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
Golf, Trials, and Douchebaggery
Rich Easton dives into the Murdaugh murder trial, imagining what would happen if the defendant was cursed to tell the truth like in the Jim Carrey film "Liar Liar." With a blend of humor and commentary, Rich explores the fascinating and disturbing aspects of this high-profile case.
• Analyzing the 2023 Super Bowl – great game, good commercials, disappointing halftime show
• Reviewing Netflix's "Full Swing" docuseries, which offers an intimate look at PGA Tour players' lives and decisions
• Spotlighting Matt McClung, the G-League player with a 48.5-inch vertical leap who won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest
• Confessing to a "douchebag move" on the golf course after experiencing poor etiquette from playing partners
• Reflecting on the importance of maintaining your own standards of behavior even when others don't
If you enjoyed this episode, follow Just Tales for more monthly hybrid stories of fiction and non-fiction that compel Rich to rant, streaming in over 1,100 cities across 62 countries worldwide.
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Welcome to another episode from Just Tales, a monthly hybrid of fictional and non-fictional stories that compel me to rant. There'll always be a golf story or two laced into my blog because, well, it's where I spend a good amount of my recreational time. So, whether you're a golfer or not, if you're a skeptic, doubter or open-minded, it is the place for you. So kick back and listen. Welcome to our 112th episode, streaming in over 1,100 cities and 62 countries worldwide, even in Ecuador, thanks to my friends Mike K and Joy Ellen, who, I believe, purposely streamed an episode while on vacation there just to notch another country on our global belt. Thanks for that. In this episode I'll talk about artificial intelligence. Whether you like it or fearful of it, or just don't give a shit, it's coming faster than you might think. The Super Bowl, the game, the ads, the halftime Show, full Swing, a Netflix documentary. And if you didn't know about Joel Damon, you're going to know about him after watching this eight-part series. And if you're like me, you're going to like the guy who the hell is Matt McClung, my douchebag move out of spite on the golf course.
Speaker 2:But first my thoughts on the Murdoch murder trial. There are very few trials that capture my attention. There are very few trials that capture my attention. I'm not into true crime and court trials can be more boring than watching paint dry. For the most part, the OJ trial was the last one that I followed. I didn't watch the Casey Anthony trial, but it's certainly up there. But regarding the OJ trial, while it was happening actually before the trial started I'm almost 100% positive that I saw his white Bronco driving up the 405 in Orange County between San Clemente and Newport Beach the day. The police followed him all the way back to his Brentwood home.
Speaker 2:Some say that the Murdoch trial will end up the same as OJ because of circumstantial evidence circumstantial evidence mixed with privilege and power. But I personally don't believe that, maybe because I'm hopeful that Alex will get his just conviction from a jury certainly not of his peers. And like many of you, I keep thinking where did all the money go that he stole from his clients, from his friends, from his law firm? Now I get that we're experiencing inflationary times, but the cost of synthetic opioids shouldn't cost as much as $8.5 to $9 million over the decade that he was addicted. So where'd the money go? Let's just hope it didn't go to one of the jurors. So obviously I've been pretty interested in the whole court case.
Speaker 2:And the other day I'm toggling between the court case and everything else that I could possibly watch on my smart TV and I've got 300 channels, probably eight streaming services, and I am like, okay, what could I watch? What haven't I seen? What could I watch? And one movie comes up that I hadn't seen in like 20 years and the movie was Liar Liar with Jim Carrey. And I'm watching this movie and I'm thinking to myself, what if Alec Murdoch was cursed with having to tell the truth for 24 hours? And those 24 hours start where he's sitting down and he's speaking to SLED three days after the alleged murders. And of course, here's my disclaimer what you're about to hear is my imagination on how Alex Murdaugh would have answered the questions telling what I believed, at least in my imagination, was the real truth.
Speaker 1:So when we spoke the other night I got kind of a basic overview. Yes sir, and it was pretty traumatic.
Speaker 2:That's okay, I know you need to ask me.
Speaker 1:You ask me what you need to, so I want you to start Monday morning and take me through your day.
Speaker 2:Now let's see now. Yeah, that's Monday morning. I went into the law firm and, yeah, the partner sat me down and provided me evidence that I had stolen over $780,000 from the firm, you know. So I'll tell you that was a rough start to the day. Were you at the office in Hampton?
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, yes sir, I was at my office in Hampton. Yes, sir, yes sir, I was at my office in Hampton.
Speaker 2:Hey, did I mention that I had swindled not only my partners but probably around 900 clients over 10 years for a total of like $8.7 million? Did I mention that the other day? I can't remember, you know, I'm getting old now.
Speaker 1:You know? I mean I was just at my office doing Legal work. Yes, sir, I'm sure I can go back and probably recreate some specifics if you need me to, but, and you know, I could recreate just about anything to tell my story.
Speaker 2:Now you know that right.
