[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 II. Kurt Rowey is the executive director of the Metropolitan Amateur Golf association in St. Louis.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: This calls for the old Billy Baruch.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: Kurt GoSs II is the head PGA professional at the Country Club of St. Albans I for short.
Now it's time for the only podcast dedicated to St. Louis local Golf.
Let's get into the CNC Golf Factory podcast on the St. Louis Podcast Network.
From the brand new Collinsville studios of the St. Louis Podcast Network, this is the CNC Golf Factory podcast. I'm Andy Hanselman alongside Kurt Goss. Kurt Rowey. Gentlemen, it's been forever. We actually recorded a season wrap up episode that, in post production, just ended up being a hot mess and just really had to be trashed because we tried a different way to record it, and so it just didn't work. So, it's been a long time since the folks have heard from us, but I haven't talked to you guys in six weeks. I've been preoccupied with this move and getting my old house ready to sell. It's so nice to see you guys.
[00:01:35] Speaker C: Good to be back.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: Great to be back. Great to be back. Yeah. It's hard to believe. I had to look. I looked the other day. It was September 2, I think, was when we did the Paul Neiman. That's our last one. Yeah, September 2, that went up.
It's been a while, but that's all right.
It's good to be back and be able to hopefully connect with our listener.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: Well, as some podcast professionals will say, that we break to recharge our batteries and.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: Leave the audience wanting more. Yep. It's like when shows go on summer break for eight months this year because of the wider strike.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: Yeah. There you go.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: How's my budy? Kurt Goss, I haven't seen you since you so graciously invited. You guys invited me out to come out to play St. Albans a few weeks ago and had an absolute blast. Fired a big, big number. Wasn't really feeling it, but had a great, great time out there with just a wonderful, wonderful fAcility.
[00:02:32] Speaker C: Well, we always love having you, and we're glad that you get to sneak out once in a while.
But, no, everything's good. Like, we were talking about before we started recording this evening, Kurt and I were talking five, six weeks ago, like, yeah, season's winding down. We're both getting through tournaments, whatnot, and here we are today. Kurt's like, man, I just don't have any time.
It's like so much we're slowing down, but no, it's good. Kurt's got some fun things on the horizon and whatnot. And again, for our members, they can keep playing because again, I know at St. Louis, weather is going to get really poor at some point.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: It'll be nice after the fall that we've had.
Today is November 7 and it was 80 degrees earlier today. I think it'd be 80 degrees again tomorrow and then even supposed to cool off a little bit, but even then it's supposed to be back 62 degrees this weekend. It's going to be fantastic golfing weather. It's ideal. You're not going to sweat your ass off. You're not going to freeze your balls off. It's going to be just fine.
[00:03:42] Speaker C: Yeah, weather is good.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Terrible deer hunting weather, though. I'm sorry.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Yeah, it is terrible deer hunting weather for sure.
Do you get out for the ducks, too? I have a couple of duck hunters.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: I don't duck hunt, but we'll be in the stand doing a little deer hunting on Saturday morning, hopefully.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: Very nice. Good stuff. We have a great episode set up for you guys today. We're going to talk.
I'm sorry, what were we saying? No, I'm sorry about that.
We are going to talk about stuff with the PGA Gateway section, Kurt Goss's specialty. Then we have a fantastic interview that we just recorded with Ryan Roy, the director of golf over at Bogey Hills Country Club, and he is the Gateway section Player of the Year. And then in segment three, we are going to talk about all the different things going on right now with the Metropolitan Amateur Golf association and maybe a Normandy update and maybe who Kurt Rowey spent time with yesterday. The Deep tease will tell you about it in segment three. It'll be super exciting.
So, Kurt Goss, you have several things going. Let's, I know you promised your boss that you would plug something, so let's go ahead and let's get that out of the way. I really think that should be the top because it's really one of my to tell you guys that when we were BS and before we started recording years ago, I used to help the assistants and the pro at Sunset Hills with the merchandise sale. I'd help haul stuff over back. I was like 16. I was in high school, 1617 years old, and they throw me a few free clubs or some free stuff, whatever I wanted out of it. And so this was back when it was back over at the.
I want to call it the Stauffer Concourse Hotel, because that's what it's called in planes, transit, automobiles. It's the black curved hotel there by the airport in Bridgetton. I think it's maybe a Millennium hotel now, right there on I 70. You guys know what I'm talking about.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: And then after that, I think it was over at the machinist hall over on the Rock Road. It used to be in pretty big spaces.
Now it's coming up next weekend, you said, Kurt?
[00:06:02] Speaker C: Yeah, the 17th, 18th, 19th, and this year it'll be held in my backyard.
I'm kidding. In all seriousness, it's going to be back at Chesfield Mall. We were there back in February because of COVID It kind of threw the sale off the past couple of years, the timing. So we're back to that mid to late November, and we're back in Chesfield Mall. No, it's not completely torn down yet. Most of it's vacant, but they had a great spot for us last year.
