Tales from the first tee
Stories about my life experiences and others as I work at one of the premier golf clubs in Charleston, SC. Interviews with golfers around the world that have one thing in common...the pursuit of excellence on a golf course and everything else that happens along the way.
Tales from the first tee
Don't Be That Guy: A Plea from Your Frustrated Starter
Rich Easton tackles a growing problem in the golfing world: tee time no-shows and the selfishness that's emerged since the pandemic golf boom. He discusses this frustrating trend with his special guest, fitness trainer Josh Salzman, who shares fascinating stories about his experiences at Augusta with Ernie Els.
• Post-pandemic golf demand has created intense competition for tee times at most quality courses
• No-shows and last-minute cancellations block other golfers from playing and demonstrate selfishness
• Credit card holds for reservations could help discourage no-shows and last-minute cancellations
• Josh shares his Augusta experiences, including meeting locals like "Bubba" who gave him a ride in his pickup truck
• Josh witnessed David Ledbetter giving Ernie Els swing advice just before teeing off at Augusta, which backfired dramatically
• Mental pressure affects high-performing individuals across sports, acting and writing, often leading to overthinking
• Hazards in golf create psychological barriers that challenge even the most skilled players
• Tiger Woods' ability to compete at the 2022 Masters showed incredible resilience and persistence
If you want to make a reservation for a foursome and you know less than four people are showing up at a public golf course, be mentally prepared to meet and be paired with other golfers.
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You're listening to another episode from Tales from the First Tee. I'm your host, rich Easton, telling tales from beautiful Charleston, south Carolina. This week I have the pleasure of co-hosting with my brother from another mother, josh Salzman, who graciously took the time out of his schedule training high-profile clients in the London area. But before I get to our discussion, I thought I'd continue season four's segment that I call Stuff I'm Annoyed With this Week. In last week's segment, the stuff I was annoyed with was leaving pussy putts short on consecutive holes. Now I worked on that this week and I could honestly say my missed putts were not short, just directionally challenged. This week, what annoys me was no shows on the first tee since the pandemic shut down in March 2020 I mean, that's over two years.
Speaker 1:Golf, like the demand for a lot of other things like real estate, used cars, boats, vacation rentals, has created a challenge and the challenge is to secure favorable tee times. This is not just a Charleston problem or a South Carolina problem. It's a most every golf course worth playing problem. I mean, I hear stories of guys setting their alarms early, two weeks in advance, just so when the lead times open up for certain golf courses, they get online and they secure it and a lot of times, by the time their fingers hit the keys, the first five or 10 tee times are taken up. So the competition is just becoming ridiculous. When I arrive at the golf course on Friday mornings, one of the first things I do is review the tee sheet just to see what does the day look like. How many tee times do we have? Now it's starting at like seven in the morning, goes till five. How many gaps do we have? Not finding many gaps. And of course, on Fridays, how many bachelor parties do we have? Because that certainly is an entirely different element on the golf course. So when you look at a tee sheet and you see the tee sheet is full from seven to five at eight minute intervals for tee times, you could just do the math to understand the volume of golfers on the course any given weekend. But here's the thing. And the volume of golfers on the course any given weekend, but here's the thing.
Speaker 1:No-shows and last-minute cancellations are a factor and prevalent. And when I say last minute I mean at 7 am. Two guys walk into the pro shop and alert the guy or gal behind the desk of a thousand different reasons on why one or two of their buddies didn't show up for the tee time in 15 minutes. Yeah, and quite frankly, I don't mind playing matchmaker at the first tee, putting the remains of reserve foursomes with the remains of other reserve foursomes when guys aren't showing up. I actually enjoy the challenge of pairing golfers together that were not already paired on the tee sheet. Sometimes I pair odd couples that make the four and a half hour experience less enjoyable for all the golfers involved. Other times I match golfers together that end up exchanging contact information at the end of the round so they could play again, end up exchanging contact information at the end of the round so they could play again.
Speaker 1:That's not what annoys me. What gets my blood flowing is the fact that more people want to play than there are times to play. Golfers that make reservations and don't show up or cancel at the last minute or at the pro shop. They're cock blocking other golfers, other golfers that really want to play. And when did we all get so selfish as a country to block others from enjoying themselves? To make matters even worse, some not all, but some golfers that arrive with less people than they reserve tee times for demand to play as a twosome or a threesome. It's like it's their slot, regardless of how many people were playing, they own that slot.
Speaker 1:Now look at private country clubs. It's a different thing. I don't belong to a private country club anymore, so I don't know since the pandemic whether or not they've tightened up their rules and they fill out foursomes as well. The demand in the Charleston market, as I understand it, for private clubs is so strong that most every private club has already filled out their max memberships. But certainly at a semi-private and a public course for golfers to come in and demand that two of them play together or three of them play together and allow nobody else. I mean that's just selfish.
Speaker 1:Some people get ugly about it while others resort to begging Like please, you know, my wife really doesn't play that much. Or you know, there are like a million stories in the big city and I get it. I get it If I'm playing with somebody who's learning how to play. The last thing I want that they want is somebody else in that foursome to see them at their worst. I rather people to see me with my right foot forward, and I've used this analogy or metaphor before. It's like nobody wants to go to a restaurant. Let's say you had four people you made a reservation for you get there and only two people are there and then you go in and you go look, I only have two people. And then they sit you at a table for four with another couple that you've never met before. That could be awkward and it certainly adds a whole new dimension to the night. Well, that could happen in golf as well. So here are my thoughts.
Speaker 1:If you want to make a reservation for a foursome and you know less than four people are showing up at a public golf course, be mentally prepared to meet and be paired with other golfers. You selfish douche. The fact that you knew only two were showing up and you made a reservation for four. You've got to be ready for the consequences. Now, if you make a tee time for a foursome and one of your buddies fails to show, give them shit and be prepared to meet and be paired up with another golfer, him shit and be prepared to meet and be paired up with another golfer. And if that single is a selfish asshole who drives their golf cart in front of you while you're swinging or stands directly behind you doing practice swings while you're trying to drive the golf ball right or steps on your line on the putting green all day long. That's on your buddy for not showing up. Like I said, he deserves a bucket of warm shit storm, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what's the right thing to do? Check with your buddies a day or so before, make sure everybody's coming and then, if somebody cancels, call the course, let them know it's less than a foursome and then just be prepared for a pairing. That's the right thing to do, and a lot of you that are listening to this would say hey, rich, there's a simple solution, because there are a lot of courses some in Charleston, most around the country that I've experienced that the only way that you could make a golf tee time reservation is to give them a credit card and have them hold that credit card on file. Now, most courses not all, but most courses won't charge you if somebody cancels, and some of them have cancellation policies like 24 hours, whatever that is. But I think the deterrent of a credit card can certainly get more golfers to show up or at least cancel on time.
