Mark Milatz, Caddy-Author
This podcast episode features an enlightening conversation with Mark Mylitz, author of *Caddy Tales*, who shares his unique journey from a pastoral life to becoming a caddy at the renowned Whistling Straits golf course. Mylitz elucidates the profound lessons he has gleaned from both his former vocation and his current role in the golfing world, emphasizing the importance of emotional intelligence and personal growth. He articulates how his experiences on the golf course serve as a microcosm of life, reflecting the complexities of human behavior and the pressures associated with both sport and personal identity. Throughout the discussion, we delve into the nuances of caddying, including the varied expectations of players and the significance of maintaining composure amidst the trials of the game. Ultimately, this episode not only highlights the transformative power of golf in Mylitz's life but also offers listeners valuable insights into navigating their own challenges with grace and resilience.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Gulf News Network
- Whistling Straits
- Birdie Ball
- Painted Hills Beef
- Kia
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 A:Hey, everybody.
Speaker A:Welcome to grilling.
Speaker A:It's Green.
Speaker A:I'm Jeff Tracy, commonly known as jt.
Speaker A:We want to welcome you for listening this week, and thank you for doing so.
Speaker A:We're in, of course, here on the west coast in a number of radio stations and across the country, and then, of course, podcast and a proud member of the Gulf News Network.
Speaker A:Interesting guest I have today.
Speaker A:We'd never met, and he wrote a book called Catt Details.
Speaker A:It's been out for a little while.
Speaker A:His name is Mark.
Speaker A:Is it Millets or Milottes?
Speaker A:My list Mylets.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I knew I'd get it eventually.
Speaker B:Mark, sure.
Speaker A:Anyway, Mark's had an interesting life.
Speaker A:He's also a cat caddy at, well, one of the most famous courses in the world up there in Wisconsin.
Speaker A:And I'm going to let him tell you all about that.
Speaker A:First of all, welcome to the show.
Speaker B:Thanks for having me.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So you have had an interesting life.
Speaker A:You were a pastor for a while, and then some things happened, and whatever you choose to talk about, that is fine.
Speaker A:And then you got kind of hooked into the.
Speaker A:The golf world as a caddy at Whistling Straits, and that's a pretty big jump in one way.
Speaker A:But on the other hand, when you.
Speaker A:After you read your book, to me, it made perfect sense.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Really is a.
Speaker B:You know, physically, it's a huge job, and culturally for sure.
Speaker B:But some of the skills that I use in my former world, I use every day out on the golf course.
Speaker B:People just don't know it or see it as such.
Speaker B:But, yeah, interesting.
Speaker B:Life's one way to describe it.
Speaker B:I have shared in my book and on a number of podcasts and stuff in the past that I, you know, really struggled.
Speaker B:In my previous life, I became a pastor, you know, sincerely, but really knowing deep down I wasn't ready for it or really wanting to do it, I was very much encouraged to do it by people that I loved and trusted, and that meant a lot to me.
Speaker B:And so I, you know, not having a lot of ambition about knowing exactly what I wanted to do, I guess I followed their lead and went and did that.
Speaker B:And I always say that I was talented for it, but I wasn't gifted for it.
Speaker B:There's a distinction there that's maybe a little deep for this setting.
Speaker B:But, you know, I. I was good at A lot of things, but it also ate me up a lot.
Speaker B:It really, really was something that I battled with.
Speaker B:And if people I took an honest look, they'd see that that's something in that career.
Speaker B:Happens all the time.
Speaker B:There's just tons of guys who certainly love what they're doing and love the people they serve, but there's a lot who are suffering in silence.
Speaker B:It's a very lonely profession.
Speaker B:It's a very difficult profession and much more so than it even used to be.
Speaker B:And so anyways, I really struggled with drinking too much and that it just snowballed.
Speaker B:We'll just say that it just snowballed and had a very sad break from the church.
Speaker B:And so some significant consequences because of some toxic behaviors.
Speaker B:And the biggest ones were just embarrassing myself and my family and hurting them and hurting people that I cared about and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker B:So that's all to say.
Speaker B:You get to a point where you're at a total transition in your life where you have a wife and four kids to support yet and now you have no job and you have to start completely over.
