Golf With Jay Delsing - - Nick Ragone

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 Pearly with me. Pearly, good morning. What's going on?

Nothing, man. Just ready to roll on this show. Another interesting filled hour with you and me.

Interesting for who? Yeah, anyway, so we formatted the show like around the golf, and the first segment is called the On The Range segment. It's brought to you by Pro-Am Golf. Pro-Am Golf has everything you need, man. You can get lessons, you can get club fitted, you can get shoes. They got great Puma gear over there.

Go check them out, Pro-Am Golf. Also, our social media. All right, so let's just be real about social media, all right? I hate it. Yeah, I hate it.

But we know we have to do it. So Twitter is at Jay Delsing. Facebook Golf with Jay Delsing, Jay Delsing Golf. LinkedIn is Jay Delsing.

And we don't give you an Instagram account because first of all, I think it's just something like that, Jay Delsing. But ever since we stopped doing it, the folks that run their social media for us have told us that it's been doing well. So we are kind of sticking with that. Yeah, absolutely.

That's one of the things that's continued to drive us in this whole thing is people are enjoying it. Yeah. So I wanted to mention the Delsing report. Visit my YouTube channel. I am going to do a bunch of product reviews. I've got some training aids that we're going to put on there. And if you have a request or you would like me to check something out and give you my opinion of it, jdelsinggolf.com, and that's J-A-Y spelled out on both sides of that, send it to me and I'll put it on there.

If you have a product, reach out to us and we'll put it out there. I did Puma shoes. Puma's got a new Ignite golf shoe out. For me, I've had trouble with my feet. These golf shoes are phenomenal for me because not only are they lightweight, Pearl, we don't have the nails in the bottom of them like we did when we were kids and wearing the foot joy classics, which you suggest murder our feet. These things have so much support and they're extremely comfortable. So you got to check them out. Do they come in blue suede though?

I don't think they do. Because you were a blue suede at one point. Brown suede. Was it brown suede? Yeah. Maybe it was just a little bit of blue after you got the brown stains on there or something. I had a brown suede. Yeah.

Right after some of my swings made me blue and they turned my shoes blue. Yes. So check that out. We have a neat relationship with David Farity and Sniper Brand Golf. Anytime you buy a product from Sniper Brand Golf, we are going to donate a dollar to Troops First.

And that's a great cause in helping those men and women heroes. I want to thank Kathy and Bob Donahue. Donahue Painting and Refinishing. Their business is booming right now. And if you want to make your home beautiful, you need any sort of painting, refinishing, anything done, call Kathy and Bob. They are great people and they will do a terrific job.

I wanted to talk a little bit this show, Jon, about Jay Monahan and the job that the staff is doing down at the PGA Tour. Okay. So it's been talked about at Nausea. The pandemic and all this has been, we're all tired of it. We are. We're tired of it. We can't disregard it. We all have significant people in our lives that we've got to care for and be mindful of. But what I'm so impressed with, first of all with golf, and you know where golf honks, I am.

I just yep about it all the time. But golf was really the first big thing to come back. No spectators and it's different, it's new. The protocols, we talked about this on many shows, the testing. The first week down at Colonial, they tested 1600 times and 0 for 16. So they had no positive tests the first week.

There have been positive tests before. What's really been impressive to me is the leadership that Monahan has shown. He stepped up to the plate. He said, here's how we're going to adjust and here's what you players need to do. And you need to quit going because fitness and working out and staying physically fit is such a massive part of the tour now. And he said, you're going to do that in our controlled fitness areas, not the gym over across the street. And you're paying attention to these restaurants.

You're not going, I mean he's basically telling them one of the things. It's a bubble, right? They're creating the bubble. They're traveling. We talked about with the airplanes and things like that. But Jen, the one thing that hasn't been talked enough in sport in general is the responsibility the players have here.

Major League Baseball, NHL player, NBA players. You have a responsibility once your season restarts or begins for the first time to do the right thing. Absolutely. Yeah.

Is it going to be easy? No. You're a 24 year old young millionaire and you want to do what you want to do. Great. Then don't play. Let me ask you about the responsibility for them to play. Where do you stand on that?

Oh, hell yeah. It's a part of our fabric. It is a part of our community. And if they don't want to play like anything else, I'm fine.

Don't play. But in general, baseball needs to start. Golf needs to keep going. NASCAR needs to keep going.

The other sports need to happen. There's answers around this kind of thing. And you're right. This country depends on that, whether it's entertainment, distraction, fun, something to talk about.

Whatever you want to call it, it's part of us and it's a big chunk. And I'm not looking for those guys. There's ways to do it safely. And that's why I'm saying get out there and play. I totally agree. And there is a huge responsibility as a professional athlete to do this right. To do it and do it right.

And look, you don't have to, let's say your wife is an immune compromised person or has battled with cancer, whatever. I get that. And if you want to opt out, and certain players will opt out, and I totally respect that. But for the other guys? Go play. And do it right. Put your ass back in your hotel room.

You don't need to go out to the clubs. You need to just chill for a while. Is it hard? Yeah. You're paid handsomely.

Do the right thing. Yeah, I think it's past the money thing. It's just what's needed. And obviously we're golf fans, so we're getting a lot out of the tour coming back on.

But the other folks that aren't necessarily, I'm really hoping that the other sports start kicking in for them. Well, and one of the things I wanted to talk about, Brooks Koepka, his caddie tested positive a while back at Hartford. So did Graham McDowell's caddie. And it turns out that they, I don't know if you heard how the caddies contracted the virus, but they believe it was at a funeral.

