Brad Harvey - Golf Heritage Society
Brad Harvey, a passionate member and director of the Golf Heritage Society, shares his inspiring journey into the world of golf restoration and refinishing hickory clubs. After a life-altering incident where his son became a quadriplegic due to a swimming accident, Brad made the heartfelt decision to leave his job as a school golf coach to care for his son full-time while pursuing his love for golf. He discusses how he transitioned from a casual involvement in club repairs to establishing a thriving business out of his home, where he now creates and restores clubs for golf enthusiasts around the world. The conversation highlights not only Brad's dedication to the craft but also the tight-knit community of golf collectors and players who support one another. With insights into the history of golf clubs and the unique challenges of hickory golf, this episode delves into the rich heritage of the sport and the personal stories that connect its players.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Golf Heritage Society
- Weston Kia
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
- Oregon Crab Commission
- Squares Golf Shoes
- Louisville Golf
- Titleist
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcript
It's time for Grilling at the Green.
Simon Millington:Join Jeff Tracy as he explores a golfing lifestyle and tries to keep it in the short grass for the hackers, new sweepers and turf spankers.
Simon Millington:Here's Jeff.
Jeff Tracy:Hey, everybody.
Jeff Tracy:Welcome to Grilling at the Green.
Jeff Tracy:I'm jt.
Jeff Tracy:How's your golf game this week?
Jeff Tracy:Now?
Jeff Tracy:A lot better than mine, I'm pretty sure beings I haven't really picked up a club in months.
Jeff Tracy:Anyway, we've got a very interesting guest today, Brad Harvey.
Jeff Tracy:Harvey, excuse me.
Jeff Tracy:Who's a member of the Golf Heritage Society.
Jeff Tracy:He's also the Region 8 director.
Jeff Tracy:I can't tell you, when I read that about you, it brought shivers down my spine because I used to be in the horse world and we had 18 regions across the country and all I went, whoa, okay.
Jeff Tracy:Anyway, besides being a member and a director at the Gulf Heritage Society, Brad refinishes hickory clubs and probably some other ones too.
Jeff Tracy:We're going to find out all about that.
Jeff Tracy:Brad, welcome to the show.
Brad Harvey:Oh, thank you so.
Brad Harvey:Thank you so much for having me.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:So I guess the first question is, how did you get involved?
Jeff Tracy:We'll talk about the Golf Heritage Society separately, but how did you get involved in.
Jeff Tracy:In refinishing and restoring, like, hickory clubs and originals and stuff?
Brad Harvey:Well, it was kind of interesting.
Brad Harvey:I've been, you know, I've been involved in the golf world since really I was three.
Brad Harvey:My dad was a good player and I started working at a golf course in Bear Creek down in Medford, a little par 3 course owned by a guy Huppie.
Brad Harvey:And I started working there when I was about 12 or 13, mowing greens and stuff.
Brad Harvey:And they taught me how to do club repair, doing grips and stuff like that.
Brad Harvey:And it just intrigued me to saying, hey, I can work on my own clubs and do things, and kind of caught on from there.
Brad Harvey:And so I always did, you know, because I played in the 70s and 80s.
Brad Harvey:So when I played college golf, we had persimmon clubs.
Jeff Tracy:Sure.
Brad Harvey:You know, and, you know, they would wear down a little bit and you had to refinish them and stuff like that from the weather and everything like that.
Brad Harvey:So I did it myself so I didn't have to worry about anybody thing and, you know, worry about time and all that.
Brad Harvey:When I got older, I always collected classic clubs and I went to Pat Sutton's golf show.
Brad Harvey:I had a couple of tables there at four tables there.
Brad Harvey:They had all these old classic clubs, nothing hickory, just all classics from, like, I always, like from the 20s on up.
Brad Harvey:And they were the pyrotone chefs, you know, the faux wood chefs kind of.
Brad Harvey: , if you take those ones from: Brad Harvey:I go, really?
Brad Harvey:He's like, oh, absolutely.
Brad Harvey:And I go, well, why don't people do that now?
Brad Harvey:And they go, well, they don't really have the skill or the knowledge to do that.
Brad Harvey:So I was like, I'm gonna give it a shot.
Brad Harvey:And that's where it started with the hickory clubs.
Brad Harvey:It was like I just got some wood and started, you know, I started with a lathe and that was.
Brad Harvey:Well, you got to be a skilled person to do a lathe, so.
Jeff Tracy:Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brad Harvey:It was flying all over the place, everything.
Brad Harvey:And so I was like, I'm going to do them by hand.
Brad Harvey:So I started doing by hand and it was very, I mean it was very calming to do it.
Brad Harvey:And it just caught on and just, it just, you know, go down a rabbit hole.
Brad Harvey:And all of a sudden here I am today, you know, with thousands of hickory clubs and make my own shafts for repair them for all over the world.
Brad Harvey:And it's interesting, was there any, was.
Jeff Tracy:There any pre made hickory shafts available when you started that?
Brad Harvey:Yeah, there was a few.
Brad Harvey:Tadmor and Louisville Golf do it.
Brad Harvey:And I got into it and I'm thinking, okay, well I'll just buy their shafts.
Brad Harvey:Well, they were like $25 and another 15 or $20 to ship it.
Jeff Tracy:Right.
Brad Harvey:If I was like, if I was just a comma person, didn't know repair and I got this club head, I'd probably pay $20 for the Pyrotone club head, you know, and then I'd have to get another $45 for a shaft, then another probably $30 for something to install it.
