Latest / Scene Projects Sports Network / Nathan Rarick on Golf Media, PGA Life, and Independent Coverage

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Nathan Rarick on Golf Media, PGA Life, and Independent Coverage · Scene Projects Sports Network

0:14
Welcome into the Scene Project Sports Network.
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I am your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today, host of the teacher and the pro, Nathan
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Rarek.
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Nathan, welcome to the show, brother.
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Thanks for having me.
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You know, I'm always willing to hop on the podcast, and, you know, thanks again for doing
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this with me.
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Yeah.
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It's an absolute pleasure.
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I know you and Pods on the Scratch Project already had a a lengthy conversation, and I
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love to see the ties in here.
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I also had a a long conversation with, I don't wanna say your boss, but a fellow creator and
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founder of Fairway to Green Network of which your podcast is featured on as well as your
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writing, Kelly O'Kun.
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Love what you guys are doing over there.
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I think it's super cool.
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And before we get into everything that you're doing with Fairway to Green and the new podcast
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and everything that you've got going on, just wanna get to know you a little bit.
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So I'm gonna give you the floor here for a few minutes, get a little bit of your backstory,
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and then we'll pick it up from there.
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Yeah.
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I mean, Kelly's great, and she really took a chance on me in November '24.
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I'm I'm a elementary PE teacher.
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It's my my full time job.
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And one day, I was just looking to, you know, get into the golf world.
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How do I make a career in the golf world?
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What do I do?
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And there was a posting for a a writing intern on a website, and I applied.
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I have no writing experience at all.
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And, again, I'm a teacher, so I took some English classes in college, and that's about
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it.
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You know, talked with Kelly, did a couple, you know, writing samples for her for different
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golf tournaments that had happened.
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And she liked it, and I've been there since and I'm able to start the new podcast, teacher and
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the pro, a couple months ago where I talked to PGA professionals and about their journey to
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where they are, how they got there, you know, different things about their career.
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Some of them are still working golf courses.
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Some of them aren't.
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So it's been it's been a fun almost two year journey now, you know, come this November that
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I've got to talk to people and do some things that I never thought I would be able to.
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I mean, just the PGA show this past January was one of the cooler things I've done and, you
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know, looking forward this January as well.
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But, yeah, I think it's been it's been crazy to think that just applying for a thing I didn't
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think I had a chance for would turn to this and hosting a podcast and and all that.
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But it's a really cool space to be a part of.
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I think the golf community is is a really close knit one that I've learned.
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So, I mean, just you and I talking, you and me and Paz talking the other day, it's just it's a
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really fun community to be a part of.
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Yeah.
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And we are a very small part of that, but it's very tight knit.
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And I think it it all starts with the game of golf being as humbling as it is, to start with.
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And and that it's something that everyone can do, right, from, you know, three years old to,
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you know, people in their nineties that still get out and get to hit balls around.
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It's an incredibly giving game, and I think it really opens it up to that culture of openness.
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Not to say that there aren't, you know, your your private and more, you know, kind of hoity
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toity clubs.
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Right?
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Some things that are more exclusive than others, which is fine.
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There's plenty of public courses and and open doors for us to all walk through.
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And I think that's what especially I have.
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I've been on my the this kinda golf creator journey an even shorter amount of time than you
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have.
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Right?
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Nobody was asking us to do golf content.
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No.
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There was, you know, no and especially for, like, me with with our with our network is it
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was I like golf.
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I would like to talk about it.
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I would like to bring some different, you know, some different thoughts to it.
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Obviously, you know, we cover the PGA tournaments of the week and things like that
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just to have something that people may search for and find and something to build our
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authority with and talking about the best players in the world.
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But there's so many avenues to help grow the game of golf that you may never see on, you
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know, NBC or CBS, and will never reach that, you know, upper echelon of the broadcast
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community, but that other people and that, one, the players themselves deserve the recognition.
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Right?
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And that these these incredible events that are being put on by, I mean, thousands of them
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every single year.
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Right?
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Some of them deserve a a little bit of shine that you're just not gonna get from the larger
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organizations.
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No.
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And I I think that's what really when I started the the teacher and the pro, I sat down with
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with Kelly, and she was like, I wanna get more into storytelling.
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Right?
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Because everyone does writing about the golf tournaments and the players and and so, like,
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how they're playing and who's gonna make the Ryder Cup team and all that.
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So she was like, I really wanna get into stories.
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And, like, before she even said that, like, I've been thinking, like, how can I do
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something else, like, other than my writing and the other golf news podcasts I have?
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And I was like, yeah.
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Who can I talk to?
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And and then I was like, I remembered a, one of those PGA shows, speakers that I listened to
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and how he was a PGA professional.
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He was talking about how he took his, like, country club members, like, 10 of them to Spain
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to play two weeks of golf.
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And I'm like, I didn't know PGA golf professionals took their members to play in
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other places.
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And I just was like, oh, I remember that.
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I'm like, I wonder what other stories there are with professionals.
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And so I pitched it to her.
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She had some connections through friends and people she played with that were PGA pros, and
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and now we're here.
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And, again, it's it's been really cool.
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I was able to talk to the PGA professional at Aronomink two weeks before that PGA
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championship.
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I talked to the Hazeltine, PJ professional before the women's PJ championship, and I've
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talked to some other people that are at high up clubs that I would have been like, there's no
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way that I would have done this two years ago.
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So I think just being able to tell stories is an important thing, and I think it shines a
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light on people that usually don't get that light shined on them.
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Right.
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And especially when the big tournaments come in, they they kind of gloss over the people
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that are there every single day.
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They're focusing on, obviously, some of the best players in the world with the PGA tour
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coming in, but so much of what the PGA of America is is stuff that you will never see.