They had a funeral of a mutual friend, the two caddies, and they believe that's, because they've kind of not exactly contact traced, but they've gone back and tried to trace how the hell did this happen. And they believe that's, you know, and that's life, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, things are going to happen. Things are going to happen. But it is life.

Things happen in life. Yep. Yep. But what I think, you know, Webb Simpson goes out and wins the Hilton Head event. And we've had Paul Tesori, his caddie on the show, and they talk about how important picking schedules are for Webb because he picks, because he's not a bomber.

He only hits it like 290. Yeah. It's about like what you do anyway. And then, oh yeah, that's it. Throwing it, throwing a fricking bomb on me. Yeah. Trying to just sneak one in there.

But yeah, you caught it anyway. So, but Webb comes back after winning Hilton Head and discovers that family members tested positive. And so he pulls out, out of respect.

That's what doing the right thing looks like. By the way, that's such a great team. Yep. We're going to get Webb on the show. Yep. I'm working on Webb. I'm also working on Brooks Koepka. We got some, well, we got some rock star interviews, you know.

Sure. We'll start getting some golfers. We'll start getting some champions tour players, especially with the Ascension Charity Classic. And speaking of the Ascension Charity Classic, my guest today is the Executive Vice President and the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of Ascension, Nick Corgones.

You got to stick around and listen to Nick. Ascension is an incredible corporate citizen, and this is going to be a great event for North County. WX OS, WX OS HD1 East St. Louis 101 ESPN.

This is Dan McLaughlin TV voice of the Cardinals. St. Louis is one of the best sports cities in the country. We also have a tremendous history of supporting professional golf. We're excited to bring professional golf back to St. Louis with the inaugural Ascension Charity Classic September 28 through October 4 at beautiful Norwood Hills Country Club. Legends like Ernie Els, Fred couples, Jim Puric, Steve Stricker and many more will be in St. Louis for tickets and sponsorship information. Head to Ascension, charity, classic.com.

That's ascension, charity, classic.com. 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 hit the team ultra.com for chances for awesome perks like team ultra gear and more. That's team ultra.com to enter. No bridges necessary. Open US residents 21 plus official rules at team ultra.com.

Message to data, read and apply. Always more prohibitive. Enjoy responsibly.

AV middle of ultra, light beer, St. Louis, Missouri. Are you tired of forking out the big money? All those dollars on golf balls?

Well, we finally have an option for you. Let us introduce you to Sniper brand golf balls. This brand new product is a Serlin covered ball that is just great to play. It's long off the driver.

It's accurate with the irons and importantly, it's soft around the green. And you know what the best part is? It's just $23.99 for a dozen. That's right, $23.99 and a portion of every sale goes back to a military or law enforcement agency. Find Sniper brand online at thesniperbrand.com. Plus you can follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and check out their entire line of golf products on their website, thesniperbrand.com.

And don't forget to check out the sniper brand logo. You're going to love it. You've seen it and played it in bars over the past 30 years, and now you can bring golden tea to your home, complete your basement or man cave with the popular arcade game, the ultimate virtual golfing experience over 80 courses, unique game modes, and you can even challenge a buddy in online tournaments.

However you play, you will be the talk of your neighborhood. Visit home.goldent.com to learn more. This is a subject that most people don't want to talk about, but many find themselves facing their marriages ending and they need to find a good lawyer at the most difficult time in their life. Or maybe you're like me divorced for almost 15 years, but you're still wrestling with hassles, maintenance and other hard to figure out issues. Do yourself a favor and call 314-788-3030. That's the law office of my buddy and attorney, Henry Miller. I was living under the burden of unfair maintenance and a few other things that could only be settled in the courtroom.

My only regret is that I didn't use Henry years ago. He is first and foremost smart and hardworking, but what was really important to me is that he listened. He's also fair and extremely honest. We had an odd issue arise where I had paid for something that was not allowed to be used in our case.

After one call and an email, it was settled and that charge was removed. Do yourself a favor and call Henry Miller. He is the man you can trust when you need him the most.

You can also reach him at GrantMillerSmith.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.

Hey, welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host Jay.

I got Pearly with me. Brad Barnes is in the studio and we are going to the front nine that is brought to you by the Ascension Charity Classic and that'll be post played at Norwood. Last week of September, first week of October, Ascension is a community rock star and we just recently had announced Emerson comes in as a presenting sponsor and Worldwide Technologies, our friend Jim Cavanaugh is the CEO there.

It's been on the show. Worldwide steps up in a huge way too in the middle of a pandemic and these guys come in and that's what leadership looks like from the community I think, Pearl. That's awesome. Are you in on any of the tournaments or the organization part or what's getting pulled together? A little bit, yeah. I'm basically trying to help more on the business side to try to recruit companies and friends and things like that that'll support the game.

Awesome. Yeah, so it's been a challenge. It has been a challenge because we're still wondering are we going to get spectators? It's all going to be different. It's all going to be different. It'll be great by then.

Hopefully it'll just be great. If they have to put your dang mask on, let's go watch some golf. I'm going to be spectating inside the ropes, baby. Yes, sir.

No mask needed. Toting the luggage. We got to thank Whitmore Country Club for sponsoring the show again. Second year for Whitmore.