Brad Harvey:When I could just buy a pre made club at $100 or 150.
Brad Harvey:So I was like, there's got to be a better way than just me buying pre made shafts.
Jeff Tracy:Sure.
Brad Harvey:I'm an okay woodworker and I've done a lot of repair.
Brad Harvey:I've, you know, refinished my clubs for four decades.
Brad Harvey:I could do this and, and I just, I got some wood and just by trial and error figured it out.
Jeff Tracy:Well, there you go.
Jeff Tracy:Do you own any metal clubs?
Brad Harvey:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brad Harvey: I turned professional back in: Brad Harvey:Titleist was one of the first companies to kind of pseudo endorse me.
Brad Harvey:I was just a golf pro at Rose City and I always loved Titleists.
Brad Harvey:So I've been collecting almost everything Titleist since their.
Brad Harvey:I mean, they started making clubs and I think about 71 or 72.
Brad Harvey:And I have almost every set from there, including.
Brad Harvey:And their bags.
Jeff Tracy:Do you have a hat like this?
Jeff Tracy:One of their pure black ones with that.
Brad Harvey:That is nice.
Brad Harvey:I can't wear hats too well just because of my face shape.
Brad Harvey:I look very odd in hats.
Jeff Tracy:Well, I have a very good friend.
Jeff Tracy:I'm sure you, you know him, Dick Iverson, who is the rep for years.
Brad Harvey:Yep.
Brad Harvey:He used to play out of Rose City all the time.
Jeff Tracy:All the time.
Jeff Tracy:Still does when he's around.
Jeff Tracy:He spends a lot of time in Hawaii now, but he, his mother in law was a writer for one of my syndicated radio shows.
Brad Harvey:Oh, I didn't know that.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah, Patty, she.
Jeff Tracy:She came from Hollywood.
Jeff Tracy:She was a Hollywood writer and stuff.
Jeff Tracy:In fact, she wrote some of the scripts for a series of audiobooks that were just releasing or in the process of.
Jeff Tracy:The first batch went out.
Jeff Tracy:Second batch is just launching.
Jeff Tracy:The third batch will come in a few months.
Jeff Tracy:Anyway, she was one of the script writers for us.
Brad Harvey:Oh, neat.
Jeff Tracy:It's funny how things kind of, you know, tied together like that.
Brad Harvey:The golf world is so amazing like that.
Brad Harvey:It's.
Brad Harvey:Yeah, it's really big, but it's really small.
Brad Harvey:Everybody knows somebody who's somebody.
Jeff Tracy:Oh, yeah, well, Hank Childs.
Jeff Tracy:Did you work with Hank at all?
Brad Harvey:No, I was Byron Wood, so I knew Hank Chow, but that's what you know.
Brad Harvey:And that's how I got involved with Titleists because Dick Iverson was out there and you know, if you work at a Rose City, it's basically a Titleist course.
Brad Harvey:He just comes and he goes, Brad, here's your five dozen golf balls and here's a golf bag.
Brad Harvey:So.
Brad Harvey:Yeah, sounds good.
Jeff Tracy:Okay.
Brad Harvey:I think Hank Childs took it after because Byron had Heron Lakes and Rose City at the time and they were both city run courses and they said, you can't, you can't have both.
Brad Harvey:You know, what do you want to choose?
Brad Harvey:And I think he went with Heron because Heron was kind of new at the time.
Brad Harvey:So he went over there and Hank.
Jeff Tracy:Went to Rose City.
Brad Harvey:Yeah, I think he got Hank because I was there when Byron woods was kind of oversaw it then.
Brad Harvey:Greg Little was that professional.
Brad Harvey:That was one of the assistants.
Jeff Tracy:Okay, well, I know, Hank was there for 25 years or something.
Brad Harvey:Oh yeah, yeah.
Jeff Tracy:And now temper runs it for the city.
Jeff Tracy:And Hank's son Henry is the general manager there at Rose City.
Brad Harvey:So.
Jeff Tracy:See, never falls too far from the tree, right?
Jeff Tracy:What can I tell you?
Jeff Tracy:Yeah, did.
Jeff Tracy:When you started doing this and you had some tough decisions to make, and we're going to talk about those in the next couple segments, and you did this, you became to do this for a full time for a very really touching and good reason.
Jeff Tracy:But when you decided to do this full time, did your wife and friends think you were nuts or what?
Brad Harvey:Well, it was, I still worked at the school district.
Brad Harvey:I was the boys golf coach at Beaverton high school for 28 years and I had a full time repair business and I still worked as a security guard at the school district at the same time.
Brad Harvey:So I was burning the candle at both ends and maybe all three ends, you know, really.
Brad Harvey:And it was hard.
Brad Harvey:And my wife always knew that I was involved in golf.
Brad Harvey:You know, we've been married 30 years and the garage has always been full of golf clubs or my workshop or anything like that.
Brad Harvey:So it was nothing new to her.
Brad Harvey:It was just, you know, it was something that just has been in me forever that's just, it's a part of me and I don't think I could ever let it go, you know.
Brad Harvey:And people look at all the clubs that I have and they're like, okay.
Brad Harvey:And some, some of the collectors like say I'm just a beginner because I only have about three to five thousand clubs.
Brad Harvey:And they go, you're just a beginner.
Jeff Tracy:So I have a couple hundred clubs and my wife's like, you're not putting any more in that room, you know, type thing.
Jeff Tracy:No, it's all good.
Jeff Tracy:It's all good.
Jeff Tracy:What's the most expensive club you've ever sold that you made or refinished and then sold?