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It's things that are happening, out on the course on a daily basis to grow the game of
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golf, which is the mission statement of the PGA of America.
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It's taking people that have maybe never swung a golf club in their life or helping and doing
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something incredible.
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Like you said, the the pro taking a group of 10 from their course and going to play overseas.
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And, yeah, there's a lot, I think, that as as outside as outsiders of the world of golf,
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which I still like, maybe we're a little bit in like, maybe we're in the foyer now.
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Right?
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Me and you, Ethan.
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We're like, we're we're we're blessed to be able to to kind of cross paths with people and
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to touch that world a little bit, But most people don't even really understand the
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structure of the PGA of America, the nonprofit, aside from the PGA tour and the tour of
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champions and all the things that they're doing on the, you know, professional touring side.
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Right?
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And and it's really it's been interesting for me doing the same thing to you.
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Right?
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Reaching out to these PGA professionals across the board, masters of instruction like our
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friend John Hughes, and really getting to know how the game of golf is taught and grown on the
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grass and not necessarily on the TV.
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Yeah.
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I I think you bring like, there's a lot that PGA Tour does that, like, people don't know of.
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Like, I write, like, weekly previews over on fair to green, and, like, I'm, you know, doing
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some research at it.
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Every tournament has a charity that, like, they send money to.
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Like, people don't realize that.
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Like, it's not just going right back to the PGA of America.
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It's going to these charities that are, like, this past week, the FedEx Saint Jude classic.
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All that money goes to the Saint Jude's Hospital.
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So I think that's a really cool thing that people, like you said, they don't know those
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things.
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And, yeah, the these PGA professionals like, I I talked to one specific.
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I was like, how has the chain, like, over the last ten years, like, just instruction?
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He goes, one, because of COVID, there's just a boom of he was like, we usually do I don't
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know.
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I don't remember numbers.
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He was like, usually, we do 30 rounds a day.
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He's like, now we're in, like, the 100 rounds a day for golf because people are just playing
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more.
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And he's like, yeah.
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My technology from when I started twenty years ago is so much different.
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I can give them better numbers.
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So, yeah, these PJ professionals, like, I've like, they're like, oh, yeah.
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I host a tournament on Thanksgiving.
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I'm like, what about, you know, spending ten years?
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Like, it's tough.
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Like, when you're at a club and they wanna do this, like, you have to do it.
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Like, the PGA professional life and I've heard this a lot from people I talked to.
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They're like, if you wanna play golf, it's not the job for you because they're like, we maybe
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get to play one nine hole time a week.
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He was like, if you really wanna play the game of golf, don't become a PGA professional
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because they do so many things.
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They wear so many hats, and I think that was the coolest thing that I've talked to is that
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I've everyone I've talked to has a different thing they really love doing in their job,
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whether it's making tournaments, whether it's the teaching side, whether it's the merchandise
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side.
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I think everyone has a unique story and same with golfers and everything.
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But, like, for me, it was like, how can I do something to show these people, like, these
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are, like, some of the most important people in golf, and they get glossed over, like you said,
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when they come and they play at their you don't hear about, oh, the PGA professional at this
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course is this person?
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You hear about maybe the owner of the course or the general manager or the superintendent, and
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then we just talk about the golfers the whole time.
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Like, the PGA professionals are doing a lot for that golf course that week as well outside of
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the other fifty one weeks a year that they're there.
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So I think for me, it's been really cool.
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And, again, I've met some really cool people that didn't talk to people at iClub.
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Like, I talked to the Sleepy Hollow person at the one director of instruction there who knew
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Cameron Young since he was five years old.
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And just talking to him about Cameron Young as a 10 year old was something I never thought I'd
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be doing in in my life at this point.
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No.
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And I don't know that we'll ever lose that, Nathan, as long as we are in this industry and
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continue to do it because we're not, like, classically trained broadcasters or or, you
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know, journalists or any of this that I don't know that the shine is ever going to wear off.
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And if it ever does, I better look for something else to do.
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Right?
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I want that sense of wonder.
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I I want that, you know, true enjoyment out of it.
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You know?
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I I flash back to covering, PGA Tour of Champions event that happened here in Sioux
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Falls, South Dakota, the Sanford International.
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Once again, I it was eye opening to me because it was my first time being at a tournament.
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You talk about all the charities, maybe not just a namesake charity that's on the thing,
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but all the charity and and the nonprofits that are being supported inside of the tournament
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spaces when you go to one of these things.
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First Tee is there with an activation and and, you know, South Dakota's beef country,
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obviously.
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So you had, like, the South Dakota beef council is there, and they're kinda, like, serving
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sandwiches and things.
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So it was really cool to just see all the different activations inside of the tournament
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that was happening.
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And that's where my passion for, like, okay.
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I need to dig further into this.
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Because I wasn't like, they don't need me to cover who's at the top of the leaderboard.
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Right?
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They don't need me out there interviewing these guys and to bring that press on.
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Am I grateful to have that opportunity?
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Sure.
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But, during that day, one of their, one of their events during the week was their greats
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of the game.
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So they had, Andy North and Sir Nick Faldo, which, I didn't even know who he was when I was
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interviewing him, which is a a little sad now that I kinda come back.
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I got a quick story on that.
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Don't worry.
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And then they were golfing with Chris Carter and Ronda Barber, which obviously two NFL hall
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of famers.
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Ronda is a Super Bowl champion.
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Like, I knew those guys.
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Sadly, I didn't know well enough who Sir Nick Faldo was, world number one for ninety two
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weeks.
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And during the court, I didn't have any plan.
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I didn't know I was gonna be let into the press conference.
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Right?
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But then I get in there and it's like me and three other people from, like, the news
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organizations in Sioux Falls.
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There's just not much media covering it, period.
