Jim Myers, the director of agronomy at Columbia Edgewater - Afterhours
This episode of Grilling at the Green After Hours features a conversation primarily focused on the often-overlooked contributions of caddies in the golfing world, as articulated by Jim Myers, a seasoned golf course superintendent. We delve into the arduous journey that aspiring caddies undertake to reach the PGA Tour, emphasizing the dedication required to excel in this role, often without the advantage of established connections. Myers provides insightful anecdotes about the challenges faced during tournaments, including the imperative of maintaining course conditions amidst unpredictable weather. Furthermore, we reflect on personal experiences and memorable moments that have shaped our perspectives on the sport. Our dialogue culminates in a broader discussion about the importance of balancing work with personal enjoyment, underscoring the significance of overall well-being in both professional and leisure pursuits.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
- Bryson Dechambeau
- Kitiyama
- Tim Tucker
- Jason Day
- Muni
- Nelly Korda
- Lexi Thompson
- Stan
- Grant Boone
- Golf Channel
- Ernie Els Design
- Columbia Edgewater
- LPGA Portland Standard Portland Classic
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcript
Welcome to Grilling at the Green After Hours.
Speaker A:The conversation that took place after the show ended.
Speaker B:Hi, everybody, it's jt and this is a special version of Grilling at the Green.
Speaker B:Grilling at the Green is brought to you in part by Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Speaker B:Beef you can be proud to serve your family and friends.
Speaker B:That's Painted Hills Natural Beef, everybody.
Speaker B:Welcome to After Hours here on Grilling It's Green.
Speaker B:I got my buddy Jim Myers with us today.
Speaker B:If you go to the Standard Port and Classic Classic, you will probably see Jim.
Speaker B:It'll be just a faint sighting, just.
Speaker B:And he'll be gone.
Speaker B:Unless he's talking grass out there in the common area and he's got a.
Speaker B:Got a sandwich and watching them hit balls.
Speaker B:Other than that, he's very busy like that.
Speaker B:Anyway, we're actually doing this a second day in a row because we couldn't finish yesterday.
Speaker B:So this is the after hours part.
Speaker B:And Jim hasn't been on for a couple of years, so this is a little different after hours.
Speaker B:You ready?
Speaker A:Yeah, always ready.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:It's been.
Speaker A:I don't know, it's been, what, a year or two, so.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's been a year or two, so.
Speaker B:All right, we'll start with some fun stuff first.
Speaker B:Then we'll get into the tournament stuff.
Speaker B:If I gave you a box with everything you had lost in your life, Jim, what would be the first thing you would reach for?
Speaker A:Probably some money.
Speaker A:A bag of money.
Speaker A:I feel like I've.
Speaker A:I feel like I've always lost a little bit of money here or there.
Speaker A:You know, you're always dropping something, so.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker A:But I feel like money is probably the biggest thing I've lost, so mine would.
Speaker B:With what I've done with that, on that topic in my life, it would have to be a very big box, contain everything that I lost here and there.
Speaker B:Name an unsung hero of the golf world.
Speaker A:Well, I guess I'm pretty partial.
Speaker A:You know, I. I would say caddies.
Speaker A:You know, especially upcoming caddies.
Speaker A:You know, it takes a lot for a caddy to work his way up to the PGA Tour, you know?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:There's a lot of guys that are really good players.
Speaker A:They get linked up with somebody in college or a friend that's a really good player and of easy.
Speaker A:But if you're a caddy that wants to become a caddy but didn't really have a friend that was a really good player in college or you didn't go to college to work your way up and become a Caddy is utterly amazing.
Speaker A:You know, one of my good friends, Tim Tucker, he caddied for Bryson Dechambo for years, and now he's caddying for Kitiyama.
Speaker A:You know, Tim.
Speaker A:Tim was a great caddy, great player.
Speaker A:He played in some.
Speaker A:God, I want to say that he was either running up or won the mid amp at one time, and I think that was at Bandon.
Speaker A:But, you know, Tim was a caddy abandoned for years and ended up, you know, caddying for a.
Speaker A:A few players that were on kind of the Korn Ferry Tour and that kind of deal, and then kind of worked his way up into the PGA Tour, and, you know, I ended up landing on Bryson's bag and then kind of went from there.
