Randy Karraker - Golf With Jay Delsing

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, and good morning, and welcome to Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host, Jay. I got Pearly with me who's vacationing. Where's he meet this week? Was it Cabo? Miami? Pearly, where are you?

All the same to you guys. Venice? Yep. Sunny Scottsdale, Arizona. Just got done from a little jog and ready to roll on the Golf with Jay Delsing show. Set down to Pina Colada at the jog and Meat and I are over here, you know, sipping on hot chocolate and freezing everything. Off.

Hopefully, it's at least a Bloody Mary this time of day, right? Yeah, exactly. Well, we formatted a show like Around the Golf and the first segment is the On The Range segment and it's brought to you by Vehicle Assurance. If you need any sort of coverage from your car, for your car, you can reach them at 866-341-9255 for a free quote. Check out our social media outlets. Twitter is at Jay Delsing. Facebook is Golf with Jay Delsing and Jay Delsing Golf with Hospitality.

LinkedIn is just Jay Delsing and Pearly is in charge of Instagram and we don't know the handle there. So, got to thank Bob and Kathy Donahue, Donahue Painting and Refinishing. If you need anything to refresh your home inside, outside, Bob and Kathy not only are great people but they do great work.

314-805-2132. Alright, today's show. We have got an interview with Randy Carriker. Randy is a staple in the St. Louis sports broadcasting scene.

He's one of the top sports trivia experts in the country and the world and an all-around great guy. But, Pearl, first of all, we talk a little bit about, gosh, here we are in the middle of the winter. I thought we should come up with a couple of really simple exercises for some of our listeners out there to do to, gosh, when you get to our age, Pearly, in our 60s, we're not even maintaining ground. We're losing ground in this off-season and so that's what I want to reach out and tell the folks today.

Hi, you both. You and I agree with this. Working out is key whether we're 60 and losing ground, gaining ground. I think we're always losing ground after about awfully early ages and I like some of the ideas that you talked about with fan work and stretching and that kind of stuff. The other pieces I want to throw in there to bat back and forth with you is a little buddy system helps. I remember through the years, you and I would just kind of text each other that we did something to kind of crack us wet, get the heart going, that kind of thing because it's no good sitting idle for three, four, five months. No, and we all have the COVID beer and alcohol weight packed on.

It's just been a brutal, brutal time. These are really simple stuff. But one of the things I do every morning is I've got this band and you can get them on all shapes, sizes, colors, resistance and things like that. And what I do with the band is go through various little exercises. I put the band, I'll stretch my arms out, put the band just above my shoulders, behind my neck and I'll just straighten my arms out, go back and forth, feel the resistance, go nice and slow. I'll also stand in the middle of this band and then I'll do some little arm curls, things like that. Anything with that band work, John, can really, really help and you don't need to go lifting a bunch of weight to make a difference. I totally agree with that. I think reps is where it's at. And the other thing is, Jay, you and I have talked about and it's easy to do, just go Google.

Go Google golf exercises, golf stretches, that kind of stuff. I guess at the end of the day, if you can get a little bit of cardio in and you can do stretching, which I would pick and put in there somewhere with the band work, I think that's the way to go. Just something to keep us going through this downtime.

Yeah, there's no question. Pearl, back when, I don't know, 15 years ago or so, there was no such thing as TPI, which stands for Titleist Performance Institute. And now it's the staple with which the guys on the PGA tours and the corn ferry, the LPGA, it's what they use to work out with.

But you don't need to go to that degree. Just some stretches. How about just basically your feet shoulder-width apart and right hand to left toe and back up and down and stretch that hamstring out. And just things like that can make a gigantic difference in your game because people ask all the time, how do I hit it farther? How do I do this?

How do I do that? You don't do it without flexibility. You got to keep that body moving.

The flexibility is absolutely huge. And again, I'll go back to the online things you can see for golf exercises. You know, Jay, if you remember, when you and I were in college, they were really kind of pushing back against lifting weights and doing certain exercises. It was kind of taboo across the board. And I think it's pretty established now what works, what's appropriate. And that's why I think it's worthwhile going on and checking some of it out. And then if you want a good laugh, you can go get that video where Phil Mickelson was telling you how to do some stretching and stuff like that.

That was absolutely fantastic. And I love your idea about calling a buddy and you guys kind of being accountable for one another. And you know what, we're talking about three or four times a week. And we're also talking about 15 minutes, Jan. We're not talking about a lot.

And then, you know, getting up off the couch and getting some cardio helps a lot. Okay, this new segment that we've installed in the show this year is called the tip of the cap. It's brought to you by the Dean team of Kirkwood.