Speaker 1:In a previous lifetime, when I developed sales compensation programs, I'd first look at the behavior we're trying to incent. You wouldn't be surprised to learn that the thought of making more money or the threat of losing money influences behavior more than most anything else. Having a credit card on file would certainly add more thoughtfulness and responsibility on the part of reserving tee times and showing up, but it all goes back to one thing how we do anything is how we do everything. For all of you, no-shows with no warning, stop being a douche.
Speaker 2:This is a public service announcement.
Speaker 1:Last week I shared my thoughts on the Masters and Scotty Scheffler's rise to fame. This week I'm talking to Josh Salzman, who's been to Augusta several times. He's trained Ernie Els, he's been there before the tournament, with Ernie during the tournament, and so he has some thoughts on the grounds and some of the people he meets. So we're going to talk a little bit about that. But, like everything else with Josh, we always veer off in different directions. So, without further ado, here's another week talking to Josh Salzman. So what's new? So what's new besides that? That's not new, that's just more shit. What's new with you? What's going on?
Speaker 2:uh, all good man, all good you know business is is brisk. I'm gonna take a few days off coming up. On the first time in ages I haven't been to well. I haven't been to the states for a while, but I hope to go back this summer for a month.
Speaker 2:Uh, you gotta let me know when you're coming right oh yeah, I'll be coming in july sometime all right, I'll drive up, I'll drive up there yeah and so definitely want to see you and and uh, yeah and all good. I just talked to my sister. We hope to sell the house, my parents house, my mom's good, she's 95, she's sharp as a tack and she's very, she's very easygoing mom and all that. So I'm happy with that and uh, yeah, so I'm all that, but uh, but anyways, I spoke to um ken browner the other day was this after the after the oscars yeah, after the oscars I actually spoke to him when him and his brother were, when they were in LA.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you talked to Kenneth, but did you call him or he call you?
Speaker 2:Well, what happened was I saw this stuff online and I knew he did it and I said, obviously I watched it. And I said I said, look, congratulations. You know I was rooting for you. I was rooting for him. I sent a couple pictures. I had a couple pictures I posted online because we've spent 30 years together and I said I hope Ken wins. And I said, listen, I hope you all the best for this.
Speaker 2:He says thank you very much. And I said, and when he won, I said, yes, buddy, you know, it's like, it's like my favorite team in the whole world winning the world championship. And he said thank you very much, my dear, dear friend. Lots of exes and and because you know that's what we do in the, in the, you know, thespian world and and all that stuff which is great. And and then I spoke to his brother too, because his brother went out there, bill, who's my age, ken's about five years younger and you know they were just thrilled and they were just, you know, just nonstop and it was kind of a anecdote to obviously what you and I talked about with Will Smith's obviously the, the unfortunate breakdown there and all that kind of stuff and that kind of unfortunate highlight. You know the Bobby Knight of the Oscars. So to speak.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, except he wasn't throwing a chair, he was throwing a slap. So what did Branagh, what did he think about that whole thing? Because he must have been up pretty close. I think they sat all of the potential winners up in these like tables, right by the stage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, they did. I don't. I didn't touch that subject because I didn't, because, you know, I just wanted to make sure, in case phones were being tapped, that Ken wouldn't be put on PA. You know the AP newsreel as far as his opinion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so they don't a lot of them just don't want to speak out because they don't want to be right. They don't a lot of them just don't want to speak out because they don't want to be they don't want to get in trouble.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know they say in Stoicism, you know the Stoicism that's, you know, from 2,000 years ago, the Stoics. You know you don't have to have an opinion on something. You know what I mean of going okay, you know that's the way the world is. But I'm not like that and let them do that, because I think sometimes Ken had a great uh, it's on YouTube someplace where he does this acceptance post acceptance speech interview where it's about 10 minutes long and it's beautiful, because all the things that he told me his whole life, um, about his upbringing, actually was in that movie and all of a sudden I get to realize more who my friend was.
Speaker 2:But at the same time what he said was it was he kind of, you know, in a touching way he kind of shed a bit of a tear and got a bit choked up, which he would have, because when he was watching the black and white tv in 1969, um, and watching the oscars next, you know he was getting an oscar about watching the oscars in 1969, if you know what I mean in belfast, right so?
Speaker 2:it was kind of it's like wow, you know, and and the fact that you know, um, as we know, buddy, that sometimes we look at these heroes that we have in our world, you know whether they are you, you know super athletes and super this the hero sometimes of people is just, it's just surviving, you know, and that Belfast, when you were either a Catholic that didn't want to get involved or a Protestant didn't want to get involved, you were just surviving. You were just surviving. That's all you were doing, and you're trying to keep your family safe and and so the real heroes in the world, isn't it true?
Speaker 1:buddy, they're the little guys, the little people. You know the small guy, right? People that do good, that are not looking for accolades for doing good, they're just doing good because it's in their nature and they help people.
Speaker 2:Right, that's right. Or they're just trying to keep an eye on their family and they're doing this heroic task of trying to earn a living. You know, somebody said to me once in the gym when heroic task of trying to earn a living. You know, somebody said to me once in the gym when some guy that ended up being a bit of a twat, which is not a very nice word, in uh uh, it refers to that part of the woman's anatomy there.
Speaker 1:But wait, in England, though, you could call people cunts all day long.
Speaker 2:Okay, so he was a cunt. Yeah, so this guy this guy was, this guy was client, climbed Everest and he was the most selfish guys selfish guy. So I couldn't understand why a Sherpa would ever want to work with him, Because a Sherpa usually they're very loyal people, but this guy's so disloyal it's unbelievable. But anyways, somebody said to me hey, this guy's climbing Everest, what are you going to do? This was like 15 years ago. What are you going to do for your next kind of thing? Are you going to do something like that? I said, yeah, I'm going to try to pay the rent, that's what I'm going to do. Right, pay the rent. And they said, oh really, ha ha, no, no, no, no, no, you're where I am right now Paying the rent is like Clive at Evers. So you know, and, and I think so that's that's kind of sums it up. But but I was really enamored by Augusta and it brought back a lot of memories rich actually and of this past weekend I really, really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:I really enjoyed. Quite often when josh and I are talking, when he's talking from england, the transmission gets broken up.
