1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:19,000 Sit back and get ready to take off with Dynamic Golf. 2 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:20,480 Hey welcome back everybody. 3 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:22,480 Welcome our Dynamic Golf listeners. 4 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:24,480 Welcome I am your co-host Tim McElvanah. 5 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:26,000 With me today is Sean Klotz. 6 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:28,960 Sean who is our special guest today? 7 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:30,960 Hi Dynamic Golf listeners. 8 00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:32,960 We have a very special guest today. 9 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:34,960 His name is Mike Kelly. 10 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:36,960 He's been a member at Oakley. 11 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:38,960 I'm going to let him kind of do some of his bio for us. 12 00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:42,960 But you know again kind of being up here for the first summer. 13 00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:47,960 It's been really interesting meeting some of the different personalities of Oakley Country Club. 14 00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:49,960 And Mike surely fits that. 15 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:51,960 So Mike just kind of introduce yourself to the listeners. 16 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:53,960 We were talking yesterday when we were playing. 17 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:54,960 You've been a member out here. 18 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:55,960 Your dad's been a member. 19 00:00:55,960 --> 00:00:57,960 Kind of go through some of that history if you don't mind. 20 00:00:57,960 --> 00:00:58,960 Yeah. 21 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:00,960 I'm the son of Doughton Jack Kelly. 22 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:07,960 Who were members here for 27 years from 1960 to 1977. 23 00:01:07,960 --> 00:01:10,960 I rejoined the club. 24 00:01:10,960 --> 00:01:13,960 I joined the club myself in 89. 25 00:01:13,960 --> 00:01:15,960 So that's about 35 years. 26 00:01:15,960 --> 00:01:17,960 Wow. 27 00:01:17,960 --> 00:01:19,960 I am the father of three. 28 00:01:19,960 --> 00:01:20,960 My wife Carol. 29 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:21,960 My daughter Collie. 30 00:01:21,960 --> 00:01:22,960 Kirsten and Jane. 31 00:01:22,960 --> 00:01:24,960 All two grandkids. 32 00:01:24,960 --> 00:01:28,960 I'm the personal line insurance agency. 33 00:01:28,960 --> 00:01:31,960 And have a real love of this. 34 00:01:31,960 --> 00:01:34,960 Donald Ross' original golf course. 35 00:01:34,960 --> 00:01:36,960 So golf's kind of running your family right? 36 00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:38,960 Your dad was a player. 37 00:01:38,960 --> 00:01:40,960 He was heavily involved here at Oakley. 38 00:01:40,960 --> 00:01:42,960 He was golf chair. 39 00:01:42,960 --> 00:01:44,960 He was a Northern Twy captain. 40 00:01:44,960 --> 00:01:46,960 These are events that still go on to this day. 41 00:01:46,960 --> 00:01:48,960 Which is the cool part of Oakley. 42 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:50,960 We talked about the history. 43 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:54,960 The Northern Twy that he mentioned is a golf league that played during the summer. 44 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:57,960 And that's one of the oldest leagues in the country. 45 00:01:57,960 --> 00:01:58,960 In the country team. 46 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:00,960 Yeah, it is the summer Twy. 47 00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:02,960 I mean just the history up there. 48 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:07,960 From all the way back to now it's just so rich. 49 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:13,960 You can pick out any decade or any generation and there's just a rich part of history up there in that area. 50 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:15,960 It's amazing. 51 00:02:15,960 --> 00:02:18,960 So he walked in this morning, which is ironic. 52 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:22,960 He walked in this morning with a wedge that he got from one of the previous golf professionals here. 53 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:27,960 Paul Donahue, which we actually have a championship named after the Donahue Cup. 54 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:29,960 Paul was here for 30 years? 55 00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:30,960 Like 34? 56 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:32,960 Yeah, he was a member here. 57 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:34,960 He was club champion before he became a club. 58 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:35,960 Okay, yeah. 59 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:41,960 So he walks in with this wedge which has got one of those old green golf pride grips on it. 60 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:44,960 And it's got his imprint on it. 61 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:46,960 Paul Donahue because that's the way that's called it. 62 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:48,960 McGregor. 63 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:53,960 Yeah, McGregor would put the pros name on the back of the wedge which I think is the actual signature. 64 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:54,960 Yeah. 65 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:55,960 Wow. 66 00:02:55,960 --> 00:02:59,960 So pretty neat. 67 00:02:59,960 --> 00:03:02,960 So I mean you've seen a lot of changes there, right Mike? 68 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:03,960 I mean over the years. 69 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:04,960 Oh, a lot. 70 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:05,960 I mean, wow. 71 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:06,960 A lot of changes. 72 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:07,960 Yeah. 73 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:14,960 So similarities because the course still stays a lot to what Ross had done for it. 74 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:20,960 It's still the, I believe it's the 1910, the last time Ross did some work here was 1910. 