Maria Palozola - - 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. A member of the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame. This is golf with Jay Delsingh. Hey, good morning. This is golf with Jay Delsingh.

I'm your host, Jay. I spent over 25 years on the PGA Tour. Played in over 600 tournaments. 700 if you include some of the other PGA Tour options like the Champions Tour, etc.

I won about $4 million, but I think I spent about six trying to do it. And welcome to the show. I've got my good friend, All-American golfer, author, and successful businessperson, Perley. What's going on? Wow, I love that introduction. It's a lot better than it used to be. Good morning, Jay. Things are going fine. Now, I'm waiting for the sun to come up. It'll be a bright sunny day in Arizona. I'll be ready for another nice day of golf. How are things there? Actually, the weather, we could actually talk about the weather this week because it's above 20.

It's supposed to be about 50 today. But anyway, we formatted a show like a round of golf. And the first segment is called the On The Red Segment. It's brought to you by TaylorMade Golf. This stealth driver. I get my stealth driver this week.

I can't wait. But TaylorMade, each week is giving us a dozen TP5 golf balls to give to any listener that emails me at Jay at JayDelsinghGolf.com. Make sure you check out Jay at JayDelsinghGolf.com. There are tips, anything you need golf. There's some course previews. Anything golf, you can find it at JayDelsinghGolf.com. Pearl, you've got about four seconds for our social media report.

We had a lot better week social media wise than Charlie Hoffman. I'll just leave it at that. Okay, that's perfect.

That's perfect. We're going to thank Bob and Kathy Donahue at Donahue Painting and Refinishing 314-805-2132. Folks, this weather is starting to change here.

You need anything for your house inside outside. These are the people that call. They're great folks. John, you just brought it up. We've got a great interview with Maria Palazzola. You know, Maria, you know what it's like giving lessons. We're going to touch on that in a little bit.

The Waste Management Open. We got to just I want your thoughts. Let's just start on 16.

What happened with Harry Higgs and Joe Diamond? You thinking too far? Is it okay? What's your take on that? Let's start. Let's go back a little bit on 16 when Jay Delsingh made a hole in one and that was on the national TV this last week. I can't tell you how many phone calls and texts I got today.

I don't know Jay made a hole in one. And I remember us standing right behind you and that was a lot of fun, wasn't it? Oh my gosh, it was well for me. It was the loudest cheers and roars I've ever had. Bro, that's where we had the caddy races too. Remember that after all the players would hit, we'd go on your mark and said go.

The caddies would sprint with a bag on their shoulder to see who made it to the front edge of the green first. Well, so we got to see the beginning of the crazy 16 and build up through the years to be more stadium like or stadium, not stadium like stadium. You know, so your question, Harry Higgs, Joel, what do they go over the top? I don't know, Jay, for me, they went over the top.

Here's, here's, here's how I'm going to identify that. If it keeps happening, it's over the top. If it's a one off, I don't know the heck with it. They had a lot of fun. It's what the crowd wants that kind of stuff.

I don't know. For me, golf is a different, it's a different sport. It has a certain level of etiquette to it. And those guys, every piece of etiquette ever in the history of the game is broken up 16th at this point. I know that much. Well, taking your shirt off from the player, take your shirt off in a golf tournament.

You know what, John, I'm going to answer it this way. It's that tournament. And you're not going to see that in the US Open. You're not going to see that by any means at Augusta National. That tournament just seems to break and push all the rules regardless. So the bottom line and the thing that gets lost a little bit because we got this Charlie Hoffman kerfuffle man did he stick his size 12 foot joy right squarely in his mouth in my opinion, but what got lost is a tournament itself and in the great play down the stretch by Scottie Scheffler and he outlasted Patrick cantile in a playoff but this is something that is a well oiled theme on our show. The societal powerhouse of golf is it's one of my favorite terms.

That waste management is going to create about $20 million for local charities there in one week's time. Jay, it fires up the whole community. It fires up everybody. There's so much good to it.

Yeah, I'm not I don't want to be a brute on this thing. But I just how far can it go? I guess is what it boils down to. It's great for the community. People absolutely love it. There's such a buzz around here. And so you're right about all that kind of stuff.

I don't know. And by the way, if the tour was good with guys taking shirts off, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have chose those two guys because I think there's some guys that are fairly ripped out there. There's a lot of always talk about how fit these guys are. Well, those are the two least fit guys in all of golf. Oh my gosh, Harry. Well, you know, Harry looked like he's a little self conscious. He only got it up to about belly height.

And then what he unveiled was definitely not a six pack but it is a unique event. Alright, so now this week, the tour runs to Riviera, one of our favorite golf courses. We had the pleasure and privilege of playing that every Thursday.

While we were in college at UCLA. I can remember seeing OJ Simpson standing behind us pro watching us tee off. I can remember running into celebrities all over the place and that golf course was just spectacular. It's such a great golf course and the pros I think see it the same way. It's it's great because it's a little bit TPC like in that when you're on your game, it really rewards you and when you're off your game, you can't fake it around that golf course between the rough the type what what's that the Kukui rough and what Thomas did as a designer, john, it just differentiates every single golf course, you know that it's spectacular. It is so unique as Midwestern guys going out there we're like what this grass is almost like steel when it came to trying to get your ball to go through it.

