Speaker 1: Hey, it's Josh carp and it's Friday, which means that
Speaker 1: we are airing a Golf Smarter Mulligans episode from the archives.
Speaker 1: Next week. We'll have a new interview on Tuesday with
Speaker 1: golf historian Stephen Proctor, so tune in and we're going
Speaker 1: to have a special giveaway. This week's three run is
Speaker 1: episode five hundred. Golf's Ultimate Goal Shooting Your Age Are
Speaker 1: Lower with Richard Sezna.
Speaker 2: Gol Published on August fourth, twenty fifteen. Golf's Ultimate Goal
Speaker 2: Shooting Your Age with General Manager of Paradise Valley Golf,
Speaker 2: rich Sesna. This is Golf Smarter Premium.
Speaker 3: Here's your host, Fred Green. Welcome to the Golf Smarter Podcast.
Speaker 4: Rick, thank you for inviting me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Rymma, it's great to have you on, and it's great
Speaker 2: to have you in your own community here. I'm going
Speaker 2: to take notes as we have our conversation.
Speaker 4: I hope you don't mind certain.
Speaker 2: And also not only will we have a Q and A,
Speaker 2: but we're go also have some tree of your questions
Speaker 2: and maybe you can win some prizes when we're all done,
Speaker 2: and we have some gifts for you when we're done.
Speaker 2: As well, we are live here at the Paradise Valley
Speaker 2: Estates in Fairfield, California, which is right near Travis Air
Speaker 2: Force Base in northern California. And this is really fun
Speaker 2: for me to be here with all of you today.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Rich briefly tell me your history
Speaker 2: in golf, and then I have other questions for you
Speaker 2: about that.
Speaker 5: I certainly played high school golf and then went on
Speaker 5: to the San Diego Golf Academy, ran out of.
Speaker 3: Money and story of many golfers in.
Speaker 5: The United States Air Force, Thank you golf in the
Speaker 5: United States Air Force a lot of golf. Actually tried
Speaker 5: out for the Air Force golf team and made the team,
Speaker 5: but got bumped because the major that was retiring unretired
Speaker 5: of course, so I went back to my duties on
Speaker 5: the floor lightline, but spent four years in the Air Force,
Speaker 5: and at the time I volunteered at a golf course
Speaker 5: near Luke Air Force Base, which at the time was
Speaker 5: the only TAC base that did not have a golf course.
Speaker 4: So I volunteered.
Speaker 5: And while I'm volunteering, then I had access to both
Speaker 5: professional and amateur events. I always played as an amateur
Speaker 5: then individual that I worked with at this golf course,
Speaker 5: went on to work for the PGA Tour. Well, my
Speaker 5: enlistment was coming up, and I was torn between reopp
Speaker 5: and or whether or not I wanted to stay in golf,
Speaker 5: And of course it was unfortunate unfortunately for the military,
Speaker 5: I hope, but fortunate for me. I chose golf and
Speaker 5: I went to work for the PGA Tour.
Speaker 2: Then when did you start playing?
Speaker 5: I started playing actually in high school. I didn't start,
Speaker 5: oh really as a youth.
Speaker 4: I my dad played Triple A.
Speaker 5: Baseball oh for the Philadelphia Phillies organization.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 5: He was a catcher, so the years that he played,
Speaker 5: he was a home run hitter and a strikeout artist.
Speaker 5: So I grew up playing baseball. And I injured my
Speaker 5: shoulder in a bicycle accident between my eighth and ninth year,
Speaker 5: and so I didn't I wasn't gona be able to
Speaker 5: play baseball that year. So one of the one of
Speaker 5: my buddies who played golf, told the golf coach, you
Speaker 5: had to ask rich to try out for the team.
Speaker 4: So I did. I went out and I thought it
Speaker 4: was great.
Speaker 5: But baseball season was coming up, and I tried out
Speaker 5: for baseball again.
Speaker 4: But the baseball coach.
Speaker 5: And the golf coach had gotten together and decided that
Speaker 5: I was playing golf. Oh really, I wasn't playing baseball.
Speaker 5: And for the Riveries, I was in ninth grade. I
Speaker 5: was five feet tall away one hundred pounds, so.
Speaker 2: That's a golfer's body.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was better for golf it was for baseball.
Speaker 5: So I ended up on the golf team.
Speaker 3: So was it the golf coach who was pushing the
Speaker 3: baseball coach? Who was the baseball coach. It's going you
Speaker 3: know what, I don't take them. He's yeah, take them.
Speaker 5: I don't know that the two of them conspired to do,
Speaker 5: but they made the great choice. Ye first year, my
Speaker 5: in tenth grade played pretty well. I picked up the
Speaker 5: game fairly fast. The fact that I was playing a
Speaker 5: lot of different sports being athletic helped. The baseball movement
Speaker 5: does help. There is some things that can hinder a
Speaker 5: golf swing from baseball.
Speaker 4: But I then went on and.
Speaker 5: Got a job at the golf local golf course. I
Speaker 5: fell in love. I couldn't that was it.
Speaker 4: I was hooked.
Speaker 3: It happens every bit.
Speaker 5: So I then the next year I became I was
Speaker 5: third on the team, and then the following year I
Speaker 5: was most improved golfer. So I was progressing and I
Speaker 5: was enjoying at an awful lot.
Speaker 3: So where did that?
Speaker 2: How did that get you to become a PGA professional?
Speaker 5: After I left the Air Force and joined the PGA Tour,
Speaker 5: I immediately then joined PG of America. Because apprentice program, you're
Speaker 5: supposed to get in about achieve your apprenticeship to a
Speaker 5: class A golf professional about thirty six months. I did
Speaker 5: it in twenty eight. I wanted it. I really wanted it.
