Golf With Jay Delsing - - Steve Stricker

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. And me, this is so weird. I look across and the chair is occupied next to me. I couldn't figure out who it was when you guys walked in today.

How did he find the building? Pearly, where have you been, man? You know where I've been and I needed to come back. You guys were kind of losing your mojo. I had to bring back the energy and the clarity and the pace.

Sounds like we weren't the ones that lost our mojo when you were gone. We formatted a 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. Call them at 866-341-9255. If you need coverage for your vehicle, they've got it for you.

They're really great people over there. Check out our social media outlets. Twitter is at Jay Delsing, Facebook is Golf with Jay Delsing and Jay Delsing Golf Hospitality. LinkedIn is Jay Delsing and Instagram is not named and our followers just keep on growing.

So yeah, nobody knows of Instagram and very few care. I want to thank Bob and Kathy Donahue, Donahue Painting and Refinishing for supporting the show. If you need a refreshing of your house, if you need any work done on the inside or the outside, call Bob and Kathy at 314-805-2132. Alright, Pearl, welcome back. I'm glad to be back.

Thanks for the warm welcome. I appreciate that guys. Alright, so we've got a leading edge segment with an old buddy of mine, Mark Rivard. He created this putting template that we both just absolutely love. So we're going to talk a little bit about that.

But I'm really excited about our conversation with Strix. Steve Stricker, 12-time winner on the PGA Tour, current Ryder Cup captain. He's been a President's Cup participant and captain as well as a Ryder Cup. Just a great dude. Midwestern guy, Wisconsin. You can hear it in his voice.

It's a fun interview. Before he was real popular, I remember when I was catering for you in Milwaukee and the fans were calling him Striker. He's a hometown boy.

Get his name right, for crying out loud. What a good guy. He's been a good guy from the beginning, hasn't he?

Absolutely. When I saw him, he almost won the Canadian Open and we talked about that in the interview. So I just went up to him and said, hey man, you went to the University of Illinois. Coach Small's a good buddy of mine, you know, Midwestern guy. He turned out a lot of good players. Mike Small knows what he's doing.

Yeah, he does. It'll be fun. Alright, so we've got to talk a little bit about Tiger. First of all, when we were at UCLA or UCLA days, your folks lived in Palos Verdes. We hung around there. We've been on that road, that particular stretch of road. I told someone hundreds of times. And we never had a problem.

No. Listen, I'm so pumped that he sounds like he's going to be, quote, okay. And that he walked away from that. And hopefully he even gets to play golf. But it sounds like he's going to someday.

But it sounds like he's going to be able to walk and play with his kids. And I think that's what matters. And all the speculation on what happened, didn't happen, et cetera, I think is for another day. Let's just be pumped that he's still there. And it was so cool to see, for the most part, people honor him in the tournaments and wanted him to get well. That's what I think this is about. Let's quit all this other conjecture.

We're going to talk about the honoring in just a second. But Pearl, I think about the tragedy Kobe Bryant had. And Tiger, which is interesting, Pearl, because we both know those areas. And Calabasas and Palos Verdes are so similar terrain-wise.

But Calabasas is remote as hell. And if Tiger needed to be, he could have been in the hospital in five minutes from there. So a lot of things went his way. A lot of well wishes.

A lot of prayers. And get well going his way for sure. It reminds us every day that we don't know how much time is left. And so live every day to the most. So don't screw this show up, Pearl.

Let's go. What I think Tiger does is live it to the most anyways. Sometimes it weighs that maybe he's proud of and sometimes he's not.

And same with Kobe. I respect the guys out there living it. We got to live it. Yeah, no doubt. Okay, so let's talk a little bit, Jon, about the way that the tour players honored him.

So this is really cool. I have a feeling JT was behind this. Justin Thomas was behind this because he's become so close to Tiger and was really upset when he heard what was going on there. And so what all the players did, Pearl, was wear the red shirts and the black pants. And I saw four Scotty Sheffler look like he had... He was the last guy in the golf shop, you know, to get a shirt. It looked like he was wearing something between a Triple X and a Moo Moo. Plus, they didn't have some kind of a funky pattern on it a little bit too.

I loved it. I mean, that's dedication because those guys are normally put together pretty well out there. Right. So Phil Mickelson had a chance. Wasn't playing at the regular tour at the Workday World Golf Championship. He was playing down in Tucson. And, you know, he went to Arizona State. He was a Sun Devil.

Okay? He goes down to Tucson. He gets the memo. He's like, okay, first of all, Phil does not own a red shirt. No red shirt. I can see that.