Speaker B:And it.
Speaker B:I was led to where I'm at now really by a brief discussion that I had with my brother in law a few Christmases before.
Speaker B:My wife actually grew up a mile and a half from Whistling Straits Golf Course on a farm and it was built and opened the year before we were married.
Speaker B: ch where we got married at in: Speaker B:IS less than a mile down the road from Whistling Straits on the corner.
Speaker B:And I would not have known that was where Whistling Straits was or would had any significant care about that.
Speaker B:You know, it was not part of my world at that point.
Speaker B:But you know, we lived in Michigan so we would visit in Wisconsin some and you'd hear about it.
Speaker B:We were happened to be in town one year during one of the PGA tournaments and all that.
Speaker B:So we knew of it.
Speaker B:And one Christmas my brother in law mentions that he thought the caddies there did really well financially.
Speaker B:So I end up needing to start over and I remember that and I thought, well, we're going to move to Wisconsin to be to your family and have that support system.
Speaker B:Let's give it a try.
Speaker B:And I filled out an application and one thing led to another, to another, to another and here we are.
Speaker A:Well that's.
Speaker A:Did you know what you were getting into?
Speaker B:Not at all.
Speaker B:Not at all.
Speaker B:And to be honest, like it almost probably, which shouldn't have happened on the phone interview.
Speaker B:And I always look back now and think this is funny, but I think it's interesting for people to hear how little I knew.
Speaker B:I was asked on the phone interview.
Speaker B:They gave some very basic questions like how many golf clubs go in a bank.
Speaker B:I guessed 14.
Speaker B:I did not know that was the actual answer.
Speaker B:I got lucky.
Speaker B:And then I, and I had played golf plenty, like in the church golf league and all that kind of stuff, but it was never a passion of mine.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:And so then I was.
Speaker B:And, and then I was asked, you know, what's a four caddy?
Speaker B:Well, I had never been to a caddy so I didn't know, you know.
Speaker B:And I think only because I was probably like well spoken perhaps.
Speaker B:And also because there was just a huge need.
Speaker B:The course was.
Speaker B:Ryder cup was coming up at that time and there was just like such a huge need for caddy.
Speaker B:I made it to the next round of the in person interview.
Speaker B:And then there's a training process.
Speaker B:So it's not like they just let incompetent people go out there.
Speaker B:But I remember how fast things were moving during that training.
Speaker B:Like how in the world am I ever going to do this?
Speaker B:And I, if I look back and said what's one thing that's really different from training in that first year of loops versus now?
Speaker B:It's just how much things have slowed down.
Speaker B:And you hear that like in the NFL when quarterbacks talk about playing the game, how the game slows down for them as they get more experience.
Speaker B:I would say that's how I would describe it.
Speaker B:And certainly now too, I have just a, you know, I know every inch of the golf course and have enough experience now that I feel like I can lead people around.
Speaker B:Well but that first year I, I look back and I, I wish I could think of interactions with players where they asked me a question and I gave them that just a ridiculous, terrible answer because I'm sure that there was countless times where that happened.
Speaker A:Did.
Speaker A:So I guess a real pressing question here to get this off the table is are you a Vikings fan?
Speaker A:Are you a Packers fan?
Speaker A:Because your packers kind of got their lunch ate last week by the Bears, if that right at the end.
Speaker A:But that I digress.
Speaker A:But I did think it was an interesting game.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm neither actually.
Speaker B:I am a Lions fan.
Speaker B: in whenever you removed your: Speaker B:And, you know, that's been kind of fun, actually, because I would say the first number of years I was a caddy here, this, the other caddies just like mocked me or like had no injury, you know.
Speaker B:Yeah, we were not a rival.
Speaker B:I learned they did not consider Packer fans do not consider Lions their rivals.
Speaker B:I would say this year and last year there was a lot more, you know, spiciness in their tones towards me, which meant they were taking us seriously a little more often.
Speaker B:So that's, that's good.
Speaker A:I think you can thank Jared Goff for that part of it over there.
Speaker B:Yeah, he's, he's certainly part of it.
Speaker A:Yep, he's, he's done a good job there.