75 00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:21,960 Yeah. 76 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:24,960 He left for Essex in 1910, 11. 77 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:28,960 I know you had that podcast with me and me. 78 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:34,960 So what's the conditions changed meaning like even the improvements in sort of agronomy, 79 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:38,960 sort of how they cut the greens better, faster than they did maybe 20 years ago. 80 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:40,960 Oakley's always been known for quick. 81 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:43,960 Yeah, Oakley's signature has always been the greens. 82 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:44,960 Okay. 83 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:51,960 And I also understand that Pat did a podcast which I did listen to. 84 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:52,960 Yeah. 85 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:59,960 And he's got these things this time of year when they get hot and fast, they stimp about 86 00:03:59,960 --> 00:04:05,960 12, 13 down the stimp meter and they can be very difficult. 87 00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:06,960 Yeah. 88 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:12,960 Do you remember like the layout of the golf course is the same layout except for maybe 89 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:16,960 hole number three currently like just the green change and like. 90 00:04:16,960 --> 00:04:19,960 Yeah, I would say yeah, the green change on three. 91 00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:21,960 You know, we've made 10 a par four. 92 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:22,960 Okay. 93 00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:23,960 Yeah. 94 00:04:23,960 --> 00:04:24,960 It was a par five. 95 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:27,960 You know, the original Ross course was a par 71. 96 00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:28,960 Oh, okay. 97 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:33,960 And a few years back it got changed to a par four. 98 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:36,960 Most difficult hole on the course now. 99 00:04:36,960 --> 00:04:37,960 Yeah. 100 00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:41,960 Especially for a 12, 13 handicap. 101 00:04:41,960 --> 00:04:44,960 An aging 12, 13 handicap. 102 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:46,960 Hey, don't let them fool you, T-Mac. 103 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:48,960 You don't want to play them for 10 bucks or whatever. 104 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:49,960 Don't do that. 105 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:50,960 Tough competitor, right? 106 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:52,960 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 107 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:54,960 That's great. 108 00:04:54,960 --> 00:04:59,960 So some of the par threes, Ross always has some signature par threes at his golf course. 109 00:04:59,960 --> 00:05:03,960 I think 15 might be just one of the most picturesque holes that we have out here. 110 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:05,960 Yes, yes it is. 111 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:07,960 You know, seven is my favorite. 112 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:08,960 Is it? 113 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:09,960 Yeah, yeah. 114 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:15,960 It's my favorite and, you know, that was the last work that Ross did on this golf course 115 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:17,960 was that hole. 116 00:05:17,960 --> 00:05:18,960 Interesting. 117 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:19,960 Yeah. 118 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:24,960 I think it's cool how Ross always, and T-Mac, you would understand this from some of the 119 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:25,960 courses down in Florida. 120 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:30,960 Sarabay, the Bel Air Country Club that Ross did down there. 121 00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:35,960 He always has, like, they don't always have to be 190 yards, 220 yard par threes. 122 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:40,960 He can make a great hundred and, our 12th hole is 140 from the back. 123 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:41,960 Yeah, right? 124 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:44,960 Yeah, 140 and arguably one of the harder. 125 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:47,960 We talked about that yesterday. 126 00:05:47,960 --> 00:05:49,960 It felt a little old. 127 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:53,960 Yeah, I think, you know, it's all about how you design a hole, not the length of it. 128 00:05:53,960 --> 00:05:57,960 I think, you know, a lot of the more modern designers of today's age have just gotten 129 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:00,960 in love with length and high rough. 130 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:04,960 And I think, you know, if you look at the contours of your green and you look at the 131 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:08,960 position of the tee, back in the old days you really had to think about those things 132 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:11,960 and not just kind of press the button and make something happen. 133 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:14,960 A lot of thought went into that, I think, personally. 134 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:15,960 Yeah. 135 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:16,960 No, it's so true. 136 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:22,960 And I played, so I played with Mr. Kelly, Bob Kelly yesterday, and Jim Conroy. 137 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:23,960 They're all members. 138 00:06:23,960 --> 00:06:25,960 Jim's been out here for about nine years. 