Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is the St. Louis podcast network.
Welcome to the CNC Golf Factory podcast on the St. Louis podcast Network with Kurt Rowey and Kurt Goss III.
Kurt Rowey is the executive director of the Metropolitan Amateur Golf association, whose expertise and passion for the sport have helped shape the local golf developing landscape in remarkable ways.
Kurt Goss III is the head PGA professional at the prestigious Country Club of St. Albans and the 2023 Gateway PGA Merchandiser of the year, a testament to his dedication and excellence in the industry.
Together as hosts and enthusiasts, we're here to bring you the latest news, expert analysis, and insider stories from the vibrant world of St. Louis Golf. Settle in and get ready to be inspired by the wealth of knowledge and camaraderie that defines our local golfing community.
Welcome to the CNC Golf Factory podcast, where every swing tells a story.
Welcome on in as the CNC Golf Factory podcast right here on the St. Louis podcast Network. I'm Edie Hanselman alongside Kurt Rowey and Kurt Goss. Hope you're having a fantastic spring. We've been a very, very busy time for all of us. Real quick, before we get into things, you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at CC underscore golf, underscore factory, and on Facebook at C Plus C Golf factory. Make sure also that you like and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Kurt. Kurt. Hi, guys. How's it going?
[00:01:58] Speaker B: Andy, how we doing?
[00:01:59] Speaker C: Good evening.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: We're doing well. We're doing well. A lot of stuff to recap, a lot of stuff upcoming. So let's just dive right into it. Oh, real quick. Before we, before we do that, too, let's plug tonight's guest, Kurt Rowey. Tell us about tonight's guest.
[00:02:15] Speaker C: Yeah, so Blake's Cornea. Blake recently won the east side amateur, Gateway national and then, then was a colo amateur out the Metropolitan Open at St. Albans just a couple weeks back. So young man from plays at Algonquin as a, was a de Smet graduate, but I guess last year, 2023.
So just a good young, you know, young up and coming golfer that should maybe not up and coming, but a good young golfer and is off to a really good start for the season. And so we're looking forward to talking with Blake. I know a lot more stories. Blake's dad and I go back to fifth grade YMCA basketball, but we won't get into that. But so I've known, known Kent for his dad for a long time, but so looking forward to talking. Blake.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: You'll hear Blake in segment two, kicking off the show tonight is Kurt Goss. You might know him from the country club of St. Albans. Kurt. The sections had a couple of high profile tournaments here in the past month, starting with the par three tournament. Used to be over at Tower T, correct? Tower T. And now friend of the show Mike Surrey hosted over at Oakbrook Golf Club north of Edwardsville.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: By the way, Mike Surrey is no longer a friend of the show after he beat me five and four in the match play a few weeks ago.
No kidding. We all knew that he was gonna take that w.
But, no, in all seriousness, yes. So, you know, tower t used to have the par three event for the gateway section. Pretty unique, fun way to get out there and get more guys playing, gals playing. And, you know, when Tower t kind of closed the door a handful of years ago, temporarily didn't know what was going to happen. We know it's up and running now.
The Suri family was nice enough to keep the event going and basically try to play 18 holes of the same yardage that tower T originally was. And so that event was, boy, about three weeks ago already, guys, and we had a tie for first. So we had to go into a playoff between Bob Gauss over at family golf and Kyle Schwe over at Norwood Hills.
A good young player and a veteran in the section. The two of them went head to head. They were at 600 total for the. For the event. And Mister Suri was just one back. But those two went on a playoff, and Kyle took the victory in a playoff, making him a nice little payday for not probably having to use more than I would guess for Kyle. Probably an eight iron all day, a little pitching putt over at Oak Brook. So, you know, that was a fun event. I played it a couple times in recent years. Unfortunately, we had an event at the club, but. So I couldn't sneak away. But I'm sure that was a fun one. Just looking at some of the names and, you know, the unique thing here, it's like you almost get a few more players and some of our regular stroke play events, I think because, you know, some of the players figured they can keep it in play a little bit more than they maybe could in the past. So all the players with good short games, I think, came out to Oakbrook and had a nice day, thanks to the Surrey family. So, congrats to Kyle. As we mentioned, his name last year, heck of a player. He's won some winter series events in the PGA before, so that was on the radar a few weeks ago, and then we did just mention Siri and myself. Match play. Sorry. Trying to pull up the results.
So the match play has been played at St. Clair Country Club.
Tom, Dennis, Scott, those crew. That crew over there, they've had it for the past few years. And it's a. It's a good historic track, as you guys both know. A lot of movements up and down. Not the longest golf course in the world, but that's how things were back in the day on, you know, small plots of land. Um, clearly, I'm not going to go through everybody, because we'd be here all day, but, um, want to get to the finals and, um, we'll get to the semifinals.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Uh, give the people the final four.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, our final four got down to, uh, Jacob Seabo, Ryan Roy Ryan, friend of the show, and Alex Gorman, and Kyle Schezowski. Again, interesting about Kyle and the metropolitan open. I think, Kurt, I might even sent you a text or said something. I'm like, is he still playing this afternoon? Because Kyle was signed up for the Metropolitan Open and was in the semifinals. And I don't know the exact story, but I have a feeling Kyle had forfeited the match in the semis.
Probably picked up his check. Nice little check for making the semis, but he wanted to commit to the metropolitan open. He was very in for the entry fee. So it sounds like he skipped out of the final four, came over to St. Albans for the Metropolitan Open. And that opened the door for Alex Gorman to meet Ryan Roy in the finals. And Alex takes a victory. It looks like four and two over Ryan Roy. Do not know Alex. I believe I looked up. Maybe he's over at Cardinal Creek. That's. Yep. So I think he's newer to the section. I looked. He's not a full PGA member yet, which doesn't mean much. He's working on his book work to get the PJ membership. But he's an associate and good for him, obviously. Clearly a heck of a player. I mean, if I go through the laundry list of some of the players Alex had to knock off.