So it goes out. Second of all, he's in Tucson, Pearl, home of U of A. He says, any shirt I can find has a gigantic A on it. And he goes, I can't do that. So he's trying to figure out how in the hell I'm going to pull this off. So he said he bought a U of A shirt and kept a sweater on all day and said, I'm never taking this thing off because I can't do this. And he's like, Tiger, I hope you understand, you know, what I went through to make this work for you.

But, you know, Jen, that's something that's really hard to imagine happening back in my day. That's sort of, that's sort of, you know, guys having fun. It's different. It's really a, and I think it speaks for where Tigers come and how he's moved off of that initial person and player that he was.

And where the tours come. Because I'm not saying you guys rooted against each other. Although you did. You don't have to say it. But this group, they're competitive as hell.

But it's different. How many times did Curtis Strange wait for... Taylor when the car was done. Yeah, not a chance. He's down the road so far.

Oh yeah, not happening. That's so funny. I'm sure those guys. Did I ever tell you the story about what Lanny Watkins said to Steve Pate and I when we were sitting in the clubhouse bar in the locker room at Greensboro? Our rookie year. And you know how we are.

We're commiserating and I had just joined Pater and he was in the bag already. And he was telling me about the double bogeys he made and how he threw his wedge and all this other stuff. And I was getting ready to start into, you know, about all my miseries and Lanny Watkins walks by. And he goes, hey. And we turn around like, what?

What do you want? And he goes, you guys rookies? And I said, yeah, we're rookies. And he goes, let me explain something to you. Half the guys out here don't care.

And the other half wish it was twice as bad. Now why don't you go ahead and then there was a couple of them. Fun little tidbits headed back there. And then he walks away. And I look at Pater and I go, can he kick us out of the bar?

We did not leave. But that's kind of the mentality. It was different back then. But anyway, it was pretty cool stuff to see the tour do that. And by the way, Colin Morikawa is stepping up into some really tall cotton territory with the way he's playing.

He played so solidly that Sunday. And how about the way he thanked Tiger in his post-round interview? I don't know if you saw that. No, unfortunately I missed it.

But I heard people talking about it, how awesome it was. Dude, he just said, hey Tiger, we don't do this very often enough. And thank you. Right in the middle of his interview.

It was very cool. It came off incredibly genuinely. That young man gets it. He gets it across the board, doesn't he?

His dispersion rate. That means how far off line his six... I know what that meant. Did you say that for Meets? Yeah, that was for Meets. Sorry Meets.

I was looking up early. With a six iron is what the average tour player is with a pitching wedge. Yeah, he's tough. Well that's going to wrap up the On the Range segment.

Don't go anywhere though. We're going to have our interview with Steve Stricker. More on golf with Jay Delsing.

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Find them at VehicleAssurance.com or call them at 866-341-9255 for a free quote. Get the protection and the peace of mind you deserve. Grab your clubs. We're heading to the front nine on Golf with Jay Delsing. The front nine is brought to you by the Ascension Charity Classic.

And welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host Jay Perley. He's here in studio with us.

And Meet is taking great care of us at the ESPN Studios. We're going to the front nine. It's brought to you by the Ascension Charity Classic. This September, man, I got to tell you, John, what Ascension is doing and the corporate citizens that they're involving in this thing, it's going to be like nothing anyone's seen on the Champions Tour. It would be so fun if everything can kind of get pulled off the way you're talking about it.

Because what if it could be like the Scottsdale TPC version of the Senior Tour? Oh my gosh. Right. And I know you're not necessarily suggesting that crazy hold.

Maybe you are. Yes I am. But what they're talking about is taking this whole event to a different level that has not been seen on the Champions Tour. Whatever that is appropriate for this place, let's go do that. They're doing it.

They're absolutely doing it. Hey, I want to just do the quick tip of the cap segment. It's brought to you by the team of Kirkwood.

314-966-0303. It's kind of a weird tip of the cap, bro, but I'm giving it to the PGA of America for the ruling they made on the range finders. So it's a hot topic with the caddies.

I've talked to a bunch of them. Some think it's stupid. Some don't think it's important. I just like the progressiveness of it. Let's try something. Let's get out of the old stodginess. So that's the tip of the cap. I think it's going to be a good thing. And it's technology that we're using.

It's not going to hurt the game in my opinion. So that's our tip of the cap. It's brought to you by the team of Kirkwood. 314-966-0303. Colin Burt is my buddy. He's a great guy.

Just got my car registered today over there. He can take care of anything you need. All right, so we're going to strict.

Right to strict. I've already introduced him. 12-time PGA Tour winner, President's Cup player and captain, Ryder Cup player and current captain. Cheesehead. He's captaining the Ryder Cup with the Cheeseheads in his home state of Wisconsin. It's going to be great.