Brad Harvey:You know, it's interesting is that the price of clubs are.
Brad Harvey:So when you think of antiques, you know, this, this club's 130 years old or 140 years old.
Brad Harvey:You think, wow, this has got to be expensive.
Brad Harvey:And a lot of them are playing clubs.
Brad Harvey:And, and so it goes from there.
Brad Harvey:You know, I've had some really good clubs.
Brad Harvey:It's really hard to get.
Brad Harvey:It's like the art world of collecting a golf club because it's got to be a pristine club.
Brad Harvey:You know, it might be that club, but it's got a crack in it or something.
Brad Harvey:So that really takes down the value Right.
Brad Harvey:You know, and stuff like that.
Brad Harvey:So what I call myself more of, instead of a golf collector, more of a.
Brad Harvey:An accumulator.
Brad Harvey:I like the stuff that I could refinish, somebody could play with or somebody can enjoy.
Brad Harvey:So on the long response to your question is probably about a couple hundred dollars.
Jeff Tracy:Oh, there you go.
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:Well, that's not bad.
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:We're going to take a break here on Grilling.
Jeff Tracy:It's Green.
Jeff Tracy:We're going to be back with Brad Harvey from the Golf Heritage Society, and we're going to delve into more of Brad's story of why he did what he's doing right after this.
Jeff Tracy:Please stay with us.
JT:Hey, everybody, JT here.
JT:You know, every week on Grilling at the Green, we bring you a travel tip, and that is brought to you by the Westin dealerships.
JT:I've known those guys since I was a kid, and they have one way of doing business.
JT:It's called the Weston Way.
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JT:Check out Weston Kia on Southeast Stark in Gresham, Oregon.
Simon Millington:Hi, I'm Simon Millington, the CEO of Gulf Brands, Inc.
Simon Millington:And I'm here with Jeff at Grilling at the Green.
Jeff Tracy:Welcome back to Grilling at the Green.
Jeff Tracy:I'm jt.
Jeff Tracy:We want to thank the stations that carry us along the way and also Golf News Network, which we're a big part of.
Jeff Tracy:Ryan Ballingy and that crew back there.
Jeff Tracy:We want to thank Painted Hills Natural Beef, Beef the way nature intended, and also the Oregon Crab Commission from Sea to Plate.
Jeff Tracy:Brad, if you didn't know what I.
Jeff Tracy:I cook, I have a barbecue show and I cook on tv, so.
Brad Harvey:Oh, that's great.
Jeff Tracy:But golf is my passion, you know, so I do that.
Jeff Tracy:Okay.
Jeff Tracy:Before we get into more personal issues here, are you.
Jeff Tracy:Not issues, but topics.
Jeff Tracy:This is the part of the show, Brad, where I ask people to give us a travel tip, you know, and a lot of people say, you know, take, take the heads off the clubs or don't ship them or whatever.
Jeff Tracy:There's all kinds of different travel tips, and they're all good.
Jeff Tracy:But what would be Brad Harvey's travel tip?
Brad Harvey:Well, when I played in college, what we used to do is we had the soft travel bags.
Brad Harvey:We didn't have the hard travel bags.
Brad Harvey:So we used to do we'd go down to the hardware store and get a wooden dowel that was longer than our driver.
Brad Harvey:So we'd get about a 45 inch or 46 inch dowel, put that in our bag.
Brad Harvey:Then what we'd do is we would take all our.
Brad Harvey:Our socks and underwear and jeans and stuff like that and shove them into the bag and so they wouldn't rattle around.
Brad Harvey:And so that was kind of our suitcase, too.
Brad Harvey:Everything was in our soft, you know, thing.
Brad Harvey:So we wanted to make sure the clubs are super tight.
Brad Harvey:And when they threw them against the conveyor belt, it hit the.
Brad Harvey:The longest, you know, the wooden dowel.
Brad Harvey:It might break out the bottom of the bag, but it wouldn't hurt the driver or anything like that.
Jeff Tracy:There you go.
Jeff Tracy:Sometimes it's tough to get a replacement club without paying exorbitantly, I should say.
Jeff Tracy:We want to thank Weston Kia.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:Weston Kia for their golf trip.
Jeff Tracy:Travel tips.
Jeff Tracy:Been supporting us for a while.
Jeff Tracy:Here we are talking with Brad Harvey from the Golf Heritage Society.
Jeff Tracy:You had to make kind of a life decision a while back to switch to doing this full time A little bit.
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:Kind of.
Jeff Tracy:Kind of being a bit of a stay at home dad, so to speak.
Jeff Tracy:Would you tell us about that?
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Brad Harvey:It's coming up on the three year anniversary.
Brad Harvey:It was in July, middle of July, almost three years ago, that my son got in a swimming accident, broke his neck.
Brad Harvey:He broke his C1, C2 and exploded his C5.
Brad Harvey:That's what the doctors tell me.
Brad Harvey:And so he is a quadriplegic.
Brad Harvey:So from that moment on, I decided to leave the school district and everything else and stay home and take care of my son.
Jeff Tracy:Wow.
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:How's he doing?
Brad Harvey:He's doing great.
Brad Harvey:You know, he.
Brad Harvey:It was interesting that when the accident happened, he got him and his buddy were messing around.
Brad Harvey:He got thrown in a pool and hit his head at the bottom of a pool and he heard a pop.
Brad Harvey:And he knew instantly that he was paralyzed and all the breath went out of his lungs and he was there floating face down in the pool.
