00:00:10:16 - 00:00:31:29 Unknown Welcome everybody to Divots and Skins. We're here again to share a little. Bit of news. We heard about golf and then what we've been up to. We've got a couple tournaments to talk about scrambles, tour stops, things like that. But I want to start with a really interesting story that I heard about that I don't. No, not really a great thing for golf. 00:00:32:07 - 00:00:55:16 Unknown So a former college golfer was caught cheating. So let me explain this story. So basically what happened is he was knowing that he was going to be the first tee time. He said to his basically his his mates that he was playing with that, hey, I got to make a phone call. I got an ill grandmother in the hospital. 00:00:55:17 - 00:01:10:21 Unknown I gotta find out what's going on with her. And I think they were in like hole 2 or 3 or something like that. And he's like, I'm going to run up ahead. I'm going to tee off. I'll meet you on the green. It's a par three. So I meet you up there. I'm going to go make my phone call, and I want to make sure that everything's okay. 00:01:10:21 - 00:01:27:04 Unknown Just meet me up there. So the rest of the group was like, okay. Yeah, no problem. We understand family comes first. Go do what you got to do. They get up there, they find them on the green, and he's like, yeah, it didn't it? I'm not really sure where it went, but I see this ball mark. So it's got to be here somewhere. 00:01:27:04 - 00:01:55:09 Unknown And eventually they find the ball in the hole on a par three. Now this club that he belonged to had this thing where they were actually pitching in each week towards a hole in one contest. And so the money was building up. Well, come to find out, due to CCTV that was attached to the groundskeepers, like building, this man cheated and he cheated bad. 00:01:55:11 - 00:02:24:23 Unknown He actually drove up, dropped his ball in the hole on the par three and then claimed to get a hole in one. So the groupie was with were kind of suspicious, but they celebrated. They told him congratulations, but then they went in and they talked to the superintendent and they're like, hey, something doesn't feel right about this. And so the superintendent looked at the video footage and again, they found that he drove up and dropped the ball in the hole. 00:02:24:26 - 00:02:52:19 Unknown What an embarrassing thing to have happened. Obviously, he's no longer part of that club now. He did choose to cancel his membership and walk away, but man, what a bad thing to do. There's no saving face once everybody knows you're a cheater. And word gets out in the golf community pretty quickly as to whether or not you play it, you know, by the rules or if you take liberties, we'll say, and some people take much bigger liberties as as this guy did than others. 00:02:52:19 - 00:03:13:20 Unknown And, you know, everybody does a little cheat now and then as far as with their buddies or whatever, you know, maybe they take it off a route that it was they should have hit it off from or something like that. But, you know, as, as a rule, I would say 99% of the golfers I've ever golf with play it by the book, you know, or whatever pre-agreed upon rules you, you established amongst your group of buddies or whatever. 00:03:13:21 - 00:03:33:22 Unknown They play it by those rules, pretty much 99% of the time. And it's a shame to hear a story like this, but it doesn't surprise me either, because people do weird things. When you put money on the line. We'll talk a little bit more about that later when it comes to tour. Yeah, it was really strange because he called in to a radio station, I guess, to admit that he had done this. 00:03:33:22 - 00:03:56:13 Unknown And the crazy thing is, he tried to claim that he wasn't a cheater. I'm not sure how you claim you're not a cheater. When you literally drive up to a hole and drop the ball in the hole. Pretty much sounds like a cheater to me. Obviously his disgraced and the worst part is his name is now all over the internet, so I don't know where he's going to be able to play golf again. 00:03:56:13 - 00:04:14:14 Unknown Because talking about being shamed, the have your name on the internet, it's there for the rest of his life. He is not going to get away with anything going forward. And man, he'll be lucky if he plays golf again as far as I'm concerned. Because how can you play and go anywhere and save face at this point when your name is everywhere? 00:04:14:15 - 00:04:41:00 Unknown Now, I'm not going to mention his name because I don't want to add that to what he's dealing with. But man, what a shameful thing to do it is. I was telling you in the car earlier, there's a great sports journalist named Rick Riley who did. I don't remember if it was a book or an article, truthfully, but I read about it years ago, and I've read about it again recently that a former president and current president both is a notorious cheater. 00:04:41:03 - 00:05:04:12 Unknown Kicking balls back out from the rough out of the fairway always has his cart be faster and everybody else's. He gets a souped up golf cart so he can drive ahead of everybody to do the cheating. He's had caddies, you know, pitch the ball out of sand, bunkers for him, stuff like that. I just say, if you can't play the game with integrity, don't bother playing because, you know, especially when you're doing it as a competitive thing against other people who are like minded. 00:05:04:12 - 00:05:32:17 Unknown And they they're trying their best. You're trying your best. We all hit bad shots. There's nothing to be ashamed of when you hit a bad shot or have a bad hole, just you move on and live with it. Apparently some people can't. Well, and I think we've run into it. And one of the biggest things that we find with scrambles and we always laugh about this and this will go into what we're going to talk about next, where we go to the scramble events and we find out that people are 18, 19, 20, 23 under where amateur golfers. 00:05:32:18 - 00:05:52:00 Unknown Now, don't get me wrong, there are some amazing amateur golfers out there that have scratch handicaps and and can do things like that. But most of the time when you're a scramble, you're supposed to be having fun. And I know you and I have run into a situation where we've caught teams cheating and we've called them out, and unfortunately, sometimes that doesn't co-create. 00:05:52:00 - 00:06:11:04 Unknown But I don't see anything wrong with that. If you see somebody cheating, call them on it. I don't think it's the right way to play the game. Like you said, if you can't play with integrity because that's one of the things about golf this golf is all about. It's all about tradition. It's all about integrity. It's all about looking professional. 