Golf With Jay Delsing - - Dan Dierdorf

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 Pro-Am Golf. Hey, good morning, St. Louis. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host, Jay. I got John Perlis with me. Perli, good morning.

What's going on? Good morning, Jay. Ready for this. I'm really excited about Dan Deardoff. Grew up listening to him.

Monday night football and obviously other things as well. And one of your best interviews, so I'm looking forward to it. So we have formatted the show like Around the Golf.

The first segment is called the On The Range segment. It's brought to you by our friends at Pro-Am Golf. You need lessons with Tom DeGrant.

He's been in the business for over 50 years. You need Trackman. You need anything. They've got great Puma gear. Go check him out at Pro-Am Golf. You can also check out our social media outlets. That's extremely important to us, John. Did you know that last month, Meade and I designated you as a social media manager for the show? Social media director. It's official.

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They will help you out. All right. So Pearl, we had Dan Deardorff. Man, when I, I've told you this, and people are probably tired of listening to me say this, but when I do this and try to prep for these interviews and look at what some of these guys have accomplished. I just like, man, what a slacker. I feel like such a slacker.

I should have got out more. It's like, here's a guy that's all American at University of Michigan. Big deal.

Especially back then. The Big Blue. Yeah, he's in their honor of fame or their Hall of Honor. It's called the Hall of Honor. He's in the Michigan State Hall of Fame. He's in the College Football Hall of Fame. Then, oh, he just gets drafted by the St. Louis Football Cardinals second round. 42nd pick overall. He's six Pro Bowls. One of the team members of the team of the decade in the 70s. Anyway, NFL Hall of Famer. Then he goes on to broadcasting and his broadcasting career is arguably as good as his football career. So anyway, we got a great sit down with him and always, you know, one of the things I have to say going in is he has represented the athlete about as well as any guy that's made the transition to me.

You know, just in terms of being intelligent, being prepared, and being respectful. That's why he has such a great career in it. Like you said, great transition.

Not everybody can do that. He did it big time. Like most people that you interview, very humbly. Just kind of kept going and succeeding at pretty much whatever seemed to be put in front of him. Now, he may have had some things that didn't work out so well, but he didn't mention any of those. No, he sure didn't. Not that we would either. No, no, why would you?

Okay, so I got a couple of, you know, I'm always searching the golf publications and reading and trying to come up with some obscure stuff. All right, so here we go. Here we go.

Hang on. All right, so a guy named Evan Harmeling. Okay, I'm not familiar with this guy at all. You watch more golf than I do, but Evan Harmeling took superstition to an entirely new level.

A couple weeks ago, he shoots 67 on Saturday at a corn ferry event. Okay, now this is a dude that went to Princeton University. That ought to tell you something right there. That's what I, thank you. I know, I just lobbed it over the plate and was waiting for you to crush it. And I gave you exactly the answer you were looking for.

Just crush it. So you're wondering, wait a second, what? So here's what this guy does. Comes out on Sunday with the exact same outfit on. Now, because he didn't go home that night? I'm not sure. Questions remain, but he had the same socks, pants, shirt, whole deal.

And guess what happened to him on Sunday? What do you think? I don't know. I'm going to say bad. I'm almost hoping it's not good because then he's going to do that the rest of his life.

Exactly. Guess what he did? He wins the tournament. No, he won in a playoff.

It was in a three-way playoff. The guy shot 69 on Sunday and won the corn ferry event a couple weeks ago. Well, first of all, how did this guy from Princeton end up winning a professional tournament? That's another issue. Or second of all, where do you go from here?

It's like when you're watching the NFL game and you say so-and-so, some players from Princeton are thinking, that's cool. That's like two of them ever. By the way, what do you think he's got in his pockets? One in each pocket. He's got two different. He's got a rabbit. He's got an abacus. And a lucky coin. He's got an abacus in his golf bag. No, he's got a rabbit's foot in one pocket and a four-leaf clover in the other.

Oh my gosh. That's why you couldn't get into Princeton, Pearl. There's a lot of reasons. You were not superstitious. I had those two things.

