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Chris Lemley (00:00)
Welcome back everyone to this week's edition of the Cart Barn Podcast. Today we are so excited to welcome in to the cart barn Charlie Reimer. Charlie, thanks for stopping in the cart barn and welcome.
Charlie (00:13)
Hey guys, I appreciate you having me on. Well, I tell you what, it's my time of year. I love fire pit season.
Chris Lemley (00:20)
Alright, good.
Charlie (00:24)
You gotta make me a promise. ⁓ we're not gonna talk football because my teams are in Georgia Tech and Tennessee. I think Tennessee will recover, but it's a tough weekend for them. But Georgia Tech, if you bring up Georgia Tech football, we're gonna have some technical difficulties.
Chris Lemley (00:38)
⁓ Well Charlie, have you spent any time in the cart barn?
Charlie (00:39)
Vous
Gregg Dewalt (00:40)
All right, we'll
Chris Lemley (00:47)
⁓ We've had
Gregg Dewalt (00:49)
Did ⁓ did you ever spend time in the cart barn growing up there as the pride of Cleveland, Tennessee?
Charlie (00:56)
You know, ⁓ I was born in Cleveland, Tennessee, j just a little north of Chattanooga and ⁓ still still live in the area. I live on Lookout Mountain, ⁓ south of Chattanooga, down towards Macklemore. And ⁓ I actually I grew up in South Carolina. ⁓ we let my parents split when I was ⁓
⁓ when I was ⁓ I don't know, seven or eight years old, something like that, maybe younger than that. But from like second grade on up, I I went to ⁓ the great schools that we have there in Fort Mill, South Carolina, and I lived at a place called TGK. And ⁓ th there was a couple of great golf professionals there, the late Barry Deese who had an amazing junior golf program.
In and Frank Beard in. And we hosted the South Carolina State Open a few times. And he had a great junior golf program. That's kind of what got me hooked in golf, you know, from like age 10 or so up. And then Barry left, and then a professional by the name of Dean Alexander came along. And Dean's a master PGA professional. And so he took me under his wing. I was probably about 13 or 14.
And Dean put me to work picking the reins and working in the cart barn. We didn't have a cart barn, we had a drive.
A quarter hole.
Like a lot of folks in this game, s cleaning carts and cleaning clubs and and you know, working for tips and filling in when somebody was hung over and missed the tea time and needed a fort, that sort of thing. And it it was just a wonderful place to grow up there and and ⁓ Fort Mill, South Carolina, and that that community of T G K has grown a lot since I left, but then ⁓ we always spent summers and holidays and that sort of stuff in Cleveland, Tennessee and and
I I can remember making my first birdie when I was five years old playing with my ⁓ grandmother, Miss Ethel. It was on the fifth hole of
Dad still lives on the second T there, but isn't it funny how you can remember your first birdie, but you damn sure can't remember your first double bogey. So but no, it was it growing up in and around golf was just was just great. And I mentioned a couple of BJA professionals that that helped me out. Joe Markham Sr., who's 92 years old, he's retired and he's still there at Cleveland Country Club. I saw him last weekend at a bluegrass concert. He looks like he's about 50 and
He he'll play thirty-six holes a day if he can get get away with it. And then he worked for a professional there, PJ professional by the name of Hollis Marlowe. Hollis and Joe were the first persons to put a ⁓ or first persons, first ⁓ people to put a club in my hand. So but you know, growing up in and around golf and the kind of the you know, there's a smell and I love the name of y'all show Cartworn.
smells like, you know. And you know, kind of the mix of the batteries. Now we got lithium batteries, but you know, the the smell of the acid batteries and the and the big bottle the big b bucket of water where you clean everybody's clubs off. It hadn't been changed in about four years. That had a smell to it also. But yeah, no, just a lot of nostalgia growing up in and around the game around some really great great professionals and some great characters too.
Gregg Dewalt (04:20)
What what attracted you to the game? ⁓ you know, with their base a lot of people have come on were baseball guys first and then they transitioned over to to golf, you know, around twelve or thirteen. For for you what was what was it about golf?
Charlie (04:33)
You know, ⁓ I'm I'm very lucky in that I just love golf and I kinda knew it was what I was supposed to do. I never had any push me anybody push me or put any pressure on me. ⁓ I I just just loved it. I I remember when I was a kid just staying on the putting green until an after an hour after the sun went down, you know, in the parking lot the bats were flying.
I d I just couldn't get enough of it and ⁓ I I I just kinda always felt like it's is what I was gonna do and the other thing is is is I started having a lot of success real early and you you you you get pretty good at something and you're bringing home trophies and everybody's telling you how good you are at it, that kinda you know, keeps ya interested and and pursuing it. And and I mentioned the late Barry Deese and having ⁓
Frank Beard and Bruce Litsky come do a clinic for us there at at TKK. one of the cool things that happened, gosh, I'd I was probably eleven, twelve years old and Bruce Litsky was incredible. we lost him to cancer. It's been a few years now, but ⁓ I'd I'd always admired his game. But the first time I met him, ⁓ he they did a clinic. He and Frank Beard did and and ⁓
came in, sat down and and they set me next to Barry D excuse me, they set me next to Bruce Litzkey for dinner. And he was just super nice and real encouraging. And you know, here's a twelve year old kid sitting beside him. And ⁓ I it just it made a big impression on me. And obviously he goes on to the next city and he didn't remember me. But quite a few years later, I'd say thirteen, fourteen years later, I was ⁓
playing the
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PGA Tour as a rookie and we're playing I think it was called the Nissan
And I talk about a fish out of water, mint Riviera as a rookie. ⁓ but I get on this little it's like a shuttle between the hotel and the golf course, and Bruce Litzkey sits down kind of right across the aisle and I was kinda looking at him in awe and I introduce myself and and I told him, I said, We met before and he said, yeah, when was that? And I said, T G, South Carolina He went very decent and I said, Yeah, that's right.
I said I was a fat little twelve year old kid that sat down beside you for dinner I know you don't remember
me and that was thirteen, fourteen years ago.
said to a you know a young twelve year old ⁓ back back there all those years ago and it meant a lot to me and I think he enjoyed, you know, appreciated hearing that too. And so that's why whenever I'm around kids, you know, that you know you you kinda ⁓ you know have a responsibility to carry that on. But that that was a that was a really cool moment. But I guess when I saw he and Frank Beard doing that clinic, I thought, man, I want to be as good as I can be at this game because I want to do what they do. I want
And so I I guess just the opportunity to be around some really good players at a young age is what, you know, just drove me deeper and deeper into the game and made me want to be as good as I
Gregg Dewalt (07:51)
You know, Charlie, every s small town has got that kid who, you know, the can't miss kid. And as we know, there's a a lot of them do miss, don't don't probably reach what what their expectations were. What do you feel like it was for you that that put you over the top, that put you in a position to play the PGA Tour?