Speaker 2:So here he was talking about how he was in awe with tiger woods it was almost like l sid moment, where he couldn't even supposed to even be alive. And he gets on there and he tees off on day one, which is just is a win in itself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, his persistence, his, tenacity and his persistence was. I think that's his brand now, this persistence, the Tiger brand I think used to be. You know, win. You know, practice hard, practice hard, win. You know ice in your veins, win at all costs. Don't talk to your competitors, don't talk to the press, you're just out there to win. And then over time, life happens to him right, with all his surgeries and then his horrible car accident and just you know, not knowing if he's going to have a second leg, not knowing if he's going to walk, and then, like a year and a half later, he pushes himself and I kind of talked about this in my podcast from last week. It's like stretching ice, stretching ice therapy, ice stretching everything he's got to do every day to be able to swing a golf club and he makes the cut. That's incredible and you could see him walking. I mean, I would have a tough time walking for four days and playing golf there. It would be tough. Well, it's a tough course.
Speaker 2:It's a hilly course and that note, when I was there five times-ish I was there a couple practice rounds kind of thing. But I know this that a lot of the spectators there have a tough time walking the course Because you know, spectators don't walk four miles or five miles and they don't do it on hilly and they don't do it in hot weather and they don't do it while they're drinking too many beers and you know that kind of thing. If they're partying for a few days. You always see the ambulance come out as soon as it gets a bit warm and people just pass out walking up the hill because they're not in shape and and they're not even swinging a golf club, they're just walking, watching. You know I mean right.
Speaker 2:And so with Tigers body, I noticed when he got off the 18th he the adulation and the adrenaline took him, took him like walking very well, and then as soon as he saw his mom and he started walking back into the clubhouse. You can really see it reminded me, and I'm sure it reminded you, of when your hip is impinged. You know, before you had your operation on your hips you know it's just ouch. Every step is ouch, ouch, ouch.
Speaker 1:But you make a really good point about that. It's like all of a sudden, when the energy of the crowds, you absorb that energy, your pain you're not thinking about your pain. Your pain is no longer controlling you and you're just taking in all this energy and then you're walking through the crowd and then you're right Once it's all over and that energy subsides you. Now, all of a sudden, there is that horrible pain when you have to step your right foot forward. That's really an interesting observation.
Speaker 2:Well, it's the way it is. I mean, if you look at any sport, I always notice you know soccer over here, football, we call it. If there's a double overtime game in a European championship and it's really hot, the winning team, you know. If they play an extra, you know another half, and then it goes down to penalty kicks and everybody should be totally whacked. The winning team can jump up and down for hours, right, or at least for a half hour an hour, and jump up and down and jump up and down. The losing team can't even get off the flipping turf. You know what I mean, because it's your psyche goes, and you remember Peter Kors, back to Sykes. Yeah, I remember Peter Kors. He was a basketball player. He was a beta red haired guy from upstate New York. Remember him.
Speaker 1:All right. So the next few minutes of this just underscores the fact that over time, people forget about some of the people they experienced life with. I mean, when teenagers have friends and think they're going to be their friends the rest of their life, I think and sometimes that happens I think that's pretty cool. But here's a situation where Josh mentions a name and the truth is this guy pledged our fraternity and wanted to be my little brother. Right, and he was, and he was my little brother. I spent some time I'll talk about our experience together but it took me a good minute or so, while he's talking about Peter, to realize I spent a lot of time with this guy and you mention his name and it just doesn't pop right away. Motherfucker, Peter Kors, Was he in? He was a beta.
Speaker 2:He was a beta.
Speaker 1:Wait, did this guy was um, brought up on a farm that's right.
Speaker 2:That's right, I went to his farm.
Speaker 1:I had a bull chase after me at his farm. We got totally wasted. Were you with me? Because we got totally wasted? He was a big uh pothead and we get wasted right. And I jump over this fence and he goes to me hey, hey, rich, that's a bull, you don't fuck with bulls. And I'm like come on, and all of a sudden the bull looks at me and he starts doing that thing with his hooves. He comes flying after me and I just jump over the fence, scared the living shit out of me. But yeah, I remember Peter, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, we got a Peter Kors story, yeah, peter Kors. Well, here's a Peter Kors story about getting psyched. We were going to Toga. Yeah, you weren't with us. You were already there, I think, and you were at the hub and I remember I was going with Peter and another guy and his car broke down. The other guy's car broke down. We were six miles, about five miles, from Saratoga, and it was snowing and I had a pair of Frye boots.
Speaker 1:You know we thought it really cool the fries yeah they were very cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they're very cool. And Peter said we can warn there. I said, peter, it's snowing, there's six inches of snow or five inches of snow. I got cowboy boots on. It's about five miles to Saratoga. He goes and he looks at me, he goes, just get psyched. And I thought just get psyched, so you get psych, just get psyched, so you get psyched up, so that's psyched up.
Speaker 1:I remember it.
Speaker 2:I always remember with Peter get psyched.
Speaker 1:He was the epitome of farm strong. Oh yeah, you ever meet those guys. He didn't look like a big, muscular guy but he would post me up. We'd play basketball and that guy was you. You couldn't. He was immovable. And I do remember his psyche. I remember he. Actually he was my little brother. Now that I think about it more it's been so long, yeah, he was my little brother at beta and that's.
Speaker 2:This is a good advert for marijuana, because you haven't forgotten about it a bit of cajoling, you remembered it but. But you see, I remember being on his farm and thinking this is I did. I spent a half term up at his of his place for a week, right a week, and it was like living with the waltons. Come meet the amish, right and right and brothers were all having pancakes and eggs and they were just putting out eggs and eggs and eggs and pancakes oh yeah, he was blocking arteries in his 20s but it was getting up in the morning and and and and shoveling cow shit Right, and I never found that fucking farm work.
Speaker 2:It's the toughest work there is, man.
Speaker 1:Didn't you work on a kibbutz?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I worked on a kibbutz, but I didn't do that kind of stuff. And I tell you what working. First of all, you've got to get used to it. You've got to wear clothes that you can only wear into the barn, right, because you do smell like a cow after a while, right. But anyways, over to that. But that's about getting psyched. But back to Augusta. You know, speaking of farm guys, you know my first time there, rich. I went there in 2005 when they just enlarged the course.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they lengthened the par fours to like five. Yeah, everybody was making it. Tiger-proof is what it was called, because he was hitting it longer than anybody at the time right, that's right, and so who won it, though that year?