Miguel Romero. Marco. Unfortunately, I do not know him. I apologize.
Okay. I did see that. I don't know much about him or anything, to be honest. I apologize. I do know Sam Lee, who was the defending champ. Alex knocked him off in the round of 16.
So Alex knocked off, um, Chris Ferris, another young gun to the section. Uh, Chris is, what, maybe a year or two removed from Umpsil, over working for Mumia Algonquin. So, clearly, Alex, I apologize. I don't know anything really about you, but clearly you got some games. So congrats to those guys. And that leads up to a couple stroke play events and the gateway section coming up this Monday over at Gateway national. Again, it just feels like that's all our buddy friend of the show, Sean Barnes ever does, is host events, a lot of them, and we appreciate it because it's hard to open your doors this day and age with how busy golf is. And then a week later over at Spencer T. I think on the 10th. So we got a couple stroke play events coming up in the section over the next few weeks.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: We're also going to talk a little bit. There's, there's, there's a so much gateway section junior golf as well. And let's let the folks know out there know how to get their kids involved in Gateway section junior golf, what kind of player they need to be and really, and what they should expect, and then finally, how to go out there and sign up.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: Yeah, so, I mean, good question, Andy. I mean, for starters, not just a gateway section. Mom, dad, grandparents, whomever is helping guide these youngsters, obviously, getting on the Internet, looking at public facilities that have camps, obviously, we will dive here into a second with the gateway section, obviously, places like St. Albans, we have our camps, we have our junior programs. Ours start tomorrow night. Our tiny tigers with our little bittys. Tomorrow, from 530 to 630, our big junior golf program, operation 36, will start next Wednesday. So a week from today. And the main thing is, again, please, mom, dad, whomever, just jump on the Internet. Places like family golf center, you know, tower t is up and running again these days. There's plenty of facilities. It doesn't necessarily have to be the gateway section. I am going to give them a plug, obviously, but there's so many different programs and camps, Cyc camps. You know, there's places right down the street from me, like elevate Zach Conlon and his crew. My daughter goes there on Saturday mornings for what we call little birdies indoor golf.
But if that youngster wants to start competing, and I have a couple of students of mine that I've told the parents, like, look, I think it's time that we get them not just the St. Albans junior golf, but let's get them playing against some other players, get them to understand the rules a little bit better. Things like the gateway section junior program with Jason McKenzie and the rest of the crew. Ali does such a great job as our director.
They can just go to gatewaypga.org and you'll scroll I'm on there right now on my phone, guys, you open up the drop arrow and you'll find junior golf right in the middle. And then it's going to tell you what type of programs, the age divisions, boys, girls. It's very in depth. And I mean, like you said, andy, you're like, what kind of recaps do we have? I said, we might be here for a week if we recapped everything because we love to announce every winner for every event. But there's so many, and that's a good problem to have, right? There's so many opportunities. And so again, please parents, check out gatewaypga.org or your local driving range, your local facility. There's so many programs and like we mentioned, this is right now the time to do it. It's time for kids to be active and outdoors for the next twelve weeks nonstop. So take advantage of it.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: It's important to know that for people our age and their, in their parents in their forties, that the junior golf programs are much more widely available and accessible than they were when we were kids back in the eighties. I remember my mom always said, she goes, I wanted to sign you guys up for the Quincy little people's tournament, but I didn't know where to go. And Quincy was like the only one, you know, really, back in the day that, you know, there were, there were a few other ones you locally, but, um, Quincy was, was the big one that everybody in the area went to. And, you know, if you, if you don't know where to go and you get on the site, you still don't know where to go. Talk to your pro. And even if you don't have a pro, go out to a place like golf galaxy. Go see Dan gad attaway out at golf Galaxy in Fairview Heights. Or, and I'm sorry, I don't know any of the other pros, but all those places is have PGA professionals on staff that will know how to direct you, how to get your kids involved in more junior golf.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And I'll say real quick, Andy, again, of course I'm at a private facility, so we're very limited to who we can take. We're taking kids and grandkids of members.
But if someone called me tomorrow and didn't realize we're private or whatnot, I would politely explain. But again, same thing I'm telling you now. I say, here's where you would go. I would recommend places like family golf or whomever.
There's so many opportunities for those kids to get out there. And like you said, the old days of when we were junior golfers, there's the first tee. Have fun. You know, kind of. It was very, yeah, it was very intimidating. You know, here's $5 for a hot dog and a Coke, and we'll pick you up in a few hours. I mean, junior golf programs are so much more in depth. All junior sports in general.
And if I can make one suggestion to parents, please do not force sports on your kids. Let them grow on their own.
As a PJ professional with an eight year old, I think she enjoys doing the group formats when she wants to do individual lessons with me, it lasts about ten minutes. She was inspired. She was inspired with Kaden and Madison a month ago, and I took her out to St. Albans two nights later because she was so eager to get better for drive, chip and putt. And after about eight minutes, she was hangry and it didn't last. But again, I'm not going to force it. I'll let her take it up when she's ready. But plenty of avenues out there. Parents pick up a phone or Google search junior golf in your area. You'll figure something out pretty quick.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Something we don't hit on much with the private kids is that they have the access to the St. Louis junior districts, if they still. I believe they still do those.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Yeah, the St. Louis district, I. They still have the, I don't have it up, but yes, they have the junior district. I'm pretty sure I'd have to double check.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: Talk to your, if you're at a club, talk to your head probably, about getting involved with those. Well, that's kind of a, that's more of a laid, it's kind of laid back and fun. Just all the kids get together and go play different courses, you know, and it gives kids opportunities to play courses that they normally wouldn't get to play. When I, when I played that, I got to go play Bill Reeve a year after the PGA championship in 1993.
