Curtis Strange - 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, good morning, St. Louis. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host, Jay, and we got a new little setup here. We got Pearly. Pearly, where are you?

We're going to have a new segment meet. Where's Pearly? I am in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona, looking out at the boulders. I was just wondering why you guys weren't here. We're wondering why we're not here either. We don't know where we are, Pearly. We're at about 30 degrees and the basic no sky winter day.

It sucks anyway. 70 degrees and blue skies, so about the same. Just about the same. We've formatted a show like Around the Golf. The first segment is called the On The Range segment and the On The Range segment is brought to you by Vehicle Assurance.

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LinkedIn is just Jay Delsing and we don't know anything about Instagram. So, there we go. It's great to be on our fourth show of the year.

I got a great interview with Curtis Strange. Man, Hall of Famer. The last guy, John, to win back to back U.S.

Opens. And what other person did that? Ben Hogan did that. Curtis did it in 1988 and 1989.

And in some great golf courses and in fantastic fashion. I just loved your interview when you were talking to him about it. I specifically remember some of those shots just as you did. Well, let's dive into, we tried to do this last week, but you know how we are. We started talking about something and I don't know where we've drifted off to. But, Pearl, let's come up with some of our predictions for 2021. And I'm going to start this off, John. This has always been a hard thing for me. Whenever I change balls and equipment.

But I don't know if you caught this. DJ re-signed with TaylorMade. John Romm jumped ship and took the money from Callaway Golf. New balls, new clubs, new everything. I'm waiting to see what kind of curve John Romm's game is going to have with the new stuff. Bad decision. I'm going to predict a bad decision.

What are you thinking? Yeah, you know, it took, do you remember how long it took Rory when he changed from Titleist over to the Nike ball? And he got it right and played well. But that's a big deal. It's a much bigger deal than you think.

And you know what, John? Golf's hard enough. And if you start off on the wrong foot or a couple weird bounces, miss a couple cuts, there's a lot to think about when all of a sudden the bag's full of new equipment and the ball's not the same old one you're used to. I remember when you went through that several different times. We would talk through the years on it and the Tour Edition, the Spaulding stuff, the Titleist. And I just always remember challenging you and kind of teasing you, like, what's the best ball?

What's the best equipment? Forget the money. At the end of the day, yeah, you want the money, but what's one shot going to cost you in a tournament if you're second, third or fourth place versus first place type of a thing?

So I think that's a tough, tough call. And I don't know, maybe I'm biased. And I don't know the equipment like you do, but is there a better ball than Titleist or are they that equal these days? They're that equal. Yeah, they're really that equal because you remember Rahm was playing the tailor-made, the five. And so he wasn't even playing Titleist.

But those days were gone. John, when we played though, when I played Titleist, there was a max fly ball that was around for a little bit, the HT, but that was, if you didn't play Titleist, it was really pretty weird. Thanks for digging me out of that one.

Appreciate it. Absolutely. I didn't know the balls are that equal. But what do you think?

I mean, is the equipment as good or better? But like you said, the look and the feel, and as well as he's playing, man, it just seems like a tough move. Yeah, he also might have that mentality, like, look, I can play anything.

He kind of strikes me as that kind of kid. And it'll be interesting to see, you know, he'll probably go out and win the first event, who the hell knows? But you know what else is interesting, John, and we're going to have Steve Stricker on the phone. We've got the Ryder Cup on US soil in September this year.

At Whistling Straits, and that is one phenomenal property just in general, but what a heck of a golf course. And I think that's going to be a blast. I think it's an absolute blast. And I'm kind of liking the way the team's stacking up too. Yeah, we've got some new blood. We've got some some younger guys that have been, you know, down this road before you get the Xander Shafley's of the world and things like that. There's some, and then you've got some of the new blood that's coming into Matthew Wolf, some Colin Morikawa. They could be playing on these teams for a long damn time. I think it's time for that.

I love what you first said as far as the new blood. I think it's more than time for us to see that we're ready. It was getting a little stale.

The guys weren't making it happen. Patrick Cantlay. I mean, I think that's fantastic. Matthew Wolf.

I've been getting into kind of following him a little bit with George Genghis. And what an interesting story. And then Tony Sienau, he might be ready to just go make it happen, but what a property they're playing. And they need to be ready for anything, depending on whether out there.

They need to be ready for absolutely anything. We had a great day, you and I, out there several years ago, and that was awful fun. Well, the tip of the cap segment this week is brought to you by Dean Team, Volkswagen of Kirkwood.

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And I am damn thankful for them, and I can't wait to play. And it's going to raise a boatload of money for the North County area. So our tip of the cap goes to the Ascension Healthcare Group here in St. Louis, and that's going to wrap up the front nine.