Speaker 5: I love the game and I wanted this to be
Speaker 5: my profession. So once I became a class A golf professional,
Speaker 5: then that gives you the opportunity to the next start
Speaker 5: exploring other jobs within the golf industry. So I spent
Speaker 5: eleven years working for the PGA Tour and then in
Speaker 5: two thousand and one Keptra Sports, who I currently work for,
Speaker 5: who we just hosted the us Open Chambers Bay.
Speaker 4: They hired me away.
Speaker 2: That didn't go from Kemper Sports. I'm sorry to distract
Speaker 2: on that, but no.
Speaker 5: Actually, keep in mind that when the USGA comes in
Speaker 5: to set up an event, it doesn't matter what golf
Speaker 5: course it is it's going to be hard.
Speaker 3: It is a US Open. It's supposed to be the
Speaker 3: hardest test, sight.
Speaker 5: Out fast, It's going to be very difficult, rough will
Speaker 5: be tall.
Speaker 4: But for us, it's a huge success. Yeah, having it there.
Speaker 5: We're the first golf management company to ever be selected
Speaker 5: to host.
Speaker 4: A US Open.
Speaker 2: Oh as opposed to a specific course or country clubs
Speaker 2: exactly right, interesting and a completely different venue. Right yeah,
Speaker 2: But do they have any sense that they think maybe
Speaker 2: it's not coming back to Chambers? But because there were
Speaker 2: so many complaints by the by the even the Hall
Speaker 2: of famersre it had issues with the golf course.
Speaker 5: Well, I think if you look at the results and
Speaker 5: the numbers that these golfers shot, some of them shot
Speaker 5: some very low rounds, right, So the guys that that
Speaker 5: shot seventy four, seventy five, seventy six are probably going
Speaker 5: to complain, But they'd complain at any golf course they
Speaker 5: played shot that number. So no, I don't I think
Speaker 5: it'll certainly be back to Chambers.
Speaker 2: Was it Nicholas or Palmer that talked about You know
Speaker 2: when a when a player complains that it doesn't suit
Speaker 2: their game, it's like, sorry, you're supposed to suit your
Speaker 2: game to the course.
Speaker 4: That was Nicholas.
Speaker 5: In fact, Chlais said he identified those that were complaining
Speaker 5: and knew he eliminated them from the field.
Speaker 4: Interesting because it wasn't a positive approach.
Speaker 5: Everybody is playing the exact same golf course for every event.
Speaker 2: So now doing a little more research on you, before
Speaker 2: you started playing golf in high school, you had a
Speaker 2: very interesting life. Share that tell us a story about
Speaker 2: where you were doing as a young boy.
Speaker 5: Well, for anybody that's interested in looking it up, look
Speaker 5: up kid Ko Ki d Coo. It was a movie
Speaker 5: about my life when I was a young man. When
Speaker 5: I turned eleven, I started my own company, I Incorporated,
Speaker 5: and I became the youngest president of any corporation in
Speaker 5: the history of the United States at that time. I
Speaker 5: don't know what it is today. We sign an agreement
Speaker 5: with the developer in our area to maintain the seven
Speaker 5: major streets so that when they were bringing prospective clients out,
Speaker 5: they wanted no construction to bring whatsoever on the streets.
Speaker 4: And how old were you eleven?
Speaker 2: You were eleven and you said I have one of
Speaker 2: adults working for you, Well we did.
Speaker 5: In fact, I was one of I'm one of ten kids.
Speaker 5: I grew up in the farming and ranching industry, and
Speaker 5: the four youngest children were the four that were involved
Speaker 5: in Kidco. And then we because we didn't have anybody
Speaker 5: of legal age, we hired my dad as our general manager,
Speaker 5: so we had somebody that could at least sign the.
Speaker 4: Documents leaders sid the checks.
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, and we get involved in selling. We had
Speaker 5: a lot of horses on our property and we started
Speaker 5: selling horse manure as fertilizer to the local developer because
Speaker 5: by California code, you had to encourage growth when you
Speaker 5: put in a new road for embankments, and the developer
Speaker 5: found a way to do it for relatively cheap compared
Speaker 5: to sprigging or what any other means of putting vegetation down.
Speaker 5: So once the Board of Equalization got ahold of that,
Speaker 5: they thought for sure that we were a front for
Speaker 5: my dad, and so once they came in, they filed
Speaker 5: charges against us. They threatened us with jail time. It
Speaker 5: got really crazy.
Speaker 4: Well, that was an.
Speaker 5: Invite to send that out to the media. My dad
Speaker 5: was a great promoter, and so he did so. It
Speaker 5: immediately hit the news wires and I ended up on
Speaker 5: Mike Douglas and MERV Griffin for folks in the audience
Speaker 5: would remember those kids are people too. I was on
Speaker 5: Ronald Reagan's program twice when he was governor. In fact,
Speaker 5: I have a famous line from one of his shows.
Speaker 5: I said, if I was old enough, I would vote
Speaker 5: for you twice. And Ronald Reagan has written me several
Speaker 5: times he had handwritten notes. Really, I say, yeah, So
Speaker 5: I had an excite career as a young man in
Speaker 5: Hollywood picked up the story and then made the movie
Speaker 5: called Kidko.
Speaker 4: You're kidding. No, it's about you.
Speaker 5: It's about myself and my three sisters and what we
Speaker 5: did with our own business.
Speaker 3: Okay, got to look up the movie kid Co.
Speaker 4: Yes, you were a.
Speaker 5: Staff member of the Board of Equalization in the late
Speaker 5: seventies when this was going on. They weren't very happy
Speaker 5: because the number of individuals that called in to their
Speaker 5: facility in San Diego repeated those calls so often that
Speaker 5: it shut down their phone systems time and time again,
Speaker 5: and they literally came up with a way for us
Speaker 5: to be exonerated.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, Oh it was terrific. Great story. Was
Speaker 4: a great life growing up.