It's going to be exciting. All right, second for Stricker. 229 yards to the front edge for Steve. A little breeze in his face right now, but he hit it solid. And he gets a hot shot at the free. And now he's set up for an eagle finish.

Steve Stricker is brought to you by Golden Tee. So you're a Wisconsinite. My dad was from Wisconsin and you're sitting here struggling with the same cold, bitter, white stuff on the ground.

It's pretty brutal, isn't it? Yeah, it's we haven't been home for quite a while. We've been spending a lot of time down in Florida. So actually, it's been three months since we've been back. We didn't come back for Christmas because of the pandemic. And we really were trying to be careful with our parents and in-laws and, you know, just staying away. So we spent a lot of time down in Florida and we finally came back home to this beautiful sub-zero temperatures and about a foot and a half of snow on the ground.

So it's a shock to the system, that's for sure. But, you know, it's home for us and kids love being back. Nikki and I, you know, we can kind of, you know, obviously love to see our parents and grandparents and all that. But, you know, as we get older, that warmer weather tends to call our name out and we go that way nowadays.

But it's all good. It's nice to be back home for a few days. It's a for sure thing that the Stricters are the most tan people in the entire state of Wisconsin right now, right?

After coming back from Phoenix. Yeah, we, people look at us like, hey, where the heck have you been, you know, kind of thing. But yeah, it's, you know, it's always home though, you know, I mean, it's where we were born and raised, all of us. And like I said, our family, our parents are still alive, fortunately. And so we still have that great connection. And, you know, wherever you're born is home and we've spent all our lives here. And so it's always great to come back, even if it is below zero. But yeah, we're enjoying our time.

We're spending a lot of time indoors, working out, getting ready to go again. And then we'll go back on the road to play some more. Stric, you know, I just had Gary Woodland on the show about a month ago and, you know, Gary's from Topeka. And there's something about we Midwesterners, you know, we certainly don't live in this part of the country because of the weather. But the people are pretty special, at least to me, and I think to you, and it's made us heartier folks, hasn't it?

No doubt about it. You know, I've traveled all over the world and there's no people like the Midwestern people. Just hardworking, blue collar, friendly, go out of their way to do anything for you kind of people.

And, you know, it's just that connection that, and I grew up in a small town of like 4,000 people just south of Madison, a place called Edgerton, Wisconsin. And everybody knew your business and you knew everybody else's business, but it was a tight knit community. You know, a lot of friends and families that, you know, some of my friends and best friends still live there. So it's people that I enjoy being around and feel comfortable being around. And I don't get to see a lot of them very much anymore just because of my travel schedule, but still, and with the pandemic obviously, but still a very special place for us to come back to here. And yeah, we enjoy these types of people very much.

Yeah, it's so strict. Let's just talk a little bit about your career, man. I look over in prepping for this interview and you had 12 wins on the PGA Tour, five on the Champions Tour.

Now you've got a tournament in your hometown. You've played on three Ryder Cups. You're the 2021 captain of the Ryder Cup, which we'll talk about in a little bit.

You've been on what, five or six President's Cups. You've been the captain there, comeback player of the year. Man, what a phenomenal career, bud.

Over 40 million, $44 million in career money, Wisconsin Golf Hall of Fame, 28 worldwide wins. I mean, I can remember, Stric, when I first met you, I think you were playing on the Canadian tours in the early 90s. We were playing at Glen Abbey and you nearly won that tournament.

Yeah, you're right. That's a good memory, Jay. Yeah, I think it was 93 Canadian Open at Glen Abbey and I was still playing on the Canadian tour. And that tournament at Glen Abbey, I think I ended up finishing fourth maybe, kind of gave me the confidence to get through that tour school in the fall of 93 and then got through there. And my first year on tour was 1994 and played a bunch with you throughout the years. And I always enjoyed your company as well.

And it just kind of took off from there. Just like anybody, you have your ups and your downs along the way. And I probably learned a ton more from my down years and not playing well and kind of attribute my successes to those down years because you learn so much from those poor years and you learn from that.

You come up with a game plan to try to get better and what you're doing wrong and make those adjustments to improve. So it's been a great ride, I tell you that. I mean, I couldn't change anything if I wanted to. I think I'm very appreciative and blessed to be able to do what I do for a living and continue to do it for a living.

Knock on wood, my body's hanging on and trying to work out and keep my body in shape so I can continue to play the next 7 to 10 years. Strik, and most of the guests, I just look at how this game provides. I mean, it's just wonderful. You look at the other sports and they're terrific, but none of them can hold a candle to golf. And the way that it's provided for our families and the places it's taken us and the people that we've met, it's just a special, special. It's a privilege, really, to play on the PGA Tour.

