Superintendent Series: Pete Wendt of Congressional Country Club

00:00:01
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00:00:47
Speaker 2: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset when I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.

00:00:52
Speaker 3: And when I find my ball in.

00:00:53
Speaker 1: A fried egg Frida egg, the dreaded Frida egg Frida egg Frida egg Frida egg bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hup course. Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Podcast. Today's episode is with the director of golf courses and grounds at Congressional Country Club.

00:01:33
Speaker 2: Pete went.

00:01:34
Speaker 1: Pete's a great guy, and obviously this week Congressional is uh, it's gonna be in the spotlight. It is hosting the KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Is the first big tournament hosted at Congressional since their Andrew Green renovation a couple of years back. So it'll be really fun to see the new look Congressional, which is on the docket for a few more big tournaments, both women and men's in the near future. Uh So, without further ado, here is Pete. All right, it's uh, it's Championship Tuesday. I feel I feel a little bit. I don't know, I feel like I'm stealing you right now and you should be doing way more important stuff. Walk us through what what these days look like leading up and then during the championship Here.

00:02:30
Speaker 3: Sure, I think it's Championship Wednesday, but.

00:02:33
Speaker 1: I don't even know it's Wednesday. See, i'd be I've completely lost.

00:02:37
Speaker 2: I'm the one losing the plot.

00:02:40
Speaker 3: Oh good, because I thought it was Wednesday for sure, and you were really screwing me up here. But so a typical day for me is uh, two point fifteen wake up call and I get to work around three o'clock in the morning. We kind of get some coffee going start game planning the day, which we already have game plan but if there any changes, and then Staph gets in about three thirty to four staff and volunteers. By four point fifteen, we hope to be out on the golf course today. We mowed all surfaces, so you know, we've got one hundred people mowing fairways, teas approaches. It's it's moving and grooving.

00:03:18
Speaker 1: So so two fifteen to wake up and in the office, like you you're basically living like you live.

00:03:26
Speaker 2: In the UK.

00:03:28
Speaker 3: You got it, Pales.

00:03:30
Speaker 1: Does that adjust back after the tournament or are are you stuck there now?

00:03:35
Speaker 3: God? I hope So let me tell you, you know, and the truth is, I'm so glad. We had some cloud cover yesterday and the humidity came back in. We had the craziest week here Andy. So Friday afternoon we had one of those weeks. I was talking to some other soups in the area, Stephen Britain being one, and we were talking. You know, we had one of those once every seven or eight years days where it was ninety ninety six degrees, pretty humid, and then all of a sudden, winds came out of the north, so you know, there's a cold front blowing in and it was thirty to forty mile an hour winds and the humidity broke and my team was just chasing grass. So and then it stayed kind of coolish through the weekend, but the winds stayed up big time and there were zero humidity, so you know, we were chasing the grass like crazy. And the last thing you want to do is peak the week before a tournament. You want to peak on championship weekend, not the week before. So these poor guys have been working from four am until ten thirty at night.

00:04:36
Speaker 2: What's that chasing grass? What does chasing grass mean?

00:04:41
Speaker 3: Well, look, we're trying to keep the golf course as dry as we can, and in turn, when the humidity breaks and you get a front like that come in and the wind is blown so hard, everything is starting to wilt, right, So everything's dry, it's sucking all the moisture out of the ground, and you've got wilke. So you know, for the average joe, you know, the turf is turning purple and black, so if you're not on top of it, you're you're gonna lose a lot of grass.

00:05:07
Speaker 1: So for anybody that watched the US Open, you dealt with effectively like the same weather that came came rushing through and then the weekend was very similar. Maybe not as cool and chile as Boston, but the it had the similar effect. And then how you know you talked about getting it to peak? What what goes in? Like? You know, I when I think about somebody peaking for a for a championship, I think about like a swimmer who does like a tapering program?

00:05:35
Speaker 2: Is it something similar.