Speaker 2: Great story, great story let's get back to golf a
Speaker 2: little bit, and you're talking about Chambers Bay Kemper Sports,
Speaker 2: and it seems like numbers are high for great tournaments
Speaker 2: like this watching. But let's talk about the state of
Speaker 2: the industry right now. It seems as if there are
Speaker 2: golf courses closing all over the country. Not many are
Speaker 2: being built anymore. I think in twenty fourteen I read
Speaker 2: four courses opened in the United States and one was
Speaker 2: closing every eleven days.
Speaker 4: Correct, what's going on.
Speaker 5: We are no different than any other industry. We are
Speaker 5: subject to our own economy, whether it be a microeconomy
Speaker 5: or not. But we're also subject to major recessions. So
Speaker 5: there's going to be in every industry retractions. During the nineties,
Speaker 5: we were building two three, four hundred courses a year
Speaker 5: based on the prediction that we would never run out
Speaker 5: of the golfers.
Speaker 4: We ran out of golfers.
Speaker 5: As the segment of golfers changed, we then started seeing
Speaker 5: reclining declining numbers. So it's a natural retraction. It's unfortunate.
Speaker 5: It's the industry I'm in and I love it, but
Speaker 5: you are going to have to have this balance. The
Speaker 5: Many experts say that we have about sixteen thousand golf
Speaker 5: courses within the United States. Many experts say that a
Speaker 5: healthy balance is probably twelve five hundred. So seeing so
Speaker 5: many golf courses close is just a result of too
Speaker 5: many being built.
Speaker 2: What do you think was the factor they got all
Speaker 2: the excitement, of course, is the glut of courses being built.
Speaker 4: A couple of things.
Speaker 5: There was a major report put out in the late
Speaker 5: eighties that stated that if we were so short on
Speaker 5: golf courses, the supply needed to be increased dramatically. Once
Speaker 5: developers figured out that you can sell more homes quicker
Speaker 5: for a higher value along a golf course, and municipalities
Speaker 5: figured out that they could do the same thing. Municipalities
Speaker 5: also figured out that they could convert green space, which
Speaker 5: legally they needed to have a percentage of green space
Speaker 5: in this city instead of it being a park to
Speaker 5: be a golf course. That also provided residents the opportunity
Speaker 5: to get in and onto the golf course for a
Speaker 5: much lesser feet So there was this kind of a
Speaker 5: storm that was created. Unfortunately it ended up with too
Speaker 5: many golf courses.
Speaker 2: And just around that time, there was this lightning rod
Speaker 2: on television charismatic golfer who was just dominating the sport
Speaker 2: as if it's never been done before.
Speaker 5: Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods, it's exactly right. When I worked
Speaker 5: for the PGA Tour, you could tell when the best
Speaker 5: players in the world, especially Tiger, were leading a golf event,
Speaker 5: how there was a different type of energy. And when
Speaker 5: the tournament ended each day, the range would be flooded
Speaker 5: with people.
Speaker 2: Interesting the range at the event, at golf facilities everywhere
Speaker 2: in the country.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh, I know, yes.
Speaker 5: Definitely there was a storm that had been created. It
Speaker 5: was a great energy.
Speaker 4: So once with Tiger, you've got Tiger Woods.
Speaker 5: He played core sensational for ten or twelve years. He's
Speaker 5: had his personal challenges, and as we all know, golf
Speaker 5: is more psychological than it is physical. The best golf
Speaker 5: swings don't win every week. The best mind does.
Speaker 3: Okay, so we're back.
Speaker 5: You can control it. You've got to be able to
Speaker 5: control your brain, control your emotions on a golf course.
Speaker 5: If there's a lot going on in your world, it's
Speaker 5: difficult to win a golf.
Speaker 4: Tournament, right, thank you.
Speaker 2: I actually had a conversation with a former touring pro
Speaker 2: and he said that most people don't understand that when
Speaker 2: you're on tour, you have to be able to eat
Speaker 2: and digest anything. You have to be able to sleep
Speaker 2: on any kind of bed with no problem, you have
Speaker 2: to adjust to any time zone with no issue. And
Speaker 2: as far as not getting emotionally involved with the people
Speaker 2: you meet after the round of golf, you have to
Speaker 2: block that out of your mind. And that's something we
Speaker 2: don't realize how complicated, how difficult it is for somebody
Speaker 2: to be on the tour, What a grind it is.
Speaker 2: If we all see the four days worth, but we
Speaker 2: don't see beyond that.
Speaker 4: It's right.
Speaker 5: While I was working for the PGA Tour, I used
Speaker 5: to take time off and travel and teach golf and
Speaker 5: go to Hawaii and cabbo in different locations throughout the Southwest.
Speaker 4: I did that.
Speaker 5: Repeatedly, and when you get home, you're tired, and when
Speaker 5: you go to another location and you're expected to turn
Speaker 5: it on because you've got a whole group.
Speaker 4: Of clients coming in that don't care whether or not
Speaker 4: you're tired or not exactly. They want to.
Speaker 5: Start the golf instruction. They want to do what's on
Speaker 5: their schedule. So I feel for the guys that travel
Speaker 5: and do this for a living. It's a very tough business.
Speaker 2: Very tough business. Now, let's talk about the state of
Speaker 2: the game. There's technology has changed the game radically, technology
Speaker 2: and golf balls, technology and golf clubs in the last
Speaker 2: ten to fifteen years. And it seems like because people
Speaker 2: are hitting it so much farther, golf courses are getting
Speaker 2: longer and longer. But they're building golf courses longer for
Speaker 2: the touring pros.