Everything else is the reason I couldn't get into Princeton. All right, so that's a little nutty. All right, so I did some other research. This is kind of cool. And this, I think, our listeners will appreciate. How close does the Tour player average hitting it to the flagstick from 100 yards in the fairway? So you've got a Tour player. You've got all the Tour players lined up. They have a 100-yard shot from the fairway. So all of us that listened to the Adam Long interview last week knows that all these guys don't always hit it great. And they also know that whoever they show on TV is playing their best at their best. And they make all the guys that are missing shots go away.

They don't show bad shots normally. So I'm going to say from 100 yards out of the fairway. So we're talking about, generally speaking, Pearl, how's this lie about perfect? The scenario is about perfect. I'm going to say, because I know it's not 3 feet, so I'm going to say 12 feet.

Meade, you got a guess on any of that? I'll go 10. 18.5.

Unbelievable. 18.5 is the average. 4% of the Tour players hit it inside of 3 feet.

And Meade, almost to the 10 feet, 25% hit it inside of 9 feet. So folks, when you're out there, there's a lot of Tour players that are just hitting the green from 100 yards out. What goes back to the best players in the world are hitting 12 or 13 greens a year. Granted, maybe the leader for the whole year.

12 or 13 greens a week, yes. Excuse me, what did I say, a year? I meant average. I knew what you meant.

Why did you correct me then? It just makes me feel better. But TV, in some ways, does it in justice because they make it like a guy never misses. And if they do, oh, he miscalculated the win.

No, he choked, he chunked, and he missed the dang shot. And I like the way Adam talked about it, that it's a hard game, you miss a bunch of shots. So, Pearl, what I would like to know is, we know this, that Tour players make 80% of our money in six tournaments. What I would like to know, how close do you hit your wedges on those six weeks? That's what matters.

Of course it does, right? Because we also know that, folks, if you're, and I think when I was playing it was 12 or 14 feet, but you hit your ball outside of that 12 or 14 foot range, you might as well hit it 30. You make about the same percentage.

Well, that's what I was going to say. So what did you say, it was 18 feet that these guys are hitting it? The average is 18 feet, five inches. What's the percentage of the players making it from 18 feet on the Tour? I mean, seriously, isn't it like 8% or 6% or something? Oh, it's low.

It's under 10%. Yeah, and people think that too, you know, I'll be playing with some buddies or something and some of you miss a 12 or 14 or 18 footer and get mad. I'm like, dude, you know what the odds are on the Tour to do that, let alone, those greens are a little bit better than what we're playing on.

Right. So your chances, you know, standing over that thing, just so you know, next time, on this next hole in your 20 feet, are about 2%. So don't get too upset when you miss another one that you had a 2% chance on. Now, Pearl, on those weeks, those special weeks, you know, where Adam Long's winning in a tournament or finishing, you know, it's probably better.

Of course it is. And your make percentage is better. Pearl, you might go for a 72-hole stretch and you might make half a dozen or so 30-footers that week. And so your percentage or make percentage is way up. Guess what that means?

You've got a lot of 30-footers that are coming that you're not going to make. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, so I just thought that was really interesting. That's awesome.

That's awesome. I like to have that perspective. I watch the guys hit great shots all the time. But especially for the up-and-comers, like the kids you're working with, they need to understand. It's not all about perfection. It's like, after you've done that and you've hit 18 feet, don't get mad. Force the 18-footer and 3-putt.

Or go to the next hole and yank your drive and do, you know, just don't carry that stuff with you. A little bit of perspective can go a long way out there. Just real quickly, we had a girl named Melanie Reed. Mel Reed won her first LPGA event. I followed her for a while. She's tough. She's from England. She turned pro in 2007. And another overnight sensation. Got her LPGA tour card in 2017.

And then won her first event in 2020. And what I loved is she said, I really need to call my dad. But I know right where he is.

He's probably extremely incoherent right now. And he's at the Black Swan Pub over in her room. They all raised a pint on that announcement, I'm sure. That's right. Well, that's going to do it for the On The Range segment.