Charlie (08:14)
You know, that's a that that is a wonderful question 'cause I I think about that a lot myself. ⁓ there's more can't miss kids obviously that miss than hit. And I think what it comes down to, and things have changed a lot. I guess I mean when I was a kid, it wasn't like we had video. I mean the first time I saw my sling on video was one of those Polaroid things where they sequence it and it's like fifteen pictures and it's like in black and white, you know, and it develops right in front of you. I'm like,
⁓ and I mean we didn't know about you know, I was a big kid. I mean w I didn't have a proper lighting until like my sophomore year in college. I mean we didn't know, you know, shaft flex and d you know, all this sort of stuff. ⁓ and and the technology is clearly different now. Kids are a lot better at a lot younger age and and ⁓ but but what hasn't changed is I think a lot of it you're born to. ⁓ a lot of teachers would argue with me and shrinks would argue
with me that you can learn techniques, you can learn a lot of stuff. But I think a lot of it y you're you're born with in the sense that ⁓ the people who succeed at the highest levels can somehow figure out how to perform when they're scared to death. 'Cause everybody gets scared to death. At some point
I think even Jack Nicholas and Tiger Woods were scared to death. And you you get to a certain point and you're like, All right, this is the moment. and it's different for everybody. ⁓
you know, cu coming up it's that, you know, first first time to, you know, win a you know, whatever's a big event for you for me was a state junior championship when I was fifteen in Lexington, South Carolina, and I got in a playoff with a kid who was a can't miss kid and who's a really good player and was older than me. His name's Jason Griffin had a really good career in South Carolina. And I find myself on the first T there at Lexington in a you know, in the playoff and I'm not supposed to be there and I'm scared to death and somehow ⁓
you know, end up hitting some good shots and and Jason I think hit hit a bad shot but I ended up, you know, making like a three footer for part of one state championship that I wasn't supposed to win at age fifteen. I was scared to death. And that you know, that gave me some confidence. And you know, the next time you get scared you you you you know, you feel like you got a chance to do it and and you you when big situations you you you know, some people lose their feel, some people lose their sense of awareness and
And ⁓ I think that's really the big difference. I mean from the outside looking in, everybody looks, look at that golf swinger today. It's look at how far they hit it. Well yeah, but you know, you still gotta make it five footer. People don't talk about putting anymore. It's how, you know, how club head speed and launch angle and all that. You still gotta make it five footer. ⁓ I can remember probably the most scared I ever was was in the old Q school, the final round ⁓
of ⁓ Q school in the final stage. So you go to that's like pre qualifying first stage, second stage, and you get the finals and there's cuts along the way. ⁓ and I'd failed two other attempts. Now it's my third attempt and I get all the way through all of that and it's the sixth round and I'm in like twelfth place coming to the last day and basically there's
I don't know, there might have been thirty-five or forty cards, but if you don't finish, let's say, in the top fifteen or eighteen, you you're gonna have a really hard time because you're not getting enough tournaments early because they reshuffle the money and all this. So every it's not only getting a card, but it's making sure you get high enough out of Q school so you can get in the Hawaii and the West Coast tournaments. And that first T is at Greenleaf West, which is grown in now, they tell me, you know you're old when you're talking about courses that are grown in, but it's a really hard golf course.
And literally you can hear guys throwing up in the bushes and all that sort of stuff. And somehow or another I striped a driver right down the middle and I had ⁓ you know, it was a long hole back then, it's probably four sixty or four seventy, which is nothing now, but I had a six iron, I hit it to
about like that and somehow I managed to tap that in for birdie, and I'm like, I'm gonna be okay, you know, and I think I might have made one bird eating one bogey the rest of the day and finished
give or take twelfth place and you know all to the races. But, you know, that day, the things that go through your mind, all the distraction, everything that comes in, and ⁓ the folks that can deal with that and not lose their touch and not lose their, you know, the way they're thinking, they're the ones that get to the highest levels. And you can learn a little bit of that, but deep down I think you gotta be born
Chris Lemley (12:54)
Yeah. Yeah. It's good.
Gregg Dewalt (12:56)
That's a that's an an interesting answer. ⁓ for for you, yeah, you wa you won three three straight South Carolina juniors, I believe, or or you won three.
Charlie (13:06)
Mm, you got deep you got deep into the wiki on that. I didn't know that went back to the last century the wiki.
Chris Lemley (13:12)
Yeah.
Gregg Dewalt (13:13)
Well, ⁓ you know, I am a journalist by trade, so ⁓ but you did that and you won the US junior amateur. So y you had a pretty celebrated I mean, winning three South Carolina juniors, you know, that's not chopped liver. That's ⁓ that's that's some pretty pretty good stuff.
Charlie (13:17)
Ha
Well, yeah, thank you for bringing that up. I you know, the older I get the more that means to me. ⁓ we d we didn't have AJ GA and the State Junior was a was a big big deal and ⁓ we had a lot of really gr great players come out of South Carolina, certainly a lot better than me. ⁓ but I think you can look and I have one three of those, but I mean you can fact check me if you want to, but ⁓ I'm not I'm not very ⁓ sentimental. I don't I don't keep a whole lot of stuff
but I do have those three trophies and I get a I got a medal that I have from winning the US GA Junior which r really meant a lot to me as well and and ⁓ that that's really about it. ⁓ the things that that I kinda you know keep and look at. There's a plaque here or there that I keep, but I keep men well this is my little office is kinda you couldn't find this office in my house if you were looking for it, but but that that's it that's ⁓ those
Those are really cool moments at the time it like, Yeah, well of course I won but you know, I'm sneaking up on sixty and
Pretty cool and and ⁓ there's a lot a lot of great folks in the state of South Carolina that I and I I I say great golfing, great junior golf in South Carolina didn't happen by accident. So there's a lot of folks like Charlie Roundtree and his dad that were real big. In fact the name on that trophy that I won was a was a round tree trophy and and ⁓ he's ⁓ been real successful in South Carolina and and everybody everybody knows Charlie Roundtree and then
Halfway Thrift, who's retired now is Executive Director of South Carolina Golf Association and the State Junior Golf Foundation, his son Biff, ⁓ that they just started an incredible program that's, you
know, now with major champions and and PGA tour winners and even, you know, kids that come up through the program, they're a real successful business. So it's a it's a great state to grow up in ⁓ and and and still is for junior golf. And a lot of people are passionate about it and make it happen and and so I
including the Blowfish Monday After Masters celebrity program that the guys in the band ⁓ who are amazing guys and gotten to be good friends with them over the years, they still do that event. And I believe it's still the largest single-day fundraiser in the state of South Carolina. And they raise some money for some really good causes, some arts and ⁓ resources for kids in high schools across the state, but also a lot of that money still flows to junior golf scholarships and golf facilities and that sort of stuff. So
South Carolina is is ⁓ blessed to be a great Gulf state and and it puts his money where its mouth is and I'm certainly a very ⁓ fortunate beneficiary of growing up there.
Chris Lemley (16:15)
Before we move on, Charlie, let's let's talk a little bit about your US amateur US junior amateur win. ⁓ I think that was in nineteen eighty five up in New York. Tell us what do you remember about that week? You talked about how how you ner being nervous and scared to death and and being able to perform. I would imagine at that stage in your career, even though you had already had some some some victories, that that was
Gregg Dewalt (16:15)
Sure.
Charlie (16:26)
Mm-hmm.
You know.
Chris Lemley (16:45)
Probably pretty nerve wracking.