So Chestfield Mall near Dillards.
And in the past, what we did with the fee to get in, we would charge $20, $10, and then $5 come Sunday because there's less merchandise. But all the money would go to our PGA reach Gateway Foundation.
And Joe the pro, my boss, Joe Schwint, who helps coordinate with the Gateway section, this sale mentioned to me about an hour ago that we've decided to make it $5 each day to get in. So slash back the entry fee. Good.
We believe it'll bring more people in the doors, and that way we can still give back a nice chunk to the Gateway PGA reach Foundation. So 17th through the 19th, Chestfield Mall liquidation sale.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: For the listeners who have not been before, it is a collection of all of the section members. Bring their leftover merchandise from the summer, golf shirts and such to the mall, and they hang them up and they sell them. But there's also a bunch you guys partner with a place in Brentwood for clubs and stuff. They bring a bunch of clubs over. Right?
[00:07:48] Speaker C: So the guys over at Proam, if you knew the guys, pro Am, the Degrande family, they used to have the driving range over in Melville. But, yes, like you mentioned, their warehouse now is in Brentwood. There they do a lot of online sales. Hey, check out Pro Am golf here in St. Louis if you need something. But yes, the degrands bring a lot of equipment, and I think they have some really good prices because they want to get things off the books before the end of December. So Pro Am has also been a savior for a lot of us clubs in town. You buy a certain amount of drivers for your shop and some vendors take some back. Pro Am has been really good. They'll say, you want to swap us a couple of drivers? We'll show you the cost of Pro V's, stuff that we can sell quickly and they can do a bunch of online sales. So yeah, the guys at Pro Am, the degrand family, they help so much with this sale and just a lot of the facilities here in town.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Huge selection of golf shoes and golf bags too, I remember.
And nice stuff, really. I mean, name brand stuff.
Most everything is logoed with a country club logo on it, so expect that going in. I have a St. Albans under Armour backpack bag, drawstring bag that I got at the sale last year. I think I got it for like.
[00:09:07] Speaker C: $5 that was mismarked. That was supposed to be 15.
Going to need ten back, Andy.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Okay, I'll get that. I'll Venmo you taken care of. So Gateway section liquidation sales Chesterfield Mall near Dillards November 17, 18th and 19th. What time do the doors open each day, Kurt?
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Cost?
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Do you know?
[00:09:30] Speaker C: I do. Give me 1 second.
Friday it's going to be four to seven. Saturday it's going to be 09:00 a.m. To 04:00 p.m. And then Sunday is a short day. 09:00 a.m. To 01:00 p.m.
And we do drawings every hour. So I think we have like 25, 30 items gifted. That's more than total hours we're open, but I know like St. Albans has a brand new Callaway Wedge, 56 degree wedge. So if Kurt Rowey's name or ticket was called, you might remember this. Andy, your name is drawn. We'll have your information and we'll get you your gifted item from all the facilities.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: That title is Link Master Bag. Going to make it out there?
[00:10:16] Speaker C: I think all the links Master bags are sold.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: Did they sell them all this year for you?
[00:10:21] Speaker C: Yeah, I got a $400 G four white bag that everybody loves except for they realize with four rounds it'll be dirty. But yeah, it's a good looking bag.
[00:10:29] Speaker A: It's a good looking bag, but it's a white, um. Awesome. Yeah, go check it a. It's a fun A. If you like to hunt and shop, it is exactly what it's like going to TJ Maxx or Marshall's and just. And you hunt and you hunt and you hunt and you find magic. Magic deals. So check it out. Liquidation sale next weekend, November 17, 18th and 18th, 2023, at Chesterfield Mall. All right. And then you guys had your big banquet.
Kurt Goss. Kurt Rowey. And I want to be the first to officially congratulate you on this podcast. We've joked about it many, many times about you being the chief shirt folder at St. Alban, and now you get the award that you are the private club merchandiser of the Year. Congratulations.
It's so well deserved. You run a hell of a golf shop out there, and we couldn't be happier for you. Now onto the national one, right?
[00:11:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
How do I get there? But no, thank you. I know we've kind of joked about it a little bit. I know I'm never going to win player of the Year, anything like that. But when I was given the task at the end of 2015, Andy, to take over the merchandise at St. Albans, I was game for it. But it's been a lot of work, which. It's work, so it should be.
But no, it's been fun to see sales increase pretty much every year. I've set a new record. I shouldn't say I, we, meaning the rest of the team and the members and their guests, but, no, it's fun.
I enjoy it. I like fashion, and I like fitting golf clubs. I like all aspects of it. And I was very excited to hear from an old boss, Jeff Field, a few weeks ago that I had won and so kind of got the. That's my major. That's my green.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: Yeah. If I was half the host I claimed to be, I would have had Sean Barnes on for the.