Speaker 1:I can't like sit here and recall on the top of my head exactly what I was working on.
Speaker 2:I know one thing I was working on um, um, oh yeah, that was a way to get my wife and my son to come to the house, because they were creating all kinds of problem for me. So I was trying to get them to the house and I had to get the hell out of that law firm because they were pretty upset with me. Now you could imagine that right.
Speaker 1:What time did you leave the house to go to the office? I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure, because I can't remember many things these days. So I'll remember certain details that have absolutely nothing to do with this case. But when it comes to the fine print here, and it comes to the things you need to know, I am going to have a failure to remember. What time did you leave the office?
Speaker 1:I left a little bit earlier than normal because my son Paul was coming home.
Speaker 2:I left a little bit earlier than normal because my son Paul was coming home and did I fail to mention that I just got caught stealing all this money, so they actually wanted me gone, but anyway. So Paul was coming home. Now you're going to hear in the trial I am going to call him Pawpaw, and only because I think the jury is going to think how could I possibly murder a Pawpaw, even though in every other interview you're going to hear me I'm gonna call him Paw. When I get in front of the jury I'm gonna call him Pawpaw and he's gonna have friends like Riri and Roro, because nobody could murder people that have names like that. Those are deer-isms.
Speaker 1:So after y'all got finished riding around, try to take me through the rest of the evening.
Speaker 2:Now, is this the part before I murdered? I mean, is this the part before we went and had dinner and I went to see my dear old mom? All?
Speaker 1:right. Um, you know, at some point we were all back at the house together. Um, maggie had home and you know we sat down and we ate supper, which we usually eat supper together. So the one thing I remember. I don't know how much detail y'all want, so if I start talking about something that you don't need, just tell me and I'll move to something else. The more detail, the better.
Speaker 2:Well, that works out just fine, because I am going to provide you more detail than you could possibly imagine. That has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I was there at the dog kennels when they were there and I shot them both, but I'm going to tell you all these other details that are going to confuse you and that are going to just build my alibi. I just just hope. I just hope that my son doesn't pull out his phone and record anything while this is happening, because that would just blow it for me.
Speaker 1:So Paul has been having high blood pressure and his mama was worried sick about it. So we were actually. You know, this was a direct thing getting him he doesn't like to go to doctors making him go get his blood pressure checked. His feet had swollen up recently, wow so so.
Speaker 2:So anyway, I had this other strategy on how to relieve his blood pressure, but let me digress you know that was.
Speaker 1:It was a big, huge deal. Okay, uh, you know we hung around the house for a little while. Uh, I know that maggie went to the kennels. Um, I don't know exactly where paul went, but he left the house too. Okay, how did maggie get down to the kennels?
Speaker 2:well now, I did not anticipate that question, so I'm probably going to answer that I do not know. I mean, the fact is, I drove him down there. I drove them both down there, but I'm going to tell you I don't know, and you, you is no way you are going to prove that. I drove him down there and shot him, you know, if not for that snapchat video. He had God damn modern technology.
Speaker 1:What did you do once Maggie and Paul left? I stayed in the house, okay, and I was watching TV, looking at my phone, and I actually fell asleep on the couch.
Speaker 2:Okay, is my nose growing right now Because I am telling one of the biggest lies ever. I did not fall asleep. I went down there with them, I shot them and then I raced to my mom's place and I hid all this stuff and then I tried to convince the woman who was working there that I was there a hell of a lot longer and I came back and I called 911. And I think think you know. The rest is history.
Speaker 2:I've been lying to everybody for years. I am a liar, that is what I do, that's how I make all my money. And I lied about this and people believe me. So now I believe the jury is going to believe me as well, because they are kind hearted, average people, and they are going to believe me, just like all the other juries in the past have believed me. And I think one of my best lies was the lie I told about my alibi, the fact that I don't trust Slade. There's somebody on that jury who does not trust the law and they're going to hear that and say, well, I understand why he didn't want to tell the truth that. And say, well, I understand why he didn't want to tell the truth. Look, I can go on and let my imagination run wild and continue to insert what I believe Alex was thinking, but wouldn't say to the law out of fear of consequence.
Speaker 2:I don't have all the facts. They have all the facts. Consequence of smearing the century-old reputation of a family steeped in power, privilege, prominence and prestige in the small corner of South Carolina is what's been at stake for Alex Murdaugh. The jury will decide the fate of Richard Alexander Murdaugh, and books, movies and podcasts will cover the results. Either way, people ask me all the time do you think he's guilty? And there's no hesitation on my part. I believe that he's guilty because he has spent his adult life lying for a living and lying to those he loves, lying to those he works for, lying to those he works with, lying to people that believed him when he said he was on their side to help them.