Yeah. So it's, it was kind of a, kind of a neat thing for, you know, for a 1617 year old kid. And of course, I haven't been invited back since, but that's okay. Like the same of the vehicle that we showed up in that day, so.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Well, I think what we have to do, we have to get Mike Tucker on the show. Then he becomes a friend of the show. Then, you know, that's how the doors open. Andy, let's do it.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: We're down. We're down. Usually we start things off with with Kurt Rowe. Kurt row, he's been waiting in the wings very nicely and gently while we go through all the stuff with the gateway section. Our guests coming up in segment two. But before we get to that, Kurt Rowie also has a lot of stuff to recap over the past month. And Rowe, I think we're going to start with the metro open, the big signature event.
[00:15:35] Speaker C: Yeah. The Metropolitan Open, 19th. 19 years of the Metropolitan Open. It's hard to believe. 17, that was 19 years out of St. Albans. And we had another successful one just a couple weeks ago. You know, May was a crazy month. You know, Mother Nature seemed to wreak havoc or, you know, lend a hand in virtually every event we had in. Maybe she did, did again out of St. Albans. But still the, everything was, it went off. We got it done on time. And the golf course was fantastic. These golf professionals, I think we had professionals from 29 or 30 states, you know, come in and they just rave about, you know, coming to St. Louis and, and especially about St. Albans. You know, they, several of them, they tell me, they tell us, Kurt, hopefully you hear it too. You know, this is, this is their best, this is their favorite stop of the year.
They get to play maybe the best golf course they play on and their experience is always, always great here at St. Albans. So Kudos to St. Albans for hosting. And we had almost a full field. We had 150 total golfers, 108 professionals. Rest were amateurs. Ryan Cole from Midlothian, Virginia, came away with the victory. He was runner up in 2023, got the victory this year. Ryan finished at 14 under par over the three days, had a nice five shot lead going into the final round and didn't play as maybe his best. I think he said in his interview afterwards he didn't really have it on the third day, but it was enough to, to get it done. Finished, you know, one under par on the third day to finish at 14. Guy by David Perkins came from behind. He was, he was back, but he shot a 64 on Friday, the final day to finish at 13 under to put a little pressure on, on Ryan. But Ryan gets it done with the 14 under par, takes on the check of $25,000 paycheck for three days of work, which is always good, you know, had a good week, had, well, two back to back years he's had, had success here and, but a nice young player, you know, we wish him all the best, you know, going forward. In fact, I said that to him afterwards. I kind of mistakenly, I said, hope to see you next year. He goes, I'm gonna be honest with you. I hope you don't. And I said, no, you're right. I'm sorry. I don't. I didn't mean. I didn't mean that. You know, we hope these guys, you know, move on and have success and are able to, you know, be the next Adam Schenk, we can proudly say, who came out and was a winner in St. Albans and, you know, is obviously doing great things on the PGA Tour out of this. We. We had the 150 golfers, 40 on the number, made the cut at minus one. We had three amateurs make the cut this year after last year. No amateurs making the cut. We had three. Tyler, linden, broker, blake, scornia. Tyler and Tyler, linden, broker and blake were the colo amateurs for the week. Blake continued his fine play, which we'll get into, you know, with him here in a little bit. That was the open. Many thanks to St. Albans and. And to all the volunteers. You know, we had a lot of volunteers out there taking scores, shuttling drivers. And those were all St. Albans members as well. So, you know, it's. There was support from all around the club over those three days. Especially after, you know, we had a. Had some. What? The night before, we had another inch and a half of rain. I couldn't believe it when I drove down highway t on Wednesday morning to start. I. When I left there on Tuesday night, I thought we were hopefully maybe done with the rain. And then I get there on Wednesday morning. Brighton or maybe a little dark early. But it was, you know, they were cleaning up another inch and a half of rain. Cleaning off, you know, bridges and stuff to. To get started. So that was a little bit of a shocker.
[00:19:10] Speaker A: But anyway, I have Ryan Perkins and Will Grimmer. Yeah.
[00:19:16] Speaker C: Yeah. Will Grimmer was the top three.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:19:18] Speaker C: Okay. Correct. Yep. So.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: And, uh, real quick, name you're looking for there?
[00:19:22] Speaker B: Uh, it was a friend of the show, Bubba Chapman.
[00:19:25] Speaker C: Yeah, bubba. I'm sorry. Yeah, bubba.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:28] Speaker C: Bubba was the other low amateur. So, no nice playing, you know, for Bubba, you know, really a junior on top of an amateur, you know, making the cut and kind of mini tour events. So Bubba coming off his, uh. He won the Missouri class five state champion individual title. Along with his team at Chaminade just a couple weeks before. So Bubba's playing, you know, playing some really fine golf himself. So, anyway, that. That was the open. Another great week.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: Did anybody get arrested going into the metropolitan?
[00:19:56] Speaker C: Not that I'm aware of. Kurt? Yeah, I think Kurt had a scare, but he. He got through it. So he just, he just put, hit the, put, put the pedal, the metal and. Yeah, right on in there.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: So don't you know who I am.
[00:20:09] Speaker A: Or who my father is?
[00:20:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:13] Speaker A: We played the Sjogren cup.