Speaker 3: Not for us.
Speaker 4: That's correct.
Speaker 2: And you know there's some courses that I don't have
Speaker 2: a problem getting the ball in the fairway, but getting
Speaker 2: the ball close is a lot harder. I mean, the
Speaker 2: short game really is kind of disappeared because everything is
Speaker 2: so long, so long. But we even did an episode
Speaker 2: once called It's not about how long, It's about how close.
Speaker 4: That's correct.
Speaker 5: There's a titleist commercial right now that talks about the
Speaker 5: golf ball doesn't know who's hitting it right.
Speaker 4: So it doesn't matter what game you have.
Speaker 5: Play the game according to your satisfaction, what makes you happy.
Speaker 5: Don't play it at seven thousand yards, play it at
Speaker 5: five thousand yards, play it at four thousand yards unless
Speaker 5: you're playing in USGA events and you need to run
Speaker 5: to the computer after each round and file with the USGA.
Speaker 4: Don't tee off of the t boxes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, go out to the forward part of the of the.
Speaker 3: Fairway play it forward, play it forward.
Speaker 4: Part of that program to play it.
Speaker 3: Forward, which is a terrible name, but a great idea.
Speaker 4: It works great.
Speaker 5: Anything that makes it easier for the golfer to enjoy,
Speaker 5: because the game is inherently difficult.
Speaker 4: It's the easiest game in the world to enjoy.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to just do it that four four and.
Speaker 5: A half hours out in a fantastic setting with your friends,
Speaker 5: with your family.
Speaker 4: So let's make it.
Speaker 2: More enjoyable playing like I've been saying about eighteen years now,
Speaker 2: and my wife is now just starting to get interested
Speaker 2: in playing. And so the rule that we have when
Speaker 2: we play together is one I do not give instruction,
Speaker 2: which helps our relationship. I think every person should take
Speaker 2: that advice. Do not try to give instruction on a
Speaker 2: golf course. Their mind gets flooded. But what we do is,
Speaker 2: if we're playing a par three, she can tee off
Speaker 2: at the tea box. If we're playing a par four,
Speaker 2: wherever my ball lands or equal to where my ball
Speaker 2: lands if it's out of bounds, she can tee it
Speaker 2: up right there, right, And if it's a par five
Speaker 2: on my second shot, correct, she gets So for her
Speaker 2: right now is a nice long walk and she plays
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty to two hundred yard holes. And
Speaker 2: also if she gets the seven shots, it's time to
Speaker 2: pick it up and let's go putt right, and she's
Speaker 2: fine with that.
Speaker 5: We tell lots of folks double pars the max okay,
Speaker 5: and for certain events, we'll hater an event at our
Speaker 5: golf course and also adjust the game.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: So if we have a group that we've seen two
Speaker 5: or three times and we know that they have a
Speaker 5: difficult time getting around the golf course, will assist them
Speaker 5: with a new game. We've got to find a way
Speaker 5: to get the folks.
Speaker 3: They're trying so many joyable apps, so.
Speaker 5: It's got to be enjoyable, but at the same time,
Speaker 5: it has to feel like a game to them trying.
Speaker 2: So one of the most interesting things that's being tried
Speaker 2: right now just for the fun of the game, is
Speaker 2: fifteen inch holes.
Speaker 4: Correct.
Speaker 3: Have you tried this?
Speaker 4: No? We thought about it. The biggest challenge with the
Speaker 4: fifteen inch cups.
Speaker 5: I love the idea. I don't know that I would
Speaker 5: put it on every single hole just because of the
Speaker 5: difficulty of changing that cup. It's very difficult to keep
Speaker 5: a smooth surface on the greens. A four and a
Speaker 5: half inch cup is tough enough.
Speaker 4: To keep it. We've all putted over a cup.
Speaker 3: That's yesterday's littlber or is.
Speaker 5: Hasn't been quite seated properly. You can imagine trying a
Speaker 5: fifteen inch cup and trying to keep the surface.
Speaker 3: Of it that a cup that's a plate.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I like the idea.
Speaker 5: We have a couple of five inch cups at Rancho
Speaker 5: on the chipping Green, Okay.
Speaker 4: Which is great to encourage people to see that ball
Speaker 4: going in the hole more often.
Speaker 5: And we have talked about doing special events where we
Speaker 5: might put an eight inch or a fifteen inch cup
Speaker 5: in for a closest to the pin or a hole
Speaker 5: in one contest. I think that's spectacular. I don't know
Speaker 5: if superintendents are ever going to be able to perfect
Speaker 5: moving fifteen inch cups.
Speaker 4: That's the big issues.
Speaker 2: This is the course superintendent's correct. I know a golf
Speaker 2: course near where I live in Marin County tried it
Speaker 2: for an afternoon they tried to day and they said
Speaker 2: that the rounds were down to three and a half
Speaker 2: hours and people were knocking ten to fifteen strokes off sure,
Speaker 2: on every hole. So and they had a lot of
Speaker 2: fun with it, but it's not a score you can record.
Speaker 4: Correct. Purists are going to fight that as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, going to say, well the peists can do that.
Speaker 2: And that's a whole other conversation about who is the
Speaker 2: USGA really concerned about?
Speaker 3: You know, are we really they I know they want
Speaker 3: to grow the game. I know they want to bring a.
Speaker 2: New golfers, but really it's the old guard who is saying, no, no,
Speaker 2: get out of my way.
Speaker 4: You're right, You're absolutely right.
Speaker 2: And I've always felt like the USGA was not an
Speaker 2: advocate for the golfer but for the golf course.
