Golf With Jay Delsing - - Tom Lehman

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 Vehicle Assurance. Hey, good morning. This is golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host Jay. I got Pearly with me. Pearly, what's up this morning? I got my ball in my pocket and I'm ready to roll, baby. Let's make it happen. Sounds like a song or something.

All right. We formatted the show like a round of golf. And the first segment is called the On The Range segment. It's brought to you by Vehicle Assurance. 866-341-9255.

If you need some additional coverage for your car, if you need a warranty, if whatever the make model of your car, they've got something for you, they can help you out. Call those folks today. You want to check us out on our social media, call Pearly. He handles all of our social media. He's got it all right where it needs to be.

And our media is, social media is like a skyrocket with a number. So you got to give me a little credit for that. So next subject. Nice going, Pearl. Nice going.

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Call those guys and they will help you. All right, John. Fun show today. We've got a little sit down major champion, Tom Lehman. He's won five tournaments on the PGA Tour. He's won 12 on the Champions Tour and just a cool straight shooting guy.

Absolutely, Jay. I remember him from back in the mini tour days and when I was kind of prepping for the show a little bit and listening to your wonderful interview with him to kind of get ready for this, something reminded me. He was like one of the adults in the room on the mini tour. You know, I think at the time he was either engaged or maybe even married, but he just carried himself like the rest of us now wish we would have and didn't. And so it's no surprise, although he had a very tentative crack record through mini tours and it's not like he was a shoe-in on the tour by any stretch, but he ended up making it obviously in a big way.

Yeah, no, he really did. I think at one point in time we talked about it in the interview, he had 19 runner-up finishes in like a, I don't know a span of like 12 or 14 years. So it's just incredible stuff.

All right. So, but, so, so stay tuned for the Tom Lehman interview, but Sam Burns just broke through, won the Valspar tournament last week on a great golf course. The Copperhead is a tough, tough track in Innis Brook down and outside of Tampa.

But what I wanted to talk a little bit about is the, is watching someone like that Pearl go through the various levels, the learning levels of getting on the PGA tour. It reminds me of back in our day, the Payne-Stewarts remember where Payne-Stewart was a choker. He was never going to win. Tom Watson was a choker. He was never going to win. Tom Kite couldn't win, right? All of these guys got themselves- Nick Foldo.

Yeah, Nick Foldo. And, and what happens is you watch that learning curve. It's different for everybody. You know, it reminds me, John, of when I first got on tour that one of the first levels you had to figure out was, could you make a cut?

You know, could you figure out how to get to the weekend? And it really was a thing. And so you watch this stuff.

Pretty cool stuff about Burns. He has been the leader at the end of around eight times this year, two times more than anybody else. And you watch what's, what's happened. And man, he, he, he putted well.

Last, last I remember he was tied or in the lead at Riviera Pearl and where Max Holm will wound up winning. And you know, you just watch some of the stuff that they go through. And each time he mentioned this, each time he's taking, taking things with him, he has learned, he has slowed the game down. You know, it is not that easy to win and to go through these different levels on, at golf at its highest level, you know, Jay.

Okay. I agree. Certainly with that golf is the highest level, but I think, I think we can back it way up into when we played junior golf and how we got to certain areas of comfort. I think we can talk about the guy that's playing in his club championship. And the first year was all over the map or maybe played nine good holes and fell apart.

I think we can relate it to that, to a lot of life stuff in general. I think it's, it's exposed when it's on tour, when it's the cameras are on and you're watching this guy sweat and kind of choke, which by the way, you didn't see from him that last round. He was kind of cool as a cucumber out there. However, however, he snapped hooked one that could have gone out of bounds by about 150 yards and hit a tree and came down. And I think he ended up scrambling away for par. So, you know, I don't think there's anything wrong with getting a little bit of work to get us over that, that final hump. And I think most guys would say that somewhere in the round, and we've had one of our college teammates, Corey Pavin said, if you're not playing your best and get some luck, you're not going to win the tournament.

John, a hundred percent. It reminds me of when I was working for Fox at Shinnecock on the 18th hole with Brooks Koepke, who's got a two shot lead, hits a beautiful drive on 18 in the middle of the fairway. He's got one of the few more level lies at Shinnecock with a six iron in his hand and misses a green by 35 yards to the left.

I mean, and he still wins the tournament. So, you know, you know, you can look it up and look at that swing. First of all, it's a hard, hard as hell game. Second of all, when you put yourself in those situations that stretch your comfort zone, right?

Weird stuff can happen to you. And it doesn't, it's not always fatal in terms of whether you win or, or, or, or, or, or fatal actually fatal either. Although you think it might be when you're actually out there. Yeah. Right. But I think one of the reasons, Pearl, that I wanted to bring this up is because we can help the guy or the gal that's going through her club championship.

Maybe it's a high school match and you know, you're trying to figure out how to be the medalist for the first time in your high school match. This stuff takes time. Are there anomalies?