We couldn't do it without them. Folks, if you want to join a place, you want to have a place for your family to hang out, tons of fun, lots to do. Go to Whitmore Country Club. 90 holes of golf is included in that membership. The cart fees are included and you get access to the Missouri Bluffs, the links at Dardeen and the golf club at Wentzville. There are no food and beverage minimums.

There's no assessments. They have a 24-hour fitness center, a huge pool complex. You got to go in the golf shop.

Go look up the assistant pro. He's a legend over there. Bummer. He's been on the show. Great guy. Loves the game. He and his staff over there run golf leagues and skins games and member tournaments, couples events all year round. It's just a great place to play. They're doing great this year, too, aren't they? Golf is happening.

We should mention that. Yes, golf is doing extremely well at Whitmore. Let me list the number real quick.

It's 636-926-9622. Yeah, the golf courses are jammed. The golf courses are jammed. The one thing that the state of Missouri has done really well is kept the golf courses open. We've made modifications.

Nobody's touching flag sticks. Folks are getting their own golf carts and they're making modifications and the rounds are up everywhere. That's perfect. Thank goodness. All right, so let's just go to this interview that I had with Nick Ragon. He's the chief marketing and communications officer at Ascension. Nick, I have been honking this Ascension charity classic on my show all year long. The fact that you guys at Ascension are bringing a PGA Tour Champions event to St. Louis at Norwood, I feel like I've died and gone to heaven, man. I don't know what else I can say about it, but let's talk firstly about this tournament that's coming to Norwood this fall.

Well, first of all, I want to thank you, Jay. You are such a brand ambassador for St. Louis, for North County, and for Norwood. I know all of your listeners know your history of catting there and playing there. A couple of years ago, we have Ascension. We're a large hospital system, actually the second largest in the country.

We're in 20 states. In many of our states, we have a relationship with the PGA Tour, either with the Corn Ferry Tour or the Champions Tour, sponsoring some of the tournaments. A few years ago, we decided as Ascension, we're now a national brand. I spent my six years at Ascension rebranding the whole company. We were beginning to look for signature brand moments that really we could shine a light on Ascension, the work that we do, and servicing our communities. After the PGA at Belle Reve, it was such an enormous success. We thought, wouldn't it be amazing to bring a regular PGA Tour stop, not just to St. Louis, but to North County, to Norwood, to the Ferguson, Florissant, Jennings region, so we could raise money for charity and begin to further catalyze some of the great investment that companies like Emerson, and Worldwide, and Centene, or others are doing to make that region as strong as it can be. That was the genesis of creating the Ascension Charity Classic. I have to tell you, we launched this October 8th at a press conference that you were at and many others. The feedback from the community, not surprisingly, has just been amazing.

St. Louis loves St. Louis sports. To have another flagship event, a regular PGA Tour Champions Stop at Norwood in North County that's going to raise money, raise charity, raise awareness, not just one year or two years, but for years to come, I think it's going to be a win for everybody. We hope that we look back five or ten years from now and we say, man, that was a moment when the community really further invested in North County, in the region, so that we could shine a light on it for the entire country to see this is a great model for urban renewal. We're really excited by it. You know what else just stands out to me, Nick, is that our world has changed so much in the last three months and everyone's talking about a new normal, but you guys stayed strong and stayed committed to this event and then we need this sort of leadership in our community and then just last week we announced that Emerson is joining the party as well as worldwide.

Yeah, it was a big deal. You know, when we decided to create the Ascension Charity Classic and we hosted at Norwood, we knew that Emerson, we'd love to have them as a partner. Obviously, they're headquartered right adjacent to Norwood and Emerson is an extraordinary company, as you know. They are really not just the leader in charitable giving in St. Louis, but they're a model for other companies across the country on how to sort of make charitable giving part of the DNA of your company and the fabric of the community. To have them as a partner with us and worldwide as well, another company where giving back and investing in the community, in their DNA, it's in what they do, has just been a blessing and to have those two during the pandemic step up and say, this is important to North County, this is important to your charities, Mary Grove, the Boys and Girls Club, the Urban League, this is important to our region and this is long-term, it just speaks volumes about their commitment to our region, to North County, to bettering it for everybody. We've had many, many, many other great companies stepping up as well, but I think as a community St. Louis is so lucky to have so many great corporate partners who take seriously their responsibility of giving back and I can tell you, not every area of the country thinks that way. No, they sure don't, Nick, and you mentioned the success at the PGA Championship back in 2018 and it just makes me so proud to have folks like Ascension, like Emerson, like worldwide that are so corporately and community aligned, but during this time especially, Nick, man, this is a really big deal and the PGA Tour has done a phenomenal job in my opinion along with, I know you've been working along with Jay Monahan, our commissioner, has really done a good job in leading us through some of these really bizarre times.