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That's going to wrap up the On The Range segment, but don't go anywhere. Pearly and I'll be back. We've got an interview with Randy Carriker. This is golf with Jay Delsing. This is Bill DeWitt III, President of the St. Louis Cardinals and you're talking to Jay Delsing.

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Welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delson. I'm your host, Jay. I got Pearly with me vacationing in Arizona.

Meet Nair in the ESPN Studios. He's taking good care of us. This is the front nine brought to you by the Ascension Charity Classic.

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Come on out and watch some golf in the loo. All right. We have got this interview with Randy Carriker. Let's go listen to what the St. Louis broadcasting legend has to say.

All we can ask for is fans is a chance and an opportunity from you to leave because clearly we are getting that from our own. Thank you. Randy Carriker is brought to you by Golden T. We're both native St. Louisans. We have a similar age. I got you by a couple of years. But one of the things that is almost as long as I can remember, I have been listening to your voice first on KMOX and now on 101 ESPN, which is a great station. And it's got to be thrilling. When you look back at the lineage that KMOX has produced and you're one of those guys, man, with Jack Buck, Joe Buck, Bob Costas, you know, all of these major guys and you're part of that cast.

It's incredible. Well, and a lot of radio and a lot of life is being in the right place at the right time. And you know, I got into radio.

The reason that I became a broadcaster, wanted to become a broadcaster is because it became pretty clear to me pretty early that I wasn't going to be athletic enough to be a pro athlete. So I always listened to KMOX. I always listened to Jack Buck when I was a kid. And he was just such a fun guy and seemed like he was having so much fun on the radio that I'm 10, 11, 12 years old in my kitchen. And at some point decide, you know what, I would like to do that.

I would like to be like that guy. And I grew up listening to that station, whether it was Jack Carney in the morning or Bob Hardy and Rex Davis or earlier before them or in the afternoon and keep, I listened to that station all the time and it was always on in our house. And it was just a natural thing for me to want to work there. So when I went to college, I went to Lindenwood where Robert Hyland, the general manager at KMOX was the chairman of the board. And I'm thinking, well, he's the chairman of the board here.

He's the general manager there. I had this all planned out. Well, there's no doubt that he'll hire me when I get out of college. And I wind up getting an internship there and wound up getting a job there. As it turns out, I was the only person from my class at Lindenwood that wound up with a job at KMOX. But then those names that you mentioned, I walk in and I'm producing for Bob Costas.

I'm producing for Jack Buck and Dan Deardorff and Dan Kelly. And it was a very early doctorate for me in how to go about broadcasting the right way. Randy, you're such a respectful guy.

I can't imagine you must have been like a sponge when you walked in there. Oh, there's no doubt about it. And I've always been somebody who really liked sports and I've always been able to retain sports. But to be able to go in and talk to these guys who not only knew sports, but had lived sports and have been through so many broadcasting wars. That was the main thing that I wanted to do, was just listen to those people and listen to their stories. And even now, when I talk to Bob or when I talk to Dan Deardorff, the thing for me, I like to hear their stories. When I get those guys on the air, that's my favorite part of it. It has nothing to do with talking sports or talking broadcasting stories. It's what they've done in life that I want to hear about.

Well, Randy, I totally agree. What we try to do on our show is exactly what you and I are doing now. Talking about how the hell did these two St. Louis sports nut kids, you know, get to be our age and feel like we really don't have a job. We get to talk sports, we get to play some sports and hang out with these other really, really, truly great athletes. It's a really good gig.

It's amazing. And I think about it, Jay, from the time I was 15 years old. My first job was working at a cell service gas station in Crevecore.

And I really honestly, I didn't have to work that hard. And my second job was as an usher at Busch Stadium. I was an on-field guard for the Cardinals in 1981, 82, part of 83, I guess, part of the 80, 81, 82, part of 83.

And I go from there right to KMOX. I was an intern. I got a part-time job, got a full-time job.

So what you just said couldn't be more right about me. I've never had to work. And I've told you, I just switched to mornings in May on one-on-one ESPN. I had never had a job in my life that I had to wake up in the morning for. I was working sporting events as an usher. I was working sporting events as a broadcaster, being able to go to games. So here I am at the age of 58, what, 43 years into my broadcasting and professional career. And I finally have a job where I have to listen to an alarm and get up in the morning.

Yeah, that's pretty crazy. And Randy, talk a little bit about, you hosted the, really, the Marquee Sports Show at KMOX, the Sports Open line. And I grew up just like you did. KMOX was always on.