Charlie (16:47)
Yeah, it was nervous. And and it is different. ⁓ you know, back then, when you excuse me, when you played in a national tournament, generally you'd have you know, a governing body that would help with your expenses, your family wouldn't go with you, and and that now of course you've got all these helicopter pet parents and folks taking out loans on their you know, on their house to get the greatest instruction equipment and tournaments and all that for kids, which
kinda saddens me little bit because ⁓ you know, my my mom took me to the Charlotte Airport and put me on a plane to Buffalo and packed a bag for me and made sure I you know, we borrowed a golf club cover from somebody and you you go into Buffalo, New York, which believe me is a long ways from Fort Mill, South Carolina. And I had ⁓ a com you know, committee people there would meet you and introduce me to the
family I'm staying with who I'd never met, ⁓ and they they were incredibly nice. I remember they took me to this place called Anchor Bar, which is where Buffalo chicken wings started. They had me have one, I'm about to spit it out. I said, That's horrible, who would ever
But you know, so you have to learn how to deal with people, you have to learn social skills, you learn you know learn how to travel, ⁓ learn how to treat people right, and that's when having
Prepare me for that was really wonderful. And you know, making sure that you
know you might have to have a jacket when you go in and show you how to tap tie a tie, you know, things like that. Your parents with you back then. So ⁓ you know, all of that was a great experience and and and something that you know you really learn a lot. You do it on your own and making friends on your own. And I get to the golf course, and ⁓ when I towards a little bit farther up in high school.
I primarily we played at the at Fort Mill, which is ⁓ is a great daily feed outside of Charlotte now and it's hard to get a teeton there. But ⁓ we didn't have much grass on the golf course. ⁓ not as not much at all. And and ⁓ really good layout, but it was hard hard packed ⁓ clay. So I learned how to chip and putt around the greens, you know, the hinge and hole and you know bunkers that are.
And I got to to Buffalo and we're we're there with ⁓ I'm trying drawing a blank on the name of the golf course, but it's a parkland golf course, it'll come to me in a minute. really neat place, bent grass fairways and really high fescue rough. ⁓ I've never seen anything like that. And so now I'm randomly going out to play a practice around people I don't know and I'm trying to, you know, chip out of this fescue grass and I can't hit it.
five feet and I got no I don't have a teacher, I don't have a parent, I don't have anybody to talk to. I mean, hell we didn't even call home, you know, and and ⁓ so I just kinda figured out, okay, well if you go in this fescue, I mean clearly I'm gonna hit it in here. So ⁓ to hit it like a bunker site. So I I just remember like late before the tournament started going going I'm just practicing I I got it, right? And so I had to figure that out on my own. You know, there was it wasn't like you'd go online and look at a YouTube video like the kids can do something.
Chris Lemley (20:06)
Ha ha ha.
Charlie (20:08)
And you know, also that week Tom Weeks who ⁓ Tom Meeks, who was the director of ⁓ rules and competitions for the USGA, he locked us in the clubhouse for three hours. And it was the best three hours of my life in terms of what it meant to me in my golf career, because he's like basically wrote rewrote the rules of golf. And it was like the coolest, toughest session ever on the rules of golf. And so, you you were
And then once I got the grass figured out and I got through match play, ⁓ st got a little bit of confidence going and rolling and you know, I I'd won pretty much every junior tournament I'd played in for about three years at that point. So I was very confident. But once I kind of figured that out, I got going. And then ⁓ I remember the championship match I was up early and then I lost it. I was playing a guy named Greg Lesser, who's from Pennsylvania, ended up having a good good career at LSU, and they made it the PGA tour as well.
And ⁓ he flipped me and he was two it was eighteen whole match at the time, the kids now
the match was dormy for Greg, so I had a it's about ⁓ maybe not quite twenty feet on the seventeenth hole. He's in for par and if I miss it it's over. And ⁓ somehow or another I make it. So I get to eighteen and eighteen's the hardest hole in the course and I I hit in the fairway and he hit in the rough, which is instant bogey. So I won eighteen and so now I'm in playoff, right? And and ⁓
I I thought, well I'm gonna ice him because he seems a little nervous. So I asked the official, I said, Hey, I got some stomach problems. how I got I need to go to the bathroom. How much time d I have? And he's like, Well, you got ten minutes. So Greg went to the T and I went in the locker room and I'm in there going, I've got him. He's out there nervous and I I strutted up to that first T and I'm gonna stripe it down the middle and you know, 'cause I I got to hit first and I hit it in the other fairway, I hit it so bad. Anyway, we we miss mess around.
Gregg Dewalt (22:07)
Mm-hmm.
Charlie (22:11)
I made I made a good little putt for Parr and and ⁓ he had a little putt for Bogey. ⁓ the greens are real fast kind of back to front. And it and it even though it was for Bogey, he was like whole high so I had a little break and I I thought, I'm gonna give it to him and then I thought, well I'm gonna watch him make it and sure enough he missed it. So that that's how I won. But ⁓ it was ⁓ it's it's hard to believe I remember that from all these years away. But it was it was really a cool experience, you know, and then
And then I didn't see my parents until I got back to the airport. You know, they had some folks waiting.
News ⁓ folks and Charlotte at home.
Chris Lemley (22:48)
Mm-hmm.
Charlie (22:52)
It was an amazing experience and it's hard to believe now that you know I actually went and did that on my own. I mean that's a lot different than the experience the young kids have now. And and I wish they had the young the the experience of being able to go and do it on their own because you learn a lot more than
Gregg Dewalt (23:13)
Yeah, that's ⁓ that's that is a ⁓ big difference now. There's no no ent there was no entourage back in those days. ⁓
Chris Lemley (23:13)
Yeah.
Charlie (23:20)
No, no.
Yeah, it was very different.
Gregg Dewalt (23:26)
When ⁓ d when did you choose Georgia Tech ⁓ to play collegially and was was Puggy blackman the coach when you were there?
Charlie (23:34)
He he was, yeah. So ⁓ I I was ⁓ somehow or another I managed to have pretty good grades and ⁓ you know, a good record and ⁓ you know, was I you know, maybe I wasn't one but I certainly in the top two or three or maybe I was one. And we didn't have rankings back then, so I had a lot of opportunities. I think a gosh, I think ⁓ had maybe forty offers or so and it was
a lot of fun 'cause we we had like one phone in the house and during that time the coaches could call and other times too. That phone would be ringing off the hook. My dad would talk to put me on and all it was it was really a lot of fun. But ⁓ Puggy Blackman who who helped start a at the AJGA ⁓ had gotten hired to come in and put
together a really good golf program at Georgia Tech and there's a group of the ones there that that ⁓ funded it, ⁓ loved golf. ⁓
Chris Lemley (24:06)
Yeah.
Charlie (24:29)
And they were real proud of the fact that B Bobby Jones had had ⁓ played at Georgia Golf Georgia Tech and a lot of other good golfers as well, like Charlie Yates who was ⁓ British amateur champion and and ⁓ it it it was r really ⁓ a good tradition and it had kind of fallen well it had fallen all the way and essentially there was a a trap coach there who was a really nice guy and he it was basically intramural golf but they decided
you know, good coach and we're gonna put together a good golf program and that's what they did and and so Puggy was was ⁓ trying to get good players in and he signed Bill McDonald out of Dalton, Georgia, who was a Camp Miss kid and of course Bill had a nice, nice career coaching in South Carolina. Bill was a year ahead of me and he was ⁓ I'd say most people would say he was a number
yard line of Grant Field and and ⁓ that that was that was pretty cool. They changed some recruiting rules because of Puggy. And so Bill Bill was there ahead of me and then Puggy recruited me and you know I was I was most likely gonna go to Wake Forest. I've been on
had ever turned that down. And so Puggy called my great uncle, who was a Georgia Tech alum and loved the school and was generous.
But but he called and made arrangements for me to come visit him ⁓ down in ⁓ in ⁓ Florida, North Palm Beach, and he was good friends with Jack Nicholas and ⁓ he you know he he called and he said we're I'm gonna send you a ticket, you could do it 'cause of his family. We're gonna you're gonna fly down here next weekend and me and you and Jack Nicholas are gonna play golf.