00:05:36
Speaker 1: To that with with with the grass that that you Is it like and how do you figure out what the best program is for you?

00:05:44
Speaker 3: Well, look, I think you can put a plan on paper and then you can rip it up and throw it out because mother Nature's in charge. But yes, it is a lot like a taper for a marathon, for a triathlon, whatever it may be. Is you you want to have the place in peak shape and then the week before you want to take it easy on it. I mean, you wouldn't be a double cutting and rolling and trying to wear the greens out. You want to go into the championship as healthy as possible, and then you start ramping up and really going after conditions.

00:06:17
Speaker 2: I gotcha.

00:06:17
Speaker 1: So you you kind of you kind of let it get get comfy the week before you have everything built up, you get let it get comfortable, and then then you push it.

00:06:28
Speaker 3: That's right?

00:06:30
Speaker 2: So uh with it? With your team?

00:06:33
Speaker 1: What's the I know, like you know, for most championships you get a lot bigger. How how does it work with the KPMG Women's PGA you got this week? So what's your team size look? And how does how does your relationship with the PGA work with with managing that team?

00:06:52
Speaker 3: Sure, so we're very fortunate to have thirty six holes here in a in a pretty good sized staff. So peak season in the summer we carry about seventy of us, including the management team, grounds team, everyone. We brought in about thirty volunteers from around the country, from other clubs, from universities and just other parts of the industry. And then when you talk about, okay, what's our relationship with the PGA. So we work directly with Kerrie Haig, who's the Chief Championships Officer. And I've said this before, but he is the best setup guy in golf. I mean they brought him over to set up the Olympics. He sets up every PGA of America championship and he's just an incredible guy and great at his job. So we get a chance to work with him hand in hand, and he's cool as a cucumber and he knows what he wants as far as the setup goes.

00:07:52
Speaker 1: What are some things I think, Like, you know, I think that every week with that or every tournament without a doubt, like there's always a part of the conversation when it comes to set up that's like, just let the superintendent, the home club superintendent set up the course, like they know the course better than anybody else. What are a couple things that you've gleaned that from Carrie about setup that you might not have thought of before this week?

00:08:19
Speaker 3: Well, look, I think Carrie number one, we've got new greens. We've only had him for about a year now, you've played it, and we've got a ton of movement on the greens. And depending on whether he's watching the weather like crazy especially wind, he's watching where the tempts are going to go, and he's out there trying to find not only four really great whole locations, but also whole locations for the practice rounds as well. So you know, I think his goal is, Hey, protect those whole locations. Make sure we don't get too crazy to the point where he loses them on greens with a lot of undulation. Look, if you're on a course with flattered greens, you're not so worried abo about losing them. You can shift something a couple feet. If you shift something a couple of feet here, you might be right off of a ridge or on a side hill.

00:09:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's gonna be One of the most fun things with this tournament is the variability and the how different the golf course could play with a shift of a pin. Has he taught you know, what's the conversation been like with using different teas and different pins?

00:09:28
Speaker 2: Is that the type walk.

00:09:29
Speaker 1: Us through kind of you know, your guys' conversations when it comes to like a specific hole, if you can't.

00:09:36
Speaker 3: Sure, you know, I think his goal is always to start with, Hey, let's start with the longest golf course we're going to have for the week and move up from there. He's got some alternate teas picked out on holes like fifteen, which is down and up in a long part four as you know, heading back toward the clubhouse. It's another one that I'm sure there's going to be a day this week or a couple of days this week that he ends up pushing eight up so it's drivable, which will be really fun. It's just such a cool hole. It'll be fun to see them hit it over those bunkers on the left and see where those balls are going. So you know, he's I think he's got most of it in his head and we'll see how it all shakes out.