Yeah, you make two great points. One is Jay Monahan's an extraordinary leader, the PGA Tour, Champions Tour, Korn Ferry Tour is really lucky to have his leadership. I think he's modeled sports coming back during COVID for the rest of the country. The tour now is heading into its fourth week, going to the Rocket Mortgage event and soon they're going to try to bring back fans at Muir Field, at Jack's tournament, we'll see how that goes, but I think they've really established a model of safety first, right? Player safety, fan safety, volunteer safety, and they moved in a way which is helping the country begin to recover, but doing it in a responsible and safe way and I just, I think the tour is very lucky to have Jay Monahan's leadership. And then beyond that, you mentioned the community, our community, all communities everywhere, one of the many effects of COVID and obviously it's a devastating disease and we think about all the caregivers that care and the people, the loved ones that have been lost, but the unintended effects of it have also been on charities, right? As our economy struggles, as there's dislocation going on, we know how great St. Louis is in supporting its charities, but charities across the country are starting to feel it too. And our model, as you know, Jay, Ascension's model, we're a nonprofit, we donate $2 billion a year in charity care. The PGA tours model is also as a nonprofit. And our goal with this tournament is to be the most charitable golf tournament in the world really someday. And we have the Boys and Girls Club, the Urban League, Mary Grove, and many other charities that we're going to support through this tournament. And again, for Emerson Worldwide and many others to step up right now, when these charities really need it, speaks volumes of that long-term commitment. And we can't forget about all the charities in our region, not just the ones I mentioned, but all of them, whether it's food security, or access to medical care, or any type of other charity, that they're, they're all struggling right now. And we, as concerned citizens and as corporate leaders, we can't forget that it's really important to remember that. So we're going to try to shine a light on that, too, among the many things we want to do.

Yeah, no, that's fantastic. So Nick, you guys, you've been here in St. Louis for six years. And one of the things that I want people to know a little bit about is Ascension. I mean, you guys are a powerhouse organization that donates over $2 billion a year to the poor and the most vulnerable people in our communities. But you guys do it in such a humble way. And for a lot of people, they don't even know your headquarters are here in St. Louis. Yeah, I think more learning about Ascension, you know, the last couple of years, we've, sort of, had a deeper commitment, greater presence in the region through our charitable giving, through, you know, some of our marketing and advertising. We do have 1,500 people that work here.

We call it home. We're a $24 billion Catholic healthcare ministry in 20 states. We're a large organization, 160,000 associates. And in our mission, you know, we're lucky. We have a mission statement with a capital M. I think most companies have a mission statement with a lowercase m. And in our mission statement, it calls us to serve the underserved, and it calls us to create a more just and compassionate society. And so, you know, our mission is to serve those that are most vulnerable among us through healthcare. And that's what we do. And we take it with that responsibility very seriously, not only in our charitable giving to give back, but in the care that we deliver. You know, in this country, we still have large pockets of our population that are underserved in their healthcare needs. And we try to focus on them, whether it's in Michigan, or Wisconsin, or Florida, or Alabama, Tulsa, Wichita, across the country.

Because, you know, healthcare should be a right for everybody. And we feel strongly in that. And so, like I said, we have a big national footprint, and we have a growing presence here in our headquarters in St. Louis. We also have some senior living here in St. Louis as well. And we want to continue, you know, like I said before, Emerson worldwide and other companies have really modeled not just here but across the country, what it means to be, you know, a great corporate citizen and engaged with the community.

And so, we have some great role models here that we continue to learn from. Well, gosh, I mean, it's at a time like this, where you can be so thankful as a community to have folks like you guys that are behind the scenes that are stronger than hell, and doing the right things and taking care of so many people. I mean, 150 hospitals Nick around the country.

It's, it's, it's just amazing. And the fact that I don't think you have any hospitals in Missouri, though, do you? No, we don't we, like I said, we're in we're in 20 states, we're not Missouri, we have some senior living here in the state. But we're headquartered here, it's centrally located in the sort of middle of the country. You know, and Missouri, St. Louis is a great place.

You know, Accenture just announced they're creating 1400 more jobs here. I think the rest of the country is learning what we already know, which is Missouri is a great place to live and work. And so we want to contribute to that we, we feel like through the Ascension Charity Classic, it's also a way for the state to highlight what a wonderful area St. Louis is to work and to live.

And, and and we want to draw attention to that. We think, you know, I'm not a native of St. Louis. I lived on the East Coast my whole life until six years ago. My wife and I, we moved here for this job with our kids.

And we're here forever. We love St. Louis, we never want to leave. And I think most of the people that I grew up with on the East Coast, I don't know much about the Midwest or St. Louis.

And they're learning it from me. I'm the biggest brand ambassador for our region now. Sometimes, you know, you don't have to be born of a place to love it.

But I love St. Louis. I love this region. And I look forward to being part of the community, my wife and I for a long, long time.

Well, let's talk about that a little bit, Nick, because not only as ascension in, and I didn't want this to get positioned the wrong way. It's ascension has been behind the scenes doing great things well before this, this, this golf tournament, but and now they're becoming more prominent with the event and some of the other things that you mentioned, but you and your wife have been in the community for six years, as you said, your family's here, you're not going to move. You guys are really involved in in all sorts of different charitable and community organizations.

Yeah, we feel blessed to be able to do that. My wife, when we moved out here six years ago, she pretty quickly joined the board of Mary Grove, which I know many of your listeners are familiar with Mary Grove, it does extraordinary work in North County, taking care of abused teens. And she's been on the board for about five years and absolutely loves it and has one of the years chaired their fundraiser their gallon and raised a lot of money for some incredible kids and we remain very engaged in that I started a chess program with the with Rex singfield and the St. Louis chess club, a nonprofit called your move chess, which funds after school chess for all the schools in in Ferguson in that area. I think we're in about 30 or 40 schools now and it's been an extraordinary program.

It's, you know, chess is to me a wonderful game like golf, it sort of teaches you strategy and discipline and how to think ahead. And so that's been a huge, just a wonderful program. And then I also serve, you know, I'm on a board now the Boys and Girls Club, and the American Lung Association, the first tea program and I love spending my time my wife always says don't you know, don't stretch yourself too thin. But I love giving back.

