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 Golf with Jay Delsingh.
Hey, good morning. This is Golf with Jay Delsingh. I'm your host, Jay.
And, Pearly's taking this week off of much-needed rest. And, welcome to the Golf with Jay Delsingh show. We have formatted a show like A Round of Golf.
This first segment is called the On the Range segment. It's brought to you by our friends at the Gateway section of the PGA. Love having these guys involved with the show. Folks, each week we are also giving away a dozen tailor-made TP5 golf balls. So, in order to get yourself into the mix here, send me an email. Jay at JayDelsinghGolf.com and we will draw a name at the end of the week.
Let's do this now. I have just drawn the names for the month of September. And, the golf balls will be on their way.
Send an email to Jay at JayDelsinghGolf.com. Put the word balls in the subject matter somewhere and you will be entered. So, this week we have Patrick Dolan, Kevin Bement, BJ Bach, and Rick Matthews. Guys, congratulations. Thanks for all the emails. Man, the emails are coming in. And, we appreciate it.
Thanks for the questions. The mailbag is getting full. Maybe today we'll even do a couple of mailbag questions. We appreciate the interest. We also appreciate the support from Bob and Kathy Donahue at Donahue Painting and Refinishing.
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Donahue Painting and Refinishing and give them a call. They are terrific human beings doing great work. Alright, this week I'm really excited about the interview that I had.
I got to sit down and talk with Mr. Lee Metcalf. He is the Vice President at Darty Business Solutions. He is also a retired Rear Admiral. Man, what a cool guy. I really appreciate his service and all the men and women that are out there serving and representing our country and taking care of us, keeping us free. I love the slogan that I've learned from all of these great men and women heroes that says freedom isn't free and it certainly isn't.
These folks have sacrificed so much each and every day of their life while they're keeping us free so we can go ahead and chase golf balls all over the place. So I'm really looking forward to you guys getting to hear this interview. One of the other things is keep your eyes and ears open for Darty Business Solutions and what they're doing around the community. This Access Point program is really, really something.
It is really changing some lives for some of the folks in our community that really need it. Alright folks, let's talk about the President's Cup. So the United States holds on, wins the President's Cup, which is not really the story. The story still remains that Liv has taken away Cameron Smith and Joaquin Neiman and some of the other really, really true great young players that made them ineligible for the President's Cup.
And so, I mean, I would challenge even the most, oh gosh, astute followers of the game to be able to name the players, all the players on the International Squad. But I got to take, and I'm not tipping, I tipped my hat to him last week, but Trevor Immelman has really endeared himself to me. I really love the job that he did for the Internationals. He really, really rallied the troops. Jordan Spieth was a complete beast going 5-0 this week. Played some great golf. Shafle and Cantile did not disappoint. Had a real stellar play.
Both won their singles matches. I loved having the deciding putt come down to Xander Shafle who knocked in a smooth little four-footer to win his match. And the U.S. prevailed as it has so often in the President's Cup. But folks, this was a much tighter competition than many would have expected.
And if you can imagine what it would have or could have been like had we had a full complement of the international stars and players, it would have been something. But to me, this President's Cup, and I loved what they did at Quail Hollow. I don't know if you guys noticed it, but they rearranged the golf course, changed quite a bit of how it looked and rerouted it.
So the green mile was not the 16th, 17th, and 18th hole as it typically is for the event down there. It really, really looked good. Great support by the Charlotte community. But this was a coming out party for Tom Kim. This kid really impressed me. He also impressed some of the U.S. guys even though he kind of pissed them off a little bit as well. He was theatrical. He was a bit of a showman. He was extremely confident. And he played some damn good golf. He got the full attention of Jordan Spieth, JT, Justin Thomas, make no mistake about it.
But I really was impressed. I really can't wait to watch what he goes on to do. And also Max Homer. Man, Max Homer had a great first experience as representing the United States in any sort of team event as well as Sam Burns. We have such great young players that are playing on the U.S. tour and really playing some good golf at a high level. So that was extremely, extremely fun to watch. Just a little shout out to Greg Norman. I really appreciated the way he kind of got kicked around at Congress last week.
We mentioned it a little bit last week on our show. But this whole act and this kind of self-righteous act with LIV, the Saudis, and this money fell on deaf ears at Congress. And I'm not a political guy. I don't want to get politicized much on this show. But it was nice to hear them say, look, if you've got a if you've got a gripe, if you've got a complaint, go through the system just like everybody else has to do.