Speaker 2:Zach Johnson, zach Johnson.
Speaker 1:He's not a long hitter, right, he's not the longest hitter.
Speaker 2:Long hitter. He's one of the shortest hitters but leading up to that we went there with with. He went with a practice round. I always remember I went and stayed at the Marriott Courtyard and Ernie just dropped me off because he was staying with a member at the course and it was two months before. And I remember getting dropped off this Marriott Courtyard and he said you'll be all right. I said, sure, I'll be all right, I'll just get a room. So I go to the guy at the front desk I don't, I have a phone, ernie's, you know I don't. I can't get a hold of him because obviously he's playing a practice round. He drops me off and the guy at the front desk says sir, we don't have any rooms. So I thought I'd pull the. I'm the only else's personal trainer. So he said I said I'm ernie else's personal trainer. He goes oh, we do have a room. I thought we didn't have a fucking room, but now you have a fucking room.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, right, there's like the secret list.
Speaker 2:The secret list. So now Ernie texts calls me up and says hey, josh, I need some razor blades, can you go find a Walmart or something? So I go down the street. I got no car. I walk down the street and there's this kind of Thai food place, right, and I'm sitting there and I order some food for myself, and the guy behind me was to weigh like 400 pounds and he's eaten a meal for six for himself, right, and his name is Bubba and I asked the guy it was.
Speaker 2:Bubba, yeah, it was Bubba. I asked this guy, the guy, the guy that waiter comes over, he goes huh, what would you like? Uh, we have uh this, and we have number 22, number 23, and I'm thinking I said what's the guy behind me having? Oh, he's having meal for six, for one, okay, so now. So I said, do you know? Do you know where? Do you know where? There's a Walmart around here.
Speaker 2:So all of a sudden, the guy behind me that I'm kind of like thinking man, he's massive, uh, goes. Hey, I could help you find that place. I'm going down there right now, after I finished my food and I said, I said well, thank you, sir, he goes. My name's Bubba, what's your name? I said Josh. So he goes. I work for the railroad. You know, I got my chainsaw in the back in the pickup truck, you know, and I cut the bush on the side of the railroad lines and I'm just in this area today and so I'm having something to eat. I'll help you out, sir. I said you don't call me, sir, call me josh, go, okay, josh. So he says so, we. So now I, we finish our meal, he finishes meal for six. Right, we get into his, we get into his, his pickup truck, his white beat up pickup truck, right ernie's hobnobbing at augusta at a nice place at the clubhouse, having dinner with a couple of the members and you're with bubba in the pickup truck I'm with bubba in the pickup truck.
Speaker 2:So now bubba takes the chainsaw off the front seat where I'm sitting right, wipes the flipping wood, chippings off the seat, tammy winette and george jones comes on the flipping. Uh, you know, you player, and it's going stand by your. And we're on our way to fucking Walmart's or whatever it was, and Bubba was my driver. That evening we went and had a beer someplace. We had to find a place that there was a stool that was big enough for Bubba. So Bubba brought me back and Bubba took me all over. I got some razor blades, got some aftershave, got spud, and Bubba was my driver.
Speaker 1:So this guy just goes out of his way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, goes out of his way. He didn't know me from that.
Speaker 1:I told him what I did afterward, but he was willing to do it anyway. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool when you meet people like that. That's why you can't judge a book by its cover. The fact that the guy eats for sex should be no indicator of what kind of person he is, and the fact that he'll go out of his way to help another person. Plus, he probably knows the best restaurants in town.
Speaker 2:Well, he certainly knows where you can get the most food for your money, right?
Speaker 1:Best value in town.
Speaker 2:So we go there, ernie on his practice round right with a friend of I. Knew this guy because I used to train his son who was a member there. He shoots a minus five on the course. Yeah, minus five.
Speaker 1:Nice five under.
Speaker 2:And then a minus six the next day of the par right. So he's six under. So he's doing great. So he doesn't have to do anything else, right? So now this is leading up to Augusta 2005, my first time at Augusta. So that was my first time there. Now we come back for the tournament. So now we come back for the tournament and David Ledbetter is with us on the plane because I'm staying, we're practicing, he's doing a bit of Champions Gate in Orlando with David Ledbetter, and David was kind enough because there wasn't enough room at the end where Ernie was staying that he puts me up for a week and we go see a match. We all see the Orlando Magic play.
Speaker 2:He's a really nice guy. I train him, he. I train him manually with my hands. I found David to be a charming man and he really was very nice to me and he said look, I can really see what you do with Ernie because you're up in his face, you're training with his hands. But you know you've got to get Ernie to work with me for more than a week. You know he's got to come. You can't just do a day. He's got to come down here for a week and I can really help him. But I wouldn't say anything to him now because this is right before Augusta. I don't want to change his mojo. I said no, he played really well. So now so, and I, like David, and David will say you know, at this practice round where we went this time it wasn't the practice round when I went, but this was this time where it was like three days before augustus. So there was the par three thing yeah, on wednesday the par three.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they start monday and then tuesday and then threes on the whole families. It's really become like a walk in the park with the families yeah, well, the walk in the park.
Speaker 2:So david would take the piss out of me because I was wearing a wife beater shirt, because Ernie didn't tell me not to wear a wife beater shirt, so he would take the piss out of me. But what I saw with David was Ernie's ready to tee off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is on which day A practice round.
Speaker 2:No, this is on the tee day. This is on the Thursday.
Speaker 1:Oh, thursday, okay, First day of the tournament, okay.
Speaker 2:First day of the year before Ernie had lost to Phil Mickelson in a playoff yeah, phil made this 50 foot putt and Ernie loses they the the tournament. He lost also a couple other tournaments, british show but he came in second, I think, in three out of the four majors. And then that summer he hurts his knee and I start working with him that summer after that, after he hurts his knee because I worked with him a bit before, like a couple workouts, and then he hurts his knee and I help him rehab his knee. So that's how we hooked up in the in the in the summer of. Well, it would be 2004, so now lead up to this. Now, david, is you know saying all this stuff when we're in champions gate the week before augusta? That you know, and already he's trying to get his game down. That you know. I'm not going to give him any advice now because it's like you know, the worst thing you can do to someone is, if they're playing well, don't say anything to them.
Speaker 1:Right. Stay out of their way.
