Golf With Jay Delsing - - Happy Birthday, Jay!

Jay Delsing spent 25 years on the PGA Tour and is a lifetime member of the PGA Tour and PGA of America. Now he provides his unique perspective as a golfer and network broadcaster. It's time to go On The Range with Jay Delsing.

On The Range is brought to you by the Gateway section of the PGA. Good morning, this is golf with Jay Delsing. I am your host, Jay. Perley is with me down in, where are you, Pearl, Texas somewhere?

Down in Texas, pumping iron, listening to Led Zeppelin and Chris Stapleton, baby. Ready for the show. That's my pre-show routine from now on. I am ready. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's do this. All right, well, I'm not sure what to think of Perley pumping iron, Brad. But listening to Led Zeppelin makes me a little nervous. With a sweatband on. I know, I know. He's got like his, he's like his skull rag on his... Oh, yeah, listen, listen, listen to you guys pushing back on that. All right, here we go. All right. Sweatband. I'll give you a sweatband across the head, all right?

Binge press and 300 pounds. Yeah, maybe in a month. Let's see. Anyway, the show's formatted just like around the golf. The first segment's called The On The Range segment and it's brought to you by our friends at the Gateway PGA. There's over 300 men and women in our section that are working every day to do and make your golf experience better. So, gosh, we just thank those guys.

They've been a big part of the show this year. I really appreciate their support. Pearl, do we need to do an emergency social media message? Well, it's well known that Zuckerberg is tied up with Snapchat and his other lawsuits and doesn't have time for us, so we don't need to talk about it. All right, cool.

That's a good answer. But we do have time to talk about Bob and Kathy Donahue at Donahue Painting and Refinishing, 314-805-2132. They do great work inside your home, outside your home. They have been super busy. Check out their website, Donahue Painting and Refinishing. They do some killer work.

We appreciate their support. All right, John, the show. Today is my birthday. Happy birthday! I keep coming to the mailbox waiting for something. I know Pearly's sending me something, but I just haven't got here yet. COVID. Not yet.

COVID's slowing the mail down. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Mr. President. Happy birthday to you. Oh, yeah.

And I thought nobody was going to sing happy birthday to me today. Fantastic. That's perfect, Meat. Good job, Meat.

Thank you. And I'm only 81 today. I don't look too bad for 81. No. There's an 82.

Yeah, that's a memory. I don't know what it is. Say, what are you? 61 today? Yeah, 61.

61. So to give a little report, we joke about it from time to time, but how are you feeling? What parts have you had replaced?

What parts need to be replaced? What's going on? Okay. All right. That's good. All right.

That's good. I've had back surgery, which is a big one, and I suppose... How many times? How many times? Only one. Okay. I've had about 21 epidural shots there to try to numb stuff up and get me through a couple things here and there. Supposed to have a fusion.

Didn't do it. So that's out. I had a couple surgeries on my feet, and they should have just put them backwards like they were before because I wore the wrong size shoes my whole life, and they're all bent. But they're not bad. They're not great, but they're not bad.

Had a new knee done right about 11 months ago, and it's fair. It started off great. It's not going so well.

It's not as good right now. But I'm one of those people. I wake up every morning, and I'd say about 75% of my body hurts. So what's a couple parts you'd like to replace, just for the record, that you could talk about? That I could talk about. I like the way you snuck that in. I would love to replace my back and get something, a better back, but you know what?

This is me. I've got to just write out what I've got. I'm on the downward side of the back nine, sliding sometimes into the abyss where the shankopotamuses live, and other times not.

No, I'm good. I mean, I've lived with it for a while, and so I don't think too much about it. Some days are tougher than others.

I don't like to take any Advil and stuff, so that doesn't help. But you know what? What did you think about the condition of a lot of your buddies, Jay, on the senior tour when you were playing in Ascension? Some guys you hadn't really seen or spent a whole lot of time around the last couple years. I'm thinking Pate, Waldorf, Pavet a little bit. But you saw a lot more guys than I saw up there, just the guys we played with. What did you kind of notice about their... What do they want to replace? Everything.

I mean, I don't know. They don't seem to be in as much physical pain, but gosh, it just felt like everybody looked really old. I mean, I thought Pavet looked really super old. He reminded me of his dad. Remember knowing his dad when we were in college and just watching him play? He's playing with an entirely different mindset now, Pearl. Corey used to play with the biggest set of what there was, and he doesn't have those anymore. It just doesn't look like the same guy to me.

I don't know what you thought. We only played with him one day. I said to him, I thought physically he looked solid. Duffy was struggling physically. Back, knees, across the board.

Pater had enough tape on him to wrap him up and send him away. I thought all the guys swung well at it. I don't think people realize, and the reason we're kind of joking about this and bringing it up, this sport really wears on you. It's a beautiful sport because you get to play it for a long time.

Football players, basketball players, they're not going to play that long. But you guys have played this for a long time, and it takes its toll. We didn't even get above the shoulders here.

That's where all the cobwebs and the scary stuff lives up there. It's almost like you get this form of brain damage from it where you get so jaded about certain things. John, I can remember when I first got on tour and I would play with all the old guys and I was like, man, these guys are so crabby. And now I'm one of those crabby guys. Well, you know, the guys we played with, I thought were all very professional and all of that kind of stuff.