You are not getting preferential treatment. So hats off to those guys. The tip of the cap is brought to you by my buddy Colin Burnt at the Dean team. Volkswagen of Kirkwood three one four nine six six zero three zero three. I'm tipping my cap this week to the 501 C threes in and around the St. Louis area.
You know who you are. You're the charitable organizations, the not for profits that are busting your ass every single day, every single week, taking care of the less fortunate in our community and doing it with a smile on your face with a charitable heart. And we're talking about Marygrove Urban League, the Boys and Girls Club of St. Louis. Those are the three charities that directly benefited from the most recent ACC tournament, the Ascension Charity Classic.
But we've also had birdies for breathing on the show. The next step, which is a great St. Louis charity as well. And don't forget about PGA Reach and the first year St. Louis. Both of those walked away from the Ascension Charity Classic with a pocket full of money, doing great stuff, growing the game, taking care of the youth in our community. And we want to thank them. And I want to thank Colin Burt, the dean team Volkswagen of Kirkwood, three one four nine six six zero three zero three. Thank you, Colin, for supporting the show. That's going to wrap up the on the range segment.
Don't go anywhere. We've got the front nine and my interview with Mr. Lee Metcalf. This is Golf with Jay Delson.
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The front nine is coming up. 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.
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Tell them Jay sent you for special pricing. Your therapy, our passion. Hey, welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsing.
I'm your host Jay. Pearly's taking the week off and we are headed to the front nine that's brought to you by the Ascension Charity Classic. Folks, we already know the date.
2023. Put it on your calendar. September 5th through 12th. Norwood Hills Country Club.
Don't forget about the APGA. That'll be back at Glen Echo as well. So put it on your calendar. All right, folks, we are going to go to my interview with retired Rear Admiral of the United States Naval Forces and the vice president of Doherty Business Solutions, Mr. Lee Matcalf. I hope you enjoy the first half of this interview. Lee, good morning. Good morning, Jay. Delighted to be with you today. It is such an honor.
First of all, I want to thank you. My dad fought in World War II. The last time I fought anything I think was probably at recess in a scuffle in fifth grade.
We never did anything. Bob, I didn't do anything for our country and I really appreciate your service. Love what my dad did. I just can't wait to get into this this morning. Delighted to be here. Happy to share my journey and, quite frankly, the arc that has brought me back to golf that we're going to talk about later as well. Yeah, no, I can't wait. So, Lee, let's just talk about how this whole thing, how the whole thing started.
I mean, as I look through the body of work, it's just so impressive. From McDonnell Douglas, you had your own company with the Metcalf Group. You've been with Hillshire Brands and just a wide variety of community-oriented stuff. But let's talk about the Navy and talk about you as a young man and how you got started. Delighted to. Well, I mean, most people don't quite understand the journey that many take where they start out on active duty in the military and decide they want to shift but don't want to leave the military.
So they move from active duty to a reserve component. And the dynamics associated with that sometimes are pretty interesting but also can be confusing. It's an amazing journey. I grew up, I'm a native St. Louisan. I love St. Louis.
We'll talk about why I keep coming back to St. Louis. Went to Christian Brothers College, went off to Mizzou, got a degree in journalism. But I always had an energy for being on my own. And I applied to the academies but my eyes were too bad. Didn't get in. So I walked up to Crowder Hall at Mizzou and I walked in the door.
And this is what I tell young people, you know, if you don't just show up and ask, things aren't going to happen for you. And so I was there as just a kid walking in the door at the Navy ROTC unit. I sat down at the beginning of that school year with the Professor of Naval Science, a captain, that was attached there. And I said, hey, look, I just want to move forward with joining the Navy. I just have always had an energy for it. I want to serve.
I was obviously exposed to some really good structure at CBC at the time, back when they had uniforms and the whole thing was military. And so he said, well, look, you know, I've got one scholarship left. I haven't handed out. Would you like it? No, of course I don't. That's amazing. And so that doesn't happen very often in life.
But if you don't, step up. So I got a full scholarship to Mizzou, got my degree in journalism, got commissioned in the Navy. 1976, that was an auspicious year of going in, you know, 200th anniversary of our country. And a lot of energy going on there was post Vietnam days. And I ended up on my first ship out flying out to the Philippines after several months of training and spent six years on active duty.