00:06:11:10 - 00:06:36:12 Unknown Even if an amateur level don't cheat, nobody wants to play with you if you're going to cheat like that. And I know we run into that, it scrambles. And fortunately we didn't get a scam scramble, scramble, scramble that we were at recently at Cronin's where we actually placed we did. I quietly called out the team in front of us, and by quietly, I mean very, very quietly. 00:06:36:12 - 00:06:56:23 Unknown They were coming off the course when we were on the last hole. We were the group behind them. As I said, I was watching them through the rangefinder and was just curious. I asked them, I said, you know, halfway through I asked them how they had done, and they told us they were far more under par than what we watched them do throughout the course of the day. 00:06:56:26 - 00:07:21:17 Unknown And we're playing it legit. We had a couple bad holes, but for the most part we played pretty well that day. We weren't winning the thing, but I, I was irritated over the fact that these guys so bold. Boldface told me earlier in the day that they were golfing so much better than they were. At the end of the day, they pretty much doubled what they had told me at the turn and said there was something like 18 or 19 under or something like that, which I knew was a they were full of malarkey. 00:07:21:17 - 00:07:40:22 Unknown But when they were coming off the course, I whispered to one of them, who I have known for quite a few years. I also employed them for a short time in my business, and I whispered to him, I said, make sure you hand in the right scorecard. That's all I said to him. And apparently his conscience got to him and I. 00:07:40:24 - 00:08:04:14 Unknown He had a fit about it. And after they didn't win a thing when he was walking out that day, he he yelled out that we, you know, the second place team cheated, who ended up being us. And typical of people who are faced with their own, you know, wrongdoings. He you know, he just got very defensive. I went outside, tried to speak with him calmly about it. 00:08:04:21 - 00:08:25:21 Unknown Him and his three bros. I'll call him. We're we're all very adamant, you know, and they, they, you know, all took up a very positive stance towards berating me over having watched them. And they said that the way they put it to me was that, that that was a bad move on your part, dude, it's a bad move on your part. 00:08:25:22 - 00:08:43:12 Unknown That's what they kept saying. And I said, what's more wrong? I said, watching you guys through the rangefinder, are you guys cheating? Hole after hole after hole. I guess some people would say, maybe it's me, I don't know. But to me the game's always been, as Jake said, about integrity. It's always been called the gentleman's game too, for that reason. 00:08:43:16 - 00:08:59:01 Unknown It's been called that for years and years and years. Why? Because a true gentleman will accept his wrongdoings on a hole, or, you know, his bad shots on a hole or his bad round for the day and just move on. I'd like to see more guys do that. I think, again, I think the vast majority of guys do. 00:08:59:06 - 00:09:17:18 Unknown And so I want to do a correction. That one he's talking about. We actually played at Highland earlier this year for a client of mine. We had another scramble this past weekend at Cronin's that I was talking about, because we actually did pretty well there too. Yeah, but it was really funny. And I and I don't know if I shared this story already. 00:09:17:18 - 00:09:35:19 Unknown So at Highland, I invited a friend of mine and he built a team, and I said he was never allowed to come back because he built this team and he beat us. He had a ringer on his team that was an amazing golfer. And and he said, he goes, his back's got to be hurting him because he was carrying me the whole time. 00:09:35:19 - 00:10:02:27 Unknown And he was carrying Rose to the rest of the team. And I was just laughing because they came in first. We came in second at that tournament and we didn't have to deal with that other team. I feel like the cheating got the best of them, and I think that's the thing that people need to understand. It's going to come back and bite you just like it did this guy who thought he got away with it and it was on video, and that video is now on the internet for people to see where he walked up and put that ball on the hole and he cheated. 00:10:02:27 - 00:10:22:16 Unknown So I feel like that people that cheat, yes, you should call them out and say, hey, you're not doing the right thing, but sometimes you don't have to. Sometimes it bites them in the long run and they end up in a situation like they did where they came nowhere near the top three, top five, and I don't even know if they were in the top ten, to be honest with you, by the time they know their true score in. 00:10:22:17 - 00:10:42:09 Unknown So I appreciate somebody like Bret who's willing to stand up for what's right. But Ryan, you're going to have to find somewhere else to go play because you're not coming back next year after you beat us this year. No. I'm kidding. It was awesome to invite them and to see them come and actually play really well. So yeah, so I wanted to share that story because we take golf seriously. 00:10:42:10 - 00:11:00:06 Unknown That's why we do a podcast about it. It's why we're on the USA tour. We love golf. We take it seriously, but we don't want to deal with cheaters and the rules are there for a reason. I think it's really important for people to understand the rules now. You can make mistakes, you can do something wrong and not realize it. 00:11:00:07 - 00:11:16:13 Unknown We talked about it in a previous episode with stopping some grass down. Whether he did it on purpose or whether he didn't. It's a rule. He had to accept the penalty, and he did, and he moved on. I think it's the same thing with amateurs. We need to call each other when we see something and teach each other. 00:11:16:13 - 00:11:35:19 Unknown I think that's the other thing that's important is don't just call somebody on it, be like, you're cheating. No, like, explain to them what the rule is and explain to them so that they can become a better golfer. And I think that's something that we've really enjoyed doing on the US amateur is becoming better golfers because we better understand the rules. 00:11:35:21 - 00:11:56:09 Unknown So I think that's really important. But let's go back to Cronin's and this past weekend where we actually shot fairly well. But I will tell you, we laughed a hell of a lot more than we shot balls because man, were we having a good time. We had a great time. Our buddy Tim from North Carolina joined us. He's up doing some work up here in New York. 00:11:56:11 - 00:12:18:18 Unknown Dave here from the Luxury box, he was our ringer for the day. I think Dave hit more great shots than any of us. Shout out to Dave. He hit great that day, but all of us ribbed each other all day. We we had some really horrible shots amongst us and we didn't muzzle ourselves as far as critiquing the next guy in a friendly and joking manner. 