But don't go anywhere. We've got a really long, in-depth interview with Curtis Strange. This is golf with Jay Delsing. This is Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, and you're talking to Jay Delsing? And wait, what's the name of the show? Golf with Jay Delsing. Golf with Jay Delsing.

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Michelob Ultra, Light Beer, St. Louis, Missouri. I want you to grab a partner and join this golf league. It's a top golf swing suite golf tournament with Jay Delsing. It's going to be on Wednesdays and Thursdays in February.

The dates will be announced. It's at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown St. Louis. What do you get? You're going to get four rounds on one of the world's great golf courses on the Topgolf Simulator. You're going to get two adult beverages a night and an appetizer a night.

And it's going to be four rounds. Call me at 314-378-0235 for more information. Or reach out to me at Jay at JayDelsingGolf.com. Grab your clubs. We're headed to the front nine on Golf with Jay Delsing. The front nine is brought to you by the Ascension Charity Golf Classic. Welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsing.

I'm your host Jay. I got Pearly with me who's out in beautiful sunny Arizona. We're kind of pissed about that and we are going to the front nine which is brought to you by the Ascension Charity Classic. This September, September 6th through 12th, Norwood Hills is going to be the place to be guys.

The senior tour, the best rookie class Pearly what? Maybe ever? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think that's a great point.

I'm not sure how you would beat it. Maybe other than when they started maybe we could take a comparison there type of a thing. But yeah, phenomenal field. Yeah, we're talking Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Freddie Couples, Steve Stricker, Mike Weir, Bernard Langer.

The list goes on and on. Yeah, that's right. I'm going to be playing.

So if you're out watching me make sure you put a helmet on. Sometimes Pearly gives me some bad yardages and my balls fly a little off line there. Speaking of, well, we got Curtis Strange. So let's just jump right in to this Curtis Strange interview.

The last person, one of two men, to ever win back-to-back U.S. Opens. This is Curtis Strange. That's the greatest feeling in the game coming to the 18th hole. And knowing you've won. All you have to do is just, you've got some way to get it down in two or three and it doesn't make much difference. You've had that feeling four times.

Now he's had it twice. That's how you do it. Curtis Strange is brought to you by Golden Tee. When I first got on tour, you were just kicking ass. The 80s, I had no idea just because I was kind of in the middle of it. But the 80s were just a blockbuster year for you. Well, you know, you're very kind.

Gosh, where do you start? You get in the middle of something like that and you don't, like anything else, you don't appreciate it nearly enough until years and years later. And even then, it was kind of what you set out to do as a kid. And so, you know, I think I look at the things that I didn't do and the times I screwed up more than the things that you might have accomplished, just the wrong word, but, you know, came out on top. But I always like to say, just kind of go back for a minute, I always like to say people look at your professional career and they say this, that and the other. But, you know, it goes so much farther back and I don't care what level you played it.

And you're in the same boat I was. It started back when you were a kid, you know, playing at the club and, you know, trying to play with the good players of the club and the members to learn. And, you know, not only learn how to behave and act, but learn how to play and you get a lesson or two. And then you progress into more big junior golf within the state and you progress there, not knowingly, it's just this was what you love to do. I was at the golf course every day of my life forever. My dad was a club pro and so I was fortunate to have access to the golf course whenever I wanted it.

But dad was still back in, you know, that was back in the 60s. So we kind of still came in the side door, you know, the club pro was an employee. And, and unfortunately that still might exist and sometimes in some places today, but then you go through amateur golf, you, you progress to amateur golf. And you, you progress to where you win a tournament or so, or maybe you can play on the US amateur or maybe you're good enough to make a Walker cup team or a world cup. Anyway, the point is, and then you progress to college.

And then, which is the best of the best in the professional. So I like to say, you know, as much as the PGA tour record is, is on display for anybody. It didn't start there. It started a whole long time ago before then before anybody knew who the hell Jay was or Curtis was. And we did it because we loved it so much. And we, and we progressed because we loved it so much. And, uh, I still get emotional about talking about times like that because some of the greatest times in my life were, were on the golf course in the afternoon by myself.

And so then you progress to the PGA tour and that's just to kind of the result of, of a lot of, uh, work, a lot of luck being at the right place at the right time and, and pulling off a shot or two when you needed it. Curtis, you know, what's so interesting about what you just said, both of us are dads and fathers care and love our children, but we spent such an inordinate amount of time by ourselves. When you look at your boys and my girls, that is really unusual. Yeah. You know, it's, it's, it's, that's, that's really an interesting point and one that probably a lot of sports psychiatrists, not sports psychiatrists, just psychiatrists themselves would look at us like we're frigging crazy. Oh, there's no question about that. Oh, there's no question.

