Golf With Jay Delsing - - Skip Berkmeyer

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.

Good morning. Welcome to Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host, Jay Perley. You're here, Pearl.

I am here. You know, I love that intro. You don't look bad for having spent 25 years on the PGA Tour. Well... You look a little beat up, but not bad.

The lighting's low in here, you know, and it's that mask I have over my head. Anyway, me, thanks for joining us. Folks, we formatted a show like Around the Golf.

The On The Range segment is brought to you by Pro-Am Golf. Reach out to us on our social media outlets. I'm looking at you for our social media outlets, and you're shaking your head, so I'll go ahead and do it. Twitter is at Jay Delsing. Facebook is Golf with Jay Delsing, and Jay Delsing Golf.

LinkedIn is just Jay Delsing, and the Instagram is... Yeah, okay, let's go. All right, so our show this week. Man, the weather's starting to turn. We're... Have we gotten out there at all yet? Yeah, got out there a little bit, played some.

Soggy, you know, this is a tough time of year. The courses aren't in great shape, but man, it just felt good to get out there. To me, this winter seemed like a year and a half long.

Really? Because it was relatively mild, but just long. It always seems long. You got out of butch Bahamas and all that. Maybe that's what it was.

It didn't seem that long here in San Luis because your ass wasn't here. Right. We got an interview with Skip Berkmeyer. Skip, as you all know, best amateur golfer in the city for, oh man, 15, 20 years. Great golf lineage.

His mother is just an unbelievable human being and a great golfer. And we've got a Whackin' Chase episode. We've got some fun things. At least, you and I think they're fun, so let's jump into them.

I want to thank Donahue Painting and Refinishing for helping us out with the show. And they will be on the Leading Edge segment today, so stay tuned for that. All right, so John, where do you want to start? Let's start with this whole US Open thing. We're getting, we're three weeks away or so from our first major, the Masters. But the USGA and the RNA just came out with that distance study.

We've got a bunch of data, which is definitely not our strong suit, but we have it anyway, about distance. And I want to ask you, so what is the right sort of setup for a major championship like the US Open? So Augusta is, you've played Augusta. You know what it's like, and it is ridiculously long from the back decks. A US Open, did you ever kitty for me in the US Open?

Just the qualifiers. I don't think I ever kitted in the Open because I was fishing every year. I'm glad you had your priorities straight. I qualified for the Open meet and he goes fishing.

Okay, cool. I caught a bunch of fish and you missed the cut, so I think my priorities went right. Oh man, that stings.

That's true though. Not only the one time. Pebble, you played great there. So John, when my dad was alive, he used to get so pissed watching us play the US Open because he felt like the USGA was trying to show us up in his words. Those were his exact words. And I said, Dad, there's 48 events on the PGA Tour schedule.

48. These majors have to distinguish themselves somehow. Where do you weigh in on this? It's tough to go against your father because he played sports, he gets it and that kind of stuff, but I have to go against him on this one and disagree. And when you ask the question, you know, how should it be set up? So are you asking from the players point of view or the spectators point of view? I'm asking you from a spectators point of view. Yeah, so for me, I love it. Because just like you said, I don't need to see the guys shooting 15, 20, 30 under every week.

I like to see them in a situation that's different for them. It's different when they're hard fought pars. That's a whole different mentality, let alone that it's the US Open.

And you and I both know whether you play US Junior, USGA Junior event, USGA Mid-Am, which I have not played, US Amateur or US Open, which you have played, they're distinctly different from any other tournaments. I remember playing US Junior at Scarlet Course in Ohio. It was unbelievable, the conditions and that kind of stuff.

And then I played again. So intimidating when you were young. Remember going rough and fast greens? It was pre-college so I didn't know. And then when I did go through college and then play US Amateur up in Chicago, all of a sudden, rock hard, fast greens, rough is for forever. You're playing a whole different game. I personally loved it.

I think it's great and I think that people like watching it on TV. I think it's the pros that have a tough time. Well, I can tell you this. When I was playing on tour, I would talk to guys, hey are you qualifying for the Open? They'd be like, no. And I'd say, why not? And they're like, because it's going to take me.

This is back in the day. I can qualify, I can go there, I can spend my $5,000, $6,000, $7,000, maybe make the cut, maybe not make the cut, but just completely beat myself and my self-esteem up. It's one of those things that penalizes every part of your game if it's not on. Yeah, and I think also it's hard because it's stuff that you're not used to.

It's that next level and so you're taking a different approach. I don't know, I like watching all the majors, but it's one of my favorites to watch that. A little bit too, when they play the British Open, when it's windy, when the course is hard as rock. I like it when the guys aren't shooting. We know you guys can shoot 30 under. We see that all the time. Okay, hit a high shot, spin it next to the hole.

I want to see, go play. Yeah, and par means something. There's got to be a differentiator, right?

You're calling them a major. I'm with you. I used to tell my dad, I know it's hard and I know that I didn't play that well and I know I shot.

The score, it's a bloodbath. Especially like you said, if you're not on and you're struggling out there, you can't even get the ball. You can't get it around the golf course. No, if you're not good off the tee, forget it. Plus, Jay, when it's that type of condition, I think it brings more people into the field. Well, it certainly separates a lot of attitude. I'll tell you what, you're not going to go into that week with a bad attitude or not be real, real patient. Well, one of our ex-teammates, Corey Pavan, wins the U.S. Open.