Of course there are. You get Colin Morikawa winning two or three events his rookie year and one of them's a major. I mean, you see you see all sorts of different things happen to people.

You just, you, you, you rarely see the outcomes in the future that stay the same. And what I mean by that is you saw guys like Sean McKeel Pearl win the PGA championship, never came close to winning anything again. You know, he won one event. You see a guy, I remember Pearl when we were in college, a guy named John Foat came out and won this tournament, won that tournament, said to the media, I'm only going to focus on winning the majors.

He never won a regular tour event again. You know what I mean? It just, it just gets crazy. One of the things that's interesting here too, Pearl, we have to talk about expectations here because when guys win tournaments and then they do win a major, you see them take steps back oftentimes because they put this additional pressure on themselves that they can't live up to. Yeah, that's for sure. I think, I think in some ways there's a breakthrough and you have a certain sense of I belong and you can also kind of get out of whack to your point there as well and put that next level of expectation or I I've done it once, so it's going to happen again. Yeah, not necessarily.

You better do a lot of the, the absolutely right things. All right. So we talk, who are you talking about? I think it was a nationwide, Oh no, it wasn't. It was the PGA club pro championship with Omar.

Yeah. And he won and he won. And I was telling you when I was watching it, here's a guy that played on tour a lot of years. I don't know if he ever won on tour. No, he did not.

Did that went on tour, but he played on tour a long time. And these other club pros, there's some really good players. Most of the guys have better swings than his, but he had a certain understanding of the game and a certain confidence in a certain way to get around. And even with shooting 40 coming down the stretch, he still won by a handful of shots. There's a certain level.

Once you get to a certain level and kind of have that confidence in yourself, it can kind of pay dividends for quite a, quite a while. It was so interesting to watch him do that with what appeared to be far lesser skills than some of the other guys. Yeah, I, I, I'll never forget. I was playing with Omar Uresti and his wife gets pregnant and they have this little baby boy and he's so excited. And he said to me, I'll never forget this.

I can't wait for my son to start talking. He's from Austin, Texas. And he said his first words are going to be Texas. And I said, I can't even repeat what I said.

I said something to the effect, like that's the dumbest thing I've ever, I said, Omar, if I told you when my daughter was born, her first words out of her mouth were Missouri, would you look at me like I have 12 heads? Yeah. That's my, my, one of my favorite stories. The, the, the back and forth cannot be repeated, but it was really, really something.

Okay. So I got a funny story about Sam Burns. Sam Burns grew up in Louisiana down in oh gosh, where did we play down in Shreveport and where David Toms is from and good buddy David Toms lives down there. And Sam Burns, his dad and his brother were college football players.

They played football at a high level. Their mom loved the Friday night lights, the football and, and Sam decided in eighth grade, uh, Hey mom, I'm going to stick with golf. I don't want to play football anymore. And she's devastated. And he felt bad and said, well, mom, you know, maybe I can get one more, you know, maybe I'll play one more year. And she's like, yeah, what, what, how do we make that up? And she, and he says, well, build me a putting green in the backyard and help play football.

My freshman year in high school. And she goes deal. And then, so he plays and then he says to mom, mom, where's the putting green what's up? And she goes to her husband and says, look, I made this deal with Sam. We got to do it.

And he's like, I can't afford a putting green in the long, long and short of it is they, but they put a, um, a putting green in the backyard, you know, Pearl, that's going to wrap up. That is going to wrap up the, uh, on the range segment, but I want to do our, our tip of the cap segment. And it's just terrific. The tip of the cap it's brought to you by the Dean team of Kirkwood, Pearl, Colin and Brandy helped you get your, your new truck. Um, they're terrific folks. 3 1 4 9 6 6 0 3 0 3 this week, tip of the cap, Jack and Barbara Nicholas, they opened up.

I mean, I don't know where you start with these two with between children's hospitals, millions and millions of dollars they have raised for all sorts of different charities. But last week we had the grand opening. We're going to cover this later in the show of American dunes. We talked about that when we had our buddy Noonan, um, Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rooney on the show and they opened up American dunes in new Haven, Michigan, and Jack and Barbara were up there. They had these cool memorials to the fallen heroes and to just our heroes in general, he's coming into St. Louis to support the Ascension charity classic and the champions tour.

And I mean, just, it's just unbelievable to have him on our side. So tip of the cap goes out to Jack and Barbara Nicholas, the whole Nicholas team, the whole Nicholas brand for supporting golf, growing the game. And the tip of the cap is brought to you by our buddy, uh, Colin burnt out at the Dean team of Kirkwood 3 1 4 9 6 6 0 3 0 3 call Colin today.

All right, don't go anywhere. We're going to come back on the front nine with the interview with Tom Lehman this golf with Jay Delson. Hello friends.

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Welcome back. This is golf with Jay Delcey. I'm your host, Jay.