Yeah, you can't you can't fake it around. You can't be missing a bunch of greens. Obviously now the tour guys are so good, they can kind of do that for a little bit. But it also plays longer. There's just places you just can't play from and then when they slick it up those greens.

It's unbelievable. And then also, as we remember that and we should watch pay attention to is early rounds versus later rounds with the weather and the weather changes and when that marine layer comes in, it really affects what the heck's going on out there for those guys. It really doesn't what people don't realize is Riviera is less than a mile from the ocean.

It is as the crow flies. It really does affect the golf ball a lot because you're playing right at sea level similar to a pebble beach but not with the dramatic views. John, I got a great story to tell you. I'll never forget this. My rookie year on the PGA Tour, in order to get access into events, you were sent a money clip. Now this money clip was everything before the lanyards before we got attacked in September 11th. All a player needed to do to gain access anywhere at a PGA Tour event was show this money clip. So some of the younger guys as I went out, they'd go down to the tents and put the money clip on their hats and so everybody knew they were players and etc.

But I was just you know, new Riviera was Oh gosh, one of my probably in the first five or six starts that I had. And I remember super early morning time, it's dark and I'm walking in through the locker room and we would wear this money clip on our belt. And so I remember lifting up my sweater because it was cold out and I and that and I showed him money clip and there's just this young guy. He couldn't have been I was 23. He couldn't have been much older than I was and he was man in the door and he was a big dude and he was like, Okay, you can come in.

Right behind me is the great jack Nicklaus with no money clip. And about three guys with him. And this dude was not having any any of it. Jack said, you know, in his nice little high voice, you know, I, you know, I, I belong in here. And the guy says, sir, I can't let you in without a money clip. And I said, I said, I said, but you should probably let this guy in. This is Jack Nicklaus.

He's the greatest of all time. And he looked at me like, I'm gonna kick you out if you don't get in there and leave me alone. It took I guess 30 minutes to get jack Nicklaus into the locker room at Riviera in 1985.

I guess Jack was on a CBS broadcast or something and said yeah, I had a little trouble getting into the event. But it was it was all good after that. But funny, funny story. But Riviera will not disappoint. Jen, I'm going to go to the tip of the cap. And the tip of the cap is brought to you by my friends at the Dean team of Kirkwood. Colin burnt is a great guy over there just got me a new vehicle. The tip of the cap today goes to Scott Fawcett. He is the founder of decade golf, D E C, A D E. It's an acronym. Look it up.

I just interviewed Scott, he will be on the show soon. But his stuff is ridiculously simple. Check it out, folks. He's got something called the Tiger five.

The Tiger five is what Tiger used to how Tiger used to judge his rounds and assess them on the PGA Tour when he was playing. And I can tell you one thing right now, I went about it the 100% opposite wrong way. When I got on tour, I can just tell you that we're going to talk about it today.

But check it out. We want to give a shout out to Colin and Brandy 314-966-0303 at the Dean team of Kirk of Kirkwood. And thanks for the tip of the cap segment. We have Maria Palazzola on today she is an extra in golf instructor extraordinaire. She's got St. Louis golf lessons.com she has got she has been eating slices and hooks for I don't know how long she has got such passion for the game.

She helps the veterans out and we are going to go to that interview when we come back for the front nine. This is golf with Jay Delson. On the range with Jay Delsing is brought to you by tailor made. This is golf with Jay Delsing.

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20 minutes to fitness works for me and it can work for you. You're listening to golf with Jay Delsing for golf tips news on the latest equipment and everything golf. Log on to golf with JayDelsing.com. The front nine is coming up. Powers Insurance and Risk Management is sponsoring a VIP St. Louis Blues game experience for two lucky winners. Enter to win a front row seat behind the visitors bench and join me Jay Delsing along with Tim Davis from Powers Insurance as we take in all the action on March 17th against the Pittsburgh Penguins. That's right Sid Crosby will be in town. All you have to do to enter is go to powersinsurance.com slash go Blues and sign up.

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Rapsodo.com that's rapsodo.com. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. The front nine is presented by the Ascension Charity Classic September 5th through the 11th at Norwood Hills Country Club.

For tickets ascension charity classic.com. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host Jay and I am sitting down this morning with my dear friend Maria Palazzolo. Maria thanks for joining me. Oh it's a pleasure to be here. It's been a long time.

Oh my gosh too long. Maria I'm sitting here looking at these credentials that you've accumulated over the years and I mean it's just so impressive. I don't know really where to start but I mean top 50 LPGA instructor for the last 15 years. Sixth time LPGA teacher of the year in the Midwest. US kids golf top 50 master kids teacher.

Gosh I love that. Golf Digest top 10 in Missouri top 10 in Illinois. Golf Magazine teacher of the year in the Midwest.

I mean the list goes on and on. You found that the Women's Golf Academy here in St. Louis. You were the first Golf Channel Academy lead instructor in St. Louis.