I think there's so many and I'm on a bunch of other organizations as well. And I really, I just believe so much in this model of, of companies and individuals really working hard to become part of the fabric of a community to make it better because I think it's a shared responsibility. And so I love that and I and I continue I hope to continue to do more of it. Well, Nick, you know, it's what's so great about you focusing on the North County and those those areas when you're a Ford, a young man or a young lady, a different choice. That's the start of it, isn't it?

It really is. I think, you know, what attracted me to my son's a chess player. And so he's now 15. But when he was about 10 years old, he goes to community school and he one day a proponent up and he came home and said, goes to all the schools in the area have chess programs. And I said, I have no idea why would you even ask me that? And the question stuck with me all day. I was thinking about him like that.

What an odd question. But I wonder if they do, because he's grown so much playing chess. He learned confidence and strategy and discipline. And so I called the St. Louis chess club out of nowhere and just said, hey, not for nothing, but do all the public schools have chess the way some of these other schools do? And the person, the director at the time, who still is Tony Rich, said to me, goes, you know, in fact, you know, we just got a call like today from the new superintendent in Ferguson asking about the ability to get the chess program every day in their schools. And I said, well, what's what's holding you back? He goes, well, it's expensive, you know, it's money.

And I literally put the phone down, ran up to my CEO's office at the time, a guy named Tony Tursini, former CEO of Ascension. I said, you know, what do you think of this? Let's start a program where we can, you know, begin to put chess in the schools, all the schools in Ferguson and North County. And without me finishing the sentence, he said, go do it.

So I ran back downstairs. I told the chess club, I said, I think I have an idea here. Let's make this work.

And that was about five or six years ago. And we've done fundraisers every year to raise money, increase the program. We have a backlog of schools that want to get into it. And I think there's something curative, Jay, about chess. It's just a great, you know, you don't it doesn't take a lot to play.

You just need another person or now you go online and play another person. But it teaches you so many fundamentals that translate into life, about thinking ahead, about, you know, your moves have consequences, about planning, about discipline and strategy. And, you know, so the kids really love it and that the numbers of the program have been growing and growing. And some of the you know, some of the kids in the program are really, really have become fantastic chess players. And it's opened up a whole new way of it reinforces math, it reinforces some of the critical thinking skills. And I think it's one of those games that serves you for life. If you're 80 years old, and you want to keep sharp and keep your mind sharp, continue to play chess every day.

And so I advocate and preach for chess all the time, because I just think it's a wonderful, it's a wonderful game that we could all apply. Okay, that's gonna do it for the first half of the Nick Redone interview. And that'll wrap up the front nine but don't go anywhere.

We'll give you the rest 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 awesome perks like team ultra gear and more. That's team ultra.com to enter no purchase necessary.

Open US residents 21 plus official rules at team ultra.com message daily. In these extremely trying times, the management team at Marcon would like to give a shout out to our 500 plus employees and their families, their diligence and commitment to each other, our process and our company are so good that we are obligated to state publicly, we are so grateful for each and every one of you. You have all contributed to our success and your dedication is imperative to the continued growth of our company.

Thank you for your efforts. Marcon is the largest distributor of General Electric Appliance parts in North America based in St. Louis, Missouri. This is Dan mclaughlin TV voice of the Cardinals St. Louis is one of the best sports cities in the country. We also have a tremendous history of supporting professional golf. We're excited to bring professional golf back to St. Louis with the inaugural Ascension charity classic September 28 through October 4 at beautiful Norwood Hills Country Club legends like Ernie L's Fred couples Jim Furyk Steve Stricker and many more will be in St. Louis for tickets and sponsorship information head to ascension charity classic.com that's ascension charity classic.com. For the last 48 years program golf has been providing outstanding customer service to the greater St. Louis area for all of our golf needs from top of the line equipment to full service club repaired lessons and instructions. They now have their own retail outlet as well as state of the art computers, cameras, and things to customize all of your personal club fitting needs program golf carries all the major brands.

They also have the latest fashion trends from Puma golf, whatever your needs program golf will meet them and have the best customer service in the industry. Call us at 314-781-7775 or find us at proamgolfusa.com USA mortgage is doing it again. Joe Sieser and his staff have lowered rates again this month and they will waive closing costs. If you want to refinance to get cash out, lower your rate, shorten your term or eliminate that costly unnecessary mortgage insurance.

If you are purchasing a property, they can issue a pre approval letter within minutes. They are the largest mortgage company in the state of Missouri and their volume allows them to quote the lowest rates. Don't waste your time with the national online brokers. USA mortgage is employee owned and operated right here in St. Louis.

USA mortgage has closed over $500 million in loans in nearly 30 years in the business and over 2 million alone to delsings. Okay, so you and your family are looking to join a country club. Well, I need to recommend to you with more country club. They've got 90 holes of golf in the membership out there. You have access to the Missouri bluffs, the links to Dardene, the golf club of Wentzville, and all the cart fees are already included in your membership.

There's no food or beverage minimums and no assessments. My friend bummer in the golf shop is a phenomenal guy. You've got to go out and check him out. He and the staff out there run golf league skins games, members tournaments, couples events available all year round. There's a kids club in the main clubhouse and they have a huge fitness center. There's three tennis courts if you're not into golf, a gigantic pool for you and your family to use. Year round social calendar is spectacular. There's holiday parties, picnics, date nights, always have live music, and much much more. If you're looking for a family friendly, safe place to hang out, you got to check out Whitmore Country Club column at 636 926 9622.