And now a TSPN is always on at my house. But that Sports Open line was really something because you never knew what you were going to get. No, it was so iconic. And we did have the incredible names.

When you think about the fact, I can tell you a quick story. When I was producing, I guess it was 1986, I was producing Open line. And I had been there for three years.

I started in 83 and I was doing some on air stuff. I was doing overnight sportscasts, but I was still producing on the weekend. And we were getting ready for the AFC and NFC championship games on Sunday. This was a Saturday night. And for our Saturday evening show, I've got Bob Costas, who's the host of the AFC championship game on NBC, and Dan Deardorff, who is doing the national radio broadcast for CBS. That's pretty amazing when one station could have people at the two focal events of a particular weekend in the whole country like that.

But to be able to walk in and first of all, learn from and get the respect of that was the big thing for me. I'll never forget one time I was producing a show for Bob Costas and I gave him an answer to a question. Somebody called in and he didn't remember right off the top of his head. And I reminded him and he said something like, Randy Carriker tells us because Randy Carriker knows everything. And I felt like, okay, well, if Bob Costas is going to say that about me, I should really feel good. And then when Dan Deardorff left football to get into broadcasting, my first full-time job as a broadcaster was producing Dan Deardorff's Sports Open Line on KMOX. So I got an opportunity to learn from those guys. And then like you said, a couple of years later, had the chance to start doing pre and post game open lines on Cardinal broadcast and then eventually taking over that show. And to grow up listening to that iconic show and then to be the host and get complimented by people like Jack and Dan and Bob Costas about the job that I was doing. That was one of the thrills of my career and my life. You know, Randy, that's just awesome stuff. And I want to talk a little bit later about your ability to retain sports.

That's an understatement of anything that I've ever heard in my entire damn life. But of all of those big names, did anyone, I think I know this answer, but I'm going to throw it out anyway. Who had the biggest influence on you? Who helped you or affected you the most? Well, there's no doubt that Jack Buck was the biggest influence in my professional life. And first of all, like I said, he was just an inspiration for me to get into the business. And he was so good to me when I got there in the eighties, when I got to KMOX.

And when I decided that or not, I decided I, I figured I was going to make the move to try to get on the air from being a producer. And one of our overnight broadcasters left at KMOX. And for about two weeks, three weeks, we had a newscaster reading the sports overnight on KMOX.

And I went into Mr. Hyland's office. He was notoriously early. He really literally got to work at midnight.

And I was working till one 30 in the morning because I was doing the overnight sports. So one night before I left, I stopped into his office and said, Mr. Hyland, here we are the sports voice of America. And we've got a news guy doing our sports cast. I'm a sports guy. I'm here every single day.

Why don't I do the overnight sports cast? And he said, well, give me a tape. I said, okay. So I got him a tape the next day.

Jack Buck comes into the office as he did every day. He said, what's going on? And I said, you know, just working on a tape here, trying to get it to Mr. Hyland. And he said, you want to do the overnight sports?

And I said, yeah, sure I do. And so he went into Mr. Hyland's office, took the tape with him and said, let the kid do the overnight sports. Jack was a sports director at the time and pretty much everything that he said with Mr. Hyland went.

And lo and behold, that night I was doing the overnight sports. A Cardinal postgame open line job opens up. The guy who was doing our postgame open lines left to become the voice of the Indiana Pacers.

Still is a guy named Mark Boyle. Jack comes in the next day, like he always did. And I said, Hey, I'd like to do the postgame open lines. He goes into Mr. Hyland's offices, let the kid do the postgame open lines. Mr. Hyland did. Eventually I wound up when Joe Buck was doing the Cardinals and was gone on weekends to do Fox games.

Jack Buck goes into Mr. Hyland says, let the kid do the games. So he was really the guy who pushed me along in my career. I don't know why he liked me so much, but I, I couldn't be more appreciative. He was really, really good to me. And I can tell you definitively, Jay, that if, if it weren't for Jack Buck, I wouldn't be talking to you as a broadcaster right now.

I'd be doing something else. Yeah, boy, he was, he was such a terrific person. I've heard you mention that several times and gosh, we certainly miss that man a lot. This is golf with Jay Delsing. I'm visiting with Randy Carriker, host of his show, Carriker and Smallman from seven to 10 on one-on-one ESPN. Randy, some of the things when I'm did by prep for this stuff, you have hosted the top rated show in St. Louis, the Fastlane, which you just moved off of. You also had, um, quite a few really interesting guests when you hosted, uh, some of the Rams pregame shows and stuff. Uh, and, and God rest the late Jim Hannafin. So one of the coolest human beings you'll ever get to meet. And you also with coach Venturi and just those two guys alone as a, as a handful, aren't they?