00:10:24
Speaker 1: What in terms of your guys is you know, you obviously went through a huge renovation, Andrew Green came in and it's a completely new golf course. What are some things from your end that you're most excited to see as you know you've worked tirelessly for now what three four years to get to this point, first championship posted there. What are a few design features or holes that you're particularly keen to watch the women play?

00:10:58
Speaker 3: Well, look, I think ten ten is such a cool hole. That little dropshot par three. I think every par three is going to be exciting because of the fact that they don't have the same club in their hand every time. Now, our par three's were very similar. Now now you've got the point where you've got four really different par threes, different distances up and down, et cetera. So I think that'll be fun. I think eight's going to be so much fun. Twelve is a hole that I just love. Twelve with Andrew raising the landing area so it plays a little downhill from the landing area. He pushed that green back and left a little bit. It's just a really good golf hole too, So that'll be a fun one to watch. And then look, I think seventeen. Seventeen is one of the biggest changes. I mean that green was pushed so far back in the left and if the teaser back, it's a really long approach into that green, that punch bowl green.

00:11:55
Speaker 2: It's a dramatic one too.

00:11:57
Speaker 1: I mean you got to hit it in the right spot to get a level lie into there too. That's right, it's the uh I think I think people Obviously, Congressional has been a championship course. It's a championship pedigree. When you talk about the you know, courses in the country that can host a major championship, there aren't that many, and Congressional is one of them. And I think everybody remembers Rory in twenty eleven. I believe that was twenty eleven. Uh and and now we're going to see this whole completely new, completely re redone golf course. What are the key themes with the with the new course that Andrew Green has put together and you guys take care of every day. What are the key themes and differences that they'll see from the old course to this one.

00:12:49
Speaker 3: Well, let's start with the old course. So the old course was your typical twenty five yard wide landing area, is very narrow. Fairways a great example. We had twenty four acres of fairway. We now have close to fifty, so we've pretty much doubled the fairway acreage. The approaches were very narrow, and most of them had a little rise to them, so there wasn't any chance to run the ball up. All of the approaches now are very wide accessible. Not every hole, but most of the holes on the golf course are very wide and accessible. I think the big thing is, and in talking to some of the players this week too, is they're going to scratch their heads a little bit they've really got to think about, Hey, not only do I need to hit the fairway, it's what part of the fairway do I need to hit? And where's the whole location, and what's going to give me the best access into that whole location. As opposed to before it was like, well, hey, this fairway is so narrow, I just need to hit the fairway right. And then you know, just the movement of the property now is so nice. I mean the property flows like it did back in the twenties, and you know, it doesn't impound water, so it can play firmer and faster, and uh, I think it's gonna be a ton of fun.

00:14:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why I think my key themes from it, you know, really like what I took away is congressional now feels like you're in Washington, d C. Or Maryland. You know, you're in the in the DC area. And when you think about the land the way when you drive around there, you're going over these big hills and and you're you know, they're just these massive land forms, and and now the golf course embodies those. They play, you play over them, you play along them, and and the obviously the tree removal has revealed this dramatic piece of land that's really it's an incredible place and I'm really excited to see the greens and and especially with the women's game coming in with a little bit flatter of a trajectory, you know, not having the you know, the the high the towering, high spinning wedge. They still hit towering high shots and and credible golf shots, but just having that little bit flatter trajectory. You know, the greens are going to be really fun to watch because there are bulls, there are areas that repel really you know, severely into short grass areas like we see it say augustin National. But then we have these really fun bowls and different things there that it's going to be really and you know, these these women are so precise that you know, we might see them play a whole completely different based off of where a pin is one day versus the next.

00:15:30
Speaker 3: No doubt. And you know, I think with modern technology to Andy, you know, twenty years ago when we were building golf courses, we weren't getting as deep into things like uniformity coefficient, where you know, we're able to take a mix and say, hey, I want it to a certain perspective of firmness. So these greens have a really nice firmness to them even a year in.

00:15:52
Speaker 1: Do you guys, did you guys put subair or precision air or one of those technologies in.