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So I'm sitting there, and it's like nobody's asking any question.
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Like, I got I got questions.
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Right?
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Like, I I wanna know what athletes at the top of their level were due, and you kind of, you
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know, pop that first one out there and, you know, Super Bowl champions are looking you in
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the eye and answering that.
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And I was like, oh, I'm I'm in love with this.
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I wanna talk to high level individuals even if it means, you know, kinda glossing over the
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open as one of the major championships and having a literal night kinda review about it
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was a pretty incredible experience that, one, my wife is never gonna forget and never let me
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live down, but it it was really incredible to me to to feel not necessarily overmatched in
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that and to want to dig deeper into that.
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Like, I I wish I had twenty minutes to sit down with just each one of them and to have a deeper
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conversation just because I'm a curious individual.
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And and I think that's what really attracted me to podcasting, period and continues to keep me
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heavily invested in it.
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I think you bring up a good point.
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Like, yeah, we could talk about how is it winning the Super Bowl, Ronda, and Nick?
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How is it winning the open championship?
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But, like, those are, like, those are he's gonna give you the generic answer, but it's
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like, what like, what one question can you ask that, like, really, like, makes him, like, go
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into some cool deep thought or some story that he's never told before?
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I think finding that out as a journalist and reporters sometimes tough because you do just
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wanna ask about their major win or their Super Bowl win.
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Like, when I'm talking to these PGA professionals, I'm like, what is, like, one tip
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you would give an amateur golfer?
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Cool.
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Like, that's great.
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But, like, then this one guy goes into he was like, I don't even think it's a physical thing.
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I think the amateur golfer has such a weak mental part of the game, and he goes into this
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long mental, like, breakdown of it as a golfer.
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I'm like, this is great.
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Like, no.
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I never think about that on the golf course.
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I hit a bad shot.
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I'm thinking about where did I bring the swing?
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Did I bring it to inside, to outside?
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I'm not thinking about it, like, mentally onto the next shot.
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Like, I'm still annoyed at that shot.
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And he just did a really good job breaking that down, and then I was able to ask a couple other
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questions.
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And I was like, this is not where I wanted this conversation to go, but this is almost a better
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conversation than I had planned originally.
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And that was really cool, I thought.
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Yeah.
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That I think that's why I come in with almost no plan, to these interviews.
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I know a little bit.
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And for me, it's all getting to know, another person.
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And, on a human level and not necessarily as that Super Bowl champion or, you know,
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obviously, we all have much different experiences that we bring to our life, but I
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think something that that pro, you know, and kind of alluded to with the mentality of an
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amateur golfer is that we get so caught up in what has already happened that has no effect on
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what could happen in the future and being in that moment.
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And I think, you know, that's what the best performers, whether it's on a stage, you know,
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like the the world that I come from is mostly music, or it's in front of a classroom like you
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do every day, Nathan, you know, that you you have control over the moment that you are in
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right now.
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And if you are constantly carrying that baggage with you from what had happened before, that
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it's going to it's going to have repercussions in the future.
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Right?
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There's just so much that we can learn about life from the game of golf, isn't there?
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Yeah.
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I mean, as as a PE teacher, I'm always, you know, drilling that into my students.
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It's like, can learn so many things through sports and, you know, learning how to problem
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solve, work together, win, lose, all that stuff.
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And then, yeah, the the game of golf is one of the best teachers of that, I'd say.
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Like, it's just one, it's yourself.
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So, like, you're not really working with the team necessarily to to play better.
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So, like, maybe it's you go and play nine holes by yourself, and it's just it's a good mental
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reset.
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You can think.
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You can think about the game.
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You can think about what's going on in your life.
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I think that's one of the cooler things about golf is that, one, like you mentioned earlier,
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anyone can do it.
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I teach it to my second graders.
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Now I teach the putting part of it to second graders.
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But when I taught high school, I was teaching how to hit a driver, seven iron, all this
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stuff.
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And, again, my grandpa played up till he was 85, 86.
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And I think for me, it's like, how can I help my students?
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You know?
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Yeah.
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They're gonna enjoy PE now, but, like, also, what can they take from me in ten years, in six
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years when they're not with me anymore?
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And, you know, teaching them this life sport of golf and all amazing and crappy things that
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come with it is fun.
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And then you see again, like, I taught high school.
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I would have boys who hated golf, and then two years later, I see them at our baseball golf
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tournament, and they're playing.
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I'm like, oh, so you don't hate it that much anymore.
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And they're like, no.
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We were wrong.
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I'm like, yeah.
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Okay.
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I know.
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Because I was there.
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I didn't like golf when I was a child.
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I didn't play till maybe high school.
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Didn't really get into it till college, and now here I am, you know, hosting a podcast and
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writing about it.
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It's just it's funny how the world works sometimes.
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So grandpa played, and I kinda wanna dig in a little bit to the inception of your passion for
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the game because you you obviously don't, you know, just seek out an opportunity to write in
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something.
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Right?
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It didn't necessarily fall in your lap.
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You kinda sought some of this stuff out.
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So you didn't start playing till maybe high school or something.
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Was it something that was a little bit around?
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Was grandpa going out every weekend and playing?
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You know, is it part of the family culture to be around a golf course?
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For me, no.
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I my grandpa played.
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He would play, you know, with his his church buddies once a week, and I would know a little
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of it, and he would talk to us about it.
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But, again, I was 10, 11 years old.
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I'm like, alright.
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I I play hockey.
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I play baseball, and I don't need to do that.
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My dad, not so much.
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He was more of a basketball and and runner.
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So Mhmm.
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Again, I picked it up.
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He had a set of I think it was Dunlop irons, and I'm a lefty.
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He's a lefty.