Brad Harvey:And he said a calmness came over him like he's never felt before.
Brad Harvey:And he knew his buddy would get him out of the pool and he knew instantly that his life was going to be changed and this is his new life and he just has to accept it all within that 26 seconds or, you know, whatever happened in the pool.
Brad Harvey:And when it happened, I was away at a Hickory golf tournament at Gearhart, and I was actually up because I'm a Northwest Hickory board member.
Brad Harvey:I ended up giving a speech at the dinner and my wife was on the phone and we got the news and we didn't really know quite what happened, but, you know, we're all the way in gearhart he's at Emanuel.
Brad Harvey:And so we had to get in the car and go there and wasn't sure.
Brad Harvey:And we knew it was surreal when we pulled up when the pastor of the church or the pastor of the hospital met us.
Brad Harvey:So I was like, oh, this is kind of real.
Brad Harvey:And just right from the get go, I knew that I had to do something to support my family and my kid.
Brad Harvey:And I said, okay, I gotta.
Brad Harvey:I have 28 years in the district.
Brad Harvey:I'm a tier one employee, so I should be able to retire early because I was 55 at the time.
Brad Harvey:So.
Brad Harvey:Got luck, you know, got lucky with that kind of.
Brad Harvey:Things fell into place for a horrible situation.
Jeff Tracy:Well, I'm sorry to hear that about your son, but you seem like you're kind of on top of it.
Brad Harvey:Yeah, you know, it's.
Brad Harvey:It's interesting when you have something like this that I.
Brad Harvey:I've never been upset about it, never cried.
Brad Harvey:Just, you know, it's like playing in a golf tournament and you're two holes away and you take a triple on one hole.
Brad Harvey:You know, what are you going to do?
Brad Harvey:You can cry about it or you can go to the next tee and see what you can do.
Jeff Tracy:Right.
Brad Harvey:And that's kind of the way I took on this was like, okay, I'm, you know, he's a quadriplegic.
Brad Harvey:He has limited arm movement, no hand movement.
Brad Harvey:And I'm like, I don't really want anybody coming into the house where he's going to feel strange because he's.
Brad Harvey:He's very vulnerable at that point.
Brad Harvey:He can't do anything.
Brad Harvey:So I said, you know, no matter what, I'm staying home and taking care of my kid.
Brad Harvey:And it just.
Brad Harvey:Sweat was.
Brad Harvey:And it works out great.
Brad Harvey:I get to stay home with my family, and then I have my golf shop out back.
Brad Harvey:I get to do that.
Brad Harvey:So it's kind of the best of both worlds.
Brad Harvey:Like, again, for a horrible situation, you know.
Jeff Tracy:Does your wife still work or she at home too?
Brad Harvey:Yeah, she's a schoolteacher.
Brad Harvey:She's been with the district for 31 years.
Brad Harvey:So she's kind of the glue that holds everything together, you know, and good for you.
Jeff Tracy:Well, you know, Brad, they're doing all kinds of stem cell work and rejuvenation work.
Jeff Tracy:You never know what's just around the corner.
Jeff Tracy:I mean, really?
Brad Harvey:Yeah, well, we didn't know when we first got it, his C5 was literally in three or four pieces.
Brad Harvey:And the doctor says, I don't know how he's still alive and how he didn't lose consciousness.
Brad Harvey:And the doctor said he will be a complete quad, which means no arm movement or anything like that.
Brad Harvey:But every.
Brad Harvey:Every injury is so different.
Brad Harvey:And after they had the surgery, his neck surgery, he started moving his arms, and everybody was in shock, including my son.
Brad Harvey:He was so happy that he had arm movement, you know.
Brad Harvey:So now he can drive his wheelchair without.
Brad Harvey:I call him, like a sip and puff without using his mouth.
Brad Harvey:He can use his arms.
Brad Harvey:He uses his wrist to do it.
Jeff Tracy:So did he play golf?
Brad Harvey:He didn't.
Brad Harvey:He was a football player in shot put, so he was a big kid.
Brad Harvey:I think that's what kind of helped him save his life a little bit.
Brad Harvey:He was a big lineman, so he was 6ft 320 in high school and same thing in college.
Brad Harvey:And, you know, he was very muscular, could bench over 300 pounds and stuff.
Brad Harvey:And they said it's probably what saved his life when they threw him in the pool.
Brad Harvey:Is that him being so big and strong?
Jeff Tracy:Right?
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:Well, I used to be big and strong like that.
Jeff Tracy:Now I'm just big and I sit a lot.
Jeff Tracy:So how did you get involved?
Jeff Tracy:And we've got about a minute left, really, or less than that before we go to break, so I'll tell you what I do.
Jeff Tracy:We're going to save the Gulf Heritage Society involvement with Brad and how he got into that.
Jeff Tracy:And tell us more about that when we come back from break.
Jeff Tracy:And again, we'd like to thank the folks at Weston Kia and of course, the Oregon Crab Commission and our new sponsor, as just a few months ago, Squares Golf Shoes.
Jeff Tracy:If you don't have them, Brad, try them.
Jeff Tracy:Squares Golf Shoes are really nice.
Brad Harvey:Sounds good to me.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah, I got fat feet.
Jeff Tracy:Too many horses stepped on my feet over the years, so they got to get squished.
Jeff Tracy:And I have.
Brad Harvey:I have extremely flat and wide feet, so.
Brad Harvey:I hear that.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:So you might want to try squares.
Jeff Tracy:Anyway, we're going to take a break.