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Welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host, Jay. Pearly May is with me here. Brad Barnes is taking great care of us here at the ESPN Studios. And we are headed to the front nine brought to you by the Ascension Charity Classic.

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He's a pro ball player, All-American lineman from the University of Michigan. Let's listen to what Dan has to say. I guess Denver's way of having to win this game, they're going to have to throw the football. The bad news there is that Smith, Conlon, Bennett, they're really upset. They didn't get any sacks last week against Dan Marino and the Dolphins. They're coming after John Elway tonight.

Dan Deardorff is brought to you by Golden Team. When I look at what you've done in the game of football and then your great broadcasting career, it's got to seem like, man, how the hell did you do all these things? I mean, you went from University of Michigan, you're in the College Football Hall of Fame, you're in the University of Michigan Hall of Honor, you're in the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, you were a second-round draft pick by the St. Louis Football Cardinals and played 13 seasons in the NFL, which that in itself, 13 seasons in that league at that time is just crazy. Six-time Pro Bowl, three-time Offensive Lineman of the Year.

This is what I want to start with, Dan. Being from Canton, Ohio, what was it like when you got inducted in the NFL Hall of Fame? It had to be just like a pinch-me moment.

Oh, well, yeah, it was. You have to understand that there's not a person in Canton, Ohio, that doesn't feel some spiritual connection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It was built while I was growing up. I was 13 years old, standing there with my father.

We watched Pete Rozelle turn over a spade full of dirt to begin the construction of the building. I only lived about a mile from the hall. I used to ride my bike down there, watch it being built. I went to every Hall of Fame game, every enshrinement ceremony until I started playing in the NFL. Yes, it's when I actually was enshrined, and I'm standing there at the podium, and I'm looking out, and I'm looking at my high school classmates, and teachers, and old coaches, and neighbors that lived next door to my mom and dad.

It was a bit overwhelming. You know, Dan, it's interesting when you kind of look back and look at the years. You're saying you were 71.

I'm 60 years old. People told us this when we were younger men that your life was going to go by quickly, but, damn, it sure is true, isn't it? Yes, it really is.

This is not groundbreaking material, but it doesn't seem possible. The old saying is by young at heart, and that's really so important. Just avoid mirrors and just try. As I look out from inside here, everything looks the same.

I know if there's a mirror there, it doesn't look the same. So I feel young, but I feel good but look bad. Dan, I've got to tell you. I've orthopedically paid a price, Jay, for all those football games and all those practices on that no-good, rotten astroturf. Oh, my gosh, Dan, I can't even imagine what your body's got to feel like. And I concur about avoiding mirrors and light at all times.

Mirrors are okay if the room's dark, but no other use for them. Well, Jay, I have more titanium in my body than most people have in their golf bags. I'm loaded up. I told Debbie the other day, when I get cremated, what's left behind, it's going to look like the Terminator in the movie there where the outside of them got burned off and there's this metal infrastructure.

That's what I've got going on. Dan, one of the things that struck me today when I was looking at some of the teams that you played on, some of the great Michigan teams, and then came to the Cardinals and some early struggles and then the years with Coryell, Dan, talk a little bit about the importance, in your opinion, of leadership. There's players, and I know you were a leader in the locker room, but you had coaches like Bo Schembechler and you had Bump Elliott and you had Don Coryell. Talk a little bit about leadership and how important it was for you and your football teams.

Well, you have a choice to make. My rookie year with the Cardinals, we went 4-9-1. Those nine losses were more losses than I'd experienced in my high school and college career put together. And all of a sudden you find yourself in, you talk about in uncharted waters. I didn't know how to handle being on a losing team.

I'd never experienced it before. And so you learn the value of accountability. You learn the value of no one is there to help you.

It's up to you. And that's where the leadership comes in. You either are going to pout, you're going to feel sorry for yourself, or you are going to try like heck to work your way out of it. And that's the only way that I knew how to deal with it. And I was very fortunate.

We might have lost a lot of games. But when I looked around the locker room on that first team of mine in St. Louis, I realized that I was teammates with Larry Wilson and with Jackie Smith and Jim Bakken and Jim Arden, Ernie McMillan and MacArthur Lane and Mel Gray and just so many talented football players but wonderful human beings. And you just try to make the best of it.