[00:12:40] Speaker C: Love I love was. He was actually one of the first to call and congratulate.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Oh, was he really?
I'm not shocked.
He's a big, big fan of yours.
[00:12:53] Speaker C: Well, I appreciate it. Like I said, it's an aspect of the business that I enjoy. It makes money for the facility.
It takes up a lot of my time, but again, it's my job, so I enjoy doing it. And thank you. So I get to be presented with that in a couple of weeks at our dinner. So thank you.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: I echoed that, too. I just want to know what Andy said. Gert, congrats. And I'm fortunate enough to call St. Albans my home from a club standpoint. And so congratulations, obviously, as a member. I don't know if the rest of the members know that.
Are we spilling the beans here on the podcast today to the membership? But that's okay if we are. But anyway, it's great I agree. I think the golf shop is fantastic. I never get out there in time to get the XXLs because all the other members get there way before I do because I don't get out there as much. But when I do find one, I usually snatch it up.
But it's kudos to you and happy for you.
Hopefully I'll have a seat at your table at the dinner here in a couple of weeks because I usually try to make it to that.
[00:14:11] Speaker C: Well, I appreciate it. I have room at my table since I think there's five total in my group, one being a seven year old.
But no, thank you. I appreciate it. And if we are sold out of something in your size or color, I am happy to make a special order for you.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: What I know who've done that for. I don't know anybody who's benefited from that.
[00:14:36] Speaker C: I'm always upselling Annie, always trying to get some special orders.
It's funny, this past week, I was with family in Gulf Shores. We go every fall break when my daughter's out of school. And we went to this place in Orange beach, right next door to Gulf Shores, this new coastal restaurant. It's actually owned by the people that own the Florida Bama bar. I don't know if you know, there's a giant bar that splits Florida, Alabama, but it was a neat place. And I go in, I see Johnny O stuff, and I saw some stuff, more of like, the button down, untucked shirt, and I had their logo. I'm like, I really like this, but I'm like, I can't pay 148 for something that I know cost X, Y and Z. That's how my mind starts working. But, no, just appreciate it. So thank you.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: I love my Johnny O shirts.
[00:15:25] Speaker C: I know. Well, you just let me know.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: They're really awesome. Yeah.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: Good stuff.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: You wanted to recap other winners that we know about as well. So you want to go ahead and take the stage?
Yeah.
[00:15:39] Speaker C: Yeah. So, no, the cat was out of the bag recently, Kurt, with winning this award. So now everything has been released via the Gateway section. So I thought, again, like we said, we wanted to catch up for our listener. And now let's recap the Gateway section. So, as mentioned later, the show we're going to have Ryan Roy from Bogey Hills, our Player of the Year.
We also have our executive director, Ali Wells, as our Ladies Player of the Year. We have our Assistant Player of the Year, Matt Swanson from Forest Hills. I believe he's won that before. We got Senior Player of the Year, Rob Sidorsic over at Family golf, and his buddy and partner in crime, super Senior Player of the Year, Bob Gowss, over there at family golf. So that's our Player of the Year race. I think what you'll hear later down the road is how tight the race was with Ryan Roy and Matt Gilner for the year. But, yeah, kudos to the players there. That award, you go out, you earn it on your own. So everybody has a chance to win that award every year. But you got to teed up first. So I'm already out of the running for next year, but, no, we're going.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: To get you to play a little bit more next year. I think we need to maybe a.
[00:16:59] Speaker C: Team event or maybe. I don't know who would want to team up with me? I'd like to go over to Mike's place. I want to play the par three. But this summer, I was gone for that day. Yeah, we went to the Lake for a couple of days to decompress.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: I think it's doing one stroke play.
[00:17:16] Speaker C: Event, like 18 holes of actual stroke play.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:22] Speaker C: I make a lot of big numbers.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: I don't know if that's just something to talk about.
[00:17:26] Speaker C: Okay. Well, maybe that listener will pay my entry fee.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: Hey, I want to give a shout to Rob Sadorki. You mentioned he's Senior Year Player of the Year, correct?
[00:17:37] Speaker C: Senior Player of the Year, yeah.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: Then he went on just a couple of weeks ago, and in the Senior CPC Senior Clubhouse Championship. Correct.
Finished high enough where he qualified for the Senior PGA Championship next year. This coming in May, I think it is.
[00:17:54] Speaker C: Yeah. 2024.
[00:17:58] Speaker B: I think there was three or four professionals, three or four Gateway PGA professionals playing in that. But Rob finished. I forgot what it is. Top 30, top 20, whatever it was. But he made it. He's going to play in the Senior PGA Championship up at Harbor Shores. I think it is up in Michigan next year. So congrats to Rob.
[00:18:22] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think that's Rob's, for sure. Second. I don't know if it's his third, because back when we were working together at St. Albans, Rob qualified for his first major, which was the senior club championship.