We've got Pearly with me. Brad Barnes is taking great care of us here at the ESPN studios. We're headed to the front nine, and it's brought to you by the Ascension Charity Classic. And I just, this weather is getting good.

We can get out and practice and work on our games. And in September 6th through 12th, Ascension, it's going to be hosting this fantastic event at Norwood Hills, and we're going to have the best field of the year on the Champions Tour. And I just can't wait.

We're, so much good stuff going on. Man, just... Are you ready? Are you ready? Is your game going to be ready, Mr. Delcey? Yeah.

Yeah. We just got to make sure your caddy game is up to par. We're going to be just fine. Don't deflect. The caddy game will be there.

Oh, we're deflected. I don't have the foggiest idea, but I'm going to play like, I'm going to be, I'm going to be so excited. I don't know, that first tee shot pro in front of all my friends and stuff, it's just going to be just so special. Just great. Absolutely. Absolutely. The whole, the whole time is going to be special and come hell or high water or whatever the results are, we're going to enjoy the heck out of it. It's going to be a great, a great celebration the whole week. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Well, we've got an interview with Tom Lehmann. So let this five time PGA tour champion, as well as a winner of the open championship. He's also an ambassador for the Ascension charity classics.

So Ascension hired him not too long ago to come on board and just to help make the event better. So let's go right to that. The first half of that interview with Tom Lehmann And the champion golfer for the year with a score of 271, Tom Lehmann Tom Lehmann is brought to you by Golden Tee I have the pleasure of sitting down with a long time buddy, major champion, Tom Lehmann. Tom, good morning. Hey Jay, it's great to be with you and it's great to hear your voice.

You as well. My man, when I was doing a little bit of the prep for this, I thought, besides being incredibly old, we have known each other since like 1983. Oh my gosh. Well, you nailed it.

We are getting up there. We're a little bit more long in the tooth than we'd like to think that we were, but we have been friends for a long time and we kind of go back to that same vintage of, of amateur and college golf, you know, where we were out every week, toiling away, trying to, you know, dream the big dream and, you know, chase our, our big visions and everything. And so it's fun to still be friends after all these years. Yeah, it's exactly right. And the fact that we could still remember some of those things is another terrific.

Well, maybe, maybe not right. Yeah, we've forgotten what we need to forget, I think, Tom. But gosh, I look over your career, man.

Let's just just reminisce a little bit that I want to talk about the Ascension Charity Classic, but what a phenomenal, you made it all the way to world number one. Tom, we all dreamed of that, but it's something that you, a box that you can check, really impressive. Yeah.

Yeah. I think of all the things in golf that I am most proud of, you know, because we've all done things that we're really proud of. And, you know, we, we all have an idea of what our tap end is, you know, how good can I possibly be? I think that's really the key question that we all just need to figure out at some point. Now, how good can I really be?

What's what is, what is my top end? And, you know, I actually did believe that, you know, in my 30s, that I could get to number one in the world. And I would look around myself and I would see guys who are great players and think, well, you know, I can do that. You know, I can I do I can do that. And that was the goal.

The goal was to get to number one. And so all the things that have come my way over the years, that's the one thing that I'm the very most proud of. Well, and I know you're a huge family guy.

And that's a whole an entirely different subject that we'll talk about. But Tom, you won the British Open in 1996. Five tour events, 37 wins around the globe.

That is fantastic. You got Ryder Cup teams, we have a lot to talk about. But one of the things, Tom, that I didn't realize was that you had 19 runner up finishes between 1992 and 2006. You know, a 14 year span. That was a hell of a lot of good golf for a long time.

Yeah, yeah. You know, it is a lot of good golf and, you know, but I think, you know, at the end of the day, when you look back on things you you, you know, like I remember one time when I was a rookie on the tour when I was 23 years old way back today, and I missed a whole bunch of cuts by one shot. And David Ogan made a comment to me like, Hey, there's a reason for that.

That doesn't happen by accident. And so it kind of really got me thinking way back then about, hey, you know what there is, there's a reason for every result that you get good or bad. And, you know, I look at 19 runner ups and I think that it is a lot of good golf, but there's also a reason for that.

You know, I weren't some of those victories. It comes down to the fact that to be a really, I think, to be a superstar on the PGA Tour, you have to be a great putter. You can't be a good putter. I would always consider myself to be a good putter, sometimes a great putter. But the guys who are truly the great of the great, they're great putters all the time.

And I think that's really what separates those who win a lot from those who win some. And, you know, I chased all over the world to play and I won a bunch of tournaments, obviously, but but, you know, I was never what I would consider to be a great putter. And, you know, if I was a great putter, a lot of those 19 runner ups would have been victories. And that's just kind of the way it is, you know, you say you have to kind of be honest with yourself and look at it and see, you know, and I worked really hard on my putting to try to become a great putter. And I only got to be great once in a while, which is disappointing. You know, Tom, I can remember a span of maybe three or four years where you had the lead in the US Open.

