Shownotes
The paramount focus of today's discussion centers on the profound respect inherent within the game of golf and its pivotal role in shaping the experiences of those who partake in it. We delve into the nuances of the sport, addressing not only the technicalities of gameplay but also the essential etiquette that underpins the golfing culture. Our esteemed guest, Charlie Rymer, shares captivating anecdotes from his extensive career, highlighting the importance of maintaining decorum on the course and fostering a spirit of camaraderie among players. Furthermore, we explore the challenges faced in the world of sports journalism, particularly the rigors of travel and the elusive quest for restful sleep amidst demanding schedules. By the conclusion of our discourse, we aspire to instill a renewed appreciation for the sanctity of the golf course and encourage adherence to the principles of respect and kindness that transcend the game itself.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcripts
This is Grilling at the Green After Hours.
Speaker A:The conversation that took place after the show ended.
Speaker A:Hi, everybody, it's JT and this is a special version of Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:Grilling at the Green is brought to you in part by Painted Hills Natural Beef, Beef you can be proud to serve your family and friends.
Speaker A:That's Painted Hills Natural Beef, everybody.
Speaker A:Welcome to After Hours here on Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:I'm JT along with Charlie Reimer.
Speaker A:Today, this is the part of the show where we can actually swear and scratch and do all kinds of things that we can't do on real radio.
Speaker A:And Charlie's been kind enough to stick around.
Speaker A:So like I said, I've been doing lightning round on my barbecue show for years.
Speaker A:And so I finally created some stuff for the golf show here.
Speaker A:And so bear with us here, Charlie.
Speaker A:But if you could play a round of golf with one of your golfing heroes who you haven't played with yet, who would that be?
Speaker B:You know, I've never played around the golf with Lee Trevino.
Speaker B:And, and I, I admired him.
Speaker B:I loved him.
Speaker B:I'd love to play around a golf with Lee Trevino.
Speaker A:You know, it's funny, at the, we were talking in the regular show about the father son deal, Tiger said something about the thing that he missed this last December was that he and Charlie didn't get to watch Lee on the, on the driving range warm up and hit balls because he said that's always quite a show and it's well worth watching.
Speaker B:You know something else?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:If we declared you Supreme Leader of Golf for one day, what would you, as supreme leader decree?
Speaker B:Everybody's got to play faster.
Speaker B:I mean, it's like, like George Carlin said, when you're driving down the interstate, everybody thinks they're driving the perfect speed.
Speaker B:And anybody driving slower than using.
Speaker B:Idiot.
Speaker B:Anybody driving faster than you is a maniac.
Speaker B:You know, and it's same thing with golf.
Speaker B:It just.
Speaker B:Let's speed it up a little bit.
Speaker A:Folks, just a little bit there.
Speaker A:What's the dumbest thing you've ever seen while you were covering a tournament on the golf course?
Speaker A:Not, not like at Colonial where you're never sure what's going to happen in the crowd with the gals there.
Speaker A:But I mean, I'm just talking about something you saw while covering a tournament.
Speaker B:Well, I hate to pick on her, but in my days covering some LPGA events, LPGA had a rule where around the scoring area, they would actually draw or paint a white line around the, the scoring area.
Speaker B:And I was working with the delightful Jane Crafter, and I can't remember the event or where it was, but Michelle, we finished up on Saturday and she stepped outside the white line after not signing her scorecard and was disqualified.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And so scorecard, scorecard.
Speaker B:You.
Speaker B:In a round of golf, you.
Speaker B:You got to nail your responsibilities by the scorecard and, you know, treat it sacred and some people just don't take it very seriously.
Speaker B:But you're not asked to do a whole lot as a golfer.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:But maintain a.
Speaker B:A neat scorecard for your.
Speaker B:Your fellow playing competitor and then make sure your card is correct is the main responsibility that you can't miss out on as a golf professional.
Speaker A:There you go.
Speaker A:Share with us what your, what you think, your biggest mistake you ever made on the air.
Speaker B:I left the end out of Fred Funk one time.
Speaker B:That was a little embarrassing.
Speaker B:I was covering the old BC Open.
Speaker B:Now, now it's a event on the PGA Tour Champions, and.
Speaker B:And I was in a tower somewhere and.
Speaker B:And sure enough, I left the inn out of Fred Funk and, And the producer on All Call where everybody can hear, it's like nobody say a word.
Speaker B:So it was like 30 seconds of silence.
Speaker B:And so the next day I go to the range and Fred was warming up and Fred's great.
Speaker B:He's one of the nicest people you ever meet in your life.
Speaker B:And he saw me and he goes, come here.