00:12:18:25 - 00:12:39:23 Unknown And we were just bent over in stitches all day over, you know, picking on each other. So had a great time, had a good result at the end of the day, because beauty about scrambles is you don't have to play well yourself all day. You just got to hit timely shots as a team. And it seemed like there was always somebody picking it up, whether it was a good chip or a good pot or something like that. 00:12:39:23 - 00:13:05:11 Unknown So we shot a pretty good score for us. Yeah, yeah, we ended up coming in third. It was the Chestertown Volunteer Fire Department charity event. It was the first time we've actually played that one, isn't it? Yeah. So it was the first time we were able to play that event. And we really, really enjoy it. And I will tell you that Cronin's by far in the area is probably one of the best places to do scrambles because they have some of the best food. 00:13:05:18 - 00:13:23:22 Unknown They give us a great launch of hamburgers and hot dogs before we head out, but they gave us steak. They gave a steak after we do around. That's awesome. And the owner there is amazing. He does a great job taking care of everybody. He makes sure everybody's having a good time as well as him having a good time. 00:13:23:23 - 00:13:42:02 Unknown You can just tell the he loves to host events like that and host charity events. Yeah, and the steak thing, I can't, you know, emphasize enough how and you know delicious. It was you know, I had to go back for seconds because I saw a steak that was sitting in the pan and they brought it out and it just looked lonely. 00:13:42:02 - 00:14:06:00 Unknown So I had to go back for a second helping, but it was fantastic. Baked potato and corn on the cob and the whole nine yards. They put on a beautiful dinner after doing a great lunch to get you started. And James is the owner's name, one of the owners, and he couldn't be friendlier a great time. He'll hang out in the bar with you and have a drink or two or whatever, and, you know, walk around and say hello to everybody and crack jokes with everybody. 00:14:06:00 - 00:14:24:23 Unknown Just what a great place for a scramble. The other thing that's really cool about Cronin's is they actually have a stay and play package. They actually have a bunch of cabinets that are right there on the property. It was the first time I'd ever gotten to see the inside one of me too. And it's a beautiful layout inside the building. 00:14:24:23 - 00:14:44:29 Unknown It's a beautiful location. You're looking out onto the river and you get to see this awesome river. That's beautiful. I will tell you though, and I'll see if I can find some photos of it. They got flooded this winter, and it's hard to believe that that course is the course that we saw underwater in the spring when the ice melted and things actually jumped the banks. 00:14:44:29 - 00:15:03:17 Unknown But I honestly think that helps the course because it gives them all the sediment and everything else to make it grow great. That area is known. It's called the ice Meadows. It's one of the only ice meadows in New York state. Essentially just means that the ice comes through so heavy and thick that it strips nutrient and stuff off the shorelines. 00:15:03:17 - 00:15:27:26 Unknown There's some protected species of plant that grow along there. And if anything, if anybody knows anything about the Upper Hudson area up here in the Adirondacks, it's absolutely picturesque. You get mountains right behind the river. You're looking across the river at a beautiful mountain range, one of which I hunt, and it's just absolutely gorgeous. There's nothing, nothing better than looking out across the course and seeing that as your backdrop. 00:15:27:28 - 00:15:52:06 Unknown Yeah, absolutely. So if you get a chance, Cronin's is actually in Warrensburg. We'll have a link to their site in the description. As always, when we talk about sites or sites, when we talk about courses, we'll make sure that their website is in the description so you can check them out as well. We're actually headed back there in a couple of weeks for another firemen's tournament, the one that we had done a couple of years and really, really enjoy. 00:15:52:07 - 00:16:12:16 Unknown So we're looking forward to that. But we had something kind of big at our home course pop up a couple of weeks ago. We had our club championship. We did, and it was a two day event, which was really interesting because I this is the first time I've actually done a club championship at a course, our home course at Brookhaven, and it was really interesting. 00:16:12:16 - 00:16:32:07 Unknown It was a two day event. So the first day you're kind of randomly with people, and then the second day you were kind of paired or put in, I think threesomes at that time with people who are around what you shot. So that was really interesting to do that kind of style. Now we're used to that because we do that kind of stuff on tour if we do a two day event. 00:16:32:07 - 00:16:50:06 Unknown So we weren't like not knowing how to deal with that. But I will say I love two day events. We talk about it all the time. The two day events are so much more fun because you can have a really, really tough first day and you know you got the second day to play better or you have a really good first day and you know, you got to hold it together the second day. 00:16:50:06 - 00:17:12:03 Unknown So it could be either way. So how'd you do? I was fortunate enough. Ended up being the the gross club champion. So after my handicap was factored in I ended up placing first shot pretty well the first day. But I left a lot of shots out on the course, mainly in the short game, which bothered me a little bit. 00:17:12:03 - 00:17:33:26 Unknown That's normally my strong point. Second day I pretty much played safe golf and really good golf, to be frank, pretty much from start to finish. You know, I had a squirrely shot here and there, but for the most part played really well, shot one of my best rounds of the year and ended up taking home the trophy. Well, not a trophy for our club championship there. 00:17:33:26 - 00:18:05:11 Unknown We got a gift card for some merchandise at the at the pro shop, and I also got a preferred parking space right behind the clubhouse. I ended up donating it to veterans because I'm only 51 years old, and I don't deserve it as much as they do. Shout out to the troops past in present and I. You know, as much as I would love to say, you know, have my name on a placard up there in the parking spot, I'd much rather see it donated to veterans and have, you know them do some kind of, you know, homage to the veterans on the, on the placard. 