Oh man, if you want to hear stories, life and football stories, you couldn't wind up with a better pair. And Jim Hannafin was another guy that was an influence on my career because, uh, the first press conference I ever did in my life, it was a Jim Hannafin press conference. And he took note of it and I was introduced to him. And then I was, uh, we, we at KMOX had the football Cardinal games.

So I would go and help Jack Buck record his pregame shows. So I got to know him pretty well. And when he got to town the second time with the Rams as the offensive line coach, you remember Dick Vermeil had this unbelievable coaching staff with five former head coaches and handy made it a point. Uh, if he saw me and one of those coaches in the hallway or at lunch or out on the practice field, he introduced me to each and every one of those coaches and said, this is Randy Carriker.

I've known him since he was about this tall and he to hold his hand four feet off the ground that he's a good guy, take care of him. And so that just made it validated me with that Rams coaching staff and with the entire organization, he was great. And he was another guy with Jay, when we talk about listening, I mean, Jim Hannafin had the best stories of anybody that I've ever heard.

He was just great. And coach Venturi, I'm still in touch with him. It's funny because he always calls me his broadcasting mentor. He's now the analyst for Colts broadcasts on, uh, the Colts radio network. And when he texted me before the season, he said, Hey, I just wanted to tell my mentor, I'm going to be doing these games.

I'm a 74 year old rookie and he's doing a great job of it. And I I'm so happy for him that he's been able to maintain a life in football, which he dearly loves. But you talk about a guy with stories that goes all the way back to when he was a coach in his twenties in college, a 32 year old head coach at Northwestern. He coached with Belicheck, he coached with Saban and yeah, he's got some unbelievable stories.

He's great. You sit there, Randy, and think about Jim Hannafin and Rick Venturi. And you think about the players that have run through their eyes, who they have seen, who they have coached it as a, just a who's who in a hall of fame sort of resume.

Yeah, it really is. And especially with Annie, because, uh, James, you know, he's regarded as the best offensive line coach in the history of the league. But when you think about the fact that he had people like Dan Deardorpe and Conrad Doebler and Orlando pace and Jim Lachey and Joe Jacoby and Russ grim, he had so many hall of Famers and near hall of Famers guys that probably should be in the hall of fame. And he coached him up. He, the story with Orlando is great. He brought him aside one time in the meeting room and said, look, if you don't wind up in Canton, it's your own fault.

It's nobody else's. And that kind of propelled Orlando and inspired him to be as great as he was as a football player. And he changed the sport.

He, he changed the way the offensive lineman block in the NFL. And he had such a great personality. He had such an ability to get the most out of people that he was coaching. He, he had a great personality for it. He knew everything about it. He was pretty much the ideal coach because you could learn everything you wanted to learn from him, but he also had that ability. His personality was one that got people to give the most to him. Yeah, it's, he had one of those sort of voices, Randy, when he spoke, you just, your head kind of turned, you know, and you're like, what did he say?

Well, you know, he's one of those few people that when he spoke and it was always colorful. He coached in Atlanta for a couple of years after he left here, he coached in Atlanta in, I believe it was 86 and 87, maybe, maybe 87, 88. But I remember Bill Fralick, the offensive lineman for the Falcons, and he was a rookie under Haney and the Falcons practice facility sat up a hill and was on one side of kind of a, like a valley. So you had the practice fields down a hill, and then when it went up the other side of the hill, there was a fenced in area with like a kinder care on the other side. And the Falcons during training camp are running an offensive line drill. It's a one-on-one drill and Fralick is a young player and Haney has been kind of frustrated with them. And Fralick just dominates a defensive lineman and with a bunch of four and five-year-olds at a fence on the other side of the practice facility. So looking down this hill at the Falcons practice, Haney goes up to Fralick, grabs him by the face mask and said, that's the way to blank and knock his blank and blank off.

And all these little kids go, ooh. But that was such Haney. It was, it was perfect.

Okay. So that's going to wrap up the first half of the Randy Carriker interview. I just love Jay, that when he's talking about all the stories that he enjoys and how as a young man, he got into the, the career as a sportscaster early, you can just, you can just feel his passion for, for his career. Just love it. We've heard that consistently from superstars and here, here's another one. It's right, Pearl, isn't it?

It's, it's one of those, those traits that all of the greats really have. Absolutely. All right. So that's going to wrap up the front nine.

