Latest / Scene Projects Sports Network / Derek Soukup on Sioux Links, Youth Golf, and Local Course Highlights

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Derek Soukup on Sioux Links, Youth Golf, and Local Course Highlights · Scene Projects Sports Network

• 0:15
  Welcome into the Scene Project Sports Network.
• 0:17
  I am your host, Bubba Starts.
• 0:18
  And with me today from Sioux Links, Derek Sukup.
• 0:22
  Derek, welcome to the show.
• 0:23
  Hey, Bubba.
• 0:24
  Thanks for having me today.
• 0:26
  Absolute pleasure to connect.
• 0:28
  Know we got a chance to chat a little bit, last week or a few weeks ago.
• 0:32
  Love what you you know, you're carrying on this tradition of Sue Links, everything that it
• 0:36
  stands for.
• 0:37
  But you have a pretty personal, you know, a pretty interesting personal story of how you
• 0:41
  came into it and how you brought about it.
• 0:43
  So I think that's where I wanna start.
• 0:45
  Let's get a little bit of your backstory, and then we'll really hone in and focus on SuLinks
• 0:49
  as we go.
• 0:50
  So, Derek, the floor is yours.
• 0:52
  Absolutely.
• 0:53
  Well, yeah, thanks for giving me this opportunity to tell my story a little bit here
• 0:56
  in SULINX.
• 0:58
  Yeah.
• 0:58
  For me, I've been kind of a lifelong creator.
• 1:02
  Didn't really even realize what what kind of talents I have inside of me, but I I had a VHS
• 1:08
  camcorder in my hands since I was, like, 14 years old creating content.
• 1:12
  I was on the yearbook committee.
• 1:13
  I took photos and kind of all this whole creator journey.
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  I didn't really realize that was it could be a job.
• 1:19
  So fast forward a few years, I, I'm a I'm a graphic designer.
• 1:23
  I've worked in agencies for quite a while, and I was able to do some graphic design work for
• 1:28
  Sue Links, the original owner of Sue Links.
• 1:31
  And that kinda led into, working for free golf.
• 1:34
  So I got to work for Sue Links, creating some ads, and doing page layout for them for many
• 1:39
  years, for twenty five years almost.
• 1:41
  And then, the opportunity arose for me to purchase it, and I've been the full owner for,
• 1:47
  eight years.
• 1:48
  This is the ninth season that I've been running Sue Links.
• 1:51
  The magazine itself has been around for thirty years now.
• 1:56
  So it's been been a lot of, positive growth, and I've kind of changed some things and added
• 2:01
  some things.
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  We've expanded, and, we just just keep it going.
• 2:05
  Just I love golf.
• 2:08
  For those that don't know, I'm very familiar with it because I see it at almost every course
• 2:12
  that I go to throughout South Dakota here.
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  But for those who don't know, describe what the magazine is and what its real main purpose is
• 2:20
  as a publication.
• 2:21
  Yes.
• 2:22
  I always call it SuLinks Magazine, but it's not really a magazine.
• 2:25
  It's more of a publication.
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  It's a golfer's guide.
• 2:27
  Comes out once a year.
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  You'll see it, early May.
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  We go to a 160 courses.
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  It's delivered there, so you can grab a magazine off of their, counters.
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  We also deliver it to, hotels and, CVBs around the area and some golf stores.
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  It's in Ostad's and, Shields' in the area.
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  So, yes, it's a it's a guide that people can grab, and it's got course information in there
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  for a 160 courses.
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  That includes pricing, their distances, and, you know, phone numbers and cities that they're
• 2:59
  in.
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  And then it has maps to to show kind of where the courses are.
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  So before the Internet, there really wasn't a good resource for all of this.
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  So the prior owner, he started this, SULINX, as a way to, like, find another place to play that
• 3:12
  weekend or the next week.
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  So we've been able to collect all that data there and publish it every year for thirty
• 3:19
  years.
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  We also have tournaments.
• 3:22
  On our website, we have 900 tournaments.
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  And in the magazine, there's about 400 to 500 in there depending on how many we have at
• 3:28
  publication time.
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  And then we have, coupons, which a lot of people love the coupons a little bit.
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  Everybody loves a golf deal.
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  So we have a bunch of coupons in there too.
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  People grab those.
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  And then a few stories.
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  We have a few stories each year.
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  So always free to the consumer, available to take from the different places that that you've
• 3:46
  mentioned here.
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  How do courses that are out there and maybe some of the superintendents or managers are
• 3:52
  listening and don't know about SuLinks and how to get involved, what's kind of the benefit to
• 3:57
  the course and what that kind of deal looks like?
• 4:00
  Absolutely.
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  Yeah.
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  We have, about 40 advertisers and about 36 or five of those are actual courses.
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  So, you know, they they're they're advertising in the book, in the magazine.
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  They have ads in there and some just have a coupon.
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  So there's different levels of advertising you can do.
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  We feature different courses on the cover.
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  So, basically, it's exposure for your course.
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  The magazine comes out, you know, and a lot of people looking at looking at that. You
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  You have 20,000 copies out there.
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  So we're getting the word out about these courses that people might not know about.
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  Obviously, there's some that are pretty popular, pretty famous, but there's other ones
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  that are kind of off the beaten path that people might not know about.
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  So we've expanded it into more social media, given them social media love on our channels,
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  extending their, their advertising dollars on on those platforms and as well as YouTube.
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  So we've really been working hard on YouTube for about five years now.
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  With over a 160 courses inside of the pages and available to see online, that's a lot of
• 5:00
  relationships to maintain, Derek.
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  That's a full time job in and of itself, and this isn't your full time gig.
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  I know that you're you're still doing graphic design and working for one of our major banking
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  branches here in the area.
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  What does it take?
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  What kind of passion does a man have to have to do an extra full time job on top of it?
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  There's only so much free golf you can do to make it.
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  So, I mean, obviously, there's a passion for the game that's driving you.
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  Very true.
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  The magazine is pretty expensive to produce.
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  Printing is is very expensive.
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  It's a huge cost for us.
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  But, yeah, I I really people ask me all the times, like, oh, it must be a full time job.
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  And it's like, no.
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  It isn't.
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  But we, you know, we make good money on it.
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  We get a lot of free golf.
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  Like you said, we get to go out and just explore and travel.
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  We don't we have our home course here is in Elmwood, golf course in Prairie Green and Sioux
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  Falls here, but, we go everywhere.
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  We don't really have a favorites.
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  We just we just we just love to play them all.
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  But, yeah, it is it is an interesting model.
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  We've last year, we started a golf pass, I 29 golf pass.
• 6:08
  So that has provided some more revenue for us to help supplement some of the things that we
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  are doing to get the word out for people and go out and travel and, you know, visit more of
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  these courses and just tell their stories.
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  And I think that's what really attracted me to it and especially with the content that you've
• 6:24
  been putting out.
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  And you kinda described yourself as a creator and not necessarily a a creator of a
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  publication, that is just still, but really in the video creation space.
• 6:34
  And that's what really attracted me, to having you on today.
• 6:38
  Love what you did recently.
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  You guys got a new video out on the YouTube where you're going out and golfing, but it's
• 6:44
  with a little twist.
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  Can you describe, the new content coming out this year?
• 6:48
  Yes.
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  So we've been doing some competition, videos, two v twos, or one man challenge type things.
• 6:54
  And so we did a cart wars episode, which was kind of a new concept.
• 6:58
  I haven't seen anybody do anything exactly like this, but we have different challenges that you
• 7:03
  you get, at the beginning of the round that you use for yourself or against your opponents.
• 7:09
  And, that's been sponsored by MB golf cars and club cars, so it's been kind of a fun way to
• 7:13
  showcase, you know, our personalities a little bit more as well as the courses that we love to
• 7:17
  play.
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  I thought it was awesome.
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  And for those of you kinda thinking about what does this look, I imagine Mario Kart, but on
• 7:24
  the golf course, essentially.
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  We're not smashing into each other, but we are able to use some power ups and different things
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  to either inhibit us a little bit better or, you know, inhibit our our opponents and provide
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  that.
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  So I I think it's really cool what you did.
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  I think it's just a cool take on it.
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  You know, so much golf content is getting created now.
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  We all can't be Bryson.
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  We all can't be the the Bob does sports of the world.
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  Not everyone likes to, you know, watch us suck at golf as much as some of those guys.
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  And we're not trying to be anyone but besides ourselves.
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  Right?
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  And I think that's what really, I I I really admire about you guys.
• 8:01
  Oh, thank you.
• 8:02
  I appreciate that.
• 8:03
  Yeah.
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  We're you know, obviously, we have those relationships with all those courses.
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  So that's kinda where this all started.
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  It's like, well, let's lean into some of that, tell some stories.
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  We'll do some, you know, kind of, course interactions with with having the GMs or the
• 8:17
  pros with us when so we call that in the cart.
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  We're driving around the cars, talking about it a little bit.
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  So we have some of more of those type of stories as well as some vlog more type things
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  with the next exit series where we're golfing courses, but we're checking out other local
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  stops when we're in those cities to kinda give a little bit of a travel aspect to it.
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  And then, you know, we've always had some competition type videos, but this year, we've
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  kinda leaned into more I'm not gonna say they're gimmicky, but they're kind of more fun
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  to watch because we're getting the watch hours are going up on those, the ones that we have,
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  and we're dropping a new one where we are eating wings.
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  It's our first food challenge.
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  So it's a it mulligans, for wings.
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  So if you eat a if you eat a mulligan, you eat a wing, and it's there's a chance it could be a
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  hot one.
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  So it's kinda like the hot ones videos maybe you've seen before, but, yeah, it's kind of a a
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  new challenge that's coming out.
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  Yeah.
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  I love it.
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  I you know, combining what we see in the world and bringing them together and a lot of, I
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  mean, we're doing the same thing.
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  There there's not a lot of new creation left under the sun.
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  A lot of it is just kinda mashing up different things that we're seeing.
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  We're trying to be entertaining.
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  We're we're trying to be engaging with our audiences that we have, albeit much smaller
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  than other creators that are out there.
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  I know a huge congratulations in order for you.
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  The Sue Links YouTube channel has just passed a thousand subscribers.
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  That's a huge a huge feat, and I know it's taken a lot of work to get that and, you know,
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  to driving that.
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  But what, you know, beyond the the creation and for the social media, what is your kind of
• 9:49
  vision for, you know, what SULINX can become, not just as a publication, but as really a, as
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  a creator and as more of, you know, a a a player in that space of creation and really
• 10:02
  entertainment beyond just the publication.
• 10:06
  Yeah.
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  For sure.
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  Like, I always tell people that the golfer's guide is our bread and butter.
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  You know, that's still here.
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  It's still valid.
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  People still pick that up.
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  They're I I hear it all the time.
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  It's like, yeah.
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  I grab one every year.
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  I I know right where it's at, whether it's in my golf bag or on my table beside the the the
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  kitchen, whatever.
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  Like, I know exactly where it's at, and I use it.
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  You know?
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  But we're trying to, you know, provide more value.
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  Golf has grown since COVID, as you know.
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  So people people honestly don't know about a lot of these courses.
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  So that's kind of our our job, and I feel like it's feel like that's why I've been put on this
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  earth is to tell, the world about great golf here in the Midwest.
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  And we go beyond our little footprint here.
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  You know, we've as I've taken over Sioux Links, we expanded into Sioux City area.
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  So we're in Nebraska a little bit and Iowa more.
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  And then Rapid City area about four or five years ago, we expanded out there.
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  So a lot of travel options out there.
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  But even beyond that, there's a lot of other places that we kinda like to feature if we're
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  going on a travel trip or something, Arizona or even North Dakota, different places, Minnesota.
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  So we're looking at just growing growing the knowledge for people so they know what others
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  other choices.
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  Mean, people People know about all the major ones, Pebble Beach, stuff like that.
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  So, like, let's try to go to some other place maybe you haven't heard of.
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  But, yeah, really, we got the golf pass now, so we're kinda growing growing that world there
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  too to kinda supplement our income a little bit and give the the word out on these courses.
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  But, really, I would love to do more things with with youth golf.
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  I do have a couple grandkids now.
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  I'm not gonna brag, but my two year old grandson has a really great swing already.
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  And we're just trying to be natural with them, not trying to teach them too much.
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  But, someday, I wanna be able to do more with them.
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  Maybe there's a scholarship opportunity or something that we could give out and, yeah,
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  continue just to grow the game of golf in here in the Midwest.
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  And that's something that I think I I'm really passionate about.
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  I'm not in this.
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  I'm never going to be a scratch golfer.
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  I'm pretty much settled into that.
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  Maybe one day.
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  I I just don't spend enough time doing it, really to to be that good at it, and I don't
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  have an expectation of being good.
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  But it's something that I love to do with my wife and and with my children as well as the
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  kids are getting older and starting to swing clubs, and really enjoying that family time
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  together.
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  And it's it's honestly, it's one of the first things that we look up anytime that we land in
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  a new community.
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  And just going to Google can only get you so far.
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  You're not finding out and then you're kind of on your own in that.
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  So I think what you do as a publication has value beyond that.
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  And it's not to say that there aren't others out there that are doing it.
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  We have a good friend, mutual friend that's out in Minnesota who's been doing it for a long
• 12:43
  time.
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  A huge shout out to Kevin and everything that he's built with with, you know, the Twin Cities
• 12:48
  golf as well.