But you can still hear what they say under their breath. There's some deep scenes in crabby that come out big time. It's kind of like, why do I play this game? I suck. I'll never be any good again. This makes no sense. This is killing me mentally. It's overwhelming.

My ball never goes where I want it to go. Why am I doing this? Gosh, I hate myself. I mean, that's what Steve Pate said when we had him on the show. He's like, I do things that really make me hate myself, and so I want to act out physically to make other people hate me also.

That's several volumes of some sort of psychological manifesto somewhere, Pearl. That is just crazy. But nah, when all of the dust settles, the poor performance at the ACC all aside, this has been a great gig. This still remains a great gig, in my opinion. And the tournament was a resounding success, and it will continue to be, and I was just glad to be part of that. And it was fun. And you know, I was thinking today, of all the things I had thought I'd experienced, everything you could experience on a golf course until the ACC this year, I was absolutely disheartened is the greatest way I could have explained it and completely dumbfounded.

And run over by a train was the heaviest way. It just was one of those things where I almost felt like I didn't even play. You know, I've been around you, played with you, caddied for you, and I agree. I thought I'd seen it all. And when that came out, I was thinking to myself, well, the only good part is we have seen it all now. Short of not physically finishing, falling down and breaking a leg, or having your arm dislocate in the middle of a swing. I mean, I hate to even throw these things out in the universe, but I'm like, what the hell else could go wrong?

One other question, slightly related to this age thing, and I want to bring it up because it's still fresh relative to the extension that we were just involved in, we talked about a lot. What did you see technology, Jay? What did you see different, either swing wise, but mostly equipment wise?

You can maybe share one story about you have an equipment malfunction out there and how things were handled. But beyond that, beyond that piece, did you see anything different that they're doing because of their age or because of the nature of the game right now? Yeah, no, definitely, and it's the driver. I mean, the guys that, two guys come to mind, Jeff Short, no, it's not Jeff Short, it's West Short, and how am I doing? Who's the little guy from Augusta who's really played well that no one's ever heard of? I think his first name is Scott. Oh, Parnell. Yeah. By the way, by the way, Jay, if I'm helping you with names. Oh, I'm in debt.

I'm in debt, man. I'm telling you, I'm shaking the show as I speak. So what's interesting is these guys launched the ball so high and hit it so far for their size, it's just remarkable to me.

And I still see guys from my generation struggle to hit that high launching bomb that the modern technology affords. It's more like we need to hit down on it like we did our driver. We've got to wrap up the On the Range segment. I'm going to do the tip of the cap quickly. And I was thinking today, I've got to tip my cap, and it's brought to you by the dean team of Kirkwood, 314-966-0303. We've got to tip our cap to the caddies. The caddies, whether it's a young novice like you and I were when we were kids or it was the lifer who was there every day and loved the game and would take notes about it and talk about it.

They're such a vital part of the game and they lend so much from stories to the characters to just the way the game is played and the experience that you can have from those caddies and from those stories. So I wanted to tip my cap to the caddies and also thank Colin and Brandi at dean team of Kirkwood, 314-966-0303. Colin, my daughter Jo, she totaled her Volkswagen.

Anyway, she knows that already, but I thought I'd throw that on the air. Come back more if we've got the front nine. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. This is Paul Leisinger and you're listening to Golf with Jay Delsing. I want to thank the Gateway section of the PGA of America for supporting the Golf with Jay Delsing show. There are over 300 men and women, PGA professionals and over 100 golf facilities in the greater St. Louis area supporting us. They're experts in the game. They know the business of golf. And at this point in time, this pandemic, the golf courses are jammed.

These folks are working 10, 12 hour days and just doing great stuff and really appreciate them. Every time you pull up to a public course or a private course, a driving range, there's a really good chance that that facility is run by a member of our section. Some of the examples of the programs that are run by these PGA professionals and the Gateway PGA section include PGA Reach, Drive, Chip and Putt, PGA Hope and the PGA Junior League.

To learn more about the Gateway PGA, go to GatewayPGA.org. To find a local PGA professional coach for your next session, go to PGA.com. The PGA, growing this game we love. Marcon Appliance Parts Company needs to recognize the sponsors, staff and volunteers who made the inaugural Ascension Charity Classic in St. Louis a huge success. Without the tireless effort of hundreds of dedicated people this past year, this PGA Champions Tour event could not have achieved the success it did.

The winner in golf is the person with the lowest score. But the big winner of this event is the people and communities of need in the St. Louis area and the tremendous boost to the St. Louis economy as a whole. Well played by everyone who put in the time to make this a wonderful event. It's great to live in your community.

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 am delighted to welcome Marie Davila to the Golf with Jay Delsing show. I'm sure you know where it is, but in case you don't, Marie Davila is a landmark out in West St. Louis County. It's located on the corner of Clayton and Weidman roads. It's also on 21 beautiful rolling acres right on the way out to Queenie Park. It's a country club like atmosphere.