It really is. And from day one, we were taught to give back. I mean, all the peers in front of us, you see what they do to give back to their communities and to help out these charities and to put on pro-ams to raise money or awareness for a special group or interest of years or whatever. But we were taught that from the very first time we set foot on the PGA Tour.

It's no different for me and you too. We all want to give back and help. It's something very unique to our game and something that seems to be passed on from generation to generation.

And it seems like every golfer that I talk to or you read about does something for some sort of charity or charitable work in their home community or town or whatever. But it's a unique game and one that's so lucky that we've been able to be a part of. And like you said, you meet so many neat people along the way.

It's quite a journey. Strick, in 2004, so you got off to a great start. In 94, you joined the PGA Tour. You won several times in the late 90s and the 2000s. But in 2004, at age 39, you lost your card. And I was amazed at, you know, sometimes when we get into ruts, there's been a lot of good players.

Ian Baker-Finches, the Chip Becks of the world that were great players. Sometimes you don't make it out. Yeah, I didn't have anything to blame, I guess. It was just a piss poor game, I guess.

I just got into some very bad habits. I wasn't playing very well. Didn't really have fun playing. I wasn't enjoying the game. Yeah, and I just really it started like even before that, you know, and I was kind of my short game and putting were kind of, you know, hanging on and are making my game seem somewhat okay.

And I was just a lot of smoke and mirrors because of the short game. And then really like, oh, three, four and five were just, you know, horrible years. And, you know, but I'm like, okay. Yeah, I had to really kind of a coming to Jesus moment. You know, what am I going to do? You know, am I either need to start working at it, you know, and do something different or, you know, do something else. And I came to the realization that there's really nothing I'm capable of doing besides golf. You know, I really I don't know what I do, you know, I mean golf has been in my blood since a little kid.

And so I'm like, well, I better go to work and and put the time and energy and effort into it and I worked in my father-in-law. We got on the same page and I actually took a little bit more ownership of what I wanted to do. You know, I knew what I was failing at when I was out on the golf course trying to hit a shot and I knew what was going through my mind and just tried to take a little bit more ownership tried to get my swing in a position where I felt more comfortable when I could hit a shot and then it was a progression. I started seeing some more positive things, you know, in practice rounds and then first on the range and then in practice rounds pro-ams and then a round or two, you know, in a tournament and and then just kind of progressed and then it took off, you know, my confidence level came back and felt like the club was in a great position. I understood what I was doing a lot more with my swing and I still do those same things today, which is which is really neat for me that I still continue to look back on that time in 2005 when I made that decision to get, you know, to work on my swing and try to get better. I still work on those same exact things today as I did back in 2005. So I really haven't changed much in my way of thinking on what I needed to do to get better. So I think that's where the consistency came in. I didn't really vary too much when when I did start to work on it and improve.

I just continued to do the same things and today is still the same thing. So it's been a great great ride. Love all that part of that and that he's involved with it. Now one thing I thought it was kind of cool.

I didn't know this appreciate you guys talked about it. So he's kind of breaking the mold of who's the Ryder Cup captain. Yeah.

No, that's right. I mean, he did not win a major and those sort of things. So for him to get this deal and there's some people behind the scenes aren't too happy with absolutely Pearl.

That's always a crapshoot when they make these decisions and who gets it and who doesn't did they have you seen anything of why he did get it? I mean, we know some reasons why but I think I think the the how well he did in the president's company just he's just a solid guy, you know, I like that because he did well there. He's got the experience and we want to win. Yeah, quit going by the legacy stuff. Whatever when we get these guys that all of a sudden don't do so.

Well as captain we want to win this darn thing and the captain has some influence how much influence does it have? Oh a ton. He's got a partner these guys up and you know, he's probably going to go to use the pod system like Aisinger and the guys have done to get the personalities that makes right and he probably has a good idea about that. Anyway, he's been around. He's a smart guy.

He said he listens way more than he talks and I respect that. I probably should try that. Not now. You're doing a radio show. Don't start that now. That's going to wrap up the back the front nine.

Sorry, but don't go anywhere. We'll finish up the Steve Stricker interview on the back nine. This is golf with Jay Delson. Hi, this is Bob Costas and you're listening to golf with Jay Delson. Hey, this is my buddy Joe Schiezer and he's with USA Mortgage. Good morning Jay. How you doing today?

Great Joe. Thanks so much for the support. We really enjoy it.

Thank you. We look forward to the show every Sunday morning. We love all the information and all the great tips and we all sit around the radio in the morning and love to listen to your show.

Like the good old days, isn't it? Yeah, I get the wife and the kids and the dog and we wait for Whackin' Chase to come on. It's our favorite part of the show. Which one are you? Are you whack or chase? Oh no, I'm whack because I'll hit it and then because Pearly's also a caddy, he's got to go chase it. He's the chaser.