The senior PJ. Sorry. But anyways, so I don't know if this is his second or third, but anyways, yeah, I think he finished tied for 11th, and I think on Saturday, I was double checking. I didn't know the amount they took. They do take 30 where the PGA takes 20, but, yeah, he finished tied for 11th, and I don't know if there was any nervous energy coming down the stretch? I spent enough time with Rob. I don't think he gets nervous. He's played enough golf. But, yes, that was great for our section and for Rob Storcik to get back because I think the last time he played was in Michigan as.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Yep. Cool.
[00:19:15] Speaker C: All right, so, guys, I'm going to rifle through some award winners in this section real quick.
We have both our soft, good sales rep and our hard, good sales reps are voted on through our section. And congrats to our Peter Millar rep, Jake Wall, and our hard goods reps. That's golf equipment guys from Taylor made, Jeff Thornhill. So, guys, congrats.
Going to move into the merchandise of the Year for the resort. It's Andy Taylor at Margaritaville, at the Ozarks public Facility, Adam Betts over at family Golf doing a lot of fun things at that property for the past five, six years. And myself, as mentioned at St. Albans, our Patriot Award winner from Sunset Hills Country Club is John deprict. No shock there. John is very active. Yep. You know that more than anybody, Andy, very involved. And so thanks for all you do, John. I'm going to go through, let's see, the bill Strasbow Award is Larry Salzman down at the lake at OSA's National.
Our professional Development Award winner is Jeffrey Field over at Westboro. And then I got one individual here with three awards, doing good things over at family golf. Our Player Development award winner, also youth player development, I'm sorry, youth Player Development award winner and our teacher and Coach of the Year is Blake Sharmaturo. I'm Blake. Real good friends with Adam Batts. And Blake came here pretty much when Adam was getting family golf up and going.
So Blake, taking home three awards shows how heavily he's involved in his teaching over there at family golf. So Blake's, that's very impressive, my friend.
And then two of the higher award winners. And again, for me, I look at merchandise of the Year, again like a Player of the Year.
But these are two very important ones voted on from their fellow professionals. Over at St. Louis Country Club, we have our assistant golf professional year, which is Jordan McKelvey. And then a past winner. So winning this award for the second time in his career at Quincy Country Club. Gideon Smith is our golf Professional of the Year in the Gateway section. So again, kudos to those guys, all those award winners, because again, as you guys know, we show our talents in the golf shop as well on the first T. On the lesson T. It's not just on the golf course. So it's nice that our sections, the PGA, acknowledge what the men and women do on a daily basis. So congrats to those guys. And then two more individuals. Every two years, we have the chance to get up to two individuals in the hall of Fame. And this year, Gateway section welcomes Scott Bess and Joe Schwint. So I did not know Scott very well. Scott is deceased, but he was a staple around the Gateway section for many years, but probably knew many stories or heard many stories when I first got in the section 18 years ago.
Type of golf professional and player he was. But obviously I know Joe Schwent much better than I knew Scott because I only met Scott a couple of times. But no, Joe is going in our section hall of Fame, and I think it just kind of says thank you for all that he's done for 42, 43 years. So he's very deserving of it and excited to see that in a couple of weeks so that he can share it with his family and friends. So that's what I got in the gateway section kind of going quickly, but that's my award winners.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: Good stuff, man. Great stuff. Ryan Roy, go ahead. Rowey, go ahead.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: I'm just going to say congrats to all those guys and all the winners.
I'll look forward. I usually always try to make that evening and to show our support for everything that the section does and the pros do for us, to help us provide our services and all that. So I look forward to being there.
Where is it this year, Kurt?
[00:23:55] Speaker C: Old Hickory on Tuesday, the 5 December.
And then we started doing, oh, Tuesday. That's good, because that way. Because the next day is always our meeting, whether it's fall or spring.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: A lot of times it's been on that Sunday night. And then you guys have had the meeting.
[00:24:14] Speaker C: What would happen is we would have to have the staff come in, food and beverage on a Monday.
So I think that's why we kind of switch it up. And a lot of pros said, yeah, no, we were all used to that Sunday night dinner and Monday meeting. But, yeah, we love to see you.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: I will be there.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot of things I recognize as well. So congratulations to all those guys for a job well done in 2023. Ryan Roy, the director of Golf at Bogey Hills and the aforementioned Gateway Section Player of the Year, coming up next. Right here, it's a CNC Golf Factory podcast right here on the St. Louis Podcast Network.
Welcome back segment to CC Golf FactoRY right here on the St. Louis Podcast Network. Andy Hanselman, Kurt Goss, Kurt Rowey alongside with you. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram and Twitter at CC Underscore Golf, Underscore Factory. And follow us on Facebook at C Plus C Golf Factory. And like and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Those likes and subscriptions really do a lot to help the old podcast here, joined in this segment by the he's the director of golf at Bogey Hills. He's an alumni of Drury University. I was told that you might be in the hall of Fame there. We'll address that here in just a minute. And he is also the PGA Gateway section Player of the Year. His name is Ryan Roy. Hi, Ryan. How you doing tonight? Thanks for joining us.