Speaker 2:Stay out of their way. So now I look before Ernie tees off for the first. You know he's got rabbit in the headlights a bit. You know kind of eyes because he's thinking of all the heebie-jeebies. You know how it is If one person is watching, that's fine. If millions of people are watching, a four-foot putt is like you can get the yips. You know what I'm saying, sure. So anyways. So I look over and what is David doing? David has actually got Ernie practicing with a couple sticks, bringing his hands up a bit higher on his swing. I'm thinking what the hell is he telling him to do something? Now? You know, because what happened was David came down with his son on the plane, so we all traveled together on Ernie's plane to Augusta, right? So because David, you know, obviously gets into Augusta, you know of all the Faldo days and everything else and the things that he does. He's a world-renowned golf coach. I'm thinking this is the worst mistake any coach could ever tell someone just before the guy.
Speaker 1:Did Ernie solicit his advice, like was this Ernie that asked it had to be right I think.
Speaker 2:Ernie said he was kind of like he looked like a bit nervous and David said let me give you a few tips Wrong time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what does he get on the first hole? Double, oh no, so wait, so you just cut out there.
Speaker 2:So how did he? What did he do on the second hole? Second hole, I think he bogeyed as well. Oh yeah, so I think he made the cut that year.
Speaker 2:But the point being that somebody that was a south african guy, that was a friend of his, that was the richest guy in South Africa, was also a client of mine for a little bit. He took out 100 sessions and only did two ideal client kind of thing. But having said that, he said to me, he came up to me, said are you strong? And I thought it was one of those jokes like I'm going to spit and you're going to have to pick that up, type of thing. And I said I want you to beat the shit out of david ledbetter. What the fuck is he doing? Give him that advice, for it pisses me off. He fucked up. And and what was his name then? Following you, I think edelman won it. You know, the south african guy, the young guy. He didn't win much after that, no, or I think yeah but he's actually, uh, he's, he's a commentator now the guy.
Speaker 1:Well, there you go, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So here's Ernie, who's got all the talent in the world that just had a minus five in a practice round. He's playing great. He's got all the game needed for that new long course. He's going to hit it long. He's got a touch, he's got soft hands, all that kind of stuff. And you get advice at the wrong time and when you're nervous and the worst thing to do is to go up to someone that's nervous and say change the play at the line of scrimmage. This is not football, where you call an audible and there's another play. No, the guy's playing. Well, leave him alone. And so that's what I saw there.
Speaker 1:On that note, that's interesting, that's interesting, okay, so let me weigh in on this now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1:So I'll give you my thoughts on not I don't know what real I don't know the series of events that transpired before David Ledbetter opened his mouth. But here's what I find. Um, you could be playing, you could be shooting lights out a few weekends ago, you could be shooting lights out yesterday, but every day in golf is different, except for Scotty Scheffler, who right now is just caught lightning in a bottle, kind of like Spieth did in 2015. Like, everything's working for him, right. So let's say, ernie had those good rounds, but obviously there was something off with Ernie for him to either ask David Ledbetter or say something.
Speaker 1:And when something is broken, like when somebody goes to a golf pro and gets lessons, it's almost guaranteed right out of the bat they're going to play horribly. Right after the lesson it's going to be horrible, because now they get something else to think about. But then you have to go back and say, well, something was breaking before they went to get that lesson. That's why they went to get the lesson. So with Ernie, one of two things is possible Either things were breaking and he was reaching out and it was just. Whatever David said, it wasn't going to matter, ernie wasn't going to play well, or David Ledbetter opened his mouth at the wrong time, planted some seeds in Ernie's head, and Ernie just couldn't get out of his way. One of those two.
Speaker 2:I think it was. The latter Could be Just from the point of view. Is that when I see it with, say, an actor for instance, yeah, he's been drilling his lines on stage, he's in a West End musical or a play and all of a sudden you tell him to change the lines just before the play starts.
Speaker 1:Oh, that'll fuck him up.
Speaker 2:That'll fuck his head up fuck his head right up, right or or somebody. Because the nice thing about what I do, richard, is that you know. When somebody comes in, people say what are you gonna do with that guy? Well, I don't know until I see the guy. I don't know until I see the woman, like today, you know, I don't know where she's at. I'll do what I need to do on that day to keep things progressing and to address issues that they might have. So it's kind of like the difference with trouble with golf is because there's set plays. It's almost like with golf, it's like kicking a field goal rather than playing soccer.
Speaker 1:That makes sense to me, yeah, but the kicking a field goal and what gets in your head and what doesn't get in your head reminds me of hitting drives and putting that's right, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Because you have so long in between each play. So the guy that kicks the field goal, the running back, has an easier time to some extent because he's running. So now he can do the little fast, little moves and the and he's reacting right.
Speaker 2:He's reacting. He's not saying okay, let's run down here as fast as you can. You know what I mean. You're doing a hundred meter dash or a 40 yard dash or something, or the field goal kicker. Back to that where you have this pressure. Where the ball comes, the guy puts it down and you got a kick against the win, or you know whatever it is, you know so. So it's a set play in golf. You have too long in between plays for, for, for, if you're overthinking not to have it impair you. So if you overthink, you know, better tell me about Faldo what Count to four and hit it. Don't think, count to four and hit it. Yeah, if you think too much, you know you'll overthink. You know you put a great You're bringing in you're bringing in thoughts that don't need to be.
Speaker 1:they actually they're interruptive. You don't need them. All you need to know is that one thing that helps you get the club back into the slot and that next thing that helps you get through it and the foul. That's it. That's all you really need. Anything else is additive and it's not beneficial, I agree with that.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right. That's right. And the worst thing for me, rich, whatever I was doing, it may have been for you I can't speak for you but was to think about what happens if I lose, or what happens if the guy takes me down. No, no, don't think like that. You can't. You take him down.
Speaker 1:Right. First of all, you got to be in the present. You can't be in the future, you can't be in the past. You have to be in the present to perform your best. You have to be in the moment. Yeah, yeah To perform your best.
Speaker 2:You have to be in the moment, yeah, yeah, in the moment, in the moment. And that's the trick with golf again, because you do have all these things and I always think it's quite interesting when they walk up the course. And you know golfers are so talented that, as you know this, you go to Jacksonville. Okay, let's go to Sawgrass the 17th, where you got to hit over water. Now, if that water wasn't there, those guys would probably make so much better shots, but the thought of the water being there makes them think it's like. It's like you could. If you had to walk on a on a two foot diameter board, you know, down the street for a mile, you could do that. Yeah, stay on that same board. But if that board's lifted up by 2,000 feet and you're looking down, you're going to fall if you don't step on that in the right way. All of a sudden, now you're wobbling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's fear.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's fear. That's what hazards do in golf.