I can go into that a nauseum if you'd like. But basically the first three years is getting all of your certifications as a surface warfare officer, learning all of the requirements of being able to operate a ship. And then I left that ship and went to as an instructor at surface warfare officer school to give back. But, you know, all the way along, again, it's it's an energy to do to do the best I can. And I would just tell you, I'm one of those kids that, you know, was always on the B team in in in grade school and high school. And but you just you show up and you play and you learn what you're good at. And and that's part of my mantra that served me well my whole life is that you're not going to be good at everything. But you if you don't try, you won't figure out how to get better at the things you need to get better at, as well as learn what you're really good at.
And that's been a goal of mine my whole life is to help young people understand those kinds of of attributes and that kind of thinking. You know, Lee, it's interesting because it's really that simple. Sometimes it's just press play. Just keep pressing play and keep forging forward because there's something to showing up.
There's something to be in present and and and good things can and do happen that way. And Lee, talk a little bit about what surface warfare means. I mean, it's it's it's littered throughout your career when as a rear admiral and it's as an officer in combat systems and things like that. Well, the reality is that you can go into the Navy in so many different ways, which is one of the major draws in both on the combat side with driving ships, driving airplanes, driving submarines. Or you can go in and many of amazing staff positions in the supply corps supporting in the medical community.
The variety of additional business mechanisms that have to be in place to make a large institution run. And so in my case, I wanted to be what's called a line officer. I wanted to ultimately be able to command. And so I chose ships and I just had a predisposition that that's that's the Navy. And obviously with my eyes, I'm not 20, 20 vision.
I've worn glasses since I was in fifth grade. I wasn't going to fly anything, although these days things could be corrected with your eyes and lots of folks can go into aviation. Wasn't particularly thrilled with getting inside a submarine for months and months of time. So I wanted to join the Navy and see the world.
And that's what happened. I was on multiple deployments in that first tour of duty on the USS Okinawa, which is an LPH. It has Marines, a helicopter squadron and is assigned an amphibious assault role. It's part of our amphibious fleet to be able to project force over the shore with the Marines. And so the Marines, it was it's an amazing team framework that the United States military has in the Navy Marine Partnership. And so the the jokes go endlessly along. We all get along in the dynamics of that. I won't go into those, but the reality is that's that's the mission I was part of on my first ship.
I. In which means you have to learn everything about the ship, everything about its mission and have the confidence of the commanding officer, which is a big part of this, that commanding officer is going to put you on watch on on the bridge and expect you to know and be able to engage in all kinds of different things. Whether you're steaming independently or steaming with other ships in a group. And and the most important thing is when to call the commanding officer. So they're depending on you to to grow your judgment as well as your ability to make good decisions on your own. Before we jump into more of our community, do you have one specific situation or one specific incident that you could share with the listeners that sticks out in your mind? That was just remarkable or something that we can relate to. Well, there are so many different moments in life where you learn you're remember you're 21 years old and you're you're you're moving forward with your your career and your life. And you're learning about how to lead people and how to lead and manage major projects. And I guess the the most compelling thing that we could talk about often goes to areas of conflict and other kinds of dynamics. But but for me, I harken back to the beginning years of when I had 85 boats of mates that reported to me. And for the first time, I was thrust into the middle of learning a lot about the different kinds of people that are out there and their motivations, how to engage. And those who know the Navy understand I was the second division, the second division officer, which supports all the maintenance on that aircraft.
It was a small aircraft carrier. And so I had 85 boats of mates that reported to me. And from the chief warrant officer all the way down, there's there's a camaraderie that occurs. You go to see with who you've got. You've got to get the best out of people. And the people need to work together.
And I will just give you a tiny little glimpse into that world. I was the the officer on the folks coming into Busan, Korea, and we had to get our up to a pier and the pier ended up being blocked. And we couldn't. So we in a moment's notice, we were going to have to anchor offshore to offload all of our Marines. So there are hand signals you give because in the folks, it's very loud. And I, I, as a as an ensign, was given through some part phones from the bridge, the order to pay out the anchor. And I gave the wrong hand signal and they started bringing the anchor back in and the chief warrant officer boats and made chief warrant officer on the bridge. By the way, a bridge is a long way away from the folks on that type of ship, literally felt it in his feet that the anchor chain was going the wrong way.