Speaker 2:He is a liar and some people would say well, just because he's a liar doesn't make him a killer. Liar doesn't make him a killer. Like he told his sister-in-law, whoever killed Maggie and Paul must have spent a lot of time planning this, and I believe he spent time planning this. What he didn't anticipate was Paul taking a Snapchat video while he was at the kennels because he knew nothing about it. When he told, the police sled everybody about his whereabouts, his alibi, his number one alibi, was the biggest lie, bigger than the $9.5 million that he stole from everybody. The biggest lie he told he told because he didn't think there was any evidence that would nail him, but there was. So I hope the jury is smart enough to see through all the bullshit and convict him super bowl 2023 great game, good commercials, shitty halftime show.
Speaker 2:So it's almost three weeks after the big game and we're already tired of talking about it. Hey, people remember winners, they forget losers and people are going to forget that the Eagles were so close to winning the game. So here's my brief segment and thoughts on the Super Bowl. Congrats to KC they won it, they earned it. Mahomes and Kelsey, one of the greatest dynamic du. Congrats to KC they won it, they earned it. Mahomes and Kelsey, one of the greatest dynamic duos of all times. Jalen Hurts is a beast and except for the last field goal where Kansas City wins it, he could have been the MVP if they would have won it. The Eagles are no joke. I toast them with a cheesesteak, a soft pretzel with deli mustard and a yingling beer. Yeah, so the game was outstanding. It was a great football game.
Speaker 2:The commercials were entertaining. Now, I never thought I would tear up during a dog commercial in the Super Bowl, but that one commercial where the dog gets older and you see him start off as a puppy and at the end he's graying and getting old I mean that brings tears to my eyes. Or the one where the dog is tearing up everything in the house when his family leaves and the family finally order an Amazon package. They open it up and it's another dog to keep this dog from his horrible anxiety, separation anxiety. Again, two dog commercials that I thought were the best commercials of the Super Bowl, but again, I'm a dog lover.
Speaker 2:Oh, with Rihanna. I love Rihanna, I think she is so talented. But it's interesting when I talk to men and women, they have a different take on this Women. A woman's take that I've heard is she is a beast. I mean, she took command of those flying stages and she did it while she was pregnant. Women work pregnant until their doctor forbids them when it's too close to having the pregnancy. And she is a boss by working hard and doing it at the Super Bowl and delivering like she did Some women's point of view, not all, but some Men's point of view hey wait, is she pregnant?
Speaker 2:I think. When I started watching the show, within a few minutes I noticed something is different and I could see the bump, the belly bump, and I'm like okay, I'm just going to Google to see and I write is Rihanna? And I think I got to half her name. And you know Google's in teletext They'll like finish all these sentences where they think you're going and the one sentence below it is is Rihanna pregnant? Is Rihanna pregnant? And so most men's point of view is is she pregnant and isn't she scared being up on these tall platforms? Yeah, I know that she is tied in, but I mean, what if something happens?
Speaker 2:And the other thing I hear is what's with the ridiculous outfits? What are they supposed to be? Is that sperm and she's the egg? Are those tampons and she? Well, whatever. It was odd, but regardless of what the artistic rendering was, I think it limited their ability to move their bodies and watch them move. I like dancers and to me, dancers have dedicated themselves to their craft and what they have to do to get in shape and to be able to move like that is amazing and it takes a lot, and so I like to see bodies in motion, but wearing those costumes it was really hard to see and understand.
Speaker 2:If Rihanna's pregnant and she is typically the queen bee and the one that everybody tends to want to watch on stage because, man, she can move, she's great but if she has certain restrictions, then so are the dancers, and I think that's what the outfits were all about. I think it restricted some of the things they could have done. Now, my daughter's point of view. My daughter's a dancer and when my daughter watched this, the first thing she thought was not, is she pregnant? But she thought why isn't she popping? Why isn't she doing those dances that she does and popping? Why isn't she rocking like she normally does, and then she thought, oh, I think she's pregnant. But then after that she looked at all the supporting dancers and she knew some of the dancers personally and she's like man, they can dance. But I think, all of that aside, when Rihanna was singing and she pulled her microphone away from her mouth and you still heard her voice would suggest that is she lip syncing, this whole thing, and I didn't think that's what they do at the Super Bowl. So at the end of the day, I've seen better halftime shows. I love J-Lo and Shakira. I thought that was great. I loved last year when they did kind of the history of hip-hop. I love that. Of course, I love Bruce Springsteen. I mean, there were so many other great halftime shows where you did not want to walk away from the TV to go to the kitchen or go somewhere else. You wanted to be there for the halftime show.
Speaker 2:This year not so much Full Swing, the Netflix eight-part series. If you're a golfer and you like watching golf and you like the PGA, this is a must-see. Yeah, so, like I said, full Swing is an eight-part Netflix docu-series covering PGA pros over the past two seasons. Now, after watching the first episode, I decided to complete the eight-part series over two days. I've got some free time, I like golf and I really like this series.