00:18:05:18 - 00:18:23:01 Unknown So hopefully that, you know, something like that takes place. I'm actually going to talk to the people in the clubhouse when we're golfing there tomorrow to see if that's something they can do in lieu of putting my name there. Yeah. So it's really great to see how he did. I was surprised that I actually won like if certificate as well. 00:18:23:02 - 00:18:41:26 Unknown I wasn't expecting that. And some of that was kind of a little wonky to me because I had to do with guys who had one that were kind of eliminated from the people that were winning. Gross. And I think overall I ended up coming fifth for gross. So I won 20 bucks to the gift shop or the pro shop. 00:18:41:26 - 00:19:00:20 Unknown It's a gift certificate. It's something totally unexpected because I thought I shot okay, I didn't think I shot. Great. It is Brookhaven. It is not an easy course and it was a two day event. I did feel like again, I had some really good shots, but there were times where I was like, I think I know how to play this sport. 00:19:00:20 - 00:19:18:13 Unknown I'm not really sure, but it was nice to actually come and fit. It was a nice surprise. So both of us walked away with a little bit of gift certificate money, and I really appreciate that you would do that for the veterans, because I think that's a great thing to do because I don't want to park there. Yeah, it's not the greatest parking spot. 00:19:18:19 - 00:19:40:19 Unknown We've talked to the people of Brookhaven about it jokingly. It's behind the ninth green. You got to hit a, you know, a skull chip or, you know, hit a shot, you know, 40 yards further, 30 yards further than you would have thought you could have hit for in order for it to hit those parking areas. But it does happen. 00:19:40:21 - 00:20:06:27 Unknown We all know bad golf happens to to us amateurs on a fairly frequent, frequent basis. But still, again, I did it more because it's so close to the clubhouse and there is an uphill climb from the lower parking lot, or a long walk from the back parking lot to get to the front door of the clubhouse. That's the reason I donated it to veterans, because I know a lot of them, you know, have seen better days as far as their mobility is concerned. 00:20:06:27 - 00:20:26:08 Unknown I would rather they have that opportunity to park really close to the to the front door. So again, we talk about Brookhaven a lot. I will have a link to their site in the description as well. Please check them out. They are a beautiful course. The mountains are gorgeous there and I'll be honest with you. Fall coming up. 00:20:26:08 - 00:20:43:14 Unknown That's going to be a gorgeous course to play in the fall. You can't put it any more smack dab in the Adirondacks as far as peak foliage, and they have a beautiful mix of hardwood trees up there, so it's going to be a vibrant color pattern up there. I mean, there's going to be yellows and oranges and reds and maroons and everything else. 00:20:43:14 - 00:21:13:07 Unknown So it's going to be pretty spectacular to golf there this fall. And I almost forgot, I'm going to splice in the video of the guy that we interviewed who had a hole in one on day one in my group. Now, I like to say I saw it. Not really. I didn't see it once it hits the green. But the guy that was with us, the third guy that was with us, saw it go all the way from the front of the green, rolled up into the cup. 00:21:13:09 - 00:21:34:07 Unknown All right, so we are here with Peter, who is part of the Brookhaven Club Championship. And what did you do yesterday? Well, I shot pretty horribly, but I did actually get a hole in one. That was that one. That was my claim to fame for yesterday. Yes. So that was awesome. Like we got to see a hole in one. 00:21:34:10 - 00:21:50:00 Unknown Or at least Trevor, who was with us, could see the hole in one. The two of us were like, yeah, we don't believe it's there. And what happened when we got up? I was sure it rolled off the back. Trevor, the third in our group, said, well, it's it's getting closer up. I think it's in the I said, it's not in the cup. 00:21:50:00 - 00:22:08:13 Unknown I guarantee it just rolled off the back. The pin was way in the back. I said it's off the back. So we actually started looking behind the green for my ball first until Trevor finally insisted we look in the cup and there it was. And there it was. Yeah, and there it was. And it was so funny because Peter was like, I know I should let you guys play up. 00:22:08:13 - 00:22:34:06 Unknown And we're like, no, no, no. We want to know if there's a hole at what. And so he walked up saw it in the cup one one on hole five. Felt good. Yeah. Awesome. One of our sponsors is Blueprint Leadership Development. Rob was nice enough to sponsor us and I really appreciate him doing that. If you're curious about working with a coach, if you're looking for a business coach, Rob is awesome. 00:22:34:06 - 00:22:52:12 Unknown I've worked with him for many years. I'll have a link to his information in the description. So go down there and check that out and find out more about what blueprint leadership development is all about, and what Rob can do for you and your business. I did mistakenly say that I was the gross champion. I was I was the net champion. 00:22:52:12 - 00:23:13:04 Unknown Yes, that's right, that post handicap, you know, again being a 13 Andy cap, there's some guys out there that were close to scratch golfers and I wasn't expecting and nor did I come close to meeting their scores. So I just wanted to make that clear. All right. So that we had a great time at our club championship. And then we've had a couple tour stops that we've been going to. 00:23:13:06 - 00:23:34:14 Unknown So we actually went to a course that we're actually playing later and got a chance to play there ahead of time, thanks to Don, the director of the US amateur, and we got to go play with Hurst, which was an absolutely gorgeous course, absolutely gorgeous building at that course. Yeah. And again, you'll see a couple shots that I took. 00:23:34:15 - 00:23:53:08 Unknown It looked like a freaking castle. And then we found out that it was actually built by the Vanderbilts many, many, many, many years ago. But the course is absolutely gorgeous. We had a great time. It's a very mountainous course. It is very hilly, up and down like West Point we had done. We had spoken of a few weeks ago that we did. 00:23:53:14 - 00:24:11:15 Unknown It was very similar to that. A lot of elevation changes, a lot of blind shots. For anybody who doesn't know in golf, blind shots are not a good thing, whether it's downhill or uphill. When you can't see your landing area with your drive or you can't see where you should put it on the green, that makes it tough, obviously. 