And I you know, the only answer to that is yes, sir. So I fly
We ended up becoming very close and and ⁓ he was very humble but he was also very successful. And so I played golf with Jack Nicholas, I was seventeen, that was a probably in about October of nineteen eighty five, I guess. And we sat at a club, it was actually Loxa Hatchie Club, it had just opened and my great uncle was a founding member there and many other Nicholas courses and I had a beer with my great uncle and Jack Nicholas at seventeen in a locker room. How cool was that? And
Chris Lemley (26:56)
Yeah.
Charlie (26:57)
So Jack Nicholas says, I think you ought to take a real hard look at Georgia Tech. He said they're funding the program up and ⁓ Puggy Blackman's gonna be a really good coach. And in fact ⁓ Jack's youngest ⁓ son Michael ended up coming to Georgia Tech and and so he really liked the program and shared some of that with me. And so we went to dinner that night ⁓ after leaving Mr. Nicholas and my great uncle said he said, If you go to Georgia Tech, I'm gonna fund in perpetuity
Scholarship and we're going to call it a Bobby Jones scholarship, and you're going to be the first recipient. And he says, I that's only fair because I know you'll have
to.
do that. And I said, Well, let's call the coach and tell I'm coming to Georgia Tech. So that's how I ended up at Georgia Tech. And ⁓ since my great uncle did that, some other folks have stepped up and and ⁓ helped with that scholarship. So it really is funded in perpetuity and that's how I got to Georgia Tech and ended up being the first recipient and how I could justify turning down Arnold Palmer scholarship away for us. And Yeah, and so we got together ⁓
Chris Lemley (28:01)
That's a great story.
Charlie (28:07)
We got a new coach at Georgia Tech, Ryan Hibble, who played at Georgia. He's a maybe just a few years younger than me. they're off to a great start this fall and so he's gonna continue the program. But we all got together back in January. Bruce Hepler, who just retired from Georgia Tech, had an amazing career. ⁓ gosh, there was probably seventy former players that got there and and of course most of played for Coach Hepler and some of us that played for Puggy were there and I it was really I never felt old before, but
Chris Lemley (28:19)
Yeah.
Charlie (28:38)
there was ⁓ I think I'd have to double check the number, but I think it's at least sixty players now have made it to either what's the Corn Ferry Tour or the PGA tour. And I was looking around and I'm like, I was the first one to make it. Bill was the first national recruit that got signed, Bill McDonald. And he and then I was the first you know, national recruit after they funded the program, you know, to make it to, you know, the Corn Ferry which
in Nike Tour or the PGA Tour. So it's the first time in my life I actually felt old, but I was also kinda proud too 'cause, you know, they made some big promises to Bill, myself, some of the other players that came along, you know, in that era and the school, the coaches, everybody fulfilled that. So we all w we all have a real strong loyalty to Georgia Tech. And ⁓ the the players now, of course, they're they're a lot better than we ever thought about being, but ⁓ you know, we've had US amateur champions, British amateur champions and a lot of, you know, players that
Chris Lemley (29:24)
Yeah.
Charlie (29:35)
came out of tech and won a lot of money on the P GA tour and ⁓ and and obviously major championships and other big events. So it's it's a proud program and and it's fun for me to kinda know that I'm
You know, somebody had to kinda be there and get it going, but boy have they they've taken it to levels that I never thought were possible.
Chris Lemley (29:56)
Was Kim Evans ⁓ assistant when you were there?
Charlie (30:00)
She was, yeah. She ⁓ Kim is great. ⁓ I I talked to her not so long ago and she's obviously had a great career in coaching over at Auburn, but she was assistant men's coach and then had a Hall of F Hall of Fame career coaching over
And ⁓ she's wonderful, she's doing great, she's struggled with her health and and she's all good now and and ⁓ she she kind of ran a show for Puggy and boy we all love Kim and and still
do and and ⁓ I'm glad that she had had the ⁓ s the the success that she's had and and everybody you ever talk to that knows or even met Kim
See something else.
Gregg Dewalt (30:43)
I'm curious, did ⁓ the topic of you turning down the Arnold Palmer scholarship ever come up with Mr. Palmer?
Chris Lemley (30:50)
Yeah.
Charlie (30:51)
No. You know that's kinda like yeah, we're joking about the double bogeys like Jack Nicholas didn't remember ⁓ he doesn't remember a double bogey and Mr. Palmer doesn't remember.
know I was first one to turn it down. And then interestingly, ⁓ we signed David Duvall, also a US Junior amateur champion. He was a freshman my senior year. David was the second player to turn down the Honor Palmer scholarship. So ⁓ it was and that's and that's that's really hard to do growing up in the Carolinas and and you know there were circumstances
tech that made it the right decision for me. But ⁓ it's a it's a great program. Jerry Hyas has done a great job and you know super good player and and they they do have a wonderful program. And it was it was hard to say no and it was a risk because it was early, but it it was a right call for me for sure.
Gregg Dewalt (31:45)
I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall with you talking to Mr. Palmer about turning that down.
Charlie (31:50)
Well, so he didn't he didn't make the call. He wrote he wrote the wrote a letter offering the scholarship. ⁓ the the other factor was Jesse Haddock was the coach there and I love Jesse Haddock. He was so funny. And I I ran into him, he's past now, but he had a obviously wonderful career at at ⁓ Wake and what a great character. And I I ran into him, I think maybe I was just getting my tour card and I ran into him in Florida and he looked at me kind of funny. I said, Coach, let's go with him and say I've always got a long
You know, when I'd see him and and he was he he was just he was really funny and I enjoyed I enjoy talking to people so I'd always talk to him. And I told him the same story that I told you guys just now about why I went to Georgia, Texas. He didn't know at the time. And he started laughing and he's like, Well, you made the right decision for you. He he understood it. But ⁓ yeah, he was ⁓ he was something else coach, Coach Haddock was.
Chris Lemley (32:41)
Yeah.
Gregg Dewalt (32:48)
What at what point in your Georgia Tech career did you feel like that you could compete on on the P GA tour that you had a chance to be successful?
Charlie (32:58)
You know, ⁓
Yeah, there I I go back to these these moments that you have ⁓ where you get kind of scared and you ⁓ pull something off and it and it gives you some confidence and it kinda gets you over the hump and it gets you ready for the next level. I can remember a tournament, I think it was my sophomore year in ⁓ Phoenix. It wasn't in Scottsdale, it was like Phoenix Country Club and not not a great golf course, but
Chris Lemley (33:17)
Right.
Charlie (33:30)
I was like in February and you know,
we were always great to thrill to get out of the cold to go play a tournament in a place like Phoenix. And it was a really good really good field and it was important to to go I think a lot of times it was important to go west or go where the top team programs are. So you know if you got a if you got a field and there's Arizona and Arizona State are gonna be there and you know, maybe USC or Pepperdine or Oklahoma State.
Chris Lemley (33:37)
Yeah.
Charlie (34:00)
then if if we got North Carolina and Wake Forest and Florida and so and you know everybody's kind of there and it's a big field, and you know it's a big field, it's schools that you recognize and players you recognize. And I didn't win, but I I was playing really well and I'd never really played out there and I got to the last hole and I knew if I hit a good drive and made Par Birdie, I was gonna get a ⁓ you know, good finish, like a maybe third or fourth place finish. And I and I'd already actually won.