I know that was so dear to your heart to be the national champion. And I just alluded you almost every single time and it seemed to come down with a, like you said, a putt that lived out here or there that you you may not have hit it the way you wanted to. Yeah, there's a couple where I played really well. You know, I played really well at congressional I played really well at Oakland Hills, and, you know, just to kind of let those get away, you know, and they know, I would say that there was one in particular at Oakland Hills where I probably played about as well as I could possibly play and just everything seemed to just not work. And Sunday, I shot 71 on Sunday or maybe 78 is one of the other I played really well.

They know and just every bounce went the wrong way. Every putt lived out, you know, every, you know, approach, I took a bigger bounce than you thought or I stopped dead when I should have bounced and they just all the things that, you know, kind of make that difference. And, you know, you end up walking away from that one and you say, well, you know, that's the best I could have played. I could have hit one shot at one point any time. It just wasn't my day. Then there's others like a congressional where, you know, you get impatient where you have victory in your sights.

I remember birding the 15th hole on Sunday to go into a tie for the lead and hit a perfect drive on 16 and had a back right pin on and I was hitting it so beautifully and I got really aggressive trying to reach that pin and to make another birdie and I just hung it a hair right into the edge of the heavy rough with an impossible lie and made a bogey to go one behind and two to play and, you know, tough finishing holes and so you kind of learn the lessons along the way but you're right, not winning at least one of those opens was a big, big disappointment. You know, Tom, first of all, to be able to contend major championships says a lot about your grit and a lot about your game, but talk a little bit about getting punched in the nose and the way this game does it and the resiliency that it has. Well, it does. It knocks you down way more than you're standing on top of the podium. So it's, you know, really how capable are you of getting back up again and taking another punch? You know, I think you end up learning that you have to punch back. You have to punch back really hard and I think that's, you know, that's kind of where I ended up would be. Okay, you know what? I may be knocked down this week, but I'm going to go throw a punch as hard as I can next week and see if I can get it back and so it's that, you know, you never give up. You never, ever give in to disappointment. You know, maybe it lingers for a while and it hangs in there for a while where you're just really upset, unhappy about the result, but then the, you know, I'm going to go punch somebody really hard takes over and you go back out and you get after it again and I think that's the essence of sports is, you know, it's punch and counter punch, you know, hit me hard, I'm going to hit you harder and how well can you do that?

How well can you get up off the mat and throw another haymaker? And then, Tom, how indicative and what a great life lesson for us as dads that give a damn about our kids and trying to be good dads to be able to relay this to the girls and the boys, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

It doesn't matter whether you're a girl or a boy. It's, you know, the disappointments that you run across, you know, you know, like I have a son who's a senior in high school and the disappointments he's had to face over the last year and a half, not only with COVID and this pandemic and really messing up his last year and a half of high school, you know, but finally getting to play a football season and blowing out his knee, you know, he wanted to play college football. He had offers to play college football. Just totally, you know, ACL, MCL, meniscus, the whole nine yards just destroyed his left knee and so he's now going to go play golf in college, not football, but, you know, to face that disappointment was exactly that. It's like, how do you face that? You know, how do you move forward, you know, when your biggest dream of all dreams has just been totally crushed, you know, and that's the lesson. That's the lesson is that we all face it. I think it really helped him, you know, I think through the last year and a half and everything to see there's so many other people in this world who have it way worse. You know, the people have had these amazingly huge success stories and the things they had to overcome and that's what kind of makes you think, well, hey, if they can do it, I can do it. And sometimes they listen to dad about that.

Sometimes they don't. But the message eventually gets through that you can't quit. You can never quit. All right, that's going to wrap up the Front Nine, but don't go anywhere. We'll wrap up the Tom Lehmann interview on the Back Nine. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. Hey everybody, it's Vince Gill.

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Get the protection and the peace of mind you deserve. Don't miss the hottest rookie class in PGA Tour Champions history. Stars like Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Jim Furyk and more compete at Norwood Hills Country Club September 6th through the 12th. Join legends Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Hale Irwin to celebrate the PGA Tour Champions newest event. Professional golf returning to St. Louis in 2021. The Ascension Charity Classic presented by Emerson. Tickets, clubhouse passes, hospitality suites, pro-am foursomes on sale now.

Visit ascensioncharityclassic.com. I am with my buddy Joe Scissor 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.

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Visit home.goldent.com to learn more. We're halfway there. It's time for the back nine on golf with Jay Delsing. The back nine is brought to you by Fogelbach agency with farmers insurance. Welcome back this is golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host Jay. We are headed to the back nine.

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39314-398-0101. All right, Pearl, let's just go right back to the end of the second half of that Tom Lehman interview. 81 to the back edge against the wind. Just trust me on this one. Oh yeah, watch this. You got to trust him, John. Tom Lehman is brought to you by Golden Tee.

Tom, how does, talk a little bit about representing the United States. I know how important it was for you to play on the Ryder Cup teams. I know you were on four Ryder Cup teams and one as a captain, three President's Cup teams.

