The Cart Barn Podcast

Chris Lemley (00:00)
Welcome back to the cart barn. Today's guest has won three times on the PGA tour, once as a Monday qualifier, one of the best putters that you'll ever hear from. He's also an an author, a songwriter. He could be classified as one of Goff's most interesting men. Talking about Kenny Knox. Kenny, welcome to the Cart Barn.

Kenny (00:02)
It's

⁓ I'm glad to be here. Thanks a lot, Chris. And Greg.

Gregg Dewalt (00:26)
So Kenny, how how should we formally introduce you? Tour pro, motivational speaker, putting guru, songwriter, what what what's the best way to ⁓ identify you these days?

Kenny (00:39)
It depends on how much time you have. But ⁓ former former tour pro, ⁓ older I get the better I used to be. ⁓ but current author and s ⁓ keynote speaker now at events.

Chris Lemley (00:41)
Ha ha.

Gregg Dewalt (00:55)
Perfect. so we're the cart barn podcast. Did you spend any time growing up in the cart barn?

Chris Lemley (00:56)
Yeah.

Kenny (01:03)
⁓ w we did but when I grew up we had the the the caddy shack in Columbus, Georgia. So I spent a lot of time with Howard Pitts and and the caddies down there learning how to eat fried chicken off ⁓ two pieces of white bread and so we had the cart barn there as well, but a lot of caddies and interesting way to learn how to play golf.

Chris Lemley (01:07)
Yeah.

Gregg Dewalt (01:27)
Were your parents thrilled you were hanging out with caddies or were they a little leery of what you were really learning down there?

Kenny (01:34)
Well, as long as I was staying out of trouble they didn't mind. And the golf course was a great place to stay out of trouble for sure.

Gregg Dewalt (01:43)
Absolutely. ⁓ just yeah, how did you get into the game?

Chris Lemley (01:43)
Yep. Well had go ahead.

Kenny (01:48)
Well my father actually ⁓ he decided he wanted to ⁓ he was what I call a mudslinger. He he he laid brick for a living when I was young, real young, and so he started moving up in the ranks a little bit, getting a good reputation and building some bigger buildings, some ⁓ some little shopping centers and theaters and things like that. So he decided he'd try his hand at golf when I was eight years old and so he took me out on the golf course for the first time when I was eight years old.

my first love was baseball. I just loved baseball. ⁓ watching it, my three older brothers, watching them play and and so but ⁓ once I was introduced to golf I knew that's what what I really wanted to do. So I sh I sp split time with golf. starting at nine years old I started playing. And ⁓ baseball little league was eight to t eight to twelve, so I was pretty much entrenched in that for a while. But golf ⁓ you know

The thing I liked about golf was it was an individual sport. I was always an all-star at all at baseball. I you know, I played shortstop, I played pitcher, and I had a pretty good ⁓ series of hitting you know, hitting the ball pretty good, home runs and things like that. So ⁓ I love baseball, but but what I realized I was shooting par when I was twelve years old. So I knew then I really wanted to play golf the rest of my life at

even at professionally. We I grew up in Columbus, Georgia, Country Club of Columbus, and Hugh Royer was ⁓ a tour player at that time and he was obviously ⁓ one of our heroes that we could watch on TV and and and feel a real connection to the professional tour. And so that's really how, you know, I visualize it. With baseball you could watch Johnny Bench and all the guys, you know, all the guys back in my day coming up and everything and you loved all that, but you didn't have a real connection with them.

So and golf, the individual part of aspect of golf to me is was very intriguing because I had a little kind of a speech impediment when I was growing up. I was kind of a loner. ⁓ I got made fun of a lot and got put into special classes at school and things like that. So ⁓ it was very comfortable for me to get on the golf course by myself and work on my golf game with nobody else around and just use my imagination. I came from a

family pool players. My my granddaddy had a pool table in his house and all my brothers were became professional pool players actually. My my next oldest brother was a world champion pool player, but I learned a lot from shooting pool on how to how to manipulate and use my imagination on the around the greens at at the country club of Columbus.

Chris Lemley (04:37)
Well that's a ⁓ is that a Donald Ross golf course?

Kenny (04:41)
It is a Donald Ross ⁓ I believe it's a tilling house course actually. It's a tilling house. And so I always get the Ross courses and the Tilling Houses mixed up. ⁓ I'll have to do my research on that. I think in my book I did I did I think it is a tilling house course though.

Chris Lemley (04:46)
⁓

Okay.