You know, we're, we're all ready for the rubber room here, but you know what? I loved it. I loved being out there, you know, I need to go play nine holes quick before dad, you know, we, I went when I was nine years old, I was going to the golf course every day in the summer, almost every day in the summer with my dad at seven 30. And we come home, we come home at dark because that's when the last cart got put up and, and for the night, and then we were finished work. And dad, dad owned, you know, we worked for this, this place called bowl Creek and dad owned the golf shop, which was unusual, but back in the day, the club, he owned the golf shop, which was, you know, clubs, balls, shirts, gloves is what he sold.

And then he owned the 32 carts that we own that we had, and that doesn't exist today. So those cards for a good weekend, baby, they both had to go twice a day on both Saturday and Sunday. And that was what I was in charge of was running those cards, getting them clean, getting them lined up early Saturday morning. But then when that was done, it was me, baby.

It was me playing and practicing and loving the practice. And your hands were so sore. And, and I don't embellish that back in the day when, when we were, when we worked harder than they do now.

No, they work hard now, but honestly, the hands were so sore at night and couldn't wait to get up and get them, get them in that position and that condition the next day, the next day. But I, I loved it. I, I love the people don't get me wrong, but I loved the, I love being responsible for my own outcome. Now, I, you know, I played basketball and I think you did too all through high school and nothing, there's nothing better than team sport.

There's a camaraderie there and a brotherhood that is second to maybe only the military. And you win and lose as a team and you, you, you cry and you celebrate as a team. And, but that golf by yourself, there's, there's one person to blame. And then this one person you can pat on the back when, when you do well, and that's yourself. And I really, really liked that part of it.

Curtis. One of the things that used to piss me off so much as a kid, cause I was a, I love baseball and played a lot of baseball, you know, right in the middle of the third inning, the shortstop on the other team would go home. You know, and all of a sudden the game is completely screwed. And so, man, that, that threw me so much into golf because I was out starting with my mom's clubs, carrying my bag on a goat track, 54 holes a day all summer long until I got the caddy at the, you know, at the, at the, at the courts that we didn't belong at. But I was the same way. I, I just thought, you know, I can do this on my own time. I can do this at my own rate and I don't have to quit if I don't want to.

And I never did. Yeah. That's, you know, that's, that's the part of the game. I think that there's a lot of kids that are out there that would love to play the game. And, you know, that, that don't have access and that's, you know, that's what we constantly work at, uh, given the kids more access.

And we certainly have given them more access than, than 25 years ago, but we still need to improve. And, you know, I can see the membership. They don't want a hundred kids running around where my dad had the best junior program, probably in the state of Virginia, because he enjoyed the kids around. And that's what he was all about. And of course I was his son, but because of that, I always had kids to play with.

I didn't have to seek out the membership. Although we like to play with the guys at five o'clock on Wednesdays and Fridays afternoon. Cause they play for a couple of bucks and they, they bank me cause I didn't have a quarter in my pocket, but it was about gambling. You know, I wrote up for about three or four years, Jay, when I was doing my best on tour, I wrote a one page article for golf magazine once a month and I dearly loved it because I felt like I gave him some inside baseball. And one year I wrote, one year I wrote an article on gambling, how important it is to have something on the line, no matter what you play. If you were throwing pennies to the wall, if you were shooting hoops, if you were hitting home runs, or if you were playing golf, something had to be on the line.

Basically gambling, you know, I got, I got a couple of dozen, just horrific letters on gambling. Now I don't think I'm, I don't think I'm teaching kids to be chronic gamblers, but my point was you've got to have something on the line to make it count because that helps you back down the line when it really does count. And so I would gamble with the guys on Wednesday and Friday afternoons and, and dad knew it.

Dad knew what I was doing and he didn't say anything about it. But the point I was getting was that I always had kids to play with, always had kids to compete with and have some fun because as much as we talk about being on the golf course by ourselves and enjoy those afternoons, it's still more fun to have kids to play with. And guys that were pretty good at what he did playing golf and go out there and have some fun as well. Oh, hell yeah. Plus Curtis, that skin in the game that you're referring to is everything is a young kid to pull $5 out of your pocket and give it to one of your friends. Are you kidding me?

I mean, I just soon fight. I mean, there'd be no way I can remember one time my dad let me play in the skin game with a bunch of, you know, they weren't really good players and we didn't, it really wasn't even a country club, but I made a bunch of birdies. And I think I weighed 54 bucks, Curtis.

And that was so much money. I was only like 15 years old and my dad made me give it back because he didn't want me to lose my amateurs. My dad didn't know anything about golf back then. It was for the amateur status thing was pretty, uh, pretty stiff and penalty. Uh, if you got caught doing something like that or, or accepting, I always thought that was the most ridiculous thing in Amara golf.