[00:20:15] Speaker C: Officially, it's the fourth year of the Sjogren cup. You know, we've been doing these matches on and off, but the top amateurs from the Metropolitan Golf association against the top professionals from the gateway PGA this year was played at Greenbrier Hills. As many probably know, we flip flop every other year between Greenbrier and Belle Reef Country Club. This year we were back at Greenbrier, and so thanks to our host there, Matt Gimler, and Greenbar Hills really was into being a, maybe some of the best weather we had for a couple days, finally to have the Sjogren cup. So hopefully that was, that was shogi looking down on us to give us some, some good weather for those couple days. But I can proudly say that the amateurs came away with a 17 and a half to ten and a half victory over the pros. Was some good matches that claim the, the cup for the amateurs for the third, 3rd consecutive year. Just great comradery, great matches. You know, the guys all love to, you know, get out and compete against each other against guys they don't normally get to. We had some new, we had some new guys in there. We had Tyler Lindbroker. I mentioned Zach Walsh, Max Krackmire, some young guys, and then we had some, you know, kind of some Wiley veterans, I'll call them, who, you know, were also in the, in the matches. So on the amateur side, I guess I can selfishly say, you know, the amateur kind of put it to him and. But that's, that's all right. It was a fun, fun two days recorded.
[00:21:35] Speaker A: Our last episode, I think there was another event and old, it was the old worse and cup. We recorded that before that was played.
[00:21:41] Speaker C: I think that's right. May, I forgot about that.
[00:21:44] Speaker A: The old worse and cup.
[00:21:46] Speaker C: Yeah, the old worsen Cup.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: Chris Kovac played at Yorktown, right?
[00:21:52] Speaker C: Not this year. Not this year.
We've, we maintained it. The Oarson cup at O'Orson.
[00:21:58] Speaker A: Oh, that's good.
[00:22:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: Chris.
[00:22:02] Speaker C: Chris Kovacs. Chris Kovacs came away with the victory in the oars and cup. So Chris has been playing. I think he, I think he said his first awards cup was in 2010, so he's. And he's played in about everyone since. And I believe if I get my story straight, I'm probably going to mess this up. But this was only like the second time he even made it to Sunday in the matches. He never got out of Saturday in those, you know, 1314 years. And then he got on, went on to win the, win the title. And, you know, it was just, it was very cool to see him. Chris was emotional. You know, it's a, for a guy that's been, you know, playing in that event and playing in metropolitan championships for a long time to, you know, get his name on a metropolitan trophy, I think he was pretty proud. Proud of that. He also had his dad, if you guys don't know Chris, his dad, Steve, that is one man who's put more miles on cart paths by walking in the last several years. And he's probably getting close to Mister Karabia. I don't know if anybody's who's walked more carpaths than Phil Karabia's dad over the years, but Steve's getting close. He, he was out there the whole time. I think that, in fact, I think even pushed Chris's push card around, you know, a few holes as well. But in fact, I know he did because he proud to have that caddy bib on when, when Chris won, won the match play title. So, yeah, in fact, I, I let him keep it. I think Chris was going to sign it for him. So it was a great old worse and cub.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: So Goss and I talked a little bit about junior golf and cow to get your kids involved. Maga has the amateur series. You said your second event, and that's become very, very popular. Can folks will get involved with that?
[00:23:40] Speaker C: Yeah, they still can. I mean, the amateur. Yeah, the amateur series is just absolutely blown up. We just finished our second one yesterday. Of the six out of pursuant woods. We had 134 yesterday at Persimmon, woods. And I had a waiting list of probably 30 or 40. In fact, two weeks ago when I called Ben Kent at Persimmons, kind of give him an update and, and try to get some extra carts because, you know, we have limits of these clubs based on, you know, what carts they have. And I was able to get. We were able to get extra carts for the first one. Wing Haven did the same this for today, yesterday at Persimmon.
Ben, right away. So, hey, you want to do a double shotgun? We can shotgun at nine. We'll do another shotgun in the afternoon, you know, to kid all these players. And I said, no, that's all right. One shotgun is enough. It's already a long, long enough day. Yeah, the amateur series is just. It's been crazy, you know, again, to get, have a, you know, and we have, we are two, you know, really sought after facilities. You know, when we take the amateur series to the private facilities, it's a lot of these players don't get opportunity to get out to the private clubs. So wing haven and pursuant. Woods but, but I'm already like, our next one's at the falls, and we're easily going to sell that one out. I look, today we got another week and a half and it's, it's almost full to where limit is right now. And I'm working on trying to get some more cars for it. So. But, yeah, you can still get involved. It's at, you know, ww dot metga.org. and look under competitions. There's a, there's a whole page for the amateur series and it's, it's for everyone. You know, we got seven different divisions. Open senior open, super senior, open net net, open senior net, super senior net and women's net. We've had great turnout in every single division. Great way to get out and seeing a lot of new, new faces this year.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: One of the big talking points around town in the golf community, Kurt Rowey, is what's going on at Normandy. How about a nice Normandy update for the listeners?
[00:25:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I've been getting that question a lot from a few people who have had the opportunity to drive by and, you know, see what, you know, there hasn't been a lot going on up at the golf course for those who are, have had a chance to take a look. You know, we, after finishing the brush clearing last year, 20 some plus acres this past this spring, we've taken about roughly 300 trees down out of Normandy, which had that got done in March. We had to get that done before April 1 because apparently some bat comes living, comes in town and lives in those trees. They had to come down before April 1, according to some government entity, but that got done. And now we're just kind of in a little bit of a standstill. We're waiting on some permitting process to be able to kind of the next phase, which is whether that's one of the stumps. We took down 300 trees. So you got 300, you know, some stumps that are, they can't be touched without this land disturbance permit from the county. So. And you can't start spraying. I mean, Mike Monroe, the superintendent, our superintendent is ready to start spraying, you know, the grass that's there to kill that for the next process and can't do that without this land disturbance permit either. So he's actually been mowing, you know, all this grass just to keep it down. So when it comes time to spray, you know, we're not spraying tall, you know, really tall grass. So that's kind of the update. Yeah, it seems like it's a little bit in a stall, but, um, it, you know, just kind of.