Man first of all congratulations on all these great accomplishments. Well thanks I appreciate it you know and it's obviously an honor for me to you know have an organization as you know as great as the LPGA you know recognize you and the hard work that you put in and then you know the Golf Digest a peer reviewed list and of course it's an honor to have your peers recognize you but you know we don't any any good teacher in the game and we don't do it for the accolades and of course they help you build resumes and help you get jobs but I mean we do it to help the students and and improve the game and it's because what we love to do we never ever you know accept these awards without saying you know we could not do it with all of our wonderful clients and students that you know keep us busy on the lesson teeth. Oh you're so right so Maria you were a damn good player take us back to the day where you kind of fell in love with the game. Well I was the youngest of seven kids by a long shot by nine years and my father loved the game his father played it. My dad was a charter member at Forest Hills one of the first members and a lifetime member there so I was fortunate enough you know unlike a lot of kids to have a great facility and if you know Forest Hills you know they've always had a great junior program. Carol Fromlows was out there helping it run it even when I was a kid and they got that separate valley course the executive course so juniors just had total access to that and what was really rare back back in the 80s when I was you know in high school and playing is there was there were four or five other girls my age that went on to play college golf and we would get together on random summer days and go play nine holes which was really rare in the 80s for juniors but especially for girls. You know I played and I played soccer and basketball at St. Joe and quickly realized I wasn't going to go very far in those you know I wasn't strong enough or tall enough and being the youngest I needed to find a way to you know kind of pay my way through school and I was a golf fanatic I mean you know anybody that's listening to this show is probably in the same boat it's you get addicted to it you know it's almost an obsession and I was definitely there through high school and college that's all I wanted to do I didn't really go to college I was a marketing major but I didn't go there with a career in mind I went to college because I wanted to be you know the best golfer I could be and maybe possibly try to play professional golf. Oh my gosh and I mean and you sure did you played in the PGA the LPGA championship you won the Illinois Open you went to school University of South Alabama I mean you have got a very distinguished playing career before you even started teaching. Well yeah I mean I dabbled in a little bit you know I did play you know I won the state championship here in Missouri in the district a couple times I had a very short amateur career because I really I peaked I'm going to say as an amateur really around like the age of 16-17 by time I was 22 I was trying to play professional so I had a very short stint here in Missouri and I kind of did the same thing with professional golf I did try the mini tours for about six months and it was like eh you know I didn't really like the lifestyle the traveling that just didn't fit my personality I was a little bit more of a homebody and didn't take me long to quickly figure out that you know when I got into some tour events either qualifier got a sponsor exemption that that I wasn't going to end up in the top 10 on the tour and if I wasn't going to end up in the top 10 on the tour I was going to make a lot more money teaching golf so you know didn't a lot of people you know they dabble in that for a long time a decade or so I've made my decision pretty quickly you know within probably a year year and a half you know even though I wanted to play the tour it probably wasn't going to be the dream that I wanted it to be.