Speaker A:We've got about a little under a minute before we go to break, Mark, but have you been able to put this, the stuff that happened to you behind you?
Speaker A:I mean, none of us actually completely forget the upside down things in our life.
Speaker A:I mean, that's.
Speaker A:We're human, we've got a brain.
Speaker A:We remember that.
Speaker A:But it takes certain skills to pack that away so you can deal with it.
Speaker B:Yeah, I still think about it every day and I still seek to learn from it and I still have great sorrow for relationships that are broken and trust that is broken.
Speaker B:But yeah, I, I have decided that I'm allowed to have a future and I'm going to seek to live that future as sincerely as I can in a way that says, you know, I'm going to be better, I'm going to be healthier.
Speaker B:And, and, and I think that though that has taken a long time, we're more and more on that path.
Speaker A:Yeah, good.
Speaker A:Mark Myletz and I will be back in a minute.
Speaker A:Mark's the author of Catty Tales.
Speaker A:I recommend.
Speaker A:If you haven't read it, you should get it and read it.
Speaker A:Hey everybody, JT here.
Speaker A:If you need something to practice with in the inclement weather, try Birdie ball.
Speaker A: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 A:Birdieball.com.
Speaker B:Foreign.
Speaker A:Welcome back to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:By the way, I wanted to thank the folks at Birdie Ball for sponsoring the first segment in this show.
Speaker A:If you need to practice putting green or if you've need something to work with in your backyard or the city park or wherever you happen to live, these things look like napkin rings, if you will, and you can hit them full swing.
Speaker A:They'll never go more than about 40 yards.
Speaker A:So just go to birdieball.com they're pretty good.
Speaker A:We're talking with Mark Mylitz today, the author of Catty Tales.
Speaker A:Very interesting book.
Speaker A:Mark's very open about things that had happened to him in his previous section of his life when he was a pastor.
Speaker A:And now he's over at Whistling Straits.
Speaker A:I don't want to say preaching the sermon of golf to the people you loop for, but in my mind there is a bit of a comparison there to if people take the sanctity of golf.
Speaker A:A lot of people take it very seriously.
Speaker A:And other people like myself, just like to have a good time and have fun and try to improve your game a little bit like that.
Speaker A:Your first loop you said at Whistling Straits was a double loop and it damn near killed you that day.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:My first double loop was just, just exhausting.
Speaker B:And, you know, my muscles were tight enough.
Speaker B:And in my second loop of the day, I was with caddy and with one of the more eccentric figures in our daddy shack.
Speaker B:And it was just overwhelming, to be honest.
Speaker B:And I look back on that now and chuckle and laugh.
Speaker B:I remember just being so tired and the world was kind of a blur.
Speaker B:And you know, that that has taken some getting used to.
Speaker B:It's, it's.
Speaker B:There could be some grueling days out there.
Speaker B:A hard day of two loops with four bags.
Speaker B:So two bags each time.
Speaker B:You know, you can go up to anywhere from 17 to 20 miles.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And you're out there for 10 hours plus.
Speaker B:It, it's a, it's a tough job.
Speaker A:That's like being on a march in the military.
Speaker A:You know, you got a 60 pound pack on your back and you're walking up a hill for five miles.
Speaker A:Example.
Speaker A:It can be very difficult.
Speaker A:You give a lot of examples in the book of Mark of people you've looked for things you've observed.
Speaker A:I think it would be fascinating to, to see that with, with.
Speaker B:A lot.
Speaker A:Of, you know, different folks like that.
Speaker A:What's one of the things that.
Speaker A:And you, you talk about lots of examples, like I said in the book.
Speaker A:But is there one that sticks out that when you were a newbie caddy really taught you something or maybe even taught you something about yourself?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I guess give a few thoughts on that.
Speaker B:I think that there is something you've learned.
Speaker B:I wouldn't say I've learned from different types of players.
Speaker B:There's stuff I've learned that has been dramatically important from the caddies that I look up to.
Speaker B:So like, there's stuff.
Speaker B:There's a caddy in our program who I really just think the world of.
Speaker B:And when I would work with him, say, my first year, I would be a sponge soaking up things.