Yeah, he's got the worst end of the stick. Well, we really enjoy it and thank you so much for having us on the show. 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.

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Again, that's the Fogelbach Agency at 314-398-0101. Everyone is looking for the extra edge and Jay Delsing is digging deep to find it. It's the leading edge on golf with Jay Delsing. I have the privilege of sitting down with my buddy Mark Rivard, the creator of the putting template. Mark, good morning.

Good morning. So Mark, tell us a little bit, give us a little bit about your background first, please. Well, I was started in golf at a young age and decided after getting out of the army and playing golf at the US Army, that I would turn pro.

And I got my class A in about 1978 or so and spent 30 years teaching golf. Man, that is fantastic. I know you have some great stories. So let's talk a little bit about your putting template. I absolutely love it. I'm sitting in my office right now. I've got one on the floor. I've got my Scotty Cameron putter next to it. Tell us a little bit about how you went about creating this thing. Well, it's kind of a long story.

It took about seven years to actually get it into production. But I was a terrible putter when I was young. And I got so mad and frustrated, I actually quit the game. And, of course, the bug kept bugging me or golf kept bugging me and I decided to start all over again. But this time I was going to learn how to putt first. So between about nineteen and fourteen years ago, I was playing golf. And between 1976 and 83 or 84, I just at every job I had, I did nothing but putt all the time, as much time as I could spend.

And you know how it drives you nuts after a while. But and so I just kept putting and became a pretty good putter. But I didn't really know why.

I was just all natural. And I was lucky enough over the years to run into Paul Runyon, who used to visit his friends at Silverado Country Club in Napa. And he came in the shop every day at about three o'clock and grabbed me and said, let's go play. Well, everyone who knows anything about golf knows Paul Runyon was the greatest short game instructor ever. And he told me he didn't really give lessons.

He just kind of talked to you about it. And he gave I took his suggestions and used his grip and taught myself how to putt with my my shoulders and so that I keep my hands out of it. The the putting template actually developed because I was playing mini tours in North Florida. And everybody knew that I was a good putter, especially on Bermuda Greens was nobody can put them. And yeah, I mean, there's a lot of fun.

I get a ball straight and it rolls sideways. But so true. So somebody this guy suggested that, you know, you should figure out how to sell that stroke. You could be rich.

Well, I wish he was right. But I did learn how to putt, but I didn't. It didn't make me rich. So I started working on the putting template in my hotel room with cardboard and a marking pen. And I would hit I wouldn't hit putts, but I would hit take strokes toward the mirror. And I was trying to get the putter to square up automatically by itself at impact without manipulating with my hands. And so I drew it out on cardboard. And that was about 1996.

And then 83 when I moved to Fresno, one of my students helped me get it put into plastic, and we started making them in about 2004. So Mark, I've seen this thing around, though, this version, and I think it's probably been swiped from you a couple of times by some of the bigger name teachers. But what I love about it is the template is very simple. And you can watch the path of your stroke. You can watch the club face of the putter. And like you said, it helps you return the putter to square naturally or normally. Yeah, hand manipulation putting I see guys who teach things like Oh, cup or what, turn your hand under to keep the fair square as you take it back. But with with the right grip and and the right setup and the hands in the right position at address, you can make it do that just by letting it follow your shoulders naturally. And that's what the putting template teaches you. Well, I know it's not expensive. Tell the folks how they can get get their hands on one of these things.

Well, I have a website called the putting template calm. And right now I've got three different versions out there. There's a mirror image. I think that's the one of the ones that you have.

I think you have all three. And then there's a clear one. And recently I just came out with a black I love that black one mark that black one's my favorite. It's real simple. I took all the scribbling off.

It's a couple of pros complain. There's too much writing on the damn thing. So I took that off. And I really like it myself to the black ones. Nice. But and I'm, I'm pricing them between $30 and $50.

And of course, the black ones are the black ones. And I'm, I'm pricing them between $30 and $50. And, of course, if somebody wants to buy a 10 or six or eight or 10, I can make adjustment for price with no problem at all. This is Mark Rivard, go to the putting template calm. And this is another version of the leading edge. 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 your buddy in online tournaments.

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Or you can also find them online at WilsonPoolsPlus.com. We're halfway there. It's time for the Back Nine on Golf with Jay Delcine. The Back Nine is brought to you by Fogelbach Agency with Farmers Insurance. This is Golf with Jay Delcine. Jay and John are here. Brad Barnes is taking good care of us at ESPN Studios and we're headed to the Back Nine brought to you by the Fogelbach Agency with Farmers.