But the only way you make the best of it, Jay, is by working your butt off. You know, Dan, one of the things that strikes me and one of the things that pushed me into golf was that I just didn't have patience for people that didn't want it as much as I did. And I didn't have the – we played in an era where there wasn't select sports. So we were rounding kids up in the neighborhood and playing church league.

And you were playing pickup football, whatever it was like. But it had to be hard, Dan, to be in a locker room with 50-something other players. You know, and they're not all like-minded.

And they all have different approaches. And I would guess that if you knew who wasn't on the same page, someone like you would know that, you know, when you were achieving at high levels, you knew what it took and you could look around and go, man, you know, we're not on the same page, all of us. No, that is one of the luxuries of playing an individual sport like golf is that it's you. It's all you and nobody but you. And you're right.

I don't care how good a football team you're on. There are always a group of people that it's just not as important to them as it is to you. And you can look at them and you can make an effort to try to bring them along. I think that's leadership. I think that's what a leader does. But you also have to come to grips with the fact that for some of them, they're just along for the ride. And we used to have a saying, don't let the locker room door hit you in the ass on the way out because that's that.

They never last and they get cycled in and out and they never seem to understand what went wrong. And yet if you're looking at it from afar, it's so obvious it's it's really so simple. How much does it matter to you? How much individual pride do you have? I don't care whether you're a golfer, a tennis player or a player in the National Football League or at any level. How important is it to you? It's a question. This is where the mirror comes in.

You do have to look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself that question. Dan is man that is so true. Do you have any recollection, does any specific locker room speech or or motivational thing told you by some of the unbelievable coaches you had stand out in your mind? Well, when I was at the University of Michigan, racially, America was having a tough time. And there were, you know, on college campuses, you know, there was, you know, a lot of not just racially, but, you know, just unrest over the war in Vietnam was still going on.

And and it was turbulent times. And Bo Schembechler stood in front of us and he gave us a talk about being on a football team. But he said, you need to understand something. He said, when I look out, when I look at this room, I don't see a white player. I don't see a black player. I don't see a wide receiver.

I don't see a tackle. I see the individual pieces of my football team. And he goes, we will never have an issue on this team because I'll tell you why. You are all about to learn a lesson when I run you so hard and you're down on your hands and knees throwing up.

You have no idea whether the guy next to you who's throwing up is white or black. He's just your teammate. And he's in the exact same predicament that you're in. And, you know, he was a master team builder. And I always he was right. It's one of the things that I really am so pleased with that at a young age, I played a sport where you don't see color.

The only thing you see are results. And if you could play, I it doesn't matter. And and that's the way it is, I think, with all good players. Yeah, boy, that's that's pretty special. So, Dan, talk a little bit about the transition you made from the high level of play in the NFL to your broadcasting career. I know you started I know you love St. Louis. I know you've done so much for the community. Your name's a staple around town.

You started with Game O X. Well, it was and that was a that was a godsend. I just fell into it. I was asked to substitute on a call in show on a Saturday afternoon. It was about my fifth or sixth year in the league. And I started working at Camo X. Robert Island, who was, you know, I know that I struggle for words to describe his impact on my career. And and the influence he had over the city of St. Louis as the general manager of Campbell X. But he gave me an opportunity. He gave me the microphone at the maybe the most powerful radio station in the United States. And a sports department where I'm sitting in there and Jack Buck was our boss. But I'm sitting in a room with Dan Kelly and Bob Costas and Bill Wilkerson and Gary Bender and on and on and on Mike Shannon.

And it and I'm looking around going, I should be writing them a check for this experience, not the other way around. So I, I have accomplished nothing in the world of broadcasting that it if I was being honest with myself, that I wouldn't realize that it was all because of the start I got a Camo X radio. You know, Dan, it's interesting, isn't it?

Camo X. You could list Hall of Fame broadcasters, you know, all over the place. The the lineage that we've had here for so many years is just remarkable.