Speaker 2:If you've listened to my podcast in the back, you know I follow all the tours, including the Live Tour. I'm familiar with most all of the pros that they highlighted in this series, as well as some of the rookies, but I'm only as familiar as the PGA portrays them during the weekends. So I think I know the players, but I really don't know their backgrounds, and this Netflix docuseries really gets into their backgrounds. You'll learn about them as people, family, how they react to things, what they think about the tour, what they think about the LIV tour. What I found interesting about the docuseries is it takes you into their lives for the past two years so you can better familiarize yourself with what motivates them, their buddies on tour, how they decided to either stay on the PGA Tour or join the LIV Tour.
Speaker 2:And there's this question circling around the Netflix series who is this for? For veteran golfers? For newbies? Why can't both be true? If you follow the PGA, you'll be a fan of this. If you follow the LIV tour, you'll be a fan of this. If you're a traditionalist golfer, you'll be a fan. If you're new to golf and interested in how these guys become multi-millionaires and get all of these great sponsorships, I think you'll be a fan of this series.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if you're like me, after watching this first season you're going to want season two. You're going to want to meet more golfers, understand what it means to them to miss the cut, to make the cut, to win a tournament. Here's a quick take on some of the golfers who participated in season one. First, spieth and Thomas great for golf. Nothing riveting about these two, other than their friendship starting in Texas a long time ago, stands to this day.
Speaker 2:Colin Morikawa special talent on the tour. You want to see the guy win more. Brooks Koepka the guy is a head case and he could win majors and he's won a bunch of majors and he won them in a very quick period of time. But make no mistake about it, this does not cast great light on Brooks Koepka, if anything. You leave thinking this guy's kind of a jerk, kind of a selfish, arrogant jerk, and golf's gotten to his head, so he's had some injuries and now he's trying to come back, but certainly he doesn't have the same self-confidence now that he used to have when he was winning all the majors. Scotty Scheffler he is like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. I mean not much puts this guy on tilt. He's got a great attitude and I think he's going to keep winning more.
Speaker 2:Ian Poulter Cool family man who is doing the right thing for his family. I think they did a great job of following him, particularly before he decided to go to the Live Tour and then after, and you could tell every decision he's made he's made for two reasons Number one, what's best for his family. And number two, he is past the prime of his career and any way that he could earn the most and spend less time on the golf course is the decision that's going to be best for his family. Dj Dustin Johnson probably one of the biggest wins for the live tour getting him to jump ship from PGA. This guy's a great talent, he's a great golfer. He's won a lot. He's won majors.
Speaker 2:He still has a lot of game in him, he's good pedigree and he has a very simple way of making decisions for himself, his family, of making decisions for himself, his family and that is now that he's got a family married, two kids has great counsel from Wayne Gretzky. What's best for him is to play less and earn more. He even says that. He says, look, if you have a job and they're going to pay you more money to work less, you're going to take that job. You're going to stay in that job. And he doesn't seem to be worried too much about being number one in the world. What he cares about is earning the most and playing least. And he still gets to play in all four majors because he's qualified for them, so he could now play the 13 events. Last year he was the number one winner on the Live Tour and so was his team. And now this year he gets to play 13 events and he gets to play the four majors, probably earning him as much, if not more, than he earned last year, particularly if he ends up in the top 10 or even winning a major. This could be his best earning year ever. Matt Fitzpatrick Now this guy is like a nerd with braces who'll work as hard as he needs to achieve his goals.
Speaker 2:The docuseries gives him probably more time than we needed to understand his plight in life. Yeah, he's not a celluloid hero, but the guy puts in the work to win, so you feel good for him that he won. And then they show the rookies in great fashion. They show Sahitha Gala, they show Mito Pereira these are guys that are hardworking that both of them came really close to winning majors, really like they were leading coming into the last day. Mito Pereira was leading a major coming into the 18th hole one stroke up and then everybody got to see him just implode on the 18th hole where he hits a drive into the water, takes relief, hits his shot left of the green, whacks it across the green. I think he double bogeys the hole and loses.
Speaker 2:But being a rookie is tough and it just shows. It's so hard to win on the PGA. It's hard to compete and make the cut and, as they show in this series, if you don't make a cut you don't get paid, and I think the PGA has made some changes to that in the future as part of what's happening with live golf. But these players need to compete and players that are getting on for the first time have to learn how to win and what that entails is controlling their emotions as they get to Sunday. And it's so difficult to be in the lead and know that you're in the lead and you have a chance of changing your entire lifestyle, changing your plight in professional golf, just by continuing how you've played the last three days. It seems to get to just about every rookie because they start thinking about it and they start making moves a little bit of anxiety. Mito Pereira, on the last day when he's ready he's going to win this major gets to the 18th hole. He's up by one stroke and you can see his drive on the 18th hole was so fast and so nerve-wracking and he just couldn't get control of himself. It's hard and I think this docuseries does a great job of showing how difficult it is to win on the tour and, once you've won, how difficult it is to continue to win.