We're halfway there. It's time for the back nine on golf with Jay Delsey. The back nine is brought to you by sniper brand golf. Welcome back. This is golf with Jay delsing.

I'm Jay. I got pearly sitting next to me Brad Barnes is taking good care of us here in the studio. We're going to the back nine. Let's go straight in to the second half of the Nick Ragon interview.

He is the executive vice president and chief marketing and communications officer at Ascension. I can't wait. I had john daley on the show a couple of weeks ago and he's already talking about coming to St. Louis and hopefully get to see a ballgame and I don't know about the other sports Nick, but I am really proud of what golf's doing and I so appreciate Ascension's involvement. Yeah, I think golf is a special sport, you know, I know if you played it your whole life grew up through the caddy ranks.

I did too. It's in my DNA and I, I, I think that, you know, as a country as we begin to, you know, we're in it for the, for the duration to defeat COVID. Right? It's not over yet. We're gonna have these pockets of surges that we're experiencing, and we're also trying to balance that with getting back to normal. And I think golf is a unique sport because we're able to play it in a way that I think the tour has done it where you create a bubble and yeah, a couple players have tested positive and they've dealt with that quickly and safely.

But, you know, it's, uh, it's good to turn on the tv now and see Dustin johnson and Rory and, and Phil and the rest of them. And I think, you know, we're gonna continue to do that for us as a tournament. We're in october. We think we'll have a great field. We're not sure yet about the fan situation.

We're working closely with the tour with the ST louis County Department of Health with our own clinical leadership at ascension. And, you know, we'll make that decision further down the road. But I could tell you the number one concern will be safety. We fan safety will be volunteer safety will be player safety. Safety will be the number one concern.

And then the number two concern will be putting on a great event. And we do, you know, as you know, Jay, some great players have turned 50 in the last year. Ernie Els and Jim Furyk.

You got stricter. We got Phil who just turned 50. And for those of your listeners that are active on twitter, if you want to tweet Phil and encourage him, Phil is very active on twitter, encourage him to come visit ST louis, maybe make it his first champion tour stop.

That would be wonderful. We think we're going to have, you know, JD, john Daly, all the greats of the game. And they're really the tour is excited about ST louis. They know that this is probably the best market that they haven't had a regular stop in in the country for the last 40 years. And so they're excited to be back here. Because, as we saw at the PGA at bellevue in 2018, there's no better golf town in the country than St. Louis, I think Tiger call it the greatest experience he ever had in the tournament. PGA America said it was the largest numbers they ever did in the history of their organization.

And that's the type of fan that we have here in St. Louis. And so we think that this is going to be a wonderful event for years to come. You know, Nick, we were on a conference call about the tournament this morning. And one of the things that was brought up was was the fact that ascension and being the title sponsor of the event, and being in the healthcare industry, like you guys are in being such a leader on the front of all that only bodes super well for the event, because like you said, nothing's going to be done if it's not going to be safe for everybody. Yeah, yeah, that's so true. And we, you know, we've, we've seen COVID up close in our in our hospitals across the country. And we know about safety protocols.

And so it's going to be safety for second and third. And I think, like I said, nobody really knows where the country will be in a couple months from now. We're, we're all living through this together in real time, as we, we dealt with the initial surge.

And now we're seeing in Florida and Texas, other markets that are are dealing with larger numbers again. And, you know, we have school season coming back. And we're all you know, this is a unique moment in time for not just our country, the world, we're all dealing with this in real time and trying to understand, you know, what the future is going to look like. But for us, it's all about safety. And again, it's, I appreciate the leadership of the tour, they have made safety the number one priority too. And we think that, you know, we're gonna we're gonna one way or the other, we'll put on a great event, whether it has fans or it doesn't have fans, and give something for St. Louis to smile about, you know, it might be the only live sporting event in in our area for this calendar year, depending on what happens with with hockey and baseball. And that's a that's a big responsibility.

It really is. I'm visiting with Nick Ragon. He is the executive vice president chief marketing and communications officer with ascension. Nick, give the folks I have your Twitter, Twitter handle. It's Nick Ragon.

It's r a g o n e, the number two. But give the folks a way to follow you. Because one of the things that's that's neat is you'll you'll jump into some sports and talk a little bit about the ascension charity classic or the PGA tour. But then you also give us some updates about what's going on with with your organization. And like you said, over 100. And did you say 150,000 160,000 associates?

It's just a blockbuster organization that people want to follow. Sure, yeah, thank you. And you can follow me on Twitter. I'm very active there. And Nick Ragon, too, as you said, on Twitter, I'm also very active on LinkedIn, if for the business setting where I give more of the updates about ascension and what we're doing around the country. And I do believe in us ascension being transparent thought leaders about COVID about health disparities, but a lot of a lot of issues related to the need for Medicaid expansion, the need for greater health coverage access to care.

So I frequently opine on both Twitter and LinkedIn about that, as well as giving updates about the charity classic. And again, our partnership with Emerson and worldwide and North County and focus on charitable and economic development. And, you know, I think it's important right now in this unique moment to for companies to communicate in their communities and across the country where they serve like we are, and, and to, you know, and to be leaders that now's the time for, for companies and individuals to step up and lead. And, again, I couldn't be more thrilled that Emerson and worldwide are joining us on this journey, we just couldn't ask for two better partners, particularly in the St. Louis community. But these are, we should all feel enormously proud at the way our business community in this region really takes an interest in making it a stronger community for everybody. Well, I sure am, you know, I'm a lifer here.