Any sort of insurance needs personal, for your business, anything. Call Ed and his family at 314-398-0101. Alright, we're jumping right back into Steve's Tricker. You don't really need to get greedy here. You're right. He's not being greedy. He's not being greedy.

He was only trying for a penny. Steve's Tricker is brought to you by Golden Tee. So, Strick, let's shift gears a little bit. This coming September and I know you had to be crazy disappointed to have the Ryder Cup, you know, suspended I guess into 2020. But 2020 is a year that I don't know what the hell it's going to be at our age when we look back at 2020 because it's going to be in all the history books.

It's certainly a, you know, uncertain and crazy time. But in September this year at Whistling Straits in your home state, you get to be, you're going to be captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team. What is that like? And I just can't even imagine how excited you have to be. Yeah, you know, I never, never dreamed of being a captain. You know, I hadn't won a major, any of that kind of stuff, any of the so-called criteria to be a captain.

And, you know, they're giving me this unbelievable opportunity to do this and I'm so excited to do it. And, you know, last September, you know, we really, it was okay to postpone it just because, you know, there wasn't going to be any fans. And I just like, man, what a crummy experience for the players if they can't play a Ryder Cup without fans, you know? I mean, the fans for that event make everything.

They make that thing go and they give it the energy and the vibe that it has. And so not to have fans would have been, you know, really a crime. It just, it wouldn't have been the same.

It would have been just like an exhibition match, you know, with not a lot of drama probably. But fortunately, we postponed it. We're going to be able to have it this year. You know, the number of fans is probably still up in the air on how many we're going to have, but super stoked and super excited about the opportunity to be a part of that team. And hopefully we can win and bring that Ryder Cup back where it belongs.

And I know the guys are fired up and ready to make that happen. Strick, how difficult is it going to be, and I know you had to do this for the President's Cup, how difficult, tell us a little bit about how difficult the process of choosing. You know, you get four captain's picks now and some of the players will play their way on, but gosh, there's got to be some gut-wrenching moments.

And I'm sure, and I know how important family is to you, I'm sure Nicky and your whole team, Team Stricker is going to be involved in these decisions. Yeah, and I've got, you know, it's actually going to be six automatic qualifiers and six captain's picks. So we're going a little bit more, just we did that based on, you know, the uncertainty of this pandemic and what the schedule was going to be like. And we just didn't know if there was going to be a consistent schedule moving forward. Fortunately, we've been able to play and guys are earning points as we go along. But yeah, this year it's going to be six and six, so I'm going to have to make some phone calls. Six good ones, obviously, you know, and then some other ones that won't probably be too pleasant to call. But yeah, you know, I've got great assistants so far and Zach Johnson and Jim Fearick and Davis Love.

And I'll probably add another two guys before it's all said and done and, you know, it'll be a team decision for sure on who we're going to pick. And, you know, it's a big golf course, Whistling Straits is a big golf course. So I'm hoping these guys that hit it a long ways and have that fierce competitive drive, you know, are going to make that team.

Because it's an event unlike any other, really, and it's one that we want to finally get a grasp of that trophy on and bring back. You know, Strick, I've played Whistling Straits, I don't know, probably a dozen times. And it's a big course, but there's a lot of strategy involved there, isn't there? It's not one of these courses where you're just going to take your driver and bang it all the time. There's a lot of places where you've got to, at least in my opinion, you've got to back off a little bit. Yeah, and it, you know, Pete Dye was a master of giving you these visually intimidating looks off the tee or into the green.

And Whistling Straits is no different for him. There's a lot of looks that just like, whoa, there's nowhere to hit it kind of thing. But once you play it a few times, the areas are fairly generous, you know, and it's a beautiful spot. But you're right, there is some, it looks Link style, but it really plays more American style.

You've got to, you know, throw it up in the air and it really doesn't lend itself to a lot of on the ground play, you know, like a Link's course. But it's a beautiful spot and it should be a great venue for Ryder Cup for sure. Strick, I love playing. I think I played in 25 with Milwaukee Opens.

We played at Brown Deer and we played over at Tuckaway Country Club. Strick, people don't understand the Wisconsin golf fan. These guys are going to turn out and hopefully pandemic wise, you know, we can let a nice number of people in. But I know the entire state just clamoring for this thing. Oh, yeah, they they are super excited and everywhere I go still today, you know, I mean people are, you know, mentioning to me the Ryder Cup and even during the pandemic pandemic, you know, last year, they didn't lose too many sponsorships on on the, you know, sponsorships for the Ryder Cup and they've actually gained some more back again already. So people are still excited to be a part of it. They want to be there. It's a huge event for our state and economy, obviously, if we can have the people there.

So hopefully cross our fingers and toes and everything that, you know, we're going to be able to put on a full fledged event. And Strick, hats off to Herb Kohler. How he made Kohler, Wisconsin a worldwide golf destination is beyond me, but it is for the people that have not been there. It is absolutely worth the trek.