Speaker 2:And then they spend the right amount of time talking about Joel Damon. Joel Damon is like Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh. He's the everyman golfer with a bucket hat In some of the tournaments With a logo that basically depicts fuck cancer. Now it doesn't say fuck cancer, but the word cancer has this red line through. It Says just that the series takes you through his life, losing his mom and best friends to cancer when he's a junior in high school and then having to continue to play golf. Then later his brother is diagnosed with testicular cancer, then he is at the age of 23.
Speaker 2:I mean, this guy is the most self-deprecating guy, who happens to have his best friend and confidant on his bag and so when things go bad, his caddy is the one who keeps him in the game, and they show this in the docuseries. Really well, the guy is just good enough to play on the PGA Tour and he even makes a comment. It's like well, somebody's got to be 70th and he's like I'm not going to be the greatest, I don't think I'm going to win majors, although he came really close in winning a major and when he did, the fans were behind him. And I think, after people watch this docu-series and they see how self-deprecating this guy is and they see what he had to go through in life, you just want to root for him Now. Do I think he's going to win majors?
Speaker 2:I think it takes a lot of self-confidence in the sport of professional golf to will your way all four days to win a golf tournament, particularly a major. You've got to have the utmost confidence, particularly when you make a mistake and your ball ends up in a place that you didn't intend it to, to be able to approach it and hit that next shot well enough and not keep imploding, it takes tremendous confidence. So we see John Rahm on the tour today and this guy exudes so much confidence that you just believe that he believes he's going to win and he has a greater chance. So it's not by accident that he's winning. And I think as much as I want Joel Damon to win, it will be a tearjerker when he wins that next big tournament. I think that in the absence of self-confidence, it's unlikely and if it happens, it's certainly not going to happen a lot, unless he just looks himself in the mirror and he starts believing his best friend. So now, at the end.
Speaker 2:Now we get to Rory McIlroy, and I know this is controversial. Rory, like Tiger, has become the poster child for golfers to play and stay on the PGA Tour. Jay Monahan, chairman of the PGA, I think, has taken advantage of Rory's passion and tends to applaud his efforts and almost puppeteers him into becoming this poster child, the spokesperson for the PGA and why players should stay on the PGA and shouldn't go to the Live Tour. I didn't appreciate how, in the beginning of all of these players' exoduses from the PGA to the LIV Tour, how critical Rory was of their decision, and I think that might have been a little puppeteering from Monaghan. I mean, when Rory started talking about the fact that, look, we're making enough money here on this tour and the fact that we make more is not going to change our lives, because we live in such big houses and we have so many things that having more things doesn't change us. Now, obviously I'm paraphrasing, but that's kind of what he said and so I kind of took offense to that.
Speaker 2:Now, however, I think his tone has changed and I think he's a little more measured in his reaction to the media when they ask him about other players going to the Live Tour. I mean, there's definitely a scripted narrative out there that suggests that you know, the best in the world are competing on the PGA and the DPI Tour. It's the European and Asian tour, and so these players would say and that's why I want to compete against the best, so staying on the PGA just means I get to compete against the best. And I don't know, dustin Johnson and Cameron Smith are right up there. But look, I like Rory, I'm amazed in his ability to drive the ball accurately 350 yards a lot during a tournament when he needs to turn it on and he needs to to pull up and get another gear to hit the ball farther and accurately.
Speaker 2:He can do it and he has this ability to win. I followed him when I when he was in Congaree here in South Carolina and was so amazed with the way he could manage that golf ball and himself around the course, and there was a time where he and Rom were tied but he willed his way around the golf course and so the Netflix docuseries didn't do anything to dissuade my feelings towards him as a golf humanitarian thing, to dissuade my feelings towards him as a golf humanitarian. I respect people that are passionate about something they feel strongly about, the same way that I feel that Trump should be indicted for conspiring to overthrow the election, influence a mob to overthrow the Capitol, knowing full well the election fraud was a ruse that or, on a lesser charge, influenced the, his own CFO to misrepresent his company's finances and had Michael Cohen pay off Stormy Daniels to keep her mouth shut during the campaign. The way I feel passionate about the things that he's done is the same way I feel Rory feels about the PGA, but of course, like I always say, there are a million stories in the big city. You might disagree with my thoughts completely. Hey, you say potato, I say potato. However you say, it doesn't change the fact that this netflix series is a winner. If you like golf, who the heck is Matt McClung?
Speaker 2:So I'm reading the paper the other day and I go to the sports section, written by Jason Gay, one of my favorite heady sports writers. His article was about the 2023 NBA All-Star festivities in Salt Lake City. Hello, are you still awake? Yes, the All-Star game in Salt Lake City. Certainly, the luster has slowly worn off the NBA All-Star festivities over time, since most NBA contracts don't make it mandatory for players to play in the slam dunk contest. Vince Carter won it, kobe won it, michael Jordan won it when LeBron decided not to compete in it years ago. All the other high flyers opted out as well. It's become like a rookie thing, and even then, some players didn't want to risk injury for a mere $100,000 prize. I'll say that again $100,000 prize, not worth it.