Within seconds, he was in that folks. He turned me around so nobody could see what he was about to say to me on the folks. So explain to me, let's just say very succinctly with a lot of four letter words, what was wrong with what I was doing, turn me back around and let me finish running that detail. That's helping people. That's that's an inspiration of how you don't undermine how you help. And that has left me an indelible mark on my thinking about how I try to do things my whole life. So in the Navy, in the military, learn those kinds of things from amazing senior people who bring bring younger people along. And so I could probably tell other stories along my journey, but that's one that sticks with me the most.
No, it's just terrific. And boy, those certain moments are poignant, aren't they? Where you're, you're really taking a lot and sometimes it takes a minute or two a week a month to look back and go, wow, how pivotal that was and how much you can appreciate what that person did at the time and how he or she did it.
Exactly right. And, and so part of that, though, was also having a family. So I was married young, I actually got married in college, and, and 48 years later I approved my parents who were very nervous with the fact that I did that, that, that my marriage was strong and two kids and two grandkids later, I'm, I'm, I'm just delighted and so appreciative of what what has happened with having a family but I had to make a hard decision around staying in I left on my second deployment when my son was eight months old, and came back when he was 16 months old.
He was walking and talking and didn't know who I was. And, and that's a hard dynamic that our military are constantly balancing the challenges of having a family and having such a challenging career with with many periods of absence. And, and so I think that's one thing I remind all of our citizens in the country of what those who serve are doing for them in balancing that and I had to make a hard decision. My decision at six years, even though I had a great active duty career laying out in front of me was to shift out of the active duty side and stay in the reserves to go into the civilian community, and I applied to a bunch of different corporations, I got a job at McDonald Douglas back in 1982, and made the decision though to have more time at home to help balance that with raising a family, and that that's often where a lot of our folks go and the quite frankly the reality is that I've spent a lot more time on active duty in the reserves than I anticipated, particularly after Desert Storm in early 1990 91. When, when the reserves became a far more integrated component of the active duty mission, and we ended up getting called on not just two weeks out of the year, but 2468 1015 weeks out of the year to come and do specialty work to support the active duty military Lee I noticed that you're on boards at Webster University St. Louis Science Center I know that that's a near and dear to your heart, I know that you have founded the St. Louis Regional Alliance for the troops, St. Louis regional stem coalition, let's kind of shift gears to more of your community role and, and you're now a vice president at dirty business solutions we just had the APGA a couple weeks ago at Glen echo all of those things access point, I'm not sure where we begin but there's so many things that I want the listeners to understand about dirty for example, the advocate PGA that we just had in the opportunities that access point is creating for a lot of the folks in our community that there there's some terrific things happening in my reserve journey. I worked for a number of different civilian you have to have a day job, and then you come and get back and forth with going on to active duty and I had increasingly more responsible jobs command jobs, along the way on the Navy side, increasing responsibility and McDonnell Douglas, having my own company for a while.
And then rolling back into Sara Lee Corporation, all through that was an energy to give back. And so I've been on many different boards over the years. I got my masters at Webster. I got on their board for a while. But when I was made an admiral in 1985. I, one of my initial assignments was connecting with all of the military entity, both in the US and overseas, it was an amazing experience and and had a chance to travel all over the world, and it was a great experience, and I was very excited to be considered out of the Pentagon. But at the same time, I, I was continuing to build my relationships in St. Louis, not letting go of any of those connections, I was pulled back on active duty, full time years on active duty as a flag officer. And in that last stage, I came back to the Midwest, was assigned as the commander for Navy region Midwest, out of Chicago, out of Great Lakes, had responsibility for all of the Navy assets in the middle of the country. And in doing that, I was working with some of the flag officers here in St. Louis, who are very interested in helping elevate what we do every year is a Navy league engagement and, and as well as with a Navy week here in town. And when I heard people coming throughout the first pitch and other pieces, I got exposed to the first time to what the St. Louis Science Center was doing, and a program that they had called Youth Exploring Science, which they still have. And the moment I understood the depth of what they were doing and went and visited them and talk with them, I realized there's a whole range of really amazing young folks in our town that if we just help them a little bit more, we can connect the dots. And at that point, I knew the Navy was trying to invest in more programs that help more young people because it's not philanthropy.
It's actually a national security issue. They have more young folks born and raised here in the United States to engage in support of our country, and in some cases, moving into the military. But just general supporting our ability as a nation to be able to innovate and, and support some amazing kinds of things we're doing both domestically and internationally, not to join uniforms. The Navy alone invests some $50 million a year in STEM programs. So I helped the Science Center put together a package.