Speaker 5: Well, I think the I think they're an advocate for
Speaker 5: the game itself because it encompasses so many traditions, and
Speaker 5: traditions are hard to break, they're hard to get rid of,
Speaker 5: hard to change. So I think they're they're certainly part
Speaker 5: of the purest approach to the game. However, they are
Speaker 5: engaged in a lot of programs that are encouraging the
Speaker 5: growth of the game. Yes, so yeah, I think you'll
Speaker 5: see in the next ten years you'll see a big change.
Speaker 2: That would be great. I want to focus now because
Speaker 2: we're here at Paradise Valley of States today. I wanted
Speaker 2: to focus on issues that seniors have in golf, and
Speaker 2: even for the audience, the golf smarter audience that ranges
Speaker 2: an age from you know, twelve and up. And we've
Speaker 2: had I've gotten emails from twelve year olds and eighty
Speaker 2: year olds. Eventually all of us are going to be
Speaker 2: senior golfers. That's the whole point. We're all going to
Speaker 2: have the issues that are most demanding as you get older. Obviously,
Speaker 2: the first one that would be coming to mind would
Speaker 2: be pace of play.
Speaker 5: I think we've gone from well, first of all, pace
Speaker 5: of play has always been an issue, no matter since
Speaker 5: golf it was created. Everybody's always pushing to play at
Speaker 5: a faster pace. Somebody once said, a good walk spoiled right,
Speaker 5: all right, And it really is a terrific four four
Speaker 5: and a half hours out there. Anybody that thinks that
Speaker 5: forty seniors of eighty years of age are going to
Speaker 5: play in four to four and a half hours under
Speaker 5: the standard setting is dreaming. It's unfair to go out
Speaker 5: and push those folks around the golf course.
Speaker 4: Our whole world has sped up.
Speaker 5: So if you look at the challenges we had with
Speaker 5: pace of play anyways, then you start adding this world
Speaker 5: that we're living in electronics, everything is fast. Those folks
Speaker 5: that are new to the game were expecting that same
Speaker 5: thing to happen. It's unrealistic. And if you start adding
Speaker 5: the new golfers that we have coming into the game,
Speaker 5: who don't have much experience, who do not have the
Speaker 5: proper etiquette yet, or no understand the rules the basics,
Speaker 5: those are going to impact pace of play as well.
Speaker 5: Nobody wants to pick up and move forward when in reality,
Speaker 5: after you've hit the ball eight ten times, pick.
Speaker 4: Up and move forward. Please just enjoy it. Just continue
Speaker 4: to enjoy it.
Speaker 2: So for those folks, for those folks, mark your good shots,
Speaker 2: not all shots.
Speaker 4: That's exactly right.
Speaker 5: Nobody is keeping track at the USGA or the PGA
Speaker 5: Tour of what your score was.
Speaker 4: For the day. It just doesn't matter.
Speaker 5: Just enjoy it. So pace a play is always going
Speaker 5: to be a challenge. It's never going to go away.
Speaker 5: We as operators, though, have to continue to find ways
Speaker 5: to move golfers along. We like to tell folks that
Speaker 5: you're not slow, but that you're falling behind our desired pace.
Speaker 5: There's a nice way to say it. We'd like you
Speaker 5: to regain your position on the golf course based on time.
Speaker 4: It's not always easy.
Speaker 5: I've worked at resorts where people pay two three hundred
Speaker 5: dollars a person to play. Their answer is I paid
Speaker 5: my money, I'm going to take as long as I want.
Speaker 4: That's tough, but.
Speaker 2: So did everybody else here on the golf course.
Speaker 4: And that's our answer.
Speaker 5: So sometimes you actually remove those folks from the golf
Speaker 5: course wow, because you can't have four impacting two hundred.
Speaker 4: So it's always going to be challenge. It's never going
Speaker 4: to go away.
Speaker 5: But we as operators have to find ways to encourage
Speaker 5: people to play at a faster pace, and sometimes that
Speaker 5: means are marshals have to recognize that certain golfers don't
Speaker 5: understand that, like everybody waiting for somebody to hit, well,
Speaker 5: if you're going to play at a reasonable pace, you
Speaker 5: play your ball when it's your turn or when it's
Speaker 5: safe to hit it. Doesn't somebody else is not ready.
Speaker 5: Don't wait for him just because it's not your turn,
Speaker 5: based on the distance you are away from the pin.
Speaker 4: Just play golf.
Speaker 2: What are the instructions that marshalls get about trying to
Speaker 2: keep the pace of play moving, because mostly what I
Speaker 2: see with marshals is I'm driving going, you're moving slough,
Speaker 2: come on, pick it up, and they're no help.
Speaker 5: Well, that's remember that the generally the individuals that take
Speaker 5: those jobs are people that have retired from other industries.
Speaker 5: Nice they're looking for something to do right, They're looking
Speaker 5: for something to do. Our facilities converted from the marshals
Speaker 5: being a paid position to a volunteer position simply based
Speaker 5: on the economics. Of course, we needed to find a
Speaker 5: way to save money. So you're asking somebody a general manager.
Speaker 5: Rick Rennick, who I worked for at the PGA Tour,
Speaker 5: was a gem. He said one time with one of
Speaker 5: our staff meetings, I wouldn't put my father out there
Speaker 5: in that job. That's the hardest job in the golf course,
Speaker 5: and it truly is, it really is. They are an
Speaker 5: ambassador to the game, They are into the property. They
Speaker 5: are an individual that the golfers are going to see
Speaker 5: the most. Within that four four and a half hours
Speaker 5: that they're there, so you hope that they create a relationship,
Speaker 5: which is what we tell them. We want them to
Speaker 5: introduce themselves to them, we want them to say hello.