Talk a little bit about that experience and how that ranks in your career. That was another big goal that I had. I had set five goals and one of them was to be on the Ryder Cup team. I remember the year that there was a big thing about pay to play. Do we get paid to play in the Ryder Cup team? And my whole feeling was, hey, you know what? I would pay to play on the Ryder Cup team.

If it was up to me to write a check to be a part of that, I would do it. It's such a big deal. I always felt like making a Ryder Cup team was about the pinnacle of what you could achieve as a professional golfer. It really kind of sets you into a different level amongst your peers, what you're capable of achieving.

It takes a lot to make a Ryder Cup team. To me, I always loved it. I remember at Brookline, I was the first off on the singles on Sunday and Rudy Gatlin grabbed an American flag and led the crowd into acapella Star Spangled Banner on the first tee.

That's the kind of stuff that I love. The emotion of the crowd, the emotion of the day, the patriotism, the nationalistic pride, the cheering. Even the Europeans singing their songs and all that they do is such a big part of what makes the Ryder Cup special. Right.

It's so true. Tom, let's transition a little bit to you and I are both ambassadors for the Ascension Charity Classic. St. Louis is getting a Senior Champions Tour event this year.

Unfortunately, the whole thing got kind of pushed back a year because of COVID. This Ascension group is a community rock star here in town. To bring you on, Billy Andre is on, Jay Williamson and myself kind of local here and then Hale Irwin. It shows a lot about how much they care and what this event is going to be like.

Exactly right. I think the thing that all of us, you and I have been tour members for so long and all the other people who played the tour, one of the things that we could be most proud of is the giving back component of professional golf. You need to have a local organization, a local leadership who sees a vision for their community and gets behind that to make it all happen.

In Phoenix, we have the Thunderbirds. They are the organization that puts it all together and raises the money and gives it all the great charities that need it. Well, Ascension in St. Louis is that organization.

It is that group of men and leaders who have seen that vision and see what they can do for the community. I think anybody who plays golf for a living understands the importance of the giving back component. There is no doubt that it's factual that the PGA Tour, Champions Tour, they give more to charity than all the other professional sports combined, which is something that I'm super proud of and which is really why I'm so excited to be a part of the Ascension group in the St. Louis community doing the things that are going to be done, which is going to support the community in such a big way. That's a big deal.

Tom, I feel the same way. I mean, I didn't have a huge part in it, but I did my share and I'm so proud of that and I almost wish that the PGA Tour would advertise that a little more. Well, they ought to. I know that they try to do that, but maybe they feel, who knows what they feel?

All I know is this, is that I know it, you know it, a lot of people know it. You know, I basically make that part of my message whenever I talk about my pride in being a part of the PGA Tour, you know, and it's a really significant, significant thing. And I think what it's done over the years is it's actually also become a model, you know, in the young golf pros that come up and they take part, they join the tour and then they realize what a big deal charity is and they become personally still involved in their own communities with philanthropy and giving back. And so it's not just the tour, but it's the individual golfers who make up the tour who do their own things and, you know, so when you combine, I think all of the things that you do that, you know, Jim Furyk does, that Steve Stricker does, that Tiger Woods does, you combine all the individuals put that on top of what the tour does and the number is just absolutely staggering. It really speaks to our game, doesn't it, Tom?

You know, when you, I've had a lot of ex-athletes here on this show. I just had Wayne Gretzky on a couple of weeks ago and they talk about golf, the charitable engine that it possesses. It's a societal powerhouse. I mean, it's unlike anything else we got.

I feel so lucky that this game bit me when I was a young teenager and it still hasn't let go. No, you're right. And it even goes beyond that. You know, I would say it even goes beyond that into our, our, our sport is built upon personal responsibility, accountability, integrity. You know, we call penalties on ourselves when the ball moves on the green.

You know, when we lift the twig and the ball moves in the edge of the rough. I mean, that's kind of who we are as a sport. That's who we are as competitors is, is, you know, integrity is such a big part of what we do. And, and I therefore believe that the PGA Tour, you know, has the ability to kind of demand the same kind of integrity from local leaders, from national leaders. And like, this is the way we play the game. You know, we, we expect you to play the game the same way. And I think that kind of statement can only be made when you have integrity in your side when you actually, this is who you are and what you do. And I do believe that, you know, we have the power, you know, locally and nationally to kind of say, let's all play the game this way.

It's just, this makes way more sense. Yeah, absolutely, Tom. And it's been nice to see the PGA Tour kind of lead the way through this COVID experience where we're getting things done. We're still competing. People are staying healthy and we're still providing things for the community and for the sport fan.

Yeah, absolutely. We're, we have a lot to be proud of us for certain. So Tom, talk just a little bit as we wrap this up. This is golf with Jay Delsing.