And I have been the beneficiary of so many of these great companies supporting so much of what the community does. Nick, thanks a million for joining me today. But more importantly, man, a dream come true for me personally being able to play.

After all these years, Nick, I get one home game at Norwood, I just can't wait. Well, you know, some of us are pulling you for you to win J. So no pressure, but I hope your game is in decent shape. You better be out there working on it a little bit now and here and there. You nobody has the home course advantage like you do.

So I'm hoping to see you post some low numbers. I have to Nick, I told somebody there's not a spot on that golf course both good and bad that I haven't been because I've been playing about 13 I've been on I've been on all the bad spots. Yeah, that's terrific.

Well, that's Nick we're going with the session. Nick, thanks so much. Thank you, Jay. Take care. That was great, buddy. Wow. I love it. All right, that's gonna do it for the Nick Ragon interview and the back nine. Don't go anywhere. On the Michelob ultra 19th hole. We're going to break down this interview and talk about a few things.

So come back. This is golf with Jay Delsing are you in the market for some new clubs, maybe a bag and the latest style of sweet new shoes is this year you decided to stop listening to your buddy's advice and get some real golf instruction. If any of these appeal to you, then go to pro and golf today. Pro m golf has all the latest gear from all the major manufacturers call Steve today at 314-781-7775 and schedule a lesson with Tom DeGran.

Tom is the best he's been in the game for over 50 years. So you take that knowledge along with their state of the art equipment and boom, your game will get a whole lot better. Visit them at pro m golf usa.com. You've seen it and played it in bars over the past 30 years. And now you can bring golden tea to your home complete your basement or man cave with the popular arcade game, the ultimate virtual golfing experience over 80 courses, unique game modes, and you can even challenge a buddy in online tournaments.

However you play, you will be the talk of your neighborhood. Visit home.goldent.com to learn more. 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. Marcon is based in St. Louis, Missouri and is the largest distributor of general electric compliance parts in North America. USA mortgage is doing it again. Joe sheezer and his staff have lowered rates again this month and they will waive closing costs. If you want to refinance to get cash out, lower your rate, shorten your term or eliminate that costly unnecessary mortgage insurance. If you are purchasing a property, they can issue a pre-approval letter within minutes. They are the largest mortgage company in the state of Missouri and their volume allows them to quote the lowest rates. Don't waste your time with the national online brokers. USA mortgage is employee owned and operated right here in St. Louis.

USA mortgage has closed over 500 million dollars in loans in nearly 30 years in the business and over 2 million a loan to Delsings. 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. I'm your host Jay and we are at the Michelob Ultra 19th hole.

So grab a cold one and thanks for joining us this morning. I want to thank Bob and Kathy Donahue for their support. Great folks at Donahue painting and refinishing.

So if you need anything done with your house, man give those guys a call. I want to get go straight back into the Nick Ragon interview. So I honestly can't say enough how excited I am about the fact that there's a tournament at the course I grew up at. I know you got to be tired of hearing about it but it is really something special. The PGA Tour has done ridiculous work over the course of its existence in raising money for places and man the North County area is so special to me. It would just be fantastic if in these really difficult times we're experiencing right now if this golf event that Ascension is bringing to that area could be the impetus to get us where we need to be or closer to where we need to be in that area and as a community in general. I mean look that's all all of our community we're all connected to the community.

I mean we're all a part of it. So some of the things that he said Nick Ragon said I just it's just hard to believe that these guys are the second largest hospital system in the country. They have over one hundred and sixty thousand associates employees in over 20 states. But what really dawned on me was that they give away two billion dollars a year to folks in the community that can't afford health care. Two billion. That's with a B.

You know that that's just head scratching it. And I don't know how you guys are but for me I've lived here my whole life and will be a part of this community for a long long time. I don't ever remember hearing much about them and for the most part until the last couple of years even before the tournament I started to hear some things about the Ascension group but man they have just done it in such a humble way flying under the radar and just helping people all over the place. So you got to check out this event when it comes to town. Something really sweet was added to this. On Thursday of tournament week Jack Nicklaus is going to be playing at Norwood in an exhibition with Ozzie Smith and Brett Hall and Tom Watson was going to be the fourth in that group but Tom just tore up his shoulder and had to have surgery so they're looking for another legend.

I keep waiting for my phone to ring me but maybe they lost my number. But they're they're looking for another legend but guys you're going to get a chance to see Jack Nicklaus play out at Norwood. And this is also going to be two hour live television coverage on the Golf Channel. So man that's I don't know how many more rounds Jack's got in them but this is really got to be something special and and really really cool. So keep your eyes and ears open to the show and we're going to as we get closer and closer I think we're inside of 70 days before the event so we'll be talking about it more we're having more interviews you'll you'll be getting you'll be hearing me interview many more champions tour players and and talking a little bit about you know what it's going to be like to have a tournament here in St. Louis. I can tell you one thing for positive sure the champions are players are chomping at the bit to get a golf tournament. They have been offered way too long and you know we old guys run out of things to do me we don't know what to do with ourselves and when they take away golf it's over.

Yeah you just can't stop playing. So I have a question. Make it easy. What does an 80 year old Jack Nicklaus play like? Good question. When's the last time you've seen him swing? I've seen Jack swing probably six months ago and it's not pretty. Age has not been kind.