Not long, not all those things, not a bunch of power. But to me, it brings the whole field in because it's different. Yeah, and he could chip and putt a little, couldn't he? Everywhere, everywhere. He could win a lot of things, but he went out and got that one done.

Yeah, he sure did. Well, it's interesting because this distance thing has come out. We know the distance is going up about it.

It's averaging about a yard a year, depending on the years that you use, but we've got some other information on that. We'll see what we can get to this show, but that's going to do it for the On the Range segment. Don't go away. We've got an interview with Skip Berkmeyer, and John and I will be right back for the front nine. The Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association is a proud sponsor of golf with Jay Telsing. The MAGA has been the USGA Allied Golf Association in the St. Louis Central and Southern Illinois region since 1992. The MAGA provides over 30 days of competition opportunities and conducts qualifying for nine USGA championships, while supporting more than 140 member clubs with amateur golf services.

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Find us online at stlouisbank.com, connect with us on LinkedIn, or call at 314-851-6200. Grab your clubs. We're headed to the front nine on Golf with Jay Delsing. The front nine is brought to you by the Ascension Charity Golf Classic.

Welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. Pearly and I are here and we're going to the front nine. And the front nine is brought to you by the Ascension Charity Classic, which we can't wait for this September, October. But we also got to say thanks to Whitmore Country Club for supporting us again this year. They were terrific with us last year, back supporting the Golf with Jay Delsing show. Seventy-two holes over at Whitmore. You get access to the Missouri Bluffs, the Links of Dardeen, the Golf Club in Wentzville. And they're never charging you for any carts.

No cart fees at all. They got Bummer over there. You got to go see Bummer in the golf shop. He's a friend of the show. He's been on the show.

He kicked my butt in our little exhibition. And he is all about golf and all about helping you and your kids. He and the staff over there run skins games and members tournaments, wives tournaments. They just have a great club over there. There's tennis courts, a huge pool complex, 24-hour fitness center, lots of fun parties. You got to go to Whitmore Country Club if your family's looking for a place to join.

Call them at 636-926-9622. Alright, so, Skip Berkmeyer interview. Skip has played in like 34 USGA championships. Wow, that's awesome.

It just has had a phenomenal, phenomenal career. Well, let's just go to the interview. Not very many people know that you and I have so much in common, besides the game of golf, which is obvious. But, you know, I grew up over at Norwood, and you grew up over at Norwood, and I grew up, you know, lugging around your mom and dad's clubs a little bit. Had the pleasure of meeting your mom with her great, rich golf history, you know, inducted into the St. Louis Hall of Fame.

Oh, gosh, it goes on and on and on. But we have Norwood in common. We do, and I, thinking about coming on here, I'm happy you brought it up, because I think about Norwood a great deal, because it was a big part of me growing up, not only the environment playing the two great courses, but as you know, any club is only worth its weight with the members, and the members and the people that ran Norwood, I mean, for you, Roger Linson, was a huge deal, I know. And I had the great fortune of playing golf with the US Open group, they called it, this crash game. Not only having my parents, but they introduced me to this game that I started playing at when I was 18 years old, and these guys like Don Bliss and Dave Estes and Scott Thomas and Bob Beckman, and the list just goes on and on and on, that were great players that enabled me to become better and watch what really, really good was. And then we'd have guest people show up, like Roger Knoll, or you'd show up and play, or you'd have a lot of people, and the B and the C players were even fantastic. It kind of created an environment for me to learn the game and watch others, and emulate what I liked and what I didn't like, and I mean, Norwood, without Norwood, I don't know what the heck I would be.

I might be digging ditches somewhere, which is nothing wrong with that, but I would, I guarantee I wouldn't be any kind of player. With my parents and their background, with the advantageous situation that I had being in Norwood was a huge part of my life growing up, and I would imagine you would agree on your end. Oh, Skip, for sure, like I said, like you said, there's nothing wrong with digging ditches, but I'd much rather be doing what you and I got to do, and playing over at Norwood was absolutely crucial for me, just with meeting Ed Griffiths when I was 13 years old, and just being around people like your mom and your dad, and like you said, Rocky Walther, and gosh, Don Bliss, and the names go on and on, Jim Plummer, and Bob Beckman, and Scott Thomas, and all those great players like yourself, it was just fantastic. And don't forget, Jay, don't forget, I don't mean to interrupt, but don't forget, you'd go on the range, and we'd never really played with them, but you'd have Bob Cochran hitting balls, and you'd have Jim Tom Blair hitting balls.