I'm visiting with major champion Tom Lehmann, good buddy, Midwestern guy, great family man. Tom, talk a little bit about the modern game. When I watched the number of players that are playing and competing in the Corn Fairy Tour and the way that golf has just elevated, I have no idea if I was a young guy today, if I could even make it on tour. Well, certainly the way we were raised to play would not be conducive to making it on tour today. You know, it's a whole different ball game, a whole different way of hitting the golf ball, the way of swinging, training. I mean, these kids train, they train really hard, you know, to create speed. It's all about speed and, you know, about hitting that ball hard.

And you know, the power game today is remarkable. And I just played golf and a little thing with my son on Monday, Thomas, who just turned pro about a year ago. And he and I played the O'Meara's in a father's day match to be taped and then shown on father's day. And there was one hole where I hit a two 95, just busted one. And I was 85 yards behind him.

So that's the nature of today's game is, is, is power. And if you and I would be born, you know, 15 or 18 years ago, we'd be in the same boat. You know, you had plenty of power, you had plenty of athleticism, you know, it's, I always say it'd be remarkable how far you would hit it. J delsing the way that you're, you know, being as athletic as you are, and as big as you are in the long arms and the long body. I mean, you'd be hitting at 370 today, if you were to have grown up in that kind of golfing environment.

So just the nature of the game today. And it's really fun on the one hand, but it certainly has has taken the professional golf so far beyond what the average guy can envision for himself that it's, it's a, it's remarkable that way. It's true, Tom. The average guy can't relate to that. I tell my friends, watch the LPGA tour. You're going to pick up so much more from those guys.

You're going to be able to relate to that. Yeah. Like that comment, but it's really true. Well, that LPGA, I tell you what they, but they've stepped it up. They are remarkable players.

I'm so impressed by that. Those gals can really, they can really play the game of golf. I mean, they roll their rock and they, they hit it straight. They have some power.

They do it right. Well done. Well, Tom, just, I just want to thank you for spending some time. I know you're down in Houston. Good luck at Inspirity this week. Give us a little update on your game.

Let us give us some that we can root for this week. Well, you know, my game is, is kind of the same. It's always been, it's I still hit it pretty well. My putting is a little erratic. The weeks that I putt well, I do well. The weeks that I putt poorly, I finished 30th.

So it's just kind of nature. I'm driving the ball extremely well. I'm for the most part happy with where I'm at, but you know, say at age 62, 12 years older than these guys are coming out at age 50. It's just a, you know, that the distance factor is, is, is really become an issue trying to compete with the repeat Goosens of the world are hit 50 and 60 yards further than me. When Phil comes out, you know, he's 50 yards ahead of me. You know, but there's still, there's still hope, you know, you see Stricker who's hits it pretty far still, but he's, you know, I can't get it within 10 or 15 of him and he's still winning a lot.

So, you know, once again, it's all about that flat stick. So the people need to kind of keep their fingers crossed for guys like me, who just need a little bit of help on the greens. And you know, those competitive juices, I can hear it in your voice are still flowing. Well, I still like to, you know, the preparation part of golf. I do, I think, when I think about the idea of being a professional golfer, the preparation is such a big part of it. Just I enjoy thinking ahead to something that I'm looking forward to and working hard to be ready.

I mean, that's all still something I enjoy. And I think that's the one thing when I ever never I lose that then is this time to quit. Tom, thanks so much for your time. Best of luck in Houston this week.

And we can't wait to see in St. Louis in September. Yeah, yeah. Me too, Jay. I appreciate it. And thanks. Thanks for having me on.

It's so good to talk to you. Okay, so Pearl, one of the things that it was, as I was doing this interview to think back about how long I've known, Tom, when I started thinking about watching him struggle, you know, he's the only guy to be player of the year on the developmental tour, the Nike nationwide, whatever, the corn ferry now, the PGA tour, the chat and the champions tour. That's pretty damn cool. Some serious longevity there.

It's absolutely cool. And with the bringing a unique swing really to the game, Jay, not too many guys to go out and copy what Tom Lehman does. No, that's right. And he was a power hooker, power drawer, the ball hit a lot of, lot of great shots. Gosh, Pearl, I can remember and I brought this up to him so close at the US Open, which was absolutely would have been just a jewel and a crown of a really great career that he just couldn't close the door on.

Well, a couple times, right? Which one are you referring to? The one that he lost to Ernie Els at congressional, if you recall. He was right there in Oakland Hills, I believe. And Steve Jones, that's when he said he couldn't possibly have played better. I think it was, I don't remember the year, maybe 97, but we're close. It was somewhere in that ballpark. But yeah, it was pretty impressive when he said, I couldn't have played better. I didn't get it.

I got a few funky bounces. I got a couple of this's and that's and, and everything would perfectly right for Steve Jones to win. Yeah, I remember that a little bit.

I actually was working that out on the golf course for whoever it was at an NBC deal, I guess, NBC. And I can remember them coming down the stretch and walking off the golf course thinking, how did Tom Lehman not win? I can, I can very vividly remember that. Could he hit a fade, Jay? Not really, but he could pretty much hit a straight ball. So I'm going to tell you something I did watch him in the face. Cause I didn't think he could either. I was at Valderrama at the 12th hole.

