An Interview with the Co-Hosts - Nate Oxman & John Morton

In this episode, Robby jumps in the host chair to interview the co-hosts of That's Good. Pick it Up!, Nate Oxman and John Morton!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Hello and welcome to another episode of That's Good Pick It Up. This is Robbie, again, founder of Best Ball and producer of this show. And as we have teased out, uh, we've got some exciting news. So our my friend Nate Oxman has been faithfully doing this thing for gosh, I don't know how many episodes now, Nate. Uh 20 something, almost 30, maybe now, where where Nate has you know been interviewing different authors in the golf world, uh, doing an incredible job with that. And now we are introducing a new co-host, Mr. John Morton. So, guys, this is exciting. The uh the that's good pick it up, which again I will point out is gotta be one of my favorite all-time names for a podcast in the golf space. Uh as it relates to golf and books. So, again, Nate, well done from that. But yeah, so Nate, John, this uh this is y'all's show. Uh welcome. Thanks, thanks for having me. Absolutely. Uh, this is gonna be fun. So let's let's do this. I I figure for this episode, um, I wanted to get you guys on it again. It's again y'all's show. I'm kind of jumping in the uh the host seat for a minute, and uh, I want to interview y'all just so the audience gets to know who is gonna be doing this um from here on. So, Nate, let's let's jump back into you. Give a give a quick kind of overview again of who you are, where you are, and what all you do as it relates to golf and and other stuff.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

All right, here we go. Um, so I live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, born and raised. I've pretty much been here my whole life, other than uh five and a half years. I'm not embarrassed to admit it at Penn State. Uh I didn't want to leave that that place, so I I stayed for five and a half years, and uh my dad still gives me some crap about it.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

But uh here's a great place to hang out for a five and a half years.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Yeah, you're trying to figure out life, right? Not a bad place to do it. Um I studied journalism there, you know, wanted to be a sports writer for as long as I can remember when I realized that um a career as a a golfer and a basketball player, neither of those were gonna happen. Um so I remember, you know, my dad throwing the newspaper on the couch um and you know, reading every box score, um, every single you know, little blip, you know, that was in their news item, um, and wrote in the high school for my high school newspaper, wrote for the um newspaper of a Penn State, and then kind of well weaved my way through um some community newspapers in Philadelphia, um, took a job doing high school sports in the suburbs, and uh the group of newspapers also um published a golf magazine in Philadelphia called Philadelphia Golfer. So I was a staff writer for that for uh a couple years. And then I went back to school to get certified to teach, and I've been a um full-time school teacher for uh almost 20 years now. Um still doing some golf writing on the side, had a book published last summer, uh novel for middle grade um students. Uh and then on top of all that, uh I work as an assistant caddie master at Marion Golf Club where I started caddying in 1995. Um got three little girls, uh very understanding wife who is um lets me do all these different things. Um and uh I guess that's my story in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Yeah. How is uh how is Philly Phenoms doing? Because I guess that's how you and I first met. We had you on the whole story podcast, uh, because we wanted to hear your story about that and and everything else you just described. But how's uh how's the book doing?

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Good. The the sales have been great. The response, um, especially from young leaders, um, has been really, really good. Um if I had more time to devote to you know the marketing and PR, I think it could, you know, do some great things, but it's on the back burner now while I try to uh to make some money to support my family here. And you know, with with without a big name, it's hard for me to to make enough money to quit teaching and working at Merion and be a writer full-time, which would be a good dream come true, I think.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