139 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:30,960 Bob's been out here for 35 years, I think, and then Mr. Kelly, you know. 140 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:35,960 So my point is, after a summer of playing, I feel like I'm a brand new golfer because 141 00:06:35,960 --> 00:06:40,960 I learned so much as far as what you just said, T-Mac, like hitting it to certain spots, 142 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:41,960 right? 143 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:43,960 You can't overpower sometimes the call. 144 00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:47,960 Of course, you have to almost do what the designer gave you in front of you and hit 145 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:49,960 it to a certain spot. 146 00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:51,960 And just accept par is okay. 147 00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:52,960 Par is an okay score. 148 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:53,960 You have great score. 149 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:54,960 Absolutely. 150 00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:59,960 It's a U.S. Open kind of venue at that point, you know what I mean? 151 00:06:59,960 --> 00:07:00,960 Yeah. 152 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:09,960 You know, we have five par threes here, and they really are the teeth of the golf course. 153 00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:14,960 When the greens are running fast, if you make five pars on the par threes, you're going 154 00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:15,960 to have a pretty good round. 155 00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:16,960 Yeah. 156 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:20,960 Yeah, you're going to probably pick up some shots on some of the golfers out there, too. 157 00:07:20,960 --> 00:07:24,960 So, Mike, talk to me a little bit about Green's committee or Grounds Committee chair. 158 00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:27,960 You've been this for how long? 159 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:31,960 And basically, I know you've got a Grounds Committee with you, which is including Jack 160 00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:39,960 Bartley, Herb Klein, Phil Drupaux, Sharon Hayes, Po Shang Chen, Jim Conroy, and Steve 161 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:40,960 Emery. 162 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:42,960 And how does that whole thing work? 163 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:47,960 How do you either sort of on a seasonal basis maybe work that and then kind of go back to 164 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:49,960 Pat and kind of work with him? 165 00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:53,960 So sort of just walk the listeners through that at a private country club. 166 00:07:53,960 --> 00:07:59,960 Well, you know, I got appointed with the Grounds Chair resigned. 167 00:07:59,960 --> 00:08:06,960 And I got appointed by the president to take the finishes term. 168 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:12,960 And then I went in front of the nominating committee and the nominating committee for 169 00:08:12,960 --> 00:08:15,960 my own term, which was three years. 170 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:16,960 Okay. 171 00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:20,960 So I mean, my first year is that three year term. 172 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:26,960 I kept the committee that the former Grounds Chair had all members, you know, they were 173 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:29,960 working hard at it. 174 00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:34,960 And we've met a couple of times. 175 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:36,960 How does the budget part of it work? 176 00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:37,960 Do you do you guys the budget? 177 00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:42,960 Does Pat kind of present a budget to you guys and say that presents the budget? 178 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:44,960 We bring it to we bring it to the board. 179 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:45,960 Okay. 180 00:08:45,960 --> 00:08:46,960 And then the board makes decisions. 181 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:50,960 And then we make some decisions based on capital improvement. 182 00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:51,960 Yeah. 183 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:54,960 So we need a new Greensmiller or something like that. 184 00:08:54,960 --> 00:08:55,960 Pat writes that into his budget. 185 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:56,960 All right. 186 00:08:56,960 --> 00:08:57,960 Hey, here's the reasons why. 187 00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:00,960 And then you guys either. 188 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:03,960 Oh, mention Dan Tarrant is also on that list. 189 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:11,960 And I could see the college classmate of mine who's strong in budgets and accounting. 190 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:14,960 So I of course, I had to put him on the committee. 191 00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:15,960 That's true. 192 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:20,960 I heard there was some type of Yeah, I have a Dan Tarrant story. 193 00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:30,960 I don't know if it's good for the podcast about about the stroke holes or whatever it was or when you started a match a couple of weeks ago and it was going to establish the rules of the match. 194 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:31,960 Oh, yeah, no, this. 195 00:09:31,960 --> 00:09:32,960 Yeah, yeah. 196 00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:34,960 We and I have a lot of fun going back and forth on that. 197 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:42,960 It's basically whether we play a NASA or a distance match and the different the different things that go along with it. 198 00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:44,960 But we've had a few laughs over. 199 00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:46,960 Tim, do you know what a distance matches? 200 00:09:46,960 --> 00:09:47,960 Have you ever heard that term? 201 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:49,960 No, I've never heard of what is a distance match. 