Back In My Day: Local Big Box News and … Golf?!

Need to pass along some observations and a story or two in the current news. Just the usual Goober Gump deal for a story that means a lot to me. Will resume the Coal Country series in few days.

Building Materials

We have a couple of contractor friends who have handled a lot of work for us in the past at our and our daughter’s house. They have been doing a kitchenette for us on the bottom floor before college football seasons starts and to handle the grandsons’ ravenous appetites when they stay with us. Their backlog for work projects related to remodels and renovations is growing by leaps and bounds. They are scheduled well into January. New home starts have slowed down significantly. However, existing home sales are still happening with many people scaling back in size with plans to remodel to fit their individual desires.

For what it’s worth, a 2″x4″x8′ has gone from $9 a board to $5 a board in the past two weeks at the big box stores in our area. The interesting thing is that is for premium grade lumber, not stud or #2, which is the same price if you can find it. Similar type thing going on with decking boards. Which tells me the big boxes are having a hard time sourcing supply at the same time that the demand is decreasing for building products overall. The opposite is true for house wiring. It went from $50 per 100 foot roll to $120. Ridiculous. Hopefully, it and other home materials costs will continue to drift down to more affordable levels to support We the People.

PGA Tour Versus LIV Golf

Say what? What in the world is that doing here?

The current controversy in professional golf, has international implications. The Saudis have a Public Investment Fund they are using to sportswash their nasty image. Of course that is not what they are calling it, but it is the obvious purpose. An example of it is called LIV Golf. It stands for the Roman numerals representing 54, of which they have 54 professional golfers competing over 54 holes in a revised tournament format that does both team and individual competition. It is led by former international and PGA Tour golfer Greg Norman, who has been a thorn in the side of the PGA Tour since his playing days.

In contrast, the PGA Tour is recognized internationally as the elite golf tour in the world. Virtually every star from rival tours desires to join the PGA Tour and make it in America. The European Tour is the next most prominent and the two tours coordinate events well together. They both build their tours on giving back to the communities and related charities at each tournament location. The golfers routinely interact with the charities and public, playing in pro-ams before the tournament starts to promote the game, sportsmanship, gain donations for charities, while visiting with the charities themselves. Many of the golfers and their families are some of the finest human beings on the planet as evidenced by their paying it forward everywhere they go.

The PGA Tour is highly competitive and if you do not play well over the course of a season, you may have to drop back to a lesser tour to try to earn your way back. To make money and earn your way to keeping playing privileges you have to make the cuts of tournaments after 36 holes of 72 holes of play. To subsidize their expenses, most of the golfers have sponsors who help cover the costs. The players will advertise their sponsors on their clothing and hats as well as play in corporate events in the off weeks. The better you perform, the more money you receive from bigger name sponsors.

PGA Tour Tournaments are held around the country as well as in the UK, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Bahamas, Bermuda, and the Dominican Republic. The obvious primary goal is to win a tournament. If a golfer does, their job is assured for a couple of years at least and 5 years if it is one of the 5 major tournaments. If they don’t make cuts, they earn no points. It is all done on that point system based on performance in the tournaments. The higher they finish in the many weekly tournaments, the more money and points they earn. At the end of the season the top points earning golfers compete in what is called the FedEx Cup over the course of three tournaments. FedEx is a major sponsor of the tour overall as well as a tournament in Memphis that generates revenue for St, Jude’s Children’s Hospital.

By playing well, making cuts and advancing to the final tournament of Top Thirty golfers, the best playing privileges for the next season are awarded as well as huge amounts of money depending on the order of finish in that last tournament. In other words, making the Top 30 is a big deal and can make your career and family’s future. This year, the winner of The FedEx Cup takes home a cool $18 million. Yeah – that’s right.

The LIV does none of that except pay big money. They basically have bought the players. The tour is not built around charities. They went after all the famous guys they could get and paid them crazy amounts of money on multi-year contracts to just play the tour, which has a much more limited schedule. Then they pay them based on how they play in each tournament. There are no cuts – they make money no matter what. So a guy can play lousy and still make a fortune. Most of the golfers that left the PGA and European Tours to play LIV were on the backside of their careers or were wannabes. However, many of them want to also pick and choose playing on the PGA and European Tour events whenever they want despite no longer being eligible to do so per each tour’s regulations. So the attorneys and courts are now getting involved because the players are all independent contractors and not employees.