Don't go anywhere. We're going to have the second half of the Randy Carriker interview on the back nine. This is golf with Jay Delsing. When things come out of left field, having a game plan matters. Farmers Insurance has over 90 years of experience helping people play through every stage of the game.

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Welcome back. This is golf with Jay delsing. I'm your host Jay. And I got pearly with me, Brad Barnes, taking good care of us here in the ESPN studios. And we are headed to the back nine brought to you by the farmer's insurance group and Ed Fogle back agency.

If you need any sort of insurance product product whatsoever, call at 314-398-0101. He's a great guy. He'll take good care of you. All right, pearly. We are going to jump right into the remainder of the Randy Carriker interview. Let's go there now. The Rams and the Baltimore Ravens wrapping up the preseason in just a few moments here on 101 ESPN. Our chance to visit with Jim Hannafin as we do every week. Coach, great to have you with us. Oh, it's always great to be with you, Andy. Randy Carriker is brought to you by golden T. I just wanted to mention some of the things you did early in your career.

You did some essay, you basketball for CCIN, and you also hosted the, the fun popular game called chalk talk. And, and gosh, that seems like a hundred years ago now. Yeah, that was funny. And it was fun when I was offered that job by charter communications at the time.

Now it's spectrum that was in 2000. And I went to the general manager at camel X and the previous general manager had left. He'd gone to Chicago and my contract was coming up at camel X. And I asked if I could do TV. I had always been allowed to do TV.

And I said, Hey, can I, can I do this? And they were going to pay me reasonably well at charter. And they said, Nope, we don't want you doing any television at all. Well, they had other people doing TV. I don't know why they didn't want me to, but, um, I had an opportunity to go to KTRS and my big opportunity was to go to charter.

So I made that decision that I would pass on the camel X offer and go to charter. And part of that was chalk talk and it was McGraw Mill Haven has been at KTRS forever. And it started with Malcolm Briggs and wound up being Demetrius Johnson on one of the chairs and Tony twist. And we had such a great time and it was just such a freewheeling. It was almost like a local access show, but we had these great big personalities that participated in it. It really was a game and it was a half hour show and we did it every week. But the thing that I remember Jay is the guys just, it was like being in a locker room when you had all those guys together and we, we had a wonderful time and it was really, it was cool for me to get into the TV realm and we did so much more. We did a lot of college and high school basketball.

Uh, you mentioned SIU, we did the best high school football game of the week and the best high school basketball game of the week for years, about 14 years, we wound up doing it. And it was really a great experience for me, but certainly the highlight of doing all of that for charter at the time was, uh, was doing the work with those three guys on Choctaw. Yeah, that was really fun. It seemed like you guys could have had that. You could have done that show for two hours instead of 30 minutes. Something went by in a blink.

Yeah. And the thing was it went by so fast because we were having so much fun. There was never a day that we did that show that we didn't have a great time. And I, I really, I think they could have kept it going. We had a lot of layoffs at that time. Charter lost a lot of money, but I think that that would have been a valuable thing for them, especially the games, because we don't have that now.

And I think that's not necessarily a public service, but that's a valuable piece of property that we just don't have access to. And I wonder with, and we do with prep casts, people can watch games on the internet, but I think it was pretty cool to be able to sit down, especially players with their parents, sit down with a remote control, sit back and watch the game that they played the night before on TV locally. Yeah, that's pretty special. So now Randy, tell us, I know, I know, no, no, how much you love the game of golf. When did it bite you? And let's talk about your golf game a little bit.

All right. Well, I actually took lessons when I was in sixth grade and I was not good. I had the old clubs. I had real wood woods.

We all did. So I got a chance to swing the club a little bit and I've always enjoyed like getting out and practicing, but I never really got out and started playing a lot until I was 25 years old. And I bought a set of Ram irons and I got out and played St. Anne golf course.

And I played pretty much when I first started and I just felt myself getting better and better. And I thought, you know what? This is fun. I will say that the first time I was ever out on a course and actually it wasn't with my Ram clubs.

It was with a set of like $49 at the time, Northwestern clubs. And I was thinking, this should be easy. This ball's not moving. I can hit it. And I hit a worm burner to the right and I did, and this was 25 year old Randy. So give me a break. I did break a three wood over my knee. Just stupid. And I'm walking up and with two pieces of club in my hand saying, I'm never going to be good enough to do this.