Speaker 5: But when there is a challenge, there is a way
Speaker 5: to approach golfers, and it's not driving up on them
Speaker 5: during a shot and telling them they're slow. It's waiting
Speaker 5: for the appropriate moment to drive up and say, folks,
Speaker 5: I need your help. You have to get golfers to
Speaker 5: buy into the fact that they are responsible for their own.
Speaker 4: Pace of play. May I make a suggestion, absolutely.
Speaker 2: I would appreciate that if marshals have noticed that a
Speaker 2: specific group is slow, or if they're sitting in their
Speaker 2: cart on the fairway watching them tee off and they
Speaker 2: see that the ball is going to be difficult to find,
Speaker 2: why can't the marshal mark where the ball is? Why
Speaker 2: can't they take their hat and put I found your
Speaker 2: ball so that you don't have to spend five, six, seven,
Speaker 2: ten minutes looking for your ball.
Speaker 3: You know, it's like that to me.
Speaker 2: Is where the marshal could really help out.
Speaker 4: If we do that, it's gay for you, yes, yeah,
Speaker 4: we do that.
Speaker 5: Good for you to actually teach our staff to rake
Speaker 5: bunkers well, right to put a flag to give walkers
Speaker 5: and assist put them in the cart, drive them forward.
Speaker 2: Is this a Rancho Solano and Paradise Valley States golf
Speaker 2: course thing? Or is this a Kemper Sports thing?
Speaker 5: This is a Paradise Voul Rancho Salona. But I'm sure
Speaker 5: it's done. Ever so, the one thing at Kemper Sports
Speaker 5: as allow each facility to run as their own entity.
Speaker 5: So sometimes the rules that we have at this facility
Speaker 5: may not apply at another facility, so we adjust accordingly.
Speaker 5: But yeah, the marshal is there to help you around
Speaker 5: the golf course. That's his his or her job.
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk about how what things we can
Speaker 2: do to help pick up the pace of play without
Speaker 2: having to deal with the marshalls. And let's just assume
Speaker 2: again we're talking about seeing Let's assume we're in a
Speaker 2: golf cart. We get a couple of people in a
Speaker 2: golf cart. What you know that's going to help immediately
Speaker 2: if they're not walking, it's going to make it a
Speaker 2: little faster. What suggestions could you make that would help
Speaker 2: help them pick up the pace in the golf cart.
Speaker 5: Two golfers in a cart, drive up to the first
Speaker 5: golf ball. That person gets their yards maybe they're looking
Speaker 5: at GPS. They get their yard each, they get their
Speaker 5: club that they want to strike it with. And then
Speaker 5: if it's close, if it's a shot to the green,
Speaker 5: you want them to take their putter and their wedge
Speaker 5: and their if they have a towel, and they can
Speaker 5: then walk forward after they strike their shot while the
Speaker 5: other golfer leaves to hit their shot. You tend to
Speaker 5: see a lot of golfers will sit and wait, they
Speaker 5: hit their shot, they get back on the cart, the
Speaker 5: two of them drive. Sometimes they do it as four
Speaker 5: and the carts will follow each other from shot to shot,
Speaker 5: and I'll try it happens a lot.
Speaker 4: You'd be surprised.
Speaker 2: So what you're saying is, go to the first ball
Speaker 2: that you come to, drop that golfer off, let him
Speaker 2: take everything needs, then go to your ball, and as
Speaker 2: soon as he hits, you're ready to go.
Speaker 4: That's exactly right.
Speaker 5: And then that if the golfer, the first golfer is
Speaker 5: on the green, second golfer hits their ball, he can
Speaker 5: drive by and pick up that golfer, yeah, and head
Speaker 5: to the green moving I like to put my golf
Speaker 5: bag on the cart and then whoever I'm playing with,
Speaker 5: I like to walk and I can literally by the
Speaker 5: time I walk up to my golf ball, I will
Speaker 5: wait because other golfers haven't quite finished yet, because I'm
Speaker 5: ready to go. I know, walking up, I'm already looking
Speaker 5: down for yardag markers. I'm ready that kart gets there,
Speaker 5: I pull my club, I hit, I go correct. There's
Speaker 5: no waiting around. You gotta move, you get gotta It's
Speaker 5: it's a cycle. It's a feeling that you get out there,
Speaker 5: a rhythm. Everybody needs to play at a certain rhythm.
Speaker 2: Okay, another issue I would think that everybody has, and
Speaker 2: it's not just seniors, but as we age, the biggest
Speaker 2: complaint is I'm not hitting the ball as far as
Speaker 2: I used to.
Speaker 4: It's correct, and it will happen to everybody, and.
Speaker 3: It will happen to everybody.
Speaker 2: But I have played, I have played with some senior golfers,
Speaker 2: and I've played with some women who don't hit the
Speaker 2: ball far and they beat me. It's correct because they're
Speaker 2: just hitting it straight. They just you know, plugging away
Speaker 2: and they're betting. They're getting their fives on every hole,
Speaker 2: or sometimes I'll get a four and a three, but
Speaker 2: they're just keep plugging to keep the ball in the fairway.
Speaker 4: That's exactly right.
Speaker 5: That's why senior golfers, some senior golfer groups can get
Speaker 5: around the golf course relatively fast. If they're decent golfers
Speaker 5: and they don't hit or don't have a tremendous amount
Speaker 5: of sight spin, their golf ball is always in the fairway,
Speaker 5: it's always in front of the green, it's always somewhere
Speaker 5: they can find it. Young golfers like the swing harder,
Speaker 5: which produces more spin, and golf balls that go all
Speaker 5: over the place, always looking for it.
Speaker 2: Right, that's the military golf right right, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: I'm sure the folks that one. Uh the uh. But
Speaker 4: if you ever played Ray Ray golf, Ray Ray Golf.