Yeah, well, everybody I've talked to that has written books, uh, and John, you might be able to uh echo this. Not many are are writing one book and able to retire from that. It's uh my my father-in-law wrote a book, and um yeah, it's you know, it does well, but it's not breaking any records. He's not retiring from that one book. But uh well, well done on that again. Uh I think that's really cool uh for what you've done. So uh but yeah, John Morton from a uh a different part of the country. Uh John, uh you and I met again through uh reaching out through the podcast on the whole story. Wanted to hear your story, what you were doing with Old Great Toon. And so tell everybody a little bit about yourself and what you do in the world of golf.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me on and and Nate looking forward to to working with you as uh as we uh move forward. And um yeah, it's it's funny, uh Robbie, to your point. Uh I'm I'm in a different part of the world. Uh I live down in in Birmingham, Alabama, but um originally from from Philadelphia. Uh, so I can relate to a lot of what Nate just said. I grew up uh just northeast of Philadelphia myself uh throughout my whole childhood until I moved away to college. Uh so that's Philadelphia is is where I grew up learning the game and and kind of learning to love the game and kind of build a passion for the game of golf. Um moved away to college uh down in North Carolina, uh, went to school for professional golf management, wanted to become a club professional. Uh, and I did that for a number of years. Uh, I was a PJ professional, just kind of working that normal club pro life of you know 60, 70 plus hours a week, uh teaching lessons, running golf operations, running tournaments, managing golf shops and staffs, uh, and moved all over the country for various positions uh doing that. And that eventually led me to Alabama, where I live now. Uh, a short time after uh moving here, I met my now wife. Um, and uh short time after that, I decided to actually get out of the golf industry. Uh, but what I've discovered in recent years, and that was almost a decade ago now that I left the golf industry, uh, but what I've discovered in recent years was that my passion um was was really for the game uh as a whole and not necessarily working specifically in it from a club professional standpoint. Uh and what I've really discovered within the last few years uh is my love and very specific passion for the history of golf and even more specifically the history and the documented history of the game. So uh I've got a pretty considerable uh collection of golf memorabilia and artifacts and collectibles. Uh, but I also here about a year and a half ago founded my new company, Old Grey Toon Golf Books, uh, so company that's dedicated to uh importing but also distributing golf books uh specifically here in the U.S. and Canada throughout the North American market. So I work with a number of different authors, uh, both here in the U.S. as well as some overseas to help bring their books to uh the U.S. market and to the American golf community, uh, and being able to promote those in a golf-centric way, uh, not in an Amazon-y way, uh, where it's very big box. Uh, you know, I don't have 1,500 distribution centers, as I always like to joke with folks. Uh I I run the company out of my own home. Uh, and my passion is golf. Uh, so uh being able to help those authors, uh, help those authors get their their work into the hands of of more golfers is what I really love to do.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

That's awesome. Well, you know, when Nate uh mentioned that he was, you know, I I think I want to bring on a co-host for this thing. And uh you might have had an idea or two about somebody to reach out to. And I said, well, I got somebody that might be a good fit. And again, just thinking about John and what you're doing with uh old Great Toon and um and and your love for golf books and history and all that stuff, I just thought this might be a good pairing. I don't even think I realized at the time that both of you guys were originally from Philly Art. So are y'all both Eagles fans?

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Till the day I die. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

You put an IV in me right now, I'm gonna be bleeding green. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

I remember when when this the stadium where the Eagles played the veteran stadium what, you know, when I grew up, I remember sitting in the 700 level and the fans were so nuts that my mom used to cover my ears, you know, when I was like eight years old because he or she wanted me to you know what they were screaming.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Yeah, I didn't want to learn new words. And then you brought batteries to every game, is that right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, guys, I you know, this won't be a terribly long episode because I I just I kind of wanted to introduce y'all and hear more about your passion for golf and books and and the combination there. So I guess one of my questions is what makes a good golf book and or what makes a good golf story in y'all's opinion?