It is easy to understand their motivation. They were no longer as competitive on the PGA and European Tours, but have recognizable names to fans. They make more money to play less golf with less rounds per tournament. They have minimal PR or charity appearance obligations. They are independent contractors who can do what they want. So they whore themselves out to take the money. The problem is they also want to use the other tours to play in the big events without doing what is required of them as members, thereby circumventing the whole process. They are trying to get the world golf ranking organization to assign points for performance in the new LIV tour that is less competitive, fantasy land, Saudi money backed show pony stuff, so they will qualify for the major world events they are no longer qualified to play.

Kind of like Democrats do. Corrupt a successful system for personal gain.

I have been proud of the unified responses of the PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monahan, as well as Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and others who have stood up to them. To cut to the chase – nope. You left on your own, which is your right, but you are out. Which has been both PGA and European tours’ official responses. I consider what the quitters are trying to do as insulting. The players that left simply went for the money and reduced competition. It is easier, less taxing on the body, and they do not have to play often. By doing so they spat on the tours that helped make their names and careers, when they are already wealthy beyond what they ever imagined when they first started. Will see what happens, but the PGA Tour has responded by fighting and winning so far in court as well as in a huge way with great improvements for their member golfers. They have also retained all of their tournament sponsors who have increased their contributions significantly. There is no shortage of great young talent playing their tails off to make it to the PGA and European Tours who would never dream of biting the hand that fed them. Let’s encourage and reward them. Which is what the PGA Tour has done with this announcement today. Not only are the players big winners, so are the fans and sponsors.

https://www.pgatour.com/news/2022/08/24/pga-tour-top-players-make-unprecedented-commitment-to-pga-tour-future-schedule.html

Sorry, not sorry, House of Saud. Go pound sand.

I will refrain from commenting much on PDT sponsoring an LIV golf tournament at one of his clubs recently. Wish he had not, but that’s a business deal for him to decide. In general he has been a big promoter of the game.

Being a golfer and having followed professional golf all of my life, I’ve had my favorites. It all started for me with The Golden Bear – Jack Nicklaus – and continued on from there. However, I follow the big names as well as the lesser equally as I like to watch success, failure and human interest stories develop. It’s a reflection of life. Which leads to…

Scott Stallings

One of my contractor friends above is close friends with my favorite PGA Tour golfer, Scott Stallings, and his parents in particular for the past dozen years or so. As background, my friend accepted Christ as his Savior in his mid 30s and was mentored at his church by Scott’s father, Tim. The Stallings family are devout Christians and known regionally as class acts. They do a lot of Christian outreach and community work to help others as well as in the disaster relief mission field. Tim, who is retired, and his wife, Cheryl, with Scott and his sister moved to the area from Massachusetts for Tim’s work at DOD when Scott was six years old. I was a former member of the golf club that Tim and family joined when they moved here 30+ years ago. I played the same golf course on which Scott learned to play the game for several years before they arrived.

Our daughter competed in high school golf at the same time as Scott in the district and regional tournaments. We met him and watched him play as a teenager during those days. Despite not receiving any major college offers, which was bizarre, he decided to go to Tennessee Tech U where he was the Ohio Valley Conference golfer of the year twice as well as an honors student all four years. He married his college sweetheart, Jenn, and they hit the road after graduation in their Honda. He played the lesser tours to gain experience and eventually worked his way onto the main PGA Tour 11 years ago. He found success winning three tournaments in his 20s. However, his health took a turn for the worse as he neared the age of 30. He had developed adrenal fatigue, allergy related sinus issues and had gained a lot of weight from life on the road while not doing conditioning work. He struggled for a few more years and could not seem to find the sources of his physical problems. Finally, a thorough physical and some straight talk from a medical specialist got through to him. He came home and apologized to his wife. He promised things would change.