Gregg Dewalt (05:01)
What aspect of the game was the most fun for you? Was it the creativity around the greens? Was it beating balls? What

Kenny (05:10)
Well, playing golf, you know, you know, when you're young, you don't hit the ball very far. So when you don't hit many greens in regulation, especially when the greens ⁓ at the country club were tabletops, you know, they were they were raised greens and put what we call push up greens back then. And they were very small. So learning to chip, hit bunker shots and and playing ⁓ and putting. So the short game was r really where I gravitated towards because of my

lack of ability to hit the greens at that time 'cause with a you know, ⁓ if you don't hit it far, you don't have much spin on the ball. So you have to bump the ball into what we call the ladies' aid, right? So run it up on the greens or whatever, but but then as I got older I was able to stop the ball the greens.

Chris Lemley (05:54)
Yeah.

Well, you growing up in in Columbus, there's a pretty rich history. You've already mentioned Hugh Royer. ⁓ and you had ⁓ well Green Island there in Columbus also, which hosted the Southern Open. ⁓ of of winners, ⁓ present company included. ⁓ Mason Rudolph, Johnny Miller won his first

Kenny (06:13)
Yeah, that's right. Hmm.

Chris Lemley (06:28)
⁓ event there as a professional. Hubert Green won a couple of times. Jerry Pate. ⁓ gosh, just and then I know that there ⁓ Larry Mys is not really from Columbus, but ⁓ and Carter but Carter Myes, I don't think they're related, is is also from that who played on the tour.

Kenny (06:45)
Yeah. Yeah, they're not related.

That's right. well Carter never played the tour, but he was a great amateur player. ⁓ Larry obviously won the Masters. He ⁓ was back and forth between Augusta and Columbus. ⁓ I believe his daddy owned a Baskin Robbins. I'm not sure, but I think his daddy owned Baskin Robbins. But ⁓ the the the thing about ⁓ Columbus, it had rich tradition of golf, obviously. And I named a bunch of them in my book, ⁓ the Just Make It Book.

Chris Lemley (07:07)
Okay.

Kenny (07:22)
But started with Fred Haskins, who was the head pro at Country Club of Columbus, and now is, you know, his name will live forever infinity with with the best college players and women men's and women's ⁓ players. So ⁓ h his name is on the men's and they've started a new Annika Award for the for the girls and women ⁓ golfers that's also held at the Country Club of Columbus, which is really cool. but we had we had great Masters. George Hamer played in the Masters at Amateur.

the the Key brothers who are kind of down the line, distant cousins of mine, ⁓ Jack and Billy Key were both great amateur golfers. I mean there's a long, long list of of really, really good amateur golfers that came out of the Country Club of Columbus that ⁓ that and their names were prevalent in the in the world of golf. So I had a lot of lot of people to look up to and watch and learn from and and and so

Very, very fortunate. Green Island was ⁓ I actually I won my age groups in the in the Southeastern Junior, which was at the Country Club of J Columbus. I won the Southeastern Amateur in 1977, and I won the Buick Southern Open at Green Island in in 1990. So to my knowledge, I'm the only person to ever win all three ⁓ of the tournament. So I didn't win the junior southeast, I won my age groups, I believe twelve and under, thirteen, fourteen.

Whenever Buddy Gardner wasn't in my age group I was I was winning. So he was a year older than me, so he would always win and the next year I would win.

Chris Lemley (08:52)
Ha ha ha.

Yeah, we've had Buddy on the on the podcast and he's a he's a great ⁓ a great guy and a g a a great storyteller for sure.

Kenny (09:08)
I was actually playing with Buddy in my first win when I won the Honda Classic ⁓ as a Monday qualifier. I was in the last group with Buddy and and Jody Mudd. we were in the next to last group on Sunday, and we had ⁓ Andy Bean, Clarence Rose, and Payne Stewart in the last group behind us. And ⁓ but I was playing with Buddy when I won that my first tournament, which was really kind of really great because I always admired Buddy so much because he was

So much better than I was as a junior golfer and he's a really great college golfer and and had a had a really nice career on the PJ tour.

Chris Lemley (09:45)
Yeah, well go ahead, Greg.

Gregg Dewalt (09:45)
Did ⁓ d did Hugh Royer come around much ⁓ when you were growing up or

Kenny (09:54)
Yeah, I mean he was there. He was there. In fact, he and my dad shot the low ⁓ course record, the the low team record, because I think my dad made a birdie on one hole and and he shot sixty two on his own ball, I think, at the country club. So but that was my dad's claim to fame. So they played golf together and he would play when he was in town when he went on tour. And so I would see him and and another fact that I I think without

having checked the history, I caddied in the Southern Open when I was fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen years old. I didn't caddy for Hugh, but I caddy in the same group with Hugh. And ⁓ so I I think I'm the only caddy that ever cadied in the Southern Open and also won the tournament.

Chris Lemley (10:43)
that's a good that's a that's a good one there. Yeah.

Gregg Dewalt (10:45)
Y you got a lot of r records. ⁓ what was it like for a a kid to to be around you? Just to see him, you know, come to the club and kinda did he take an interest in the juniors?