Speaker B:And I still mimic some of his behaviors out there while being my own man, because I just thought that highly and learned that much from him.
Speaker B:So I would say I learned the most on how to caddy, the actual technical part of it from other caddies, but the, you know, personal relations, which on most days, I'll say it's more of a human relations business than it is a golf business.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:I think that you learn from both the good and the bad.
Speaker B:And so I learned what I admire, and that is the emotionally intelligent player.
Speaker B:And you'll get some of those guys out there who, you know, they've been uber successful in life.
Speaker B:They've owned companies this, that, or whatever, and.
Speaker B:And they've got nothing left to prove.
Speaker B:They're very comfortable in their own skin.
Speaker B:And I. I really like to, you know, work with them.
Speaker B:And I now model myself after them.
Speaker B:Don't try to get too high.
Speaker B:Don't try to get too low.
Speaker B:And then as I talk about in the book, the people who throw temper tantrums out there, it's easy to judge them.
Speaker B:But I look back and say, honestly, that's how I would behave, at least internally, but sometimes even it would pour out and affect others when things weren't going my way, because you feel such pressure.
Speaker B:And I've come to learn that it's not just that they aren't shooting a good score, it's that they're using that score to define them or to.
Speaker B:As a way of gauging how other people see them.
Speaker B:And when they see that slipping away, well, then they start to lose control of their emotions.
Speaker B:And so you can just see it so clearly out on the golf course that you can reflect on your own life and say, that's not what I want to be anymore.
Speaker B:And so I would say that to sum it up really, again, that thought of not getting too high and too low is become something that I really admire and strive for being joyful.
Speaker B:I'm not saying you can't get excited or whatever, but, you know, don't live and die with each particular moment because there's going to be a.
Speaker B:There's going to be a whole lot of good, a whole lot of bad in life.
Speaker B:And we can't.
Speaker B:We can't go to extremes reacting to every single one.
Speaker B:Sometimes golfers do.
Speaker A:I think that this is Just my kind of take on life in general.
Speaker A:The pressure we're under, about 85, 90% of it is put on by ourselves individually.
Speaker A:In our lives, we make decisions that cause pressure.
Speaker A:You know, you can't be play DOH every day and sit on a rock and contemplate, you know, your next two days, if you will.
Speaker A:But I've seen that on the golf course, too.
Speaker A:I've, I've done it.
Speaker A:I've been under pressure situations in my personal life.
Speaker A:And you get out there and you want to play and you want to have a good time, and it seems like the first two or three holes, maybe not that long.
Speaker A:You know, you're tight, your, your mind's not on the game, you're not interacting that well with your playing partners.
Speaker A:What if you kind of let go of that stuff and you can have an enjoyable time?
Speaker A:But you're right, right.
Speaker A:The score shouldn't, shouldn't define you because one day you can go out and shoot a 72 and the next day you can shoot a 99.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:Yeah, and that's just the way it works.
Speaker B:And I've seen it both ways from the same player on the same golf trip, you know, being with them multiple days.
Speaker B:And the ones that I like the most are the ones whose behavior or mannerisms doesn't change much between the two days.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And then you got other guys who, when they're shooting the 99, they're, you know, despondent, having tirades, distant, not speaking, whatever.
Speaker B:But then when they're having a good day, all of a sudden they're acting friendly and it feels pretty disingenuous.
Speaker B:So it's just, those are just human nature things that I think we all have to battle with and work with.
Speaker B:And golf is such a microcosm of life and it emphasizes things so clearly that it's just easier to see in that arena.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:We're going to take another break.
Speaker A:Mark and I will be back here on Grilling at the Green on Golf News Network and other areas around the world right after this.
Speaker A:Stay with us.
Speaker C:Ready for a new ride?
Speaker C:Choose from over a thousand vehicles at Weston Kia.
Speaker C:Like a new Kia Sportage, Soul Forte, K4 Sorento, Telluride or Carnival Gas, electric or hybrid.
Speaker C:Oregon's all time leader in Kia sales.
Speaker C: Everyone wins at West End: Speaker A:Reported by K Corp. Hey, everybody, it's jt.
Speaker A:You know, I talk about Painted Hills all the time and we always say beef the way nature intended, but it's more than that because each bite of Painted Hills will make your taste buds explode.