It's iconic and it's absolutely gorgeous. When my dad died and my mom decided she didn't want to live alone, Marie Davila was the first place we called. When we pulled up, we were greeted at the front door by the owner and he took us around on a tour of the facility. We learned that there are one, two and three bedroom villas that you can live in. And there's also 24 hour care in the east, west and the Waterford buildings. So Marie Davila had everything that my mom wanted. One of the things that stood out in my mind as well was the way the family owned business treats their guests.

That's right. They refer to them as guests, but they treat them like family. So if you're in the process of trying to make a tough decision for this next part of life, you got to visit Marie Davila. This is local. This is family. And this is St. Louis.

This is Marie Davila. Come be our guest. Thank you, St. Louis, for making the first annual Ascension charity classic presented by Emerson a record breaking success. The golf was incredible.

Your enthusiasm unmatched. And the only thing that will last longer than the memories is the impact you've made on North St. Louis County charities. To our sponsors, volunteers and fans, thank you for welcoming golf's greatest legends and bringing professional golf back to St. Louis with record attendance.

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Visit their website at Powers Insurance dot com. Grab your clubs. We're headed to the front nine on golf with Jay Delsing. The front nine is brought to you by the Ascension Charity Classic. Hey, welcome back.

This is Jay Delsing and this is golf with Jay Delsing. Pearl is with me and we're headed to the front nine. And it's brought to you by the Ascension Charity Classic.

We just spoke about that on the on the range segment. But gosh, I can't wait any day now. Pearl, we should be getting the numbers for what sort of monies we raise for charity. And I can't wait to hear. I think it's going to be a record start for this event. Well, everything else is a great start. So whatever it is, it is. And my guess is you guys will blow it out of the water the next year.

Yeah, I can't wait. All right. So, John, a couple of things.

Just kind of almost like maintenance stuff. Mickelson wins third time out of four starts on the Champions Tour. Sanjay M went off in Vegas.

Just went on a on a birdie binge. Pearl 62 closing 62 on Sunday to win by four. You know, the only thing I want to say about that, because this thing gets recapped all over the media.

We don't need to recap anything. The one thing I want to say, though, Pearl, is that you don't see, typically speaking, you don't see people on the PGA Tour win by multiple stroke. Two strokes is usually the most you ever see. When someone goes off like that, and it'll happen maybe a handful of times a year, it's pretty special. And it doesn't necessarily get talked about when these guys, they're so good. And when they get hot, it gets deep.

I mean, they go off. Of course they play in there, Jay. Summerlin. Yep, they're still playing Summerlin. Yep. Well, and it's, you know, coming down the stretch, is it 17, the par 3 with the water left? Yep.

And what, 16, the water short on the par 5? Yep. Yep, absolutely.

18, the hazard and all that kind of stuff left? Yep. And the wind's normally blowing? Yeah, you know, I think it's pretty cool. I think some of the other things that we might see change more and more, we're starting to see a little bit of it. Not a lot of backup anymore. These guys get going and they just put the pedals in the metal.

And I'm not saying in the past they didn't have the pedals in the metal, but a lot of times the pedal is in the metal, but they're still backing up. These guys, this mentality, whatever they're working on, whether it's physical conditioning, mental conditioning, they start making birdies, they just keep on making birdies. And I'll shoot 61 or 2 or 3 or 60 or 59.

It's amazing. Yeah, Pearl, back when we played, it was almost like, hey, every single day someone's shooting 64 or 65. Today it's almost like every single day somebody's shooting 62 or 63 or 61. And the fields are so much deeper, aren't they?

Oh my gosh, these players. Well, I think that's consistent forever. The field can consistently get stronger and stronger and stronger every year as the world comes to the PGA Tour, absolutely. Well, you had brought up a little bit about this off-season of golf.

And I'll start because I know a little bit where you're coming from, then you throw it out there. Personally, I like it because it gives guys a chance to go out there and play and work on their games and stuff like that. And you know as well as I do, and Bob Rotella would talk about this, the sports psychologist, a win's a win. And so your brain just kind of knows, for the most part, a win's a win. Or even a high finish and stuff to get your confidence going. I think the Tour needs that to kind of get that groundwork and get those guys a win or a high finish to get their confidence for the rest of the season.

And if they don't have this because of the size of the field, that type of pressure, etc., it kind of stifles 5, 10, 15 different guys that could rise. That's my argument for it. I don't know if you think that holds water or not, but that's my argument.

No, so I see both sides of the fence. First of all, do you know what the mission statement is for the PGA Tour? Take as much money as we can to donate. Well, to donate, because you get so much money away. Right, but the mission is to provide playing opportunities for its members. And so for them to, for the talk and the scuttlebutt to be about scrapping the fall and having the tournament, the season end after the Tour Championship, and not even tackle the football crowd and things like that, just flies against what our mission statement is. Now, from a business perspective, do you see the Tour Pearl as any sort of sports filler? Meaning, you know, you catch it on a, you know, somewhere between a, you know, you watch it somewhere between a Monday night football game and a, you know, on a Sunday night game. You know, you're not really all that involved in watching it while football's on, while, you know, the baseball playoffs are on.