There's a fountain of knowledge right there, which is fantastic. Right, exactly, and growing up the way we did, for me, Skip, just taught me so much, you know, Norwood has a rich history of great players, the best players in the city by far, and the history of those players, and for me, growing up in North County and not having a clue about the game, it was crucial for me. Well, I mean, I was fortunate, as I always say with my parents, I didn't start on third base, I started on third base rounding home, so I mean, they were great to me and introduced me to this game, and so when they went to the course, I would go to the course, but you got to go somewhere, and it's not, they can only teach you as a kid, you only listen so much to your parents, it only goes so far, let's be honest, I mean, I'm a parent, I get it, so you, to have this other people to watch, to get advice from Bob Cochran on how to grip it or how to have your stance, or to have the pros that were there, I mean, Dick Shaper, or whoever it might have been to influence you or me, it's a long list of people, and it all started there at Norwood, and it's a fabulous place, I'm so excited that the Ascension Charity Classic is coming, I'm so excited you're involved, and I'm hoping you play great, and it'll be a lot of fun to let the rest of the United States that are really kind of golf nerds look at Norwood and see it, because it's a wonderful place. Yeah, it flies very much under the radar, and you and I both know that the way that they get that golf course, Mike Knoll will get that golf course in championship condition, it will stand strong. It certainly will, I'm anxious to watch the people of Ascension bringing this event there, I was a little, to be honest Jay, at the beginning of when I heard the Champions Tour coming, I really wasn't totally excited, we had it with enterprise people, the good folks there out of Boone Valley, but once I went to that press conference, once I heard the mission and what they want to do with the charity and the charitable foundation for North County, I just thought, what a great partnership Norwood, these charitable foundations, and things that they're going to do in Ascension and how well it could be done, and I'm very much excited about it.

Yeah, well, not very many people in town know Nick Ragon with Ascension, know Steve Spratt, know what these guys, they have just had such a low-key presence and they fly underneath the radar, but they're doing all of these quality things and helping people and donating money to charities, and now that story is kind of being told, and it's going to rock up there, I think. It'll be great, I'm anxious to see the best on the Champions Tour and how they play Norwood on the west course, how they set it up, you know, you and I have probably played at a combined total of about 2,000 times, so I'm anxious to watch it, I can tell you that, it'll be a great event in October and hopefully we'll get Chamber of Commerce weather that whole week. Yeah, I hope so, you know, I heard from the tour that they're not going to let Mike have the greens over 11 and a half, and I looked at Mike and he said, well hell, we're going to have to slow him down from regular member play, and I said, he's right. Well, I think you've got to realize, as you know, I'm used to playing in USGA events, I'm used to doing stuff where they set it up almost as hard as possible, and we want to see, and they want to have those guys entertain St. Louis, they don't want to have a five over winning total, so let's have it at about 12 under par and let them go get it. Yeah, that's great, and this is a perfect segue, Skip, I mean, I'm looking at your record, and we'll get to the USGA events, because that's just phenomenal, but you've been the Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association Player of the Year 11 times, you've been the Missouri Player of the Year, Missouri Amateur Player of the Year at least four times, sometimes Google gives us a little bit of different stuff when we were talking about this before, and you're like, yeah, I think it's four times, it might be more, but the fact that you played in 30 USGA events, you played in 10 US Amateurs, and your 10th was in 2018 at Pebble Beach, I just, I have no way of telling people how cool that is, and how difficult that is, and what a great accomplishment all of those things are. Well, I appreciate it, it says a couple things, I think more than anything, it says I've been very fortunate to be able to play, I mean, as an amateur golfer, you've got to have the ability to tee it up and to practice, and to have a job at All-Star Trophy where my dad had the business for a long time, and then my parents being such avid golfers as we just talked about, and really, part of golf was part of my job is to help, that certainly helps, that I was able to go out and practice and make a delivery and go hit balls or try to always expand my game, that was a big part of it. I also think, you know, you have to have an opportunity to, like a place like Norwood, and I've had so many people help me with the game, but I think it just shows that I'm old, I've been doing it a long, long time more than anything, I mean, I'm 46 now, my first U.S. amateur was 1995, and actually my last U.S. amateur, Jay, was this past year in 2019 at Piners, so it's been a span of a long, long time, and I've really, really enjoyed it, I've had a lot of great experiences, I've played a lot of good golf, you know, when you go through it, you're never really thinking about reflecting back or looking back, I'm always looking forward, seeing how, what I did wrong, how can I get better, but as you're talking to me right now, it brings back a lot of memories and a lot of good times, a lot of heartbreak, you know, you miss a putt here, make a putt there, it can mean the difference of making a cut or not making a cut or winning a match, but I mean, I've enjoyed the ride, and as we texted yesterday, I said we've always got to be chasing something in this game, and chasing USGA championships, chasing state championships, chasing that kind of stuff, has been a lot of fun for me over the last 25 years. Well, hell man, not only have you chased it, you've caught it, I mean, look at, first of all, I know your wife, Jamie, is a huge supporter and a huge fan of yours, and a supporter of golf, you have two daughters, Charlie and Becca, you're the owner and you run All-Star trophies, we'll get into that a little later, because I've used that in some of my other business things, but I mean, to this whole balancing thing, Skip, it's just not easy. No, it's not, I mean, I think if you think of anything in life, I think as a person you hold so many different hats, you know, you're a friend, you're a husband, you're a father, I'm an owner, you're an employee, you're a boss, however it is in anybody's life, but then you add the game of golf, which is incredibly a selfish game in a lot of ways, it's very individualistic, and it takes a lot of time just to play the game, much less try to be good at it, it's not an easy thing. You know, people always say you live this lap of luxury, I'm going to go play here or go play there, but you're trying to, you know, I'm not there the whole week, I'm trying to get the latest flight out I can to get there, prepare a little bit on a day, a practice round, and then you're going and then you're trying to get out at the right time, and it's certainly wonderful, I would not want to do it any other way, it's a lot of fun, but at the same time there's a lot of things to juggle, there's a lot of schedules, there's a lot of sacrifice not only on my end, but there's certainly my wife and my kids and my parents and babysitters and all sorts of stuff, it's not easy, as I say this to you Jay, it's the ultimate individual sport, but you better have a team of people that are going to help you, because you can't do it all on your own and do everything else that life is involved with, so I'm very fortunate and it's certainly a team effort in the Berkmeyer household. Well Skip, we were talking about something on the show the other day, about a tour of players' earnings and what is involved with the team, that those guys put together, because you hear team now, not only the player and caddie team, but there's swing coaches and trainers and mental coaches and agents, all of this stuff that just goes into it, and look, we're not going to sit here and have anybody feel sorry for us, we have had a phenomenal life and got to do what we love to do and chase what we want to chase, but my point was, your daughters are tremendously important to you, and you're a good dad and your wife and keeping a marriage together and things like that, that's not easy if you just have a regular job without all this other interest. Oh you got that right, it's not easy, it isn't, that's why it's important that the people are along with the journey and helping out, as I said I'm very blessed, it's not for everybody, and I'm not saying I'm doing it better than anyone else, I'm doing it my way of how to get through this crazy world that we live in, and it seemingly has worked, it could go off the rails at any time like anybody else's can, but I'm doing the best I can, and I think I love the game of golf, as I always say to different people as well, there's a lot worse habits to have than being addicted to the game of golf, so I think it's healthy, it's outside, and it's brought me so many great relationships from around the United States, I mean there's so many people that I love being around that are friends, and that's the only you get that through the game of golf, you really don't get that through other sports because it's a lifelong game, I mean one of my best friends is a 72 year old, I don't want to say that too loud, it's Jim Holcree, I know one other game has a guy that is 72 years old and I'm 46 and we're really close friends, that just doesn't happen in any other sport, it doesn't happen in life, but in golf I'm around so many people that I love to be around, and they are the gamut of billionaires to guys that are making minimum wage, and that's what kind of the golf brings everybody together, at least in my life, and I think it's what's great about the game. Oh my gosh, I couldn't agree with you more, and so Skip, we talk about winning the Missouri, you won the Missouri amateur three times, you played in 30, is it 30 or 31 USGA events now?