Tournament but it wasn't a b big deal by that. And for some reason I got really nervous on that last T and I took a few breaths and I just striped it, kinda like I was selling you the T ball I hit at Q school. And that and that one moment I
You know, and and it's just kinda weird. Yeah, you know, you have those moments and so sometimes you fail the first two or three times you get those moments. But when you get there and you know it's big and you look up and it's solid and true and boy and where you aimed it and the shape you got and I
had in your mind it really it really does a lot for you. And and but I can remember that one shot that I hit and I and again
fourth place and you might look at that list and maybe maybe I beat Phil Mickelson by a shot.
Jim Firick, all those guys were were were there about that time. And so ⁓ you you remember that and it just means a lot to you. And then you then you start.
next level, you know, and and so but that that was a cool shot. ⁓ you know, that nobody
And it was a big moment that nobody knew but me.
Chris Lemley (35:48)
That's cool.
Gregg Dewalt (35:49)
The ⁓ so you know, you you come out and and you you get on on tour. Was that an how how much of an eye opening experience was your first professional event? ⁓ coming out as a a brash cocky I can do this do this ⁓ and make a living at it moment.
Chris Lemley (36:06)
I don't know.
Charlie (36:12)
Well, you know, I can remember having ⁓ the first time I ever it was actually before I got my tour card. ⁓ it's a long story, but I was twenty and ⁓ I got in the British Open. and it took me fifteen minutes to explain how I got in the British Open, but I got in the British Open and ⁓ I I was scared to death and I I qualified over there. It was like Sunday, Monday.
Chris Lemley (36:37)
Yeah. ⁓
Yeah.
Charlie (36:42)
And so Thursday I'm teeing it up and I'm playing with Brad Faxen. And I was an English professional. I don't remember who he was, but he was like me scared to death. And the ⁓ blah blah blah blah blah first hole is it Royal Lithum and St. Anne's, and it was in 1988, and the first hole is at par three, and there's grandstands around every you know, green in the British zone. They don't limit the typical, or they didn't then, they don't limit.
spectators that can come out. And ⁓ it it was really cool that first T again, no breath and all of that. And ⁓ I it was a six iron, I remember it, and I hit it about twenty feet from hole and ⁓ walking up there and trying to get some oxygen down. And so I got this twenty footer, you know, the greens are slow over there. Even even today they're slow 'cause they they have to be because of the relative to what we put on here because of the wind.
Chris Lemley (37:26)
Yeah.
Charlie (37:38)
And I said I got this twenty footer and it's ⁓ just outside left edge, fairly flat, not mean in terms of uphill, downhill. And I hit it as hard as I could hit it, and I left it dead in the jaws about four and a half feet short. And I put a mark on it, and you know, my fingers like that, but when I get it up, and I'm looking at my caddy, he was actually a teammate of mine, he was Spanish, he tried to qualify.
He's like, you are right. Uh-huh. So now I got like four and a half feet for par. And I hit it as hard as I could. And that's like inside left. And I hit it as hard as I could hit it. And I leave it about nine inches short, dead centered. Right. So now I got nine inches for bogey. And I didn't mark it. I kind of went hit and went fast. And ⁓ I hit that as hard as I could and goes right to the lip, stops. Right? And then falls in for bogey. And I'm like, whoo.
I'm glad that went in. And ⁓ I ended up shooting eighty three that day. Now the wind was
It was ⁓ it you know, I learned a lot that day. I mean, it's the first time, you know, you're doing it in front of people and there's cameras around and all that sort of stuff. I mean, holy smokes, it's a you know, British open and and b Brad Faxon shot sixty nine that day. The wind the wind gusts were close to fifty. I'd never seen a round like that in my life. And but that that was that was a really kind of a cool time. I kinda you know, the first time I got a taste of it. I never had a chance to play the Masters either as an amateur or professional, but
Chris Lemley (39:01)
yeah.
Charlie (39:12)
Playing that British Open at twenty kind of, you know, gave me a real taste of it. And I do wanna tell you that I backed that eighty three up with a seventy seven. And for people going, Well, that's you know, not real good to brag about, keep in mind that was ⁓ nineteen eighty eight. I tied Mark Kalkovecchia, he shot one sixty and he won the next year at Troom.
So I got that going for me. I bring that up with Mark. I mean you might have they talk about being British Open Champion, but you didn't even beat me the year before. So I mean if you got the card, you gotta play it, right? Now I got another one too in my career highlights ⁓ at ⁓ let me see if I can get the year right. I
think it was nineteen nine it's nineteen ninety seven at the Buick Classic at Westchester Country Club at ⁓
Chris Lemley (39:49)
Hay
Charlie (40:06)
⁓ just outside of ride, New York, outside of city. I ⁓ finished forty third and ⁓ I tell people this and they're looking at me like what's the big deal about that? Well, I beat Tiger by a shot. So I got it I got him once too. So and if you look at his record after the Buick Classic in nineteen ninety seven, he did pretty good. And I think losing to me probably had a big part of motivating him, you know, to go on and have the career that he had.
So ⁓ that that's too that's two two that's and I promise that's the two highlights of my playing career.
Chris Lemley (40:37)
Of course.
Well, another highlight ⁓ is a ⁓ around in the Byron Nelson.
Charlie (40:50)
⁓ yeah, I do have that highlight. Yeah. gosh, that was ⁓
ninety it might have been ninety ninety ninety five or ninety six and I got paired with on Saturday with Davis Love the third and ⁓ he he's been pretty good at golf. And ⁓ so anyway like I got in the zone. I tell people that it's really the only time on the PG tour I got in the zone. ⁓ well on the golf course I sometimes I get in the zone eating ribs.
Chris Lemley (41:28)
Yeah.
Charlie (41:28)
You know, like everything's just sliding off and it's like a time stand still and you know, the ⁓ I I feel light, you know, and all that. But it was it's the only time on the on the golf course. And ⁓ it was it was a cool round. I I ⁓ it was a par seventy and I actually ⁓ I got it to nine under with three holes to play and it it was it wasn't a real easy day. The wind was blowing a little bit. I was just
hitting it great and making everything and cameras came out and all that and and so we we were playing early that day. it was A B C. We played early and they were taping 'cause there was some bad weather coming in. And so ⁓ this is a famous family story. ⁓ my we were had a room at the four seasons there, it was a T P C four reason four seasons. I I I don't know what they called it then. I think that's what they called it. It's one of those places that changed names a lot, but it's still it's a beautiful hotel.
And ⁓ somebody I was like on fourteen or fifteen and somebody called the room and my wife answered and she's laid in the bed, right? And I've already played fourteen or fifteen holes and ⁓ they said, You better get on the course, your your husband is eight or nine under par and he's he's got the lead and he's got a chance of shooting fifty nine and she laughed and said, Obviously y'all have got the wrong room and she hung up and went back to sleep
And she comes down. I finished I did an interview with Brett Musberger and she shows up looking all pretty. She said, How'd you do today? Another time I made a putt like on the lasso at ⁓ down in Houston and ⁓ at Woodlands at Houston Open. I think they called the Shell Houston Open at a time and
Chris Lemley (42:58)
Ha ha ha.
Gregg Dewalt (43:00)
Yeah.
Charlie (43:24)
I finished third place, which ended up being my best finish, and ⁓ Scott Oak and Fang Stewart played off his side ahead of me. And ⁓ she left the ropes and ran out onto the green and jumped into my arms for a solo third place finish. That's the only time that's ever happened in history.