This is stupid. So I haven't broken a club since, but I would say that 25, 26 years old, it really bit me. And then as you play more and you start to hit some shots and start to get an idea of what you're doing, that's when I really felt like, okay, I can go out and play and I'm by no means great, but I have a great time doing it. And the big thing for me, Jay, is that when I get out on a course and I hit bad shots, now I know why I'm hitting bad shots. It doesn't mean the next shot I hit is going to be great, but at least I understand what I did wrong. And that to me is the greatest thing. Two of the greatest things about golf are number one, understanding that, but also understanding that you're never going to be perfect.

It's the impossible game to master, right? Randy in 2018, the PGA championship came to town and I know I'm biased. I am a baseball junkie. Baseball's my first true love in my life, but I believe what happened at Bellreef with Tiger, with Koepka and that whole scene and the way that it unfolded, I think that was one of the biggest sports events that ever happened to St. Louis. And now Ascension's bringing a tournament to Norwood in large part because of that. And what was your take on the PGA championship at Bellreef in 2018?

I'm like you, I thought it was phenomenal. And number one, we had missed out on Tiger because of 9-11. In 2001, he was supposed to play here and because of 9-11, that tournament was canceled. So we really hadn't had the opportunity to see Tiger Woods here. So we get to 2018, it's the 100th PGA championship.

The Rams have left. People are still bothered by the fact that somebody called us bad sports fans when we are the best sports fans in America. And everything worked out, ideally, because he was in the hunt. We had such massive crowds and we supported sports like we always do. And we were able to develop this relationship with Tiger and especially on Sunday. And I know he thought it was cool because so many people in August are dressed up in their Cardinal red. He's dressed up in his Tiger red. And it was almost like we were wearing Tiger gear for him. And I know he loved it and appreciated it.

And I was just going through some of the old footage, now three-year-old footage, two-year-old footage of him and the way he talked about the fans here and how positive everybody was. And somebody like Tiger, as great as he is, he doesn't always get positive response. So he really appreciated it.

But I think you mentioned the other part of this that I think goes a little bit underrated. And that's that as much as we love Tiger and everybody in America does, Brooks Koepka felt like he was being cheered for too. And I think that's a really important part of this is that at the end of the day, the champion felt like okay, not only are they Tiger fans, but they're rooting for me too. And he got a thunderous applause when he won that tournament on Sunday afternoon too. So I think for me, in terms of the events that have been brought to St. Louis, and this is not just, this is not events like we've had our teams bring here, but when you look at wrestling championships and the Frozen Four and the other golf tournaments that we've had here, for me, the 1994 O'Brien, the 1994 Olympic Festival, for me, that's number one.

I don't think that there's a real second place for me. We've had great boxing events here in the past. We've had some really good things happen. But Jay, for me, aside from the things that our own teams have done, that's number one. Yeah, you know, Randy, it's interesting, because I've been to the World Series, to the every World Series game that we've had here in the last 25 years.

And it's just certainly special. But when you look at the magnitude of the PGA Championship, and it was played over 200 million people watch that event, and I think 500 countries, nothing we have in town can even compare. No, and that shows A, how big golf is, but B, when you put those numbers to it, that shows how big Tiger is and how much he moves the needle from a global perspective. It's not just in America, but every time that he plays, it's a big deal. Heck, look, a couple of weeks ago, we saw him playing with his son, and his son has become a superstar, simply because he's Tiger Woods' son.

But I couldn't agree with you anymore. He is a guy that changes everything. And I think specifically for that tournament here in town, when you look at what has happened with the golf economy here in town, and the people that became interested in getting out on a course or buying clubs or taking lessons, a lot of it is because, and the Ascension Tournament, too, I think that you'll agree is here in large part, because Tiger Woods was at that PGA Championship here in St. Louis. Oh, Randy, there's no doubt what, in my opinion, and I was just out in college when Wayne Gretzky, when Pocklington told Gretzky to make null in Los Angeles. And we used to go to hockey games in Los Angeles, my buddy Pearly and I, and wait till the puck dropped. And then Randy, we go sit on the glass.

There weren't 3000 people in the forum. Nobody watched hockey. Wayne Gretzky comes down and what he did in those next five to 10 years, you know, every single NHL player should kiss Wayne's ass because he raised the water level for everybody financially, you know, and took this thing to a big level. And Tiger, you know, what Jack and Arnold have done for the game, you know, we can't even talk about what because they actually, you know, put it on the map and did such great things for it.

But Tiger, not only has he made it cool, not only has he opened doors that that should have been open long ago, but he's he's brought in corporate America in a huge way. Okay, so john, we just got a couple minutes here left on the on the back nine. But there's there's something about those sports stories and those stories that come in either inopportune times or unexpected times. I could just sit there and listen to them all day.