00:15:59
Speaker 3: So we do have so bear underneath all the greens. Yeah, and we'll run them every two hours for ten minutes on maintenance mode, just for some oxygen exchange, but for the most part they're there. Look, if we get a crazy thunderstorm this afternoon, we can suck the water off the surface. Now, look, subair is not going to dry the green out. Maybe over a long period of time, but it's definitely going to get the water off.

00:16:22
Speaker 1: You're debunking like the storyline of almost every master.

00:16:27
Speaker 2: So they're gonna get the subair cranking.

00:16:30
Speaker 3: That's right.

00:16:33
Speaker 1: Now.

00:16:34
Speaker 2: For a quick word from our sponsor, Toro.

00:16:37
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00:17:43
Speaker 3: I'll tell you so to debunk a couple of myths with it. A lot of people said, oh, well, Andrew just took Keith Foster's plan and then just tweaked it a little bit. Andrew actually didn't ever see Keith Foster's plan. So this is all Andrew Green on the ground. Number one. Number two, I think Andrew being a young guy early forties when we did this project, Andrew was playing to win, right, He wasn't playing not to lose. So I think a big part of that was he was very ballsy with some of the things he did out here, and everything he did was just amazing, like introducing some of the ditches back from the early thirties, and not only just from an esthetic standpoint. He didn't put him in just because there were ditches here in the thirties. He put him in to move water. And I think he was very bold with everything he did out on the golf course. The other thing about Andrew, the fun part was hey, unlike a lot of architects, Andrew was on the ground three days a week with us. He may have been on an excavator, he may have been on a bulldozer, or he was just walking green surfaces, working on inches and centimeters and millimeters on a green surface, trying to get it perfect. So we we got his heart and soul. He put all of it into this place.

00:19:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's uh, it's it's really cool.

00:19:07
Speaker 1: I mean, it is a and it's neat that he didn't see Foster's plan at all, you know, It's it reminds me a little bit of of there's a story of Chicago golf, Like Harry Colt, Drew plans for Chicago Golf and McDonald had seen them, but he had sent Rayner in to do their redesign, and he said he sent and wrote in a letter, do not show Colt's plans to Rayner until after he's done with his plants.

00:19:38
Speaker 2: And it's it's something.

00:19:40
Speaker 1: About like allowing I imagine for architects, like you, once you see a plan, you kind of think of it in that And this is something that always amazes me with how somebody like Andrew redesigns a golf course, like once you see a golf hole, you kind of like see the whole that way, and the ability to like look past the the golf hole that's there or the golf hole on the plan is amazing. Hey, did you work at Congressional as an intern? Did I read that under Paul Latshaw?

00:20:13
Speaker 3: I did so. This was the first place I had worked in the States. I came down to Penn State from Canada interned with Paul Latshaw Senior in nineteen ninety five for the US Senior Open. And then you know, I actually met my wife down here through a buddy of mine at Penn State, and she's from the DC area. They went they did their undergrad together at Elon College in North Carolina, and next thing you know, here we are back twenty five years later the place it all started. It's you know, it's a crazy story and it's pretty fun.

00:20:43
Speaker 1: Where else did your attourney take you? I mean, that's got to be so cool. You know, the first place you interned at a championship and now you're full circle imagined.

00:20:54
Speaker 2: It's bringing back some of the fields.

00:20:56
Speaker 3: It's amazing. I'm sitting in the office I used to get my ass chewed in, so it's perfect. That's great. But I'll tell you I went from congressional to our tej. I worked for Glenn Smickley, who is one of the best agronomus in the world. And Glenn is now right out in your neck of the woods. He's the general manager at California Golf Club and a great buddy of mine. From there, I was really fortunate to project manage the construction of Kinlock Golf Club down in Richmond, Virginia, and at the time, look, they had a vision for it. Vinny Giles was kind of the tzar of the club, and the vision was to build a great men's golf club and it's men and women, but it's you know, ninety percent men that play the play the course. And their vision was to have a golf only club down in Richmond that was world class. And but you never know, right you go build a golf course, you know, it could be it could be great, it may not be in it. I was really fortunate that it turned out to be a really great golf course. And I stayed there is the director of agronomy for fifteen years before moving back up here to the DC area.