Speaker A: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 A:And you can thank me for that later.
Speaker A:Just go to painted hillsbeef.com and find out more.
Speaker A:You won't regret it.
Speaker A:Welcome back to grilling.
Speaker A:It's green on jt.
Speaker A:Today we're talking with Mark Miletz from Catt Details.
Speaker A:That's his book, by the way.
Speaker A:We are part of Golf Newsnet, and we're going to be doing some more stuff with Golf newsnet.
Speaker A:I'm not ready to announce that yet.
Speaker A:And Ryan and I are working out a few of the details, but some exciting stuff coming up this year.
Speaker A:And also my good friend from my other life, the barbecue world, Leanne Whippin and her pig powder.
Speaker A:Go to pigpowder.com we we talk a lot about cooking on this show.
Speaker A:In fact, next week, Frank Nabolo is going to be on again.
Speaker A:And Frank always, pardon the pun, grills me on cooking at some point during the show.
Speaker A:He gets upset if I don't talk about food.
Speaker A:So go to pinkpowder.com and I think you'll enjoy it.
Speaker A:Okay, Mark, one of the stories you gave an example of which I got a real kick out of, was the grandma's out there knocking back fireballs shots and just having a grand time with that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Those days have got to be the most fun.
Speaker B:They're awesome.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And you know what's funny about it is women, when you get four women, more often than not, they're actually really, really serious.
Speaker B:Like, and, oh, yeah, it's not that much fun.
Speaker B:But they're like nobody, nobody focuses on being rules keepers or not giving pots or whatever more than a group of four women.
Speaker B:So that was funny that particular day because they're just, you know, dropping swear words and saying jokes that, you know, would make their grandkids blush or whatever and shooting fireballs.
Speaker B:I have found that women who I like catties more, by the way.
Speaker B:I don't want anyone to get sensitive.
Speaker B:But they, they are definitely the ones who have birdie juice in their bags as a higher percentage more so than men.
Speaker B:The women always have birdie juice.
Speaker B:I don't know if they just get less birdies maybe and appreciate it.
Speaker B:But, you know, I like catties for women for a number of reasons, except for occasionally you do get some that are pretty, pretty intense.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:But I mean, I've, I've actually played with some groups of, of women and I, they, to me, they, and I, I love playing with them because a lot of times they'll just whoop you, you know.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, straight down the middle.
Speaker B:You're gonna, you have two different kinds of women experiences.
Speaker B:The women who are there with their husbands, it's hit or miss.
Speaker B:Sometimes they're good players, sometimes they're just there with their husbands, you know, and, and, but if a group of four women are there, they usually, if they're going to go to a world championship golf course and pay thousands of dollars for a trip, they can hit the ball.
Speaker B:You know, they're usually pretty darn good.
Speaker B:And you have to chase the ball less when you're caddying for those groups.
Speaker B:And their bags are usually lighter.
Speaker B:So there's a lot of positives.
Speaker A:Okay, so we're gonna, I'm gonna ask you a couple questions here.
Speaker A:These are subjects you touched on in the book.
Speaker A:And after we do the regular show, we do this thing called After Hours.
Speaker A:So rough, a little more in the weeds, I. E. The rough on that.
Speaker A:But I take it one of your pet peeves is to be lugging around a 45 pound bag for sure.
Speaker B:And a 14 slot bag.
Speaker B:And everyone, whenever I mention that on X, I get some people up in arms, but they're a pain in the butt for caddies because you often have multiple clubs for multiple players in your hands and finding each individual slot really slow things down.
Speaker B:So they're great when they're on the back of a cart, but they're not great for caddies.
Speaker A:Well, and adding carrying three dozen golf balls.
Speaker B:Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker B:And the big thing that this year I saw was an alarming trend is the big yeti water bottles, so.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Well, you fill one of those up with water and ice, it's a couple pounds right there at least.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Well.
Speaker B:And you know, the phrase that I've learned to say at the backdrop is if a bag's too heavy and you have to ask somebody to unload it, you know, say, help me help you.
Speaker B:You know, the quicker I can get around, the better it is for you.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then another topic we discuss here on the show on occasion is alcohol.