[00:25:39] Speaker D: Doing great. Thanks for having me on.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: Not a problem. Ryan, how was the summer out at Bogey Hills this year?
[00:25:47] Speaker D: Amazing summer as always. Great membership out there at Bogey Hills.
Couldn't ask for a better setting, better membership to represent. And it was a great year on the tournament series as well.
[00:26:01] Speaker C: Thank you for coming on tonight.
Both Kurt and I, between the Gateway section, the Metropolitan Hampshire Golf association, it's award season. We know you locked this title up a few weeks ago, but I thought it was very fitting that we bring you on the show and talk about not only your player of the year, racist year. And I know you slid by a little bit by Matt Genler, so shout out to Matt, but falling a little bit short to your victory. But we want to dive into that. But we also want to dive into get to know Ryan Roy a little bit more.
So right off the bat, want to just get your thoughts on your play and that. Were you following the race against Genler kind of points wise towards then?
[00:26:48] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, of course, everybody who's towards the top is always following. Kind of knew where I stood going into the Players Championship, knowing that I had to most likely win and need a lot of help from the guys at know we've got a lot of great caliber players in the gateway section.
You saw the names at the top of leaderboard.
It's the who's who of the Gateway section. So just being fortunate enough to come out with a great win at Quincy Country Club in the Players Championship and somehow eke my way to the top of leaderboard still is hard to believe. But it was a great day.
[00:27:27] Speaker C: Yeah. I'm looking at your resume from the season and two victories. It looks like a couple T three, a couple of T four s. I hate to bring up the bad. The bad is T 23 for you and I'm guessing there was more than 23 players in the field. That was a heck of a year and again squeaked it out over Genler. So Kudos on the Player of the Year. Is this your first one?
[00:27:53] Speaker D: So this is actually my third. I won back in 2016 and 17, both times coming from behind as well. So apparently I know where I need to be leading up to the final event.
But three time Player of the Year is amazing.
Like I said, we have a lot of great players and a lot of young players, so it's just great to see a lot of us older guys still representing the gateway section and still coming out on top.
[00:28:20] Speaker C: Well, yeah, absolutely. Congrats there on that third victory. Player of the Year, that's quite a resume and I know you're not done yet, but congrats again. I'm going to shoot it over to Mr. Rowey.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: Yeah, Ryan, congrats. Welcome. Thanks for coming on again. Well, I want to bring know three time Player of the Year. That's also going to be a testament to your facility where you work at. You get the opportunity to get out and play and practice and get out and compete in these events. So I'm sure that's a kudos to bogey Hills too, as your facility and your membership that they get like to see you out there competing.
[00:29:03] Speaker D: They do. They do really love us to be able to get out and play with them. Honestly, I don't really get out to play and practice as much as I like. I think if you ask any of us golf professionals, anytime we get a chance to get down to the range to practice, it ends up into two or three lessons, which is great.
I think what really helps me, I try to find at least ten to 15 minutes a day just to go up to the putting green, relax, practice a little bit. And I think that part of my game is really what cummeted the win at the end of the year and just being able to take what I know I've got a lot of members have. Yeah, we don't see you play a whole lot. You don't practice a lot. How do you play so well? And I think a lot of it is just you kind of learn how to do it. I've had a lot of great help in my day. Bobby Pavlone is one of my best friends. He was probably the one that transformed my game the most. Then having Denny Walters Jr. Andy Jones at Bogey Hills, always able and willing to look at my swing anytime I ask is a great testament to them to help me get to this championship as well.
[00:30:16] Speaker A: Brian we like to dig a little deep into the history of our guest golfing live. How old were you when you first picked up a club?
[00:30:25] Speaker D: I can remember back being in five, six, seven, even later than that playing with my dad. Dawn Patrol 05:30 a.m. Playing nine holes back in Colorado with my dad before he went to work, he introduced me to the game. He's an avid golfer still today. We still play together as much as we can. So he was the man that introduced me to the game and we still love playing together as much as we can.
[00:30:52] Speaker A: How old were you when you figured out that you were probably a pretty decent golfer?
[00:30:57] Speaker D: I think it was probably middle school, high school. I played high school baseball as well.
Golf seemed to be the better of my two sports.
Little shoulder injury kind of probably helped make that decision as well. But probably my junior, senior year in high school where I started winning a lot of Colorado junior events and other events kind of pushed me to making golf more of, I guess, a career, I guess you can say.
[00:31:27] Speaker A: Now, did you grow up in the mountains or did you grow up on the eastern side of the rock?