202 00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:51,960 That sounds interesting. 203 00:09:51,960 --> 00:09:53,960 So this is not you should play the match. 204 00:09:53,960 --> 00:09:56,960 It's it's an 18 hole match. 205 00:09:56,960 --> 00:09:59,960 You set an amount on what you want to play for for that match. 206 00:09:59,960 --> 00:10:03,960 And then you can close out for half. 207 00:10:03,960 --> 00:10:09,960 If you get closed out, you can you can you can press for half of the balance of the holes. 208 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:10,960 Okay. 209 00:10:10,960 --> 00:10:12,960 And, you know, there's other things that go along. 210 00:10:12,960 --> 00:10:29,960 We have what they call the greenies, which with the five part threes and we've got this thing called the double bubble, which if if you're in the different rules that have been changed over the years with it is, you know, if you hit if you hit the light, it could be if you hit the last one, you get the double bubble, which doubles the bet. 211 00:10:29,960 --> 00:10:32,960 And it's it's a lot of fun. 212 00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:34,960 But the rules change as we go. 213 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:39,960 It's always been something that you have to you have to make the make the game on the first tee. 214 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:44,960 So it's always always some fun go around about that. 215 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:45,960 That's cool. That that's really cool. 216 00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:52,960 And, you know, it just seems like, you know, everybody there has a really good time what they're trying to do. 217 00:10:52,960 --> 00:11:00,960 And it just seems like all the members are there for so many years and just there's got to be such camaraderie around there. 218 00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:11,960 Yes. So we were able to play in an event yesterday, Tim, that was basically Doc Cansey and David Cansey and kind of set this up. It's pretty much an annual event as far as I know. 219 00:11:11,960 --> 00:11:14,960 Right. Like he he has been doing it for a number of years. Yeah. 220 00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:23,960 So basically, the idea was that there'd be a staff member, you know, professional with the members and they're probably about five or six groups of us. 221 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:28,960 You know, just all got to be able to kind of create that camaraderie. 222 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:39,960 I know Mr. Kelly, but being able to spend four hours with him on a golf course really kind of changed some of the things that I see when I when I walk around here and then on the back porch, we're all having dinner last night. 223 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:43,960 And it's just it's a great accepting culture from the membership. 224 00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:50,960 It's really nice to be included in that as a staff member and not feel like you're solely a staff member. 225 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:52,960 You're also part of the family at Oakley. 226 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:59,960 I think that's kind of one of those things that definitely separates Oakley from other facilities that mean you honestly event. 227 00:11:59,960 --> 00:12:06,960 Yeah, I mean, you know, it just sounds like when every time I talk to you, Sean, it just seems like the golf course you want to work at. 228 00:12:06,960 --> 00:12:13,960 You know, when when we went to PGA school and everything we kind of envisioned, it's kind of like where we want to be. 229 00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:16,960 Right. I mean, you're being accepted into the to the membership. 230 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:18,960 You know, the members are liking you. 231 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:21,960 There's history that's involved. 232 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:26,960 There's a great architect that's part of attached to the history of this lore. 233 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:35,960 You know, just to me, it just seems like when I want to get into the to the industry, that's kind of where I want to be like where you're at right now. 234 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:36,960 Yeah, it's it's great. 235 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:43,960 And it's when we work for Brantley down there in Tampa, he was a single owner, an old farmer guy. 236 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:47,960 Right. But he had that kind of that respect for the staff. 237 00:12:47,960 --> 00:12:50,960 And at the same time, he included you as part of the family, too. 238 00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:52,960 We would do Christmas parties, that type of stuff. 239 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:57,960 So anyway, yes, it's a great, great day and really neat to be able to kind of hang out with Mr. 240 00:12:57,960 --> 00:13:03,960 Kelly. And and I got to see him chip in on number 18 out of the bunker. 241 00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:07,960 We told me he had to make birdie in the fairway and he just went ahead and did it. 242 00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:10,960 It was it was good. It was fun. 243 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:14,960 Mike, what would you say is the strength of your golf game? 244 00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:18,960 Oh, there's a good one. 245 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:21,960 I'm a team act. I'm still working on that. 246 00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:29,960 Sixty six years old and I wish I could tell you, you know, it comes and goes, you know, you putt with one day, you drive it one one day. 247 00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:35,960 But as as I've accepted old man golf, it's all about the wedges now. 248 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:38,960 Yeah. You know, it's all about the wedges for me. 249 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:42,960 Yeah, absolutely. He's he's very consistent with his ball striking. 250 00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:44,960 He also is coachable, by the way, too. 251 00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:48,960 He listens. He listened to Bob Kelly yesterday on a putt. 252 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:55,960 He listened during the middle of one of these WSL, which is the league that we have. 253 00:13:55,960 --> 00:13:58,960 He asked me kind of quickly on the first tee, what do I think about? 