They went after a major offering, and we brought $2.1 million to the St. Louis Science Center. This is back in about 2012, right as I was coming out, hanging up my uniform back in 2010, and guiding them to helping this youth group, which then got me involved with STEM across St. Louis and working with all the corporations who were engaged, trying to make sure they're making good investments. They're making good investments around town. And, and so that has grown over the last 15 years. I stumbled in to an amazing company that's growing like gangbusters based here in St. Louis called Daugherty Business Solutions.
Talk with Ron Daugherty some years ago. We are kindred spirits in helping not only build good business, big business, good relationships and supporting clients in just the right way, but also giving back to the community. And so he and I have collaborated on a whole series of things, helping organizations over the years. But in the last several years, it's become increasingly clear that the information technology sector really has got a growing gap between the pool of folks coming in and eligible and capable to fill the jobs and the explosion of jobs in that area. And so that's where Ron and I started to focus.
How do we change the game to bring more young people, particularly those that are underrepresented in IT, young women, our youth of color, getting them more understanding and capable to roll into these jobs. And I'd love to explain more about access point, which has evolved out of that, but also how golf has become kind of a fundamental building block of what we're trying to do as well. Okay, that's gonna wrap up the front nine. Man, I love listening to this guy. This guy has got a heart for our community.
He's got a giving disposition, a lot of really, really positive energy. I hope you enjoyed that. It's gonna wrap up the front nine.
We're gonna jump to the back nine right after these messages. 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, this is Jay Delson 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. Hey, good morning. This is Golf with Jay Delson. I'm your host, Jay, and I'm sitting down with Adam Betts this morning. Adam, how you doing, man? I'm doing great, Jay. Thanks for having me.
This is the Gateway Section Spotlight. I'm so glad to have you on. We had you on the show last year, but talk to us a little bit about Family Golf Center. I know you're, and I'm proud of what you've done down there, but tell the folks that don't know what you guys got going on.
Yeah, well, thanks so much. At Family Golf and Learning Center, you know, it was an existing driving range. Years passed, and when I took over in 2018, we just started rejuvenating the facility. We had a lot of different upgrades, and we, you know, we're starting to just upgrade the entire facility. We wanted to create the best practice facility in St. Louis, provide good turf for people to hit off of, the best ball to hit at great targets, and we did just that. So we've made a lot of improvements, and we like to say that we're the best place to practice in St. Louis now. I concur with that, but I'm going to even expand that a little bit. I mean, you could talk about a three to five state area.
You guys are in the conversation 100%. Well, we appreciate that. Yeah, I mean, we like to be, I mean, it started as, let's build this place for the St. Louis golfing community, knowing that St. Louis lacked in its practice facilities that were available to the golfing community. And that was really where the vision started was, you know, all the driving ranges were a bit run down and, you know, you were hitting off of poor mats and hitting balls that flew in eight different directions before it landed. And, you know, I mean, I just kind of knew that St. Louis needed a quality place to practice and learn the game.
So that's where the vision came from. So we started with the driving range, you know, we improved the mats. We've now got our turf hound mats down in every one of our bays.
We practiced with the Callaway Premium range ball. You know, after that, we started developing our ideas for our new grass teas, which are completed. We've completed that construction and opened those grass teas last spring.
So we've got two Tehoma Bermuda grass teas on both sides of the double-decker. So we've got plenty of turf to hit off of. And then on top of all that, we put a new short game area behind the west tee, which is a huge 20,000 square foot green.
We've got three bunkers, zoysia surrounds. I mean, all the shots that you would want and need to practice around the greens, you can now at Family Golf and Learning Center. Yeah, we've really made a lot of improvements. And like you said, we're there for the St. Louis community and what seems like now based on our customer base and beyond. I mean, we're a leader in the region, which we're proud to say. And we are delighted as a golf nerd and golf geek to have someone like you in the community.
So Adam, the weather's starting to change. This is not a time to forget about Family Golf and Learning Center, man. Talk about the interior. Talk about you've got Rob Sadorchik down there. You've got our buddy Bobby Gauss. You've got RJ. RJ, you've got a whole load of great teachers down there and a lot of options when the weather gets lousy.
Yeah, well, we're excited. I mean, we employ nine PGA instructors and PGA golf professionals. So they're either helping run the operation and teaching or they're just teaching. But we're happy to say that we are a PGA affiliated facility with Rob Sadorchik as our director of instruction, instructors like Bob Gauss and RJ Rimspector, Blake Sharmatero, myself, RJ. You know, we have a wonderful teaching staff.
We have two lady teachers and Melissa Amlong and Sabrina Tate. And so we are a leader in golf instruction and we keep that instruction going throughout the offseason months, which is important for people to realize. You know, I think St. Louis is conditioned to say, all right, school's back. You know, we're past Labor Day, you know, soccer starting. Our fall sports are starting. So let's put the golf clubs away.
Well, not anymore. Family golf. We continue to run our junior programs and our player development programs through the offseason. And we have the facilities to do it with our our 30 bays down below in our double decker. They're heated.
They're covered. We face south. So we never have that north wind coming in so we can practice when it's cold out outdoors. But then we also have the indoor. The new clubhouse has three trackman simulators, which we run a lot of our programing out of. And then our indoor scoring lab is it's got an indoor green where we put chip, bring our clinics and our juniors into during the offseason. So there is no offseason anymore for the golfers in St. Louis because of the facility we've created.
Absolutely. Anatomy, you don't only have to get down there and work hard on your game. You can go have a nice lunch at the at your grill in the back nine there. There's just a bunch of stuff to have a couple of beers, get some buddies, join some leagues that you have. There's I mean, there's a lot of fun there, too. Look, golf is can be enjoyed on so many different levels. There's there's an entertainment side to it. There's a practice and a competitive side to it. And and we fill all those gaps. Right. We are there for the person that's going to bring their grandkid out and have lunch and hit some balls and maybe play the par three or or play the simulator if it's cold.
And we see that all the time. We love having the kiddos and, you know, being able to have the facility that's for that entertainment factor. And then, you know, obviously we've got all the schools and all the competitive players coming out and using the facility throughout the offseason. So, you know, we're just we're a fun place to come in and experience. But we're also there for the serious golfer.
It's just nice to fill, you know, all of those gaps. You know, there's a there's a large spectrum of golfers and we have something for everybody there at Family Golf and Learning Center. Folks, this is Adam Betts.
He is the owner and operator of Family Golf and Learning Centers. And Adam, we appreciate you being on the Gateway Spotlight. We appreciate what you're doing for the game. We appreciate you being involved in the community, man. Don't stop anytime soon. Yeah.
Not planning on it. We're we're very appreciative for all the support the community has given us and the support of the Gateway section. And and you, Jay, and your show.
So thanks for all your support, everyone. And we look forward to helping the golfers reach their goals in the future. 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. Hey, welcome back. This is golf with Jay Delson. I'm Jay by myself today. Pearly is taking the week off and we're headed to the back night.
That's brought to you by our friends at Pro-Am Golf. CJ, CJ, CJ, get yourself fitted. Pearly got fitted. Got a brand new set of wrenches.
Can't wait to see him put those into play. I'm going over to see CJ this week with a buddy of mine, Luke McLaughlin. We're going to go over there and get a look at some new gear. Get on the machine, get fitted. It's going to be fun.
314-647-8054 or Pro-Am Golf USA dot com. All right, folks, we are going to go to the second half of my interview with Mr. Lee Metcalf. You've gone thoroughly through what it looks like from a business development system, from the internal side of Doherty, of Cigna, of Ed Jones.
All these great companies, MasterCard that's been so supportive for things in our community. But I can tell you and talk a little bit about that. I'd love to hear your opinion that if you're in a you're a junior or you're a sophomore or you're a senior at one of our high schools and the young woman next to you. Jumps in and starts assuming one of these positions, assuming these roles, earning this sort of money, watching her grow, watching her self-esteem, watching her life change.
In my opinion, Lee, that's where the magic happens. Well, it is. There's so many inspiring stories.
And, you know, we're not the first to work with with some of these young folks around town and so many great organizations that are out there doing wonderful work. But it's clear that that in order to help someone who may have been under resourced through their years, maybe not have had the kind of support that I know I had when I was growing up from from family and others who had expectations of me. It's harder.
It's a bigger lift, but it's really doable. We had a young African-American girl who was out of one of our North County schools who literally was so concerned around whether she could ever do anything like this. Whenever we talked about having her meet with anybody, she cried.
She was just overwhelmed. And through the course of the training and the continued support and the interaction with our team. And by the way, Ron Daugherty has put five or six of us full time in this at his own cost. So there's a huge investment just to get this going by Ron to get to get the pieces to come together to start sorting this out.
And now we're getting closer and closer to being able to actually scale it. But initially it takes somebody just to put up and move. It basically said to me, don't study this forever, Lee.
Just go do it. So the amazing thing about just doing it is working with these young folks and you learn what they need. And we worked with this young lady who basically was so lacking of self-confidence at the beginning of this that she was she she had the sniffles every time we talked about meeting with someone. And that X number of months later, she got through the training, she got through the apprenticeship with the support and the encouragement of both Express Scripts and Access Point folks, Daugherty folks.
And I visited her a month after she started employment last February and she was running the Scrum teams. It was just it's such an amazing thing to see these young folks are capable. They just need the right pieces to help them through it to get to these jobs. And then these companies are amazing. They take it, they run with it, they get them connected to all of all the resources internally. And we then stick with them to get to their associate's degree. They don't stop their education, but they've got a job and it's paying for tuition reimbursement. And then we get them onto their B.A.
working with UMSL here. They've been a great partner in this. They've rewritten their articulation agreements with the community college.
So more of these I.T. credits migrate right up into a four year degree. And those are the kinds of things that Access Point is doing to line these pieces up so these young folks can get financially stable and education continued. You know, Lee, it's just amazing. And now if we switch over and talk about the advocate PGA that we the event that we just had Thursday and Friday, the first week in September, while the Ascension Charity Classic was going on, dirty business solutions run and that your organization was a presenting sponsor of that event. Mike Claiborne did a phenomenal job of of welcoming and kind of kicking us off at our breakfast over there. And now we had this first event, which was a huge success. And and golf winds up being in the center of this stuff again and bringing people together and opening new doors. Well, I want to I want to just start with saying that there's some amazing leaders in our town that are driving greater and greater kinds of ways to help St. Louis shine. Nick Ragon at Ascension, Ron Daugherty and many other business leaders have come together to think about where can we take this. And working with our elected officials like Senator Brian Williams and in the city, working closely with Senator Carla May and just just amazing people that if we work together, we could do some really amazing things. And so bringing the PGA last year was immediately thought about.
Why don't we broaden this? And so, Jay, you understand even better than I the role APGA brings, but its framework is focused on bringing those of color into the sport, into the professional ranks. The moment we heard about it, Ron said, OK, I'm going to help with that. Let's that so aligns with what we're trying to do with with health equity and job equity and education equity. Let's let's frame how we might bring golf into this. And obviously some know we all have a passion for another jewel in our in our in our crown here in St. Louis, which is the chess club. And so we've exposed these young folks to chess and to golf.
And here's the neat thing about golf. When we connected up with the APGA, we all know how important role models are. And we ended up running the youth clinic in this APGA over at Glen Echo and these young golfers, four or five African-American golfers who connected with these young folks. We brought 20 of our access point kids over. We reached out to some of the other high schools in the area and elementary schools.
Nick's on the board of one of the elementary schools and brought a whole bunch of young girls over. So we had about 30 young folks and these golf professionals, not only professionals in golf, clearly professionals in life. They were so good. They were so inspirational. And not only did they get a great golf lesson and we turned 30 kids into immediate advocates for learning more about golf. But they they really got a good sense of what life and encouragement is all about from these African-American golfers. It was such a great evening.
It's now spawned even more. And we've got some great organizations in town, you know, like the the support golf for youth. But but this was a moment that really galvanized for us how this two worlds, the access point world and bringing youth out of high school really can be enriched by exposing them to the great game of golf.
No, Mark Ludlove with Brian Cave is all over this. When I told them about the APGA and told them about dirty and what they're doing, Brian Cave stepped up and was extremely interested in pushing this this idea forward. One of the things that is so important.
I talked to the African-American pros about, you know, listen, I know you want to play on the PGA Tour and I encourage that and I will try to help you any which way I can. But don't be blind to the other opportunities that the game creates. There's networking.
It is taking me and putting put me in places that I had no idea or no business being involved in people, places, just situations. And it's the game just brought us all together in the universe, conspired to get this energy together and make it happen. And these kids were like, yeah, this is so cool. I mean, we're all talking. I'm talking to you today, Lee, all because of golf and in our in our desire to to enhance our community. It's a it's it's an amazing sort of synergy.
Let me stop that with you. So we went so far after that clinic that we had one youngster who is just so energized about it, gave a couple of golf lessons, and we put him because part of our sponsorship gave us two teams that we could put together to play at Norwood in conjunction with our sponsorship of the APGA. Two foursomes. And so we put this youngster on the foursome, you know, we throw him on the in the program.