It is beautiful. It is a beautiful spot, a ton of golf courses to play right there. And then obviously we had Aaron Hills, you know, just down the road, probably, I don't know, it's probably 45 minutes to an hour away from there that we play the U S open. I think back in 2017, uh, another course we just got awarded, uh, the U S senior open at a course up in Stevens Point, Wisconsin for 2023.

So that place called Century World. My dad grew up right around Stevens Point. I remember them drinking Stevens Point beer all the time, Strick, and we used to run Wisconsin Dells and all sorts of the dinosaurs in the Hill. Anyway, nobody's going to care too much about that, but that was a great memory for me.

Yeah. And now we're going to have a senior open here in 2023 and Ryder cups and we've had PGAs and U S open. So it's, uh, it's great for our state. It's a golf craze state. There's a lot of really, really nice golf courses here in our state and people love to play. It's a short season. So, uh, you know, they get, they get, uh, cabin fever all winter long, especially during this time of year.

And then once that snow leaves the ground, people are out trying to play and whack it around. So it's, uh, it's a great, great area for golf. All right. So lastly, let's talk about the Steve Stricker American family insurance foundation strict. You've got a champions event that you host a $4.7 million that you've raised for charity and just the first four years. And your wife, Nikki was on the bag for you. A good majority of the time you play your two daughters, a phenomenal, really, really fun video. People can see on your, on your website, uh, on the range with some of the players talk a little bit about that tournament. I know it's coming up this June and there's just so much great golf, golfy stuff to look forward to in the state of Wisconsin this year.

Yeah. And it's a, uh, you know, this is the thing that I think I'm most proud of during, uh, so far during my career, I, I, uh, formed this foundation with American family insurance company, uh, uh, insurance company right here in Madison, Wisconsin. Um, I'm a brand ambassador for them. So we formed this foundation to try to raise money for charities around our local area. Um, and fortunately we, we kind of hit a home run. I feel like as far as golf goes, and it goes back to your point of Wisconsinites supporting golf and, um, the community has really taken to our champions tour event. And so had the players we've, we've gotten good fields and the guys like to come here.

It's a great time of the year to come to Wisconsin in June. Um, and we've been, we've been raising a lot of money for, uh, a whole number of charities right here in our local area. Um, we were able to even give away a couple million dollars, even this last year, even though we didn't even have a tournament. So, um, a lot of great things. We're supporting a lot of great different charities right here. And, um, the community has stepped up big time. They're, they're supporting us, uh, like no other, you know, they, they want to be a part of it. And, uh, ultimately it comes down to having a great sponsor and we have that American family insurance. They're a wonderful partner and, uh, I couldn't have done it without them.

And it's been a true, uh, I don't know. It's just something that we're very proud of as a family and, uh, in a group. Um, it's just something that's really. It touches my heart every time we, we give this money away in December to see the smiles on the faces of all these different charities that that need this money and use this money, uh, on a yearly basis. So it's really something that we're very proud of and happy to be doing.

Yeah. Well, strict, you got to keep up the great work and for the event, I mean, not only do you have golf, you guys can have some great entertainment. I think this year you've got little big town that's going to play and do a concert. And so, you know, you don't just have to like golf to want to go check this stuff out.

No. And that's kind of what our plan was, uh, to, to incorporate the non golfers as well. You know, so that, that includes a, uh, a concert. We had Darius Rucker and Toby Keith, and we got a little big town this year.

Uh, we had REO speed weighing one year, which you had to explain to your daughters who those guys were, but those guys, I love those guys. I had a little too many bud lights that night. Amen. Amen. It was, uh, we've, we've, uh, been fortunate and you know, the people in our community are actually looking forward to those concerts and are wondering who's coming every year. And, uh, so hopefully, you know, knock on wood, we can put this, uh, virus behind us and have a concert, have a tournament and, and go on a schedule. Strict.

Thanks so much for this time. You know, folks, you want to root for good people. Steve Stricker is at the top of the list. He's a family guy. He's got his wife on the back, man. I don't know how you do that part strict. You guys, you have such a calm demeanor, but Oh my gosh, that is wonderful. And just keep doing what you're doing.

Keep playing well. And man, all about the red, white and blue this September. No doubt.

We could use all the help we can get Jay. And I appreciate you having me on. Good to talk with you. It's been a while and I wish you the best man.

Pearl. We got a lot to talk about. We don't have a lot of time left, but let's, um, uh, I'm just excited for Steve to be the captain in his home state in Wisconsin, red, white and blue. Hopefully the COVID ness of the country will be down enough where people can just forget about everything.

