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