254 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:01,960 And I told him, you know, whatever, hit it down the middle, put it on the green. 255 00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:04,960 He had one of his better rounds of the year type of thing. 256 00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:07,960 This was my my best front nine ever. 257 00:14:07,960 --> 00:14:09,960 Exactly. That's great. 258 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:14,960 Yeah. Sometimes you just got to turn the old mind off and let the old body do what it needs to do. Right. 259 00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:19,960 That's it. You know, T Mac, I got to tell you, you know, Sean joined joined the staff. 260 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:23,960 And, you know, I worked in the bag room with a kid under Mr. Donahue. 261 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:33,960 And he really brings something for this club as far as, you know, I used to get he's he's he's got a little old school in him, which is which is I really enjoyed. 262 00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:37,960 Right. Great. That's great stuff. 263 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:50,960 So talk to us about how does the idea for renovating Hall number three, the green, how does that idea go from idea to sort of maybe committee to board to actual hiring and architect? 264 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:53,960 How does that work in a private facility? What's the process? 265 00:14:53,960 --> 00:15:09,960 Well, you know, you know, I could I could I could tell you the story of the third green. And, you know, when I when I when I took over for the past year, we had a capital budget number for the third for the keys on the third hole. 266 00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:11,960 So my first router right around with Pat. 267 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:23,960 No, I didn't know Pat real well. Pat, our superintendent, we went over that we went over to the third hole and we were standing behind the third green and there was talk about putting keys over the walls. 268 00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:33,960 And so the first thing I said to Pat, having been a longtime member here, I said, how do you put keys over that wall without fixing the screen? 269 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:41,960 And Pat looked at me and he said, you know, Mr. Kelly, I think you're right. And that's how it got started. 270 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:48,960 You know, fooling around with original Donald Ross screens is a difficult is difficult to do. 271 00:15:48,960 --> 00:15:55,960 Yeah. Ron Force has always done our work here. The architect. Long time, long time. 272 00:15:55,960 --> 00:16:03,960 Donald Ross architect. Pat, no, I, you know, I brought it to the board. 273 00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:07,960 The board made a decision that we should get some numbers on it. 274 00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:13,960 Got the numbers. You know, we went to committee. We got the numbers on it. We brought we brought forth in. 275 00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:17,960 We brought some committee members out with the president. 276 00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:28,960 And by the way, without historical, I brought Dan, me and Doc Healy, who wrote our hundred and twenty five year history book, which I think they did a wonderful job on. 277 00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:34,960 And that's how we that's how we get started on it. 278 00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:37,960 And then we got it. Got all the numbers together. 279 00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:42,960 There was no way I was going to do this project without the membership signing off on it. 280 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:47,960 So we brought it to the membership and the membership voted to do it. 281 00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:50,960 So, I mean, that that's it in a nutshell. 282 00:16:50,960 --> 00:17:00,960 The one thing I can say is we had the Francis Wee met tournament out here for one hundred and twenty fifth where all the good players in the state play. 283 00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:07,960 And, you know, if you know the whole you got to get up here, it's a blind, blind green part three. 284 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:14,960 And, you know, I was out following Rick Santelli, who was who was a member here that was playing in the tournament. 285 00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:20,960 And he was playing with Steve Cascio, a great player, Anthony Lee and Herbie Aikens. 286 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:27,960 So I'm watching from up from the green and I watch Herbie Aikens hits that hit the shot into the third green. 287 00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:37,960 And I can tell he thinks he hit it perfect. And the ball, you know, it's a perfect it rolls from from the left side of green, rolls across the green. 288 00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:40,960 And it and it and it fell off the green. 289 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:46,960 And I saw him drive up and he looked and he said, and you could just tell I hit that shot perfect. 290 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:51,960 And it's just that's the way over the years that the green the green ran. 291 00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:58,960 So having, you know, having seen that, you know, I always thought that, you know, a good golf shot should be rewarded. 292 00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:01,960 And that's how we get started on it. 293 00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:05,960 I think Ross would say the same thing. That was his whole point. 294 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:08,960 Make it challenging. It's what we talked about yesterday. 295 00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:12,960 It's six thousand yards, our seventy or part seventy one. 296 00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:15,960 But it's one of the more challenging six thousand yard golf courses. 