Speaker 2: Ray Ray golf. Anybody here ever hear Ray Ray golf.
Speaker 2: I frequently play Ray Ray Golf. One shot I hit
Speaker 2: like Ray Floyd. The next one I hit like Ray Charles.
Speaker 4: Oh, yes, yes.
Speaker 2: So now that we're not hitting the ball as far, uh,
Speaker 2: there's a couple of things that we can do to
Speaker 2: maybe pick up a yard or two.
Speaker 3: And one is your body.
Speaker 2: And two is your equipment correct, Let's talk about your
Speaker 2: body for a moment. Fitness, flexibility, There are lots of
Speaker 2: programs available today to encourage a golfer to become more
Speaker 2: flexible and some strength training.
Speaker 5: If you look at the best players in the world
Speaker 5: over the say, the last hundred years, only a couple
Speaker 5: of them, one being Tiger Woods was ever a workout
Speaker 5: fanatic that actually put on a lot of muscle. You
Speaker 5: look at Ben Hogan, Sam's Need, Tom Watson, Jack Nicholas,
Speaker 5: all the great players.
Speaker 4: What did they do.
Speaker 5: They played a lot of golf and they kept that
Speaker 5: motion constantly moving. So I would encourage anybody that's a
Speaker 5: senior that wants to get a little more length off
Speaker 5: the tee or just length throughout their bag. They've got
Speaker 5: a stretch more and try to get into some physical
Speaker 5: program that they can build some strength.
Speaker 4: Second, was the equipment.
Speaker 3: You asked about the equations, Well, I want to get
Speaker 3: but there's also flexibility.
Speaker 4: Flexibility, Yeah, well as strength.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, you've got a stretch, You've got to continue to
Speaker 5: try to keep the muscles elong and the joints somewhat supple.
Speaker 2: All right, and now let's talk about the equipment as well.
Speaker 5: All right, So the thing that we see the most
Speaker 5: in the golf industry is ill fitted equipment. First of all,
Speaker 5: young people think that they should be able to swing
Speaker 5: really stiff shafts or play muscle back golf clubs, which,
Speaker 5: for any of those that don't know, that's the difference
Speaker 5: between a tour professionals club and a club that is
Speaker 5: considered a cavity back.
Speaker 4: Is more of the amateurs club, more forgiving, much.
Speaker 5: More forgiving, and so the person that's new to the
Speaker 5: game actually is being is a disservice to them if
Speaker 5: you do not get them the proper clubs. Somebody new
Speaker 5: to the game should be swinging regular shafts, cavity back clubs,
Speaker 5: anything that's a forgiving golf club, get them lessons. For
Speaker 5: those that are of the senior age, they tend to
Speaker 5: still swing clubs that are too stiff and also too short.
Speaker 5: As we get older, we'd like to lengthen the golf
Speaker 5: club just ever so slightly and go to a much
Speaker 5: softer shaft and the most forgiving golfhead you can buy.
Speaker 5: You put that combination together, you will definitely play better
Speaker 5: because the equipment is going to match your body type.
Speaker 2: And generally getting fitted for clubs is free. I mean,
Speaker 2: you can create a pro shop at a big box store.
Speaker 2: You can find people, but it's finding the right or
Speaker 2: even a custom club maker, but it's finding one that
Speaker 2: you trust that has some credibility of finding a good
Speaker 2: club fitter.
Speaker 4: That's correct.
Speaker 5: The Paradise Valley two years ago we built our own
Speaker 5: golf performance center. Oh and so we started two years
Speaker 5: ago with now two years later, we have facilities from
Speaker 5: all over northern California visiting us.
Speaker 4: To see what we did.
Speaker 5: Awesome, congratulations, and we fit and we have Kevin Hansen,
Speaker 5: who has built clubs for the past twenty five years,
Speaker 5: including on the PGA Tour. Kevin really knows his death
Speaker 5: and when you go see Kevin, he will have you
Speaker 5: hit your golf clubs and then he'll put you through
Speaker 5: a series of tests of other golf clubs. And we
Speaker 5: use the same technology that the PGA Tours use, so
Speaker 5: you get to see on the screen what your golf
Speaker 5: ball's doing with your clip, hit speeds are, how fast
Speaker 5: the ball travels, all those statistics that we need to
Speaker 5: determine what's the best golf club for you, And you
Speaker 5: would be surprised at how many people are way off,
Speaker 5: not just slightly off in their golf clubs, they are
Speaker 5: way off of the mark. We get them fitted, they
Speaker 5: can't believe how easy it is to hit the golf ball,
Speaker 5: and they're game improves, But what else improves their enjoyment?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: If you're hitting bladed shots all over the golf course
Speaker 4: because you can't get the ball in the air, I
Speaker 4: can't tell fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I can't tell you how much know this
Speaker 2: past month I've had. I've at my past twenty rounds,
Speaker 2: looking at my ncgajin and my past twenty rounds. I've
Speaker 2: had three rounds in the seventies, which is a huge
Speaker 2: accomplishment for me at all, and only one in the nineties.
Speaker 2: And that is a huge goal for me, which was
Speaker 2: trying to get less rounds in the nineties and more
Speaker 2: and the better I found that, the better I become,
Speaker 2: the more fun it is. Although I love being out there,
Speaker 2: I love being outdoors, I love the walk. Golf has
Speaker 2: become more fun as I've gotten better, and I've incorporated
Speaker 2: so many of these things, getting fitted for the clubs,
Speaker 2: you know, having the right clubs, picking up the pace
Speaker 2: of play.
Speaker 3: One of the other things that I do, and I.