[00:31:34] Speaker D: No, I grew up in Denver, so, yeah, basically just outside the mountains. Wish I could get back there more, but it's always a pleasure to enjoy that part of the country when you can.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: Did you have any success in high school as like a state champion or runner up or anything like that?
[00:31:49] Speaker D: I was two time runner up to Kevin Stadler, a name we probably all know, so he moved out. Actually, my junior year, I finished runner up to him twice.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: So you finished your high school, you headed to Springfield, Missouri, to go to Drury. And what led you to Missouri?
[00:32:05] Speaker D: Oh, Missouri State.
And the coach at the time was Bruce Hollowell and basically was telling me you'd be a great addition to the team. I don't know how much you're going to play this and that.
While I was there, I was also recruited by Drury. They were in the rebuilding phase. They were getting ready to transition from NAIA to Division two. I came in as a freshman as number one, played number one my entire career, and it was a great way to help build a program. And by my junior year, we were competing in the national.
[00:32:40] Speaker A: No, what was the home course in Springfield?
[00:32:43] Speaker D: We were lucky enough we got to play Hickory Hills, Highland Springs, Millwood and Twin Oaks. So we had great practice.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: Wow, that's, that's quite the resume.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: I'm going to do my best friend Cusamano impression here all right, Ryan, no hedging. Five questions. Okay, are you ready? Here we go. Favorite tour player.
[00:33:00] Speaker D: Favorite tour player.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: Freddie couples. Favorite local course.
[00:33:05] Speaker D: Oh, my goodness. Probably St. Louis Country Club.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: You're making Kurt Rowey smile a lot.
Favorite course anywhere.
[00:33:15] Speaker D: Favorite course anywhere that I've played.
Yeah, I'm going to go shore acres.
[00:33:22] Speaker A: Okay. Favorite encore, drink.
[00:33:26] Speaker D: Got to be a Coors light.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: Nice. Favorite post round meal?
[00:33:32] Speaker D: Coors Light.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: And finally, who's going to win the Super Bowl? Who's going to.
[00:33:38] Speaker D: Denver Broncos, of course.
[00:33:41] Speaker A: Look at this guy. Love it. Love it.
Ryan, maybe not this year, but you.
[00:33:47] Speaker D: Didn'T say what year, so I'm still.
[00:33:48] Speaker A: Going with Denver Broncos. Okay. We'll say this year, but we'll go ahead and stick with Denver. I like your confidence there, Ryan. Thanks so much for joining us on the. We really, really appreciate it.
[00:33:59] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:34:00] Speaker A: That's Ryan Roy. He is the director of golf at Bogey Hills and the Gateway section Player of the Year. Back after this was segment three right here on the CSC Golf Factory, St. Louis Podcast Network.
Back here. Final segment, CSC Golf Factory podcast, St. Louis Podcast Network. Andy, Kurt and Kurt alongside.
Now we're on to Kurt Rowey. He's the executive director of the Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association. They also have their end of year awards coming up, and we wanted to recap some folks who did well over in the amateur portion of the St. Louis local golf community.
[00:34:40] Speaker B: Yeah. So keeping with, looks like, I guess our theme of the night is awards night as we get back here with this week's podcast. But yeah, so we wrapped up our championship season at the end of October, and we have our Player of the Year awards reception coming up this coming Friday, actually at Old warriors and country Club. And still, if anybody out there is interested in coming to show your support, and if you know some of our winners, feel free to get on our
[email protected], and there's a place where you can sign up, but usually it's a pretty casual evening. It's not a dinner. It's just a cocktail reception and then an awards night. And I do want to mention also we have Danny McLaughlin is going to be our MC for the evening. And we're also going to have a little fireside chat. Jay Delsing, who is going into the Missouri Sports hall of Fame in 2024, early in 2024, is going to be there that evening. And we're going to have a little fireside chat with them, too. And I think Tom's going to join them, too. So just to talk about golf in St. Louis a little bit, just a little something different that we haven't done any before, but just to change things up a little bit, that should be a great players of the year. We have five players of the year. I'll start with our Southern Illinois.
We got a Player of the Year and a senior Player of the Year. Our Player of the Year in Southern Illinois is Aaron Jones. Aaron had a very good summer down in Southern Illinois. So the Southern Illinois are pretty much Southern Illinois events that the clubs put on down there that we keep track of. So Aaron Jones and then Tom Portner is the Southern Illinois Senior Player of the Year. So they will be there Friday night to get their awards. And then our three Players of the year in the Metropolitan Golf association is. Our first is our women's Player of the Year is Kathy Glennon, St. Albans, from country club St. Albans. Kathy had a fine summer, finished well in our Metropolitan women's championship, finished well in the state stuff, and came out on top on the women's Player of the Year. Our Senior Player of the Year is Paul Neiman, former guest of the show.