I believe during the rider cup, I had, I had his group. It was a very difficult sideways, funky hole. And the really only way that you could, the green would receive it was a hook lie, but you had to hit a cut and I'm thinking, what is he going to do here?

He has no chance. This is going to be a hook on top of the hook. He stands up there and hits a rocket and it cuts, I don't know, four or five yards and just the beauty about 15 feet up there. And I'm thinking, Oh my gosh, I didn't know that was in the bag. It was awesome.

Yeah, that's true. Well, that's good to wrap up the back nine, but, but come back for the Michelob ultra 19th hole. Pearly and I'll have a little more breakdown of the Tom Lehman conversation and then we got some other smack to talk about.

Don't miss it. This is golf with Jay Delsing. This is Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals and you're talking to Jay Delsing and wait, what's the name of the show? Golf with Jay Delsing.

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We know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. We are farmers. I want to tell you about Dean team Volkswagen of Kirkwood. My friend Colin Burt runs the store over there and he helped me buy a used Volkswagen for my daughter Joe when she turned 16. We've had the car for over a year. It's running great. It's nice and safe and we've taken it there to get it serviced just recently. Pearly that does the show with me just bought a nice Toyota truck from Colin. So I want you to know that if there's any sort of vehicle you need anything at all, you can get it at the Dean team Volkswagen of Kirkwood. You can call them at 314-966-0303 or visit them at Dean team VW Kirkwood.com.

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 Michelobultra.

Welcome back. This is golf with Jay Delsing. Pearly is with me. Brad Barnes is taking care of us here at the ESPN studios.

We're headed to the Michelobultra 19th hole. Man, got my ultra right here. Little seltzer today.

Pearl going for a little, you know, ultra seltzer. Pretty damn good. I think they might. I think they might have something here. I don't know what you think. They got something.

All right. So let's before we move on, let's talk a little more about Tom Lehmann. I thought one of the things that really stood out in my mind was his story about his son, a football player, obviously a very severe knee injury, and now making a transition and headed over to play college golf. Pretty impressive.

Yeah. There's so much to that story, Jay, isn't there? I mean, at that age to be able to kind of lose what your dream was and then to have to transition, probably at the end of the day, right at the end of the next 40 years in that young man's life might turn out to be one of the cooler things going on that he may, he's going to make this transition. And Tom made it sound like the kid can already play a little bit. I liked what he said that he said at about 60, 70 yards past Tom, Tom's not short.

No, Tom is not short. And I've experienced that with some of the guys that you're training, from the year young guns, where I'm all I'm very accepting of people not going to 15, 20, 25 past me. But those guys are hitting it 50, 60, 70 past me and not batting an eye. That's disappointing. It's disappointing for me, exciting for them, I guess.

I don't know. Actually, I've learned they don't spend any time on it because they just don't give a damn and they think that this is the way it should be. And you and I are over there with our our feelings hurt. But yeah, you know what, John?

Gosh, we don't get too deep on this show about anything really. But the life lesson there is, is I think what you're referring to with Tom's son, and how life in the universe and fate, whatever you want to call it has ways of throwing you massive curveballs that are can seem so devastating. And you know, there's a kid that's got a out, if you will, there's got to be college golf, which is a which is pretty, pretty fortunate and pretty, pretty interesting to see how it's all going to turn out.

Well, I think it is absolutely awesome. I want to mention one more thing that I basically remember and this might be a little bit more lower than fact, but there's some some to this and it goes with our conversation earlier about guys that were quote, jokers. I'm pretty sure that Tom's career came down to I believe an 8-iron at the last hole at PGA West going through some tour qualifying to where if he didn't make it, he was good dog. He was hanging it up and he rips an 8-iron in there and I believe makes a birdie and kind of moves on gets his card and kind of moves on from that, you know, as his son is going to realize going through that injury and having to change things, you know, we've got to change we have to adapt. We have to hang in there.

We have to keep trying to do things all the time. And yeah, right. We don't talk maybe enough about that on this show, but whether it's staying in there and getting to go from Nick Foldo to Sir Nick and be knighted type of stuff so much of life is hanging in there and I'm sure that I believe his name is Thomas. I believe Thomas will hang in there and who knows if we get to see him on the big stage going forward. I think Thomas is the older son.

I think Sean is the younger boy. So but was I close with that was it's a layman. It's a layman. You got it. You got it. What's it? Who cares? You know, what did I what was I thinking? Yeah.

I don't know. I know. I know. I know.

I don't know what happened to me. All right, so let's move on. I want to talk a little bit about the grand opening in American Dudes. Okay. Yeah, so I got I got a bunch of pics sent by Newton Rooney and just a spectacular place.