I think it's, I don't know the total figure, I count two extras because I made the teams and I didn't go, I think it might be 34, but I'm not, once again, as I explained to you, I used to criticize people that can't remember this stuff and now I can't do it, so I'm 46, I get it, I can't remember it all, I have to put pen and paper in everything. Okay, that's going to do it for the Front 9, we're going to come back, Jay and John are here, we're going to rejoin that Skip Perkmire interview on the Back 9. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. The 100,000 watt blowtorch for St. Louis sports, driven by AutoCentres Nissan, home of the 30-day return, WXOX and WXOS HD1, East St. Louis, 101 ESPN. Are you in the market for some new clubs?

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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 ProAmGolfUSA.com The Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association is a proud sponsor of golf with Jay Telsing. The MAGA has been the USGA Allied Golf Association in the St. Louis Central and Southern Illinois region since 1992. The MAGA provides over 30 days of competition opportunities and conducts qualifying for nine USGA championships, while supporting more than 140 member clubs with amateur golf services.

Find all of their information at METGA.org or call 314-567-MAGA. I'd like to thank Whitmore Country Club for sponsoring my show, Golf with Jay Telsing on 101 ESPN. Whitmore has been a great partner as I enter my second year. If you are considering a great place for your family to hang out, you've got to go over to Whitmore Country Club. Go in the golf shop, see my friend Bummer, he'll tell you all you need to know about the kids club, the golf, the tennis.

They've got swim teams and leagues. There's anything you and your family could want at Whitmore Country Club. Visit them at WhitmoreGolf.com Everyone is looking for the extra edge and Jay Telsing is digging deep to find it.

It's the leading edge on golf with Jay Telsing. I am with Bob Donahue from Donahue Painting and Refinishing. Bob, thanks for joining me today on The Leading Edge.

No problem Jay, it's my pleasure. So Bob, tell us, you and Kathy not only own the business, you run the business. Yes, we started our business about 15 years ago. I've actually been in the industry since 1981 and we're a family owned business. I run the production side of things and do the estimating. Kathy runs the office and communicates with the customers and she's actually my right hand.

That's terrific. I know quality is really important to you and I know you have the best, most experienced employees. Tell us the scope of what you do at Donahue Painting and Refinishing. Well, we decided some time ago to primarily be a residential, high-end residential, interior-exterior painting company. Our specialty is staining and refinishing existing and new staircases and front doors.

But we pretty much can do anything regarding decorating your house with stripping wallpaper, drywall repair, patchwork. And then we also offer free color consultations for all of our customers. Well, and I know that's huge because there's such a difference in the way color is affected by light in certain times of day, isn't it? Absolutely.