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So it was nice that I was just like, I could take him and go play and be like, have no idea
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what I'm doing.
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Again, I I played soccer in college, so I was competitive.
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You know, played competitive sports all the way up, travel, baseball, hockey, all that stuff.
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And, you know, after college, once I got, you know, not as competitive into it, I'm like,
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alright.
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How what else can I do?
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And I was like, alright.
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You know, like, I remember golf.
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I remember watching the masters and all that and, you know, playing.
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There's a couple nine hole courses in college, and we would play, my friends and I.
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It really wasn't till, like, my after my junior year of college where I really got into it.
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I really started watching the PGA tour.
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I started playing more and, you know, at home, we have a nine hole course that's really cheap,
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and no one's ever on it.
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So you can go out there and, you know, it's $12 and I can go play.
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And so it was really around then that I started really getting into it.
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The COVID once COVID hit, that was one of the only things we could do in here in New York,
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just the lockdown and all that was crazy here.
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So I, you know, took lessons for the first time, and I would just, you know, sit on the
19:35
practice putting green chipping and putting for an hour and then go hit balls for an hour, then
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go just because there was nothing else to do.
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So that's really where the love of the game started.
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I I know I told this story with pods the other day that, you know, I was a camp counselor, and
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I was playing around before the the morning.
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I was, like, 07:30, and I chipped in for birdie on a par five.
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And, like, that's probably, like, the one hole I'll always remember because it's like, I had
20:02
no business doing that and thought it was so cool.
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And, you know, the like, oh my god.
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Like, this is great.
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Like, right, there's always one shot around that makes you coming back.
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And for me, that feeling stuck, and I was like, alright.
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I can be competitive.
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I can play with my brother.
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I can play with my friends.
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I can play with my fiance brothers all the time, and it's kind of a way to get competitive
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juices out.
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And then, again, you know, watching the pros play.
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I feel like you can learn things just from watching them and then watching the different
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tournaments, the different golf courses, and and all that is kind of again, this that's now
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that's all I do.
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I don't really watch TV shows.
20:36
I watch golf things.
20:37
I watch golf YouTube because I'm a golf nerd, golf sicko, whatever you wanna call it, that
20:42
that's what I do.
20:43
And so, yeah, it's been something again.
20:46
Like, I would have never thought you would have asked me in high school, I'd have been like,
20:50
you're joking.
20:51
Because I just was like, it was there.
20:53
I knew of it, but didn't really participate in anything golf wise at that point.
20:58
Well but being passionate of about the game and enjoying the game, like, there's something
21:03
different about, I want to either talk about this or write about it.
21:07
I wanna be involved in the golf content world.
21:10
Where did that really come in at, you know, after you have the passion for the game?
21:15
You know, are are you tired of listening to the guys on the broadcast and be like, man, I could
21:20
do so much better than this.
21:22
No.
21:22
I don't know if I could do what they do.
21:24
Like, I I love Smiley Kaufman and and Colton Oates.
21:27
You know, I listen to their podcast to hopefully make mine better and and all that.
21:31
I don't know.
21:32
I'd say that in sometime my third or fourth year of teaching, I had a friend from high
21:38
school who was writing for a little sports website kinda similar to what Ferry De Green
21:45
is.
21:47
And he was like, hey.
21:48
Do you wanna write about football?
21:49
I'm like, sure.
21:50
Like, why not?
21:51
I have nothing to do.
21:52
Like, I'm a teacher.
21:53
So, yeah, why not?
21:54
So I did that, and I liked it.
21:57
But I'm like, I don't I like football, but I don't know if I wanna write about it all the
22:00
time.
22:01
So then I was like, alright.
22:02
Whatever.
22:02
And stop doing that.
22:03
And then I wrote about basketball for a little while, and that was fun, but then that website
22:07
really didn't work out.
22:08
So I'm like, alright.
22:09
So then, like, a year after that, I'm like, alright.
22:11
How can I get into the golf world somehow?
22:14
You know, as a teacher, again, I love my job, but there are days where I'm like, do I wanna
22:19
do this for the rest of my life?
22:21
Can I afford to do this for the rest of my life?
22:23
All that stuff.
22:24
Or how can I, like, supplement my teaching salary with something?
22:27
And I saw this post by Kelly, and, you know, I was like, I have a little sports writing
22:31
experience.
22:31
I love game of golf.
22:33
I love reading articles about it and didn't think again, I was like, you know I'm not gonna
22:38
get it.
22:38
I don't have a writing background.
22:40
And here I am almost two years later, still doing it, you know, hosting a podcast.
22:44
So I think just the the initial writing things that I had with the golf and basketball helped.
22:51
And then, you know, once I saw this golf thing, I'm like, you know what?
22:53
That's what I really wanna do.
22:55
I really enjoy, you know, talking about the three hole stretch at Quail Hollow that's
23:02
called the Green Mile.
23:03
Like, I wanna get into the weird, nerdy stuff like that, and I enjoy that more than talking
23:08
about this play on first and 10 that Josh Allen ran that didn't work.
23:13
Like, I just so for me, I think golf became the passion quickly other than the other sports.
23:20
I think there's just so many stories inside of it.
23:23
Like you said, not only do you have the players, there's just so much to write about.
23:27
And as someone who found a passion for, writing myself and obviously with hosting podcast and
23:34
and, you know, this creative effort, I've always been a creative person, though.
23:37
So I'm interested on how other people get into it.
23:40
I've always written songs and played music, and, like, that's just been a huge part of my
23:44
life.
23:44
So creation, in in many ways was something I I was doing regardless of whether it was becoming
23:50
content or not.
23:52
Right?
23:52
I was always creating something.
23:54
And and now in in this world, I I find that there's some things, there's some things that I
23:59
like doing more than others.