Just a little red tape, you know, trying to get all our eyes dot, dot the I's across t's for the next stage, so. And unfortunately, as we wait, that just, you know, pushes everything back with we're ready to rock and roll, I can tell you that. And we just got to get to this red tape.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: Exciting times.
Amateur golfer Blake Scornia joins us next right here on the CNC Golf Factory podcast on the St. Louis podcast network.
Back here, segment two, CNC Golf Factory podcast, right here on the St. Louis podcast Network, talked a lot of MAGA golf and BGA section golf in the previous segment. Now we're going to interview a fantastic competitor from one of those tournaments that we just recapped. He is a 2023 graduate of Dismette Jesuit Academy because we call things by their official names around here, 2024 east side amateur champion and the co low amateur at the Metropolitan Open. He is a student at Mizzou, and he plays his home golf over at Algonquin with friend of the show, Brett mummy. His name is Blake Scornia. Hi, Blake. How's it going, man?
[00:28:02] Speaker D: Good. How are you? Thanks for having me.
[00:28:04] Speaker A: Not a problem. Thanks for joining us, Blake. How does it feel to be kind of the talk of the town with a little amateur golf with the east side amateur champ and the metro Open, colo. Am?
[00:28:14] Speaker D: No, it was good to just kind of get it done over the east side. I told myself that I haven't been in contention for a while and to just kind of enjoy, like, being in contention, and it was good to get.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: The job done for guys out there trying to improve their game like you did over the spring. What kind of things were you working on to get better? I assume your doctor is whacking drivers, right?
[00:28:33] Speaker D: I wish. No, I worked on my putting a lot. I worked on my setup and everything and kind of grinded that out over the spring. And then it slowly got better and better each round I played over my tournament span, which was good to kind of loosen up round by round instead of being all tight. So just kind of round by round, I. I got better.
[00:28:51] Speaker C: Very good, Blake. Well, first, thanks for coming on and joining us this evening. Andy mentioned, you know, to the one win and then you know, the fine play at the Metropolitan Open going into the summer, what did. Did you have any goals set, you know, for the summer, you know, for turn and play and, you know, what. What's your summer looking like, and what were your goals going in summer?
[00:29:14] Speaker D: Yeah, some of my goals were, it was a scoring average. I wanted it to be under 72 for the year, for the whole summer. So that was a big one that I wanted to kind of emphasize. Another thing was I wanted to be positive in strokes cane putting, which is a big thing for me. Obviously, it's really hard to be positive in strokes game putting. I've always struggled with that big time, but I think that's a big, far fetched goal that I wanted to really try to push myself to achieve. And then one of the big ones was to make the cut at the open and to also win low amateur, which was good to accomplish early, and then got a couple more big ones along the way.
[00:29:50] Speaker C: Going back to the east side amateur, you. You were tied for the lead after day one with Joe Migdal. Who?
Him and his. Him and Sam just competed the US amateur at the four ball, too. We haven't talked about, but, you know, that was a. That was a good, good first round. What was, you know, then you.
You had a pretty good second round. You're playing with Joe, and you had to make a. You had to make a pretty big putt on 18 to secure. Secure the victory that day over at Gateway national. How, what was your, uh, your mindset, you know, during that day? And did you know where you stood most of the day?
[00:30:24] Speaker D: So. No, I, uh, I didn't want to check the leaderboard all day. As I kind of said earlier, I just was, like, happy to be present in the moment and to be, like, in. In contention for the first time in a while. So I just kind of wanted to play my game, and I knew if I played well that I would have a chance coming down the stretch. So I didn't even. I didn't look until hole 18 fairway. I wanted to get the tee shot out of the way, and then I saw Ryan misses putt up ahead of me and saw that he came in at. He parred 18. So I knew I was tied for the lead going into it, so decided to lay up and just give myself a chance to make a putt, and, fortunately, it dropped.
[00:31:07] Speaker B: Blake, appreciate you taking time this evening to join us, and congrats on your stellar play to start the summer of 2024.
So we've recapped a little bit of the two big events in the past few weeks for you, but why don't you give our listeners a little bit of your backstory how you got involved in the game, you know, favorite golf course in St. Louis. Favorite golf course ever. Just give us the blake story.
[00:31:36] Speaker D: Okay? Yeah, I've been playing golf for as long as I can remember. My parents got me introduced to it at a pretty young age out at St. Albans and then went over to Algonquin when I was like ten years old. So I've just been playing forever. It's always been my favorite sport, for sure. I didn't really start taking it seriously, competitively wise, until probably about my sophomore year of college or of high school. Excuse me. It was during COVID I decided to switch coaches and really kind of work on my swing during that time. And so it's never too late to start for all the young guys. You don't start early and be good, but if you work at the right things and kind of year by year, focus on getting better and trust the process, it'll all kind of come together at some point, hopefully.
But my favorite course in St. Louis is, for sure, St. Louis Country Club. It's just when you're playing it, you don't even feel like it's. You're in Missouri, so. I love that place.
[00:32:34] Speaker A: You're speaking Kurt and Kurt's language.
They love that golf course.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: It's a great track.