Speaker B:And I walked over and he goes, did you?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I said, yes.
Speaker B:I left the inn out of funk.
Speaker B:I said I'm sorry.
Speaker B:And we had nice laugh about it and everything was good.
Speaker B:But yeah, it's not good to leave the end out of red.
Speaker A:No, no, no, no.
Speaker A:If we put your skills to music, Charlie, what would the music be?
Speaker B:Gosh, it would be some old George Jones, He Stopped Loving Her Today.
Speaker B:You know, that sort of thing.
Speaker B:That's the extent of my singing, but I like the slow, sad country music.
Speaker A:Did you ever listen to George Jones song called the Bird?
Speaker A:If you haven't.
Speaker B:Did I say I haven't heard.
Speaker B:I might have said, did I say George straight?
Speaker B:I meant to say George Jones, He Stopped Loving Her Today.
Speaker B:One of the all time greatest country songs ever.
Speaker B:But no, I'm.
Speaker B:I'm sure I've heard the Bird.
Speaker B:I'm just not real familiar with it.
Speaker A:You'll have to look it up on YouTube because it's funny as all get out.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'll just leave it at that.
Speaker A:But you, you can, you can do that.
Speaker A:What?
Speaker A:As you recall, what's the worst tournament you ever covered.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter the reason why, whether it was the play, the weather, whatever it was.
Speaker A:But do you remember the worst one you ever covered?
Speaker B:I was covering a Corn Ferry tour event for Golf Channel and we were somewhere in the mid Atlantic and.
Speaker B:And gosh, cover so many events, I can't remember all of them.
Speaker B:But it rained and it rained and it rained and.
Speaker B:And on Saturday, trying to get the car out of the parking lot for TV was that some of the guys in the crew literally stripped down to their underwear and they lined up a deal where you'd get your car going and they.
Speaker B:And there were four or five of them.
Speaker B:They'd push your car out of the tv.
Speaker B:That's the only way we could get back up on the road and get out of there.
Speaker A:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker B:So sometimes.
Speaker B:Sometimes weather just makes things nasty.
Speaker B:And you know, when you hear and watch tv, you see people, you know, from the chest up, they look good.
Speaker B:But from where you can't see us, a lot of times if the weather's bad, we're just absolutely covered in mud.
Speaker B:So it's hard to get out on the course sometimes to get to your work position when the weather's bad.
Speaker A:You remember a guy named Haywood Hale Brun, worked for CBS years ago.
Speaker A:Very stoic, stuffy guy.
Speaker A:Always had a houndstooth jacket on, kind of a bow tie, kind of a taller Alex Maceli kind of guy.
Speaker A:You know, like that.
Speaker B:Yeah, well, they.
Speaker A:They sh.
Speaker A:What you were talking about is it was really hot and I saw the outtakes of this is How I Know it and.
Speaker A:And he was trying to do his stand up and they pulled the camera back and he's standing there in white tennis shorts and shoes, but he's got a sports coat and tie on because coming off as soon as the standup was over, but in the middle of his standup, a dog starts barking.
Speaker A:And then a dog stopped, and then it started barking again as soon as he'd start to talk again.
Speaker A:And then it stopped.
Speaker A:And finally after about three times, he turns around and goes, shut up, you son of a.
Speaker A:Like that.
Speaker A:And the camera.
Speaker A:And the camera guys lost it.
Speaker A:You know, they were.
Speaker A:They were like that.
Speaker A:When there's a weather delay, I mean a long one at a tournament and like Golf Channel replays the previous year's tournament and stuff.
Speaker A:What do you guys do?
Speaker A:I mean, you can't really leave in case the weather.
Speaker B:We drank and gamble and smoke cigars.
Speaker A:There you go.
Speaker B:No, it's, you know, it's a lot like, you Know when as a player you just have to go into shutdown mode and, and you know, you go grab a book or, you know, sort of get away from everybody.
Speaker B:Announcer.
Speaker B:Sort of do the same thing.
Speaker B:You just have to shut everything down and, and disengage and, and you know, you wait for an update and when you're going to get back out there and sort of think about, you know, how you're going to tackle whatever issues might come your way when the show does resume.
Speaker B:But there's just a lot of, there's a lot of waiting around in golf, no matter what side, you know, whether you're playing, whether you're calling, you're in a business, you know, we play outside.
Speaker B:It's beautiful most of the time, but a lot of times it isn't.
Speaker B:And those are the, those are the tough days and you just gotta disengage until it's time to go again.
Speaker A:There you go.
Speaker A:If you could dine with a historical figure, anybody, who would it be and what would your menu be?