Speaker 2:Fast forward to this year, a 76ers G League player with over 800,000 Instagram followers was called up to the A-team to play in the 76ers, allowing him to compete in the slam dunk competition. This 6'2" 24-year-old kid from Gate City, virginia, with a 48.5-inch vertical leap won the contest. Hands down 48.5-inch vertical leap. All right, let me compare that for a second. My best vertical leap ever was probably six inches. It's now two or three inches. Okay, let me compare it to a great athlete, michael Jordan LeBron. They probably are 40 inches, maybe 42 inches. This guy is 48.5 inches. Nobody else in the NBA has that jumping ability. So this kid's first dunk in the finals.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, I read this article. Now I've got to go on YouTube and I have to look this up. I got to see what this guy's talking about. How good can this guy really be? Well, he had to do four slam dunks and I would tell you that to me they were spectacular. But even more moving was watching all of the NBA players on the sidelines and their reaction to this kid's slam dunks.
Speaker 2:So his first dunk in the finals. He had this. He had these two guys, one guy piggyback on top of another guy and then. So now one guy's on somebody else's shoulders. These are two tall people and the guy on top takes the basketball and puts it behind his neck. So he's got to be seven feet in the air, maybe seven and a half feet with the basketball and then this guy then Matt McClung comes running up, jumps up in the air and while he's up in the air, gets the ball from behind the guy's head keeps going higher, takes it and goes over their heads and slams, dunks it without hitting his crotch on top of the guy's heads, and so that leap got all of the fans to yell and scream. And that was his first one. He did two other spectacular dunks and then it comes down to the last one and by the way he's getting I guess 50 is the highest number, or 5-0 is the highest number and he's getting 50, 50, 50 from everybody. I think one of the judges gave him a 49.85. I think it was Leslie who did that, but everybody's agreeing this guy is going to win the competition. So now he has the last one.
Speaker 2:This time he's going to do it dribbling. He starts dribbling to show everybody he's got really good handles and even the announcers are, wow, he could handle the ball. And then he starts his move to the basket. He comes from the side, he jumps up in the air and does a 520 spin. That means he does a 360. He's starting to do another 360 and now he dunks it behind his head and the fans go ape shit. Everybody's yelling and screaming. The NBA players couldn't believe it. And this guy does the Superman move for, like, where he's pulling his shirt open you know that move that people do to show how great they are and he does that and even the announcers couldn't believe it and he wins the thing. I mean that was awesome and it was fun to watch. I'm not sure if I'm going to watch an All-Star game again, but it's nice that they can start to revive this slam dunk competition Now. Two nights ago I turned on the game the 76ers, I think they were playing the Celtics. I forget who they were playing. He wasn't on the court, so I'd like to see him get more playing time, just to see him do some slam dunks. Anyway, matt McClung, it's a name you won't forget if you YouTube this guy.
Speaker 2:You know it wouldn't be fitting to finish the episode without a personal golf story, despite the fact that I'm calling myself out for douchebaggery. No, the self-proclaimed douchebaggery wasn't the sloppy 88 I shot while playing with Billy the Kid against Guns N' Cloudy. No, that was just the result of poor judgment and over-celebrating with my daughter at Rancho Luis in the dispensary the night before when she had left one of her jobs where she just didn't get personal satisfaction. Now I applaud her for knowing what adds value and what produces angst and grief in her life. She could always find another source of income, but she can't take political business abuse and expect to build esteem and self-confidence Two building blocks of a healthy mental life. So I go out with her and I celebrate her making this change in her life. But now the next morning comes, and it comes quickly. I show up at 7.15 for a 736 AMT time, hungover and in a daze, but I start off okay.
Speaker 2:After birding the first hole and then draining a par put on the second hole, I'm thinking maybe it's not that bad. But then the night before catches up to me and double bogeys were wishful on certain holes. Double bogeys were wishful on certain holes. That wasn't douchebaggery. The story I'm about to tell you was so it's 3 pm on a weekday and nobody's on the course. I pull up to the course and I see it's virtually empty. So I pull out my push cart, I load it up and I head to the first tee. It's open. Push cart. I load it up and I head to the first tee. It's open. And so I'm tinkering with pulling balls, ball markers, divot repair tools, tee. You know what you do when you get to a golf course. There's just a preparation that every golfer has to do to get ready to play, particularly if they're not driving up to the first tee in a golf cart that they have in their garage where all of this stuff is ready to go. So I'm going through all that and I think I'm going to play by myself, and all of a sudden these three senior gentlemen pull up to the tee box right behind me and so they pull up and I figure. I have three choices at this point in time Play with them, play in front of them or play behind them. And I knew if I played in front of them they certainly wouldn't want to see me throwing down a few balls as I was practice playing. So that was out of the question. I could wait and play behind them. But what single wants to play behind a threesome? So I decide.