Speaker A:He's caddied for other.
Speaker A:Couple other players, you know, Jason Day and that kind of deal.
Speaker A:But, you know, I just.
Speaker A:I don't think people realize, you know, how much work it goes into becoming a caddie, a professional caddie, and what the actual, you know, avenue is to become a caddie.
Speaker B:It's tough.
Speaker B:It's tough.
Speaker B:You know, I've had a few of them on the show over the years, and there's.
Speaker B:Is not a.
Speaker B:A path paved in gold.
Speaker B:I'll put it that way.
Speaker B:You know, I mean.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I think, like, even for our events here at the Portland Classic, I don't think, you know, a lot of people understand, like, how hard it is for the caddies.
Speaker A:You know, the players show up, and we actually, here in the turf department, we see the caddies more than we see the players.
Speaker A:The caddies are out there early mornings, they're out there late at night.
Speaker A:They're pa.
Speaker A:They'll come in if their player didn't play the week before.
Speaker A:Those caddies are coming in early, trying to get access to the golf course to be able to look at every nook and cranny.
Speaker A:There's a lot of work that goes into preparing to help a player try to do their best on the golf course.
Speaker B:Are they still picking up a loop in the parking lot on occasion?
Speaker A:Not really.
Speaker A:Usually what happens is we have a caddy master.
Speaker A:Stan's been our caddy master here for years.
Speaker A:And classic and normal event, you would cat.
Speaker A:You would contact the caddy master, let them know that you were available to caddy, and then either submit your resume, show your credentials, you know, and credentials would be.
Speaker A:This is who I've caddied for in the past.
Speaker A:This is what I've done in the past.
Speaker A:And if a player wasn't or didn't have an actual caddy.
Speaker A:Usually a player would contact Stan and then they would go through Stan.
Speaker A:So usually that's how the chain of command works on that.
Speaker B:Here's a little known fact.
Speaker B:I went to school with Stan's little brother.
Speaker A:Oh, nice.
Speaker B:Yeah, Jimmy.
Speaker B:He doesn't play golf though, I don't think.
Speaker B:Or if he does, not much.
Speaker B:He's an electrician.
Speaker B:Anyway.
Speaker B:Name a player on the LPGA tour that you think is a bit underrated.
Speaker A:A bit underrated.
Speaker A:Well, one of my favorite players, I would say probably Muni.
Speaker B:He.
Speaker A:She.
Speaker A:She's kind of right in the middle of the pack all the time.
Speaker A:If you see her, she makes a lot of cuts.
Speaker A:You know, I got a chance to talk to her.
Speaker A:She's, you know, not a very tall player.
Speaker A:And where you get somebody like Nelly Corda or somebody like Lexi Thompson, that's super tall.
Speaker A:And so she has.
Speaker A:She told me that when greens get really firm and fairways are really firm, she has to hit a little bit longer irons into the greens.
Speaker A:Where as far as like, you know, Nelly Korda or Alexi Thompson are able to hit shorter irons because of their distance that they're carrying, you know.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:And with Muni, he being, you know, a little bit smaller of a player, you know, it definitely puts different clubs in her hand, but she's always right in there in the middle of the pack.
Speaker A:Super nice individual.
Speaker A:I picked her because, you know, I got an opportunity to talk to her a few times and, you know, she's, you know, a Chinese player and.
Speaker A:But such a great player and her short game is phenomenal.
Speaker B:There you go.
Speaker B:When you get in your car or your truck in the morning, what is the one song you want to hear on the radio when you start your car.
Speaker A:As an old school guy, Maybe Ted Nugent, Stranglehold.
Speaker A:You know, that guitar riff is amazing.
Speaker A:So I think Paul Rogan actually talked about it on one of his podcasts.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:But I guess maybe being old school, I would have to go with that.
Speaker A:You know, my daughter's eight and I always make her.
Speaker A:I always make her listen to like 80s style music.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:So it's kind of interesting to see what her remarks are on, but that's who I would go with.
Speaker B:My daughter is 31 and she can probably sing every Bob Seer song, every Eagle song, every Jimmy Buffett song, little Pink Floyd in there, you know, some Stones, Aerosmith, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Because that's what dad had on the Radio in the morning when driving her to school.