No kid can afford to fly to Spokane, Washington to play in the U S junior, but they, you couldn't allow them to get help from an uncle or granddaddy or anybody outside of your family. So I just thought that was silly, but anyway, that's changed. But, uh, you know, gambling is all what's all about. Guess, guess what we did every day of our lives. We gambled on ourselves to play this silly game. And, and even though, even I like to say, even though some were more successful than others, you're still going through the same emotional up and downs of, of, of success or failure every day at night.

That's right. You know, I don't care. I don't care who you are. I laid in bed every day, every night of my life, going through my round and going through just nitpicking and how I could improve and how I could do better and how this, and I don't care what round or what it is and how well you plan. That's what you did because you had to get better because you're playing against the best of the best every single day. When I came out on tour.

Okay. I was at, I was a decent college player and amateur player and all that stuff, but still the tour was the largest jump in any sport. The largest jump is from college amateur sport to professional sport, because now you're playing against the all Americans in their school every day. And some of them were hardened veterans and, you know, playing against getting paired with a Nicholas early in your career or hey, a whirlwind or, you know, Tom Watson or wherever it was. Not only did you know the greatest line ever, the greatest line ever, you know, coming to that when Jack, when you were up against Jack Nicholas, this was a truism. You knew he was going to beat you.

He knew he was going to beat you and you knew he knew he was going to beat you. But then you get to a point and you play against Jack and you say, you know what, this son of a gun is not a whole lot better than I, although it was, but you know what, I got 18 holes here and if I do my best, I've got a chance. And I had a chance to go head to head against Jack twice in my career and I lost once and I came out on top once and I tell those stories because one of the proudest moments of my life was when he had to shake my hand. And you don't get that very often in any sport to go up against somebody you so idolized and were so good and still to this day arguably the best player of all time. And not only to get to play with him and compete with him, but actually might have come out on top of a particular day. So, and great sportsman, great person, just everything about it. Well, that's going to wrap up the front nine, but don't go anywhere.

We're going to have more Curtis Strange as we get to the back nine. This is Golf with Jay Delson. Are your workouts more fun than this? Well, if they are, then I want to sign you to an endorsement deal with Michelob Ultra. I'm looking for anyone and everyone who makes working out a blast. If that's you, head to TeamUltra.com for chances for awesome perks like Team Ultra gear and more. That's TeamUltra.com to enter. No bridges necessary. Open U.S. Residence 21 Plus. See official rules at TeamUltra.com.

Message and data rates may apply. Void for prohibited. Enjoy responsibly. A.B. Michelob Ultra. Light beer.

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You can also check them out on the web at wilsonpoolsplus.com. We're halfway there. It's time for the Back 9 on Golf with Jay Delsey. The Back 9 is brought to you by Fogelbach Agency with Farmers Insurance. Welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsey. I'm your host Jay. I've got Perley with me. Brad Barnes is taking great care of us here at the ESPN, the 101 ESPN Studios. And we are headed to the Back 9 which is brought to you by the Fogelbach Agency with Farmers. You need any sort of insurance product, anything. Ed Fogelbach and his family, he's got some of his children working in this agency, they're great people.

They're honest, hardworking, they'll take care of you. Call them at 314-398-0101. Let's just jump right back into the last half of my interview with Curtis Strange. Hall of Famer, Ryder Cup captain and player and the last person to win the U.S. Open back to back years. Now the leader in the 16th fairway. That ball is covering the flag right there. He's swinging well.

He's also seemingly the calmest one out there. Curtis Strange is brought to you by Golden Tee. One of the things I dug up that I did not know about you that I wanted to talk a little bit about is that you're a natural left-hander. So did your dad have to turn you around and play golf right-handed because of the lack of equipment?

No, actually the thing's been a bit misleading. I'm a right-handed dominant player athlete, but I kick left-footed, I right left-handed, I shoot a gun left-handed, I shoot pool left-handed, but my dominant side is right. So no, to answer your question, I did everything right-handed, but I did do some foolish little things left-handed. And I'm assuming, Jay, I fell through the cracks in first grade when they were switching everybody back in the day to right-handed to do everything.

I fell through the cracks and so you still can't read my handwriting and things like that. But no, and did it ever help my golf? No, no, I really don't think so and I really don't know if it. It's never been proven that guys like Hogan and Johnny Miller were left-handers. Did it help their golf? I've never seen anything to say that did or didn't.

But the old wives' tale is that it did. Were you all right-handed completely? I was all right-handed. My dad hit baseball left-handed, threw right-handed, played golf, swung left-handed, putted right-handed, completely confused. When I played with him as a kid, I was like, what hand are you? Because you hit left-handed, you were a good baseball player. Yeah, I could hit left-handed once he let me.