Speaker 2:My executive decision of the day is I ask them hey guys, do you want to play together? And they're like sure, we'll play with you. I introduce myself and let's call these guys Manny, moe and Jack the pep boys. So I get up to the tee box and I hit the first drive. I hit it somewhere down the fairway, not one of my best, but it's in play. Then Manny and Moe get up, both duck, hook their first and their second shot into the woods on the left. Jack hits a shot down the middle. So now I'm walking. I got a walking cart. These guys are in their motorized golf carts and everybody's going to their balls.
Speaker 2:I walk over to try and help Manny and Mo, but their balls are deep in the woods and so I give it the customary two to three minutes. And then I walk out. And I walk out towards my ball. Jack's already over by his ball. He wasn't helping at all, and so we decide hey, why don't we both hit up on the green? These guys are going to be out of the woods in a second. It's already past the three minute mark and people are starting to walk up to the first tee behind us. So what seemed like an open golf course only seemed that way for a few seconds. So now both Jack and I hit our balls up on the green and decide to walk up towards the green because Manny and Mo are going to be out in a second.
Speaker 2:We get up to the green. Manny and Mo are just now deciding to throw a ball down on the ground outside of the woods. It's been over five minutes and I'm thinking to myself okay, I got to tell these guys there's a general three-minute rule, but I just don't want to be a dick. So I'm like, okay, let's just let it happen. Maybe it's the first ball. A lot of people, when they lose a ball, their first shot on the first hole, they just kind of get a little apoplectic. It just puts them on tilt and they just can't believe all this prep, all this thinking about playing, and now your first ball is lost. So sometimes they're going to spend more time on that first lost ball than any future lost ball, that's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 2:So now these guys take two to get on the green. We all put out and jack the other. The last guy pars the hole. I bogey the hole. I have no idea what Manny and Mo do.
Speaker 2:We now go to the second hole. I am walking and I am pushing a cart. I got to go up and down all these little hills to get there. Usually when I'm playing with buddies in motorized carts they are there well before me and I'm usually the last one to the tee box. For whatever reason, I'm the first one up to the tee box.
Speaker 2:These guys are taking their time, they're writing their score down, they're talking to each other. So I get up and I think, okay, let me set the pace here. I'm going to get up, I'm going to hit a shot, and then these guys are going to say, hey, we, he's racing up there and I'm about to hit and he starts asking me questions in the middle of my pre-shot routine hey, how far is this? Hey, what club would you use? Hey, it's like four or five questions. And I'm thinking to myself this guy is asking me these questions Because he just parred the last hole and he got the lowest score on the last hole. We're not playing a match, we don't have a bet going on, but maybe he believes that he has honors. I'm like, okay, I pick my ball up. I pick my tee up. I go hey, jack, you got a par on the last hole, why don't you hit first? He's like, okay, and I'm like that's exactly what he was doing. So he gets up. I give him instruction distance, what to avoid, where to hit it. He hits a good shot on the green. I hit one on the green.
Speaker 2:Manny and Moe dump their balls right into the marsh and I'm like, okay, this and they again. They go through. They start looking for their balls again. And I'm like, okay, hey guys, you know, as we get to the green, the foursome behind us that was on the tee box when we were in the middle of the fairway on the last hole. They're now ready to hit again. Manny and Mo are still looking for their balls. So I coax them on the green. They hit up.
Speaker 2:Both Jack and I par the hole. We're now going to the third hole. We have to drive around. These guys have to drive around the corner. It's probably maybe 100 yards or so and I start pushing my cart. Again, I get to the tee box before these guys in their motorized carts. I don't know what they're doing. Maybe they're slowly keeping score, maybe they're talking to each other about something, but now I'm going to go up and hit and again Jack does the same thing. He parred two holes in a row.
Speaker 2:He probably thinks he has honors. Hey look, folks, when you're playing a match there's honors, and that's just etiquette. It's not in the rule book, but it's a way to keep an order. So people know who hits first, second, third and fourth. But when you're not playing a match and you want to play ready golf, first guy to the tee hits. That's kind of a known entity. But obviously Jack likes honors. So I pull my ball up again, jack comes up, jack hits down the center and now it's my turn. Manny and Mo are standing right behind me on the tee box and I've talked about this before.
Speaker 2:People don't like other people standing right behind them when they're teeing off, because sometimes people are fidgety, sometimes people are moving, they have shadows, sometimes they're practicing their swing, whatever it is. It's not conducive for you, when you're hitting your shot, to have these people behind you moving. Now, normally I say something, and I've had this conversation with other people and they say, rich, you ought to just tell them hey, look, you know you've got strong peripheral vision, which I do. You'd say, look, I've got strong peripheral vision. I could kind of see you behind me. Would you mind moving off to the side? I happen to have really good peripheral vision. I could kind of see you behind me. Would you mind moving off to the side? I happen to have really good peripheral vision.