24:01
I really enjoy having conversations.
24:04
I will write when needed, and there's opportunities to kind of go more in-depth with
24:09
those.
24:09
But I really like pulling together and providing opportunities for people no different
24:13
than, you know, Kelly has kinda done for you and and establishing a a a brand and really
24:19
bringing that out there to bring opportunities for other people that don't necessarily want to
24:24
do all of the things.
24:26
Right?
24:26
Like, I just wanna write about some interesting golf stories, and now we have a platform of our
24:31
own to do that with, if we so choose.
24:34
And, you know, having meeting other people that are out there doing the same thing to me is
24:40
just really incredible.
24:41
Right?
24:41
I I don't look at it as a competition whatsoever.
24:44
I'm not trying to beat you and and Kelly, and I'm not trying to, like, oh, well, we have to
24:49
be better than Fairway to Green.
24:51
No.
24:51
It's like, how do we work together with these people?
24:53
I I really appreciate what they're doing.
24:55
What can we add?
24:56
What can they add to what we're doing?
24:58
And how do we grow this into something that not only grows the game of golf, but, you know,
25:02
maybe one day provides, at the very least, the supplemental income maybe for some of us and
25:07
providing the experiences.
25:09
I mean, even just the PGA show and my experience at, you know, a PGA Tour of
25:13
Champions event has already been incredibly rewarding for me.
25:17
If that's all it does, Nathan, I think we'd both be pretty happy with our careers.
25:22
No.
25:22
I I think, one, I think my fiance loves that I do it, so I don't have to talk to her about
25:27
golf all the time, and our conversations aren't always golf or that it's me and her dad talking
25:31
about golf somewhere and I'm not.
25:33
So I think she loves that part of it.
25:34
But, like, even this past January, I went to the PGA show for the first time, and that was
25:40
one of their cooler things.
25:41
I was talking about pods, he said he's gonna try to go this year.
25:44
And I was like, that's one of the best thing.
25:45
Like, I met so many people and met so many brands that we interviewed and just were able
25:51
to write articles and take videos of them and and all that was super cool.
25:54
And then you just meet people and you learn different things.
25:57
Like, I ate dinner with Kelly and someone who's, like, an agent for, like, LPGA Tour and
26:03
other, like, pro golfers.
26:04
And just like, what am I like, how am I here?
26:07
And she was giving me great advice of, like, what how to get into the golf world and, like,
26:12
oh, you have a teaching background.
26:13
Like, look into these things and to do it and and stuff like that.
26:16
So I think that's a really cool thing.
26:19
And, yeah, again, like, would I love to make tons of money doing it?
26:23
Yeah.
26:23
Am I going to?
26:24
Probably not.
26:25
But, like, again, I like the experience.
26:27
I like going to PGA show.
26:29
I know Kelly has talked about us going to LPGA tour events and getting like, going into that.
26:34
Like, that seemed really fun to me.
26:36
We're working on getting PGA tour media credentials, and that would be a dream.
26:40
I go to PGA tour events.
26:41
I'm the RBC Canadian is an hour and a half away from me here in Buffalo, New York, So I go.
26:47
And, you know, it's cool to go as a fan, but if I can go and ask a question to someone like you
26:51
were mentioning you did, like, that would be like, that's enough for me.
26:54
Like, just being behind the scenes in all of that would be so cool.
26:59
That would be that's almost enough for me just to see those experiences and not, you know,
27:05
make tons of money and all that.
27:06
I think just being able to do it is what I'd like doing the most.
27:10
Well and I saw how much different it was for me being my own entity and being there as media
27:18
and somebody that was hired by a company to be there as media.
27:22
Like, the the other people that were working for a news station or something, they were
27:26
there because that's their job, and all of them were like, yeah.
27:28
After this, I gotta go three hours north and go, like, do an SDSU football game, or I gotta
27:33
go down here and do this.
27:34
And I'm like, I'm chilling.
27:36
I'm like, what are you talking about?
27:37
Like, I'm I'm cool in the gang here, man.
27:40
We're we're taking in the whole moment and getting to do that and realizing that as
27:44
independent media, we have such an advantage.
27:46
You know?
27:46
We're we're more agile than a larger corporation, you know, or or an entity can be,
27:51
and we get to actually enjoy the experience for what it is.
27:55
You know?
27:56
I got to go snag a picture with Ronde on the course later, and I had a founder cigar company
28:01
was there, and they had given them cigars and, you know, wanted to get a picture of it or, you
28:06
know, a picture with him, you know, with it on the course.
28:08
And they weren't able to leave their booth, so I was able to go, hey.
28:11
You know, like, I have inside the rope access.
28:13
Right?
28:13
So I'll go you know, I'll run up there real quick and literally, like, sprinted up to the
28:17
first tee, made sure I got run like, Ronday, just like, you hold up the cigar real quick for
28:22
me?
28:22
Let me snap a picture of it.
28:24
And now I've built this relationship with another company, right, that it's been like,
28:28
hey.
28:29
You know, it was a small gesture on my end, and they actually sent us some cigar boxes for our
28:36
for our own foundation, Operation Combating Veteran Suicide, to do that.
28:41
And it just it was so eye opening.
28:42
Right?
28:42
The that entire experience was like, oh, I could do a lot more of this, and I'd be really,
28:46
really happy about it.
28:47
So I'm happy that I've gotten to have this experience and to keep providing them for other
28:53
people as well.
28:54
I think it's super cool.
28:55
Nathan, if we ever get the chance to get your credentialed for any events out on the East
28:59
Coast, man, we'd totally love to have you as a correspondent, not only for Fairway to Green,
29:04
but for SPSN as well.
29:06
Yeah.
29:06
I mean, that's that's a goal.
29:08
I know Kelly can get LPGA tour one, so that that's cool.
29:11
And I know they just announced an event in Corning, New York here, which is maybe two
29:16
hours away from me.
29:17
So Kelly and I are already talking about that in May.
29:20
And I know there's a Boston one coming up, but, you know, I teach and I coach soccer.
29:25
So I was like, I can't go to that one.
29:27
I'd love to go to Boston and do that.
29:28
So, yeah, I'm trying to plan it out.
29:30
Like, where can I go?
29:31
I I know they have a couple Florida events, and my fiance likes Disney.
29:35
So I'm like, how can we, like, somehow wrap some of these events?
29:38
And you go to Disney, I'll go to a golf course and whatever.
29:41
So I don't know.
29:42
It's I'm hoping somehow, and I know we're trying to get into the US AM last week because
29:47
that wasn't too far away for me, but couldn't get in.
29:50
Next year, it's in Rochester at Oak Hill.
29:52
That's literally an hour away from me.
29:54
So I'm hoping to do something there too because I haven't really gone to an PGA or LPGA tour
30:00
event with inside the.
30:02
So one, I would be terrified to do it.
30:04
I know, like, I'm gonna have to go with Kelly or someone who knows because I don't I'm gonna,
30:07
like, do something wrong, I'm afraid.
30:09
But just, like, being able to interview some people after, and I'm not necessarily looking
30:13
to interview Scottie or or Rory or or Nelly or Gino, but, like, you know, let me like, someone
30:18
who made the cut for the first time in their career, someone who's starting out and this is
30:23
their first pro sport.
30:24
Like, let me get that story that is maybe a little more compelling at this point than, oh,
30:29
here's Scottie Scheffler winning for the fifteenth time this year.
30:32
Like, good for Scottie, but, like, how many people wanna read that anymore?
30:36
Like, let me try to highlight someone else with maybe a cooler story right now.
30:40
So I think that will be my goal once I get more inside the ropes and media access and stuff
30:45
like that is trying to highlight some of these other players that we don't hear from, and
30:50
maybe it helps them and helps us grow as a network as well.
30:54
Yeah.
30:54
No.
30:54
I think that's a great angle.
30:56
I think it's a great angle because it's one that is often overlooked and no different than
31:00
we kind of let off the show talking about the PGA pros.
31:03
And I think that there's between how I look at things and how you look at them.
31:09
And and and maybe it's a kind of the blue collar nature of each of us, you know, kind of
31:14
putting the hard hat on that we maybe respect those people.
31:17
And not that people at the top don't work hard, but sometimes things come a little bit easier
31:22
to people.
31:23
I'm interested in in the people that are like me that it didn't come easy.
31:26
And and I had to just scrape and claw by just to be hanging on by a thread.
31:33
Right?
31:33
And those are the stories to me that relate to the common man more, and and read and see more
31:41
of themselves inside of that rather than a Rory McElroy who spent, you know, fourteen hours a
31:47
day at the golf course from the time he was seven, you know, and all the way.
31:51
Like, yeah, he was a pretty yeah.
31:52
That guy that kid was gonna be good at golf.
31:54
Right?
31:55
He was that determined at an early age.
31:57
I'm going to be good at golf.
31:59
I'm more interested in a guy, you know, and we had some really cool winners, the last few PGA
32:05
tournaments before the tournament started.
32:07
Right?
32:07
The Open had an incredible story with with the eventual winner there.
32:11
And then the three m open, which is up in the Twin Cities, you know, you had the young man
32:16
Jackson going up against Scottie at the end there and coming out with his first victory.
32:20
So, like, to me, those are the stories.
32:22
And and I I love where where your head's at on that because it's being different that's going
32:29
to set you apart and open doors for you, not coming in and wanting to be the same thing they
32:33
already have 20 of.
32:35
No.
32:36
And I think that's kind of the goal is, like, right, how can you stand out?
32:40
And it's like, alright.
32:41
Like, let me write about Jackson Coyvin winning and talking about him.
32:46
Like, I've talked about in my podcast, like, he needs to be on the President's Cup team.
32:51
And and if he's not, like, it's it's just the waste.
32:53
And I was listening to the PGA Tour broadcast.
32:55
I think it was two weeks ago, May was it at the Wyndham?
32:59
And the one guy was like, no.
33:00
He shouldn't be on.
33:01
He only has four career starts and blah blah blah.
33:03
I'm like, what are we doing?
33:05
Like, the what's the point of this then?
33:07
Like, why not?
33:08
So we can see Patrick Cantley go play another President's Cup.
33:11
Like, why?
33:12
And just, like, that just annoyed me so much.
33:15
And so I'm like, alright.
33:16
Well, like, how can I do something with this President's Cup team?
33:19
So, like, I'm I'm trying to think of things that I can do before the President's Cup
33:23
President Cup starts to, like, you know, write about it and talk about on Instagram and and
33:29
all that.
33:29
So, like, maybe it's a different perspective of other people, and maybe that gets noticed more
33:34
than, alright.
33:35
Here's Justin Thomas, and here's Patrick Cantley.
33:37
They're on their fifth presence cup team or whatever it is.
33:40
Like, cool.
33:41
Like, that's great.
33:42
Like, they're good players, and, yeah, Justin Thomas is the heartbeat of his the cup teams
33:45
he's on.
33:46
But, like, wanna hear I wanna see the young guys play.
33:49
I wanna see Jackson Coyvin play.
33:51
I wanna see Michael Thorbortsen play.
33:52
Even Akshay Batya who's 24 and he has four career wins.
33:56
Like, I wanna talk about those guys more than the the stalwart veteran players that are like,
34:01
alright.
34:02
Here here they go again.
34:03
Like, yep.
34:04
Like, give me fresh energy into this event, not the same old stale boring energy.