Well, I'm I know you've got to be a certain age, but I worked at Camo X when we're talking about Bob Hardy and Rex Davis in the morning and Jack Carney in the morning. And and, you know, just, you know, on and on and on Jim White at night and Ann Keefe in the afternoons. And it just it was just this extraordinary collection of talent.

And to have been a very tiny part of that was one of the most gratifying things I've ever done professionally. Well, that's going to do it for the first half of the Dan Deardorff interview. But and that will wrap up the front nine.

But don't go anywhere. We will have the conclusion of that interview on the back nine. This is golf with Jay Delsing. 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.

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Welcome back. It's golf with Jay Delsing. I'm Jay. We got John, my favorite caddy and friend over here.

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Call him if he will take care of any and all of your insurance needs. All right. So we're going to go just directly pearl right back into the Dan Deardorff interview. The way he threw the ball in total command wasn't rattled at all. So great composure, but really showed unbelievable accuracy in throwing the ball. You're right.

They they might have something you don't want to jump to conclusions on one game. But wow, pretty impressive today. Dan Deardorff is brought to you by Golden Tee. You know, Dan, I had Bob Costas on the show not long ago and he told the most remarkable story.

And I'll tell that again. He was a young guy, 22 years old, out of University of Syracuse. And he got said the same thing. He got brought into St. Louis with Bob Hyland and then Jack Buck and did this interview and figured, hell, I'll never get this job at my age with these guys around and went to Stan Musial and Biggies and had a hamburger and a Coke and left the waiter three three one dollar bills, a quarter, a penny and a dime because Stan Musial's lifetime batting average was 336.

And I still get such a kick out of that, Dan, because who the first of all, who the hell knows? I'm a lover of baseball in the game and Stan, but who knows what his lifetime batting average is? It just was a wonderful story. Costas has such an intellect. He could probably tell you every one of Stan Musial's at bats in the 1948 October series with I seriously the guys.

He's phenomenal in that regard. But it was interesting. At Camo X, Bob would Bob was not the most punctual person that ever lived. Bob was professionally late and it used to drive Jack crazy. And, you know, when when Bob was was working in the sports department at Camo X, if you hit, he and Jack would be at odds sometime. And it was kind of looking back on it. It was pretty funny.

Oh, my gosh, Dan, I'm surprised you haven't written a book or two because some of the stories, you know, unfortunately, or fortunately, I guess, depending on how you look at it, some of them are better off just, you know, not told to the general public, I think. Well, it was quite a collection of personalities. And, you know, it just I look back and just so many wonderful memory, you know, Jack Jack Buck was colorblind and and I mean, really colorblind.

He only he only saw shades of black and white. And and and so he, you know, Jack would love to wear colorful outfits. So one time we're sitting in the sports office and here comes Jack walking around the corner. He has on a pair of red pants and an orange sport coat. And he comes walking around the corner and all of our mouths just drop open at the exact same time with just a look.

We're just aghast that it might be the worst looking outfit I ever saw in my life. And Jack just stops in mid stride and looks at us and goes, Carol wasn't home. His wife wasn't there to get him dressed. And Jack always kept the blue blazer in the sports office for a fallback position in case situation like this would arise. So he was able to put on a blue blazer and save the day.

But just little things like that. It was. It was a wonderful time.

A simpler time. That's for sure, Dan. That's for sure is right. Gosh. But when I look at the career that you've had in broadcasting, one thing stood out. I mean, first of all, let me tell you, 12 seasons is the color analyst for Monday Night Football.

Oh, my gosh. 15 years on the NFL on CBS. I did not realize you did an Olympic game in 1988. And one of the things I wanted to ask you about is, did you do did you start with a boxing match or was that one of your first assignments with ABC? Well, what happened is that at ABC, Howard Cosell retired and he did he did boxing for the network. And then when Howard retired, Jim Lampley worked at ABC and he took over the boxing and boxing instead of play by play. You call it the blow by blow announcer and and then Jim Lampley left ABC and went to HBO and the president of ABC Sports. This was my second year at ABC. He came to me, Dennis Swanson, and he said, Dan, I got a crazy idea, but I want you to learn how to do the blow by blow announcing for boxing.