297 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:21,960 And people don't go super low when they come out here because the defense is the is the greens. Yeah. 298 00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:30,960 Yeah, I think it's very interesting, Mike, that that you talked about an architect that you bring out that's been studying Donald Ross. 299 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:43,960 I think that's very important, too, is to have that that mind, you know, when you guys are all sitting down and discussing changes or implementing anything is is bringing in an architect and bringing in all these these great minds. 300 00:18:43,960 --> 00:18:50,960 Because, you know, Donald Ross's work is just, you know, it's so historical and keeping that correct is amazing. 301 00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:58,960 So I really hats off to you guys bringing in all the resources just even for one hole or one little thing. 302 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:00,960 That's that's great. That's amazing. 303 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:06,960 Team that team that we had, you know, Ron Force took a 1930. 304 00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:12,960 You know, it's a restoration also that green with square value. 305 00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:16,960 We've got a night. We don't have plans that Ross when Ross did this golf course. 306 00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:22,960 But it was a 1938 photo that our historical group got together. 307 00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:26,960 We have and, you know, that green was was squared off. 308 00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:34,960 So Ron Ron took that drawing on the green, you know, did the slope and so forth. 309 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:37,960 So it's, you know, it's a restoration also. 310 00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:38,960 That's amazing. 311 00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:44,960 That's yeah. What it does is when you do hit it, actually the first good shot I hit yesterday took me three holes. 312 00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:49,960 But it was the seven wood on as my little seven wood club. 313 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:52,960 Make sure more people eight and seven woods. 314 00:19:52,960 --> 00:19:56,960 Anyways, but it was seven wood is playing about to 10, I think, to a nine. 315 00:19:56,960 --> 00:20:00,960 But the shot was like you envision kind of like you just talking with her shot. 316 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:05,960 Like the ball went up in the air and kind of came in from a good trajectory and it landed and it didn't. 317 00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:08,960 It didn't roll off. It kind of landed where it should and stayed. 318 00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:15,960 So that's probably what one of the things you were trying to achieve is get rewarded for a good shot. 319 00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:16,960 That's great. 320 00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:22,960 You know, technology made a lot of golf courses obsolete in this golf course. 321 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:29,960 And then I used to run the pro member many years ago when Jeff Bailey was the pro and it was an old pro. 322 00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:33,960 And I was talking to Sean about this when we were playing this old probe ball Barkhouse. 323 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:43,960 And somebody asked him what he thought of Oakland and he said when the wind blowing and the greens are running, it's fifty eight hundred yards of all you can handle. 324 00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:49,960 So I you know, I just a lot of young kids are hitting it an absolute mile today. 325 00:20:49,960 --> 00:20:52,960 And Oakland's got some issues with that. 326 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:57,960 We're trying we're trying to we're trying to have a golf course for everybody if we can do it. 327 00:20:57,960 --> 00:20:58,960 Yeah. 328 00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:07,960 You know, the other thing I find very interesting about Oakley Country Club is that you guys have always been on the cutting edge of technology as far as like what Donald Ross would bring in. 329 00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:13,960 But you guys are also, you know, easy not to implement so much of that technology into your courses. 330 00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:18,960 I think you guys do a great balance of bringing in technology and leaving some technology out. 331 00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:20,960 Does that make sense, Mike? 332 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:21,960 Yeah, it does. 333 00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:29,960 It does. You know, we've been you know, we can get you some members have a lot of members with one of five being the grounds chairs. 334 00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:32,960 You get a lot of suggestions. 335 00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:36,960 And you know, you can you talk about you talked about modern stuff. 336 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:40,960 I mean, one of the things we're talking about that we kick around is bunkers. 337 00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:44,960 And there's a new process called the Billy Bunker. 338 00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:57,960 And we've got some I've got some members on my committee and members that, you know, if we get to the point where we start doing bunkers over, you know, this Billy Bunker is the new technology. 339 00:21:57,960 --> 00:22:03,960 So, I mean, that's one of the things that could you elaborate a little bit on the Billy Bunker for the members? 340 00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:11,960 You know, I wish I could give you a basically it's it's it's so that, you know, you don't have to the drainage. 341 00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:14,960 And once you do it, I think you've got drainage forever. 342 00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:16,960 It doesn't become like a dirt. 343 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:19,960 Yeah. And it doesn't get compact and so forth. 344 00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:21,960 Okay. And it's you know, it's I don't know. 345 00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:24,960 It's like I guess it's like a mesh type thing. 346 00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:26,960 It's like a plaster of Paris. 347 00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:40,960 Mike Mike, one of my committee members, Jack Botley has been really and by the way, I've told him as a committee member that he researched that I told him, you know, I got another two and a half years left doing this. 348 00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:45,960 I doubt it'll be done under my under me as the grounds here. 349 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:49,960 But it's certainly we're going to get the information together and see where it goes. 350 00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:56,960 I think we've seen that feedback and probably some listeners when you redo a bunker, the most important part is the underneath part of it. 351 00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:00,960 Like how that drainage is going to happen from the underneath side. 352 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:07,960 So you have that, you know, fairly consistency of bunkers, which you want it to be hard and fast so they can play it out of it. 353 00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:17,960 And then green side bunkers, you'd want it to be in general a little bit more of a sandy, you know, beachy consistency, depending on where you're where you're at. 354 00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:22,960 Did you ever go down to the PGA National Teaching Center in Port St. Lucie? 355 00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:24,960 Yes, sir. I did. Yes, sir. 356 00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:27,960 Yeah. So I think that's a great way to kind of describe this. 357 00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:33,960 If you go down to PGA Teaching Center, that's where we did our first are all three of my levels of PGA schooling. 358 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:39,960 They have I think it's like eight different bunkers with different consistencies from around the world. 359 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:49,960 You know, so you can practice from places because the sand up in Massachusetts is way different than the sand in Tampa, Florida, different than Ireland, different than Australia. 360 00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:57,960 So it really you kind of learn to use the bounce on the club and how you're going to make a swing through the shot. 361 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:06,960 Well, I know every every student there went to the the the England or the European or UK one and hit sand out of there that everybody went to that. 362 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:14,960 And like, I'm sure there's sand from all around the world, but everybody went over there to say, hey, what is it like out of the bunker of, you know, the U.S. or the open championship? 363 00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:21,960 So very true. So, no, it's it's like you said, just a good message of kind of how Oakley is taking. 364 00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:29,960 They don't want to change the world out here because it's such a good historical basis and you just want to be really careful and mindful. 365 00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:32,960 I think that's what Mike and the committee do so well. 366 00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:36,960 Even some of maybe the upcoming changes that might be happening. 367 00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:42,960 You know, it's a process. It's something you have to you got to be mindful of what you're going to do out here. 368 00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:44,960 Yeah. And be respectful of it. Really. 369 00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:55,960 Well, you really are a steward of the golf course because it's not, you know, as Mike said, he's going to be making decisions, you know, in the next two years that are going to affect the club later on in the future. 370 00:24:55,960 --> 00:24:58,960 You know, so I mean, it really is a stewardship. 371 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:05,960 You know, you do you do what you need to do for for that time and you make sure that you leaving it better than what you accepted it as. 372 00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:10,960 Right. You know, T-Mac, I'm going to. 373 00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:14,960 It's the first time I've done the podcast and so forth. 374 00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:23,960 Being a steward of this golf, what I feel strongly about and decisions that get made here are made by by the professionals. 375 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:29,960 The membership makes the decision whether we want to do them, but we get we get all the all the information we can. 376 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:34,960 You know, this being this being the first Donald Ross course. 377 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:46,960 We had we had Andrew Green here two days ago. Oh, wow. And he he walked the golf course all morning by and walked it by himself. 378 00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:53,960 And then we met with him about noon time and his exuberance about this golf course was infectious. 379 00:25:53,960 --> 00:26:01,960 I mean, it was just unbelievable. So we're hoping to get him in the pipeline soon. 380 00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:08,960 Good for our for our listeners that may be a little bit more of an amateur than a professional in the world of architects. 381 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:12,960 Andrew Green is in many of his accomplishments. 382 00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:18,960 Accomplishments. One of them would be that he's the redesigner of Eastlake Woodlands. 383 00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:23,960 Sorry, Eastlake in Atlanta, where they just held the tour championship. 384 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:26,960 Yeah, so I think you did a good job there, too. 385 00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:33,960 Yeah, yeah, that credibility. You know, that's where Bobby Jones cut his teeth. 