00:24:11:15 - 00:24:47:09 Unknown So we struggled with that a bit all day. All of us did. Greens were a little different for us, so we didn't do particularly well in that aspect either. But we had a great time and we enjoyed the course thoroughly. It was beautiful there. Yeah. And we it was nice to have that opportunity because like I said, we will be playing it in a little bit and to get that kind of ahead, to see what it looked like and kind of get an idea of what the course felt like, that that's a good advantage, because one of the things I said to bread is it's interesting being on tour, that some of the courses I've 00:24:47:09 - 00:25:04:26 Unknown never played, but for some reason I've seen the play those better than the ones that I've played a lot, like I've played for a park. And I did come in second in my flight for a park, so I did do pretty well, and I got beat by a guy who was in a higher flight that did do pretty well there, but I didn't win. 00:25:05:01 - 00:25:30:06 Unknown But I wanted Waconia, which I had never played before. So it's very interesting how sometimes when you don't know, of course, it almost like gives you a little bit of an advantage where you're not overthinking about it. And sometimes I mentioned it to you this weekend. There are courses, you hear the PGA pros talk about this. And I think I think it applies to amateurs as well, because we all see a course differently in our mind's eye before we hit a shot. 00:25:30:07 - 00:25:51:08 Unknown You know, we're safe. Lines are and you know same thing with putting, you know some types of golf courses. Some people are really they love links golf. I particularly don't like it. All the undulations and things that aren't don't seem standard. It's not flat. But anyway, I think the the pros talk all the time about a course fitting there. 00:25:51:08 - 00:26:16:15 Unknown I and I do think that comes into play with amateurs. I think sometimes of course just it seems right to you. Every shot seems hit a ball every, you know, every line that you take seems like it's going to be the right one. So that that always also plays into it, I think. So before we go in to our last US amateur stop, let's start with the rule of today. 00:26:16:15 - 00:26:37:17 Unknown What have you got this week? You have a really interesting one that you were telling me about that I think these guys are going to be like, I do have a great rule. The day I was reading up on online recently about if you have an animal in your nearby proximity to your ball, there are two kinds of animals. 00:26:37:22 - 00:27:00:10 Unknown It's going to seem this really simple. There are dead ones and there are live ones. If they are alive ones and they are considered a threat, then you are allowed to move your ball to a safe distance away from them, or take another. If the ball is not gettable. In the case of like it's sitting underneath an alligators jaw, I'm pretty sure you don't want to go retrieve the ball to take your drop. 00:27:00:14 - 00:27:24:29 Unknown You can drop another one without any penalty. However, I found out that all my fears in life have come true. As far as you know, some of this is concerned they are considered an outside agency is how they describe live animals. And I've been saying for years that the squirrels have been stealing my golf balls and pulling them into the woods. 00:27:25:02 - 00:27:51:17 Unknown Obviously, they're considered an outside agency. I'm pretty sure they all work for the CIA, so I'm going to look into that some more. But the other half of the rule is dead animal. So a dead animal, you would think, okay, nobody wants to be near a rotting carcass. But unfortunately, the USGA does not care. There could be maggots or wherever else on said dead carcass, and you are still required to play the shot as it lies. 00:27:51:20 - 00:28:13:25 Unknown There is no forgiveness even if your ball lies on said dead animal, so you have to play it as it lies. It's it would be like an movable impediment. If you can move it, you are allowed to. I say you have to play the ball where it lies, but you can move it out of your path if your ball is not lying on top of it. 00:28:13:25 - 00:28:34:28 Unknown Obviously you can move that dead animal out of your path just like you would a twig or a rock or anything else to make your your swing path more manageable. But, you know, caution doing that because you know, when you bend down to pick up something and it's got, you know, some kind of strange Legionnaires disease or something like that, or it's not really dead or it's not really dead. 00:28:34:29 - 00:28:58:07 Unknown Yeah. So I've had this occur. We've talked about it. I've, I've told just about everybody the story about how I went to South Carolina for a previous tour and went to Hilton Head and had an alligator near my ball and went to hit. And the guy that was with me in my foursome thought I was absolutely insane, because this seven eight foot alligator was so close to my ball and I said, it's just a little guy. 00:28:58:07 - 00:29:20:03 Unknown He's not going to bother me. And he as he walked away from me after I hit the shot and we were walking off that green, the gentleman said to me, I don't know what kind of animals you have up there in the Adirondack Mountains, he says. But we don't mess with alligators down here in South Carolina. So maybe next time I'll stand a little further away, or take the free relief that I am offered as per the USDA rule. 00:29:20:10 - 00:29:45:19 Unknown But on that particular occasion, I did probably the stupid thing and just hit my ball. So there's actually a funny meme out there where you see a bunch of different golfers and they're talking about golfers that live in the South, that are used to dealing with alligators and dealing with those type of animals. And then you get the ones that live in the North that are not the first PGA guy goes up any like he's walking by, sees it, and he kind of jumps and like backs up. 00:29:45:20 - 00:30:02:23 Unknown He's obviously from the north. Then you get the next PGA guy that goes out and pokes it with his club, and it goes off into the water. That guy plays in the South. So it's pretty funny when you think about that, because you were saying, we got all kinds of stuff in the Adirondacks that could kill us, and they're like, yeah, you don't mess with alligators. 00:30:02:23 - 00:30:19:08 Unknown You guys can mess with bears, coyotes, whatever the hell you want to mess with, but don't mess with alligators. So yeah, I think the biggest thing for us when it comes to animals is we got to worry about the deer at Brookhaven. Deer and the geese. Deer and the keys. Yes, the geese are pretty bad at Brookhaven, but the deer freaking insane. 00:30:19:08 - 00:30:38:02 Unknown They're everywhere. I worry more honestly about the geese because they can get very territorial. When April May when they have all their young nearby. Some of them are just hatchlings, and they can get the, you know, the mother geese can get really, really aggressive towards golfers. If you get too close to them, they will try to nip batch. 