Speaker 2:It was great when I played lacrosse. It was great when I played basketball because I could see defenders and I could see my own teammates without looking at them. I could take shots in lacrosse without looking at the goal because I kind of could see it through my peripheral vision. Great back then. Not great for golf Horrible. I actually wish I had a horse blinder to go over my right eye so I can't see people to my right. It's a problem. I'm working on it. So these guys are right behind me.
Speaker 2:I decide not to say anything. This is where the douchebaggery starts. I decide I'm going to say nothing and I'm going to work on my own focus. So I get up and I hit a shot. I know they're there. It's not one of my best drives. It's in the fairway, but it's certainly not my best. I feel them, I kind of see them.
Speaker 2:These guys hit. Well, you know what happened. They hit their balls, one to the right, one to the left. Now they got to look for their balls. We get up to the green, blah, blah, blah, jack and I tie and now it's time to go to the next hole. Now, understand, this is probably four to 500 yards.
Speaker 2:The next tee box is four to 500 yards from the third green. I know these guys are going to beat me. As a matter of fact, I let them beat me, so I'm walking slow. They're riding their carts. My strategy is let them get up to the next hole, let them hit and then, when they get off the tee box, then I'll get up there. I won't have them behind me. Did that happen? It didn't happen. So now I'm walking, I get there.
Speaker 2:These guys are standing on the tee box waiting for me to get there so they could ask me what they need to hit. Now you're looking out at the hole. You could see the hole. You could see water on the left. You could see the holes like 300 yards. It's a very short par four. But they waited for me and of course Jack's balls already teed up and he has to ask me a bunch of questions. I tell him, but I'm thinking I'm going to let these guys hit and then they're going to get off the tee box and I'm going to hit. They hit their shots and now it's my turn, and Manny and Mo stand right behind me when I'm hitting. They've already hit their shots. They don't need to see anything because they know where their balls are. They're standing there. So I do the proverbial practice swing where I stand back a few feet and swing and then keep standing back.
Speaker 2:They don't move. And I'm thinking to myself I'm not going to take another step back because I'll hit them with a club and they're not getting the signal. And so I'm like, okay, this is the way it's going to be today. I've got to work on myself. So I hit an okay shot Again not my best. We get to the next two or three holes. It's the same thing. Now we get to seven.
Speaker 2:Seven is a par three with water running all the way down the right side, all the way up to the green. It's a daunting hole, particularly if you've never played it before, and the tee boxes are back probably 165, 170 yards. It's a tough shot. So now I'm going to let these guys hit first, and here's where the douchebaggery comes in. The guys get up to hit and I stand directly behind them A place I never stand when people are playing golf ever.
Speaker 2:But all of a sudden something took over and I'm like, I'm going to be like them, I am going to make two, three, four, 10 wrongs into a right by standing behind them. First. Manny hits, boom In the water, and all of a sudden it's like schadenfreude it's that German word that means you get satisfaction out of somebody else's dismay, out of somebody's discomfort, out of somebody's failing. And I'm sitting there going. I think I might have caused that. I'm standing right behind him and I'm sitting there going. I think I might have caused it. I'm standing right behind him. Mo gets up, he hits in the water. I'm standing right behind him. And now Jack gets up and I'm thinking to myself okay, should I get out of the way? And I'm thinking to myself no, they've been doing it to me all day. I'm doing it back to them. Jack, who is probably the best of those three players, who I think is one over par hits his shot in the water as I'm standing right behind him.
Speaker 2:And when that happened, I thought to myself Rich, you are a douchebag. This is the worst thing you could do. You know better. Why would you do something to make somebody else's life difficult on a golf course? You just don't do that and you hope that others don't do it. So once I was only playing nine holes. We only had two more holes to play after that. I felt like a shithead and I shook hands with the. I didn't do it to them on the eighth tee box. They did it to me and I didn't do it. On the ninth they did it to me and I just decided say nothing, shake hands, walk off the golf course. And here's what I learned from all of that.
Speaker 2:Number one I'm never going to do that again.
Speaker 2:But number two when I get to the end, the first hole, or as soon as somebody stands in my backswing, I'm going to kindly tell them I'm sorry, I've got strong peripheral vision. Would you mind if you move back? And then I'm going to kindly tell them I'm sorry, I've got strong peripheral vision, would you mind if you move back? And then I'm going to say it once or twice, and every time I say it, after the first time, I'm going to laugh, because you could just about say anything with a laugh and others will laugh with you. Yeah, so don't be a jerk, don't be a douchebag, don't stand behind people when they're hitting, and I, in turn, will do the same. You've been listening to another episode of Tales, just Tales. I'm your host, rich Easton, telling tales from beautiful Charleston, south Carolina. Talk to you soon. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm.