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I've had the chance.
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I haven't played every top golf course in the world,
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but I think of some amazing courses I've got to play.
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I can't really remember all the holes, Josh, but what
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I do remember are the people that you come across,
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and I mean I just think what I've learned most
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of them all is golf to me is a game
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of the people that play it.
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My first question is how many people come up to
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you when you meet them or who either know what
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you do or don't know what you do, and when
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you tell them what you do, how many people are
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like you are living my dream, either golf or non
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golf related.
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Yeah, quite a few, would I would say the percent
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is very high, and it always makes me feel extremely fortunate,
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blessed to do what we do.
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I'll be totally honest, Josh.
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I still am amazed when somebody recognizes me and it
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does happen Like I'm not going to say it doesn't happen.
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I don't want to come off like it happens all
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the time. But you know where it tends to happen
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outside of like golf settings, right, I think it's a
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little bit more prone. You get people that recognize you
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around golf tournaments or whatnot. Airports are a big place,
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I think. I think airports have been one. You know,
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my wife and I and we took our new little
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daughter down to Hilton Head a couple of weeks ago,
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or this was back in April, and some folks just
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happen to recognize you down, out and around.
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Like it never.
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It's always just a little bit surreal for me, Josh.
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And so yeah to your other question, like, I think,
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so wait a second, if I'm explaining what we do
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to somebody that's not familiar with me or with no
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laying up, let me get this straight.
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As usually the first question.
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You guys are paid to just you talk golf, and
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then sometimes you take trips and you film them and
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that's the job. And it's like, well, I mean yeah,
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in a certain respect, we got to do like we
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got to keep the business going on the back end, right,
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which people don't really see but from a forward, public
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facing point of view, Yeah, we taught golf, we travel around,
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we play golf, We put some of it on camera.
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It's a really nice gig.
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Well, you know, I mean not only that, I would
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imagine even people that don't I mean the golf part
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is like that obviously is a dream for a lot
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of people because you're working full time in the golf world. Yeah,
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but like also, I mean I can't tell you the
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number of I'm onlike about five different like text threads
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with people I went to college with, with people people
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I went to law school with, with people I went
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to grow up I grew up with, And at least
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you know, five times over the course of those things,
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somebody's like, you know, god, this would be a great podcast,
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and you actually did that with your college buddies, So
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talk a little bit. I mean, that's like incredible. I
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mean that is like, that's a real dream for people,
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I think, right, yeah, I mean, how much better can
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it get than having a job where you're kind of
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I mean, I know it's serious work, but you're messing
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around with your college buddies, right.
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Right, right right.
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And it's funny you mentioned you're on text threads, because
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that's really how it started for us in a lot
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of ways. We right, so there are five kind of
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partners at no laying up, and we've built out now
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to where there are eleven total people. But kind of
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going back to the origins, myself and two others, a
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guy named Todd Schuster and Chris Solomon. We all went
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to Miami University in Ohio together and that's where we met.
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That's where we discovered, hey, we all enjoy golf. We
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enjoy playing golf, we enjoy watching golf. But then fast
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forward after college, we went our separate ways. We all
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had you know, quote unquote real jobs. But the one
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thing that kept us in touch and through text messaging
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most of all, was we would just talk golf with
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each other. You know, We'd be sitting somewhere watching a
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tournament and I'd be shooting off text to Chris and
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Todd and yeah, Josh, that's I mean, truthfully, that is
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the genesis. And I think one thing I always say
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is we are very blessed. Timing right is everything. And
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so back in we recorded our very first podcast in
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April of twenty fourteen, and I think at that point,
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obviously there were podcasts, but there just wasn't a ton
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in the golf space specifically. And that was something that
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the three of us had found as fans, was like, hey,
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there's not really you know, as I'm starting to listen
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to some podcasts in different areas for me, like different sports.
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There just wasn't a golf podcast per se. And so
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we had the bright idea, hey, why why don't we
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start one, you know, and no pressure. We were, like
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I said, we all had different jobs. But yeah, I
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think just obviously very fortunate with time and place. And
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I you know, one of the other jokes I make
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is I think golf is always a little bit behind
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the time. So it was natural that maybe there wasn't
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as much podcast activity in golf specifically, but that that
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was it. It said, you know, why don't we take
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these conversations and these jokes and these you know, these
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things that we do amongst the three of us and
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sometimes more people, and maybe it can be a podcast.
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And here I am twelve years later, Josh getting to
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talk to you, and it is my.
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Full time job. So yeah, it's amazing.
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Yeah, I mean that that I mean, and that's really
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I mean, I think, first of all, I mean it's
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great and and it's like inspirational that I think you
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guys did that, and like really you know, and the
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success it's become. But you know, it's also like you know,
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people are always told, well, you'll never be able to
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do that. You'll never be able to do that, you know,
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don't you know, go be You were an accountant, right, yes, yeah, yeah,
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and all you guys were accountants, right.
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And I was God worked yeah, he worked actually in hospitality,
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he was he worked for the Ritz Carlton and was
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in hotel stuff.