00:30:38:03 - 00:30:56:12 Unknown Obviously they're not going to eat you, but they're going to get close enough to, you know, at the very least to give you a nice little bruise on yourself. So yes, yes. And I will give you a tip if they are laying in front of the green, do not pretend you can chip over them. I made the mistake a couple of years ago when we were playing. 00:30:56:14 - 00:31:17:26 Unknown They were all laying in front of the green. I was perfectly confident I can chip over them. Nope. I sculpt that ball, hit the side of one of the keys. He made the strangest sound I've ever heard, and he gave me the dirtiest look I've ever seen. And I thought I killed him. He eventually was okay, but that was the last time I had that thought of. 00:31:18:00 - 00:31:40:03 Unknown I can hit over him. I'm fine now. That was pretty bad because that noise was really, really scary. So yeah, so obviously I have to worry about animals in the course of courting to the rules. Apparently you got to worry about dead ones too. I did not know that was a thing. So that's our creepy rule of the day. 00:31:40:05 - 00:32:06:03 Unknown All right. So let's talk about our last stop for the US amateur. You have to talk about it. I do have to talk about it. So I'll come out and say it right away. At one my flight. I was super happy about that. What was really interesting is I kind of went into the weekend knowing that we were at Wilt Wick, and it is in Kingston, New York again. 00:32:06:04 - 00:32:25:00 Unknown We'll have a link to that course in the description so you can check it out. We were actually talking about the slope and the rating of this course compared to Brookhaven, compared to like Waconia, some of the West Point, some of the other courses that we played, and we found that it was actually pretty high. It was the highest one I've ever played on tour. 00:32:25:02 - 00:32:44:05 Unknown Yeah. And so that obviously concerned me a little bit. I went in with the goal saying, okay, I want to break 100. Normally. I want to try to be around 95 because we've talked about with my handicap being around 22, that's really where I should be is in the mid 90s. But I was like not going to put too much pressure on myself. 00:32:44:05 - 00:33:06:03 Unknown I know this is a tougher course. I'm going to go in with a goal to break 100 apart. The first hole we always talk about if you birdie the first hole, the rest of your round in trouble, because that's just how karma works when it comes to golf. Well, I part the first hole and the first thought went through my head is, oh no, that's not a good thing, only because it just puts extra pressure on myself. 00:33:06:03 - 00:33:28:02 Unknown But I felt really good, played a couple good holes, had a little bit of trouble in the middle a little bit. But what was interesting is I never really thought about where I was, and it was just the four of us were in our flight that were in the group together that were playing together. Now, to be honest with you, the guy, Brendan, I think his name was Brendan, Brandon or Brendan. 00:33:28:06 - 00:33:46:04 Unknown I thought he was in the next flight. I when I got there, I thought we only had three. So when we had the fourth person there, I thought he was part of the next flight, which in some ways was probably a good thing for me mentally because I wasn't really focused on how he was playing. I shot really well. 00:33:46:04 - 00:34:06:29 Unknown The front nine, I shot a 46, I believe, on the front nine, so I was super happy with that. I felt really good with that, got into the back nine, had a couple triples and I was like, I don't know where I am with it. And then I realized that Brandon was part of our group, our flight. I was like, oh, I got to keep an eye on him because he kind of struggled in the beginning. 00:34:06:29 - 00:34:27:10 Unknown And then he had a really great middle couple holes and I was like, oh, he's chipping away at the lead that I had. Unfortunately, he struggled towards the end of the back nine. And so the the five strokes that I had that I started the back nine with, I was able to hold on to those. And we actually tied with a 51 on the back nine for the two of us. 00:34:27:10 - 00:34:46:24 Unknown But because of my score on the front nine and getting those five strokes, I was able to walk away with the 97. So I broke that hundred. And then I walked away with another trophy and other music gift card and not expecting that at all. But going back to what I said earlier, again, this is a course I've never played. 00:34:46:24 - 00:35:08:11 Unknown I don't know what it is with these courses that I haven't played, that I seem to play better there than I play at the ones that I've played a bunch of times. It's such a bizarre thing to have happen. So I was super happy and it feels really good to have that second win. Still chasing Aaron for the third one now, so I'm going into win. 00:35:08:12 - 00:35:52:13 Unknown Hurst hoping to get a third one, maybe tie Aaron for the season. We'll see. Because when her last one for the 26th season. So we'll see what happens. But felt really good about that when the course was not easy. The greens were definitely not easy. Probably some of the fastest putting. I've dealt with it. Definitely the season, not necessarily the most sloppy greens, but definitely some little breaks around the cups and and some two tier and multi-tier greens, but definitely not the sloppy because I know Fair Park has some of the craziest greens we play because they're like sloped, really tough and you don't want to be above the pin. 00:35:52:13 - 00:36:10:28 Unknown It was interesting playing here above the pin thing didn't really come into play as much, because there were spots past the green that were past the flag that were below the flag. There were spots before the flag that were below the flag. So it was like there was all these different spots on the green and not knowing the greens. 00:36:10:28 - 00:36:30:00 Unknown That's the big thing. That was the biggest thing. It's not knowing the greens and not knowing where to put it. It. For me it was very much get it on the green, hopefully to put I say hopefully because there are definitely a lot of three putts that day. I think that was the difference for me is I felt like I shot well. 00:36:30:03 - 00:36:56:19 Unknown It didn't putt well, so that 94, 95 that I probably should have shot, it was definitely some of the putts that I missed that either were short putts that lipped out or putts there were a little bit longer. They just ran along the edge of the cup, things like that. But those greens, man, I was saying to Brandon Brendan that, you know, I, I shouldn't be shaking it 18in. 00:36:56:21 - 00:37:15:28 Unknown I should be confident that was going in. But we all felt that like knee knockers at 18in. And it was crazy to have that. But it's because the greens were super smooth. They were fast to me, but I don't know that they were blatantly fast compared to other places, but they just felt fast to me and they felt tough. 