Now the NHL is starting and all that. And so there's that, I would need to, for that argument to hold more water for me, I need to know more of the numbers. I need to know more of the specifics.

I need to know more. But I will tell you, Jon, I don't think they should scrap it. I could see the argument.

I'd be glad to look at it. Maybe I'd change my mind. But to your point, look, there's only four majors and there's only always been four majors. But what the Tour's created in this modern era is this cast system within tournaments. So you have the four majors and they're still going to hold more water than anybody else.

Doesn't matter, right? But then you've created the World Golf Championships. Now, these guys have created an entire new level straight underneath the majors because there's no cuts in most of those events. You still get a retirement point, super high purses, and a World Golf Ranking points. And that flies in the face of the way the Tour was, you were supposed to get on to the PGA Tour back in the day.

You're supposed to run through the system. Today, the system consists of playing on the Corn Ferry Tour and making your way in through there unless somehow you can Monday in and win. And back when I was coming through, it was you went through the qualifying school, the grueling six rounds of the qualifying school tournament.

And if you had a bad week that year, you had to wait till next year. But these World Golf Championships have provided non-American players playing entry into these tournaments where a U.S. kid that just got out of college can't ever get in because he's been in college playing college golf. These other guys go over and win a smaller tournament on the European Tour like Portugal or one of those smaller events over there. And they're all of a sudden in a World Golf Championship event that's going to guarantee them $100,000 last place money and World Golf Ranking points and more opportunity to keep their cards. So what they've done is create this system where you have the majors, then you have the World Golf Championships.

Now what? The next on the level is not the Shell-Houston Open, which is no longer the Shell-Houston Open. It's Jack's tournament at Muirfield and Arnold's tournament at Bay Hill, Mr. Palmer at Bay Hill. And then it goes down to the Texas Open, one of our favorites that's not on schedule anymore, the Milwaukee Open, things like that, Quad Cities, the John Deere Classic.

Those suddenly get thrust down to the bottom rung. And then if you want to make it even lower, then you throw the guys that are playing in the fall, the Shriners that just went on last week in Vegas and things like that. So it's created this, whether they like it or not, it's created a cast system for the tournaments. And I don't like that at all. I think they should have created, they should have mandated to the players every four years you have to play that event once. I don't care about your schedule.

I don't care, Tiger. You got to go to play Vegas once every four years, once every five years. But didn't they try that and the players for the most part said no. I mean that's how it evolved more or less.

They thought about doing it and the players hated it. Yeah, so yeah, that's a tough one. I don't know, if these smaller events are getting done what they want to get done in their communities and they're raising money and they're raising awareness, that kind of stuff, then let's just keep on going. Like anything else, it's competitive.

It's capitalism. Let's let these different events come up with something interesting and innovative. Look at TPC Scottsdale. Granted there's some timing and stuff, but look at what the Thunderbirds have done through the years to make that super, super crazy special fun in the midst of football, in the midst of other things that people want to watch. So I think they need to continue to rise up and do their thing. And I'm with you though, I like the idea of, and maybe we should try to do that for the show, what are the numbers of these little places? Are these all being supported by the tour? I doubt it.

There's people, they're still putting money in their pocket and raising money for their local communities and stuff, so I say go for it. And if they want to get bigger, get moved around in the time of the year and stuff like that, then come up with something spectacular to be able to do that. And you know too, and I've heard you talk about this, certain tour events that weren't necessarily the best course or the best location in the states or the best amount of money, were great to bring the families to. The families wanted to go out there.

I think you talked about that. John Deere was one of those I believe for you, and different things, and many other tour players. So I think they have a lot of ways to compete. They just have to go out there and compete if they want better time and more money.

To your point, Pearl, I don't hear any of them bitching. No one's putting a gun to their head to make them run this event, so I think in the wash they stay and they keep working it the way they work it. Well, relative to tour school and how to get on the tour, I don't think technically or statistically going through tour school was the best way to get guys out there that stuck. It got guys out there because there's a certain amount of openings every year, which I think has been dwindling since our days. But I think going through the corn ferry or Nike or Hogan, whatever the heck they call it these days, the guys really learn how to play and compete and be in tournaments. And when they do get out on tour, I think more of them stick and more of them are more prepared. So, you know, if it evolves that, you know, things change.

If it evolves into that, how many brain cells were killed on going through tour school? I can account for three-quarters of mine, and I know you can account for... Ninety percent of mine are gone. Yeah, no doubt about that for sure. Oh, yeah.

They dropped them off there. Pearl, that's going to wrap up the front nine, but don't go anywhere. There will be more golf with Jay Delsing on the back nine.

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Get the protection and the peace of mind you deserve. Thank you, St. Louis, for making the first annual Ascension Charity Classic presented by Emerson a record-breaking success. The golf was incredible, your enthusiasm unmatched, and the only thing that will last longer than the memories is the impact you've made on North St. Louis County charities. To our sponsors, volunteers and fans, thank you for welcoming golf's greatest legends and bringing professional golf back to St. Louis with record attendance.