Paul had a great summer on the senior circuit and will earn that award. And then finally, Peter Weaver, also a guest earlier in the show as our Player of the year. And while Peter only played well, I guess he probably played more, but he earned points in just four events. But when you win, three of the four of those points add up pretty quickly. But our Metropolitan champion, the state amateur champion, and then winning the St. Louis district was pretty solid summer. And we're looking forward to Peter's coming back. He's going to make it back from school, from Villanova University this weekend to be there to win, to accept the Player of the year.
And then we also, a few years ago, we started our host facility awards, we call them, and those are actually voted on. We send a survey or a poll out to everybody who played in our events. So those awards are voted on by the players, by the players who participated, who were guests or visited our host facility clubs every year. And so we started that about probably five, six years ago, I guess it is. And those awards, we have a host public and private facility, and then we have a host superintendent and staff of the Year and host golf Professional Staff of the Year. And those go out to. Our host golf professional is Eric Ratzliffe and his staff over at Persimmon Woods Golf Club. Persimmon hosted us amateur qualifying. No, I'm sorry. They hosted the Metropolitan Amateur Championship this A and that's actually two years in a row. Eric and his staff won the host professional staff last year as well. Our superintendent award goes to Mike. Karen and his staff over at Metalbrook had the US Amateur qualifying, so kudos to Mike and his staff for everything they done for us. And then our public facility Host of the Year is Gateway national for, I think, the third year in a row gateway has taken home that award. But they hosted two events. They had the east side Amateur and US Open qualifying this year. So big that was, in fact, three days in a row. Two days, east side amateur, and then US Open qualifying on that Monday, Gateway National. They're the Public Facility Award. And then our host private facility goes also to country club.
And again, they hosted us amateur qualifying this year. So those are all of our awards that we will recognize and all of our champions for the year, some of which are going to be there Friday night. We recognize all of our champions, including probably our last champion, since we haven't talked about was our Sobey cup champions in September since our last episode.
Glen Echo Country Club took home the Sobey cup this year in a victory over Ryan Roy and bogey Hills in the finals.
But it was a great match, many of our champions, and.
[00:40:33] Speaker A: It'S kind of.
[00:40:34] Speaker B: A small night again. We'll probably end up with 50, 60 people, not a huge crowd, but it's just kind of a nice evening to gather and recognize those who excelled and had great summers from a playing standpoint, and also to recognize all of our facilities that host our championships and events from this past year.
[00:40:55] Speaker A: Yeah, you always praise the hasanas of all the golf courses around the area about how willing they are to play with you guys and cooperate and allow their facilities to be used for your championships. And it just goes proof positive how well some of them really do doing it. So congratulations to everybody associated with all those, and congratulations to all your players of the year.
We didn't talk to Kathy this year, but definitely, like I said, friends of the show, Paul Neiman and Peter Weaver, definitely past guests. So good job, guys. Congratulations to.
[00:41:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:28] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:41:29] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:41:31] Speaker A: And then finally, Normandy Golf Club, big update. Did officially close for the construction on Sunday.
That would have been November the fifth. Correct day of play out there.
You spent some time with one of the principal architects of the redesign, Jack somebody, I heard.
[00:41:55] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, Andy, we made that announcement, I guess, probably two or three weeks ago, that November 5, where it was going to be the final, the last day that the course would be open.
We did shut her down Sunday evening after all the play got done and then, yeah, we didn't kind of put this out there. But yesterday, Monday the 6th, Jack was back in town to come around and go around and see the golf course again. It's funny, Andy, I don't know if you've been out there, but the last couple of weeks we've had a surveying team out there in Normandy, and they were out there putting these posts in the ground at where the tees and greens and turning points are for the routing. And I knew they were putting these posts in, and I started getting some phone calls from some different guys. I drove by, and there's white posts all over the place. And I had no idea until I got out there yesterday. And these posts are like six inches in diameter and like 12ft tall. Oh, yeah, theY're huge foes. They're like field gold poles on the ground. So there's like one at the back of the first T, and it's big white post with a black top that says, and it says hole number one T. Then you go out anywhere. There's about 50 of these posts all over the place. And some of them are actually in the middle of some of the greens. I mean, they dug down in the greens and it was all from the routing. But yeah, Jack came out and Chris Cochrane, his lead designer, and spent about 4 hours out on the golf course just driving around, looking at the routing. And it's really, I think, kind of his final blessing on the routing. And I think after his visit, there's probably going to be a couple of tweaks here and there again, but it's all in preparation. Our hope is sometime in December, we're going to start seeing some of the real work start, which I don't know if that's a lot of heavy earth moving yet, but more tree work. More. Some of the other things to get prepared for it.
[00:44:08] Speaker A: There's already a lot of tree work done. I mean, it looked like most of it was done.