[00:32:40] Speaker D: It's awesome. My. My favorite one, probably, that I've played is, uh, it's probably. It's got to be Pinehurst number two nationally.
[00:32:50] Speaker B: It's.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: They're playing some kind of open there here this month.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: Is Blake in the field yet? Do we get him a sponsor invite?
[00:32:59] Speaker D: Yeah. Kirk, can you make that happen?
[00:33:04] Speaker B: So what's. What's the next event or next couple events for you this season?
[00:33:10] Speaker D: So I have the Missouri amateur qualifier tomorrow morning at the falls. And then I actually just got off the waitlist for the US AM on Tuesday at Atlanta national. So I gotta find a way to get to Atlanta on. On Monday. So see if we can make that happen.
[00:33:28] Speaker B: Well, I think Roey and I both know a few people in town with private jets messages for you. I don't know if we can make it work, but I'd love to help you.
[00:33:38] Speaker D: And then I'm trying to think after that, I got a moab. Of course, if I qualify, would be late June, and then I will be out of town for the stroke play, unfortunately. But then I'll go degrees a dick at a meadowbrook, I believe, and then the amateur at Belle Reeve.
[00:33:55] Speaker B: So you got, you got a full list of golf ahead of you this summer.
[00:33:59] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:33:59] Speaker B: So hopefully you find a little bit of time to be a, be a young man and have a little bit of fun in between practice and whatnot.
[00:34:10] Speaker A: I'm sure he's putting plenty of time out of patios and wheelhouse, too.
[00:34:14] Speaker B: He's all, he's talking about stroke, game, putty. Andy. He's not out running around like I was at 20 years old. Give the kid a break.
No, that's great. So again, congratulations. Best of luck on the rest of the season and your career. I'll throw back to Mister Rowey, see if he's got some, anything to follow up. So thank you.
[00:34:33] Speaker C: Yeah, I just, I want to go back to the open just a little bit. I know, you know, you said you had a goal, you know, making the cut and, and, you know, you obviously did that and you finished, you know, colo, amateur with Tyler, which was a, you know, great playing after last year, having no amateurs made the cut. You know, it's always exciting for me to see some of our amateurs, you know, make the cut. And they have three, you know, three of our youngest, probably better players in town. Best players, you know, do it. You and Tyler and Bubba was phenomenal. Just take it through, you know. What was your experience, you know, playing with, I know you played with Tommy shaft. Who you, I know you. Somehow that happened. I got paired with him a couple years ago, not complaining about, I don't know who's doing that job. But, but, you know, just your experience, you know, playing with these, playing with the, you know, these professionals who, you know, Tommy's been doing it for a long time, you know, and, you know, just give us, give the listeners, you know, just your experience, you know, playing with these guys. And did you, did you learn anything from playing from these, you know, with these, with these professionals?
[00:35:31] Speaker D: Yeah, it's awesome to kind of challenge yourself a little bit. You always go out there and people are like, oh, you don't really have big expectations, do you? But like, like Tiger says, who goes out to not try to win the tournament, obviously. I mean, you got to play amazing. But it's, it's really good to kind of challenge yourself and just see how good they are. Their off days are just as good as their bad days. And it just comes down to a very couple small things. And it's always nice to know when you play well and you're playing your game that you're not too far off from them. So just kind of. It's. It's awesome. I played with Tommy, as you mentioned, and then also Ryan Sullivan from North Carolina, I believe. And so he's played in a couple of us opens. So it's kind of. It's just fun to pick their brains and see all that. All the stuff that they've played and kind of what they've been through. They've played with some pretty cool people.
[00:36:21] Speaker A: Blake, when I. So I'm a. I'm a run of the Bill twelve handicap, right? I shoot 85 to 90. I just go out and have fun and have drinks of fireball shots and trying.
And when I. When I play with a guy like you, I just looked you up on Jen and I see that you're a plus 4.6. You you hit the ball. Guys like, you hit the ball different. It makes a different sound off the clubs. When you play with pros like you played within the Metro Open, do there, do you notice a difference between how your club sound and how their club sound and the. And kind of their. And what. How they work the ball?
[00:36:52] Speaker D: I would for sure say, like, and this isn't a knock at these, like, for the level that of the guys that are playing the amateur, I would say 99% of pros you're not going to be, like, too astonished by. But that's that 1%. If you're playing with, obviously, the best players in the world, I played against or I played with Akshay Bhatia and Caleb Surratt, who is now on live. And those guys, especially Caleb, I played with you. You see how they play and you're just kind of like, wow.
[00:37:23] Speaker A: Right.
[00:37:24] Speaker D: It's.
There's for sure a very select few that you see every once in a while where you're just like, these guys are going to be special and actually has two time tour winner before 21 or 22, and Surratt's on live after his sophomore year of college. So guys like that, there's. There's very few people that I feel like as a golfer, and I think a lot of guys my age would say this, you try not to get too caught up in, like, admiring everybody just because you kind of want to just play your game. But first, I for sure understand what you mean.
[00:37:56] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:37:56] Speaker A: It's not really an admiration or just trying to mock it or even really trying to, like, get to that. Me, I will never be a plus four player. .6. I mean, it'd be incredible for that to happen, but, I mean, just to just. It's just hearing that, just hearing the ball, hearing how it clicks off the club is always just amazing to me when I'm playing with good players.
[00:38:13] Speaker D: So I I I get more.
I can see that a lot in chipping. I notice that a lot more with the professionals that compared to most amateurs, it just sounds so different off the face. You just like, wow, they clipped that perfectly. So that's for sure a big thing. I noticed the chipping a lot.
[00:38:31] Speaker A: Rowan goss, if you guys don't have any more, I have my.
I break into my Frank Cusimano impression.
[00:38:38] Speaker C: No, I don't have any questions. I just want to say, you know, Blake, thanks. And I guess one. One last question is, you mentioned your events going forward, but what's, you know, what's your goals? You know, you're in. Not to bring up. You're in a pretty. Pretty good position right now after two events. You know, you've garnered some points for player of the year points. But, you know, that also, you know, works in the getting into the cup next year and, you know, maybe Silicon cup. But what just, you know, what. What are your goals, you know, for, you know, for the rest of 2024?
You know, what. What do you want to see after this year's end, you know?
[00:39:14] Speaker D: Yeah, I kind of just want to take it one turn at a time. But for sure, a big goal is, since I've played well already, is to win metro player of the year. Obviously, that's a tall task ahead, but a lot of good players behind me, but for sure to just kind of play well throughout the rest of the summer and give myself a chance at that, at least.
But that's for sure, the biggest one.
[00:39:38] Speaker A: Good stuff. All right. All right.
[00:39:40] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:39:40] Speaker A: All right, I have five questions. No hedging now hear me. All right. Your favorite tv show.
[00:39:49] Speaker D: Probably suits.
[00:39:51] Speaker A: Best concert you've ever been to.
[00:39:55] Speaker D: Luke Holmes last year.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: I saw Luke combs last year, and Indy. It was unbelievable. And then Curt and I also went to go see George Strait and Chris Stapleton up in Milwaukee last year. That was also incredible.
Go to post round meal.
[00:40:08] Speaker D: Chickfila.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: Nice. Best sport you play besides golf. I bet you're a hooper.
[00:40:14] Speaker D: No, probably lacrosse.
[00:40:20] Speaker A: And your favorite local restaurant. Don't say chick fil a.
[00:40:26] Speaker D: Probably.
It's got to be some mexican place. Probably like El Indio.
[00:40:31] Speaker A: Nice. Good stuff.
That's the hard hitting questions and answers that we like to present here on.
[00:40:37] Speaker B: The c.
Hey, Andy, guys, I have one more thing for your.
Blake, can you do me one big favor, the rest of the summer when you're at Algonquin.
[00:40:47] Speaker D: I'll do my best.
[00:40:49] Speaker B: I want you to just Raz and just give Brett mummy a hard time and just make his life difficult. I want you to call him from the 15th hole and say, you left your rangefinder on the range and just keep calling and say, have you found it? I want you to take a shirt back and say, this doesn't fit right anymore, but I cut the tags off. I want you just to give him a hard time for the rest of the season.
[00:41:13] Speaker D: All right, my best.
[00:41:15] Speaker A: Brett Mooney is also a friend of the show, so he's, we love Brett.
[00:41:18] Speaker B: So that's why we say it.
[00:41:20] Speaker D: Brett's awesome.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: He is a great guy.
[00:41:22] Speaker A: He is playing in the Missouri amateur qualifier tomorrow at the falls out in O'Fallon, and he is the 2024 east side amateur champion and the colo Amateur of the 2024 Metro Open. Blake Scornia, thank you so much for joining us tonight. We really appreciate it.
[00:41:37] Speaker D: Yeah, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
[00:41:39] Speaker A: Not a problem at all. Back with more right after this on the CC Golf Factory podcast on the St. Louis podcast Network.
Final segment here, CNC Golf Factory podcast St. Louis podcast Network Andy, Curt and Kurt with you. Hope you enjoyed our conversation with the great Blake Scornia, who's going to be playing tomorrow in the Missouri amateur qualifier out at the fall. So good luck to him. Hope you enjoyed that conversation, Kurt, really. Before we wrap up, we have something to preview for you. And is the 25th quarter century Metropolitan Amateur junior championship coming up here?
[00:42:14] Speaker C: Yeah, 25 years is, again, I guess we say this every time we talk about a date that it's hard to believe it's been, you know, 25 years.
But, yeah, we're looking forward to the 25th Metropolitan junior championship, where June 11, 12th and 13th. Those entries are actually closing tonight as we're, as we're recording this a little bit later, but we're out at Aberdeen Golf Club for the silver anniversary of the junior championship.
A new little twist this year is the 54 hole championship. And that 54 holes, I should also clarify that that's only for the two oldest divisions, the 19 under girls and boys divisions. The other divisions, which are 13 under 1300 girls, 13 under boys, and then 15 under boys.
Those, those divisions will just play 36 holes. And then the, the two older divisions are, will play 54 hole championship.
Those two divisions, those two older divisions, the girls play for the Barbara Burkmar Trophy and the boys play for the James M. Holt grief trophy as I was just talking. We're taking those to this, those two divisions in this championship to 54 holes because we want to. Due to some changes in USG qualifying for the US boys and girls junior championships, we're hoping, our hopes are in a couple years that we can say that our junior champions are going to get. Get exemptions to go right into the US boys and girls junior championships. But to do that, we had to have 54 hole scheduled events. So that's why we're taking that to 54 holes this year. And we need a strong field. Right now, as I sit here and look, we've got 90, 90 juniors registered, which is. That's a new record high for the championship. We've done a little bit of more marketing at that. Plus, we worked really hard this year to make sure we don't have scheduling conflicts. I worked with the section, with Jason over at the section, and, you know, I think there is a section of a smaller, you know, smaller division event. But, you know, we worked hard to make sure that our championship was free and clear of everything else so that we can try to get the best feel as possible, because we. Again, we would love to be able to say, you know, our boys and girls junior champion is going.
[00:44:33] Speaker B: In fact, it's.