Speaker A:I don't drink much anymore, but I certainly consume my fair share, you know, growing up type thing.
Speaker A:And I've got no problem with guys having players having a couple of beers on the course or that when.
Speaker A:And I played in tournaments, you know, scrambles, whatever when there seems to always be one cart that comes in on those scrambles that the guys could almost fall out of the cart by the end of the round.
Speaker A:You know, I know it's fun, and those days are supposed to be fun.
Speaker A:And I'm.
Speaker A:Believe me, Mark, I am in no way approved.
Speaker A:I have got a not sure, absolute fabulous collection of single malt scotch over here.
Speaker A:But, But I don't get that.
Speaker A:I don't get if they just get to the line and they should, maybe they should say, you know, I think I'm going to hold off on having that last beer for another four or five holes, you know?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And, you know, it's interesting.
Speaker B:There's, there's golf.
Speaker B:A little social lubricant doesn't hurt golf because of the tension that players have, you know, so sometimes it's fine.
Speaker B:But the two areas where I think it's rough is one, if a lot of times players go so hard right away that by the end of the round they're getting real tired and cranky.
Speaker B:Like, yeah, it's five hours out here in the sun.
Speaker B:You know, it's their, their demeanor changes and then that's not, not so much fun.
Speaker B:And then the other time, it stinks.
Speaker B:Is when a guy is, you know, walking five hours, is drunk and is still wanting to, like, score.
Speaker B:Well, like what, what expectation would you have for that?
Speaker B:Like that.
Speaker B:That, that could be kind of a helpless feeling for a caddy.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I don't, I don't know if it was in your book, if it was whole 16 or 17, so forgive me about that, but you talk about the guy that got pretty hammered and then he, he jarred it from.
Speaker A:Yeah, you know, whatever.
Speaker A:120 yards or whatever.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:On hole 18.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:I thought that was pretty interesting story.
Speaker A:I mean, even a blind squirrel, as they say, can.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But I just remember everybody cheering for him and me being like, you guys have no idea what this man just put me through.
Speaker A:I bet not.
Speaker B:I bet not.
Speaker A:And like I said, folks, I am no way approved.
Speaker A:But fact, very far from it.
Speaker A:But I just never understood that on the golf course.
Speaker A:I, I have birdie juice in my bag.
Speaker A:All my friends that I golf with, we have birdie juice.
Speaker A:They're little flasks.
Speaker A:They're not, you know.
Speaker A:Yeah, like that.
Speaker B:But I would say a higher percentage of players than not at least players who are paying their own dime.
Speaker B:Corporate loops are a whole different thing because they're getting, they're on somebody else's Diamond.
Speaker B:They often hammer the drink part and whatever.
Speaker B:But, like, people pay it on their own dime.
Speaker B:I would say that it's a higher percentage than not who hold your view that they.
Speaker B:They hold the drink until the end or until later in the day because they want to.
Speaker B:They want to do well.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, you're gonna go in and sit down on the grill anyway, so have your little bit of Berta juice on the course or if it's a really hot day of beer or something.
Speaker A:But anyway, it sounds like I'm preaching to a preacher here, but.
Speaker A:Yeah, but I'm not.
Speaker A:I just.
Speaker A:I just never understood that.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Because you're there to have fun, and then when you look like a total buffoon to everybody, I. I don't know.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I've had a guy.
Speaker B:I don't know if I wrote about this in the book or not.
Speaker B:I think I might.
Speaker B:That he just fell asleep on the 17th tee box while we were waiting for the group in front of us.
Speaker B:So, yeah, you'll see that there's one guy who.
Speaker B:He had lost his wallet on one tee box that we were.
Speaker B:And they were in the hole in front of us.
Speaker B:So I ran up and he could barely walk, and he.
Speaker B:He tried to give me all the money in his wallet.
Speaker B:Well, for some of the people at Whistling Strings, that's a good amount of cash.
Speaker B:So I did not take it.
Speaker B:I really did not.
Speaker B:I gave it to the other cat, so I made sure he had a good day.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:What's the biggest complaint you get as a caddy?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:From your loops.