[00:44:12] Speaker B: Yeah, no, there's a lot of trees that are still. That just aren't like the big ones. I mean, yeah, the brush clearing we've done this summer or last spring or last, I guess, winter into spring. But there's some Big trees up there that they're dead, they're not healthy, that have to come down. But there's a lot of great trees that are staying. And we even kind of joked there was a couple of them that are some sweet gum trees out there that we just soon everybody like to see go away.
But they're good trees. And he's like, those are kind of. They're strategic in the layout and the routing. So those will stay. But, yeah, there's still quite a few more trees, I think, that are going to come down here in the next few months.
[00:44:58] Speaker A: When you come down number two and go back, do you go back up the hill to play number three?
Okay.
Yeah.
[00:45:08] Speaker B: Now you see.
So they got these posts, and there's posts with the black top, which is T's. And the ones with the yellow top are like the pivot Points, fairways that you can see. And then there's ones with green tops. And those were the words where the green sit. But, yeah, two green sits kind of down in the middle of all that wooded area. That was right of three and four. It's sitting down kind of in a hole. Down in there is the three. And then, yeah, you'll go back up the hill to three. T.
[00:45:40] Speaker A: That'll be a pretty fun approach shot from that.
[00:45:43] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, from the top of the hill down.
[00:45:46] Speaker A: And I would imagine that that green would probably have a lot of undulation in it, too, because you're coming from on top of the hill and coming down to it. So everybody thinks it's a little bit easier to hit, but it's not all the time.
Has there any talk of green construction and what they're going to look like? And will they maintain the classic Normandy style greens that the Foolish brothers built?
[00:46:08] Speaker B: No, I don't think so.
A little bit.
I didn't catch everything that, as we drove around, Jack was in the cart with Chris Cocker and his design team. And I wasn't right there with him. I was there all day, but I didn't hear a whole lot about the greens. I know one thing, he wants to make this golf course fair and fun for everybody.
And even that means, again, right now, the current routing shows back tees at 69, 70 something. And we still think we might be able to stretch it over 7000 yards when we get done with this, which is still, I think, unbelievable, considering right now it's a 6400 yard golf course. And now we're on the same footprint, essentially.
He wants to make sure that this is a golf course everybody's going to be able to enjoy. I don't think they're going to be crazy. Fallows brothers drink greens or anything.
[00:47:10] Speaker A: We closed all of 2024, reopening in 2025 at some point.
[00:47:15] Speaker B: Yeah, that's our goal for golf season. So whether that's April or May of 25, that would be ideal to be able to reopen then to kick off the 25 season to have the new Normandy Golf Club ready to rock and roll.
[00:47:34] Speaker A: I for 01:00 a.m. Very excited about it. Kurt, thoughts, final thoughts for this episode.
[00:47:40] Speaker C: It was good to be back, catch up with you guys. I'm glad you are pretty much all settled in in the new home, Andy much. And I'll say a prayer that you can sell the other one.
[00:47:52] Speaker A: Appreciate that as well.
[00:47:54] Speaker C: But no, just good to catch up. I knew it was a few weeks and we knew we weren't going to have an episode every week by any means, because again, we'd run out of things to talk about. We'd find something.
But no, just good to catch up. And hopefully it's a couple more weeks, we'll do it again and we'll start to kick off the holiday season now.
[00:48:17] Speaker B: That's right. Yeah.
[00:48:18] Speaker A: We might have a Thanksgiving, very special Thanksgiving episode.
[00:48:23] Speaker C: That'd be great.
[00:48:24] Speaker A: People recorded on old guy skanks giving, where we record a podcast instead of going out to the bars on the night before Thanksgiving.
[00:48:31] Speaker C: We could do that. Watch old episodes of the Skins game back in the day. Wasn't that always on Thanksgiving from the desert?
[00:48:38] Speaker A: There was a bunch of stuff on social media this week about one back in 1983, player and Watson.
[00:48:44] Speaker B: With Watson and Player. I saw that, too.
[00:48:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I never knew about that.
Either of you guys read the story? I didn't know.
[00:48:55] Speaker C: I read the headline. And that's about as far as I get.
[00:48:58] Speaker B: Just that Watson was like accusing Player of cheating or some.
[00:49:07] Speaker A: Like.
[00:49:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:09] Speaker A: So, gentlemen, it's always a pleasure to reconvene with her. I've told Roderick, I tell you guys this, too. If I were independently wealthy and didn't need to work, I would still do this for free because I love doing it. It's a lot of fun. So I appreciate you guys. Appreciate the listeners. Don't forget to grab us on our socials. That way you can see when new episodes drop. CC underscore golf Underscore Factory on Instagram and Twitter, C Plus, C Golf Factory on Facebook. And if you could like and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for Kurt Goss. For Kurt Rowey, I'm Andy Hanselman. You've been listening to the CNC Golf Factory podcast on the St. Louis Podcast Network. Content on the St. Louis Podcast Network is 100% human. It.