He didn't want me to turn around, but once I was able to turn around, it just became pretty natural. But I know that back in our generation, we see so many more left-handers on the PGA Tour now and the Corn Ferry Tour and things like that. But back in our day, I knew that some of that was going on, that left-handers were made to play righty.

Yeah, and a lot of that was due to equipment. There was very few companies that were making left-handed. I don't know if this is true or not, you could help me, but I think the Canadians had so many left-handers. We've had some wonderful left-handed Canadian players, Mike Weir, I'm drawing it black now, but I think that helps a little bit. But the tendency is to pick up a right-handed player because that's what you see in the golf shop and all these other retail stores. Yeah, no question about it. And I think just from my hockey background, I think like 40% of all the golfers up in Canada, Curtis, to your point, are left-handed.

So nowadays, left-handed equipment isn't any big deal. So let's talk a little bit about this career. I mean, World Golf Hall of Fame, Virginia Golf Hall of Fame, just amazing. I mentioned your decade in the 80s, you won 16 of your 17 PGA Tour events in the 80s, 5 Ryder Cup teams, you captained the Ryder Cup team. But there's something that you did in your career that is so difficult to do, and it's 1988 and 1989, you won consecutive U.S.

Opens. And you beat Nick Faldo, and I can still remember you in that front bunker at Brookline on the 18th hole on Sunday, and you getting that thing up and down to get in the playoff, and then you whipped his ass the next day. I can still remember that because I played the amateur at Brookline, I played the U.S. Open out there, that golf course just wore me out.

But Curtis, take us through some of the mental challenges about going through that whole process, man. To be our National Open champion, come on, what a dream come true. Well, gosh, I don't know, I was lucky. I was in the right place at the right time, more than I should have been. I think that I do go back to those days lonely on the golf course, not lonely, but on the golf course. You had four balls out there, and it happened more times than not in the afternoon.

One might have been Hogan and Arnold, who was a dear friend, and Jack, and one was me. And you play, and you play it hard, and did that help? I don't know. But I think just playing a lot of competition and progressing, as I said, through your life, and learning what your body does, how it reacts, how your mind reacts, and I think it's a lot in your DNA. Some people compete harder than others. I say this tongue-in-cheek, but in all honesty, when I played basketball all through high school, I loved to play defense, and I played defense hard, and I got plenty of technical fouls, but I didn't want that son of a bitch beat me. And I knew how to cheat, and I knew how to hold, and I knew how to do this, and I knew how to do that, and that was all because it was competitive. You know, you run a race, you want to win. Who knows?

Who knows? Some people say, well, you're a grinder. Well, I hope to God I was a grinder, because that means you got the most out of your game. Some people might say you might have been a hard-ass.

No, no, no, I don't like the term hard-ass. I just think you like to compete. And if it's a contest about who's going to compete hard, I'm going to finish okay. Because you work your ass off your whole life, Jay, and you do the things that you think are right for yourself, and I don't think anybody ever outworked me.

I've got a story about Tom Kite in a minute, but there's not many people that outworked me. So therefore, when I got into that position, I was prepared, and I was prepared both physically and mentally, and I think more so mentally, because I enjoyed it. It was your time to, in a funny kind of way, it was your time to shine.

It was your time to get on that big stage and say, hey, you know what, I'm more comfortable here because I think I've outworked the next guy. I stayed in condition. I ran during my good years on tour.

I ran every day of my life, and I ran for two reasons. To keep my legs in shape, and for the next day, if it came down to the nuts and bolts of the last hole or two, I was going to outbeat him because I was in better shape. And things like that mentally mean something to you.

I mean, it really does. I'll never forget that Tiger Woods said something derogatory about Phil Mickelson many, many years ago when Phil was a little overweight. He says, no way he can beat me because he's fat. Well, you know, there's a way to say that in a good and a bad way, but I know what he meant.

What he meant was that he was a better conditioned athlete than the next guy, so that gave him an advantage. And to be able to compete, and then you get into situations that, hey, I screwed up plenty. I screwed up plenty, but every time I screwed up, I tried to learn something from it. And what do you learn from it? You know, you learn how your body reacts.

You know, your process you went through. You've got to go to your strengths. When things are on the line and you're just as nervous as the next guy, you've got to go to your strengths. You can't try to get too cute. You know, all of the above. But bottom line, you've just got to do it or play.

And you've got to have fundamentals that when the entire outside world is a loud noise, it better be somewhat quiet within yourself. And it always was to me. It was like that.

It was quiet. It was slowed down sometimes. It was different.