See you next year at the Ascension Charity Classic. Hey, I know you've heard a lot about club fitting, but I need you to go visit my friends at Pro-Am Golf. They're a family-owned and operated golf discount shop in St. Louis that's been operating for over 40 years. They have a top quality fitter in CJ over there and a very qualified staff with the most up-to-date, state-of-the-art technology in the industry at all. They've got a really cool ball program coming that will help you fit your swing speed to the right ball. But most importantly, they have the lowest prices in town on this fitting.

And you know what's really special? They take the price of the fitting and roll it into the new clubs that you purchase over there. So basically, the fitting costs you nothing. Visit Tom DeGrant, he's been in the business for over 40 years and a great guy, and they'll watch you hit balls in their simulator. So stop by and ask for the delsing discount and they'll give you even more money off their already low price. That's Pro-Am Golf, a family-owned business here in St. Louis. I am sitting down this morning with my buddy Mike Tucker, who's the director of golf at Bell Reef Country Club. Tuck, thank you for joining me this morning. Well, thanks for having me, Jay.

It's a pleasure to be on your show. Oh my gosh. So gosh, we go way back. I mean, I got to play with your older brother years ago. I can tell you a couple things besides a great reputation that the Tuckers have.

They love to compete. You guys are good players. Case in point, you just won the Senior PGA Professional Championship in this section, which I know that's happened before. Just give us a little background about your summer and how your game is and things, Tuck. Well, yeah, I grew up, my brother Jerry, my mentor, my coach. He was kind of a half-brother, half-father figure, even though my dad was a great guy. My brother Jerry was a little more intense and focused on his career in golf. We were all sports junkies, sports fans. I know your family, Jay, obviously rich in sports history. But Jerry always was a competitor, and I love to compete as well. When my baseball playing days were pretty much coming to an end when I was 16, and I knew that wasn't going to go very far, I kind of got back into golf.

Jerry had started to be at a young age. The short story, or making the long story shorter, is I just followed his footsteps. He seemed like he had an interesting life, professional golf as a business, and being a golf professional first, and then playing golf for a little bit of money as we do as club pros, seemed like kind of a neat gig. I've just been very fortunate. He allowed me to join his staff right out of college when I was 22.

Then everything kind of fell into place after that. The good people of Belle Reve have been very gracious to have me around for 25 years as their head pro and director of golf. I still love to compete. My brother is 72. He was dressed up for a pro member guest the last couple of days. He saw a lot of people. I think he shot 69 yesterday at age 72.

I still have a hard time keeping up with him. The senior PGA, playing senior golf allows us, those of us who are over the age of 50, to keep going and compete at a high PGA club professional level. The senior club pro championship that we have in our section allows the top four of us to go on to the national senior professional championship, which will be in about three weeks, two or three weeks. We love to compete. Even though we're a little older than some of the young kids, we still love to compete, as I know you do as well.

Dennis Biedenstein and Fox Run were nice enough to host us for the section senior championship. It's been a while, but I got in one of those zones where I happened to have some control over my ball striking. I just got out of my own way on making some putts. I didn't try to look up too long. I was 6' under through the first 10 holes.

I'm like, just get out of your own way and let it happen. I was able to finish off the good round and then tried to get a big enough lead, Jay, where even I couldn't screw it up. That's what I can tell you. You've seen it and played it in bars over the past 30 years, and now you can bring golden tea to your home. Complete your basement or man cave with the popular arcade game, the Ultimate Virtual Golfing Experience. Over 80 courses, unique game modes, and you can even challenge a buddy in online tournaments.

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I was just over there the other day. I bought a used VW Passat for my daughter, Jo, who just totaled it in an accident. She texted me, by the way, and said, Dad, I tapped a car in front of me. She tapped it so well that the car is totaled. Anyway, I talked to Colin and he is working out a new vehicle for us.

But we went over and looked. There is a huge selection of cars over there. My buddy, Pearly, that does a show with me had bought a used Toyota truck from Colin and just loved the service and loved the vehicle.

314-966-0303. This is like dealing with family over there. These are great people. Colin is there. His right-hand person, Brandy, is there to do anything they can to get you in the vehicle you want.

Give them a call today. We're halfway there. It's time for the Back Nine on Golf with Jay Delsey. The Back Nine is brought to you by Fogelbach Agency with Farmers Insurance. Hey, everyone, welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsey. I'm your host, Jay.

I've got Pearly with me. Brad Barnes is taking good care of us here in the ESPN Studios and we are headed to the Back Nine. And the Back Nine is brought to you by the Fogelbach Agency with Farmers. 314-398-0101. Ed Fogelbach owns this agency. He's got a couple of his children working there. They are terrific people. They can help you with any sort of insurance product that you need for your home, for your car, for your business, anything. Call the Fogelbach Agency.

314-398-0101. All right, Pearl. I wanted to circle back. One of the coolest things about the game of golf for me is the honor code that the players adhere to. There are PGA Tour officials, but for the most part, this game is all about what's happening when you're over in the weeds and it's you and your ball and you don't have a good lie.

And, you know, you could easily give yourself a better lie and change your position and, anyway, take advantage. And Mickelson's playing on the 16th hole on Sunday. He's got a one-stroke lead and he hits this big slice into, you know, being a left-hander. It's this big slice out into the left woods. He's on some pine straw and he moved a bunch of pine straw things around, not very close to his ball, but probably within a couple of club lengths of his ball.