00:37:15:28 - 00:37:37:01 Unknown But I had a good day. I brought home a trophy, brought home another gift card, so I'm super happy about that. Got a bunch more points for me for the season. I haven't even looked at that to see where I am with that, but I was just happy to get a first place win. How did you do? Well, the words of Ricky, Bobby's father if you ain't first, your last son. 00:37:37:04 - 00:38:05:09 Unknown So that was me. I was not last in my flight. However, I did not shoot nearly as well as I would have liked to, but it was a tale of two breaths. I hit some absolutely flush shots. My driver, which I've been struggling with all year, is getting better and better. It's one of the beauties I love about golf is it's one big Rubik's Cube, and I'm always trying to get all the colors on the right side, and so my driver's starting to come around. 00:38:05:09 - 00:38:24:22 Unknown I'm putting more and more of them in play and every once in a while even catch fairway. But again, I don't mind it rough, but it's nice to see some land in the fairway every now and then, and I flushed a few of them and put them out really, really deep for my skill level and myself. When you can, when I can get it out to 280 yards, that's really, really good for me. 00:38:24:24 - 00:38:46:26 Unknown So I was really happy, actually, with the way I struck the ball all day. But I want to give a little lesson to everybody at home, everybody that's ever golf and everybody that ever will golf. And that is this. If you're struggling on a part of your game, in my case, it's been the driver for the last six months or better, nine months, whatever it's been that I've been struggling with it. 00:38:46:28 - 00:39:06:13 Unknown Don't take everything else you know for granted. I've always been a good chipper and putter of the golf ball, and I was really upset with myself this weekend because that's where I lost all my shots. I scold more across the greens or didn't even get them close to the pin when I did get them on the green. Not like me. 00:39:06:14 - 00:39:38:11 Unknown I corrected it tonight some. I hit my wedges much much better tonight and still didn't putt great tonight. But regardless during the during the tournament, the moral of the story is, if you're going to go out in the range and practice something that you're really, really struggling with, don't just push all the other stuff aside. Still take maybe you only take 10% of your practice session towards, you know, hitting wedges or whatever on that particular day while you're struggling with a driver because you're really trying to hone in, figuring out what's wrong with the driver. 00:39:38:12 - 00:39:59:14 Unknown Maybe it's 10%, 20%, you know, everybody can figure out their own number. But again, it's part of the beauty of golf is that, like, you know, it's going to show itself. However it's going to show itself. In my case, I tell people all the time, you either make or you're either make or break it at the green, not just on the green, but, you know, that 100 yard circle all the way around the green. 00:39:59:20 - 00:40:17:17 Unknown If you put it up close enough where you can have some birdie putts, which I did have a birdie putt. And again, I hit a lot of really good shots that day. But I had some really untimely bad ones, mostly from short range. And when I say short, folks, I'm talking inside of 50 yards. This is an area that I normally do not struggle with at all. 00:40:17:19 - 00:40:37:17 Unknown It was actually kind of refreshing. I'm not going to lie. To have that be the part of my game that suffered because I'm sick and tired of walking away from a golf course saying, jeez, I shot an 84. But what could I have done if I didn't have to take those four drives that I put out of bounds or whatever, if I didn't have to take penalty strokes on them? 00:40:37:22 - 00:40:55:24 Unknown So it's kind of nice to blame my bad, you know, score at the end of the day on something other than my driver. That was a nice change of pace, but overall I had nothing but good things to say about the course. Don, the tour director, asked us if we would do it again and I said in a blink, beautiful facility. 00:40:55:25 - 00:41:17:18 Unknown We played it on a Monday. We that we had Monday morning tee times. We started 10:00 in the morning. Of course, pace of play was fine for the group. The course conditions were absolutely gorgeous. Like Jake said, tough greens, a little bit of elevation here and there, but not a huge amount like enough where it made a drastic difference in your score. 00:41:17:20 - 00:41:43:01 Unknown Weather was absolutely gorgeous that day. We had a nice little breeze. It was warm for some people, you know, some people whine if it gets above 80 and then they cry if it gets below 72. So anyway. But for the most part, I think everybody thought it was a gorgeous day and the facilities were nice. We didn't get to check out the restaurant bar area because they're closed on Mondays and that's, you know what, you know, just happened stance that that happened to be the day we were there. 00:41:43:01 - 00:42:05:06 Unknown But anyway beautiful facility. Shout out to the place. Nice little pro shop driving range. Suspect it's only 120 yards long. I think they said we had the good fortune that our tour director sent everybody a message and said, hey, it's only 120 yard driving range if you care to. There's another nine hole course down the road. It's nine minutes away. 00:42:05:06 - 00:42:22:10 Unknown If you want to stop there and hit full driver, you can. We did that. I made a big difference obviously for Jake because he ended up winning. No, but it made a big difference for me too because we, we we had a two hour plus drive because we got stuck in traffic at one point for probably almost 20 minutes. 