Chris Lemley (43:40)
⁓
Charlie (43:44)
She my wife is great. She's she you know, she she's she's a hospice nurse. I mean she's an angel and we've we've been sticking up on thirty six years of marriage. I give her a hard time for that. There might be a few facts stretched a little bit in that story. But yeah, she's she was there for me and she she's got an amazing career in ⁓ in medical now as a hospice nurse and so I'm proud of her, but I still give her a hard time on that, ⁓ not being out there until I got finished with that ⁓ interview with Brent Musberger.
Gregg Dewalt (44:14)
obviously she knew when you finished third she you were gonna get a pretty good check, so
Charlie (44:19)
Yeah. Yeah yeah, she she knew real quick what that check was. So and we needed it too. I I we definitely needed it. Most of it went to ⁓ most of it went to American Express. In fact I think they seized it out of the account. ⁓
Chris Lemley (44:24)
Yeah.
⁓ Hint of truth in every joke.
Gregg Dewalt (44:38)
When when you when you kinda were winding down your career, what what kind of what went into the decision to to transition into a a new chapter in your life?
Charlie (44:40)
Mm.
Well, ⁓ I was I was pretty miserable playing. I had I I really had lost my game a good bit and I yeah, I go back to being able to perform when you're nervous and the part of my game that I just couldn't pull off was was I'd gotten to where in the big moments I just I just couldn't put the ball in in the fair way. And that was that was what was holding me back. The few times that I
got in position to win. I believe I would have had a the better chance if I'd have been better at driving the golf ball. So you know that that left me two choices. I could ⁓ dig it out of the dirt or I could find a teacher and go get some help. I chose to find a teacher and go get some help and I went to some good teachers. I'm not gonna mention
And I if I had to do all over again I just figured it out on my own. ⁓ I I I'm just not not everybody's wired for instruction and and ⁓ I'm one of those. And you know, as I go back to figuring out the you know, telling you the story, getting on a plane flying to Buffalo, New York, I couldn't chip it two feet out.
pretty good reason to think I could figure it out on my own. But ⁓ I I think when you figure things out on your own it makes you more confident, because you came up with it and you own it and it's yours. And you know, when you're out there, you know, and a T V cameras on you and you have done the work and you figured out the information and and y you know that it's you got it, that's a lot different than somebody helping you get there. And that's just a different kind
of confidence. Now that's a fifty eight year old
Chris Lemley (46:34)
Yeah.
Charlie (46:38)
⁓ telling you that, but if I got Paul Azinger and Phil Blackmar and Billy Kratzer and Ola Brown and John Cook on the line right now, they'd be going, Preach it, brother, preach it, brother. We're on a text every day, those guys said it's just di you know, it's just different. But I I ⁓ just just got to where ⁓ you know I I couldn't drive the ball. So I went and spent about two or three weeks and did a reset and worked and said I got this. And I went to it was actually in Columbia, South Carolina
Chris Lemley (46:50)
yeah.
Charlie (47:08)
qualifying for the ⁓ US Open and ⁓ I've reworked my sling, I've taken some time away and I'm thinking, all right, I got this and the first hole I teed off on, ⁓ I'm trying to remember the name of the club. I it doesn't really matter, I had to look it up, but I think it was like tenth hole and it was a dog leg right. And my whole life I've been able to like look at a pane of glass up in the air and have it go through that pane of glass and go somewhere right. Well, I hit this shot, it went.
Through that paint of glass and then bounced off the house. And ⁓ I'm gonna tell you I never recovered from that one shot. You know, I was telling you about a shot I hit my phoenix open, you know that I pulled it off, but that one shot damaged me so much, I tried to blow it off, but I couldn't. And so one of these days I'm gonna write a book and it's gonna be called The Day My Cut Started Hooking. ⁓ because that's that's what happened, right? And I never I never recovered from it.
Gregg Dewalt (48:01)
Yeah.
Charlie (48:07)
I got pretty miserable. We had some kids at home and and you know, then you know going home and you know, Carol's at home by herself with two great boys and you know, I'm trying to grind it out and on the road for three or four weeks at a time. ⁓ sometimes she'd come out and I was r that that was even harder and then the really the hardest part was, Okay, ⁓ I'm playing bad. and I I you know, I got a week off and I I need to go practice. Well
Okay, you can't go practice for twenty minutes. You've been on the road for four weeks at all these exotic places. Your wife's, you know, at home with kids and you come home it's like, Okay, well I'm gonna be gone all day today and y you know, it it just you know, but play golf, right? You know, it ju it just I got miserable. I was miserable on the road 'cause I wasn't playing well. I was miserable at home because I wanted to be a dad and a husband. I hadn't seen my kids in four weeks and
Now now I gotta go, you know, practice and play golf all day to try and figure this out. And it just it just wasn't worth it to me. And I thought I said what what are we gonna do? This thing gonna work. I love golf, but you know, it's real clear I need to move on. So I had some folks talking to me about some business opportunity and then ⁓ I wasn't gonna go to Q school. I ended up going to Q school. I missed by a shot, which wasn't much fun. ⁓ but
I was on the range at Columbia, South Carolina, the Hootie and the Blowfish event with Gary McCord and he's like, What are you gonna do? And I said, I'm I'm just gonna get a job, I'm miserable. And he says, ⁓ no, no, no, no, no, don't get a job. He says, You should be in television. I said, I'm not qualified to be on the television and I'm gonna paraphrase what he said here. He said, You are a idiot. That qualifies you to be on T V. Do you want me to get you some auditions or not? And ⁓
Chris Lemley (49:57)
Yeah.
Charlie (49:59)
Well let's do it. So I had some auditions and then the ESPN rolled the dice with and that's how
doing the ESPN's golf Thursday to Saturday and then did a but booked about eighteen weeks of Thursday Friday USA coverage when it was a C B S crew, which was a lot of fun working on those guys. So but that's that's how I ended up in golf and did about twenty two years of live with golf. first part was ESPN and
Chris Lemley (50:29)
Yeah.
Charlie (50:32)
USA occasionally I'd fill in on another network for a show here or there, and then I did about ⁓ eleven years of golf channel doing various things there. So it was a great run.
Probably my favorite thing was my last four or five years. I co hosted the morning show that we had a golf channel called ⁓ Morning Drive. And ⁓ hold on, I think I got it. Yeah, Morning Drive. So that was my coffee mug right there. I told you I don't keep many things, but I do keep that. But ⁓ that was that was probably the most fun. We had some great folks and some talented folks we work with and got to do a lot of really cool things with that show. So that was a lot of fun.
Gregg Dewalt (50:55)
Yeah.
Chris Lemley (50:55)
There you go. Yeah, yeah.
Gregg Dewalt (51:12)
think one one of the overlooked aspects of of professional golf, you know, we have a a a good friend of the podcast, Stuart Sink, you might know him from your from Georgia Tech.
Charlie (51:24)
They go to a pretty good school.
Chris Lemley (51:27)
Yeah.
Gregg Dewalt (51:27)
But, you know, the people he would he would be out on tour and he would be playing well, have a good stretch, and then he would take off like everybody does. You know, you play four weeks or so and and y you're ready for a break. And people around here would be he's playing great. Why is he why is he not playing this week? Why is he not? Well, you know, it's it's you're playing golf, but it's a job it's a full time job. It's not show up at ten o'clock for a ten fifteen tea time and, you know
Chris Lemley (51:51)
Yeah.
Gregg Dewalt (51:55)
have a beer with your buddies and it's just such a grind out there.