Jeff Tracy:We're going to be back here with Brad Harvey on grilling.
Jeff Tracy:It's Green in just a moment.
Brad Harvey:Foreign.
JT:It'S jt.
JT:You know, I talk about Painted Hills all the time, and we always say beef the way nature intended.
JT:But it's more than that because each bite of Painted Hills will make your taste buds explode.
JT:Put a big, bright smile on your face, and whoever's at your dinner table will have a big, bright smile on their face.
JT:And you can thank me for that later.
JT:Just go to painted hillsbeef.com and find out more.
JT:You won't regret it.
Jeff Tracy:Welcome back to Brilliant Green.
Jeff Tracy:I'm JT Today we're talking with Brad Harvey from the Golf Heritage Society.
Jeff Tracy:How did you get involved in that?
Jeff Tracy:And before you.
Jeff Tracy:Before you tell me that, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but before you tell me that, you know, it's weird because I'm a.
Jeff Tracy:I'm on social media.
Jeff Tracy:You know, I'm sure everybody in golf, a lot of people are in social media, and everybody is this golf Society or that golf Society or this golf Society.
Jeff Tracy:How did you get involved with the Golf Heritage Society and what prompted you to do it?
Brad Harvey:Well, you know, it used to be called the Golf Collector Society way back when.
Jeff Tracy:Okay.
Brad Harvey:I think it originated around in the early 70s, and I belonged back in the 80s, you know, just because I was a golf collector and I always heard about it.
Brad Harvey:But all these shows that Pat Sutton does out at Riverside, you get all the antique guys there, and Rob all sweet, who's very famous in the Hickory golf world.
Brad Harvey:We were talking one day and stuff, and he goes, oh, you should be, you know, a zone director for the.
Brad Harvey:The Gulf Heritage Society.
Brad Harvey:And I go, yeah, well, it used to be the golf.
Brad Harvey:You know, we talked about it.
Brad Harvey:And he goes, well, I'm the zone director right now, and I want out because I'm getting older.
Brad Harvey:You can have it.
Brad Harvey:I'm like, okay.
Brad Harvey:And soon as I took it, you know, he had that evil little chuckle, and I'm like, what did I get myself into?
Brad Harvey:And, you know, so I talked about it.
Brad Harvey:It's a group of guys that just sit around and talk about the golf collecting and stuff.
Brad Harvey:And most of the guys are the guys who write the books about collecting.
Brad Harvey:So it just kind of stumbled into it.
Brad Harvey:Like I said, I've always been a member, but to get involved in, you know, directing, it was.
Brad Harvey:Was kind of fun.
Brad Harvey:It was just like.
Brad Harvey:Just from playing golf and on the golf course.
Brad Harvey:Is that knowing Rob, all sweet.
Brad Harvey:He just said, here you go.
Brad Harvey:Why didn't you go this way, by the way?
Jeff Tracy:I went to.
Jeff Tracy:I went through school with Pat Sutton's sister, Terry.
Brad Harvey:Okay.
Jeff Tracy:And because Pat grew up on the Mountain View Golf Course out there in boring, and.
Jeff Tracy:But they went to Esticada.
Jeff Tracy:That's where I grew up.
Jeff Tracy:So anytime somebody says something about Pat.
Jeff Tracy:And a couple.
Jeff Tracy:Three years ago, Steve and I were shooting a tournament at Riverside, and he was just leaving.
Jeff Tracy:He was just, you know, retiring out, and I finally got a chance.
Jeff Tracy:He didn't remember me.
Jeff Tracy:Why would he?
Jeff Tracy:It's been 55 years, you know, since I've Seen him, but, yeah, he was.
Jeff Tracy:Great guy.
Jeff Tracy:Great guy.
Jeff Tracy:Pat Sutton.
Jeff Tracy:So do you actually still get to play in the Hickory tournaments and.
Brad Harvey:Oh, absolutely.
Brad Harvey:I played in one on January 1st.
Brad Harvey:We went up there because, like I said, I'm a board member for the Northwest Hickory Players, and I think my terms out.
Brad Harvey:I was the marketing director for the Society Hickory Golfers, too, for the whole United States.
Brad Harvey:I think my term is up.
Brad Harvey:I think it's maybe up in February, March.
Brad Harvey:But, you know, once you go down the rabbit hole of joining all these societies, all of a sudden they need people.
Brad Harvey:Then your name's on a list.
Brad Harvey:Then all of a sudden you're the head of everything.
Brad Harvey:It seems like so.
Jeff Tracy:And you raised your hand.
Brad Harvey:Yeah, exactly.
Jeff Tracy:I was like.
Brad Harvey:Everybody else backed up, and I was the only one left.
Jeff Tracy:Volunteers, please?
Jeff Tracy:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah.
Brad Harvey:But it's been great, you know.
Brad Harvey:I mean, it's.
Brad Harvey:There's a lot of contacts and a lot of leads, and it's just.
Brad Harvey:It's a neat organization, too, if you really want to know about collecting.
Brad Harvey:Because all you got to do is call these guys, and they love to talk.
Jeff Tracy:What about that?
Jeff Tracy:Because, honestly, I don't know that much about, like, the Hickory tournaments.
Jeff Tracy:I know a bunch of people that play.
Jeff Tracy:I have people's friends on both coast.
Jeff Tracy:Peoples.
Jeff Tracy:Right.
Jeff Tracy:I have friends on both coasts that love to play with hickories.
Jeff Tracy:And I've been invited to play.
Jeff Tracy:I have three or four Hickory clubs that are a lot worse for the wear.