• 12:49
  But there's so much space in between even just like Sioux Falls and Minneapolis, and how do
• 12:53
  you cover all of that?
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  Right?
• 12:54
  Yeah.
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  Totally.
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  And there's always gonna be courses in between there that deserve a little spotlight and that
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  are easy to get onto.
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  And I think that, yes, we are very aware of the top 10, of courses in there, and Google's gonna
• 13:07
  serve you those better courses.
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  But what about the one that you could go in on a Saturday when you're in town that you don't
• 13:12
  have to go on reserve a tee time and pay through the nose for that you can just get out
• 13:16
  and golf a new course and and get nine holes in?
• 13:19
  Yeah.
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  There's so many of those courses around here, and people always ask me, what what is your go
• 13:24
  to course, you know, outside of of Sioux Falls where we're based out of?
• 13:28
  And I was like, well, there's a there's a lot.
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  We love going over to Iowa, Northwest Iowa.
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  The Ridge Golf Course over there is really great.
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  Lamar's has a Willow Creek is is great.
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  Recently golfed at Landsmere in Orange City.
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  There's some great golf.
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  Those are 18 hole courses, but then there's Rock Valley.
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  That's where this the wing challenge video was filmed at.
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  It's it's really fun.
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  But then I I've got some YouTube videos where I play some sand green golf courses.
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  There's a few still around here, still in Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska.
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  I grew up in Nebraska at on one.
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  These off the road courses are just fantastic.
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  I and I had didn't haven't done one yet this year.
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  So I'm I'm kinda looking forward to getting one in this fall yet because it's it's just fun to
• 14:12
  see something different.
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  You know?
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  And I think golfers love to, collect golf courses.
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  Kinda like Pokemon cards is what how I compare it to.
• 14:20
  It's like, you gotta grab them all, gotta get them all.
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  So that's kinda where I'm at too.
• 14:24
  I'm actually trying to golf every one of the courses that I cover.
• 14:27
  It's a 160 courses.
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  We keep adding more each year, so it's kinda hard.
• 14:30
  I think I'm at 80 right now, so I'm halfway there.
• 14:35
  Still more to be done.
• 14:37
  Yeah.
• 14:37
  Well, it's I mean, it would take up a a couple of months even if you were golfing every single
• 14:42
  day to get out there and to do it and an entire summer to do it.
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  So the fact that you've gotten 80, I think, is a is a pretty huge accomplishment already.
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  And Thank you.
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  I I just think it's great.
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  I think it's what what you're doing for the courses, what you're doing for the consumers
• 14:57
  and the golfers like me out there where I don't have to go through and hunt all the time.
• 15:01
  I can go to one one space.
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  Right?
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  And and whether it's online or it's the publication itself.
• 15:07
  And I and I find what I need to what I need.
• 15:10
  And I think that's really important to find that having that.
• 15:13
  So I think a Sioux Links Midwest golf guide that maybe is a little bit of an expanded
• 15:18
  version of that in the future would be really awesome and valuable to people.
• 15:22
  And even if it's just the online version.
• 15:24
  Right?
• 15:24
  Having that.
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  And then I think on top of I love the layers of what you have is that it's not just that, but
• 15:30
  now you're able to go back because you have the relationship and doing the video content at the
• 15:34
  courses.
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  I think it's just a really cool layer.
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  And I honestly, Derek, you got enough to keep you busy the rest of your life just with what
• 15:40
  you have in front of you.
• 15:41
  Hell, just getting to 80 more golf courses over the next couple of decades is gonna be hard
• 15:46
  enough.
• 15:47
  Yep.
• 15:47
  You're exactly right.
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  But, no, you're you're you're correct.
• 15:49
  And, like, we have such great relationships with people, and it is a relationship business,
• 15:53
  what we do here.
• 15:55
  And, you know, they they support us, which is incredible.
• 15:58
  I mean, we've had advertisers since the beginning that have believed in us, because of
• 16:02
  what we do.
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  And there aren't very many publications around that do that do what we do, let alone, like,
• 16:08
  online, services or the digital aspect, social media that we do.
• 16:13
  A lot of people do social media, but they're they're in the higher population areas.
• 16:18
  You know, we're trying to focus on stuff here.
• 16:21
  You know, we get a lot of traction because Landman is in our is in our network area.
• 16:26
  So that's one of those videos are some of the biggest ones watched because people are
• 16:30
  interested in what's here.
• 16:31
  But then we'll get people that say, well, we're flying into Sioux Falls.
• 16:34
  What else is there around here?