It was different and I enjoyed it. Like I said, you screwed up plenty of times too, but you put yourself in position enough and you keep going at it enough, then you're going to get your chances. You know, you're going to get your chances. And then to go in the U.S. Open, it was just, I don't know how to explain.

It's just dreams, you know, little boy dreams do come true. My dad played in six years open, so when he would come home, it was a big deal. And then the first U.S. Open, I played in 76 in Southern Hills and I played out there and I said to myself, you know what, I'm not ready for this. This is way too hard for me. I got to get on with it. I got to learn how to play this game. Because it was way too hard. And then you just kind of keep progressing and keep going and then you compete and then you kind of get a chance and then you come through.

And it was a special feeling. Curtis, a couple things you said. First of all, having that awareness as a young athlete that I'm not good enough is really, really incredible. The second thing that you said that I'd love to talk about because I only experienced this a few times in my career. But you talked about how the game would slow down. And when I could slow the game down in my mind, I was able to do almost everything I wanted to do. The problem for my career is, you know, people call that being in the zone.

They call it a lot of different things. I don't care what you really call it. I can just remember those moments where I was almost like in a tunnel where I didn't know there were, you know, 20, 30,000 people around or I didn't care about TV.

I didn't care about anything. I had such an ability to focus on what it was that I wanted and what I was doing that it carried me through in some otherwise pretty nervy situations for me. Is that what you're talking about really?

Yeah. I mean, you know, they're all nervy situations because first of all, you know, you're on this stage and subconsciously, you know, you're on the stage in front of all these people and on TV and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, you get over that and people say, how do you do that? Well, you just do that by being there time and time again. And it becomes a second nature for you. But, you know, you learn how to slow these things down and go through the process. And it's an overused term, but it's exactly right. It's not that you have to do the same thing over and over and over again.

You just do it and you're ready and you pull the trigger. And if you have the ability and if you're cocky enough and down deep, we're all pretty doggone. If we believe in ourselves wholeheartedly, if we believe in our ability to get this thing done more than the next guy, not outwardly.

I think a lot of the young kids speak more about that outwardly than we ever did. And it comes off as cocky or arrogant or brash. You know, we never spoke like that. We were told not to speak like that.

But it sure as hell didn't mean I couldn't think it. So, you know, I'm going to tell you a quick story about being cocky. And sometimes when you're going well, you do feel pretty bulletproof at times. So I'm on the last sort of Memphis par five. I didn't hit a good drive and it really, really, really pissed me off. Because if I hit a good drive, I could knock it on and to make birdie and beat four guys. Four guys were on the green, say 12 on the par. And I was 12 on the par playing the hole. Curtis, this is the old colonial, right?

Yeah, the old colonial. My smile coming off the tee is that, you know what I want to do? I want to ruin four guys' dinner tonight. Okay? That's all I wanted to do. And that was kind of funny. Well, I hit a piss poor drive and it cut, it aggravated me.

But okay, I can still make parts. I'll lay it up. And I had like 90 yards. I hit in there six feet.

And I'm thinking to myself, and I'm playing with Hubert Green. And he was a tough guy. And he became a dear friend. And he said, he put it down to about two feet. And he said, what do you want me to do?

Mark it or make it? I said, put it and get out of my way. Just like that. And I didn't mean anything by it, but it came out like that. That I wanted this. And I can't believe I'm telling this story. And I made this thing. And I actually did feel bad for the poor guys back there.

Because they slumped over in the locker room and packed their shit and got on out of there. But you know, there's times like that, that you think to yourself, you know, it motivates you. It makes you, whatever it takes. And it's, you know, you go through these times and you go through them. And you do the best you can.

I can tell you all the stories and I can be with you all day long. And it's fun to do. But bottom line, you know, you work, you progress, you learn from experience. And then if you're smart enough, you capitalize on it when the chances, you know, present themselves.

And they did, thank goodness. There were some funny times along the way. There were some sad times along the way. You know, you go back to your hotel room and you want to cry. But you get up the next morning and can't wait to get to the golf course. And that was the best part of it. And that's the part where we're absolutely crazy, Curtis, because I can remember some of the early times on tour thinking, I just got my brains kicked in. And I've got my clubs on my shoulder and I'm going out to practice.

You know, you're like, what's wrong with me? Better than to get out there. And there's nothing better than to get out there. You've gone to the practice tee.

Okay, now it's not going to do you any good to stay upset at yourself while you practice. So let's settle down. Let's start from scratch. And whatever your problems you thought you had that day, let's eliminate that problem for tomorrow. Let's figure out what the deal was. And when you left that practice tee, either in 15 minutes or two hours, whatever it took, you went to bed and you said, I got this.