Speaker A:And this could range from the guys that are, you know, plus ones to the grandma's out there shooting fireball.
Speaker A:But what.
Speaker B:There's.
Speaker A:There's got to be one or two that just ring every.
Speaker A:Every round almost.
Speaker B:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:Over the course of a whole season, it's players complaining about reading the greens.
Speaker B:And I would say that maybe a second one would be club selection.
Speaker B:But the.
Speaker B:There's a.
Speaker B:The.
Speaker B:The higher the handicap, the more unrealistic the expectations.
Speaker B:So, like a guy who's, like I say, a 15 to 20 handicap, whatever they think now they're going to make every putt because they have a caddy standing next to them.
Speaker B:The guys who are the hardest, the biggest pains are like the five to 10 handicaps, because those are guys who, like, at easier courses that they're more familiar with, you score well sometimes.
Speaker B:And so they're.
Speaker B:They're the most harsh.
Speaker B:The easiest guys are the low handicaps.
Speaker B:And plus indexes because they understand golf.
Speaker B:They, it's, it's a, it's a, you're really caddying for very different expectations out there.
Speaker B:And so with the now I will say that the low handicap scratch plus index knows if you're completely full of crap, whereas sometimes you're going to have a 20 index who like, you know, isn't going to have one clue or another if you're right or wrong.
Speaker B:But yeah, I would say the hardest people, the people who complain the most are in that 5 to 10 handicap range.
Speaker A:I think we're going to go ahead and take another break and we'll be back and wrap up with Mark Mylitz from Caddy Tales.
Speaker A:Good book.
Speaker A:You can find it on Amazon, I think, and you can find it off his website.
Speaker A:So I recommend it.
Speaker A:We'll be right back.
Speaker C:Ready for a new ride?
Speaker C:Choose from over a thousand vehicles at Weston Kia like a new Kia Sportage, Soul Forte, K4, Sorrento, Telluride or Carnival Gas, electric or hybrid, Oregon's all time leader in Kia sales.
Speaker C: Everyone wins at Weston: Speaker A:Kor hey everybody, JT Here.
Speaker A:If you need something to practice with in the inclement weather, try Birdie ball.
Speaker A: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 A:Birdieball.com.
Speaker A:Welcome back to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:I'm jt.
Speaker A:We're talking with Mark Militz from Catty Tales.
Speaker A:What, what, what really prompted you to write the book?
Speaker B:So originally it was like there, you know, there's some funny stories to tell, right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it was kind of late.
Speaker B:I wanted to, if I was being honest, wanted to find a way to generate another income stream or whatever that silly now in hindsight, but the project evolved because as I was going through the process of just putting life back together here I was learning more as a caddy.
Speaker B:They were coinciding and I was seeing the parallels much more.
Speaker B:And then I thought this is a cathartic experience for me.
Speaker B:It helped me, it gave me a sense of purpose and meaning that I desperately needed at that time in my life.
Speaker B:And then I thought, well, maybe I can pass this along to others.
Speaker B:And so yeah, I went for it.
Speaker A:What, what would you say being a caddy has had the most positive, life changing effect for you?
Speaker A:And then the antithesis of that, maybe not so Much.
Speaker A:But I think from reading your book, everything's pretty positive for the most.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think that, you know, it gives me an opportunity each day.
Speaker B:Now, by no means is it as deeply spiritual or, you know, I guess on the grand scale of things as meaningful as my former life, some might disagree with that and say golf is much more serious, but it gives me a sense of purpose.
Speaker B:Each day I get to meet with people, I'm inserted into their day.
Speaker B:And because of where I work, for most of the people, that day is a very, very big day for them that they've been planning for a long time and looking forward to a great deal.
Speaker B:And I get to be a part of that and help to make it even more meaningful for them.
Speaker B:And if I do a good job, I think that is the case.
Speaker B:And I think that that has been really, really helpful for me to still have that kind of work to do because my heart hasn't changed.
Speaker B:You know, I. I always tell people, you know, I fell apart and broke as a pastor and.
Speaker B:And did things that I shouldn't have done and having deep, deep regret and sorrow.
Speaker B:But two things can be true.
Speaker B:I can have been a total mess and my heart could still have been wanting to care for people.