Speaker B:Historical figure.
Speaker B:I should have something a little closer.
Speaker B:You know, Teddy Roosevelt looked like he was like the most amazing character.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I always recently watched a biography on, on Teddy Roosevelt.
Speaker B:You know, I mean, what.
Speaker B:Talk about a, you know, a man's man, you know, diving into the, into, you know, ponds in Washington every day in the wintertime and, and a war hero and giving a speech, you know, he's just been shot.
Speaker B:That, that would be an unbelievably fascinating dinner to, to, to have spend some time with, with, with, with Teddy Roosevelt.
Speaker B:And then of course with him, you know, it'd have to be like a bison steak or something.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:Something you got to cut with a knife, right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Won't be painted Hills wouldn't be painted.
Speaker B:Yeah, that would have just been, you know, it seemed to me like he'd just been a fascinating person to, to have a meal with.
Speaker A:I think you're right on that one.
Speaker A:If you could erase one mistake from your past, what would it be?
Speaker B:Well, just in general I would.
Speaker B:When, when I was playing professional golf, I just would get too negative my self.
Speaker B:Talk would get pretty bad.
Speaker B:You know, it's sort of hard to expect that you're going to go out and play decent golf when you're telling yourself you suck, you know, And I just said, you know, I wish I could get in a time machine and go back to a younger me and say, hey, get your head out of your butt, you know, and let's go play golf.
Speaker B:Let's, you Know, find some things to be positive about and, and negative self talk is just, just a bad deal.
Speaker A:What's one thing you miss about your twenties?
Speaker B:Not hurting all the time.
Speaker B:I could get the ball out of the cup.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:How about that?
Speaker A:Yeah, I, I, I'm down with that, bud.
Speaker A:Who is your favorite golf writer?
Speaker A:Sports writer?
Speaker B:I don't like any of them.
Speaker A:Okay, fine with me.
Speaker B:I got so many of them.
Speaker B:I, I listen.
Speaker B:John Hawkins.
Speaker B:I worked a lot with him when he was at Golf Channel and he's my favorite curmudgeon.
Speaker B:I, I always loved him.
Speaker B:We didn't agree on much and we would fight and argue, but there was some mutual respect there.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:And the Hawk is, he's something else.
Speaker B:I miss having my conversations with him.
Speaker B:But by and large it's a pretty curmudge.
Speaker A:It, yeah, it is.
Speaker A:I get Van Sickle on the show pretty frequently.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's a, that's a six foot tall curmudgeon right there.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:What's your favorite movie, Charlie?
Speaker B:You know, I'm, I'm a, a sci fi buff, you know, and, and the original Star wars just sort of started it all.
Speaker B: Was it: Speaker B:I was 10 years old, like the coolest thing I've ever seen.
Speaker B:And, and every now and then I'll see it cycle through on the tv.
Speaker B:I'll watch a little bit of, and I still think it's really cool.
Speaker B:Just think how many things it changed, how much it spawned in that industry.
Speaker B:And, and I enjoy that.
Speaker B:Sci Fi and Star wars really started it all.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:What were the best and worst concerts you ever attended that you remember?
Speaker A:That you remember?
Speaker B:You know, I recently saw Vince Gill's a friend of mine and he's, he's been with the Eagles now.
Speaker B:And, and I've only seen him once with the Eagles.
Speaker B:And, and it was a, it was a show, Bridgestone arena in Nashville.
Speaker B:And it was just incredible.
Speaker B:And, and when Vince was introduced, it was like about 5 minutes standing ovation before they could even play again.
Speaker B:You know, I was a hometown boy and they all didn't grow up in Nash, but he's sort of an ambassador for Nashville.
Speaker B:And I just thought it was an incredible experience seeing the Eagles.
Speaker B:And then Worst concert.
Speaker B:I don't know, there was a concert.
Speaker B:My wife drugged me to some cultural event.
Speaker B:It was a musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.
Speaker B:I made it about 30 minutes and I was out of there.
Speaker A:My earlier, well, last year because we're first of the year, but my wife took Me to a flute concert.
Speaker A:Yeah, okay, that's enough said about that.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:She took me to Bocelli, a Bocelli concert one time too, and I didn't make it very long in that.
Speaker A:Didn't make it very long there.
Speaker B:Just not my genre.
Speaker A:Yeah, I get it, I get it.
Speaker A:If you were on death row, what would your last meal be?
Speaker B:Yeah, I actually think about that a lot.
Speaker B:You know, I love some good chicken fried steak.
Speaker B:I mean, it's gonna be southern boy stuff, right?
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:The chicken fried steak.