00:22:06
Speaker 2: And then you were at Woodmont, right, Yeah, I was.

00:22:08
Speaker 3: At Woodmont for four years. Yeah, before I came over here to Congressional.

00:22:13
Speaker 1: With uh, with your history, I mean your background, it seems like it's a it's a mix between championship golf. You got started with championship golf and then construction. Can you compare to trast the two and uh, you know, maybe maybe a let us sit on which one you prefer a little bit more.

00:22:30
Speaker 3: You know, it's tough. I I love golf course architecture, you know, I'm a I'm a I'm a golf course architecture junkie. I love to read up on it and and so I really enjoy the construction aspect. I love projects. I mean, look, I would be bored if you said, hey, Pete, why don't you come take care of Chicago Golf Club, even though I love that place. It is so amazing, But who wants to touch that? There's nothing to tweak there. So I really do enjoy the construction aspect. And you know, when you compare construction to championships, I mean, the one big similarity is you've got a massive lack of sleep. That's it.

00:23:14
Speaker 1: So that's the key theme in your in your career has been just.

00:23:17
Speaker 2: Ye, sleep deprivation.

00:23:19
Speaker 3: I'm aging in dog years right now.

00:23:22
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:23:22
Speaker 1: I just got back from you know, a while on the East Coast, and and I fell asleep on the couch last night, you know, a three hour difference. It's like eight pm, and my wife kind of got abby, and I'm like, listen, it is eleven o'clock where I've been like, and I'm like, I was up at three for a flight, Like you gotta give me a break here, you know. But the talk, you know, the latch Shaw family obviously has been a you know, huge kind of I always described the turf world as like you've got kind of like your five families, and the lat Shaws are obviously like one of the big families. And in what what was it like working for Paul Atshaw? And then you know in the network that it kind of creates, Oh, it was amazing. I mean at the time in the mid nineties, I mean there were twenty three guys on staff either in school or had just graduated from school. You know, with that with agronomy degrees, you had a lot of guys. You had John Zimmers on the team as our assistant superintendent too. You know, of course now went from Okemont to Inverness, a lot of guys who are still superintendents.

00:24:37
Speaker 3: All around the country, and just a really good network of people.

00:24:41
Speaker 1: What what how is would you say the turf world's changed from ninety five? And how how is like managing teams changed? And and just you know, just in general the pipeline of talent.

00:24:55
Speaker 3: Well, I think the biggest issue we're running into and look, this is this is every business, it's not just our business. But it's hard to find people in the turf industry right now. Not as many kids are getting into the industry. I don't think they're being introduced to it. And look I'll be the first to tell you, Like, look, my son played travel across all through high school, so he barely had any time for a job. The reason I'm in the golf business today is because during high school and college, I worked at a country club and that really introduced me to the business. And that sparked my interest in getting into this industry. Like, it's not something that you go to college and go, man, I think I really want to study turf grass management. You know, most people who get into this business have been introduced to it somehow.

00:25:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a good you know point. It's like I always talk to people like the country the modern country club has changed because of how parenting has changed and how like you know, perfect example is like almost every kids in travel something you know, that's right, and that's going to soak up a lot of a lot of weekend days. And you know that's changed the country club. But it's also changed the country club beyond the members down through the staff.

00:26:15
Speaker 3: Right.

00:26:15
Speaker 1: And I you know, have you tried any unique strategies to help with labor issues, like you have you had any success with anything, any you know, kind of out of the box ideas.