[00:44:34] Speaker C: The USGA actually calls it. It's like a golden ticket. You know, they'll get a golden ticket right to the right to the US junior, you know, championships. So. But that's going to take a couple of years, but hopefully we're on the right track for that. So it's definitely positive. Looking at.
[00:44:47] Speaker B: Looking at the 25th championships, Rory, I. I got a quick question. So if you had a 13 year old boy or girl, that's, you know, if they wanted to, could they technically play in the 19 and under division?
[00:45:00] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So it's. Yeah, we have a 13 U, 15 U, and then 19 U, and that u can be ten. You know, it doesn't. It doesn't matter. You know, I will throw up. Friend of the show, caden fair cadence, you know, 15, but I know cadence playing in the 1900 division, you know, he's. He's going to play up and play in that division. Um, you know, he's certainly capable of, you know, playing that. I mean, I know he had a fine high school spring, you know, with. With shamanade, so. So we have a few of those, you know, younger, you know, younger boys and girls playing up in that 1900 division and to. To vie for that, you know, kind of the overall championship. So.
[00:45:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, his was one of those names that kind of came in mind. I'm like, Kaden's 1415, but could. Yeah, so that was. That was kind of my thought process on that.
[00:45:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:48] Speaker C: I don't think he's the only. I think there's. I have to look. I mean, the boys 19 under is the biggest division. I mean, last I looked, I think out of those 90, we had 55 boys signed up for that division.
[00:45:57] Speaker D: Sure.
[00:45:57] Speaker C: And we actually have in there, depending what the final number is, we. We could even institute a cut if we. If we wanted to. The whole goal is that final day is to be, you know, kind of a quick day of a short, you know, morning, get it over in the morning, a morning wave and, you know, be done with it. So just have to see at the. At the end of when entries close, you know, where we're at. But.
But, you know, that's a. But it's a very strong division. I've been looking at some of the names, and I think we've. We've got. We've got all the really good. Good kids in town, which. That only helps us, you know, going forward, that we can hopefully be able to do this in a couple years.
[00:46:32] Speaker B: That's great.
[00:46:33] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:46:35] Speaker A: Awesome stuff. Looking forward to hearing about it after our next episode. Not sure when, quite when. When we're going to record that yet, but I'm sure that we will be discussing it soon.
Kurt goss, any final thoughts?
[00:46:47] Speaker B: Hi.
No, just good to kind of catch up after a few weeks. I know that, you know, we're all running around. Today was a wild Wednesday for me at the club. We pushed about 260 rounds, and, you know, even with all. What's up?
[00:47:02] Speaker A: How many?
[00:47:03] Speaker B: 260 players today, I think, roughly.
[00:47:07] Speaker A: Don't people work out there?
[00:47:09] Speaker B: Yeah, they work on their game, Andy.
[00:47:11] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:47:11] Speaker B: That's how they qualify for big tournaments. They work in their game, and they buy all the fresh merch from me. No, everything's great. You know, I just. It was awesome to hear earlier that you have a pool. I'm just surprised Kurt and I haven't been invited over to go swimming. You know, it's.
[00:47:29] Speaker A: It's still 70. Like 78 degrees. 77 degrees.
[00:47:32] Speaker B: It's.
[00:47:33] Speaker A: It's in the water, and so I'll.
[00:47:35] Speaker B: Leave my shirt on if that's the case.
[00:47:37] Speaker A: That's just quite not warm enough. I'm gonna have you guys over the summer.
[00:47:39] Speaker B: We're gonna do it well, you know, I'll. I'll believe it when I see it.
[00:47:43] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:47:44] Speaker B: Comment.
[00:47:44] Speaker A: Don't worry.
[00:47:45] Speaker B: I'd love to see the Glenn carbon studio.
[00:47:47] Speaker A: No, it's.
We not. Yeah, studios.
[00:47:51] Speaker B: You say tomato, I say tomato.
[00:47:53] Speaker A: Brian. I know. It's all the same to you guys. Rowie, Rowey, any final thoughts?
[00:47:58] Speaker C: No, just, you know, good to be back.
You know, May was just crazy. I mean, between events and, you know, Mother Nature. Again, I said it early on. It just. Just everywhere. Every time we turn around, I heard something day, I was in a meeting with a bunch of superintendents.
Somebody said 14. And they recorded 14 inches in 21 days, you know, during may or something like that. Rain, I mean, it's just. And, you know, shout out to, you know, a couple this past Sunday, the storms that came through. I know a couple golf courses we talked about. Algonquin got hit really hard. Greenbrier Hills got hit really hard with hail, you know, a lot. A lot of damage. So, you know, just shout out to all these guys.
You know, I. You know, I get to work closely with these crews. You know, the. Dan and the crew out of St. Albans, you know, two days before the open championship. I think they felt really good about where the golf course was. And then, bam, you know, an inch and a half or inch and three quarter rain, you know, two days before, and then the night before just. Just sets everything back. And I feel. I feel bad for those guys because that's not what they want. And. And, you know, that's. They put a lot of. Put a lot of work into it and, you know, and how, you know, Mother Nature can kind of screw things up, you know, really quickly. But. So, anyway, that's. That's just my final thoughts. These. These guys work really hard, and.
And, you know, sometimes it's a, you know, doesn't work out the way they want to. But kudos to all these guys.
[00:49:25] Speaker A: We hope you enjoyed this episode of the CNC Golf Factory podcast. You can find us on Apple Podcast and on Spotify, Instagram, and Twitter, at CC underscore golf, underscore Factory, and on Facebook. C c golf factory for Kurt Rowie for Kurt Goss. I'm Andy Hanselman. Thanks so much for spending some time with us. We'll catch you next time on the CSC Golf Factory podcast. St. Louis podcast networks.