You know Maria one of the things that I think really distinguishes a good teacher is their ability to play and at the at a higher level when they could understand the game at a higher level and you definitely have that what do you feel like that does for you in terms of giving you an advantage to helping your students? Well you know I think one thing that actually gives me the advantage is I was never built to be like a really big strong girl you know I was I was very lean growing up back in the day and you grew up you know around the same time I did I mean you didn't get lessons right away when you're a kid nowadays juniors start with lessons you kind of had to dig it out of the dirt and grind it and find it and then you know once you showed potential then maybe your parents would get you a few lessons here there and so I guess what I'm saying is I don't think I had a whole lot of just natural golf ability I didn't have a perfect golf swing I didn't have great chipping technique I just I kind of learned how to make it happen on my own and really it wasn't until I started teaching the game that I really understood the technique and good technique and what it was and my game got better actually as I became a teacher so I think I have that perspective where I can put myself on the same level as my students right you know I started where they started I started shooting over 100 and I had to figure out how to break 100 and shoot in the 90s and I had to figure out how to you know break 90 and so on so it's kind of like I've been there done that the other thing that's kind of funny is kind of had two or three different golf swings in my lifetime too you know I went from kind of having a natural swing to kind of being messed up actually by a teacher and getting super flat and then I had to try to almost come over the top to get rid of that and so it's funny but a lot of the swing flaws my students have I'm like yeah I've been there done that and I think they like that I don't think they like a professional that's standing in front of them that was just always perfect and never walked in their shoes and never understood what it was like to be bad or come in last place so you know I've got that going I guess for me oh my gosh well we've all had habits that we hate and you know some some of us better than others but I mean the ability to be able to relate to your students saying the same thing Maria five six seven different ways is crucially important because we don't all learn the same way do we no and honestly I think and I've said this before I mean there there probably are teachers in this town that might be even better at you know maybe understanding the golf swing or understanding physics but I have a great way I think of communicating and that's just what I love to do I love to talk to people all my students are friends in one way or another they become friends you know it's putting yourself on their level and understanding where they're coming from and every single person learns differently and communicates differently and so one thing that has always come naturally to me is within the first maybe 10 minutes of talking to someone I know how to communicate with their personality and I know what information I can give them and what information I should not give them and I think that goes further honestly with being a good teacher than technical knowledge if you will I've had group lessons before with other guys on the tour and had some of the top instructors quote unquote top instructors in the game say something else and have us walk out to the range and we're all thinking different stuff oh yeah and I always tell my students I'm like you can look anybody you know you can be a 2030 handicapper you can look up and down the range on a Saturday afternoon and you can see what every single person is doing wrong you don't even have to have extensive knowledge of the game if you've just watched some professional golf and watch some good players you can look at the swing and go oh he's doing this this it's better than that but the art lies in how you communicate it to that person and in what order they should change those things if that makes sense oh my gosh I think you can go completely wrong about fixing an over-the-top golf swing by jumping too far ahead and not getting to the root cause of what's causing that person to come over the top so in a situation like that my instincts tell me when someone's coming over the top the first thing you have to work on is their lower body to try to get their lower body moving because typically speaking when someone comes over the top Maria they're not using their lower body at all right and that and that has so much to do with it but it can go all the way back to their grip it's kind of finding that what's the first thing that's off here that's causing this whole chain of events to happen and I think that's kind of just something you gain you know over years and years of doing it I almost think that can't be taught right oh I agree there's an art to this for sure Maria one of the things that um well gosh there's so many things that we're going to talk about here today but um and I'm visiting with Maria Palazzola here on the golf with j delsing show Maria you do so much for the community let's talk a little bit about St Louis golf lessons.com that you uh you found it and that you're the owner of talk a little bit about that yeah so um I you know when I moved back home to St Louis here I you know I started sort of rebuilding my uh teaching career and building up a clientele here you know from scratch in about 2009 and I got to the point where I got busy enough that I didn't have enough time slots to get all of my students in and I also got very excited about some of the new programs that were out there like the grow the game initiatives uh lpga usga girls golf pga junior league lpga 101 us kids camps you know things like that and so I realized that hey I need I've got overflow here I need an assistant and then I hired my first assistant and uh Jason came in and we you know I got some help with the junior programs and was able to start growing them and then that grew and I needed you know another pro and I brought Alicia in and then it was like okay this is really growing it's time to scale it and things have just kind of spiraled you know we now have a staff of uh 10 pros I'm just bringing another one on now and we've got four uh really good uh key locations you know we're out west at the landings we've got um kind of a north uh mid location at roost park and then we've got kind of a mid slash south location uh west county in the south county down at uh bander park right right there near capo window and then of course now we're at you know the fabulous brand new uh tower t location which is just amazing so now we're into kind of the south city south county area and we've got a very diversified staff all ages different experience levels I've got people that come from a teaching background people that come from a fitness background I've got matt stock on staff now that's great at club fitting and that's what he specializes in and I just feel like we've got something now to offer everybody you know whether young old male female beginner advanced player the launch monitors the technology we do club fitting and we offer you know the programs we offer are just vast we've got probably seven or eight programs for adults now probably about 10 different programs running for juniors from short term to long term programs you know golf camps to golf clinics it's just all over the gamut so it's been really exciting to see it grow I think we definitely tapped into something that we've needed in the St. Louis area you know the you know obviously private golf they've got their own professional staff right there but in the public there was just a lot of random you know individual pros that weren't connected and you know we kind of work as a team I think makes us stronger you know because you know sometimes you might work with a player for two or three years and you think they need something a little different now and you know now you've got another person on your staff to refer them to and and people come to me and they'll say wow you've got 10 pros well who's a good fit and I'm able to direct them to a pro that is the best fit for them versus them getting you know everyone getting the same professional all the time that's kind of neat as well and the other thing that I'm going to tell you folks listening here if you're getting involved with Maria Palazzola you are going to have someone that is so dedicated to growing the game so passionate you can hear it in her voice and someone most importantly from my seat is she really cares and Maria it just comes out and everything you do well thanks you know when you're passionate about something like I said I was you know when I was young golf was an obsession it's become more of a career obviously and like most pros I don't get to play as much anymore but a lot of that is by choice you know I'd rather be teaching them playing in most cases that was Maria Palazzola and this is Jay Delsing and you will hear more from her on the back nine but this is going to wrap up the front nine on golf with Jay Del congratulations to this year's Musial Award recipients good sportsmanship will again be on display at the Ascension charity classic presented by Emerson David Toms was our first champion but St. Louis and local charities were the real winners at the inaugural event together we were able to donate more than eight hundred thousand dollars to area charities thank you St. Louis and get ready for professional golf to return September 5th through the 11th 2022 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 of 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 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 whitmore golf.com that's whitmore golf.com boy is this housing market tight right now are you tired of having the second best bid on your dream home call my friend Joe Schiezer at 314-628-2015 Joe's been helping my family and I for over 30 years he closes millions of dollars of business every year and he will help you understand the importance of a pre-approval letter inspections and pricing your home or your offer just right if you need to buy or sell your home Joe is your guy 314-628-2015 that's 314-628-2015. This is golf with Jay Delsing to learn about the game of golf latest equipment and golfing tips log on to jaydelsinggolf.com the back nine is presented by Pro-Am golf hey welcome back to golf with Jay Delsing I'm your host Jay we are on the back nine and my guest today is Maria Palazzolo she is a teacher extraordinaire here in town been teaching her whole life and growing the game we have the second half of her interview right now let's go listen let's say we've got folks out there especially women I think there's a huge untapped market for the gals to to jump in and play the game but let's say we've got a beginner or someone that really wants to jump in the game and they don't know how take us through the steps you're in the trenches you've been doing this for years and years over 35 years of experience how would you recommend they get started one of the mistakes I think people make right off of the bat is they they run out and they buy a brand new set of clubs definitely don't do that initially we you know we rent clubs during our lessons there's always places to find new sets and we you know for a beginner we always recommend like a starter or a box set you know how it is so many people get into the game they play for a year or two they get frustrated they quit or they find out they don't have the time to play and we don't want anybody to make a big investment up front but the other part of that is your golf swing is it's developing for two to three years it's going to change a lot so you don't want to run out and get top of the line custom fit clubs and then a year or two from now your pro changes your swing and it don't fit you so I would definitely talk to your pro about equipment before you jump in and buy something or just you know have a hand-me-down given to you I think personally I think it's best to start with a little series of private lessons one-on-one with the pro you know maybe four to six lessons even before you jump into a group class those group classes are always going to be cheaper you know because you're gonna have more people in the class but they're so much more general and you get so much more out of one-on-one with a professional so I would start with that and then from there you can decide you know do I want to keep going with private lessons do I want to jump more into a group type program the other piece of it which a lot of people miss is they just don't play enough golf and you don't get better if you don't play soon as your pro you know feels like you're ready you know you're gonna start on those par three courses start small you don't want to put yourself in an intimidating position where you're out on a big course and you're holding people up and then once you get to where you're kind of flowing on the par three then you know work into an easy nine hole course and then from there you can just kind of you know blossom into 18 holes but baby steps that's the key you know people jump into it and want to play like they see the players on tv you know and and most of them have been playing obviously their whole lives and are tremendous athletes and so if you have realistic goals and just set little baby steps between you and your professional you can kind of ease into the game it's kind of like a martial art it's going to be a lifelong journey you're not just going to master it nobody masters it right we just set small goals to keep getting better at little different areas of the game and then we keep ourselves encouraged and happy well you know it's interesting too maria because there's an etiquette and a flow to a round of golf it's important to get out on those nine holes and see how it goes and see who gets to play next things like that definitely definitely yeah and that and that's part of i think part of that initial series of lessons is at some point you know after you figure out how to make a full swing and how to hit a chip shot and how to hit a pitch shot and how to hit out of the fan and how to putt then it should be one or two lessons on the course with your pro you know where do i stand what do i do with the flag you know what are some of the very basic rules and then of course any good professional is going to harp on pace of play right out of the box and i i tell all my beginners that is nobody cares what you shoot right you can shoot 115 and i'll play a round of golf with you no problem if you're not slow you know you know one of the things uh yeah learn right off the bat is how to how to play rather quickly and keep up i think i i agree and one of the things i tell people all the time it's not about the quality of play it's about the quality of person and the quality of person is going to understand you know their their situation here and like you said you got to be ready to play you play ready golf and it makes the day so much more enjoyable for everyone including yourself if that's you it keeps people from getting intimidated i think that's one of the biggest things with beginners is they get intimidated and they get nervous out there and if you know the basic rules and you know how to play quickly there's no reason to ever get intimidated you're not going to hold anybody up so if you're this person hearing this for the first time and you want to get golf lessons maria's number is 314-440-9082 you can call or you can text her you can go to st louis golf lessons.com maria is your person so maria i want to talk a little bit about your foundation the palazzola foundation forces on the fairway talk to us a little bit about your love for veterans yeah so we have uh you know a family history of veterans as many of us do my my grandpa was in world war one i never met my grandpa he died about two months before i was born and my he was nerve-gassed and sent home and then i think story goes i think he reenlisted and went back which many of the italian immigrants did i mean they really were fighting for their country hard and then my father was in world war ii and then my two nephews uh were marines and one of them unfortunately took his life memorial day weekend of 2017 and that i'd always wanted to do something for veterans because you know as we said earlier in the show been very involved with a lot of grow the game initiatives you know getting women into the game getting children into the game i've done things for special olympics some rehab programs for stroke victims and things like that but i'd never done anything for veterans and so that kind of um was always in the back of my mind and when we lost tommy jr i i just kind of sprung into action i got my sister involved a couple of my students uh that had prior knowledge of of running foundations and we formed the palazzola foundation and the project forces on the fairways and so initially forces on the fairways we donated a couple handicapped golf carts to two courses in the area ball and golf course and for honor for veterans to um you know injured veterans so that they could still play the game and then we got into um developing a golf league which is going to have i think around 120 to 140 players in it this summer and it's been amazing what the league has done for these guys i mean the stories you just it's incredible when someone comes up to you and says you know this league saved my life literally i was in the gutter this got me out of the house it got me bonding with other veterans we can share our stories i've got a support group now i love the game i mean it's it's really really moving and really tugged at your heartstrings so the the league we're just so excited about where you know six locations in the area and growing and then uh back in 2020 when covid hit the jefferson barracks food pantry actually shut down because of covid and we reopened it with a 19 000 donation and now just recently this is very recent they have asked us to uh take over the food pantries we have a project called forces on the food so that's now going to be the forces on the food uh food pantry down at jefferson barracks so we're really excited about that so between the golf league on one side forces on the fairways and the food pantry forces for food on the other side we feel like we're really offering two great things for veterans because not everybody's a golfer right so a lot of the golfers in town are going to support forces on the fairways and they're going to get excited about that so people that don't golf we wanted to offer another avenue or way for them to support the veterans and that's what forces for food is you know maria a good friend of mine jim sours who is the owner of marcon they uh and they support the show they turned me on to this uh wreath across america program that was down at jefferson barracks and across the country where people can can get involved around the holidays they were putting out wreaths on our patriots our fallen patriots grave sites all across the country and it's really a super cool program that i i just love and now you're involved with jefferson barracks in the food pantry right and another thing we've done uh that's in the works for jefferson barracks right now is we have funded a full-size golf simulator for their golf recreational therapy program we're just it it's like it's funded it's ready to go we're just trying to figure out where to put it so it's more of a logistics talk right now with you know do we need to sort of rehab or rebuild one of their existing rooms for it or do we fund an actual building to put it on campus but we've got that ready to go for them as soon as as soon as they get all of that figured out but that's going to be huge because that just like our league that recreational golf therapy program is really helping uh these veterans it helps them heal it helps them bond you know we've got mike hallaway rep dave colberg on board to provide any equipment needed for that program once we get that simulator in there and we're just really excited about that potential project right now we can't talk about the veterans and talk about these other programs that we're all involved in they're very dear to our heart without talking about what a super powerhouse societal powerhouse the game of golf is and what it does for for you and for my family for your family but for what it does for the less fortunate or for our wounded heroes and soldiers i i had no idea this game was going to to be able to provide like this maria i didn't either you know i mean just growing up you you know you were just enthralled with the professional players and the local competitions and things like that and i know that pga tour has always been one of the biggest charitable donors in the country and and for so many different wonderful purposes but i didn't see it on a local level growing up to the extent that we see it now um it's really great to see this the game so involved in so many charities wonderful purposes just right at home and and assuming it's going on in every city around the country right now with golf it's pretty amazing what it can do and the connections that you can make in the game now it's absolutely wonderful maria i just wanted to wrap up you mentioned earlier about your affiliation with the new tower t uh down in afton tell the tell the listeners just a little bit about what's going on over there yeah so i'm the director of golf i was super excited to be uh part of you know something historic i mean parity was a landmark so many people you know as you know are just devastated that it was torn down and uh when i heard it was coming back i just if i can get involved with something cool like that it just would be uh it would be super neat to be part of this so the facility opened in december what we're calling like a soft opening you know the owners uh two great guys from uh sort of that area of town south county really did this just to bring it back for the community mike shammy and steve walkenbach are their names and they uh really want to do a lot of things for you know juniors and veterans and and to get people into the game but the really neat thing about tara t is they built it not 100 for golf so you know you can tell it was built for the community because it's about 75 golf and it's about 25 family rec we've got you know eight batting cages two bocce courts and we've got a you know putting course which is like an upscale miniature golf a playground for the kids and there's food and beverage there's a bar you know it's just completely a 360 from me from the old power t and the golf amenities are fantastic you know brand new double decker heated on the bottom we've got 13 top tracer bays for people that don't know it's the same technology that you have a like top golf you can play points games and work on your skills and play famous golf courses but then it gets even better over on the left side of the facility we've got a nine hole par three just amazing uh you know each green is a design like a replica green fired by a famous green on a famous course so like augusta number 12 is out there we've got a couple greens designed after uh two of the saint andrew's holes it's a lot of undulation white sand bunkers we've got a 15 000 square foot putting green it's just massive and then a phenomenal short game area we got two chipping greens three white sand bunkers and a pitching precision area all right there so for any part of your game there's no way you can't come to tower t and not get better and not and not enjoy your practice our superintendent's amazing he's done a great job the grass teas are beautiful the bent grass on the greens is amazing fingers crossed we have a good a good spring and a good summer and a healthy year for more for more growth and i think everything's just going to look amazing maria other than your phone number 314-440-9082 or st louis golf lessons.com is that their preferred way for having folks reach out to you and for you to help them with their game sure i mean they can always email too sometimes that's quicker it's just info at st louis golf lessons.com she's maria palazzola she has been growing the game learning the game fixing people's games for years and years in the st louis area we so appreciate you being on maria keep doing what you're doing keep growing the game and i know you're having fun doing it well thanks j and right back at you thanks for everything you do to keep this game you know alive and growing in uh in our hometown man i want to thank maria palazzola for her time and her dedication to the game um but don't go anywhere pearly's going to join me on the 19th hole and we're going to break down what it's like to get a golf lesson and some of the stuff that maria does this is golf with j delson. Marcon appliance parts company of st louis missouri would like to recognize and applaud the thousands of companies and volunteers who donated their time and money to make wreaths across america program a national success on december 18 2021 wreaths across america is a national wreath laying program to decorate the graves of our beloved veterans at national cemeteries across the country marcon appliance parts is proud to be a local sponsor and sent volunteers to participate at jefferson barracks national cemetery for more details visit wreaths across america dot org marcon appliance parts company is based in st louis missouri and is the largest distributor of major appliance parts in north america and a proud distributor of general electric parts 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 j 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 pro-am golf usa.com that's pro-am golf usa.com David toms was our first champion but st louis and local charities were the real winners at the ascension charity classic presented by emerson record-setting attendance some of golf's greatest legends an exciting finish and with the help of our partners and all of you we were able to donate more than eight hundred thousand dollars to area charities thank you st louis and get ready for professional golf to return september 5th through the 11th 2022 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 866-341-9255 sherry fain 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 866-341-9255 for a free quote 866-341-9255 this is golf with jay delsing for the latest updates on golf equipment help with your swing and everything golf visit jay delsing golf dot com the 19th hole is presented by michelob ultra this is golf with jay delsing our show that you can find uh at my site jay at jay delsing golf dot com uh at scoops with danny mac you can find it anywhere you can listen to your podcast so come check us out reach out to us jay at jay delson golf dot com we'll send you some golf balls if you're chosen and we'll talk a little golf i got my buddy john pearless probably you can't eat over a hundred events on the pga tour is your back sore that was not a straight line you did not walk a lot of straight lines it's only sore when you weren't playing well when you were playing well that it wasn't like i had nothing on my back we were flying high but if we were going to miss the cut that thing was dragging big time yeah that was i can remember you were trying to offload some clubs every once in a while why'd you try to make that bag a little lighter like he's not going to need a five iron or a seven i just get rid of this thing i'm not sure it's quite that extreme but i know we never carried more than two or three golf balls i'm not sure if you do that but i do that i'm glad i didn't all right so bro we just had a great interview with maria palazzolo my hat is off to her you know one of the things we do on this show we are dedicated to growing the game this woman is a stud i mean she is so dedicated to the same stuff she does this um forces on the fairway with the vets it's just fantastic but let's break down a little bit about the lesson what it's like to get a lesson you know someone uh that's a friend of yours that's had lessons with maria and we both have taught before so uh talk a little bit about your take on that well my buddy art uh out of uh effingham southern illinois has really enjoyed working with maria and uh i think it's just phenomenal that this she can teach this many years and still be that passionate you know about it i i've definitely given a bunch of lessons through the years and out of college that's how i supported myself for a while and that's a tough mental piece jay to be given that many lessons uh and over that period of time but i guess when you've got the passion for it you've got the passion for it i just loved her approach uh i like the way she talked about communicating differently to different people and how important the communication is to kind of plug in you know i do those personality profiles and that's really what that's about and she can read people very quickly and that's a huge piece to make people comfortable because we want them to enjoy the game they're already coming to a lesson maybe for the first time they're anxious they're nervous they're overwhelmed and i can see her calming them down and getting them focused right off the bat it just seems fantastic uh how she goes about her her her trade you know john one of the things we need to talk about is advice for parents so you're a parent out there and you don't know anything about the game but you've got a son or daughter that loves the game first and foremost i don't think the first thing you do with your children or someone that's in and entering the game maybe if you're a little older past say uh 25 let's say i do not run and go grab them lessons right away i present the game to them they've they've got us clubs for kids is a phenomenal site where you can get golf clubs specifically made for folks that don't have a lot of strength you know so graphite especially for daughters i had four daughters each one of them had a set you could get it for less than 100 bucks with a bag and a putter and it was designed for for peeps that didn't have a lot of strength so the golf club could be swung a little bit and just introducing the game to the kids and letting them jump in john i think is really vital because we've seen this so many times john where the parents are like you are playing golf and as soon as that son or daughter has the reaches the age of choice where where he or she can decide what to do they run they're gone well i've got an eight-year-old grandson and i'll tell you that's the approach i take j i bought him a small set uh his size easy to handle and when we go out it's all about having fun so last time i had william out there he said grandpa can i run around the green three or four times i said well i suppose you can william so he ran around the green three or four times as far as putting he just wanted to see how far he could hit the putter from one end of the of it to the other i want him coming away from the golf course having a blast to going home and telling his parents he had a blast i don't care what we accomplished maybe we get one little concept in there but mostly i want them to have a great time well john this is another thing that i hear all the time where people or parents say it's a rich kid's game i can't afford it you and i both know that is a bunch of baloney i can tell you right now in this st louis area where we live there are plenty of golf courses that you can get on for 20 to play and that's think about that people also say this is the negative that golf takes so long to play and i and i understand that from uh from a time perspective when you're an older fella or something like that but if you're a kid and you want your kid for 20 you can they can play 18 holes of golf which is going to take them four hours to play and that'll give them access to the driving range the the short game areas and things like that that is not a valid argument in my opinion i didn't grow up with any sort of money i started playing golf with my mother's clubs i didn't know that red-headed woods weren't red red-headed colored woods weren't way to go until my friends started giving me a little grief and so i saved up a bunch of money so i could get some men's clubs but i hear that a lot john and that's just not that's not the case well i'm glad you said that i mean heck going to a movie now is what 12 14 bucks plus a little popcorn so they're going to spend 20 bucks watching some movie that they probably don't need to see to begin with and that's going to be all of two hours so i think uh being on the golf course being around the golf course being around the people on the golf course normally in the pro shops and stuff like that it's a great experience for the kids so yeah i think we're on the same page we want it to be fun and by the way that's the kids but jay everybody's playing golf to be fun we don't need to go there and just get grinded away by some uh you know a golf instructor either so she she had to write a approach on i think on everything just plug in right away and see the best way to communicate with this individual whether they're eight years old or 80 years old and let's make sure that they they're having fun doing it you know this is near and dear to my heart the military stuff i've been fortunate to be able to do stuff with faraday and do some some work with the the troops first things that he did she's got the forces on the fairway because she lost a relative to suicide which is if you if you dive into this at any level you see that that is a huge problem but i have seen this game john provide so much i mean not only for me but for some of these military folks that i've had the opportunity to play with and some of them have no arms no legs they they're they're using prosthetics and have golf uh design prosthetics and in order to get them out on on the course and it's amazing what that does and and maria's kind of checking that box also well she's got a couple of different entities she supports and jay my guess is that's what drives her that's probably what keeps her interest that keeps it relevant for her i know the lessons are important and she enjoys that but when you do those other things that's that's that next level of relevance and being plugged in and you could hear the the passion in her voice for that i hear when you talk about it and i've got the things that i support it's important to match those up that's for sure yeah absolutely john i want to talk a little bit about our golf ball winner this week it's luke west luke congratulations you'll be seeing a dozen golf balls uh coming your way through the mail tp5s that is you're getting a top-notch golf ball they're compliments of tailor-made we have hockey ticket giveaway through powers insurance we call it behind the bench seats at center ice you go in the hockey game with myself and tim davis who's a scratch golfer c-o-o of powers insurance so you just gotta go to powersinsurance.com slash go blues and throw your name out there and uh get a couple tickets and let's go sit at center ice and watch the blues uh play the pittsburgh penguins we got sid crosby in town pearl so we are branching out here on the show we are giving up trying to give away stuff we're trying to give away tips we are going to have the kind of reincarnation john of whackin chase coming up let's uh let's end this show with a chat a little bit about whackin chase i'm excited about it i'm very excited about i'm glad that we're we're bringing it uh back around it was fun to begin with and uh getting plugged in to uh get a whole bunch more people uh ready to go with it and we'll see where we can take it well that's going to wrap up another show next week we are going to have a fella named christian heavens on the show christian is a great guy a young man trying to get on the pga tour and uh he's a st louisian and a great guy so join us next week for that interview uh there'll be more pearly there'll be more of me and there'll be more golf with j delson enter straight st louis powers insurance and risk management is sponsoring a vip st louis blues game experience for two lucky winners enter to win a front row seat behind the visitors bench and join me j delsing along with tim davis from powers insurance as we take in all the action on march 17th against the pittsburgh penguins that's right sid crosby will be in town all you have to do to enter is go to powers insurance.com slash go blues and sign up i'll announce the winner the week before powers insurance is a family-owned agency here in st louis they specialize in robust insurance policies designed to provide coverage that is tailor-made for your personal needs that's powers insurance and risk management again sign up for these great blues tickets at powers insurance.com slash go blues 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 outies 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 dean team vw kirkwood.com the dean team for all your car buying needs congratulations to this year's musial award recipients good sportsmanship will again be on display at the ascension charity classic presented by emerson david toms was our first champion but st louis and local charities were the real winners at the inaugural event together we were able to donate more than 800 000 to area charities thank you st louis and get ready for professional golf to return september 5th through the 11th 2022 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 wensfield 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 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 whitmore golf.com that's whitmore golf.com hi jay delsing here from my friends at ssm health physical therapy the st louis golf expo is march 18th to 20th signaling spring is just around the corner ssm health physical therapy will have members of their golf program at the expo they will answer your questions regarding your game and your body if you mention my name you'll receive special pricing on their golf screening and you'll have a chance to win a free k-vest evaluation that is really a sweet evaluation there are 80 locations in the st louis area call 800-518-1626 or visit them on the web at ssmphysicaltherapy.com your therapy our passion. This has been golf with jay delsing to learn more about jay and the services he can provide any golfer visit jaydelsinggolf.com you'll see the latest in golf equipment get tips from a pga pro and you'll learn more about the game of golf that's jaydelsinggolf.com