SPEAKER_01 9:50

I'll go first, I guess. Um one of the things that I I really struggled with, you know, if we're talking about a novel with mine, is how much, you know, play by play to do. And I guess that, you know, you can kind of you know talk about that with with nonfiction too, right? If you're recounting, you know, somebody's career or you're talking about, you know, a big tournament at a golf club, if you're talking about, you know, the history of a club, you know, how much play by play do you want to do? You know, do most golfers enjoy, you know, being able to visualize, you know, shot after shot after shot and hole after hole, or do you know you just need to include um you know a quick summary of each hole or each shot? You know, I I really struggle to find the balance of that. And I got some good feedback from adults who read my book before it was published. Um, but I think I I was able to find the balance um after getting some input for sure. Um so that's something that I think you need to keep in mind, um, you know, both fiction and nonfiction, is how much play by play do you do? Um no matter you know, no matter the topic, really, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Yeah, and and from from my perspective, you know, I with the different authors that that I work with, uh they they have considerably different writing styles, which I enjoy and appreciate. You know, certain people they they like to always read the same style or the same author because that author always writes the exact same way uh from a formatting standpoint. But some when it comes to golf topics in particular, uh, you know, you might be writing uh somebody like Roger McStavic might be writing about a topic like Alan Robertson, the first golf professional, or who's commonly referred to as the first golf professional from the 1800s. And the way he needs to write the story of Alan Robertson is more from a historical context perspective. And those chapters are gonna be very different comparative to an Alan Shipknock who just released the the biography about Rory McElroy and the life and career of Rory McElroy, where Alan is gonna be able to tell it more in real time, being able to share things like quotes from interviews uh or quotes from actual conversations he's had, but doing it in uh a um sequential order, uh, you know, from a uh just from a timeline standpoint. So uh having the different styles of of authors is is intriguing when it comes to golf books, because not many other sports have that much kind of breadth uh in terms of the types of topics that people can write about. Uh so it's it's quite fascinating when you can cross over those different types of styles of writing uh from one author to another.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Yeah. So what would y'all say when, I don't know, a friend of yours at the club, you're playing around a golf, and they say, Why do I need to read a book about golf? Like I I like to play. Like I, you know, I watch I watch golf on TV. Like, why do I need to pick up a golf book, whether it be something historical, a biography, you know, fiction writing? I what would you guys say to someone that asked that question?

SPEAKER_00 13:32

I'll I'll I'll go first on that one. And and again, I'll I'll probably sound like a broken record here uh using this term uh a number of times, but the the historical context of the game of golf comparative to any other sport in the world, it well, there is no comparison to any other sport in the world. It's hundreds and hundreds of years of history. And specifically when it comes to the professional side of the game, it's 150, 175, 200 years of history and of legends and icons, as well as the advancement of the game, uh, versus uh with due respect, a sport like basketball that has always or almost always been played on the same size court for the last hundred years, and there's really not much history outside of the last 50 to 75 years. Uh so there's so much more context from a historical standpoint that the average golfer, you know, to that question, Robbie, of why should I read a golf book? The average golfer doesn't realize the growth that this game has seen, but also the similarities in storylines uh from the current storyline within the game of golf within the last, you know, two to three years of is the game too long and should the golf be rolled or the golf ball be rolled back? Um, that's not a new topic in golf. The game of golf has gone through that exact argument multiple times before as the golf ball and golf equipment has evolved. So learning about that history really ties in and helps individual golfers better understand how we got to where we are today.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Yeah, there was a there's a quote from William Flynn, I think, in like from like the 20s or 30s, where he, you know, warned that you know uh golf courses are gonna become obsolete because the ball and the technology is gonna continue to develop and you know they're gonna have to keep lengthening and lengthening and lengthening the golf courses to accommodate it. Um one thing I was thinking about was just how important it is to be knowledgeable, become knowledgeable, not only about the history, but about you know, golf course architecture. You know, uh Marion, much of the membership is, you know, very knowledgeable about you know how the course was built and the architectural timeline. But there are a lot of clubs where the members, you know, might not even know who designed the golf course. Um so I think just learning how um a uh an architect, you know, can take you know a topography map and figure out where the golf holes go. Um and even you know, on the same piece of property, how you know different architects could lay out a golf course is fascinating. Um so that's something that I you know I got into maybe 15, 20 years ago through golf club Atlas, um, and I've just you know gone down so many rabbit holes about golf course golf course architecture that I think especially golfers who are just picking up the game, you know, could really benefit from what kind of hole are they looking at? You know, is this hole similar to a hole at another club? Is it you know based on a hole that was you know built overseas or something?