We we want to find a way to put you on the air year round. And so I started I started doing that and I did it for nine years. And there were there were years I did 20 fights on wide world of sports from all around the world. And I've done fights from South Africa, from Australia, from from all around Europe.

And and it was I really enjoyed it. I I'm always been a boxing fan and it just gave me an opportunity to be a bigger part of ABC Sports. No doubt it, Dan, when we were younger, boxing was just so much of a bigger deal.

You know, the names. I still remember the pleasure of watching Mohammed Ali fight that was just like an orchestration of athleticism that you'll never see again. And it was just fantastic. Boxing, I can just tell you, was a staple of wide world of sports on a Saturday afternoon.

And I'll tell you something. It would outrate any college basketball game, anything you threw at it. And boxing did really, really well until cable television came along. And then what happened is HBO started paying prices for fights that network television.

They couldn't compete financially. So what happened is the fighters started making more money because of what cable was paying. But fewer people got to see them fight. And and and it really has turned boxing into a really unseen. Not by the numbers that it used to be. Yeah, people still watch it, but it's all on pay television. And and the biggest fights are all pay per view.

And it's amazing. Back in the 80s and the early to mid 90s, the quality of fights that would be there for the American public to watch on free television. Again, how much are you having at Michigan right now? I'm sorry with Jim Branstad or your former teammate? Well, yeah, I'm when I retired from CBS after the 2014 season, or the 13 season actually was my last I really had no intention of ever going into a broadcast booth again.

I was completely retired. But my alma mater, they had a turnover in their radio booth and they they backed me into a corner. And I have to tell you, it's it's doing radio for for Michigan has been a it's been a real blessing for me. We've got a home in northern Michigan and the first part of the season I just commute down to Ann Arbor from our home up north and and I had forgotten in my 43 consecutive years in the NFL. I had really forgotten how much fun it is to be on a college campus on a Saturday afternoon. The the energy the tailgating with old friends and old teammates and and being in Michigan Stadium with 112,000 other people.

When the Wolverines run out of the tunnel. It's I've had a ball doing it. And the great thing about it is doing television.

I always had to wear a coat and tie. And now I can wear a baseball cap and a sweatshirt and look just like everybody else. And I've had a lot of fun doing it. Yeah, that's terrific.

And people up there really enjoying it. So we are a golf show, I've got to tie in a couple of the things that you've done so much for the community here. But back in the day, you and I started this little your your Cardinal Glennon fundraiser. And it's grown dropped me off a while back and it's gone.

Just great guns. And I think Chris progress now taken over for you and continue to raise money for that hospital not great cause. Well, about two or three years ago, I told Chris that that I it's I pretty much run the course with it.

It's still the dirt or pronger tournament. We have it out at Boone Valley every year. Chris has done a wonderful job of of doing 95% of the work and he's getting a lot of enjoyment out of it.

But yes, I've been fortunate enough to the emergency room and trauma center at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital is named in my honor over. We're coming up on 35 years doing that tournament Jay if you can imagine that and the millions of dollars that it's raised for the kids to Cardinal Glennon makes me makes me very proud. So Dan, there's something special about the game of golf.

That's unlike I love it all the others. I know you love the game and they're probably not much, not two things that are less compatible than being an all pro offensive lineman in the NFL, and then going trying to play golf. Well, you're right about that. And, but that's the beauty of the game of golf. You don't have to play it like you play it to have a lot of fun doing it. And as you well know, so much of the enjoyment and the satisfaction from the game of golf surrounds the people you're playing with the camaraderie the friendships. And it's something I can't play anymore.

Physically I don't have the balance I just can't. I can't do it anymore and it was the spending a day with your best friends on a golf course. But playing a $5 NASA. It to me, it was. It was the best part of my life.