Charlie (52:00)
Yeah, it it it's a grind and s Stewart's is amazing. Guy's had an unbelievable career, but he's he's also a great husband and dad and ⁓ he he'd tell you that's that's what he's here to do and golf isn't that's not golf isn't who he is is what he does. He'd be the first person to tell you that. But
yeah, you you know, you a lot of times ⁓ with sports, ⁓ in NFL's really lucky 'cause you know, the guys are wearing helmets, right? And you don't really it's almost like they they look like, you know
robots out there, but people bleed and they hurt and they have feelings and you know, over the course of a season or a a week even in in golf, ⁓ y you know, you you might have somebody sick in your family, issues with a kid, a fight or something. You know, there's like you're trying to do this sport in the real life and it happens and and and you get older the hates and pains roll up and people from the outside looking in think it's some video game.
Yeah.
Everybody else kinda goes up and down and cycles around. But you know, while you're ⁓ the season is basically year round and and you you're trying
While you're playing, and you know, I'm not asking for sympathy, but ⁓ you know, it's a lot different than what people think. And and even also, just you got a pet guy like me talking about fitness, but ⁓ you know, a lot of times I'm fortunate to play golf at a few places where we walk. And you know, I've had people come for the first time and they they walk even with a
Man, I'm tired and I'm like, Okay, well think about doing that twenty or thirty weeks a year, one or two practice rounds plus, you know, four rounds if you're lucky. Most of my round weeks were ended on Friday, but I got to the weekend a few times, but just the wear and tear that it takes, you know, walking seven miles in a rotational sport. And even the guys that are in great shape, you know, you you kinda step funny down off of something and you get a little tweak in your back and you give into it.
Chris Lemley (54:07)
Yeah. Hold on.
Charlie (54:09)
You know, and it just it's it's I I read read I'm sure you guys have read this big recovery thing deal that that ⁓ Rory just signed where it's like this fancy, you know, trailer's gonna follow it around everywhere and everybody thinks that c that's crazy. But I'm like, that's like the greatest advantage ever, you know, recovery so you know feels good all the time. But you know, people just people that play golf and drink beer in a cart don't stop and think that, okay, if I'm doing this all the time and I'm walking doing it, how much different it would be? And and
Chris Lemley (54:37)
Yeah.
Charlie (54:39)
That's why a guy like Stewart, who's obviously playing great now on the a champs tour, has kept good good care of himself. He's also been cautious in the way he schedules and I guarantee you he's not carrying his luggage or his golf bag around 'cause you get funny like that and you know, you tweak yourself, you might not be able to play for two or three weeks. So it it's ⁓ there's a lot more to it than people might think.
Chris Lemley (54:55)
That's right.
Yeah. It is. You know, you're just talking about the grind and life and ⁓ maybe it's a good segue to transition into ⁓ something that happened to you and you dealt with and I think you've
got a platform to maybe tell some ⁓ to educate people about about colon cancer.
Charlie (55:18)
Sure. Yeah. ⁓ so I I've had a tough really six years. ⁓ COVID about got me and I was really lucky to survive covet and then as I was recovering from that and but and please my voice isn't reflective of how I feel. I feel great. ⁓ I'm just dealing with some laryngitis. But ⁓ coming out of COVID they were ta taking ⁓ you know, just doing general stuff and they said, When's the last time I got colonoscopy?
twelve years I went in for a colonoscopy and most of the time when you do a colonoscopy, which is not a big deal really, folks, ⁓ you know, you wake up and they're like, Yeah, you're fine, you blow some gas, you get out of here. Well, for me, they said we need to talk. And so that started ⁓ you know over I'd say a two or two and a half year period a series of colonoscopies and follow ups and then it turned into procedures and and I actually ⁓
initially didn't have biopsies that said I had colon cancer and I tried a different kind of surgery ⁓ because ⁓ I had a polyp that ⁓ they couldn't say it was cancer but they were really concerned about it and it was a new technique about twenty
So I tried that and it was partially successful. And then of course you gotta wait a few months, you go in, and the next one wasn't successful. And they're like, Okay, you or you gotta have the full surgery where they take a section of your colon out, ⁓ about ten inches or a foot. And so I had that surgery, and I'm doing all of that with biopsies that are saying I don't have cancer. So that felt like you know, that's is the right thing for me to do. But then after our
The big surgery that I had, ⁓ I had complications from that that I one point didn't think I was gonna survive. I was in, I think, about seven or eight days in the hospital and about day four they said, by the way, you've got stage three colon cancer. And you know, we we had the surgery thinking that I was having it before ⁓ it actually turned to cancer. So anyway, that's kind of how it happened and then I made it out of the hospital, which I was happy to get out of there.
⁓ and ⁓ I some great surgeries in in two different healthcare systems in South Carolina and then ⁓ I chose to go to MD Anderson in Houston for treatment from then on out. And and ⁓ I got under the care of their ⁓ amazing colorectal ⁓ cancer team is headed up by Dr. Scott Kopets, who's the best in the world. And ⁓ he looked at you send all your stuff down there, which is really hard to do.
But you get it all down there and then they throw it out.
Five years ago now with him and he said, Okay, we looked at the test, we've run our own test, here's what you got, boom, boom, boom, here's what your chance of survival is in five years, boom, boom, boom. I try not to get emotional when I tell this, but he said, We got it, here's the plan. And I I said, Doc, I'm gonna do exactly what you told me to do. I'm not looking at anything on the internet, I looked on there for five minutes and scared me to death. I said, You got the most compliance.
patient you've ever dealt with. My wife, as I mentioned, is a nurse. She's with me every step of the way, sitting in that room and and taking great care of me and so I went through all of their ⁓ protocols down there and I was just flying back and forth and never miss an appointment, never move an appointment, did everything they told me. And so I was there three weeks ago and officially here coming up in a couple of months I'll be considered ⁓ cured. So
Chris Lemley (59:12)
That's great. That's awesome.
Charlie (59:14)
Yeah, it's been a journey, but I run into a lot of people, like I wouldn't put what I went through my worst enemy, but there's a lot of people out there that got it a thousand times.
But ⁓ and it wasn't easy, and it's still not easy because when they start giving you chemo, there's the things it does to you that linger. But I'm sitting here, cancer fready cured, and ⁓ got a full normal life, got a great prospect of making it to 100 now, and ⁓ I wouldn't be sitting here if I hadn't made a decision to get that colonoscopy. So I'm not a doctor.
But there's some other tests that people can take. If you're forty five or older and you have a history anywhere close to you of colon cancer, at forty five, a lot of people think it's fifty, go talk to the doc and get whatever test they say is appropriate for you, whatever screening it is, because I can assure you I wouldn't be sitting here had I not made that decision. And ⁓ the earlier they get it, the better your chances of survival are and they're getting better at it every day. ⁓ and and it's
Chris Lemley (1:00:15)
Did you
Charlie (1:00:23)
It's not easy, but it's better than being dead is the only thing I can tell you. Sorry.
Chris Lemley (1:00:28)
No, that's o that's okay. I think that ⁓ drives home the point of of just how important that is. Did you have any symptoms or anything pr prior to that? Yeah.
Charlie (1:00:33)
Yeah, yeah.
I had no symptoms, no pain, nothing. ⁓ no no family history. ⁓ and so that's why I say it's so important to get that screening. Because when colon cancer, and I try to talk about as much as I can in doing a show like this with you guys, or when I do any you know speaking in front of people, ⁓ they're getting ⁓ more and more ⁓ there's several types of cancer, the one that I
is is obviously colon cancer. They're getting more and more folks to get it at younger and younger ages. I mean you got kids I mean they're getting kids in their teens that that are having colon cancer. And ⁓ you know twenty, thirty, forty years ago nobody got colon cancer.