A color can look different during the day than it does at night and so we are able to get larger representations of the colors. We encourage people to hang them on their walls and live with them for a couple of days to make sure that they're perfect for them. And Bob, we not only talked about the quality of the work, but the quality of the customer experience is really important for you and Kathy. Talk a little bit about the sort of employees that you have, some of the high level of insurance that you have, the type of people that do work for you. Yes, you know, in general painters don't have the best reputation with a lot of people and we really want to set ourselves apart from the experience that many people have. And so we go above and beyond with what most people or painters will do in regards to taking care of your home, cleaning up after ourselves.

If we paint a room where we clean the interior of the windows, we vacuum, we want to take care of it as much as we can. And so we train our men on these procedures, we have written manuals on them, I go by and check the job every day to make sure that we're providing the best service that we can for our customers. And Bob, that's why referrals have been kind of the lifeblood of your business and you have a massive high percentage of retention rate within your customers, don't you? Yes, for many years we really haven't done any advertising, all of our work has been repeat customers and referrals.

And so for example, we offer this to all of our customers regardless of what kind of work we've done for them. And that's a preventive maintenance program we have for exterior work and what that is is I will send out a notice letting people know that I'll be stopping by their home. I'll come out and I'll do an exterior inspection on their house, I send them a report with recommendations, maybe one side of the house would need to be power washed because of mildew or there might be some peeling paint here and there that if you take care of it, you just extend the life of the painting that was done and it's free of charge. We get a lot of compliments for that service that we provide and we really just want to help you maintain your house so that you're not having to put all that money out every few years to repaint your house. Well, at Donahue Painting and Refinishing you guys are going the extra mile for service and quality.

Bob, tell the folks how they can reach out to you guys. Yes, you can find us on Facebook at Donahue Painting and Refinishing or give Kathy a call. Kathy is my wife and she's in the office. Her number is 314-805-2132.

And that's Donahue, spelled D-O-N-A-H-U-E, Painting and Refinishing. Thank you so much for the time today. Okay, no problem.

Take care Jay. 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. We're halfway there. It's time for the Back Nine on Golf with Jay Delsing. The Back Nine is brought to you by St. Louis Bank. Welcome back. It's Golf with Jay Delsing. Burley is with me and Pearl, we're on the Back Nine. We're going to go right back to that conclusion of the Skip Berkmeyer interview.

So, Skip, this is going to be impossible. It's like choosing your favorite kid, which of course none of us have, but give the listeners an idea of a couple of moments that you'll never forget. I mean, there's a few rounds of my life and few situations that I'll never forget, but give us something that stands out. Well, I think the biggest one for me, Jay, is I always look back to 1999 when I won my state amateur.

I think that there's a lot of reasons for that. You've got to realize my mom won the state amateur five times. She won it in the 60s, she won it in the 70s, and she also won it at 40 years old in 1984.

I was 10 years old and I was there and I watched her. So, I knew that she probably wasn't going to win another state championship. So, I kind of, in my mind, in 1995-96, when I kind of mapped out how I wanted my wife to go, if you will, I wanted to win a state championship. And I kind of wanted to do it before 2000 because I wanted to keep a Berkmeyer winning every decade. And so, in 1998, I got to the finals and I lost to Chuck Green.

And I believe Chuck, I'll say this on the radio because I think Chuck has told me this and will agree with it, he would say that that shouldn't have happened. He won the thing and he beat me soundly, but he would tell you that that probably never happened, that probably shouldn't have happened. And he kicked my butt and it was a very emotional and very awful experience to lose that because I was so close to fulfilling a dream. And then, but in 1999, lo and behold, I go to Highland Springs in Springfield, make it into the match play portion. I somehow win the first match when I probably should have lost the first match and then got really hot after that and end up winning the state amateur, beating David Suggs at the time, who was a University of Missouri player. And really, I had no business winning the match, but I made every putt and I win the match and win in 1999.

To have that with my grandparents there, with my mom and my dad there, in some ways that was a big thing for me, but it was a way of me almost saying thank you to them. And so 1999 is, when I think about it, it's hard not to say that was the most important win. But since then, I did win in 2009 again, which kind of kept the streak alive. And then in St. Joe, Missouri, and then in 2011, I started it again when I won at Boone Valley.

And both of those experiences were with Becca, my oldest remembers them and were there, and I got to have that kid running under the green thing, which is pretty cool. So from a state perspective, and the Crump Cup was great winning there, which I can tell you about, but those three state amateurs, particularly the first one, was an emotional but very cool thing. Well, Skip, so the Berkmiers have won state championships in how many decades now? Well, we're in every decade since 1960, so I got to pick it up, or my daughter's got to pick it up, or my wife's got to pick it up. I mean, my wife's won two state championships, actually.

She won in 1998 and 1999, so she won in 1999 as well. We didn't know each other at the time, but she did as well, so we do have a golfing family. There's no doubt about it.

Man, that is terrific. So talk about the girls a little bit. Are they showing some promise? You know that they've got to have a golf club in their hand. Well, they do. You know, my wife didn't start playing until she was 12 years old.

We were not necessarily got off to the pushing start, I think, Will. But Becca played her first year as a freshman at Westminster. She played on her high school team. She made it, and she played varsity matches. She really had zero experience playing the game.