And then they timed it on TV and I think it took over a minute later. His ball moves. And so, first of all, we need to say, when you're on pine straw, it's unstable anyway. It could move. It doesn't have to be anything exerting any force on it to get it to move. So he called an official and I just have to tell you, in the old days, because he touched a loose impediment within two club lengths of his ball, didn't matter the time or anything else, it would have been a penalty.

Wow, that's harsh. Nowadays, with the rewrite of the USGA rules in 2016, there needs to be direct and irrefutable evidence that the player caused the ball to move. And Phil's like, I didn't do it.

And the official says, look, you're the only one out here. We have no idea. We'll go back to the tape and see what we can find out. But as it stands now, until we get to review the tape, there's no penalty. So Philly Mick chips it out of the woods, right out in front of the green, gets it up and down for par. And then par 17, birdies 18, wins by two.

When he got to the 17th hole, they said they reviewed the tape and it was clear that he didn't do anything to cause that ball to move. And I think it just goes back to me, even as football fans, like we are baseball fans, you know, where you're making a diving catch in center field and you might trap it. You might not even know if you trap it, but your first instinct as a center fielder is to hold it up like I caught it, you know, to get the thing to go your way. And the same thing in the NFL, you know, the wide receiver crosses the middle, the pass is low, he tumbles in and he's, you know, he'll play like he caught it. You don't do that in golf. And I think that's pretty cool and pretty special.

And it's not that I'm dog and baseball or any of the other things. I'd do the same thing if I were those other players. But that happened this past weekend and I thought it speaks volumes for the sport again.

Absolutely. There's a lot of fun things. It was fun to see Mickelson win again out there, what, three out of four events that he's played in.

That's kind of amazing. I don't even know what that says because there's so many good players out there. That obviously is just where his level still is. You wonder if he can play that relaxed.

Well, let me just throw it out there quick. What's a big difference between playing tour, regular tour and senior tour when you look at Philly Knicks? The distance of the golf courses. The distance of the golf courses.

So what's happened, John, is that you saw what happened at Ascension. We played the tips at Norwood. We played the back tees all the way around. So that golf course played right at 7,000 yards long. We never played 7,000 yard golf courses on the PGA Tour when I played until the very, you know, until our last 10 years or so. And what the guys are playing on the regular tour for the most part are 73, 7,400.

That's a big difference. So Mickelson is still able to compete out there to a degree. If you ask him, he may not say to the degree he wants, but he's still able to compete out there. Hell, he won the PGA Championship last year.

That golf course at Kia was almost 7,500 yards long. And so that's the big difference. I mean, you take 500 yards off of that and also put his talent level with, you know, he's a young buck, again, out on that tour, John.

He's 51 years old. And so... Well, it's not as deep. There's a little less pressure. It's a little bit easier. I'm sure he wants to transport some of that to his regular tour game.

So a question for you, though. I get a kick out of, here he's coming down the stretch. He's got to beat one guy coming down the stretch. Miguel Angel Jimenez. So my first question is, if we put 100,000 Americans that listen to your radio show and we said, okay, who could spell Miguel Angel Jimenez name correctly? Who could say it?

Who could say it correctly, first of all? Well, I spent a little time in Spain, so I think I'm halfway close. You're halfway close, yeah. Which is perfect for our show. It's just so funny. But here's Miguel. In the heat of Philly Mick going to win this tournament, you know he's dying and grinding. He's like, I can knock Philly Mick off here.

I can do this. Jay, I ran into Miguel Angel Jimenez many years ago when I played a little bit on the European kind of whatever you'd call it. Satellite tour-ish type of thing. I remember he's playing in front of me the first two rounds of one tournament. I turned to our buddy Roger Gunn, who kind of hosted me over there, and I said, who the heck is this guy? He had the biggest in-out loopy, crazy action going on out there, and he says he's one of the best players out here.

I said, oh my gosh, we got to hang out here for a while because this could be easy. Well, it wasn't that easy, and even with that loopy action he had, he made it work. He's taken most of the loop out of his action, and it's pretty impressive, but you know he was grinding and dying trying to hit that. He almost made that putt, which would have been interesting to make. Mickelson had to make that six or eight foot or whatever it was at the end. He made it, but he didn't have to make it.

It would have been fun to see if he would have had to make it. Oh yeah. You know, Pearl, it's so fun to watch when even at the advanced age over the 50 overcrowd, it's still competitive. You see the boys just juices flowing.

It's the best. I mean, I can tell you the most nervous I've ever been in my life was on the first tee this year at the Ascension Charity Classic. I've never felt, and a lot of it has to do with, I can't remember anything back in my 30s and I also was 60. You know, I was going through it, but it was really fun because I pulled it off somehow and the thing went right down the middle. Well, I think a huge piece is you hadn't been out there for quite a while. I know a couple of guys came up to me and said, wow, look how well you were playing and you haven't been out there for a while. It's tough to hang it up more or less, if you will, competitively, and then just go tee it up again.