I got this for tomorrow. And that's the beauty of the game because it's not Band-Aids that we talk about putting on and fixing little scratches. It's fundamentals that we're trying to improve on. And they're the times that make you so proud down deep. The little things that people don't ever, ever know about is the times you went to the practice tee, you fixed the issue and the next day you played well.

And they're the little accomplishments that build and build and build on each other that later on, you know, really show their face in a big important situation. I just love the way we can hear Curtis Strange. It's so different than that grinder, that super intense guy.

He's relaxed. He's having fun talking to you. It's just a lot of fun. Yeah.

Wasn't it weird where he said, you know, he wasn't this kind of ball busting and I was kind of like, huh? Anyway, we're going to have a little more in the Curtis Strange interview on the Michelob Ultra 19th hole and then John and I'll break it down. So come back. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. Extraordinary effort deserves recognition. The management team at Marcon would like to say thank you to our over 500 employees and their families. Your dedication and commitment to our success has been so steadfast that we are experiencing another incredible year at a time when many businesses are struggling. Your performance has exceeded expectations. Every idea shared and every opportunity seized by you has led us to new heights. So thank you.

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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 Delsey. The 19th hole is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsey. I'm your host Jay. I got Burley with me and we are headed to my favorite portion of the show, the Michelob Ultra 19th hole brought to you by our friends at Michelob Ultra.

Man, a Michelob Ultra tastes really good right now. So we've got to jump into the tail end of the Curtis Strange interview. Let's wrap that up right now.

Alright, first bogey of the day and he's the champion again. Curtis Strange is brought to you by Golden Tee. There's something about this game, Curtis, that when we were kids bit us and grabbed ahold of us and I still hadn't really let go.

No, you know, I'm 65 years old, almost 66, Jay, and I dream about it still this day. Every time I go to my workroom, which nowadays is more about fishing poles and shotguns and things like that, but those clubs are sitting over there and there's not a day I don't go in there that I don't grab one and think about it and put my hands on it and the hands feel just as good as they used to be. The swing doesn't act the right, your body's not the same, but the hands on the golf course on the golf grip are still the same way.

Let me tell you a quick story about working hard. Tom Kite and I became dear, dear friends. We were many times Rata Cup partners in team events and we were total opposites. He was the guy, if he didn't play golf, he'd be in an 8x8 cell, a CPA like his dad.

No disrespect, but Tom Kite wasn't, let's say, a pure athlete. He was a golfer and I felt like I was a jock. So anyway, we get on the practice team and we always worked hard and we talked about the swing and we would converse back and forth and we were good friends. So one night in Atlanta, it's about an hour to go before dark and I'm hitting balls and he's hitting balls the other end of the range and now it's just the two of us, it's 30 minutes to go. And I'm thinking to myself, you know what, this son of a bitch is outworking me every day, he's not going to do it today. I've got plenty of energy left, I'm going to hit balls.

Well, I find out later, he's thinking the same thing. Now we get to dark and we're beating balls and beating balls and beating balls and now it's dark and we're still beating balls and I'm not giving up. Well, finally it's dark, I can't see anything and I want a beer, okay?

I just want a beer. So I walked by and I said, okay, you won, all right? He says, well, I'm going to putt for 15 minutes.

So I said, like hell you are and I wouldn't putt it for 15 minutes in the dark. It's crazy, it's crazy stupid stuff like that that, you know what, maybe helped you somewhere along the way, who knows? But he was a great friend but he was also a great competitor slash example from me to Hubert Green was a lot like that. Hale Irwin didn't beat so many balls but he was a tough guy and he and I became friends and we would talk about things that we would never repeat now about being competitors. You know you learn from those guys, you learn from those guys and how they went about their business.

Now you didn't try to copy anybody. That would destroy you but you just learned on how to play the game and situations and then all of a sudden you're in the situation at the US Open. So now you instinctively revert back to all those lessons and it works out.

Man, I gotta tell you. So Curtis, let's talk a little bit about the modern player and we've been able to work together a few times with Fox and watch some of these great, great players. The way that I was taught to play the game was that if you had a dogleg left, you hit a draw off the tee. If you hit a dogleg right, you hit a fade off the tee. If you hit a back left pin with some sort of, you know, trappy sort of hook and a back right pin with some sort of fade in the front pin, you never hit a low shot.

A little three-finger sashay cut. You know, all those little things you learn that you do subconsciously. Yeah, exactly. And then the modern-day player, I just don't see much of that and I don't. I know the equipment has something to do with it. I also know the way these guys are wired just seems different and I don't know if it's because I'm an old bastard now and I look back and think that the way I was taught was better.

But it seems that way to me and I just wanted to know what you thought. Well, first of all, Jay, what are you, 6'3", 6'4"? Yeah, 6'5", yep.