34:10
On that note, are you excited about the the, I guess, the restructuring of the PGA tour or
34:18
adding this second tier in?
34:21
And I'll kind of I'll let you go first.
34:23
I have some thoughts on it as well.
34:25
But, you know, what are your thoughts on a second tier?
34:27
We'll start with for the players, and then I think we'll expand that to, the creators and
34:32
the coverage teams, secondary.
34:36
Yeah.
34:36
I I'd say that I I think from first look, I think I like it more than what they're doing
34:42
now.
34:42
I hate the Singer events.
34:44
I know people love them.
34:45
I hate them.
34:46
I hate that it's 70 people.
34:48
I hate that there's no cuts.
34:49
I hate that it elevates people's status into the game, and they get sponsors in exemptions
34:58
that they probably don't deserve, but they're getting it based off their name.
35:01
And no offense to Jordan Spieth or Ricky Fowler, but two years ago, they made it.
35:05
They got them in the top 50 at the BMW championship.
35:09
And then you look at their points breakdown.
35:11
The really, the only reason they got there was they got, like, four or five sponsor invites
35:15
into these senior events, and it boosted their FedExCup points.
35:18
To me, that's like, they don't need those sponsor invites.
35:21
They're Jordan Spieth and Ricky Fowler.
35:23
Give them to lesser known guys who are working hard.
35:26
Like, this week on the LPGA tour, their event is in Canada.
35:30
Anna Wong, who is a four time Lay's European tour winner at 17, is from Canada.
35:36
They gave her an exemption.
35:38
Like, that's a good exemption.
35:39
That's that's what I wanna see as as a writer and someone like I don't need the old heads
35:44
getting them.
35:45
So for me, I think the two structure thing will be interesting.
35:49
I'd like that they're not they're gonna go back to bigger fields.
35:52
I think it's, like, one twenty on the championship, and I think I heard one forty on
35:56
the challenger.
35:57
So I think you're gonna get a lot more golfers in.
36:01
And now how does it affect the Korn Ferry and all that?
36:04
That will be, I think, the most interesting thing that I don't think people are talking
36:07
about.
36:07
If you're taking more players, the Korn Ferry tour is gonna get a little weaker.
36:12
So I I don't know how all that works.
36:14
And, you know, you get 10 guys every year from the race that are buy rankings that come get
36:18
their card.
36:19
I like the idea.
36:20
Do you think that it's a little bit forward thinking of them to get ahead from the boom
36:25
that is coming of amateur and youth golfers that are coming through?
36:29
Because the explosion of golf, and we touched on it a little bit post COVID and during COVID,
36:35
that's going to have repercussions long term as well.
36:38
So do you see this as them being maybe for the first time ever in the PGA's history of being
36:43
maybe a little bit ahead of the curve on this to say, hey.
36:46
We're gonna we're gonna structure this to include more players knowing that there is a
36:50
boom coming in the next five years of youth and amateur players into the game.
36:56
That's a really good point, and I think it it kinda does seem like that in a way because I
37:02
think you see it a lot now, especially with the PGA Tour U.
37:05
Some of these guys, like, right out of college are ready to compete.
37:09
And now with only a 125 guys, 30 guys with the PGA Tour card, where the rest of them play, I
37:16
mean, you get the Korn Ferry Tour, you get PGA Tour Americas, and the DP World Tour and all
37:21
that.
37:21
So, like, I think that's a really good point where it's like, yeah, now more players have
37:25
the ability to play on the PGA Tour.
37:27
And, right, if you win once on the Challengers series, like, you're gonna get to the
37:32
championship series at some point, and, like, that makes the Korn Ferry.
37:35
Maybe it makes the Korn Ferry Tour better because they have more golfers coming up
37:40
because these young guys are ready to play.
37:41
I mean, you see Jackson Corbin win.
37:44
This most recent winner, Ben James, a PGA Tour University ranked winner, I think he played six
37:49
time, and he finished top ten three times in six starts.
37:52
Like, these guys are ready, and it does give them more of an opportunity.
37:55
And then, like you said, we have more college guys that are waiting for an opportunity to get
38:01
there.
38:01
So I think that is probably part of this.
38:03
Like, how can we get more guys into the tour and onto and playing?
38:08
So I I think it should be good.
38:10
Again, we still have a lot to see.
38:12
I know they've they've named, like, five or six championship level series events.
38:17
We haven't heard anything about the challenger event series yet.
38:20
But I I I think I do I like it a lot more than these signature events and no cut events that
38:26
they're on now.
38:27
And, again, I I guess that's the one thing that Liv maybe helped the PGA Tour do is redo their
38:34
structure and give the players more money and and all that.
38:37
So I guess they can thank them for that.
38:39
I I don't know.
38:40
But I I think I do her.
38:42
Right?
38:42
It came in, and a long held tradition got disrupted, and it forced them to change and to
38:48
think about things differently.
38:50
And whether Liv goes on or not or whatever happens with that tour for the game of golf, it
38:57
kind of did what needed to do.
38:58
It shook up the world.
39:00
YouTube golf, I think, is putting a lot of pressure on it as well because some of these
39:03
guys don't even need to go out and play on the tour and go through the stress and the you
39:08
know, everything that it brings with you.
39:10
You know, I don't know that a lot of people are familiar with how it's structured, but if
39:13
you're not winning on tour, you're surviving off a sponsorships and you're, you know, living
39:17
in hotels for, you know, sixteen weeks during the season.
39:21
And it's not as glamorous as it may look when guys are walking up, you know, on on the
39:28
masters.
39:29
And, you know, like, it's not, for the guys in the bottom half of that, mostly, it's a grind.
39:35
Right?