Speaker B:I think that's really hard for people to understand.
Speaker B:But I do have a heart for service.
Speaker B:It means something to me to be able to do that.
Speaker B:And cat in gives me that outlet.
Speaker B:The advantage is, is that if I meet some people that are really, really difficult, I get to be done with them in five hours instead of having to, like, be in a deep relationship with them for years or getting, you know, nasty emails or, you know, people talking behind your back or whatever.
Speaker B:All that stuff that used to be difficult in my former life isn't a part of this life.
Speaker A:Did you ever feel like at the end of a round for that when they were going to hand you a tip, that you actually wanted to give them a tip and send them home just to be.
Speaker B:Yeah, but, you know, I would say, let's say I knew 150 loops in a season.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:I would say there's five of those.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so it's not the norm.
Speaker B:I would say there's maybe 10 to 20 on a year where you're like, I want to crawl into these people lap and have them take me home with them and we need lifelong friends and whatever.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:There's probably like five of them where you're like, I never want to see this person again and I have zero respect for them.
Speaker B:And then in the middle there's different shades of good, you know, and so that's kind of how I would describe it.
Speaker A:Have you ever had one of the ones that you hoped you would never see again, come back and have to look for them a second time?
Speaker B:No, but I have had twice now where randomly from another.
Speaker B:A previous year I got called up for a loop and I just got assigned to the same people that I had had a previous year.
Speaker B:And you're like thinking, well, I better.
Speaker B:They better not have hated me because they're stuck with me again.
Speaker B:No, the, it hasn't happened that way.
Speaker B:But, you know, yeah, there's.
Speaker B:There's a couple loops like for instance, from this year, and when it's bad, it's really uncomfortable out there.
Speaker B:And the thing that I always hold on to is, though it's five hours and then you're.
Speaker B:You send them on their way and, you know, that's a nice part of the job.
Speaker A:Real quick, Mark, how tell people where they can find the book?
Speaker A:I mean, I'm sure I don't know every place where you can find it.
Speaker B:Yeah, no, yeah, just two places.
Speaker B:Amazon, you know, just type in catt details, search for it there.
Speaker B:And then you can also go to CaddyTales Co C A D D I E T A L E S.co.com as taken.
Speaker B:They recently reached out to see if I wanted to buy it, but you have to sell an awful lot of books to get that M at the end of it.
Speaker B:So I'm just going to keep that.
Speaker B:Co the advantage to buying it there is if you buy it there, I sell it, it's only $5 more.
Speaker B:And I, I sign it.
Speaker B:Excuse me.
Speaker B:And you get entered into a drawing for a free round of two at Whistling Straits after every hundred are purchased.
Speaker B:So I've given away over the last two years well over $20,000 worth of free golf, and I hope to continue doing that.
Speaker A:How much does it actually cost to play at Whistling Straits?
Speaker B:Just a lot of money.
Speaker B:You know, most people play play on a package where, you know, from June through like September, they're playing on a package where the rates are decreased.
Speaker B:But destination golf's getting really expensive.
Speaker B:And if you just show up on a random day to play, it's like 700 a player.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:Plus the caddy and stuff.
Speaker A:Yeah, wow, wow.
Speaker B:But now we're not even close to the top of the list.
Speaker B:Now there's some out, you know, that are, you know, oh, yeah, Shadow Creek and all that that are way more expensive, so.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker A:You better have a platinum card or better to open, you might say.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Mark Miles, thank you for spending time.
Speaker A:Mark's going to stick around for after hours, but I've.
Speaker A:I've enjoyed our chat today.
Speaker A:It was.
Speaker A:It was really good.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:Thank you for having me.
Speaker A:No problem.
Speaker A:We'll be back, like I said, next week with Frank Nabilo and the week after that, Dave Bisbee.
Speaker A:So we got some great guests coming up.
Speaker A:Got a lot more in the works, but we'll just see how that plays out.
Speaker A:Until then, go out, play some golf, have some fun, and be kind, everybody.
Speaker A:Take care.
Speaker A:Grilling at the green is produced by JTSD Productions, llc in association with Salem Media group.
Speaker A:All rights reserve.