Speaker B:What's the first, Jim, what's the first thing you reach for when you're done with a round?
Speaker A:With a round.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I probably shouldn't say this, but you got to have a Coors light after around.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:You know, you probably should say something a little more politically correct, but nothing better than ice cold curves light.
Speaker B:No, I get it.
Speaker B:I get it.
Speaker B:You've probably got a lot of stories.
Speaker B:But give us one story from the tournament that probably you are the only one that is familiar with or you and your greens crew are familiar with.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think we kind of touched on it a little bit, you know, the last time we talked on our regular recording.
Speaker A:But it was pretty much the storm that we had, you know, a few years back during lpga, we had that windstorm that came in and we had a ton of limbs and trees down throughout the golf course.
Speaker A:And for the staff and the team to come together and clean the entire golf course up.
Speaker A:When patrons started showing up, when players started showing up and caddy show showing up, they had no idea of what happened and what the golf course looked like.
Speaker A:Grant.
Speaker A:Grant Boone actually put.
Speaker A:He asked me about it.
Speaker A:He's a telecaster for, you know, Golf Channel.
Speaker B:Channel.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, he asked me about it.
Speaker A:And him and Tom Abbott were blown away when we showed them photos of what the golf course looked like prior to them.
Speaker A:Everything happened in the morning.
Speaker A:Everything happened in the dark with the team with headlights.
Speaker A:And, you know, obviously we have a noise ordinance, you know, during the regular season, but we don't have one for lpga.
Speaker A:I kind of felt bad for a few of the neighbors hearing all the chainsaws and the blowers running, but we were able to have the entire golf course cleaned up and cared for before anybody even knew.
Speaker B:There you go.
Speaker B:Name a course that you want to play but you haven't been able to play yet.
Speaker A:Oh, wow, that's.
Speaker A:That's a tough one.
Speaker A:I feel like I've.
Speaker A:I've played so many golf courses around the world and so many different countries and had the opportunity to play quite a few, but I would probably have to see some more where they hosted, you know, the British.
Speaker A:Maybe like a Royal Liverpool Country Club, or it's just Royal Liverpool, I think, is what it is.
Speaker A:Golf club, probably Royal Liverpool would be my number one.
Speaker B:There you go.
Speaker B:There you go.
Speaker B:When there's a lengthy weather delay for the television broadcast, because we've talked about weather a lot, but we live in Oregon, so you got to Talk about the weather, right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:What is the staff?
Speaker B:What does your staff do?
Speaker B:I mean, the players, they go inside, they go into players dining or locker room, whatever.
Speaker B:Are you guys, even when the weather is happening out there, trying to assess, or do you wait for everything to just calm down a little bit?
Speaker A:No, I mean, it depends.
Speaker A:And I mean, if it's like a flash flood, rain that has held play up, you know, we'll be on hold a little bit, too, with a few members, managers, you know, running around checking on stuff to see where we're at so we can disperse staff into where they need to be.
Speaker A:But a lot of times, you know, going back in and shoveling up bunkers and.
Speaker A:And squeegee in areas, making sure that drain lines are open and then organic matter hasn't, you know, clogged those drains.
Speaker A:But if it's just a heavy enough rain that it's puddled up, there's no lightning, and we can be on the golf course, we'll start going right away.
Speaker A:The faster we can get things ready, you know, for rules officials to open it back up, the.
Speaker A:The better it is.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:And obviously, you know, you don't want any kind of delay because it delays TV as well.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:Have you guys.
Speaker B:This just.
Speaker B:This isn't in my regular roster of questions, but if you ever had to, after a weather delay like that, and you were talking about, you know, keeping the debris out of the drains, et cetera, et cetera, have you ever had to replace the sand in a bunker within like, 20 minutes so they could get on with it?
Speaker A:We've never had that point where we've actually had to take sand out.
Speaker A:If I remember correctly, Oakland Hills, it was in the 90s, had huge rainstorm in Detroit, Michigan, there.
Speaker A:And I think they actually.
Speaker A:Actually took some dry sand after they pumped some of those bunkers out and added just a dusting of sand to some of those bunkers to help dry them out.
Speaker A:If I remember correctly, we've never been in this situation.
Speaker A:Thank goodness that we've had that much rain in a short period of time.