Chris Lemley (1:01:23)
Okay.
Charlie (1:01:23)
Yeah, they're putting together some real effort.
⁓ and that's one of the things I was talking to my doc about, Dr. Copetz, when I was down there a few weeks ago, and he said they're making some progress in in figuring it out. ⁓ I I won't go into that, it's a little above my head,
but in the meantime, ⁓ they had just moved into a facility within MD Anderson, which is an amazing place. It's as big as Atlanta Airport. ⁓ and the the colorectal offices were and now about twice as big as what they were when I first started going down there. So it's a bad one.
Chris Lemley (1:01:48)
Yeah.
Charlie (1:01:58)
⁓ that that ⁓ you know, more and more people are getting it, more and more research dollars are going into it, they're making more and more progress, but the whole key is early detection, especially if there's I mean, you can get somebody like me who had it, nobody in my family had it, but especially if you've got a family history, talk to your doctor and and get the appropriate test for you. ⁓ I I can't say it's gonna save your life, but I'll tell you it saved mine.
Chris Lemley (1:02:08)
Yeah.
Gregg Dewalt (1:02:25)
That's a great message. you know, as we kinda we've hit the hour mark here, just to kind of segue into what's Charlie Reimer doing now and ⁓ how much golf are you playing? Can you still break par?
Chris Lemley (1:02:41)
I can't see it.
Charlie (1:02:42)
No. my golf game is not very good. ⁓ I I have a few bright spots but ⁓ I've been trying to play about once a week and notice I said trying. ⁓ I do well, I I do have a handicap. I started last year putting some scores in, ⁓ just so I I like playing in social things and and I've never never got my amateur status back. That's a whole nother show on that, but but ⁓
I'm still professional but I have a gin and ⁓ I think my handicap's like one point nine or two point or something like that. ⁓ w you know, so I can kinda get it strafed around but I I just you know, I don't aim at flags, I don't aim at things in the fairway. I'm just trying to keep it between the houses and and most mostly I play golf because I just I love being around golf and for me it's you know who I'm playing with and I I like
The business
It's an architects and that sort of stuff. So I'm curious. I learned more about the you know, the business of golf and you know what I'm looking at. But it it's it for me it's it's who I'm playing with and where I'm playing are the most important things. And if I get a good shot every now and then I'm happy about it. The other day I almost made two ones in the same round. I couldn't believe it. I bounced it off a flag twice in one round of golf. And I had made one in I don't know, I think it's been about seven or eight years. But I enjoy playing but I'm just not no I'm not gonna set any course records, I can tell you that.
Chris Lemley (1:03:59)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Gregg Dewalt (1:04:10)
So w were those near aces, were they at like Bubba's pitchin' putt or were they
Charlie (1:04:16)
Well, they were at whatever the opposite of Bubba's pitch and butt is, I'll just tell you that. So yeah, but no, it was ⁓ they're real real aces. Real real shots at aces.
Chris Lemley (1:04:22)
Yeah.
Charlie (1:04:32)
But I'm gonna get I'll get another one. I I've used it. I think I made a left
ones and three double eagles. So I'm due. I'm due to make one. And I play for I I like playing for about five hundred yards max. ⁓ if the weather's a little over six thousand yards. That's another good piece of advice for folks out there. You know, play get keep going up to find a T that's fun for you. Don't let anybody, you know, make you feel bad about doing it, because you know, golf needs to be in a place where you can sometimes play off
Chris Lemley (1:04:48)
Yeah.
Charlie (1:05:07)
You know, if you play too far back, it's just you know, you feel bad, you push, and it's like well I'm not gonna make any birdies, I might make a couple of pars and well that's much fun, you know. But play someplace where you have a chance to play a little offense and keep moving up till you find a T where you can do that.
Chris Lemley (1:05:22)
Great advice. I beat myself up for way too long playing playing the back tees. It's a lot more fun going up there and having a chance to drive a par four occasionally and flipping something in on a par five.
Charlie (1:05:34)
Yeah, like a birdie every night. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Gregg Dewalt (1:05:40)
Does the game still hold ⁓ an appeal to you, ⁓ having played at the highest level against the best in the world to play socially? Is is it w what's that feeling like?
Charlie (1:05:53)
You know, I I'd say I get the greatest enjoyment out of the the social part of it. ⁓ and I've you know, occasionally I'll hit a shot that's fun. Like these two, you know, I told you last week I almost made two ones and those were a lot of fun. And and but ⁓ you know, listen, I'm not gonna I'm nearly fifty-nine. I'm I've shot sixty-one on a PGA tour and had a chance to do some fun things in golf. It's not like I'm gonna go out there and do anything I've never done before. You know that
That possibility doesn't exist. So ⁓ it's just ⁓ I I love doing a lot of charity events and and golf does a lot of you know great things for you know, a lot of folks. I was at an event in Bowling Green, Kentucky the week before last. Jordan Thomas Foundation, young man I met who's incredible. He's a double amputee and he has a foundation. He helps kids and adults you know get their ⁓
prosthetic legs and limbs and and th those expensive. I had no idea 'til I went there, you know, kids grow fast and insurance allows, you know, ⁓ one prosthesis, I think you call it, you know, at a certain time interval and, you know, kids th have to wait, you know, a long time and messes them up. And this Jordan Thomas Foundation does it and and they use golf and he's he's ⁓ you know now national champion a couple of times with the US GA and and ⁓
you know just doing amazing things a lot of people don't know about. But you know, God brings people together. It's a lot of fun and it can do a lot of good. And and I love being able to
Gregg Dewalt (1:07:30)
We gonna are we gonna see a Charlie Reimer designed golf course,
Charlie (1:07:35)
You you know, I I I ⁓ work closely with Reese Jones. ⁓ I'm I'm in the development business now. I have a have my my own consulting company, it's it's called Charles.
my main client is ⁓ near Asheville, North Carolina. It's a beautiful place called Springdale Resort. The the community it's in is actually called Crusoe, North Carolina. And ⁓ I spent a good bit of time up there and and working with Reese on possibly doing some renovations there and and maybe on a few other projects. Reese is eighty-six now and and he's just a great friend and he has got great health and his dad designed
Reese and I are are hopeful of collaborating on a a thing or two. ⁓ I mentioned I live on Lookout Mountain ⁓ n near a golf resort called Macklemore and and Reese with Bill Bergen did both of the golf courses here. And I wasn't involved in the design but ⁓ kind of helped interface between the ownership group and the design team and and we got some really cool golf here and and ⁓ while I'm not involved in management, I'm a very minor be very minor partner owner and and ⁓
very minor but and member and and I take great pride in the golf courses. They are beautiful. And I've learned a lot about it over the years and and so ⁓ I don't know if you get a Charlie Rhymer design course but hopefully we'll have some projects and they're in the hopper now that we'll we'll get some renovation and maybe a new project or two going that that ⁓ I certainly will have a lot of input in and I enjoy that
Chris Lemley (1:09:16)
Excellent. Well Charlie, our time has flown by. Thank you so much for sharing some of your golf history and and stories and for sharing some some personal stuff too. And we've we really do appreciate you coming into the cart barn and with Greg and I to spend a few few minutes with us and we just can't thank you enough.
Gregg Dewalt (1:09:17)
Perfect.
Charlie (1:09:38)
You got it. Thanks, guys. Appreciate your time. Great being with you.
Gregg Dewalt (1:09:41)
Thanks, Charlie. See you down the road.