I wish I had some of her attitude because it's so innocent and it's so wonderful sometimes. I mean, she went to tryout, and she had played nine holes of golf, Jay, and you'd be amazed by that. She plays nine holes of golf. She gets done.

She gets her clubs in. I go, well, how'd you do? She goes, I think I did okay. I go, well, what'd you shoot? She goes, I don't know.

I have no idea. They didn't tell me to add it up. I just put the scores down every hole. Oh my gosh. Exactly. So she didn't even know what she shot. And I always have to, every round that she got, how'd you play? She doesn't even go back and even think about it. And she's gotten better as she's gone on and she says, I shot this.

But to have that innocence and that thought process, I don't want to change that. But she is, I think, going to pick it up a little bit here more in the spring, in the summer. Maybe play a couple tournaments. I don't really care, honestly, if she plays the game of golf in any tournaments. I just want her to be exposed to the game. Because as I said earlier, to me, it's the greatest game.

Usually about 99% of the people in golf are good people. So if she's going to meet people or be involved in business or be involved with people, I kind of want it to be in the game. So I just want her to play. My youngest is not there. She loves to play softball.

I'm a softball dad with that. And we haven't gotten her really too much into it. But I think she has a better mental capacity for it. She's a little more competitive.

And in this game, you've got to be stubborn to be good. And so maybe down the road, if she wants to, she can be good at it. Yeah, well, I mean, I think, look, the genealogy is there, man. The DNA is there.

And the fact that she's out there playing another sport, there's always that hope. Man, I just sit back and think about your family winning those state championships and your mother and now you. You know, those sort of ties, those sort of stories, Skip, are all about why I love doing this show.

Because where else does that happen? And now you're talking about your daughters and this whole lineage, and it's just really phenomenal. It's special. I mean, my mom to have, as I said, I started out, I didn't start out on third. I started rounding home, having my mom and my dad. And my mom, you know, we don't play as much as people would think, you know, because she's doing her thing, I'm doing my thing. And it's been great.

They've let me be my thing. But it's a very special relationship. You know, I know we were the first to go into the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame as a mother and a son, first, you know, sibling and parent.

That was very special for us. I mean, it's just something that we have in common and we understand. You know, as a parent, it's not easy sometimes to communicate with your kid.

It isn't. It takes work. And it still takes work for us. But to have that common bond in golf, I think it's been a reason my parents have had a successful marriage. And I think it's a reason my mom and I have a successful relationship, because we have a little bit of that game. So I mean, as I said, our family owes so much to the game. Well, and you've given back quite a bit. So let's talk a little bit about your All-Star trophy business.

I have done some business with you. You guys have a bunch of phenomenal stuff that people may not know about. Talk a little bit about All-Star. Well, All-Star has was, you know, thank you, Jay, basically has been around since I've been born 1973. My dad started in 1971 as a summer gig. He was just selling trophies and then started and was a gym teacher, a PE teacher, and then started All-Star trophies then and then actually made it a full-time gig in 1973. And so it's been around for a long time where we provided trophies and awards for St. Louis and we've had different locations. In 1982, we moved out basically to Ellisville, Baldwin-Ellisville area, and we have a store there and it's been there since 1982 and we do trophies and awards and plaques and glass and signage and promotional products.

Yeah, there's a wide variety of just about any sort of award type things you want. It's crazy. In some ways it's a bad thing that the scope of America is your customer, but in some ways it's a good thing too because anyone can get what you need. But it's a good business. It's allowed our family to be involved in the game of golf. It's involved our family.

My dad, I think, never missed a game. My mom taught school for many years which helped the business. My wife teaches school which certainly helps me be able to do what I do in the business. We're a small business. We've got eight guys, eight people working for me. It's a full-time gig.

I feel fortunate that I've been able to partial it out. I've got really good long-time employees that have helped me. It's a great business. It can be. It's at its up.

It's at its down. We're doing well and it's fun that we're still around and I'm able to keep it going. I'm proud of that because it's not an easy thing to have a legacy business like that. Give our listeners a number or website or both something to skip so they know how to get a hold of you. Well, All-Star Trophy at 636-227-4100 is our number and we'd be happy to help you anyway. Our website is www.allstartrophy.com and there's a dash between all and star or hyphen and that's our website.

If you just search it, it will show up as well. We'd appreciate it. We'd appreciate the opportunity. I try in my life to support small business when I can, particularly here in St. Louis to be the local as I can.

I think it's a good model to have and I hope people do that for me. Yeah, right on. Okay, so now we've got to shift over to your radio show. You are doing fairways and greens with two of my favorite people in the entire world, Jay Randolph Sr. and Jr. So you guys are on 550 and it's there. Tell us about the show, when it is, and tell us what's going on, what we need to know. Well, it's an interesting, I think the story is more interesting than, you know, we're on at 6 o'clock on Sunday nights on 550 and Jay and I usually do the first segment. There's an interview, kind of like this kind of thing, in the second segment and then Jay Sr. comes on for the third segment and gives his perspective with either me or Jay Jr. I became involved with the show and radio and it kind of happened accidentally. I came into the station to do an interview with a guy named Ron Godier back in 2011. He had a show and Jay was actually on that show at some part of the time. Jay asked me to come over to fairways and greens and be on with Jeff Smith and him one time and replace somebody and I just never left.