I mean I think about that meeting I'm going to be 60 this year and I'm like toss another 20 under this and nobody's going to be one to watch me do any anything just go away. But what's what's interesting about Jack I promise the folks this if you go out or tune into this you'll see something one thing remarkable. I got to tell you this story we're doing the senior skins game over in Maui. It's a terrible place to have to go over and do a gig in Maui in January but I was hanging out and Fred Couples was there and Nick Price, Fuzzy Zeller, Mark O'Meara all of these these are all Hall of Fame guys right and they're playing around and Jack hasn't come yet but Jack is kind of the headliner. Well Tom Watson's there and so Jack comes up you know and they're just messing around and the whole mood changes but it's like I'm not playing I was doing some work for these guys before the event. I didn't get to play in the event because I wasn't invited but so but I'm hanging out with these guys. Remember that number again I got to get a much easier number for them to remember but I'm watching this and I'm like unbelievable it's like walks into the room and everybody goes quiet and then I'm like really now we're talking about massive eagles with a lot of these guys I've never seen any but you know any moonwalking for and then we go out on the golf course and Jack just has this thing and everybody knows it and he gets up on this one par three and balls are kind of flying all over it's windy like it is in Hawaii and they're these guys are hitting seven irons and eight irons and all this stuff and there's a couple of decent shots I think Tom Watson probably hit the best and he was probably 12-15 feet away Jack comes out there there's water all over with this little five iron and just sends it in there and it goes about two feet from the hole and he just looks up and everybody's like nice shot Jack and he's like yeah still got it yeah it is crazy it is crazy so it's not going to be the prettiest thing but it's almost more symbolic you know for me right for him to come and help help us kick this inaugural event off and I don't know anytime you get a chance to watch the greatest of all time or the one that's in the conversation with it pretty cool and that's something I feel like only golf can give you because imagine what you know we would love to see Bob Gibson yeah pitching a game right now but that's just not it's it's not possible right with the game and the strength the energy that you know all of that that the game takes in golf it's a little different you can see him more in that element you know football guy a football player yeah Earl Campbell that would be amazing but that just can't happen you're like oh gosh Earl can't run anymore because he's got no hit he's got his hips replacing his knees or shots yeah destroyed people decades ago right yeah it's it's it's just a tribute to the game like last week I did the workday charity open for PGA Tour live so I was calling the event in Jacksonville studio and I'm watching these guys play and I'm like so I haven't played on the tour for 10 years I haven't played on the regular PGA Tour in an event in 10 years and I played very very sporadically on the champions event I think I've only played 10 events in 10 years on the champions tour but I'm watching these guys play and I'm like oh my gosh I should have retired you know like 25 years ago I can't believe how good they are right I can't believe some of the stuff that they can physically do that you know it's one thing for somebody to pull off of they hit their five iron better than you it's another thing when they take a club that it goes a distance that they can meander through all of this trouble right and make it work when you're like I can't even get there you know what I mean yeah it's like god that sucks I'm sure you've got to be just kicking yourself all the time looking at what the guys have now and what they know now I mean there's stuff that's normal and that's everyday routine for these guys that I'm sure you weren't even thinking of back in the day at that time the golfers at all weren't thinking it didn't exist but when we first started playing the tour there was no internet we got our stuff sent through the mail we didn't have cell phones you know you're like everybody's like how old are you I'm like I'm old but it's it's um analytics of everything the analytics of it the analytics these guys take nothing for granted they are they are plugged into all of these track mans and all of this ball speeds and launch angles and all this stuff and why wouldn't you be right look at what's at stake and look at how much money they get to play for man it's just an incredible and the PGA Tour is the world tour man it is played in the US it is run by mostly US companies and things like that and supported by that and the PGA Tour is certainly headquartered here but man we've got flags flying from countries all over the place and it couldn't be I think it's just wonderful absolutely yeah it is just fantastic I um yeah I I just appreciate Ascension's involvement and you know Emerson came on as presenting sponsor which is massive and then worldwide just stepped in and and this is all during one of the worst we're gonna look back at this and go 2020 was one of the worst times in our history we what's going we still know what's going on right you know and these companies think enough about the community have enough leadership and want to show people hey we understand things are tough but we're gonna do it anyway and yeah so it's it's it's a phenomenal deal I that's really all I have I mean I could sit and talk about the regular PGA Tour guys but one of the things I will say that folks won't won't be shocked about is how good the golf they'll see at Norwood when the champions guys come in you're like that guy he doesn't look like he can play that one you watch him go whoa he still play his ass off and it's pretty much to the player you know you'll get a you'll get a segment of guys me when the when the tour comes to town you'll get maybe 15 guys that really can't compete anymore but their status is so locked in that they still get to play events and so they continually finish in the last 10 or 15 every week right but man when the younger guys so when somebody just turns 50 in the class we have we have KJ Choi and Mike Weir and Ernie Els and we've got a bunch of people I mean I'm gonna text Davis love see if he'll come and play I'm gonna text Phil and he'll be like what are you texting me for but I I still want to see if he can come and love to have just the best championship field ever and Padraig Harrington who's the Ryder Cup the Euro Ryder Cup captain is 50 then too so he'll be eligible to play well yes this dude talks like a leprechaun he's got a little Irish leprechaun accent and man he can play you know won a couple majors so great list yeah so well that's gonna do it for the Michelob ultra 19th hole man thanks for listening everybody take take care of themselves say hell stay healthy and hit him 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 shows at 101 ESPN.com as well as at jaydelsongolf.com