emerson, so I view this as a very valuable tool in building relationships with our key customers. So we go to PGA events, we go to the Masters event every year, and it's a great opportunity to get in very close with key customers. Well, one of the things that I love about the game and that's one of the reasons on the show that we call it a societal powerhouse is that it can raise so much money for charity and things like that.

But, Steve, there's hardly a better way. You and I are friends because of golf, and we connected because we did one of these events, and we got to spend time together that probably had it not been for golf, we'd have never been able to do that. I totally agree. I would have never had the lucky opportunity to meet you, Jay, but I've made many, many friends, many new customers, and my network has certainly expanded because of the game. And there's something about the game that is a uniter. Whether you're a 2 handicap or a 15 handicap or a 30 handicap, it doesn't really matter, does it?

No, it doesn't. I'm a pretty high handicapper. I'm an 18 right now, and I was always a little intimidated by that with regard to the customer experience, not being a great golfer. But I can tell you, everybody that I've golfed with, made friends with, including you, Jay, the high handicap doesn't matter as long as you play fast.

Play fast, tell a couple jokes. But the camaraderie, it's almost like golf's just the vehicle, isn't it? Especially for you guys in a business sense. How else are you going to get to spend that time with customers that are living busy lives, man, and even have some of them have a hard time returning an email sometimes? That's a great point.

In all industries, everyone is overworked right now, so to get five or six hours away of captive time with a customer is very valuable to me and very valuable to them. Berkey, thanks for the support of the show. Thanks for being such a good friend.

Thanks for jumping on with us. And you got any cool golf trips coming up, or what's new? Give us a little glimpse of what you do in the wintertime in St. Louis to try to stay sharp and try to keep playing. Well, part of my sales territory includes the South, so needless to say I spend a lot of time down there in the wintertime.

But the indoor range is a big part of my winter game while I'm up here in St. Louis. Fantastic, bud. Thanks so much for joining me.

Thank you. John, what a great guy. And one of the things that he talked about that has been so, gosh, I've been the recipient of such good fortune is these relationships in the business world that the game has brought us. It's the game. The game brought us together. We got to hang out now. He's a dear friend. Yeah, it's such an icebreaker. It just helps tie things together. And, you know, you talk a lot about it, but you're also fantastic at it.

It's something. Because you told me, too, of all the tour guys you played with, how many guys parlayed more out of their time on tour than you did? It's because I had to, Pearl.

Well, okay, you didn't have to, but let's talk about that for a second. Of that group of guys, let's say the, what is it, 50 to 100 on the tour rankings type of a thing, how many of the guys did what you did and kind of made that next level while you were playing and to help you when you got done playing? Because some of the guys struggle after you get done playing. Yeah, not many. Not many at all. I mean, one of the things that's interesting, and you've been a part of this, is when we have some of our friends come up and say, hey, man, can you use me in some of the stuff that you're doing?

You know, and I hate to say them. I'm like, guys, I need more customers. You know, I have the customers.

Do you have any customers? You know, Pearl, they just don't think that way. Well, you're a real extrovert, so it's a little bit more natural to you.

But you really did just a phenomenal job along the way with that. But it's helped with so many ways for you to do things like reverse T to St. Louis, all the other things that you're involved in with David Farity, et cetera, because they know they can rely on you to go there and have fun and be comfortable with these guys. No matter who they are, they're kind of going to come up to you. I've never seen you uncomfortable with anybody. And by the way, there's some people you should have been uncomfortable with, and you weren't, just for the record. Well, and that goes back to the often-wrong, seldom-endowed motto that I live by.

But, Pearl, when you're not smart enough to be afraid, sometimes it's not a bad thing. If you're just terribly comfortable in your own skin, which is a good thing, I think that takes you a long way. And, you know, I know you worked at that. I'm not saying it was a conscious, I've got to work at this specifically.

It kind of happened over time. But you've gotten very good at it, and it's fun. And it's fun to see how the folks light up around you because they know that it's going to be easy and fun for them.

As you just mentioned about being a high handicap, I can't even tell you. These poor guys are out there just shaking their boots because they're 22s, 26s, 38s. They're trying to make sure they make contact.

And normally, within the first hole, probably before they tee it off, you've got them really comfortable, which is a sweet way to go. You know, are you feeling guilty about the old, my free throw thing, though? You know, not a chance in heck am I feeling guilty about that. I love that.

That's a favorite part of the show so far. Yeah, I'm trying to think if I ever did make ten in a row. Ten in a row is a big deal. Ten in a row is like these guys that say they shoot par.

You know, it doesn't really happen very often, for the record. I shoot par. I shoot par before.

I'm talking about the guys that don't normally shoot par. Okay. All right, so let's talk, John, a little bit more about what sort of advice we can give our listeners about going from the practice tee to the first tee. So one of the things, I think it's crucial, is to really understand that you can control your mind. You can control what you're thinking. Well, absolutely, but it also takes major practice.