Speaker 1:That's why the greatest architects golf architects create. Sometimes they're hazards like water and sand. Sometimes they're visual hazards, like a tree in a certain place or a bunker where the green is elevated, and all you see when you're at the tee box is this big white thing, the sand trap, because you really can't see the green. And to be able to overcome that and be able to hit a pure golf shot, it takes a lot of mental fortitude and training. So you're right Hazards, man, they get in your way.
Speaker 2:That's what they're there for a reason. They're there for a reason and just like gladiators, you know when people used to watch them, you know slicing their bodies apart or facing, you know, live tigers or whatever they were back in the roman days, it's a bit of a meltdown. So, you know, augusta becomes with the greens. So, say the greens, they're shaved so low. I I forgot the term of that, but they're so. They're like, uh, they're like. They're like putting on glass.
Speaker 1:Yeah you can't say they use bikini wax anymore. That's what got uh gary mccord fired from announcing years ago. But yeah, they're stemmed for like 13, and they are. I feel bad for that guy. Cameron Smith, the guy from Australia, that kid's good. The guy with the mullet, that kid is incredible. He gets to 12, and that 12th hole has to be so intimidating because, number one, it could make the difference in winning or losing. You know you can't win it there, but you could lose it there and with a little, and you don't know where the wind's coming from because it keeps changing, sure, and Cameron just made one mistake. He hadn't made one yet. One mistake puts it in the water and then he triple bogeys and he's out of the tournament. I feel for the kid and Scottie, he pars it, hits it in the back chips it up, pars it.
Speaker 2:What was the shot that he made? Was it the second hole? Rich Scottie made that shot. Third hole.
Speaker 1:Where he chips it in, the one where he chips it in. Yeah, third hole was where he was off. The green chips it in and that all. But then you know, cam the two holes before that, cameron buried the first two holes. Scotty was par par, but then scotty does this, starts setting it the other way and I think and I I talked about this in my last, the podcast that I released, uh, yesterday morning. But the biggest shot for scotty to me was on Saturday.
Speaker 1:Wind cold gets to the 18th. He's leading by nine. He is nine under, he's probably leading by five at the time and he jerks the ball into the woods on the left. It takes all the patrons and everybody who is working there probably 10 minutes to find his ball. As he walks up, they find his ball, he can't hit it and then he works with the official to figure out what the next move is. Takes it out onto the pine straw, has 264 yards uphill over bunkers and you think he's going to lay up. He pulls out like a tool, iron smacks it, hits the green, rolls off the back and he bogeys the hole.
Speaker 1:But that was the best bogey of the entire tournament. I mean, his courage was so, at his peak, for him to do that. I mean, even the announcers couldn't believe what he just did, but he knew he could do it. And that's what happens. When you have a guy that's leading the tournament, that's playing really well, they start pulling out clubs and I've seen Phil do it, tiger do it. So many of these players, when they are on and their confidence is peaking, they make incredible shots that the announcers and Bubba wants it this one year.
Speaker 1:Bubba, when he hits that shot he hooks it around to get it on the green. I mean that was right.
Speaker 2:That was a great shot, right.
Speaker 1:So yeah, but the green I mean that was right.
Speaker 2:That was a great shot, right. So, yeah, but it's like this, you know, and that's why you know, see, I don't play golf like you do, rich, but I but I appreciate that golf is the one sport I remember when I was on the tour with ernie and I used to come back and my dad used to say what happened to ernie on that hole there. I said, dad, can you imagine the balls here and I'm at the cottage? It's on pine needles. You got to hit the ball over the cottage into the next door neighbor down the roads front front garden and get it close to you know the the mailbox, you know, I mean this crowd has gone deadly silent. Cinderella story out of nowhere. A former greenskeeper now about to become the masters champion it looks like I'm a wreck.
Speaker 1:It's in the hole it's in the hole.
Speaker 2:But but having said that, so augusta, for me rich has, has, has, you know, is so many great memories of of also what not to do, because obviously we had that port past uh podcast about you know. Did you know? You're not even allowed to wear anything, uh and have a glass of a bottle of avion. You can't, it can't have any logos on it, no logos do they have?
Speaker 1:do they have their own proprietary logo for water? In in inside the gates, there is it like master's water it's like master's water.
Speaker 2:At least it was when I was.
Speaker 1:They have their own brand everything right, they own their brand.
Speaker 2:and you couldn't get napkins unless they were like I think at the time, green napkins. So if they didn't have any green napkins you have to use your sleep. You weren't allowed to run at all. You were not to run and what always got me was people would walk the first brisk walking. I really noticed with people that had Milwaukee tumors. Remember we talked about what Milwaukee tumors were, right right, it's when the gates opened.
Speaker 1:Beer guts right.
Speaker 2:Beer guts and they would walk really fast to park themselves on those little chairs or park themselves on the chairs that are there and stay there at the 15th all day long. But here's what I heard.
Speaker 1:You could walk there and park your chair and then you can get up and walk around. No one is going to sit in your seat or move it. Well, there you go. That's what I've heard. I mean, next year I'm driving up and if I don't make the lottery which I haven't so far in the last eight years since I've been here I'm just going to go up and scalp a ticket and go in during one of the practice rounds, just because I have to see it. I mean, how do you do a golf podcast and not walk the grounds of the mass? You have to.
Speaker 2:Well, I think, rich, I mean not walk the grounds of the mass, you have to. Well, I think rich, I mean listen, you haven't hit the lottery yet, but I mean obviously doing what you're doing. You know, I listen to your podcast. You know, besides, what we're doing right now and that's kind of hitting the lottery. Anyways, you know, and you have a great girl right now or woman, I should say, yeah, life's good, life's good.
Speaker 1:I gotta add the masters to that, it would. It would just not be right to have this much love of this sport and the Masters to me is the weekend and not go check it out, because I've heard everybody else's superlatives when they describe it. I want my own. Do it, just do it, just do it. So hey, you had this new. You had this new client that you couldn't talk about. Can you talk about him yet? Or you still can't talk about him?
Speaker 2:I gotta wait till it all comes out sure yeah, okay, good, good yeah and no problem I haven't seen him in the midst of filming right now, but I think it's going. I'm not sure how it's going, uh, because I involved with a um a situation where he was, let's say, uh, stressed on a lot of personal fronts and stressed on a lot of production fronts, the trouble with writers that act um, you know, in many cases, and all, all, all sports people and all performers of any artwork not me, because I mean my sister in a nice way she said well, you're, you do a certain art form and you do an art form too, but I don't do depression, I've seen it. I get down sometimes, but I think when you're a um, when you write and you act um, and then you've had previous massive success. I think there's a lot of angles where the pressure is really on.