Speaker A:Usually when the events here.
Speaker A:And you know how Oregon is, we don't really see much rain during the summer, so we've been in some pretty good situations.
Speaker A:But we've had, you know, a couple times where our first rain of the season during the summer came during lpga.
Speaker A:But thank goodness it was light enough that all we had to do is squeegee and no real delays.
Speaker B:There you go.
Speaker B:You know, on the.
Speaker B:On the PGA Tour, there's the.
Speaker B:The beer and brat crowd, where about two hours into the tournament, they.
Speaker B:Sometimes some of the events get a little loud.
Speaker B:And of course, the epitome of that is waste management, you know, in Phoenix.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But what is one thing that Jim Myers wishes that spectators would not do.
Speaker A:I guess, as being a golf course superintendent, when people walk the rope lines, they walk right on the edge of the rope lines, and everybody seems to walk on that rope line.
Speaker A:It'd be nice when they were walking from holes to holes, that they disperse a little bit, because once the rope lines are pulled, you can see where all the turf damage is from the patrons walking.
Speaker A:Especially if we had rain and that kind of deal.
Speaker A:And it just depends on crowds.
Speaker A:The bigger the crowd gets, the harder it is.
Speaker A:But, you know, anytime you can disperse a little bit of foot traffic outside of those rope lines, it saves us time after the event having to go in and overseed or kind of re.
Speaker A:Get those areas rejuvenated, whether it's sod or seed or whatever.
Speaker A:But, you know, if you're out here on a.
Speaker A:On a Thursday and you, you know, or even early Friday, you don't have to walk those rope lines.
Speaker A:You can walk a little further out.
Speaker A:You'll save the traffic, foot traffic for us come Sunday.
Speaker B:And they don't have to yell mashed potatoes, right?
Speaker A:No, not at all.
Speaker B:So here's what I thought at the end of the day.
Speaker B:I've used it on a couple of shows.
Speaker B:When you're at home and you're getting a tumbler full of ice for whatever, and that last piece of ice falls out on the floor from your ice maker, Are you the kind of guy that a, kicks it under the refrigerator, two, gives it to the dog or the cat in their water dish, or three, picks it up and puts it in the sink?
Speaker A:I definitely chuck it in the sink and wait for my wife to say something to me about it.
Speaker A:So why is all this ice in the.
Speaker A:In the sink?
Speaker B:Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker B:I actually confessed to my wife last night or the night before, because I was talking to her about some of these new questions I came up with.
Speaker B:And I said, yeah, I am the guy that kicks it under the refrigerator.
Speaker B:And she just looked at me like, really?
Speaker B:Really?
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:That's awesome.
Speaker B:You didn't have to tell me that.
Speaker B:You know, I'd have been.
Speaker B:I could have lived the rest of my life not knowing that little bit of information from you, pal.
Speaker A:That's so good.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:What's your favorite color?
Speaker B:Lifesaver.
Speaker A:Geez, I'd say the color green, and it's probably not for the reason of the taste.
Speaker A:It's because I'm paid for green.
Speaker B:Yeah, no, I get it.
Speaker B:I like green ones and I like red ones.
Speaker A:Yep, I would agree with that.
Speaker A:And both of those are two best.
Speaker B:Two best in a lifesaver role, right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Change.
Speaker B:Change thoughts a little bit here.
Speaker B:You know, we've seen like the TGL stuff on TV and around our area.
Speaker B:There's a lot of them in our area, a lot of them in a lot of metropolitan areas, the indoor golf simulators, etc.
Speaker B:Etc.
Speaker B:Do you think that, like, TGL should be considered real golf?
Speaker A:Well, that's an interesting question.
Speaker A:I would have to say no, just for the fact that, I mean, it's probably stimulates your brain a little bit and obviously gives you an opportunity to kind of hit a shot and see what it looks like.
Speaker A:But you can't compare that to being out on a real golf course.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:You know, being that, you know, the conditions of a golf course change every day.
Speaker A:You know, the how.
Speaker A:How firm the.
Speaker A:The ground is, how soft it is from, you know, weather.
Speaker A:You know, different golf courses have different fast layers, you know, different amount of maintenance levels so that all those conditions are going to change.