And 60 years old. So let me just say for all of our listeners out there, if Jay Delsing played today in the day's time, he'd hit it 400 yards. Jay Delsing is built the way today modern player is built, to get that out of the way.

I'm a shrimp compared to you, okay? But you played the way the equipment allowed you to play in the day, okay? And we were taught to come on tour because we had the spinny ball, and this is no disrespect to equipment or ball or anybody, but the ball spun so much more.

We had wood wood, steel shaves, muscle back irons. So number one priority was to hit it in the middle of the close face. Number two priority was to swing within yourself so you could square that thing up and impact the same way every time, okay? So therefore, the ball wouldn't spin offline. We used to call them crop dusters. The shot I used to hit that I hated more than anything else was kind of an undercut neck heel. And it wouldn't just go in the right rough, it'd go 150 yards in the right rough. Oh, and it felt so bad, that healy little, oh man, terrible.

I wanted to spit nails when I did that. But anyway, so nowadays with the equipment, the guys now are so incredibly talented and should be. Fogan had the greatest line of all time. One time somebody asked him, are the players today better than you were in your era?

And he thought for a moment, he says, I hope so, because if they aren't, I would not have contributed anything. And you think about that, how humble, how smart, how bold that statement was, to hear the best ball striker of all time potentially to say something like that. So in a very small way, the guys are so much more talented than we were. They're bigger, they're stronger, they run faster, they jump higher, as all of every sport.

But they also have the equipment that allows them to do what they do today. And that's no disrespect to the players at all. They play the way, if you and I played today, we would play the same way. We would try to overpower a golf course. But there's no doubt in my mind, Jay, not one ounce of doubt, that if you gave them our equipment in six months, the top players would still be the top players, the middle of the road would still be the middle of the road, and on down the line. They would learn in six months how to play the ball in the clubs.

They have that ability to play the game, and that doesn't change with any kind of equipment. Okay, Pearl, I've competed against this guy, probably played 30 to 40 rounds of competitive golf with him, and he didn't have 50 words to say to me. This was a really cool glimpse into a hard-to-know guy.

I absolutely loved it, Jay. It stunned me. And when you told me that the interview went well, which is not a surprise, but that he was still talking to him, I'm like, are you sure you had the right guys?

I know. He kept going and going. I was thinking that we'd get maybe 15 or 20 minutes, and it might be a little root canal-ish. But I looked up, and we got to the 30-minute mark, and he started dropping stories about Hubert Green and started telling stories about how he just loved to compete. It was really fun, and listening to him talk about life on tour and just seeing it through his eyes was pretty eye-opening. I can't relate to life on tour other than caddying through you a little bit, but the things that caught me, again, was just his calm demeanor throughout the interview.

I thought that was great. I just loved him talking about the early days of playing, being around his dad as his dad was running the country club as a pro. They had the cards playing by himself and how much he enjoyed that.

I know you and I can relate to that. That brought back great memories to me right when he talked about that, especially with the energy he talked about. Yeah, it was very impressive. I hate to keep harping on the same thing, but it's always just a phenomenal surprise when you get that kind of interview from someone like him.

All those years, you never know what he's thinking. Yeah, he stated that he didn't think he was a tough guy or a hard guy, and that's how I knew him as far as watching. In the little bit I saw him out on the golf course. It just always seemed that way.

I did get some up close and personal on some Ryder Cups when I was working for, I believe it was NBC. He was just kind of that cold, that hard, competitive guy. It was just fun to listen to him talk this way.

I also love, and I know you will relate to that because you love this to this day, and I'm bummed that I've lost this, and I do need to get back into it. He said he always had to play for money. He always had to play for something that had something on the line, or why bother playing? Oh my gosh, absolutely. It makes you not want to play. The first thing that goes wrong, you don't want to stick it out.

You don't want to try to dig deep and find a different gear. I love this story about Tom Kite and how hard he worked. I love who was going to work the hardest. I loved all those stories.

That's going to wrap up the back nine. I want to thank Dean Team of Kirkwood for jumping back on the show. Colin over there is a phenomenal guy, 314-966-0303. Call them.

I bought a used Volkswagen for my daughter, and it was just a fantastic vehicle. She's driving, it's nice and safe, it's running like a top, and Colin right now is looking for another vehicle for me. So call the Dean Team in Kirkwood, 314-966-0303. That's going to wrap up another show, Perley. I would say enjoy Arizona, but that's kind of ridiculous. How are we going to get Perley on the phone every week from Arizona? We'll skip him. Yeah, that's right. We're turning your mic off, Perley. Take a couple weeks off. That's okay. That'll work for me too. All right, this is golf with Jay Delsing. Hit them straight, St. Louis.