Speaker 2:To achieve the same level of greatness Level yeah, and so what happens is, you know, in a very small level. When I won the state championship and then I was going to New England in wrestling, my coach said to me at the time, which failed at point. He said you know you're a champion now, but if you lose you're no longer a champion. So that kind of rather than exaggerate and I know the motivational thing he was trying to say but to me it was kind of like saying, well, the only place you can go is down now, yeah.
Speaker 2:So that pressure and it's hard to you know, and I think a lot of actors have that where they where, they go from doing something really great and then they go to something that you know that they get panned because the sequel isn't as good, right, or the writing is good, is good, right, or the writing is good and you have, just like, you have an array of pundits on the golf channel in the sport, like golf, that'll. You know that that haven't done anything, or maybe they've won a couple european tournaments and they go. Why did he hit like that? Well, why don't you fucking get out there and do it, motherfucker? And why isn't all golf bros have won all these majors? Because they can't bottle it out there. They get the yips right.
Speaker 1:You're only as great as your last performance. You set a high bar in every and you know it's really funny You're the one who set your own bar and then, if you and then others judge you by that bar and if there's any criticism, I could see how people that are prone to depression anyway set themselves up for a tough journey that are prone to depression anyway, set themselves up for a tough journey.
Speaker 2:Well, and then, when you mix a sportsman or sportswoman, sportsperson, if they're going to be good at something, they can't pull. John Daly's, they got to be practicing at five, not staying at the bar in five unless you're amazingly talented, right, but the point of it is is that you have to put in the discipline in order to go to bed on time. You look at, you know, look at the greatest quarterback of all time. He goes to bed at like 830, you know, during the season, you know, and he gets up at time and he works. You know this is a massive amount of discipline that it takes. Forget about being injured like a tiger's case. Just to stay healthy, being healthy, you got to put in the reps and the discipline of getting to bed. And in my profession, with writing and acting, you can sometimes do the thing. And I know Kenny Stabler had his days. He used to say he used to read the playbook by the light of the disco. But you know those days are gone with a lot of athletes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so. The game's changed the game. The level of the game is much higher, faster, stronger.
Speaker 2:That's right, and you.
Speaker 1:You got to do all those things to compete and you can't do the well john daly was. I have friends like john daly that play well when they've had a few drinks or taking gummies and stuff like that, but it's not consistent. But they tend to get more relaxed when they do that. But they're not competing on the stage that these other guys are competing at and they're not earning a living like that right there.
Speaker 2:If they are, they're not they're not you know so.
Speaker 2:So the long story short is with writers and performers in the in the thespian world. You know what happens, you. You can get stage fright, you can get the point that I've seen. You know ken brana, for he, sir Kenneth Branagh, he is the most disciplined actor that I know of. He has warm up routines. He does yoga every day. He's not seeing stuff that I do isn't yoga, but he does yoga himself every day.
Speaker 2:He does rituals, he tries to eat right. He doesn't drink. For months at a time it doesn't touch a drop of alcohol. And not that he doesn't like alcohol, he does. But he knows that if he goes off the rail or before in his career maybe he did, you know, have a few and then he didn't feel great the next day. You know the point of is you have to get this, but whatever it takes to you to produce your work and your writing has to be at a certain level, and so the getter. What I'm saying is that they're more prone, if they're not disciplined, to depression and other things. Because you know this, buddy, if you don't get enough sleep, the most positive person, you know that's what they use for torture in the army to get people to tell people that the truth is, don't give them any sleep and sooner or later you crack people by not sleeping.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Like our hell week, right yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like our hell week, right, yeah, yeah, like our hell week. And also when you're a writer and you're acting and all these other things which I'm not saying anybody in particular, but I know enough of them that if you have any prone toward, and also when you're a genius too, okay. So don't forget, mental illness is prevalent in a lot of people that are high intellects, right. Why? Because they think so much and they, they try to be a perfectionist. And if they're not a perfection, you know that people have prone to this kind of extreme bar that they raise for themselves and they don't reach it. You know, you know they. And then sometimes they help, they medicate themselves to. You know, take away the angst and there you go, you got. You got a lot of problems there, as we all seen with actors, you know. So I'm so stoned.
Speaker 1:Well, you deal with a lot of high profile clients. There must be a theme with a lot of them that they are stressing themselves out well higher than most people and therefore they're prone to breaking right, that's right. They're prone to breaking more than people that just live a moderate life.
Speaker 2:That's right, and I think I would say you know how fair to say this about this one lady who I saw yesterday again, the Duchess of York, the Fergie as we call her, because she's no longer known by it as that, but they'll call her sarah ferguson. She is the toughest woman I know and I know that I'm a big anchor for her, not so much in the exercise but the fact that she can tell me everything and because I can see things and is that she's probably had more shit thrown at her than any person I've ever met in my life sports person, actor, anybody else and she hasn't know.
Speaker 1:So she's got this resiliency. That's her thing.
Speaker 2:She doesn't mean she doesn't get sad or down, but she doesn't do depression. She does down because the papers even now have a field day because of you know her ex, you know Prince Andrew, and I'm not going to say anything on that level, other than the fact that you, she's never killed anyone. She hasn't gone into a country, a foreign country, and attacked it for no reason.
Speaker 1:She hasn't even spit at anyone right, but she's married into the royal family and that gets a whole level of criticism.
Speaker 2:That other people don't yeah, yeah, I mean in 19. I have the article rich and I can send it to you. They. They had in the mirror a survey which is one of the biggest tabloids over here and obviously the tabloids don't sell anymore except for the Daily Depressive, the Daily Mail. But they still sell the mirror and it said a survey would you rather make love to a goat or to Fergie? And 85% of their people that wrote into, into that it must have been fictitious. One who would rather make love to a goat than fergie?
Speaker 1:I'd love to send him a goat and then film it all right, here you go there you go. But I gotta say this yeah, I gotta say this.
Speaker 2:So, all of that said, so you came back to that question the high profile people. I've never seen anybody have an open field day and I know everyone else that I've ever worked with athlete actor. If they had that level of vitriolic, really hate male, you know, if you want to call it that, I would say they would have cracked up being a mental institution, rehabbed three times or dead. You know what I mean, so to speak. Yeah, definitely, yeah, no question.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, tell me, are you writing a book? Yes, I am. Tell me about. Tell me about where you stand in the process and how's the process been.