• 16:36
  Which where should we golf?
• 16:37
  That's where we come in to kinda find those other courses that kinda round out their trips.
• 16:43
  Yeah.
• 16:43
  Because you may not always I mean, it's hard for me even planning ahead to get into Elmwood.
• 16:47
  Right?
• 16:48
  It's a very popular course and open to the public, so it's gonna fill up on a Saturday.
• 16:53
  Where else can you go?
• 16:54
  And just to go maybe you only wanna hit nine.
• 16:57
  Right?
• 16:57
  Maybe it's not a whole day, but you wanna spend an afternoon with the family doing it.
• 17:01
  It's so nice to know, and there's so many that are within a maybe thirty minute drive of Sioux
• 17:05
  Falls that you're just not going to find even if you're searching for them online.
• 17:10
  So to have, you know, because not everyone has a a a huge online presence.
• 17:15
  Right?
• 17:15
  So you're really doing a great service not only to some of the smaller public courses that we
• 17:20
  have around the area, but to so many people that whether they live here in South Dakota or
• 17:25
  they're traveling in, it is hugely beneficial to all of us.
• 17:29
  I think you're right.
• 17:30
  And, like, in the middle of the summer, we find ourselves leaving Sioux Falls too because there
• 17:35
  are opportunities other places, and it's not as busy.
• 17:38
  You might be surprised about that.
• 17:39
  You might not you I hear all the times, like, I can't get in.
• 17:42
  It's busy.
• 17:42
  It's this and that.
• 17:43
  It's like, just go go out and try someplace else maybe, and you might find a new favorite.
• 17:49
  You know, maybe it's you play it once or twice a year is all, but you're gonna be like, wow.
• 17:53
  That was a great experience going down to Beresford bridges at Beresford Golf Course.
• 17:59
  No.
• 17:59
  And we are very fortunate.
• 18:01
  I live down here in Tyndall, and we have the Bonhomme, you know, golf golf course real close
• 18:06
  to us, a mile outside of town, great nine holes.
• 18:08
  Nothing super fancy.
• 18:10
  It doesn't have to be.
• 18:11
  It's very fancy for us.
• 18:12
  We live in a town of a thousand people, and we had a golf course right outside of it.
• 18:15
  And you go ten more minutes down the road, and you have the Pebble Beach of South Dakota right
• 18:20
  along the Missouri River there in Springfield.
• 18:22
  So oh, some great golf courses.
• 18:24
  Scotland has another one.
• 18:25
  Dawson Creek is a great golf course.
• 18:27
  Yeah.
• 18:27
  It's it's it's a ton of fun.
• 18:28
  So I see it firsthand, and I I live in a tiny town in the middle of the cornfields, but we
• 18:33
  have three golf courses within twenty minutes of us.
• 18:36
  And I'm very fortunate to have that.
• 18:38
  And there's so many more when you expand for another forty minutes that I I may not ever
• 18:43
  hear about unless, I'm picking up my copy of the SULINX golf guide, like I do every single
• 18:50
  year.
• 18:50
  So, Derek, really appreciate the work you guys are doing.
• 18:53
  Really looking forward to working together with you, whether it's us along the course content
• 18:57
  or or, you know, maybe being a a sponsor and and having a a hand in helping the publication
• 19:02
  continue to hit the shelves every year.
• 19:05
  And, I look forward to maybe sharing some of our stories and things like that.
• 19:09
  Maybe being some content for the magazine itself to provide Yeah.
• 19:12
  Maybe a little bit of entertainment value as well to everything that we're doing.
• 19:16
  I I think it's great.
• 19:17
  And helping the youth and working on, you know, maybe whether it's a youth tournament or it's
• 19:22
  scholarships or whatever it is, Derek, we really wanna be involved with you in the future
• 19:26
  as well.
• 19:26
  So thank you so much for joining me today.
• 19:28
  Anything we didn't touch on that you wanna plug before I let you go?
• 19:31
  Bubba, you covered it all.
• 19:33
  Like I said, you're you're a super fan.
• 19:34
  You obviously know a lot about SULINX, so I appreciate you reaching out and doing this
• 19:39
  podcast with us.
• 19:40
  We're we're just excited about golf here.
• 19:43
  Well, I think we're gonna get a lot more opportunities, to chat and to hopefully golf
• 19:47
  together in the near future.
• 19:49
  Derek, thank you so much for doing what you do, for the golf community here in South Dakota,
• 19:54
  and thank you for being part of the scene.
• 19:56
  Awesome.
• 19:56
  You're welcome.
• 19:57
  Thanks so much.