Boy, did they ever. Over the next several years he began to totally transform his body and mind. He is now chiseled. Totally reversed his health and conditioning to a well cut 30 year old equivalent body using Cross-Fit techniques and other golf specific fitness and nutrition methods. He became a pioneer of sorts for the methodology. It also attracted a sponsorship from NOBULL fitness, which is an elite speciality fitness shoe and apparel provider.

https://www.nobullproject.com

The process took 3-4 years. He dropped 48 pounds and 16% body fat while adding muscle in the right places that complemented his swing and style of play. He is known by all on tour now as a work-out fiend including having all meals prepared in advance per his nutritionalist’s directions. These physical changes meant he had to adapt his mind to his new body. It took about 4 years to get there, but he was able to remain a top 125 PGA Tour golfer and be an exempt qualifying player on the tour during the period, which in itself was a great accomplishment with all of the talent he competes against each week. However, he has not won a tournament since the health issues and fitness work began while nearing the normal twilight years of a professional golfer’s career.

Scott always had one goal each season that he had never achieved – to make the Tour Championship of the FedEx Cup for the Top 30 players on the world’s premiere tour. These golfers get to play in the season finale for a boatload of money, playing privileges and prestige. That goal was finally achieved on Sunday. He nearly won the BMW sponsored qualifying tournament, coming in second to the winner, Patrick Cantlay by one shot. Over the weekend he played with two future Hall of Famers – Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott. They clearly enjoyed playing with him and cheered him on as he played better than both.

As Scott said with a laugh after the tournament, “Better late than never.” It was a reference to his age and how long he had been on tour before achieving his goal. Or as I tell my family members, “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.” He started the tournament outside of the Top 30 at #46. With his finish he moved up to #12 going into the finale this weekend.

This type performance makes a professional golfer’s career. Top 30 on the PGA Tour is the equivalent of Top 40-50 in the world. For next season he will have an invitation to all of the major golf tournaments in the world and be able to set his schedule for what works best for him and his family at a time when the tour has exploded with opportunity as shown in the above PGA info link. He has arrived. With his new body, healed spirit, a wonderful family, and expert team supporting him including his quality caddie, he still may have 5-10 years of great golf ahead. I suspect we will see him back in the winner’s circle before long. He has made nearly $17 million in his career with nearly $4 million coming this season as he has improved his overall play and ranking to its highest level since he began with 7 top 10 tournament finishes. That will only increase even more this week.

He’s just an average kid from east TN who worked his way to his dreams with a lot of family, friends, supporters and professionals to assist him along the way. Nothing was handed to him. He earned all of it. Yet, he never changed from being humble, honest, hard working, and kind to others. Just like his family, a chip off the old block. As an example, in recent years he started a foundation called “Kids Play Free” for junior golf in the state. He and his foundation’s staff arrange for kids to play free at numerous courses around the state with the foundation footing the costs, which comes primarily out of his pocket along with some corporate sponsorships. The golf course owners also reduce or even eliminate their fees to assist. He also continues to teach the game to wounded Army veterans. He is very involved in his church’s mission activities when he is town and in the off season. All on his own time and dime.

Another example of his good character was back when he was having health issues. He tried a supplement recommended by his physician. He did not realize the supplement had an ingredient that was on the tour’s banned list. Despite it not helping, when he found out he notified the tour. He did not try to hide it as many would do and have done since he was not being drug tested. He self imposed a three month ban from playing that the Tour agreed was sufficient. He put his career at risk, but to him setting a good example matters.

His career happened because he was able to go with his dad to see a PGA golf tournament at age 12. It was a tournament that had Tiger Woods. He was immediately hooked. He came home from that tournament and quit all other sports despite growing up a Boston Red Sox, NE Patriots and Boston Celtics fan. Golf was his game and later, his occupation and mission field.

In the off season and his weeks off you can sometimes find him at the local Donald Ross designed historic golf course at Holston Hills in Knoxville.

If you like golf, I hope you will join me in wishing the best for one of the good guys starting Thursday in the FedEx Cup finale as well as into the future.