It's going to be, I think it's going to be. I do too. Yep. Yep. All right.

So that's going to do it for the back now, but don't go anywhere. Pearly and I will be right back from the 19th hole. This is golf with Jay Delsing.

Hey everybody. It's Vince Gill. You're listening to golf with Jay Delsing.

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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 Michelob Ultra. Welcome back.

This is Golf with Jay Delsing. Pearly is with me and we are headed to the 19th hole brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Have you ever had one, Pearl, an Ultra? Just one? Yeah. I have to think about that.

I don't think you have. Anyway, we appreciate the boys for sponsoring the 19th hole. Alright, so the Stryker interview, John.

A couple of things I said to him. I'm not sure if anyone can appreciate how difficult it is at 53, 54 years old, still competing with the 20-somethings. Joaquin Niemann is 21 years old.

You know, there's some, Victor Hovland, Colin Morikawa. These guys, Stryk is 30 years older than these guys and he is standing in there going toe to toe. I just think it's impressive.

We both agree the guy's impressive. The other piece that was impressive from the interview was I loved your questions about how did you make that comeback when you were at that late, what, 38, 39 years old. He's lost the game, sounds like maybe kind of lost his direction, kind of trying to decide do I want to do this anymore. You know, one of the things is as fun as the tour looks, it's an absolute grind, living in the hotels, rent to cars, airlines, etc.

around and around. And so as fun as it is and cool as it is and money is out there, 39 years old, so he'd done it for 18 years, something like that, it wears you down. And so he had to make, I love what he talked about, he recommitted himself, he got things simple, all the things I think that say why they want him to be the captain. He has a formula, he knows what it is, he's made that comeback, he's played through the hard times. That was the best part for me with him. And I got to tell you, he is so wiry strong. This guy is really, really strong and he has a tremendous team around him.

His wife Nikki, his daughters and everything, really super, super solid. And what I loved about him talking about, you know, he's, what did he win, Pearl? Seven or eight times after he was 39 or 40 years old, which just doesn't happen on the PGA Tour very often. And he said he went back, figured out what he needed to do with his game and still doing the same thing today.

That's, you know, that makes so much sense because some show will talk about tendencies and why that actually makes so much sense because really you're going to have the same problems even though they think they're going to go away. I also love the part when he went and just kind of got, what's the right word that I can say on the radio, Tiger kind of put him in his place on, you know, I'm the best and you're never going to be. That happened to a lot of great players. Colin Montgomery absolutely went through that.

Davis Love went through that. I got to tell you, even to an extent, Pearl, Greg Norman went through it because anybody that played with Tiger that thought they were going to compete at the top level and actually beat him realized after they played probably one round with him, I can't beat this guy. Absolutely. And Norman was the number one player in the world and Tiger was up and coming and everybody knew.

And then, you know, a year later Tiger was like looking at him and Greg's like, oh man, this train is unstoppable. Yeah. I just think there's so many positive things.

I do want to bring up one thing and you can relate for this because you've got the girls, that kind of stuff, but how about your wife caddying for you and her father, your father-in-law coaching you? This could work out really good or this could really go bad. This could really go bad.

Let me turn my microphone off. Yeah. Right though? Oh, a hundred percent. I said to him off the air, I said, and having Nikki, you know, caddy for you, he's like, we've got it, we've got it worked out.

Well, honestly they do. Yeah. And she was a hell of a player. Her father is a teaching pro.

Her brother is Mario Tizzani who played on tour also. So they've got a lot of golf, rich golf heritage there. Probably one of my other favorite parts when Steve said something like, I had to kind of get to the point where I own this, this was on me. So in other words, he's helping me, she's caddying for me, I have my team, but I need to start owning this. We all hopefully find that in our lives someplace.

And he found it and good for him. Absolutely. One of the things I loved about the Phoenix open watching the Sundays round guys are bombing it. I mean, Strick is still long. He can still hit it 300 yards.

No. He's hitting first all the time. They get to 15, the Island green par five, and the guys are knocking it, trying to knock it on in two, one goes in the water. Strick lays it up down there, wedges it down there a couple of feet, makes his birdie, finishes third. That's managing your game and not playing with some blinders on. And also when the other guys know he's going to do that, it puts a little bit of heat on them.

Absolutely does. Well, it was great having Strick on. We will play that again too in September, that interview in September, and maybe I can get him to jump on and add a few things about it once the team is set and stuff, but that's going to wrap up another show, Pearl. Thanks for coming back to the studio and remembering your old buddy, Meat and I. Well, I thought you guys picked it up, this show, so maybe just one or two more shows and I can head back out of town. Oh man, Meat. Anyway, that's going to wrap it up. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. Hit them straight, St. Louis.