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Robbie, I'll I'll I'll kind of throw out a uh challenge question uh you know, not necessarily to you two guys, but to the audience listening. Uh name another sport that uh you would want to go on vacation with your friends just to play that sport to a different destination. Yeah. There's no other game like golf, and golfers have this unique opportunity to tie in to the history of the game, unlike any other sport in the world.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

I've become very good at that with little kids and you know, finding a place that has like an amusement park, um, but like an architecturally significant golf course, um, and I can sneak away for a morning or an afternoon without getting in trouble.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Smart man. You double up on the family trip.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

I love it. All right, so uh you guys obviously are well read, and I guess I don't know if this is the the desert island, deserted island, whatever uh question, but if you had one book that you could read over and over again, and maybe it's the favorite golf book question, what one book would you recommend to others and that you would have to read over and over again? Besides Philly Phenoms.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Go ahead, Nate, I'll let you go first.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Um there's a book that I'm I'm will looking forward to rereading, and that's called Um When War Played Through by John Street. Um and that, you know, I think Robbie, when we did our interview for the Philly Phenoms, I talked about how um in you know in that book, The American Red Cross, you know, staged these exhibition matches throughout the country um to support the war effort, you know, during World War I and World War II when the majors, you know, weren't contested. Um and that really kind of gave me an idea to to move that to modern times and tie it into 9-11. Um and just the amount of research that you know goes into a book like that is astounding to me. Um so that's definitely a book that I could read and reread over and over and over again. And it also talks about you know how um American soldiers overseas, you know, found ways to to build golf holes and play golf, you know, when they were um in war.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

And say the name of the title again.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

It's called When War Played Through, John Strige, S-T-R-E-G-E. Got it.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

All right, John, what's your book? Mine would be uh St. Andrews in the Footsteps of Old Tom Morris. Uh it's it's it was written about 10 years ago uh by author Roger McStrabock, um who's uh a good friend of mine and and one of the authors I work with, admittedly. Um but that book for me is is kind of like it's it's not the perfect foundation of the history of the game for for anybody that that wants to get into it. But even somebody who knows uh any amount about the history of golf, that book is still gonna be eye-opening. Um it's it's kind of I I kind of correlate it to something like a Microsoft program like Excel or Word. Everybody knows something, but nobody knows everything. And that book is that perfect example, that that perfect comparison where every time you read it, you're gonna learn something new, you're gonna spot something new, you're gonna make another connection. Uh and the the history is so well organized and and well structured in how that book was written that it's just it's it's the the perfect golf book in in my opinion. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

Well, good stuff. Well, um I gotta ask this. Uh you guys, again, being well read, I need to know what's your favorite non-golf book? Do y'all read anything that's not golf related? Wait, there are books that weren't golf that aren't golf related.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

No, I'm just kidding. That's what I've heard.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

I'll go I'll go first there. So um the lat for the last four or five years, I've taught sixth grade math, but before that, I taught um sixth grade English and language arts. Um, and we used to read a novel, um a Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle called The Hound of the Baskervilles, um, which was really cool. And um, when we used to do uh some background research with the kids before reading the book, um it there's a lot about Doyle kind of being a sportsman and he was a golfer. Um, and you know, he was um the captain of a couple clubs in England, and um so it is kind of I guess golf-related, but uh the book I guess that I would talk pick is The Hound of the Baskerville's. Um there's been a bunch of movies about it. Um but uh any Sherlock Holmes novel is really cool.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

For for me, uh growing up in in Philadelphia, specifically northeast of Philadelphia, in in Bucks County is is the area that's about a half hour northeast of the city. Um you're right in the heart of all of the history of the American Revolution. And growing up, I being surrounded by it, you can't help but learn and and be fascinated by the early history of our country. Um so for me, I I grew up reading a bunch of of books about the history of kind of the founding of our country and the American Revolution. And uh I've I've got probably a dozen different biographies about everybody from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington to Ben Franklin, uh, that that I enjoy reading and rereading. But in particular, right now, And I literally have it on my desk. Um, it's a book, uh, a biography specifically about Ben Franklin that is one of my one of my absolute favorites. And I'm going back through uh a number of these biographies right now, with it being the year of the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country. I'm going back through and rereading a number of these. But this, the first American biography of of Ben Franklin, I'd I'd say is probably one of my top two or three non-golf books.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Were you a reader, John, when you were a kid? The funny thing is, and anybody who listens to this podcast will will laugh and attest to this. I absolutely despised reading as a kid. I absolutely not. No, I I was not a reader as a kid. Um it wasn't until the last probably 15 years that that that really started to change for me. But as a kid growing up, that was not me. I was not the bookworm.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