Speaker B:It's gonna be some yeast rolls, there's gonna be some fried okra, some mashed potatoes, full jacketed mashed potatoes.
Speaker B:I like the, I like the skin on and you know, plenty of gravy, you know, that, that sort of stuff.
Speaker B:Good old southern boy stuff.
Speaker A:About a pound of butter sitting over there.
Speaker A:Yeah, you gotta have butter.
Speaker B:Irish butter.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was, I was kind of surprised you didn't say a low country boil there.
Speaker B:Yeah, I like a low country boil.
Speaker B:But you, you know, you, you, you sort of narrowed it down.
Speaker B:I mean, I had to kick barbecue out.
Speaker B:I had to kick low country boil.
Speaker B:I mean, I.
Speaker B:Chicken fried steak.
Speaker A:Okay, okay.
Speaker A:Over the years, what's been the hardest part of your job?
Speaker A:Could be the travel.
Speaker A:Could be crappy hotels.
Speaker B:Travel stinks.
Speaker B:Hotel room stink.
Speaker B:But, but sleeping is tough.
Speaker B:You know, it's, it's like when I was playing, you know, you're always dealing with some anxiety.
Speaker B:Either you're playing great, you're nervous about it, or you're playing bad and you're miserable about it.
Speaker B:And either way you don't sleep.
Speaker B:And then years of doing morning TV with a 3:10 wake up call, trying to, to get to sleep and then get enough to where you could be coherent when the show started, have.
Speaker B:Having that 3:10 wake up call.
Speaker B:I would say sleep is probably the, the biggest challenge.
Speaker B:I still hadn't quite figured it out, but, you know, if you're not sleeping very good, it's hard to function at the level you want to function at.
Speaker A:That's true.
Speaker A:I traveled for years, as you know, and I think that was my biggest complaint was living on the west coast, doing work on the east coast or doing work across the pond and then coming back and then trying to gear up to leave again in a few days.
Speaker A:I mean, my sleep schedule was so screwed up.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know, it just, it looked like Lee Trevino on drugs.
Speaker A:Thought process, you know, it was tough.
Speaker B:Not a good sign.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay, last question here, buddy.
Speaker A:If you could Deliver one message to the golf world, what would it be besides speed up your play?
Speaker B:You know, most of the time, it's, it's, it's not an issue, but I, I just.
Speaker B:Golf is, is.
Speaker B:Is a game that's meant so much to me and so many folks just be respectful of the game.
Speaker B:The, the, the, the people on the golf course, the staff out there.
Speaker B:It just.
Speaker B:Golf is.
Speaker B:When you step out on a golf course, it's, it's sacred ground.
Speaker B:You know, you, you gotta, you got to leave it the same or better that that it was for you.
Speaker B:And, and just respect the game, respect the people around it.
Speaker B:And, and if we all do that, then those habits sort of can spill over to life a little bit, too.
Speaker B:And, and just, Just sort of, you know, makes.
Speaker B:I hate to be sort of pie in the sky, but, you know, makes the world a better place.
Speaker B:You know, you saw a little bit more respectful in everything we do and start on the golf course and let it spill out from there and, and, you know, the golden rule, do unto others.
Speaker B:And, and let's, you know, let's just be cognizant of that when we, we step on a golf course.
Speaker A:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker A:You know, I'll, I'll tell you, my deal is I'm no teetotaler by any stretch, but I dislike drunks on the golf course, especially when they are getting really loud.
Speaker A:And, I mean, I don't have a problem with people cheering if they make a birdie or laughing at their buddy if they got five bucks on the line and he blows the putt.
Speaker A:I mean, all that stuff's fine, but when they get drunk and obnoxious, I, I'm not down with that at all.
Speaker A:That's just me.
Speaker B:Yeah, you have a good time out there, but keep it in your sphere, you know, when what you're doing starts spilling over to somebody else.
Speaker B:And that's an issue.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:Charlie Reimer, it is always great to talk to you.
Speaker A:Thanks for sticking around for After Hours.
Speaker A:You're.
Speaker A:You're one of my favorites to talk to on this show, buddy.
Speaker A:And good luck with all the help.
Speaker B:Having me on, and appreciate you checking in on me a lot over this past year.
Speaker B:You knew I was struggling a little bit, and you reaching out to me really meant a lot.
Speaker B:I appreciate our friendship.
Speaker B:Thank you very much, Jeff.
Speaker A:No problem, Charlie.
Speaker A:We'll be back next week with another edition of After Hours, this time with Bob Herring.
Speaker A:Until then, go play some golf, have some fun, and be kind.
Speaker A:Take care, everybody.