Speaker A:If you're indoors on a simulator, that mat and bounce isn't really going to change and it's, you know, not going to affect your shot as much.
Speaker B:I think they've got a place, you know, a practice place and all that.
Speaker B:Yeah, very much so, but.
Speaker B:And I can even, you know, it's like a bowling league with a stick kind of thing.
Speaker B:Yeah, if you think about it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, I have friends that live back home in Vail and they're on an actual league during the winter months because, you know, they don't have an option.
Speaker A:You're living at a ski resort, so my friend actually, you know, belongs to a league, so.
Speaker A:And my daughter has a, a mat and a big hitting cage for her drivers or, you know, seven iron or whatever she's hitting in the backyard.
Speaker A:So there's a little bit, you know, a room for it, I guess.
Speaker B:Oh, sure.
Speaker B:I mean, I've got a. I know I've seen your putting green.
Speaker B:I've got a putting green back there, but I also have a big cage and mats and I've got from tall grass to smooth turf to everything, just so you can kind of practice.
Speaker B:If I ever actually go out there and practice, that's always the big key, you know, type deal.
Speaker B:Looking back, is there anything you would change in your life, Jim?
Speaker B:Maybe, yeah.
Speaker B:Career wise.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, I got to think that anybody would want to make changes in their life.
Speaker A:You know, I have to say I've been pretty fortunate about where I grew up.
Speaker A:And then spending, you know, such a long period of time in Vail, Colorado, at a ski resort, and then, you know, obviously spending time in Seattle and then now here in Portland.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:The one thing that I would change is I probably would have been better with my investments when I was younger.
Speaker A:You know, I had money in my pocket when I was in my 20s and 30s being a golf course superintendent and no real commitments outside of life besides just making a little bit of money.
Speaker A:If I would have taken that money and invested in, you know, Amazon or, you know, Apple, I probably would have been in a heck of a lot different position than I am now.
Speaker A:So I try to make sure that I remind all my younger generation that work here in the office with me to, you know, make sure that, you know, you take advantage of your 401k.
Speaker A:The better you can plan for retirement, the earlier you can plan for retirement, the better it is for you in the long run.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Couple more here.
Speaker B:What do you want to do when, if you ever retire?
Speaker A:Man, if I end up retiring.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker A:Guess a couple things.
Speaker A:Depends on what my daughter ends up doing.
Speaker A:If my daughter ends up playing college golf or she ends up playing college hockey, I would love to go on the travel circuit and go to all her golf events or hockey events and watch.
Speaker A:But, you know, outside of that, being a golf course superintendent, you spend a lot of time at work.
Speaker A:You know, the job requirements are pretty heavily during the summer.
Speaker A:Like I said when we talked earlier, I think this July, I've only had two.
Speaker A:Two months or two days off in the month.
Speaker A:So utilizing that time to do things that I missed or didn't get an opportunity to do, whether it's play more golf, you know, fishing, or spending time in the backcountry.
Speaker B:There you go.
Speaker B:Last question.
Speaker B:This is your opportunity.
Speaker B:What would Jim Myers message to the world be today?
Speaker A:Oh, well, my message to the world would be, you know, take care of yourself.
Speaker A:You know, good health is important.
Speaker A:You know, make sure that you have a good life.
Speaker A:Work, balance, work hard, play hard.
Speaker A:One of my friends, who Pete Peters, who works for Ernie Ellis Design, he always lived by that motto, work hard, play hard.
Speaker A:And so I would want to make sure that other people in the world understand that, you know, enjoy.
Speaker A:Enjoy life as, as much as you do at work, as you do outside of work.
Speaker B:Excellent.
Speaker B:Excellent.
Speaker B:Jim Myers from Columbia Edgewater.
Speaker B:You can see Jim on location, as they say, from the 14th to the 18th coming up this month.
Speaker B:That's the LPGA Portland Standard Portland Classic.
Speaker B:And Jim will be out there.
Speaker B:And like I said, it'll be a fleeting sighting of Jim because he's busy, but he'll be there.
Speaker B:And, Jim, thank you.
Speaker B:And, folks, we appreciate you letting us spend this time with you.
Speaker B:And like we always say, go out, play some golf, have some fun.
Speaker B:But most important, be kind.
Speaker B:Take care, everybody.