00:26:30
Speaker 3: I'll tell you from an out of the box perspective. No, we we really work hard on bringing in a good group of interns every year. So we have seven interns this year. We've got one from Australia, one from Scotland, and then a bunch from around the country here and that's the lifeblood of this operation. Those kids have been working sixteen hours a day for six weeks straight and you know, between them and our management team, which is pretty good size. I mean we have eight assistant superintendents, re superintendent's on property and then me getting in the way, so we've got a pretty good sized team. But you know, when you talk about innovations and bringing people in, I think another innovation that I'm really excited about is autonomous technology. So I think and look, it's not one of those things where people say, oh yeah, I go to the grocery store and there's no personal service anymore. I mean I look at it from the perspective of if I could have eight fairway motors out there working autonomously, those people who were on those seats could be doing other things to detail up the golf course, or maybe someone's mowing of green and they've got an autonomous rough mower working around the green complex mowan and the rough will they mow the greens. So I'm really excited to see what the future brings for us there.

00:27:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think autonomous is just I mean, it makes so much sense. It's when you think about from what I've gathered about you know, turf teams and teams, is that the most sought after positions are are like fairway mowers or greens mower, like, you know, that's what people want to do, the fairway mowing. And I think in my head it's like, well, you're going to take your most senior, your most skilled, you know, worker, and you're going to put them on a mower. That's like really Like, I I love mowing because it's a time for me to just be alone with my thoughts and I can think about a million things while I mow.

00:28:30
Speaker 2: And it's like if.

00:28:31
Speaker 1: You can take that that labor time and put it towards the detail work, you know, for some courses for you know, I don't for congressional. I don't think it will save money necessarily. I think what it'll do is it'll just allow you to reallocate your resources and do into different places where you can get more out of your your golf course. But then when you when you look down at maybe some municipal or you know, public facilities, it's you know, it could be a big cost thing or help solve a massive labor.

00:29:03
Speaker 2: Problem that they face, no doubt, it's.

00:29:06
Speaker 1: So how close do you think the turf industry is to autonomous and starting to get out there? I know some products are starting to get close and others are are very close. But you know, what do you think are the most important autonomous technologies for me?

00:29:25
Speaker 3: I think, you know, it comes down to fairways and roughs. I don't know that personally i'd want to put an autonomous mower on our greens. Those are a bread and butter. I'd rather have people on the greens every day. But fairways and rough I think are really close. I think the major manufacturers are very close to bringing product to market. I think, listen, we live in a litigious society where I think, right now they've got they've got the manufacturing down. It's okay, how do we figure out if this thing runs over the name dog?

00:30:01
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:30:02
Speaker 3: In the UK, you see it. I mean, if you're on Twitter all the time, you see a lot of this autonomous technology being used in the UK at this point, but I think they're a little ahead of us there from a figuring out that aspect that I mean, you.

00:30:16
Speaker 2: Could have it.

00:30:17
Speaker 1: I mean for anybody that has a yard, they could. You know, like there's a reason you want to mow early in the morning or late at night, but you could feasibly have it going at night, which isn't wouldn't that be the best ideal situation, especially for somebody in a climate like yours.

00:30:34
Speaker 3: Gosh, it would be awesome. It would be awesome. And then you think about it with the technology we have today with RTK and GPS, it's amazing in that what you'll find is all of a sudden, these mowers will be talking to the irrigation system, which will in turn tell them, hey, we're going to have some water on on whole number seven in the front left of the fairway, so stay away from that area. So, I mean, the technology is endless.

00:31:03
Speaker 1: A question I have for you, you know, like obviously agronomics everybody talks about.

00:31:08
Speaker 2: You know, this is a greater golf world topic.