They couldn't get rid of me and so as the station morphed into different things and Jeff left, he's a busy man doing different stuff with Walters Golf and so I stayed. One of the reasons I stayed more than anything is because I am a huge fan of Jay Randolph Jr. and Jay Randolph Sr. They're two wonderful people. Their friendship has been just great to me.

They've been awesome to me. I get to talk about things that I like to talk about in the game of golf. I get to hopefully shine some light on some amateur golf stuff in St. Louis that may get missed. Hopefully we bring some pretty good content as you're doing. It's a fun deal for me. I'm not making millions of dollars on it, but I'm certainly enjoying the experiment that has turned into eight to nine years of doing it. Jay and Jay are phenomenal to work with and fun to be around.

Yeah, they really are. So Skip, let's wrap this up. Let's tell people what your schedule is going to be like. I know you played the Coleman Invitational, which is out at Seminole, which is a great spot.

You played the George Thomas, which I think is eight or nine, maybe ten years old now out in Los Angeles. One of my favorite courses is LA North. What's 2020 look like for you? What's first up on your calendar? Well, I'm going to play twice in April. I'm going to go to Houston to play in the Champions Cup with a friend of mine, Todd Mitchell, who's from Bloomington, Illinois.

He's a really good friend. It's a four-ball event. It's a good way to start the year. I'm going to play the Coleman Invitational at the end of April. And then, you know, pretty much if you know me, I'm playing pretty much the normal stuff. I'll go to Birmingham to play an event. There's an Invitational there. There's one at Garden City in New York that I'll play.

I'm playing a lot of them early. And then throughout the summer, I'll play the State AM, which is the new course down in Branson. Because the only reason I'm playing LA is not happening this year because they're redoing the greens for the U.S. Open in 2023 out there. So I'm looking forward to playing Ozark Ridge, the new Crenshaw court course down in Branson for that. I'll go back to the Crump Cup, which I won in 2009 at Pine Valley, which is a phenomenal event.

So they're out there. I'm going to be chasing it. I'll chase it locally.

I'll still do it. It's become one of these events, Jay, out of town. I never understood why Jim Oakley would go out of town and play. Don't we have enough competition here to play? But then once I've gotten into it, it's not only going to play in the competition, it's the people and the friends and the friendships that are around the country that I get to go see and be a part of. Heck, I run a practice round game.

You'd appreciate this the day before. I call it Skippy Bucks. I run a practice round game. We get four or five groups to play. So we've got 20 guys putting a little bit in the pot and we play. That's really what golf is all about. It'll be a lot of fun this summer. Skip, I had Bill DeWitt III on the show a couple weeks ago and he is an avid lover of the game.

He plays at LA North and he plays down at Seminole as well. But he said what really he loves, and I know you'll share this and appreciate this as I did, what he loves about the game is you want to get out there and you want to beat each other's brains in and you want to do this thing and then you come on in, you shake hands and you sit down and you have a beer and you talk about it. Or you ask about your family or you ask about when are we getting together again. There's something special about the camaraderie that you develop over the years with these guys and it's really hard to describe. It's crazy.

It really is. I mean, I don't even say I want to beat the heck out of them. I just want to play. I always say I just want to play my best. And if somebody beats me and I shake them and I shake their hand and I'm fine. I go to these events, I rarely even look at a leaderboard. I'm so into what I'm doing and then what my group is doing of being cordial and seeing how my friends played, how the results turn out, they turn out. I mean, I can't control that. So that's really what I do. And the camaraderie aspect of going in and sitting and having a beer at Seminole's locker room or talking about the round. Or, you know, you made a seven here, an eight here, or you made an eagle.

It doesn't really matter. It's that bond of the game that is what's great. Yeah, really, really special, man. I really appreciate you coming on. I will watch for you.

We'll get you back on the show. We'll give folks updates on how you play. Wish you and junior and senior all the best at fairways and greens. And congratulations, man, on just a great amateur career.

You're not slowing down anytime soon. Well, I appreciate Jay. Thanks for having me and talking about amateur golf. I think it's important. You know, amateur golf is the lifeblood of this game and we can get lost.

I get lost all the time watching on TV. So covering amateur golf and whether it's me or whether it's, you know, 50 other people that would be just as good. I certainly appreciate it. All right, that's going to wrap up the back nine. Come back to the 19th hole.

We'll break down that interview with Skip Berkmeyer. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. The 100,000 watt blowtorch for St. Louis sports driven by auto centers, Nissan, home of the 30 day return.

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The way you see your home is what Donahue Painting and Refinishing can make your home look like. It's time to get the scoop on the St. Louis golf scene. Here's Jay and Kurt Rowie with the Metropolitan Minute. Going to take a little sidebar this week and discuss a little bit of what's going on in the world and how it relates to the Golf Association. We kind of put a statement out this past week saying our first event doesn't happen until April 27th so right now we're hanging on saying status quo to see what happens. It seems like everything is changing daily so we're getting a lot of questions about how golf is being played with the cup being up and scores posted. We're trying to get those answers and we want to get those answers to golfers as soon as possible about these different things and how we move going forward.