It's not something that this isn't a switch. So I would say that type of a thing is no different than working on your putting or chipping. It's to work on it for a long period of time because I agree with you, and I know for a fact you can get there, but it takes consistent work. The other piece that you're always on me is to watch my expectations. You know, I've got expectations that I'm going to go play every day now the same way I did when I was at my height and, you know, 20, 21 years old. So part of my problem is just keeping in mind that that was 40 years ago, but also sometimes when you hit it really good in the range, you think it's going to transfer right away.

It's two different games. Hitting the ball to land on the range someplace versus hitting the ball to stay in play. John, how many times when you were caddying for me did we either start off well and then have the, you know, there's always those critical times in the round where there's wavering.

There's, you know, and it's like let's slow this thing down. Let's make some decent decisions, and then let's get this ball in play where we can get it around the course so that we can let the ball striking come around or let the, you know, let the game come to us. And so it's really about playing percentages, John. It's about what gives you the best chance to keep the ball in play.

Let's go that way. What gives you the best chance of not, you know, running up a score, not hitting it out of bounds, not hitting it in the water. You know, then play away from that until you start getting a better sense for the feel for the round and where you are that day. Well, but it's what you just said. All those things you don't do in the range, so it's just completely different.

That's why Doc Rotella is Doc Rotella because he's like, listen, don't worry about how you hit it in the range. This is literally a warm-up. Are your joints feeling warmed up? Are you feeling a little flexible?

Do you have the energy that you want? That type of a thing, and not get into it because, again, it's a completely different deal, which is why it feels differently because you're in a completely different situation. By the way, go to the range sometime and bring one golf ball. Right, right.

Right? That's how we do it on the golf course. Well, you might have a couple in your golf bag, but you got one. All of a sudden, the importance of that one versus that bucket you spilled over, it's got 35 balls over there, and you can go ahead and skull a couple, and it doesn't matter. It matters on every one on the golf course.

Well, the other thing is, too, John, is think about the visual intimidation and think about the hazards that lie on the golf course and also think about what's happened to your brain. You know, John, there's that old example of how important it is to... about how you think, where you lay a 20-foot plank that's a 2x10. It's 2 inches thick, and it's 10 inches wide, and it's 20 feet long, and you lay it across your front lawn, and you say to somebody, I'll give you $100 if you can walk from this end to the next, and they go, what, are you crazy? And they get that there. They stroll right across without giving any second thought, and you give them $100, and now I said, the second part of the bet is, you've got to walk.

You've got to accomplish this on two... having this thing suspended between two buildings that are 1,000 feet up in the air, and they're like, are you crazy? What's changed? The consequences have changed, man. The consequences. Yeah, if you jack something up, the consequences on the second example are going to whip your ass. Yeah, that's a great point.

That's definitely a great point. But, John, there's a couple things that haven't changed. The board hasn't changed.

The thickness of it hasn't changed, and your ability to walk on that is going to be interfered with by the way you think. So let's talk about that for a second relative to how do you make it more relevant on the driving range. I've heard stories of Tiger, for example, when he goes on the driving range, he plays holes on the driving range. He's hitting actual shots in his mind. I love what your comment was a couple minutes ago, you know, and I was thinking, yeah, there's really no hazards on the driving range because they don't want to fish all the golf balls out of the water. But he would play holes. He would hit the shots that he had imagined. He would play nine holes or 18 holes.

That much makes a lot more sense rather than just standing up there and hitting driver after driver and say, okay, yeah, I'm ready to go, and then you're not ready to go. And, Pearl, I mentioned this on the show a couple weeks ago, and then we're going to wrap up the back nine, but I watched Tiger for three days in a row at the Buick Tournament in Flint, Michigan, years ago, and he'd hit. Whatever he did, John, he reverted back to a wedge.

He did a couple sevens and then reverted back to a wedge, and then he did a couple three-yards and reverted back to a wedge. Because, John, that's more the way you play the game. There's more feel and more feel for the game that way. You don't stand there and rip seven five-irons in a row in a round of golf. Well, except for that one hole where there's a lot of bounce of water. Well, that's true.

He did that one time in Cali. Thanks for bringing that up again. Let's not talk about that. Pearl, that's going to wrap up the back nine.

But, folks, don't go anywhere. John and I will be back. We are at the loading dock, beautiful graft in Illinois, and we're going to grab the owner, Peter Allen. He's going to join us on the 19th hole. This is golf with Jay Delson. I want to tell you about a family-owned and operated golf business that's been right here in St. Louis for over 40 years. I'm talking about Pro-Am Golf Center. That's right, Pro-Am Golf Center.