39:36
It's a heavy grind, and it takes a heavy toll on you mentally and physically in that time as
39:41
well.
39:42
I think that's what the the challenger series will be really good for is the grinders and and
39:49
the people who right?
39:50
They keep their PGA to a cart just barely, and they have another year.
39:54
Like, I think of, like, the Doug Gims and Peter Malinovs who are, like, good players.
40:00
Like, again, really, really good players, but they just they can't win at the level all the
40:06
time as a Sam Burns, as a Cameron Young, as a Scotty.
40:11
No one can win like Scotty.
40:12
But, like, yeah, you have these guys that win once, twice a year for multiple years.
40:17
That's great.
40:17
Like, their security is safe.
40:19
They have enough money.
40:20
They have their PGA through stats.
40:21
But then you have Doug Gim who it was a great player in college, and he's kept his PGA tour
40:27
card almost every year.
40:28
He hasn't won anything, but, like, he's still grinding.
40:31
He'd like, is he making a ton of money?
40:33
No.
40:33
But he's making a good living.
40:34
He has to pay his caddy.
40:36
And like you said, he's struggled, like, living in hotels and all that.
40:39
Probably not flying private jets.
40:41
He's he's flying a a JetBlue or a Delta plane.
40:44
Who knows?
40:44
So I think that maybe will give some of these players a way to, you know, get comfortable and
40:51
maybe win a couple times and then get their confidence up, and then they can go play and
40:55
succeed more on the championship series.
40:57
I'm hoping that's how it is because it just I think those would create really cool stories as
41:02
a golfer either selfishly.
41:04
But I think that's just really cool to see as an outside fan looking in as well.
41:08
Like, yeah, that that's a cool like, I remember him struggling, and now he's here.
41:12
Like, that's to me, that's cool.
41:14
And I think I'm hoping that's what this kind of two tier system is or works out to be.
41:21
Well and it's gonna give us a lot more opportunities to talk about golf, a lot more
41:25
players, a lot more stories.
41:26
I was personally really ecstatic about it because I was like, hey.
41:30
We have a chance now.
41:31
Right?
41:31
We have this entire tour now that that we can really be a part of and really sink our teeth
41:37
into and and being the ones that are telling those stories because there's only so many
41:41
hours a day on ESPN that they can roll these things.
41:44
I don't I don't see a lot of the larger, you know, corporations dedicating a whole lot of
41:50
time to a a lesser series, which opens up more doors on Korn Ferry and things like that.
41:56
So we're wide open.
41:57
I I I think the the future for both Fairway to Green and what we're doing here at the Scene
42:02
Project Sports Network are wide open.
42:04
That's why we're busy building relationships and not throwing up walls and not you know,
42:09
like, we're we're reaching out across the aisle.
42:12
You know, love what you guys are doing over there.
42:14
How does it fit in with what we're doing?
42:16
How can we, you know, you know, provide opportunities for one another, whether it's
42:20
being, you know, guests on each other's podcast or, you know, maybe opportunities where we are
42:25
when we are credentialed media, right, and events that we can't get to, we have people
42:30
that we would already be more than willing to, you know, represent us and themselves at these
42:36
events.
42:36
So I think it's really incredible, man.
42:38
Nathan, so grateful to you today.
42:42
Joining me, I I think we could talk about, all of these things, golf and content creation and
42:47
everything for hours, and we're gonna have a lot more time to do that.
42:50
But anything I didn't touch on today that we need to make sure to cover?
42:55
No.
42:56
I I don't think so.
42:56
I mean, thanks for having me on.
42:58
I know I listened to your their last podcast, and you guys were talking about the the MTV
43:02
Cribs, thing you're gonna do with golfers.
43:04
I think that is such a cool idea.
43:06
And when I was, like, listening to them, yeah.
43:09
Like, these, there are so many cool golf courses that one we don't ever see or even you
43:14
don't see because it's a PGA Tour course.
43:16
So I'm I'm excited to see how you guys do that and and develop it.
43:20
I think that could be a really cool thing that people haven't seen before.
43:24
So when you guys were talking about them, like, oh, this is something I have to turn into when
43:28
when this starts to happen.
43:29
Yeah.
43:30
Oh, I can't wait, man.
43:31
It's gonna be a a lot of fun for me getting to go play some courses that I probably have no
43:36
business playing in the first place, but I'm looking forward to being out there.
43:40
And and like you said, just continuing to shine a light in some of the dark corners that are
43:45
out there.
43:45
There there's so many courses around the country and around the world.
43:50
I'll never get to do them all.
43:51
Right?
43:51
I'll I'll never get to do everything that I want to, and that's why we're already, reaching
43:56
out and building the relationships so that the courses get the treatment they deserve, whether
44:00
it's me on the course or it's Kira or it's Nathan or it's Pods or or anybody.
44:05
Right?
44:05
Like, it it doesn't matter to me.
44:07
The experience in that someone inside of our circle is having it, I think that's what's most
44:13
important.
44:13
So for all you listening at home, that's Nathan Rarek.
44:17
The teacher and the pro is his podcast.
44:19
Fairway to Green is the network.
44:21
Check out fairwaytogreen.com.
44:24
I'm sure you can find links to everything in there.
44:26
Obviously, the podcast is on YouTube.
44:28
Lot of great content from them.
44:30
Nathan, really appreciate you spending some time with me today, and look forward to doing
44:35
some more work with you in the near future.
44:37
Yeah.
44:37
No.
44:38
Thank thanks for having me on, and, yeah, definitely, we'll love to keep this, connection
44:42
going with, like, you and Paz.
44:44
I think it'd be really cool to, like, collaborate with some things.
44:46
So thanks again for having me on.
44:48
Yeah.
44:48
Absolute pleasure.
44:49
Nathan, thank you for being part of the scene.