Jack and Barbara Nicholas were there for the grand opening. You've got to go to YouTube. You've got to go check out go to Folds of Honor site. It's all over there. It's really really awesome. But the quote that stuck out in my mind was Jack Nicklaus with his little Golden Bear hat on that's red, white and blue insignia of the Golden Bear on there. And he said, Man, do I love golf, but it pales to him to how much love I have for my country. And this golf course is spectacular for me to be able to help and know that I'm helping our fallen heroes, some of our wounded heroes and the the entire cause.

And I guess by by checking out the pictures, what they did to this golf course is just a renovation that is spectacular. Well, all from a goat, Jack Nicklaus, a goat of a of a statement, just just makes a lump in my throat just chokes me up. I read it. I just listened to you say it.

I read it multiple times. It's it's the perfect thing. By the way, from a marketing standpoint, that's the perfect quote.

From a logo standpoint, the whole imaging behind that. They got the guy in the Dan Rooney from from the jet jet pilot visuals in the background. Just I cannot wait to go. I cannot wait. I got a buddy that's made a tee time up there.

I'm not even gonna remember the date right now. I still want to go up there. Yeah, I want to go I want to go as well.

It would be a lot of fun. There might be a fishing pole in the in the Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, there will be a fishing pole. Yeah, there will be a fishing pole.

Yeah. So, um, Dan reached out and wants to come back on the show and talk a little bit about the Patriot Golf Day. So we're going to get him back on the show here in a little bit and, and talk about how folks can be involved in and support the Patriot Golf Day. But yeah, I just didn't want that whole the American Dunes thing to go by without without, you know, giving it a little plug. Jay, that's a place you got to take one in some of your groups.

I mean, when you're out there doing your your entertainment type of a thing. What a what a great place there. That's a cool part of the country. It's a beautiful part of the country. And they I'll tell you the images that I'm seeing online of that golf course makes me want to be there tomorrow. Just really cool looking place.

Yeah, no doubt about it. Plus, I mean, what can it be a better feel good story to take, you know, go spend some money there at a place where you know that it's benefiting folks that have served our country and that, you know, basically have allowed you and I to go chase a ball and you build a business and sell a business and all these other things because these guys are, you know, taking care of our freedom. I love the you know, that that that it gets used a lot but you know, freedom isn't free, you know, and those people have paid some some ultimate prices and it's just yeah, it's a cool thing. Well, and all the things that jack and barbara nicholas has seen and done and accomplished for them to get extra inspired by something says that there's there's a special touch to this place.

There's a special theme behind this whole thing that even moves them which is pretty cool. Well, now I can't you know, I know I'm, I'm paid by ascension, but I can't tell you how cool it is that ascension is bringing jack in here. I just think, you know, he's a treasure, and he's not going to be along forever. He had a funny statement the other day that he said, you know, my entire life, I had all of these, you know, CEOs and all of these people anywhere I went said, man, I wish I could play golf like you and jack said you can now he's 80 years old. He goes, he goes, I'm hitting my drive so short I can hear it land. I just thought that was great. And he said, you know, all those years ago people said that to me and I'm like, he said, it was like, Damn, now they can play like I do because I guess he just doesn't, you know, it doesn't play well anymore.

But just the fact that he's coming to St. Louis, he's supporting ascension and supporting the North County charities evolved with ascension and, and having ascension do that, you know, go out and get, you know, the greatest of all time to come in and, and put on a nine hole exhibition and play with another Hall of Famer and, and, and Tom Watson just spectacular just you know, it's it. I really feel like Pearly this community is not going to fully appreciate what happens there until we get until we we kind of have the first year in our rearview mirror. Well, that's okay. But that's okay. And your build up and your excitement. I can hear you.

I can hear you with it. I think it's super exciting. I think there's so many cool things. But Jay, even those great things, you got to have some years under you for people to start appreciating things. But with what's going on and what they're doing to make this kickstart a great kickstart a great starting point. Man, they're doing everything. Yeah, and I've been fortunate to be behind the scenes a little bit, Nick, we're going Steve Spratt what they're doing, and you know, they're, they're going the extra mile. The other thing that I need to mention, you know, St. Louis has had a major golf tournament show 2018, the 100th anniversary of the PGA Championship all really, really spectacular. But there's a component that's been missing in those events, Pearl, and it's the pro am portion in the opportunity and on the champions tour to be able to go play with john Daly or to be able to caddy and have you caddy in their group, Pearl that could make somebody's day. You know, there's a lot.

Thank you. You're welcome to talk to that. But there's there's the opportunities to play with those guys is a life long experience that for the golfer, they're, they're not going to appreciate what it's like until they experienced it. And I think that is truly what separates golf from all the other sports, Pearl, and that's why it's so popular with CEOs.

That's why folks get involved and raise money with it because of some of these experiences. It will do it. And join us next week. I've got to sit down with Craig can. He's one of the originals from the Golf Channel. He's written a book. He went to Mizzou just a really fun interview. So this is golf with Jay delsing.

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