It's just in my retirement and my old age I had. Oh my god I had so much fun, and maybe some of it is the quality of my friends, but by God we used to have a great time and I miss it Yeah, there's something about that camaraderie Dan that it this game is a just a tremendous Uniter, you know when it's a it's a charitable fundraising engine that we're approaching the PGA tours approaching $3 billion in charitable dollars earned since its inception in the middle 60s and it's it's unrivaled by anything else in the sport world. No, it really is the PGA Tour as has really done a good job of, you know, creating a charitable aspect of every single one of their tournaments and it's really, I don't know whose idea that was originally but it was, it was a darn good one and again golf is so many lessons to be learned, but it's it's an all inclusive game. Yeah, let's face it. You have to be a certain type of athlete, and a certain makeup to play the game of football.

The same with. You just don't walk down to Busch Stadium and and hit a ball over the centerfield fence, but anybody can walk on to a golf course and approach the game the right way. Play it within the rules. And regardless of your skill level, get untold satisfaction from doing it, it's, it's, it's really, it's really the beauty of the game of golf is that there really is a home in golf for everybody. Dan, that's just beautiful. Do you have any, any golf story that sticks out in your mind? I know some of our buddies Tom Sainert and Doug Albrecht and some real real characters that you've had an opportunity to spend some time with.

Is there anything that you could tell the folks that sticks out in your mind? Oh, geez, I, you know, we've been fortunate to, to travel the world and play golf. I will tell you this, Jay, you, you made you won't believe this when I tell you, but we made a trip over to Scotland and Ireland. And probably, oh, geez, it's been, it's been 15 years, but Doug and I, Doug Albrecht and I and Tom Sobe and Tom Sainert, the four of us went over there together. And I was, I, I'd gotten to the point where I couldn't walk 18 holes anymore.

I needed a cart. Well, we're going to play the old course. And as you are well aware, there are no buggies at, at St. Andrews. Unless you're Doug Albrecht and, and honest to God, he hired the assistant greenskeeper of St. Andrews to drive me around and to be my caddy for 18 holes of golf.

I actually played the old course in a golf cart. I, there's not very many people that could say that, Dan. That's pretty awesome.

Yes, that's when you have friends, when they are, when they do something like that for you. What does that happen every day. And that'll do it for the back nine.

Don't go anywhere. We have the Michelob ultra 19th hole come back and Pearly and I'll talk about that, Dan Deardorff interview. This is Golf with Jay Delsing.

I'm Dan Deardorff and I'll talk about that. Dan Deardorff, an appliance parts company would like to thank Sean Young and the entire Marcon information technology team for zero web failures this past year. That's right. Zero web failures, meaning zero frustration for more cones valued customers.

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Welcome back. It's golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host Jay. I got Pearly with me and we are headed to and it's one of our favorite four segments. The 19th hole spot sponsored by Michelob Ultra. I love the fact that it's sponsored by Michelob.

When you're first on tour and how much you want to be associated with Anheuser, the whole thing, I just think it's so exciting. First on tour, what was he, 21 years old, here we are 60. You're 60 next week. You're 60 already. Another 20 years later. You're 60 already. Seriously, congratulations.

What a cool sponsor and what a lifelong connection. You know what, really, they've been great to me. I tried to tell them when I was playing, please just make me even a bad offer and I'll take it because I want to be with. That's why you got the bad offer. I never got to you. I didn't get this guy for nothing because he wants a bad offer.

Ding, ding, bad he is. But let's get into the Dan Deardorff interview. I love that interview. One of your best, if I may say, one of your best interviews, period.

To me, super, super exciting. There was a couple subjects he covered, but where do you want to start? I guess one of the things that I wanted to know, I wanted to kind of see if he could throw people in the locker room a little bit and talk a little bit about any sort of motivational speeches. He had great coaches from Bo Schembechler to Don Coryell and just legends of the football game. So Jay, that's 50 years ago. He was being coached by one of those legends, Bo Schembechler at Michigan. And it was, I'm not sure what I would call it, disheartening, concerning, whatever, that they were dealing with much of the same subject matter we are now.

50 plus years, 51, 52 years later. I don't know. We're not going to go into that. That's not what the show is, but that's scary. Look, that's exactly what hit me as well. When he said, Bo said, I don't see color when I look in here. I see young men with like-minded young men that are trying to accomplish something that is really not easy to accomplish.