Jeff Tracy:I'll just.
Jeff Tracy:I picked them up at a garage sale years ago.
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:Okay.
Jeff Tracy:And, of course, my question is.
Jeff Tracy:Is, like, what kind of ball are they hitting?
Jeff Tracy:What are their yardages?
Jeff Tracy:The same.
Jeff Tracy:Was par the same for.
Jeff Tracy:I mean, I.
Jeff Tracy:I'm showing you my ignorance, but I don't know that much about playing with Hickory.
Brad Harvey:Yeah, it.
Brad Harvey:Well, it's a little different.
Brad Harvey:We do play with a.
Brad Harvey:Well, you don't really have compression golf balls anymore like we used to, but we do with a softer ball.
Brad Harvey:I play with the Wilson Duo software just because you can compress it a little more.
Brad Harvey:But with.
Brad Harvey:With hickories, I really can't tell the difference between my Hickory golf clubs and my modern set.
Jeff Tracy:Okay.
Brad Harvey:So it's like the.
Brad Harvey:It's a little different because, like, you know, a Mashy is kind of like a five iron, but every company that made a Mashy made them a little different.
Brad Harvey:So it might be a five iron, it might be a six plus, or it might be.
Brad Harvey:This just depends on how they worded it.
Jeff Tracy:Sure.
Brad Harvey:Though.
Brad Harvey:And we have certain Stipulations when we play sanctioned Hickory tournaments is that in the Open division, which is like all the young people up to 60, if you want to play in the Open division, the maximum you could play a course is about 6,000 or 6,100 yards, you know, and that's.
Brad Harvey:And that.
Brad Harvey:That's pretty good because when you play a par four that's like 380 with a hickory, it's that enjoyable.
Brad Harvey:You know, it's like, oh, I'm hitting, because I could still hit my Hickory driver.
Brad Harvey:Probably around.
Brad Harvey:Probably around 240, 250, maybe 260 with some roll.
Brad Harvey:There's some good guys out there like Von Lasso, who did pretty well in the amateur A couple years ago, he won the US Open.
Brad Harvey:Hickory US Open.
Brad Harvey:And I was playing in his group, and he still hits his hickory around 300, 310, so.
Brad Harvey:But he's young, about 30 years.
Jeff Tracy:Because it always, you know, you hear the.
Jeff Tracy:Brad, you hear the discussions, whether it's on the discussion boards or the pundits on TV or got the local bar and you know, you hear the, the.
Jeff Tracy:The dedicated brethren say it's no different than it was 120 years ago.
Jeff Tracy:And they say, you know, I can hit a ball.
Jeff Tracy:You know, they're hitting a balata or they're hitting a feathery or gutter perch or whatever it is, you know, and it goes.
Jeff Tracy:And I honestly, I want to take them for their word, but I, you know, I don't know, is that's actually physically possible to.
Jeff Tracy:Especially the older, older types of balls and clubs versus something maybe around the turn of the century, 19th century.
Jeff Tracy:Right.
Jeff Tracy:You know, into the Bobby Jones era.
Jeff Tracy:I guess I'm got a mental block.
Jeff Tracy:Well, I've been accused of that before, too.
Jeff Tracy:But the point is this, like, I don't see as, you know, if Bobby Jones stood there and Annika Sorenstan stood over there and Bobby hit his clubs and balls and Annika hit hers, who would win?
Jeff Tracy:And I don't mean as far as the total score, but I'm talking about distance and control and things like that.
Brad Harvey:Right.
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Brad Harvey:And that's the thing is like.
Brad Harvey:Like I said when I was playing, you know, in the 70s and 80s, we had the Ballada ball, which was soft.
Brad Harvey:You hit it.
Brad Harvey:I mean, I'd always have to carry two dozen golf balls because 18 holes.
Brad Harvey:I meant if you hit a tree or if it hit a car path, it's gone.
Brad Harvey:Yeah, but even with the wood clubs and we didn't really have graphite back then, or metal.
Brad Harvey: or: Brad Harvey:And we could still crack it over 300.
Brad Harvey:And even Jack Nicklaus had to put six screws in his inserts because he kept breaking the club, you know, and hit it.
Brad Harvey:And I think even back in the 20s and 30s, they have records of people hitting them over 300 and 400 yards.
Brad Harvey:You know, it's just, it's.
Brad Harvey:I.
Brad Harvey:I don't think a lot of people think it's gone too far this way, that way.
Brad Harvey:Me personally being involved in the golf world for the last 40 plus years, I haven't seen a change.
Brad Harvey:You know, I know they're hitting it further, but they're exercising more.
Brad Harvey:They're more in shape.
Brad Harvey:I mean, back when Jack was playing, I mean, his nickname when he first came out was Fat Jack.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah.
Brad Harvey:You know, they didn't exercise.
Brad Harvey:They drank and smoke on the course.
Jeff Tracy:You know, and then it was to the chocolate cake afterwards.
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Brad Harvey:They weren't considered athletes.
Brad Harvey:They were pro golfers.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah.
Brad Harvey:Not like nowadays.
Brad Harvey:Those guys are specimens nowadays.
Jeff Tracy:A lot of Marlboros and martinis, you know, and meatballs.
Jeff Tracy:I guess that's, that's.
Jeff Tracy:It just fascinates me though, Brad, because, you know, you talk about rolling back the ball, and that's one of Jack's big.
Jeff Tracy:Gotta roll back the ball.
Jeff Tracy:Gotta, you know.