Right now we're staying on course and with our schedule and everything and we hope this alleviates itself quickly and we can get back to a normal routine here for the 2020 season. metga.org Let me tell you about a strength training program that helped me and it can improve your golf game and overall fitness as well. And all it takes is 20 minutes once a week. 20 minutes to fitness targets the muscle groups used in golf. Because you work with a trainer on physical therapy equipment it also reduces the chance of exercise related injuries to almost zero.

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It works for me. 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. 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 the Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association.

Welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. Jay and John are here and we are going to the 19th hole. That's Skip Berkmeyer interview.

This is a guy that I played with, Skip. He can really, really play. And when I sat there and, you know, prepared for the interview, I was like, man, people got to know what this cat has accomplished. It's really impressive.

I think it's very cool. I'm trying to figure out how do you keep your interest to that level for that long? Because the things he's doing and the places he's playing, he's still got to play. So he's been playing up a storm for 20 years, plus 30 years. First of all, the thing that we need to mention, folks, so that you understand this, when you're in a USGA event, you're not going over and playing the muni that I grew up on. Which there's nothing wrong with the muni I grew up on, but you're going to play classic, old style courses the majority of the time that demand a lot from your game.

Huge demand. And it's just interesting that I got into listening to the balance between the family, the work, all the travel, the commitment, that kind of stuff. I just think that's interesting.

And I get it for a couple of years, but he's maintained this for, I don't have my dates right, but 25, 30 years it sounds like. Oh no, and he's a good dad. He's into his daughters, his husband, the whole deal. I mean, he's running a business over there.

I don't know. I love the story about mom, what a great player she is. And then out of nowhere, he mentions his wife's won the state atmosphere twice. Wait a second. She's a throw-in.

You're going to have to do better than that. But how about a Berkmeyer being on a Missouri State golf title championship style thing for what, five decades? Yeah, I think it was that. I think it was five. Yeah, it's just interesting.

It's just kind of neat. Obviously, mom and dad led the way. He went out and did his thing. And when did you play with or against him?

What were some of the first times you remember? Obviously, I'm a little older than he. I don't know that obviously. How old is he? I think Skip's around 43 or something like that. Oh, okay, so you're a lot older than him.

Yeah, and you're one year older than me, so quit laughing. Anyway, so we played together in the Metropolitan Open. So the Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association is a sponsor of the show, and they run some great tournaments.

They ran it out at St. Albans. So Skip and I played together the first two days. It was a three-round tournament. He didn't play. I think I finished fourth in the tournament. And both of us made the cut, obviously.

I don't think he had as good a tournament as he liked. How many years old are you then? Like 14 years older than him? I am. So what was he, six?

And you're 20? No kidding, you beat him. Yeah, he didn't have a full set of clubs.

Yeah, no, so that was probably about five years ago. What's the strength of his game, Jay? What is it about that you see that carried him for this many years to be such a competitive player? The strength of his game is he's got guts. He knows how to play the game.

Nothing stood out. Obviously, when you're playing with the best players in the world, you get a skewed view. Nothing that he did stuck out to me as super, super off-the-charts great, but everything was solid and very competitive, and he knows how to play. I liked what he said about some of the influences in his golf career. The guys, I think, from the early days, his early days, your early days at Norwood. And he just rattled off a bunch of names that I don't know, and it doesn't matter. But the point is, he was looking at that young age for what makes their game good.

What are things I can learn that aren't really taught in a swing lesson type of a thing about playing and the tenacity competitor. It was kind of neat that he really went after that, because it sounds like that's what's carrying him forward. Oh, it absolutely is. And just the fact that we have that in common, you know, I really wasn't going... I mean, I knew about that, but I was really trying to just focus more on what he's done and things like that. And then we talked just a little bit before we went into the interview, and I was like, that is so cool, man, because Norwood was a huge part of my life. You know, those players over there, when I grew up caddying and stuff like that, I'm like, man, I wonder if I could ever be that good, you know? You came from two different angles, because you were working the back room and he was playing. He did, yep, that's right. And his mom, I mean, his mom has the most classic golf swing you've ever seen. Is that right?

It looks like, you know, from a distance it looks like it could be Babe Zaharius or something. It is absolutely splendid. Beautiful.

No rush in it. Did you ever caddy for her, funny chess? Nope. Not that many people were taking, you know, not all the members took caddies and stuff back then, and I did not caddy for Barbara Berkmayer. But it's impossible to mention the name Barbara Berkmayer and the Berkmayer name and not, you know, in the golf circles and not smile and not just go, man, this family has carried a torch in St. Louis for so long and done such great stuff. Yeah, it was neat.

It was really neat to have Skip on there and Ian Jay Jr. and Jay Sr., Jay Randolph Jr. and Sr. Two of my favorite people are doing a golf show over on KTRS and, you know, we wish them all the best. Absolutely. That's really good.

Well, Pearl, that's going to wrap up another show. Man, thanks for coming back from Arizona. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Just make it nice and warmer next time I come back. I mean, we're really missing you for a while.

Me, thanks for taking care of us and hooking us up. Guys, I'm doing something new on my YouTube channel called the Delsing Report, so look for that. I'm going to have golf products that I'm going to test and give you some of my opinions on those, so look for that on my YouTube channel. 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 101espn.com, as well as at jaydelcingolf.com.