So he's playing and he was nervous as heck. We just said, Look, it's 18 holes of mentoring. Don't worry about how well you play golf.
You're going to get mentored by business people like Jennifer Walton, who's the CIO African American woman at the zoo. She was thrilled to have a chance to just play golf and mentor a young person. She's also involved with the LPGA side here in St. Louis. And so I didn't even know that. So we so I met her.
We talked about it. And so there's this not just coincidental framework, but if with a little thought, you bring together some amazing folks that can be great mentors to these young folks. And they played with with Joey Stills, who was one of the pro golfers on the APGA. That was was team with that foursome. And now they're like buddies. He's reaching out to Joe Mugo, who's our youngster who played with them.
And and now he has to your point, business relationships and personal relationships with people that will mentor him for life. You know, Lee, it's just incredible. I so appreciate your time. I so appreciate what you and Ron and the entire team at Darty are doing for our community. And we I just hope you'll come on again.
We can talk about this. We can stay updated with with this this with access point with the APGA, with all the other things that you guys are doing in the community. Thanks so much for doing it. Please don't stop anytime soon and love to have you back on. Jay, thank you so much. And I so love what you're doing. Darty is just so enthused about being part of your efforts in the community, your podcast and and and the kinds of great things that you're bringing out to our wonderful city here in St. Louis. We all work together to make it better.
It's a good thing. All right, that's going to wrap up that interview. Folks, I hope you enjoyed that interview.
I really did. We'll come back and break it down just a little bit on the 19th hole. This will wrap up the back nine.
Come back for more golf with 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.C. consulting firm for 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 2500 teammates in 30 states and in 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. Well, we just wrapped up our second Ascension charity classic presented by Emerson at Norwood Hills. Guys, one of the highlights of the massive hospitality presence was our veterans and first responders viewing deck brought to you by Marcon. Final numbers are not in yet, but as of the Friday before the tournament, September 2nd, we had over 700 of our men, women, first responders and firefighters apply for their complimentary tickets.
Wow. What a great turnout. Thank you, Marcon, for all you do in our community. And by the way, the Marcon viewing deck idea is now being implemented at other tour events. Hey, we have just crowned our 2022 champion.
And boy, what a champion he is. Padraig Harrington took away the Ascension charity classic trophy and the three time major winner also grabbed the three hundred thousand dollar winner's first place check. We are already ramping up for our twenty twenty three version on September 5th through 12th at Norwood Hills Country Club. The final numbers are still being calculated, but the real winners are our North County community and our associated charities. They are Marygrove, the Urban League and the Boys and Girls Club of St. Louis. We hope to donate over one million dollars to these folks this year.
We don't want to leave out PGA Reach and the first tee as well. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, St. Louis, for all of your support and all you do to make this possible. Folks, do you need a new car, truck or SUV? Then the Dean team of Kirkwood is the place for you to go three one four nine six six zero three zero three and go see Colin Berg. 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 three one four nine six six zero three zero three or go to Dean team VW Kirkwood dot com. The Dean team for all your car buying needs. I've been looking for over three years for the perfect place to be the official 19th hole 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 eight hundred. 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 six one eight five five six seven nine five one or visit them on the web at Grafton loading dock dot com. For more information on their live music schedule, the Riverside flea market and more. The loading dock, the new official 19th hole of a golf with Jay Delson show. Hey, welcome back.
I'm here flying solo today. This is golf with Jay Delson. Pearly's taking the week off and we are headed to the 19th holes brought to you by my buddy Peter Allen and the loading dock. Beautiful Grafton, Illinois, right where the Mississippi and Illinois rivers get together.
Six one eight five five six seven nine five one. Folks, we are John and I are going up there on Saturday, October twenty third. We are going to do a live show from the loading dock on October 16th. You can come to Wild Crush in town and country and see John and I do our first live show ever at the Wild Crush Wine Bar. That should be a whole hell of a lot of fun.
So Wild Crush on October 16th. And then we're going to the loading dock in Grafton, Illinois, on the 22nd, October 22nd. So come visit us at both places.
Both are great places. We'll have a lot of fun. Talk a little golf. That's going to wrap up another show. Please keep your questions and comments coming. Jay at Jay Delson golf dot com. I'll get to him in our mailbag segments when I can and we will be back next week. With more golf with Jay Delson. Hitter straight, St. Louis. 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.
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