Absolutely. And I just like to look into the patterns of these successful folks, whether they're athletes, sports announcers, business people. And I'll tell you, Jay, one thing that's pretty consistent is somehow they ran into a superstar mentor. And Randy being able to be around jackbok and jack having his back time and time again. You can't write that you I don't know how you get that other than I guess do a good job, be a good guy.

So people like jackbok want to say good things about you and want to give you a leg up. Yeah, that's right. Boy, what a what a cool story. All right, that's gonna wrap up the back nine.

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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. Jay and John are here. Brad Barnes taking good care of us and we are at the Michelob Ultra 19th hole, our favorite part of the end of the round and we are going right to a Whackin' Chase episode.

I hope you enjoy it. Boys I don't know how this happened. I think we got a missed call. Wrong number but he's joining us for Whackin' Chase anyways.

That's perfect. Andrew is our guy and he's live now. Andrew thanks for hanging in there with us buddy. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you guys doing? Where are you calling from Andrew?

I'm out in St. Peters. Oh fantastic. We got a local guy right on man. We appreciate the call. You bet.

Well hey tell us what question you've got for Jay on your golf game and let's get this rodeo started here. Well you know now that the cold weather seems to be pretty well entrenched here in St. Louis, one of the things that always bugs me come springtime is how much rust I have to shake off my game. So I'm kind of wondering if you have any thoughts on how I can stay sharp over the winter without you know being able to play a lot. Oh man that's a great question. You know we talk about that during the show Pearl all the time to try to help you know guys when we get such lousy weather. Because there's things you can do in the winter. Nobody feels like doing anything you know because it's. Well some of your sponsors and people like me just fly down every other weekend, play down in the Bahamas, play down in Florida.

Is he confusing me with him? That's so brutal. This guy is just brutal.

Turn his microphone off. Hey don't forget about Andrew you know for crying out loud. So Andrew tell us a little bit when it's rusty in the spring what's the hardest part? Where does it where does it get you?

Because we can kind of sense you're already to get anxious about god I hate starting that out. So where does it mostly kick your butt? I think generally it's probably with my irons.

Okay. And just you know making solid contact you know my swing just kind of seems to leave me a little bit. With the irons especially you know driver is okay and yeah just with the irons that it's just not there. Yeah Jay we talk about that fairly often. One it's normally a little bit softer, it's a little bit cooler. That ball sits down it is harder to make that contact.

Our bodies aren't moving. All kinds of things like that. The other thing is the golf courses are not in prime shape. The grass is long you know we typically get a lot of rain and a lot of wind in the spring and it's hardest conditions to play in and we haven't been playing and it's kind of like somebody just comes up and gives us a double whammy. It's like I'm so excited to play my swing feels like crap.

I don't know where the ball is going and the golf course is in its you know difficult conditions. So tell us a little bit about your background Andrew. What kind of game have you got? How long you've been playing? I'm around a nine index now.

Oh very good. I'm 47 so I've been playing since I was like 12 or 13. My best years were you know when I was in high school and I was able to you know get out and play every day.

Now I play I try to play at least nine holes once a week and get out and hit balls once a week. Well that's one thing he's got to remember now Jay because that spring's tough at 47. Let me tell you something it's a hell of a lot tougher at 60. Yeah so keep keep in mind Andrew it's not going to get any easier so I'm glad you're calling in for some ideas.

And we're both at the 60 range so we both hate you for those 13 years Andrew that's for sure. Andrew what kind of things have you done to try to fix that you know so what tell me what you've tried to to do or prepare for you know for the for trying to manage this thing. Well so one thing this year you know with the the pandemic and the lockdown this spring actually I bought a net for at home so I am able to you know go out in the garage and hit some balls once in a while.

So I think that's going to help. God don't you Andrew don't you just always hit it pure into that net though it's just isn't it so sweet how good that makes you feel. I have to assume yeah it feels good I'm sure it's going perfect even though I can't see it flying. Hey Andrew are you an exercise guy at all what kind of uh do you are are you in pretty decent shape because a lot of times what happens to us um is we're not getting nearly as much especially as we get a little older we're not getting nearly as much exercise you know and so all of a sudden the weather turns good we want to hop up off the couch and get out there and it's like man we haven't really done much um physical activity in you know a couple months. Yeah I walk on the treadmill a few times a week but other than that I don't really do a ton of exercise. I do walk most of my rounds too during the year so I you know I think that keeps me in pretty decent shape.

I love that I love that music to our ears. If I could wave a magic wand on one thing and especially if you're under 30 you should walk to play this game. I know it is it is such a missed opportunity that we're we're in carts all the time so one of our questions to kind of get us kind of our minds around this thing is what are you wanting that results to be?