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Right, Okay, So but so that's like, you know, I mean,
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you know there, you know there is don't be a screenwriter,
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don't be a journalist, don't be this, don't be that,
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because you know you'll never you'll never succeed and nobody
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earns a living doing that.
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I feel a little bad because today if I get
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asked the question, hey, I would love to start a
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pot you know, it is such a different environment. Of course,
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twelve years on from when we started, it's hard and
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I and I think it. I feel bad telling you know.
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We've had the opportunity myself specifically to talk to some
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college classes, you know, and and kids interested in kind
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of new media as I like to call it podcasting,
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you know, the the YouTube channels, things like that. I
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don't have great advice, and I'm so curious, Josh, because
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I feel like this does relate to like I'm sure
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as people tell you, hey, I want to be a writer,
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I want to get into print journalism, I would think
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specifically now or whatever it is, it's like, oh, my
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first thing is like good luck. It's very challenging. The
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hardest part is building having some type of audience, I
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think something that we benefited from. Like you said, we
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all had other jobs and so when we were starting this, truthfully,
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there was never an intent, even from when we made
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the first podcast, but before that it was just kind
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of a Twitter handle social media presence. We started a
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little blog, but there was never a pressure of hey,
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this has to work as a business, this has to
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be our job. We didn't feel any of that pressure,
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and I think we are so better off for it
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because it allowed us to just have fun. It allowed
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us to do things on our schedule. It allowed us
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to just kind of chase what we were interested in
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instead of feeling like we had to go talk about
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something or we had to do things a certain way.
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So like, really, the advice I try to give people,
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especially around podcasting, is like, just find something you really
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interested in and don't worry about monetizing it, because maybe
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that happens if you're lucky and a lot of things
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come together. But do it because you enjoyed talking to
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somebody or you enjoy covering a certain topic, and I
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think more often than that, hopefully that sets people up
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to maybe catch some breaks and turn it into something more.
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If they want.
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But absent of that, I'm like, I wish I had
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better advice for you.
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Guys.
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Had you told me twenty years ago when I was
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in college, like, hey, you're gonna be working in the
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golf industry doing a podcast, I'd have thought you were crazy.
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So it's yeah.
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Well so so yeah, So what was your relationship to golf,
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Like when did you start? When did you start playing?
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I played as a kid. I am very thankful my
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parents put me in you know that. I was probably
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six seven years old and it was a week in
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the summer and they were like, hey, there's a golf camp.
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It's introductory, like literally, they teach you how to hold
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a club, they teach you the very basics. So I
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did get exposure at a fairly young age. From that
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point though, it was always something I did a little
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sporadically and always in the summer when school was out,
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and even through high school and into college. I never
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played competitive golf. I never not that, I mean, there
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wasn't a huge interest to pursue like playing even on
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my high school golf team. I was doing other sports.
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And I always really loved golf because it was something
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I could do as an escape from whatever else was
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going on. And certainly as I got into college and
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then out of college and entered the real world, I mean,
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golf was a lifeline to just Hey, I can get
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out on the golf course for four hours and I
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don't have to worry about, you know this, whatever it was,
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And I really love that. And quite frankly, Josh, I
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think one of the biggest experiences, or I'm trying to
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think of the right word, just eye opening things about
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now working in golf full time for me, that relationship
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with golf changes a little bit and it's no longer
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an escape to just go out and play because I
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spend so much time day to day thinking about it,
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talking about it, watching it. I've had to kind of
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find other things to like when I'm okay, let's leave
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work and go do other stuff. And so yeah, I
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guess I just note that because it's interesting. But my
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experience with golf has always just been I was a fan.
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I enjoyed watching on TV, certainly the bigger and I
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would play with buddies growing up in the summer.
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You know, you've gotten to do a lot of golf
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Tourism would be the wrong way to put it, but
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you get to travel a lot and make these you know,
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these these you know, video series like Strapped. And I
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have to say, you know, you're saying you like to
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go to movies, and you know, I'm sure you're like me.
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You remember lines from you know, every ever. You know,
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there are like ten movie lines that you're like committed
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to memory. And I'm just going to read it so
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that I get it right. When you when you were
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in Lubbock, Texas and you guys, so this is unstrapped,
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this is the was that the most recent season? That
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was twenty twenty five.
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That is the most recent season.
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Yes, okay, And and you said you guys were staying
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at an Airbnb and it what you explained instead of
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me explaining what I saw, and then I'll say what
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I thought was sort of okay.
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Well, very briefly, Strapped is this series that essentially turns
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I think a lot of golf travel on its head
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and instead of going to the nicest places and the
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nicest courses, the basic premise is what if we leaned
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in entirely the other way and went to cities and
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locations that we would never otherwise go to and tried
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to find fun, quirky or just regular public access golf
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courses in those places. And so our very first trip
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was to Des Moines, Iowa. And the Texas season that
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you're referring to, I think is maybe our it's our
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eleventh or twelfth season, but yeah, West Texas.
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So we went to Lubbock.
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We started our trip in Lubbock, and then eventually in
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the series made our way a little further west out
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into the Midland Odessa area. And so I had never