I know you know the name, but I'm not sure you know what they really have to offer. They have everything a seasoned golfer like myself could need all the way down to what a beginner would want. Pro-Am Golf Center has the lowest price in the area for custom club fitting. I just went and visited CJ.

He is terrific. If you call them now, mention my name, Jay Delson, you will receive a discount on that already low club fitting price. Their number is 314-647-8054. Ask for CJ, or you can visit them at ProAmGolfUSA.com.

That's ProAmGolfUSA.com. Hey, do you like wine? Have you heard about the hottest new wine bar in St. Louis? It's called Wild Crush Wine Bar, and it's located in town and country on Clayton Road just behind the strobs. Have you ever experienced self-dispensing wine machines?

Well, they are here. The only place in St. Louis and most of Missouri that you'll find them, and it's at Wild Crush. You can choose your size of pour, and Wild Crush will pour the freshest wine in the area for you. The organic argon gas system used at Wild Crush keeps this wine pristinely fresh for up to 60 days.

So if you're tired of drinking wine that's been open for a few days, come into Wild Crush for the best and freshest wine selection in the area. Go to WildCrushSTL.com and come have one with us. After my knee replacement, I was able to swing the golf club again without any pain. SSM Health Physical Therapy guided me through the rehab process, and when I was ready, one of their specially trained KVEST certified physical therapists put me on the 3D motion capture system.

It was awesome. They evaluated my posture, alignment, and the efficiencies of my swing. They gave me golf-specific exercises to help make my swing more efficient and repeatable. Call 800-518-1626.

Tell them Jay sent you for special pricing. Your therapy, our passion. I've been looking for over three years for the perfect place to be the official 19th hole of the Golf with Jay Delson show, and the search is over. Please welcome the loading dock to the show. What a great place it is.

It is located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers in beautiful Grafton, Illinois. Their patio is killer with seating for over 800, and every weekend the loading dock has the area's best live music. There's no reservations required. They have overnight lodging available, and they also have an ice skating rink in the winter months. And don't forget about the super cool Riverside Flea Market, which happens the fourth weekend of each month from April through October.

If you're into antiques and collectibles, you've got to check it out. The Grafton Ferry runs directly from St. Charles County to within steps of our parking lot. Go check out the loading dock and say hello to my buddy Peter Allen. He is a great guy, good golfer, and a lover of the game.

Call 618-556-7951 or visit them on the web at graftonloadingdock.com for more information on their live music schedule, the Riverside Flea Market, and more. The loading dock, the new official 19th hole of the Golf with Jay Delson show. Hey, welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delson. I'm your host, Jay. I am at the loading dock in beautiful Grafton, Illinois. I'm sitting with my buddy Peter Allen. Peter, first of all, I know you're in charge of the weather today.

Congratulations on that. But the dock, man, talk to us about this place. It's beautiful. What a fun day we've had, Jay, and thanks for coming up. We love having you guys here.

What the listeners can't see is that there's a band building their set around you because you're on the bandstand. We're getting ready to have the Soulard Blues Band tonight from 5 to 9, and they play a couple times a month. But, yeah, perfect day, crazy, fun, and we're glad to have you here. Oh, my gosh, we're delighted to be here, and I've sent a couple pics back to the folks in St. Louis, and they're all jealous. Like, where are you?

I'm like, we're at the only place. We're at the dock right now. We had our buddy Steven Casey Burke come over on the ferry, and he said it was an unbelievable experience and such a highlight. So tell the folks a little bit about the ferry and what it does, because most folks don't know that. Yeah, the Grafton Ferry, it operates only on weekends, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, but the entire day up until 10 p.m., and it connects us directly to St. Charles. So you're about eight miles from the intersection of 370 and 94. That will help a lot of people figure out where it is from the ferry landing, and then the ferry drops off less than 500 yards, less than a good three would from our patio, I would say.

That's what he was saying. He said he could walk it in from here. So first of all, thank you for the support of the show. Now, we know, I know what an avid golfer you are, but talk to our listeners a little bit about, so you've done a little bit of playing in Matt Minders' The Amateur Tour. Tell us a little bit about your golf this summer and the state of your game.

I am a, I've had the love of the game since my grandpa turned me on to it when I was 12, and I've never gotten below a 10 handicap, but it doesn't make me love it anymore. Two years ago I discovered the Amateur Players Tour, which is my friend Matt Minder started this organization. There's a local St. Louis chapter that I play in, but it's grown into dozens of chapters, and what's fun about it is that you can play real golf, strict rules of golf, in your division, which by handicap, so I'm Division 3, so I'm somewhere between a 10 and a 15 handicap, say, but you're playing with like-minded, like-abled golfers in real competitive golf, and it's really, it's really turned into a fun thing for me. And Peter, these events are really run well, and I think that is kind of like the missing link, and when you go to some of these amateur events and it's just a little too crazy, you're not really sure, like, is everybody playing by the rules? That's not the case with the amateur, this tour.