Jeff Tracy:Are you talking about that because of the top 10% of the top 1% can blast it out there 420 yards or whatever, and the rest of us mortals are feeling like we have a really good day when we get it to 25 or something.
Jeff Tracy:I mean, that's the part of the argument that I don't understand.
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Brad Harvey:And, you know, and to me, when I watch professional golf, it's entertainment or any professional sport, I love to watch the guys do something that I can't do.
Brad Harvey:I'd love to see Rory hit a ball365, or these guys just go for it like that.
Brad Harvey:That's incredible.
Brad Harvey:I'd hate to see them hit it 200.
Brad Harvey:I could sit on the patio and see that all day long, you know?
Jeff Tracy:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah.
Brad Harvey:It's amazing.
Brad Harvey:You know, be like in baseball, let's do wiffle balls because they're hitting them too far.
Brad Harvey:You know, it's like that.
Brad Harvey:I don't want to see that.
Jeff Tracy:Right.
Brad Harvey:Let them, Let them go and see where they can carry it.
Brad Harvey:You know, it's.
Brad Harvey:They still got to put a swing on it, no matter what ball you put in front of them, they still have to put a swing on it.
Brad Harvey:And with them being athletes and all the equipment nowadays and everything is so fine tuned, it's like a race car.
Brad Harvey:Of course they're going to hit it pretty far.
Jeff Tracy:Well, yeah.
Jeff Tracy:And then when you get around the green, you're gonna have to have the, a little better touch than the people I golf with, you know, out there hacking.
Jeff Tracy:Like we're pulling Tansy out of the ground or something.
Jeff Tracy:But you know what I mean, it's just absolutely, that's like you said and you said it very eloquently.
Jeff Tracy:They're athletes, they're.
Jeff Tracy:They train more, they, you know, it's kind of like I heard somebody say one time a football player and he said because somebody was complaining about hard hits and he was a defensive, may have been Ray Lewis or something, he said, look, if they tell us we gotta play on the asphalt, I'll just go put more pads on and I'll still hit everybody hard.
Jeff Tracy:So, yeah, kind of the same thing for me.
Jeff Tracy:Anyway, we're going to take a break.
Jeff Tracy:We're going to be back with Brad Harvey and the golf from the Golf Heritage Society District 8 representative right there.
Jeff Tracy:He's the guy.
Jeff Tracy:And we're going to come back, wrap up the show and then we're going to do a little after hours this week.
Jeff Tracy:So please stay with us.
JT:Hey everybody, JT here.
JT:If you need something to practice with in the inclement weather, try bur go to birdieball.com check out the actual birdie balls, their packages, their putting greens, which I happen to have a couple of those and they work great.
JT:Birdieball.com.
Jeff Tracy:Welcome back to Grilling.
Jeff Tracy:It's green.
Jeff Tracy:We're talking with Brad Harvey today.
Jeff Tracy:Brad's story is incredible.
Jeff Tracy:He did all kinds of things.
Jeff Tracy:Golf coach, security officer, teaching pro.
Jeff Tracy:And now he's finishing refinishing antique clubs and taking care of his son.
Jeff Tracy:And to be very much commended for that.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah, I mean that's, that's a big chore.
Jeff Tracy:And so how can people, I mean, first of all, how.
Jeff Tracy:If you go to the Gulf Heritage, they can kind of track you down from there.
Jeff Tracy:But do you have a website or anything that they can look at your wares and your work?
Brad Harvey:No, I don't advertise.
Brad Harvey:And it's, it's kind of funny that for the repair.
Brad Harvey:Kind of kind of a short story here, kind of a long story.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah, it's okay.
Brad Harvey:How I got into it was at that same time when Jack Wilson said, hey, Put these hickory into it.
Brad Harvey:So other guy came and he had an old clubhead.
Brad Harvey:And they didn't really use soul plates back in the day, the metal stuff like that.
Brad Harvey:They use rams horn or anything.
Brad Harvey:That was pretty hard.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah.
Brad Harvey:And for the leading edge.
Brad Harvey:And he said, hey, can you work on clubs?
Brad Harvey:And I said, oh, yeah.
Brad Harvey:I've been doing club head repair for, you know, many years.
Brad Harvey:And he goes, can you fix this?
Brad Harvey:And I, of course, me.
Brad Harvey:You always raise my hand.
Brad Harvey:I go, sure.
Brad Harvey:I had no clue how to fix it.
Brad Harvey:So it's hard to find ram's horn.
Brad Harvey:So I went down to my local pet store and found some water buffalo horn for a dog chew toy.
Brad Harvey:Cut that up, cut a pattern out, sanded it down, put it in.
Brad Harvey:Looked how they took it apart with the old pins.
Brad Harvey:Because you usually take like a square peg, put it in a round hole to kind of get it tight, and put it at an angle.
Brad Harvey:Copied that.
Brad Harvey:And the rest was like, oh, I could easily do this.
Brad Harvey:And it looked up.
Brad Harvey:It turned out beautiful.
Brad Harvey:Nobody could tell it wasn't ramshorn, it was water buffalo horn.
Brad Harvey:But it worked out great.
Brad Harvey:Then all of a sudden, my name just got spread around and I just get clubs all over.
Brad Harvey:Like, I just finished making some shafts.
Brad Harvey:I got some going to Arizona today and tomorrow from Wisconsin.
Jeff Tracy:Wow.
Brad Harvey:I got one guy lives in Augusta, Georgia, and he had a persimmon.