386 00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:38,960 And, you know, it's a Donald Ross design. So you also did over Oak Hill for the PGA. 387 00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:45,960 Wow. Yeah. Yeah. To your point, team act, they don't bring in just, you know, anybody off the street. 388 00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:54,960 They're they're really regarding the the history of the place and and willing to, you know, make a change, but know why they're making changes. 389 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,960 So that's something pretty exciting for the membership in the future. 390 00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:11,960 Yeah, I mean, it just shows how much the membership loves the course and they will take the time to to to make the right decision, not a rash decision, which is which is very rare these days for golf clubs, to be honest with you. 391 00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:14,960 So I want I want to give the last couple minutes to Mike. 392 00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:20,960 He's probably got, you know, enough stories of Oakley for some of the different things that have happened out here. 393 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:28,960 But to fill another podcast, but but kind of give us the Jeff Bailey story when you're out there playing with him and sort of how that whole thing worked. 394 00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:35,960 And so, you know, Jeff, Jeff, Jeff Bailey was our pro for years, a real good player. 395 00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:43,960 And Dr. Joe Sulu, Steve wanted to bring his pro up from Florida. 396 00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:49,960 And he asked me to be the fourth. And it was it was Jeff and I against he and his pro. 397 00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:59,960 So Jeff, long story short is Jeff birdies the first five balls against the against the pro from Florida. 398 00:27:59,960 --> 00:28:06,960 And so he's standing on the 18th tee, 10 under par. 399 00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:08,960 And I'll never forget Dr. Sulu. 400 00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:16,960 He says, and Jeff didn't have a lot to say a lot of time, but Dr. Sulu, he says, I never remember being this many down. 401 00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:26,960 And Jeff, Jeff, Jeff says, says, Doc, when have you played with a guy that's 10 under? 402 00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:33,960 So now the old pro Donahue, long story, when on the 18th tee, it's the only time that Jeff gets conservative on the whole. 403 00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:39,960 He hits an iron off the tee and he pulls it on 18. 404 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:56,960 And he pulls it off. So he ends up on the edge of the green and three on the seventh on the course record holder Paul Donahue was standing on the 17th tee looking down on the green, watching him. 405 00:28:56,960 --> 00:29:00,960 He leaves the putt on the lip for the course record. 406 00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:06,960 So he now shares the record with Donahue and Scott Johnson, our current pro. 407 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:11,960 We have three and you know, it was just an unbelievable round. 408 00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:17,960 And what I was most impressed, it's funny, it was the course record round. 409 00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:24,960 But what I was most impressed with is the pro from Florida who had never saw the golf course shot seven. 410 00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:31,960 Wow. So it was a really a real fun, fun day. Very cool. 411 00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:36,960 Wow. That's enjoying watching a lot of good ball striking and putts going in the hole right there, right? 412 00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:42,960 Oh, yeah. Very cool. So, well, hey, Mike, I just want to really thank you for coming. 413 00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:47,960 Yeah, I think this has been great to kind of tell some of the listeners what's going on here at Oakley. 414 00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:52,960 And hopefully the membership gets a different perspective of some of the behind the scenes stuff too. 415 00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:57,960 And then, you know, private facilities all over the country. This is how they operate. 416 00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:02,960 But again, I think it's just a little bit a little bit special here at Oakley Country Club. 417 00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:04,960 So, T-Mac, you got anything else to add in? 418 00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:10,960 No, I want to say thank you, Mike. Very interesting learning about Billy Bunker and hole number three today. 419 00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:14,960 Really enjoyed it. Great story about the pros. 420 00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:21,960 You know, that's that's why we come on this podcast is to hear those stories and to hear those things and bring them to our listeners. 421 00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:23,960 So thank you very much, Mike. We really appreciate it. 422 00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:26,960 I'm happy to do it. Thank you. Thanks for having me. 423 00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:30,960 Thank you guys. Welcome. Thank you guys again here at Dynamic Golf Podcast. 424 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:33,960 If you like this, please like and subscribe. 425 00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:36,960 Once again, I'm Tim McElvanagh and my co-host, Sean Klotz. 426 00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:40,960 We'll see you guys next time. We got another one good another good one coming up. 427 00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:43,960 But I really appreciate Mr. Kelly being here. We'll talk to you guys soon. 428 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:45,960 Yes. Thank you, Mr. Kelly. 429 00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:57,960 Anytime. Thank you, T-Mac.