Speaker 2:We're now. I got a couple publishers that are interested and yeah, so it'll be a kind of the story of josh my, my journey. We don't have the, we don't have the title yet. And my mom, quite funny, said to me when I told her about it I you know, she she listened to some of these podcasts about angelina jolie farting in my face and stuff like this what if someone takes you to court? I said could you imagine angelina jolie taking me to court for, like, farting in her face? Josh said, my trainer said that I farted in his face. I didn't fart his face. I would love that please take me to court.
Speaker 2:And one of the things I realized actually rich, that if you hold your ground in these kind of things, these scandalous things that are not scandalous, but if somebody would say that, oh, you said, you know kate winslet said that you, you know she fancied you and you know that she hung up to you when she found it. You got to go. What are you going to say? Just say something Do an Amber Heard, johnny Depp and I'll make a fortune on talk shows.
Speaker 1:So where are you in the process? Are you still putting it together? Is it done?
Speaker 2:Yes, Probably six months, it should be out. Okay so end of the year Right.
Speaker 1:So good. Okay, so end of the year Right. So good to have at the end of the year. It's good for Christmas gifts.
Speaker 2:It's good for Christmas gifts and obviously you'll get one, but it's going to be more of a kind of there will be my philosophy of exercise. But my first, my only other book was Body Fit, energy for Life. And those were the days where in 1992, they paid you in advance because of where my profile was, and nowadays you have to pay not only the ghostwriter but you have to pay the publisher, right, unless they think you're going to be, things are going to be flying off the shelf. You could get a better deal depending on how you cut the proceeds with the publishing company. But so we've done, sent the outline. They're kind of come back after Easter what they think of the outline.
Speaker 2:And then I've got to um, you know, do take some pictures and when I go back to the states this summer I'm going to find some more pictures. Then you got to get that high resolution, you got to scan them right, because if you're going to put them in the book they get to look good. And I'll probably do a kind of middle between a hardback and a softback type of thing. But it'll be kind of an analog of anecdotes and stories about. You know kind of my journey and you know kind of how I've adjusted and kind of my philosophy of life as I went along and obviously all these things Rich they're not. We haven't come up with these by ourselves. We've adopted from other people and taken things on board. However, you know, it's kind of it's the best profession that I could ever possibly imagine for myself. It's perfect for you.
Speaker 1:I always thought, when you, when I heard my parents were in England I think you were working at the Hilton television or your England or Israel, one of the two.
Speaker 2:I was in Israel for and I was working at Hilton television.
Speaker 1:That's where they learned that you were doing that because they had told me they were traveling there, and I'm like that is the perfect thing for him. I mean, it's, the perfect job for you is to help others achieve their fitness and life goals. Perfect for you. So it should be a good book. It should have some really interesting anecdotes and a combination of how you've lived your life and then some of the training things that you've done, so that people get both like how you got through all this, your resiliency and all of this. You've had to overcome some pretty harsh things.
Speaker 2:You don't think they're harsh because that's how you are, but you've had to overcome some pretty tough things in your life and you've done it in your way well, I think we've all done it in our way, rich, and you know one of the things the last couple of podcasts we did where you said, by the tone of my voice I was still coming through stuff, and as I listened to it again before we did this, this one we're doing right now I kind of listened and you were absolutely right, because you're very intuitive and very sensitive to people and you understand people and you can kind of, as you say, put them in boxes and categories and you can figure out what makes them tick and you're a very good observer of people. It's always in life, isn't it, rich? It's not what happens to us, it's what our response is to what's happening to us, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:That's life and how we respond to it, and I was responding the wrong way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's, it's to me. It's all about energy and chemistry and and energy and when, over time, when relationships get sour right, the energy shifts and sometimes it becomes like a burden of energy. It's negative energy. And then you find, when you don't see or talk to that person for a while, like what? What's like I'm happy, I think things are good. It's like whatever that is, you know, you self-assess it and it's like I'm happy, I think things are good.
Speaker 1:It's like whatever that is, you know, you self-assess it and it's like, oh, I gotta keep this energy away from me as best as I can. Um, you know, sometimes you have family obligations, but I find I know there are certain people that have been in my life that in the beginning it was great juju and then over time it became bad juju and when I finally got away from these individuals I was able to understand what had happened. But yeah, not everybody gives you all this great energy, as much as good energy as you provide. Not everybody does the same thing. So you got to figure out who like. When we get older, we're like okay, I just don't want to be around assholes anymore.
Speaker 2:I just don't want to and I'm not going to well rich, as, as we say, you know, and I always find that every time we talk in this format, it's like talking to my therapist, because it's someone that doesn't have any you know agenda other than we're talking this too long-term and really long-term friends that stay true and authentic to ourselves.
Speaker 2:But I gotta say this time is a commodity that's our most precious non-renewable commodity I'm on a back nine of my life my swing has developed a little sway and unless, as you say, you don't have time for assholes, why should you and and and? You know whether it's stoicism or zen. You know you don't want to hang around with, with, with, with with people that don't bring anything to the table. You know, because you might as well be sitting at a bar someplace around the corner from here we'll'll call it a pub or around the corner from you are and the guy or the woman's just saying the same shit every night. It's the same story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right the old, I got to get out of this town. It's like, wait, you have to get away from you. It's like, wherever you go, there you are.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I'm not running from anything. And he said everybody that comes here is running from something and you know what? Wherever you go, you'll always be with you. So you got to get along with you. And he obviously had a couple of shrinks before that, but I thought what a profound thing to say.
Speaker 1:I used to always ask that, like in an interview with people, when he stepped to hire people, I'd try and get to the point of are you running away from something or are you running towards something? I wanted to be the employer that they were running towards, not the employer like a rebound in a relationship. I didn't want to be the rebound, because that just means they haven't figured it out yet.
Speaker 2:But the last thing I'll say about you, rich, you do a fantastic job, you have the best voice for this. You're a, you know, without you know any supremacist, but you're excellent at what you do. Excellent at what you do and and your um kind of golf is is such a metaphor. It's like deepak chopper, you know kind of thing when he uses golf as a metaphor because it's always your next shot that counts. And I think whatever shot you're making right now, you know I wouldn't let, I wouldn't be able to do it Let David Ledbetter with you and tell you to change what you're doing. Just just swing away.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that. I really do, thank you. You've been listening to another episode from tales from the first tee. I'm your host, rich easton, telling tales from beautiful charleston, south carolina. Talk to you soon.