Speaker 2: Can check easily check my ego at the door. And
Speaker 2: I have a lot of problem with my friends on
Speaker 2: this is playing different tea boxes. I don't need to
Speaker 2: play all the way back. I know sometimes I'll get
Speaker 2: in less trouble if I do. But playing you know,
Speaker 2: to me, it's I want to go out and score
Speaker 2: is best I can and have fun. So I'll play
Speaker 2: the white t's even though my slope may say suggest
Speaker 2: that I should be in the middle tees. Again, for seniors,
Speaker 2: drop the ego.
Speaker 5: Drop the ego, and if you're not going to play
Speaker 5: the forward tees, put it up in the fairway.
Speaker 4: It's okay going, It's okay to tee it up. We
Speaker 4: still make it.
Speaker 3: The goal should be right that you want to hit
Speaker 3: your second shot with an ad ire or less.
Speaker 4: That's right, right, that's what.
Speaker 3: They do on the tour.
Speaker 5: That's exactly right. So the farther forward that you go,
Speaker 5: find that mark. And for the folks that live in
Speaker 5: this area that play our golf courses all the time,
Speaker 5: we're not going to tell you that you can't tea
Speaker 5: off from the fairway. We're not going to restrict it
Speaker 5: to the tea box. I worked, or I took some
Speaker 5: lessons from an individual many many years ago who told
Speaker 5: me to start playing the forward tees And I said, what,
Speaker 5: you want me to play a forward teas, but I'm
Speaker 5: already shooting in the seventies and that. He said, I
Speaker 5: want you to get accustomed to seeing birdies on your scorecard,
Speaker 5: and I want you to get the feeling that once
Speaker 5: you make a lot of birdies from there, then we
Speaker 5: want you to move back one set of teas and
Speaker 5: play a lot around you start making a lot. It's
Speaker 5: a mindset. It's about your percent of golf is nothing
Speaker 5: but mental. We get on our own way. So if
Speaker 5: we can convince our golf ball to go where it's
Speaker 5: supposed to go because we have confidence in every single
Speaker 5: club in the bag, you start enjoying, you start seeing
Speaker 5: those low scores, and it doesn't matter whether you're a
Speaker 5: tour player or whether you're a senior.
Speaker 2: Great piece about confidence, it's all about confidence. We did
Speaker 2: a show a couple of weeks ago, and I think
Speaker 2: it was called Golf is one hundred percent mental and
Speaker 2: one hundred percent physical.
Speaker 4: There you go, it's all you get. It'll drive you're crazy,
Speaker 4: that's for sure.
Speaker 3: But the key to scoring putting.
Speaker 4: Short game, short game, you bet absolutely what are.
Speaker 2: Seniors They can take advantage of us with that, because, yes,
Speaker 2: more time to practice if they're retired, don't have to worry.
Speaker 3: About length.
Speaker 2: And not always difficult the thing to practice, especially if
Speaker 2: it's just putting.
Speaker 3: You can do it in your own place.
Speaker 2: If you get a putting the seven foot putting matt
Speaker 2: and just practice your.
Speaker 5: Line exactly right, practice distances, practice the three footers and
Speaker 5: without a cup awesome, practice on the carpet and practice
Speaker 5: to those different distances. Because if you can control the distance,
Speaker 5: all you have to do now is select the correct line.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's obviously both. You have to have a
Speaker 5: correct line. You got to have the correct speed. But
Speaker 5: if you're practicing that distance, that means you're always in
Speaker 5: the area, you're always around that hole because the distance
Speaker 5: is correct.
Speaker 2: Right. I want to not only invite the Golf Smarter audience,
Speaker 2: but I want to invite everybody here to participate in
Speaker 2: a contest, not a contest, a drawing that we're having
Speaker 2: on Golf Smarter. We're giving away some wedges from the
Speaker 2: brand new Ben Hogan Golf Company.
Speaker 4: Excellent.
Speaker 2: They've just returned company that used to be called Score
Speaker 2: Golf and before that Idolon out of Texas and they've
Speaker 2: moved the company to Fort Worth. They bought the brand,
Speaker 2: the Ben Hogan brand, and we've talked about it on
Speaker 2: the program a lot, and very exciting. They've just come
Speaker 2: out this year with a new set of irons called
Speaker 2: the Fort Worth fifteens, and a new set of wedges
Speaker 2: and their custom fit for every player. What they do
Speaker 2: is every degree of loft is available all the way
Speaker 2: through from your three iron, which they don't call three
Speaker 2: iron anymore. They have them by degrees all the way
Speaker 2: through to a sixty two degree wedge. I've been playing
Speaker 2: the Score Golf wedges my bag over here for.
Speaker 3: A while and I play.
Speaker 2: I don't play a nine iron, I play my forty
Speaker 2: one degree. I don't play my pitching wedge. I play
Speaker 2: a forty five degree.
Speaker 3: It took a while to get used to that, but
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: And now we're going to be giving away four pairs
Speaker 2: of these TK fifteen Ben Hogan Golf wedges.
Speaker 4: Anything with Ben Hogan's name on it has to be good, right.
Speaker 2: That's what we're very excited, and they just this year
Speaker 2: the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando in January was the
Speaker 2: announcement of the introduction of these new Ben Hogan line
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Speaker 2: They're arriving at my house today. I'm frustrated on them
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Speaker 3: Very excited.
Speaker 2: But for those here, if you want to enter to win,
Speaker 2: we invite you to do so. Go to Benhogan goolf
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Speaker 2: the show notes, you can click on the link there
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Speaker 2: Deadline for entry is August seventeenth, will midnight Pacific time,
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Speaker 2: enter and while you're there, go through the bag mapping analysis.
Speaker 2: It's all free. Well, this has been phenomenal. I appreciate
Speaker 2: your time on this.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it very much