I was the same way. You know, I I pretty much just read the sports section of the Philadelphia Daily News and The Inquirer. I have a twin sister who is a huge reader. Um, and my uncle, you know, used to make fun of me all the time and tell me, you know, she's gonna, you know, be way more successful than you because you're not a reader. And um eventually, you know, I think it just came naturally. You know, I think just like a lot of different things, you know, my my girls are, you know, kind of getting into golf, um, at least the younger two, um, but the older one, you know, not so much. She's but doing a bunch of other sports, and I think eventually, you know, it'll probably just come naturally. Um, and reading just came naturally to me. It's not like I sought it out. I think it just found me, just like golf and whatever you know, pursuits people find.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

As as long as it's a topic that that is that that you find truly personally interesting or intriguing, it reading is is not hard at all. It it should come naturally and and be incredibly easy. Uh, and that's something I think, you know, thinking back to my childhood, I never had golf books or or interesting golf books, I should say, uh that were ever presented to me. So I didn't have that that topic, that specific thing that I was able to get really kind of engaged with.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

Yeah, and that's one of the things that I really tried to keep in mind when I was writing my book, you know, for 12 to 16-year-old kids, is as a teacher, you know, we focus so much on analyzing every single word that the author writes. Why did the author choose this word? Why did the author change the setting here? Why did the author have the character do this? That the kids kind of you know get turned off to reading at an age when you're supposed to, you know, kind of you know push them toward it. So I wanted to do, you know, give them a story that they didn't have to analyze so much. Um, and I think maybe you know that could help. If you could, if you can find books that, you know, cater, like you were saying, to a kid's interest individually, you know, and not really focus on too much on you know stressing out over every single detail, then you know, you're gonna you know push kids to be more readers in a time when it's easy for them not to read, right? There's so much, so many distractions.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

That's awesome. Well, Nate, as you were kind of describing there, you you said uh as you were writing towards a target audience. And so I've got to ask this question. This podcast is about golf and books. Uh or I guess we we've kind of jokingly said it's mostly about about golf books, right? Yeah. Um, who would you guys say is the target audience for this podcast? Like who should be listening to that's good pick it up? Nate, maybe I'll I'll start with you because this is this is your uh your brainchild and what uh what we started out with together.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

I think you know, there's such a wide um range of people who could benefit from this. You know, again, both beginners who are just trying to find their way in golf, you know, and don't even know much, like I said before, about golf course architecture or about you know some key figures, you know, in the history of the game, both here and overseas. And then, you know, the same goes for you know people who've played golf, you know, their whole lives. You know, there have been books that I've found, you know, on topics that I never knew existed and you know, characters in the game that really, you know, are gonna go away if we don't, you know, promote them. Um I read you know one and did a couple episodes with um an author named Larry Bosch who wrote the biography of Tony Lima, you know, somebody whose name I knew, but I didn't know anything about him other than his nickname, you know, Champagne Tony Lima. Um and his story is fascinating. So there's so many characters like that who you know so many people that play the game don't know about um that hopefully this this podcast you know can highlight some of those and get get people to read about them and carry their their legacies forward.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Yeah, I also I I also think uh from a from a demographic standpoint, the to to get kind of specific and and granular here, I think about the the the sorry, my dog's barking in the background in case you heard that. Um the the age kind of generation, any anybody that's between 40 and kind of 55 or 40 and 60 years old right now, that's been playing golf for 20 plus years, probably read quite a few golf books, or likely read golf books 10, 15, 20 years ago. But there is so much that's been written in the last 10, 15 years that maybe just as they've been going through life and and just the day-to-day uh uh you know busyness of life over the last 10, 15 years, they haven't been able to stay caught up on all of the uh new books that have been written. I think about that generation that uh we can we can help kind of bring some of these works from the last decade, decade and a half to light for them.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

Love it. Well, as we uh as with most of the things we do with best ball, we say, you know, golf is people, and uh the stories uh related to golf and the people involved are the best part, right? Like we'll go out and play a round of golf together, and you know, a week from now, nobody's gonna remember what we shot, but we'll remember conversations, we'll remember stories, we'll remember who we were with. And I think that's the same with golf books, right? Like um, there's so much history there for us to learn. There's so many stories and fun things that we can uh recount and kind of put ourselves kind of like a good book will do, right? It'll put us in whatever the story's about, whatever we're learning. Um, hopefully not getting fired at like in in war times, uh like you're reading with some of these books. But um, but yeah, it's it's an opportunity for people to to learn, engage, and then grow and hopefully find an appreciation. So I think uh I think this is gonna be a lot of fun as we continue on. So, final question I want to ask you guys, and unless y'all have others that you want to ask, but what's a big goal? Like, what's a goal for the podcast for you? Nate, I do want to start with you again, right? Like, what is what is a goal? Like, what do you want to see happen with this thing?