That's a good point. I run a small golf tournament once a year, the Mississippi Masters, which is a charitable event we put on for the Grafton Chamber of Commerce. That's only 120 golfers, but it's so difficult to do it right, and Minder and his boys, they do it right. When you get announced on the first tee, it makes you nervous, whether you're, no matter what you're doing, and it's just fun to play competitive golf against guys that are similarly skilled, and I've won once out of 30 tries, but this could be my year.

I think this is going to be my year, 2023. I like it, I like it. So what, last thing I want to ask you, because John and I talk about this on the show all the time, what is it about tournament golf that just flips our lids?

Peter, what the hell? I think it's so different than just playing with your buddies where you're bumping it and that putt's good. You've got to putt them all. Those two-footers break my heart sometimes.

They sure do. But I love the game, and I love having you guys up here, and I appreciate what you do. Man, thanks so much for supporting the show, and best of luck up here at the dock. This is a rocking spot. Thanks, Jay. Pearl, what a great guy. Peter Allen, what a great spot. Nice family, loves the game, and one of my favorite songs of all time is being played right now, Brandy.

I mean, this is like perfect out here. You're going to tear to my eye. This is awesome. You're dating yourself.

People are like, Brandy, what the hell song is that? I love this song. All right, so, John, we've got a few minutes. We didn't touch base a couple weeks ago on what Fred Couples did. He is an amazing guy. You remember, I got to play with him a couple years out of school in the Friends of College Golf up at Bel Air, and what a nice guy and what a talent. And we all know he's talented because we've seen him on TV, maybe we've gone to a couple tournaments. So I got to play with him inside the ropes for about, I think Freddie stayed around for about 12 holes that day.

And it was absolutely spectacular, and I'd already been playing with world-class players. He's a cut above, to say the least, and look what he did the other day. He finishes, he shoots 60 the last round of the SAS tournament down in North Carolina, and he's, by the way, 63 years old. You know, it's so funny because I know guys that beat their age. I played with a guy not too long ago that beat his age, but he didn't shoot 60 to beat his age.

I think he shot 79 and he's 80, which is still a great feat. But how many guys beat their age when they're 60, 62, or 63 years old? Not many, maybe. Freddie, who's ever done that before? That might be a great trivia question.

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'm sure someone has, but I mean, you know, John, he hasn't won in five years. To even say he plays a full schedule is not being accurate. And he's just got that kind of game, and it looks like his swing still looks darn near the same. Jay, he has so much range of motion. I sit there and I'm so tied in knots, can't take that thing past my knee on my backswing. This guy's got it back to parallel, and everything looks incredibly similar, and he still pounds it. He pounds it.

He absolutely pounds it. And to shoot 60 the last round, and you know what was really cool, John, and I'm sure if you saw this, but our good buddy Steve Flesch had his son Griffin, who's a good player in his own right, and I'd love to get on the show. He caddied for Fred that week. Did he?

I didn't know that. That's awesome. Pearl, that's going to wrap up the show. We want to thank Peter Allen, the folks at the loading dock, the staff here was fantastic. Pearl, you had a burger.

We had a couple little bites in here. They were fantastic. The day was great. We appreciate the support. Folks, come up to the loading dock and check out this place. It is absolutely beautiful. Pearl, that's another show in the books.

I love it. Let's keep doing shows at these locations, not that there's many choices like this. This is pretty special.

You know anybody in like Mexico or anywhere, Pearl? That's where we would have to go to get something like this. Let's go. Folks, that'll wrap up the show. Hit us straight, St. Louis. We are still waiting for the final numbers to come in from the 2022 Ascension Charity Classic, but I want you to keep in mind a couple of these points. In 2020, because of the global pandemic, the Ascension Charity Classic was postponed for a year. No stroke was played, but Ascension donated $225,000 to our three charitable partners, which are Boys and Girls Club of St. Louis, Marygrove, and the Urban League.

By the way, that has never happened in the history of the PGA Tour or the PGA Tour Champions. In 2021, our inaugural event, it was incredible. Over $800,000 was donated among these three charities, as well as to the First Tee and to PGA Reach. So after two years, we have raised over $1 million. This year, we expect to double that total with over $1 million raised in 2022 alone.

And folks, we have at least two more years to come. Thank you, Ascension, for all you do. And thank you, Ascension Charity Classic. Peloton, let's go! This holiday, with the right music and the right motivation from world-class instructors. We're going to pick it up a notch.

It's the holiday season. You might just surprise yourself with what you're capable of. Work out to thousands of live and on-demand classes, from running to cycling to yoga. Try Peloton risk-free with a 30-day home trial. New members only, not available in remote locations. See additional terms at 1peloton.com slash home dash trial. Peloton. Motivation that moves you.