How do you want that? How would you say what would you feel good about that would happen to you in the spring? I would say if I feel um you know once once the season starts if I feel just confident enough that I you know I don't feel like I'm kind of searching for my swing you know when when the season starts. You don't want to quit by the end of May is what you're saying.

Right right you don't want to yeah so Andrew so what's interesting is um here's a couple of things that I'm going to tell you about. Focus on your fundamentals especially with your irons. Ball position is going to be huge Andrew when when you're away from the game I love the fact that you're getting a net and you have a net and at least you get to swing and the fact that you walk on the treadmill a couple three times a week is a great sign you keep blood pumping in your body moving so that's not going to be as big a challenge for you but but the fundamentals are huge and we got to make sure that that ball position stays in the right spot and for your iron start with your six iron and put that in the middle of your stance and make sure that your hands stay ahead of it. Okay we want you especially in a nine index you know what it's like to hit that nice crisp iron shot you hit down on that ball my guess is there's so much going on in your mind when the springtime rolls around that the fundamentals slip away the ball's not in the right position for because for a good player like you we get that ball in the right position and you can still hit your driver you're I don't Andrew I don't think your swings is off as your fundamentals are off and what happens but isn't when that ball goes forward your hands go behind and that's almost impossible to keep the club face square you'll hit fades and slices from there but but Jay I draws it hooks and slices but Jay I would watch too we've we've certainly mentioned this about spring play is watch the expectations because the ball doesn't go as far your body's not moving the ball's not as live even when we're out there in the spring we say hey it's a great day it's 68 degrees a ball in 68 degrees is sitting down in that soft ground versus 92 degrees or 90 degrees sitting in firm ground two completely different things so that's seven iron that maybe goes 158 160 that thing's plan on 48 49 150 don't you think absolutely always in that springtime Andrew always take one extra club all I mean it's it's a we we've been telling folks that gosh when my dad was still alive and he would never do it he goes I got the right club I'm like oh hell well yeah because last year I hit a seven iron from here why can't I do this right now I know well last year last thing you remembered was a warm October day right and you could do it so Jay throw out something that maybe Andrew can relate to on when you've come off of a long winter being up in St. Louis and you didn't you didn't play for some time or if you can remember some other tour player that took a long time off maybe they were hurt I'm thinking in terms of Tiger Wood my little stories I remember when Tiger came back from one of his big injuries when he was gone a lot you talk about Rusty that guy came out if you remember he's chili dipping and skulling the thing all over the place and shooting these huge numbers so it's a tough transition whether you're Andrew at a nine index or you're a tour player that's a superstar Andrew we went down John Caddy for me and I was down playing in the Tucson open it was the first event of the year and we had a commitment to each other when we were anywhere in between shots I was always taking one extra club always taking one extra club you know what Andrew I didn't have I remember just hitting some of the most beautiful irons that week John because I didn't feel like I had to smash it yep you know and Andrew one of the things that makes us anxious is the thought that we might not hit it well and if you've got this history of the springtime being kind of a pain in the ass you're gonna go I gotta hit I want I want to hit this ball crisply I want my six iron to go the right distance and it puts pressure on you right it really does and and the one thing we know about this game we we don't need any extra pressure man that's like way hard enough all by itself you got that right so how do you think Andrew is that something you can you can give a shot to definitely I'm definitely gonna remember that especially the you know focusing on the fundamentals Andrew if there's anything I can help you with just send me a photo or send me a video I'm glad to help your game and the way that we end our whack and chase segments are if John and I help you tell everybody I mean call us and tell us how great we are tell meet our producer here at ESPN that we are the greatest radio show ever and if we don't help you just tell everybody we never met we'll do this was probably the funnest 10 minutes of my day so we appreciate it thanks a lot guys appreciate it see you you know John those whacking chases are getting fun and they seem to be picking up a little steam I hope the people enjoy it they sure are fun to listen to folks talk about their golf game I love I love doing them and we're getting a little bit more rhythm to them I think there's some real promise in whack and chase if you will all right so that's going to end another show thanks for just as we began exactly yeah two years ago Veral thanks for joining us I hope it rains tomorrow in Arizona meet thanks for taking good care of us and come back next week for another version of golf with Jay Delsing hit them straight team Lewis that was golf with Jay Delsing brought to you by Whitmore Country Club tune in next Sunday for more from Jay John and the other pros and experts from the golf world in the meantime you can find all of Jay's shows at 101espn.com as well as at jdelsongolf.com