When your body's not and your mind's not used to that, all of a sudden, you know, that next level of competitiveness and you're trying to get it to happen. You know, I know we joke and it was totally disheartening with the Shanks, but you've made so many good swings. There's so many good shots and it's just interesting to be able to walk out there after four or five years and be competitive.

So, pretty cool stuff. Pearl, you're 100% right. Until you've played some sort of competitive level golf, the tournament game deal is the most litmus-y sort of test you can have in your life. Because when's the last time you think I putted out a bunch of three-footers? I mean, you know, you just think about all those little things and all it does is it increases the pressure that's on you.

It increases the amount of mental acuity that you're supposed to be plugged into, you know? It's just not easy. I remember when I was younger, starting to kind of come into my own playing a little bit. My dad signed up for the member guests one year and my dad always played Nassau's, you know, better hole and that kind of stuff. My dad never cared much about a total score.

He goes out there the first round of plays and actually did okay. He got off the golf course. He said, there is nothing fun about that. I'd never have had to worry about every shot and all that kind of stuff. If I hit it in the water, I didn't care. I lost the hole.

I'd go on to the next hole. And he said it was just a completely different experience that he had never tried before. He said, I've never tried it again because I was anxious the whole day's time out there.

There was nothing fun for him in it. I don't doubt it. Pearl, we've got to wrap up the back nine, but don't go anywhere, folks. John and I will be back for the 19th hole. This is Golf with Jay Delson. Directed by everyone who put in the time to make this a wonderful event. It's great to live in your community.

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. Hey, guys, I know you've heard golf is booming, and it really is. There are more people playing golf today than ever before.

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Your wife can go out and play a little golf. You can call them at 636-926-9622. And when you go over there, poke your head in the golf shop and say hi to my friend Bummer. He is terrific.

He wants to help you with your game, and he'll show you around. Thank you, St. Louis, for making the first annual Ascension Charity Classic presented by Emerson a record-breaking success. The golf was incredible, your enthusiasm unmatched, and the only thing that will last longer than the memories is the impact you've made on North St. Louis County charities. To our sponsors, volunteers, and fans, thank you for welcoming golf's greatest legends and bringing professional golf back to St. Louis with record attendance.

See you next year at the Ascension Charity Classic. Hey, Jay Delson here for SSM Health Physical Therapy. Do you want to have a more consistent golf swing?

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We know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. I'm with my buddy Joe Scieser from USA Mortgage. Hi, Jay.

How are you? Doing great, Joe. Thanks so much for the support of the show. I really appreciate the opportunity. Congratulations. This is your third year, and we're really proud to be a sponsor all three years since the very beginning. It's a great show, and we look forward to it every Sunday morning.

Well, thanks a bunch. Tell us just a little bit about USA Mortgage and what you can do for people. Well, USA Mortgage is an ESOP. It's an employee-owned company. So over 1,000 families here in St. Louis work for the company.

So if you want an opportunity to patronize a local company, please call USA Mortgage, 314-628-2015, and I'll be more than happy to sit down with you, go over your options, discuss all the different programs that are available, and give you an opportunity to support a local company. That's awesome, Joe. Thanks so much. Appreciate it, Jay. Thank you.

Grab your friends, a cold one, and pull up a chair. We're on to the 19th hole on golf with Jay Delsing. The 19th hole is brought to you by Pro-Am Golf.

Hey, we're back, and welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. Jay and I got Pearly with me, and we're headed to the 19th hole that is brought to you by our folks and our friends at Pro-Am Golf Centers. If you need anything for your game, anything at all, Pro-Am Golf Centers has it for you. But what they really specialize in is these club fittings and getting you the right set of clubs for your game.

And they also have, by the way, Pearl, they have the lowest prices in town. They've got all the tech. You and I are getting in there, by the way.

This is a perfect segue into this. You and I are getting in there, because I was doing a little thing for some TV deal, and I started getting on the track. Man, we are going to get in there and check it out. But, folks, call them at 314-647-8054. They have the state-of-the-art equipment. They've got the lowest prices in town. Check them for the delsing discount, and you'll get even more money off of that fitting price that will get rolled into the set of clubs.

So it's almost like a free fitting. But, Pearl, we've got to do that. You're a mile and a half behind me in fitting, and I'm a dinosaur.

I'm a fossil, and you're like a mummified something a couple generations behind me. Well, I want to do that. I'm actually in town next week. I could squeeze something in. Okay, so tell everybody a little bit about what you learned last time you were in there when you went in there and talked to the gentleman about the shanks. Right, so C.J.

was in there, and I was doing a couple... C.J. 's a fitter.

C.J. 's a club fitter, and he is probably one of the top fitters in St. Louis. I trust this guy a lot.

He knows his stuff. We were in there, and I'm watching all of my hits, and I was hitting the ball beautifully on their simulator. Really hitting good shots.

But I'm looking at the data that these machines spew out, and they're fantastic. They tell you your path and this and that, and all of my hits and my irons are heel hits. They're flying nicely, but they're heel hits.

And if you know anything about when you get the shanks, it's all off the hosel, which is right in the heel of the golf club. And I said to him, C.J., come over here for a second. He goes, what's up? And I go, look at this. And he goes, your clubs are too short.