00:31:10
Speaker 1: Really, you know, I know you're you watch golf, you play a lot, you play a decent amount. You don't play a lot, but you play a decent amount. With with Agronomy, you know, it's continued to advance, it is, you know, and I think it's obviously you know, I was just watching the other night a seventy five Masters, and I'm watching these guys putt. I'm watching them just like sweat over one and a half foot putts. And obviously the putter is different the but the greens are way different, and the fairways are different, and you know, just the overall I think expectation of maintenance has has changed. Do you where do you think the line is? You obviously have you know greens that with severe slopes. You have a brand new golf course, and you have, you know, all the bells and whistles. You can maintain it to a certain level. But where do you think the line is? And you know, do you think at Agronomy's going to continue to push forward in terms of speed?

00:32:13
Speaker 3: So in terms of speed, no, And this comes down to a personal feeling. I think that the whole chase for speed is passe. And I was in it for a long time at Kimlock. We were pushing those thirteen's fourteens whatever we could get out of the greens. And truthfully, you sit back one day and you realize, like, I'm watching people short side themselves and just play ping pong back and forth across the green, and they're like, four, put it that green. That was awesome. Well that's not awesome. I mean, we want people to enjoy golf. I don't think that greens need to be rolling fourteen fifteen to be fun. And honestly, I think if yes, the average Joe, he would tell you, yeah, that wasn't fun. So I think, you know, green speeds are getting to the point at most clubs where they're more realistic. They're still they're still quick, they're super, they're super. Gosh, I'm losing my mind this morning. They're they're very true, right, I mean, these new grasses are so true. We're able to roll them. Well, we're able to use technology to the point where we're mowing below a tenth of an inch. I mean we're talking thousands of an inch. So I don't know, you say, hey, gosh, I don't know if technology could go any further, But every time someone says that, it just does go further. But I think from a playability perspective. I don't know how much further it needs to go.

00:33:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's almost like there's this chase for uniformity. And when you think about that, it's like, well like if you look at a sport, the uniqueness of each baseball stadium is what draws people to want to go to each baseball stadium and the you know, every every field's maintained a little bit differently. There fields notorious for having a little bit slower in fields, you know, and you can maintain you could also maintain a golf course. Like I think about this all the time. If I was a member of a club, I would want my golf course maintained way differently than the other clubs in my district because then when when people came to my club, I would have a huge advantage over them.

00:34:21
Speaker 3: Sure.

00:34:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you got the club with the fastest greens coming to town, they're coming to play a match, just you know, forget to come.

00:34:29
Speaker 2: Up that morning, right, that's right. They won't get into the golf and they won't get anything to the whole all day, No doubt.

00:34:36
Speaker 3: It's perfect.

00:34:37
Speaker 1: So what's the what's the ideal scenario this weekend? This is the last the last question, ideal scenario this weekend, and then we're going to ask you to predict winning score, you know, just.

00:34:48
Speaker 3: For fun, all right, So ideal scenario this weekend is, you know, a tight race to the finish in a playoff. As far as I'm concerned, the ideal scenario for me is a little bit of humidity and dry and we can really produce a great golf course for the ladies to play on. Keep it nice and firm, and the winning score is going to be five.

00:35:13
Speaker 1: Under, five under that'll be. I think that's like right in the perfect zone. This is where we're a great play you know. You can see some birdies, you can see some exciting stuff, but there's also a consequence to poor shots. There you go, Pete, thank you so much for the time. I know this is a busy week. Best of luck this week and can't wait to watch Congressional on TV.

00:35:37
Speaker 3: Always great chatting with you, pal, and look forward to playing some golf with you again.

00:35:41
Speaker 1: Sam, thank you for listening to another edition of the Friday Podcast. Today's episode was edited by Meg Atkins. Thank you Meg. As a quick reminder, we have a bunch of new stuff in the pro Shop. We have a ton of hats, lots of styles, lots of colors, lots of different variations. Go check them out pro shop dot the fried egg dot com. It's pro shop dot Thefrida Egg dot com and you know, support the pod that way. Thanks again and we'll be back on Monday or Tuesday with a new episode.