00:42:22:10 - 00:42:40:20 Unknown So it was closer to 2.5 hour drive for us, where it should have been two. And we went to the drive range, and it really helped limber us up and get ready for the day of golf that we had ahead of us. So one of the thing that's really interesting about this tour stop is that it is a little bit further south in New York. 00:42:40:20 - 00:43:07:03 Unknown And so we actually got to see guys come up from the Long Island region, from the Hudson Valley region. But we actually had a guy from Florida. We had a guy from California. I believe. And so it was a really interesting mix of different guys from different regions. And the reason I bring that up is one of the things that's really, really cool about the US amateur is the fact that you can do travel golf. 00:43:07:03 - 00:43:32:09 Unknown And so like we've talked about it like we're heading to South Carolina in a little bit and we're like, hey, can we figure out where there's actually a tour stop in that area while we're making that trip? And a lot of guys do the same thing when they're traveling to different parts of the country. They specifically go to the US amateur site and they'll look up that region and say, hey, is there a tournament that I can join? 00:43:32:11 - 00:43:58:21 Unknown Because you don't have to be part of that region. As the US amateur, you are allowed to play any region you want to play. You just pay the greens fees or the the fee to play that tournament and you're in that tournament now. We did one last year, I believe, where we actually played my first, very first tour stop ever in North Carolina, North Carolina, Carolina, Outer Banks in North Carolina, Outer Banks, North Carolina. 00:43:58:21 - 00:44:15:06 Unknown And I always make this joke that it was a hard course. It was a really hard course. It was a two day event, was a lot of fun, but it was a tough course that I turned to Brett. At one point it went, if this is what tours like, I'm in trouble. It wasn't. Tour was much better than that. 00:44:15:06 - 00:44:40:03 Unknown It just was a really tough course. But what was really cool is when we got there, they announced that we were from New York, and so that was just kind of a really cool thing that they did. But Don is doing a great job of making sure that people in other regions nearby know about his events. Now, the one we're doing this coming weekend is actually Win Hurst, which is in Lenox, Massachusetts. 00:44:40:03 - 00:45:01:11 Unknown So again, that's not in the Albany region, but Don set up an opportunity to go play this course. And we've got guys from Massachusetts coming in. Obviously, guys from all over New York are going to come in. Hopefully we'll see guys from downstate come in as well. But that's the really cool thing about the US amateur is that you don't just have to play in your region. 00:45:01:11 - 00:45:22:11 Unknown You can play anywhere in the country, including Puerto Rico, and we got to see a bunch of guys from Puerto Rico at the turning Stone event. So again, US amateur is not just your region. It's a lot opportunity to play golf. It's one of my favorite parts about this amateur tour is that we get to combine two of my favorite loves. 00:45:22:11 - 00:45:44:27 Unknown Which one is travel? I love seeing all over the United States. I've been to Aruba to golf. I've been to 22 different states to golf. And now that you know, I joined this tour and realized that, jeez, for that same entry fee that I paid at the beginning of the year, the registration fee for the beginning of the year, I can register for a tournament, you know, anywhere I want in the US or Puerto Rico. 00:45:44:27 - 00:46:11:12 Unknown And that is very that was very enticing to me. And we're going to take full advantage of it when we go down to Myrtle Beach this fall. Golf up here in the North Country, up here in the Adirondacks, southern part of the state is a lot different. We we are about three weeks ahead of them as far as our weather, as far as when the cold sets in and it becomes kind of golf or close to golf for us up here, it's usually the last week of October, first week of November on average. 00:46:11:12 - 00:46:29:08 Unknown Some years you get a little bit warmer fall and we might be able to get to late November other years you could a few years ago. I know we got snow before Halloween so that, you know, kind of put a kibosh to your golf for the season. And then we moved into a beautiful facility like this and do simulator golf here at the Luxury box. 00:46:29:08 - 00:46:52:11 Unknown But the the beauty of being able to go to this trip is the last week of October that we're doing, I think are the third week of October. We're going to Myrtle Beach and we're on our way down. We I can almost guarantee you we're going to be able to find a tour stop. Although Jake talked about our last tour stop of the year for our calendar year, is this one coming up next? 00:46:52:12 - 00:47:22:26 Unknown Next Saturday, Sunday, Sunday at Wynn Hurst? Although that's the end of our calendar year, it's only because the national championships for this tour is the third weekend of September, and then they reboot and they restart it over right after that. And your points from that point afterwards can go through to the following year. Your Order of Merit points, which we've talked about in the past, to to help you get into national championships, you can start, you know, get a real good jump on the year. 00:47:23:03 - 00:47:41:18 Unknown So we're going to try to do that very thing by going down and playing some of the other regions. But we have a lot of states between us and South Carolina, so we're going to have a lot of choices to pick from. Yeah, absolutely. I also want to do a shout out to Luxury Box. As I say, every episode, it's where we get to record this. 00:47:41:18 - 00:48:00:03 Unknown This is actually in one of the simulators that Dave has here at Luxury Box, and it's a great opportunity for us to showcase the room that we're in and showcase the screens and stuff like that, and eventually down the road, we hope to do more with the simulator to have some fun with people we have on the podcast. 00:48:00:03 - 00:48:17:26 Unknown But thank you, Dave, for allowing us to come here to use this facility and to record the podcast here in this room. It's a great opportunity for us, but if you're looking for somewhere to swing when it's raining out or it's cold or it's the winner, the luxury box is the place to go. So before we get going. 00:48:17:27 - 00:48:42:26 Unknown I did want to mention that we did an interview recently with Ryan from the Play It Forward 518, and he did a really nice interview. I'll link to that. You'll see the card pop up at the top of the video. It'll also be in the description. You can see that I have the hat on tonight. He was nice enough to come and see us last week and do that interview. 00:48:42:26 - 00:49:14:06 Unknown And then they had their tournament today and they had upwards of 200 people there to play golf, and it was absolutely beautiful today for them. Yeah, I think I believe he said they were going to have 244 people playing golf. That that's incredible. For his foundation and what he does. Definitely check out what they're doing, because we really found it interesting to talk to Ryan and we really enjoyed that interview again, you'll see the card pop up at the top of the video, but you'll also see a link down in the description down below. 00:49:14:07 - 00:49:23:22 Unknown And with that, remember never leave a birdie putt short. Brett. Yeah, I did it. He did it again.