That's what he said. He watched me hit. He watched me make three swings. He said, your clubs are too short. And I went, but I've been telling you, your clubs are too short. And so I haven't had time to get back over there, but I have not stopped thinking about it, and it's interesting. And I'm like, would that make a difference? And he goes, yeah, it would make a difference. So I got two excuses, Pearl. My new knee, which I'm holding back.

I'm not going to use that one right now, but I could use my clubs are too short. Damn. It's so dumb. Oh, my God. That is so funny. I know.

I know you told the story on the show. Oh, I don't want to tell it again. Your shoes being too short. Your clubs too short, and your shoes are too short.

I don't know. There's a message in there. My shoes are not too short.

My feet were too long. Relatively speaking is what I meant to say. Wow. That's something else. I'll tell you, awareness is an interesting thing in life. Awareness is an interesting thing. What are you trying to say about that, Pearl, and me, and the context here, and my lack of awareness?

I know how long you play with shoes that were too short, or your feet were too big all your life, because they've always been too big, and then you figured that one out about ten years ago. No, no, no. You're not.

That's not fair. At least fifteen years ago, I figured that out. Okay, okay.

Exactly, yeah. When I was forty-five. How long have you been playing with clubs that are too short?

How long have I been playing? I don't know. That's just crazy. Oh my gosh. Back in the day, I can remember when I was stuffing those, you know, lengthening those things, we didn't have, I don't know.

Could that be true? Hey, listen, am I going to have a chance to tell the golf joke story, the pearly nugget of the day, do we have any time for that? Me? We got time for the pearly fable. Well, we can always cut it if we don't like it. Yeah, go ahead, Pearl, we got it. Yeah, pearly!

We'll put that right along with the Zuckerberg report. It was a sunny Saturday morning on the crookhorn municipal golf course in England, and I was beginning my pre-shot routine, visualizing my upcoming shot, when a voice came over the clubhouse speaker. Would the gentleman on the women's tee back up to the men's tee, please?

I was still deep in my routine, seemingly impervious to the interruption. Again, the announcement rang out louder. Would the man on the women's tee kindly back up to the men's tee? I simply ignored the request and kept concentrating, when once more, the man yelled, would the man on the women's tee back up to the men's tee, please? I finally stopped, turned, looked through the clubhouse window directly at the person with the microphone and shouted back, would the person in the clubhouse kindly stop shouting and let me hit my second shot?

We should cut that. That's the best I ever told. That's the best joke I've ever told, but that's the best I've ever told. You did. You prepped for that too, didn't you? Yes, I did. You did. That's awesome.

That's awesome. Well, we're going to have that sponsored by our new wine bar, Wild Crush Wine Bar, but they've got to get better else. Wild Crush can't sponsor that. Don't you think, Meat? It's heavy.

Yeah, you don't want to put your name on anything. The tool is perfect. We've got to get that a little better. Pearl. I see who you have working in that Wine Crush Bar now, Wild Crush Bar. That joke and that story is plenty good for that guy. Some great employees over there.

That's what I see. We had Meat over there slinging some wine last week. It was really fun. Well, hell, John, I don't know what. We've got just a couple minutes of wrap-up here. You don't know how to follow up something as good as that joke.

I don't. I took the wind out of the sails and cut the legs out from everybody with that one, but that's all right. Okay, hey, so tell a little bit about you went out today and you took one of your protégés. You gave them a little lesson on the golf course today. Yeah, I didn't hit.

I haven't shanked a ball since the tournament, so that's something to really hang my hat on. Pitiful. But, yeah, I went out there.

I haven't played. Oh, you know what we did do? Did we talk about going to Oakmont and Oakmont raising money for Faraday's troops first? Gosh, we went there last Friday. My team, by the way, won the tournament by five. Five.

Is that right? Awesome. How'd you play? I played damn good. They were on my back, baby. I was bombing my drives. I made a couple of long putts. No shank bottom as is. Yeah, I didn't even tell them, although Faraday told everybody that I shanked them in the tournament when he introduced me.

He said, if you want to listen to a good podcast, check out Golf with Jay Delsing, and he'll tell you about how he shanked his way around the last senior event he played. I'm like, thank you? Thank you, baby? Anyway, we raised $600,000 for troops first. Wow. The Battle Buddy, the 24-hour Battle Buddy program, they had the service, one of the service dogs there. His name was Finn. He was awesome. It was just a lot of fun. Oakmont is a beast.

The Greens were 15 at Oakmont. Yeah, I'm getting the high sign. We just filled in, Pearl. We just filled in a couple of minutes there, and we can wrap this thing up. Well, congratulations with that work with Dave Faraday. It's a great event that you've been involved in in a long time that he drives, I believe, and just wonderful stuff, Jay. Congratulations.

Oh, man. I walk away just feeling like a better person. Their attitudes are way better than mine. They've been through way more than I have, and they're just quality human beings. Well, Pearl, thanks so much for being with us. Thanks for doing the show with us. Meat, thanks for spinning the dials and putting it all together, and we will see you next week with golf with Jay Delsing. Get them straight, St. Louis.