And when I'm running you and you are down on your hands and knees, sick after this extreme workout, the guy next to you is not one bit concerned about what color skin you have. And, you know, we were at a time when I said to Dan, you know, it was such a simpler time. He told some great Jack Buck stories, which is, you know, dear to my heart. And, oh, man, you know, with the time that we're in with all of the unrest and all of the divisiveness and all the craziness, it just, I almost feel like I long for that simplicity again. Yeah, but I guess my point is, it apparently wasn't that simple because they were dealing with some of the same stuff. We had Vietnam going on. To your point, he didn't think it was simple. Right, right, exactly. And by the way, you can look back, that wasn't too simple. There was a bunch of scary times.

But let's get past that because that's not where we go here. So what about his golf story? How about his golf story about playing St. Andrews? I loved it.

Absolutely. I have to tell you. Tell you what popped in my head because I said to myself during he's telling that story, I'm thinking, God, I wish, I hope I do something like that for a friend or whatever.

I have to tell you what popped in my head and you can relate to this. X amount of years ago, my father was still alive. We were doing our fishing trip and he couldn't move around with his hips. I went to a local golf course up in Sioux Lookout, Ontario, rented a golf cart, had it shipped to the fishing camp, which had never been happened before. And it was at our camp at our cabin door.

My dad was all pumped up about that. And everybody else was going, where do you get that? I said, well, you just go, you don't have to go several provinces over. You get it.

But what about trying to get your dad in the boat? Yeah, we're just saying those kinds of things. So I think we do do cool things. And I love that that's something that stuck out for him. All the cool things I'm sure Dan has experienced in his life and all the cool places, he remembers something like that. That's cool.

You know what else is really cool, Pearl? Here's a guy that started with, so we threw in the, we tied this, wrapped this whole thing up with golf. He started and he loves the game. Unfortunately, he can't play it. And I said to him, I think at one point, you know, golf and football are probably two of the hardest things to try to mix. He starts a fundraiser because he loves the game.

He loves the camaraderie part of it. And 35 years later, they've run, they've raised multiple millions of dollars. They've named the trauma center and the emergency room after him, which is a byproduct that I know he didn't give a damn about. But it's a cool thing. He cares, but yeah, that wasn't the impetus.

But that was not the reason we got it started. I mean, cause Dan's a humble guy like that. And it's just another, it's just another incident or consequence, a result of doing great things. But it's another example, Pearl, of what golf is.

This game is ridiculous, man. But when you're out there doing good things and living at a high level, whether it's playing football, playing golf, announcing, traveling the world, good things happen around you. And I think that to me, that, and I love the other part, I know we're running out of time, but when he just talked about the commitment, what it really takes, you had one of your best questions ever. You know, Dan, did you notice the guys in the locker room that weren't terribly committed, weren't all with it and that kind of stuff. And he said, absolutely. And he told a great story about, you know, that whole perspective. And none of them could figure out why they didn't make it. But that's always the way it is.

That's awesome. You know, one of the things that stuck out to me when, and somehow I knew this as a kid, I didn't want to have to deal with any of that. You know, we get, I can remember, I don't know how many times having a really cool baseball game going on and all of a sudden the shortstop from the other team has to go because he didn't want to play anymore. He used to piss me off. I'd be like, wait a second, we're in the fourth inning, how the hell can you leave?

Anyway, that's a little off the subject, but I, But wait a minute, he was on a roll, that was like a little Animal House segment there where he was on a roll. Just let him go. I'm pretty mad, let me go. Man, that's going to wrap up another show.

I hate these, they're going too fast. What does that mean? We're getting older, we're getting better, we're getting older. Ooh, half of it, half of it. I'm not sure which half.

Don't think too much on it. Yeah, Pearl, that's a wrap up another show. Thanks for being with me.

Me, thanks so much for taking care of us. And we will be back next week. This is Golf with Jay Delsing.

Hit them straight, St. Louis. 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 101 ESPN dot com, as well as at JayDelsingGolf dot com.