Brad Harvey:Not a persimmon, a hickory tree fall down in his yard.
Brad Harvey:Lives in Augusta, Georgia.
Brad Harvey:Okay.
Brad Harvey:He goes, can you make these into shafts?
Brad Harvey:And I go, sure.
Brad Harvey:So he sent me the wood to make them into shafts.
Brad Harvey:But, yeah, it's just kind of that.
Brad Harvey:That small community that, like I said, everybody knows somebody who knows somebody.
Jeff Tracy:Right.
Brad Harvey:I'm afraid if I had a website or advertised, I don't know how much work I'd have because right now I have a backlog of probably 70 clubs that I have to repair.
Jeff Tracy:Wow.
Brad Harvey:You know, then I take care of the family on top of that.
Brad Harvey:So it's like, sure, sure, get out there.
Jeff Tracy:I know a friend of mine, Kate Pearson, who volunteers at a lot of USGA events and the Masters and.
Jeff Tracy:And the Open across the pond.
Jeff Tracy:She plays hickory.
Jeff Tracy:And she's tried to get.
Jeff Tracy:She lives at Pinehurst.
Jeff Tracy:And she.
Jeff Tracy:She's been trying to get me to come back and then play.
Jeff Tracy:I said, yeah, I don't even have any clubs, you know.
Jeff Tracy:No, no, no, we'll take care of that.
Jeff Tracy:You come back and play with us here at Pinehurst.
Jeff Tracy:Well, you know, it's kind of hard to turn down an invite like that.
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:To play at Pinehurst.
Jeff Tracy:I don't care.
Jeff Tracy:I got Lincoln Logs I gotta hit.
Jeff Tracy:I don't care.
Jeff Tracy:You know, it's.
Jeff Tracy:It's.
Jeff Tracy:I'm gonna take her up on that one of these days.
Brad Harvey:Oh, absolutely.
Brad Harvey:1.
Brad Harvey:A lot of courses nowadays, so, like our society Northwest Hickory players like Rob Wall street, when he travels with us, he brings rentals at.
Brad Harvey:So everybody has something.
Brad Harvey:The golf course at Gearhart, they have rental hickory sets there.
Jeff Tracy:I saw those.
Jeff Tracy:We were there a couple months ago and I saw those.
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Brad Harvey:And I'm gonna start the course out in St.
Brad Harvey:Helens, you know, Wildwood.
Brad Harvey:Yeah, we're gonna want.
Brad Harvey:I'm gonna bring them some hickory rentals.
Brad Harvey:They're gonna start doing hickory clubs up there.
Brad Harvey:You know, fun, little.
Jeff Tracy:Good for them.
Jeff Tracy:Good for them.
Brad Harvey:Yeah, it's starting.
Brad Harvey:Starting to grow.
Brad Harvey:And there's.
Brad Harvey:There's out there.
Brad Harvey:I said a lot of people like me that collect just don't have a bag full or two.
Brad Harvey:They have lots.
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:And you.
Jeff Tracy:You work with Akbar over at Seamus.
Brad Harvey:Yeah, I got his shirt on right here.
Jeff Tracy:Got his shirt on right there.
Jeff Tracy:Got the little goat caddy and all that stuff.
Brad Harvey:Yeah.
Jeff Tracy:So I know he.
Jeff Tracy:He plays some hickories once in a while or maybe does all the time.
Jeff Tracy:I don't know.
Brad Harvey:Yeah, he.
Brad Harvey:He's got into it.
Brad Harvey:Him and I did a collab about, I think about a year ago that he wanted some because he always made those autocorrect putters.
Brad Harvey:He had Tad Moore make them.
Brad Harvey:Then he said he wanted some original ones.
Brad Harvey:So he came to me.
Brad Harvey:I've known Akbar since he was 12.
Jeff Tracy:Yeah.
Brad Harvey:And he came to me and so I went down to his shop, gave him about 20 to 25 antique clubs, and I took his leather that he has there, made grips for him, then redid them, and we sold them out, I think, in six hours.
Jeff Tracy:Where do you see this going, Brad?
Brad Harvey:Like I said, I think golf is entertainment.
Brad Harvey:Find new venues to get people to watch, you know, I meant, you know, going on the tours and stuff and watching it on tv, but then just a little different, you know, And I think it's great.
Brad Harvey:Anything with golf, to promote it.
Brad Harvey:Because golf is such a great sport that it doesn't really discriminate.
Brad Harvey:You don't have to be tall, fast or big and, you know, and you don't have to be good to enjoy it.
Jeff Tracy:No.
Jeff Tracy:You know, and it will abuse everybody, Barnett, whoever you are, doesn't matter your status in life.
Jeff Tracy:It will abuse you.
Jeff Tracy:Brad Harvey.
Jeff Tracy:People can reach out to us or if you want to get involved with the Golf Heritage Society, you can get to Brad there.
Jeff Tracy:But I really appreciate you telling your story with us today.
Jeff Tracy:And you're going to stick around for after hours, so, absolutely, we're going to do that.
Jeff Tracy:Okay.
Jeff Tracy:We'll be back next week.
Jeff Tracy:We got some great guests coming up, which I'm sworn to secrecy not to tell you this week, but I'll start ripping on them next week.
Jeff Tracy:So until then, go out, play some golf, have some fun.
Jeff Tracy:But most of all, be kind.
Jeff Tracy:Take care, everybody.
Simon Millington:Grilling at the Green is produced by JTSD Productions, LLC in association with Salem Media Group.
Simon Millington:All rights reserved.