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Um, that's a great question. I think you know, one of the goals I had when I started was you know to help authors like myself who um need to grow their audience, you know, and some of the books that I've highlighted are are pretty specific, you know. You know, if if you think about it, you know, people outside of golf, you know, are probably not interested in the biography of Tony Nilima, you know. But if you're if you're a not not a basketball fan, right, you might still read the biography of somebody like Bill Walden, you know, or Krimat Bil Jabbar or something. Um, but that might not be the case for golf. So I think the more um, you know, authors and niche authors, you know, in the golf world that we can highlight, the better, you know, and help them as much as we can.

unknown 30:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

I I I'm right there with you, Nate. Um, one thing that I have heard time and time again from the authors that that I work with uh is the the struggle that they have, and I want to be I want to choose my words carefully here, the struggle that they have shortly after the release of any of their books to get help, like in-depth help from their publishers to actually help promote the book in you know, more than a couple weeks after the release. It's like the the release is the the the core, and then a couple weeks later the publisher's on to something else.

SPEAKER_02 31:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

I want to help those authors beyond the release, you know, through the release, hopefully, but beyond the release to help continue to get the word out about the hard work that they put into their book or books. Um and again, I've I've heard that from numerous authors that that whether it's the um live Zooms that I do, uh kind of uh, you know, public Zoom uh calls that I'll do with authors and anybody from the general public that wants to join to be able to kind of do a little bit of a book reading and a QA uh to helping facilitate speaking events at at you know country clubs uh across the country uh for the authors, where they're able to present and meet and have a you know a QA live with the membership of that club, being able to help get the word out with those authors for those authors uh about their hard work is uh I think I think one of the primary goals from from my perspective.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Yeah, and uh can I just add to that? I think, you know, there is such an opportunity, you know, as we know, you know, golf, you know, the the network is so large and it's easy, you know, to connect the dots to different people in different places. Um one of the books that I highlighted early was, you know, the king of clubs about this amateur named Jay Smith Farabee, who did this crazy golf marathon across the country, somebody I never heard of. One of the clubs he played, John, that you might know, is called North Hills, um, outside Philadelphia. And one of the questions I asked the author, Jim Ducibella, was, you know, what are these clubs doing to honor this crazy feat that this guy accomplished? And he said many of the clubs, you know, have zero recognition for this, you know, around the clubhouse and on the golf course. Um so you know, if somebody's listening from a club that has a connection to one of the authors of one of the stories, you know, hopefully, you know, it it brings opportunities, you know, like John was talking about, to have, you know, authors go to these clubs and, you know, do a speaking engagement or you know, give some books out, sign some books, something, anything. Yeah, agreed. Agreed.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Well, guys, this is uh it's gonna be fun. It has been fun. Nate, again, well j well done uh so far. And John, excited to uh have you jump on board as a co-host here, uh excited to hear more stories. I I've I've learned a ton um from all the different ones, uh Nate, that you've done. Uh and so for those that are listening to this one for the first time, maybe you're new to this podcast, go back and listen to some of these conversations that Nate has had. He's referenced a couple of the people he's chatted with, but we'll have more to come. Uh, and it's just an honor to be able to produce this for you guys and for y'all to be uh a part of the best ball network. We're trying to grow this thing and uh help tell stories and help highlight what uh people are doing in the game of golf. So, one, thank you for letting us work with you, and thanks for what you guys are doing.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Thank you, Rob, for all you're doing to keep it afloat here.

SPEAKER_02 34:49

Absolutely. Well, uh, I'll sign off one more time for uh for Nate and John. This has been another episode of That's Good Pick It Up.