Kenny (10:56)
He did, he did. I remember playing with him and him mentoring me some. ⁓ of course Hugh Junior was much younger than me. So ⁓ he he wasn't he he wasn't quite there when when I was young, ⁓ I left Columbus when I was sixteen and moved to Tallahassee. But ⁓ so I didn't spend enough time with Hugh Junior, but he became a really, really good player. But

I think Hugh always had a great reputation and one of my great all time memories was sitting in the pro shop watching Hugh Royer win the Western Open. With the rest with sitting down on the floor watching as we all gather around a TV set in the pro shop that Sunday, that Sunday afternoon when Hugh walked up winning the Western Open.

Chris Lemley (11:43)
I don't remember who all it was, but he beat some big names that week too.

Kenny (11:47)
He sure did. He sure did. It was a I think Dell Douglas was in there which was a big he was a really good player. There was a lot of really good players in there that that ⁓ Hugh came out on top and that was a great for him.

Chris Lemley (11:59)
Well, you you talked about moving to Tallahassee ⁓ and you w you went to to ⁓ to school at ⁓ Florida State. What was what was Florida State like back in ⁓ back in that time and who were some of the the guys that you were playing with?

Kenny (12:17)
Well, it was very unusual. ⁓ we we had a large recruiting class by freshman year. The the gentleman that was ⁓ the coach at that time, he recruited a bunch of people because he knew he was getting fired and I think he was trying to stick it to the university a little bit. So our orientation that first meeting, Johnny Goblin was there who's a Columbus guy and ⁓ he was there and he was probably ⁓ responsible for getting my name

put in there to become ⁓ a Florida State Seminole on scholarship and so but we had a lot of good players but the really good players ⁓ Todd Crandall was a really good player who unfortunately died of a ⁓ aneurysm ⁓ young in life. ⁓ the big names obviously was Hubert Green was the biggest name. ⁓ there was there were some other guys that played really well ahead of me.

And Doug Fishester, who played in the Masters twice as an amateur, ⁓ because he finished in the semifinals of the U.S. amateur. And so he was there. So and then my teams ⁓ I played four years and we went to the nationals my junior year, and then I went to the nationals my senior year as an individual.

then the really good players started coming in after after I left and went out on debated around the mini tours for a while with you know Paul Eisinger and ⁓ Jeff Sluman and Nolan Hankey and on down the list. Really, really good players.

Gregg Dewalt (13:59)
y you can take credit for them coming to Florida State, right? They saw what Kenny Knox could do it and ⁓ they followed in your footsteps.

Kenny (14:08)
You know, nobody knew who Paul Eiesinger was. And I'm not even sure he went to class, but he was there. And he was ⁓ his junior year, ⁓ he he he had to qualify for his first tournament five times because the coach did not like his grip. And so he tells a great story about having to qualify and finally the coach says, Okay, you win. And he he gave him a spot and he became an all-American. So and of course Jeff Slim, you know, he

He really blossomed there. He came after his first two years of college in Middle Tennessee, I believe. And and he really he really turned out to be a great player. Nolahiki was always a great player coming in there as a highly talented freshman and a great putt. I remember how great his putting stroke was. I love watching him putt. And so ⁓ but I can't take any credit for those guys, ⁓ but I like to brag on them because they're Florida State Seminole guys.

Chris Lemley (15:06)
Well, since you've brought up the Azinger story and h he's he's been the ⁓ the center of an of another story in in one of our other podcasts, but I'll tell you one since it relates to our good friend Charlie Crinkle, who ⁓ who helped connect us and we want to thank Charlie for that. But ⁓ my g early golf coach, mentor and great friend Elvis Larkin, who I'm sure you

Kenny (15:19)
Yeah.

Yeah. ⁓

Chris Lemley (15:33)
Tells the story about going over to Memphis to watch Charlie play in the the tournament. It was that was back when it was at Colonial. And ⁓ he's watching he watched Charlie play all 18 holes and he's paired with this guy that's got a really strong grip and j you know doesn't hit it very high and doesn't hit it very far and Charlie just just stripes it around the golf course like Charlie did. And ⁓ Elvis gets

Kenny (15:42)
Polonio, yeah.

Yeah.

Chris Lemley (16:02)
g they get through and he asked him, he said, Who's this guy you're playing with? and he said, He doesn't hit it very good, but he but he shot sixty nine. He said, Well, that's Paul Lazinger. ⁓ he gets it in the hole pretty quick So that was an abbreviated version of the story but

Gregg Dewalt (16:16)
Yeah.

Kenny (16:18)
Yeah. Well he he was you know he came on the came on the scene pretty quick. ⁓ like I said, he really blossomed at he went to Brevard Junior College. And then when he came to Florida State, he just wanted to play golf. So play golf and fish. Those were his two priorities. Mine was just play golf. I could you could have the fishing. And so ⁓ but he really and he got his tour card ⁓ actually the year I got my

card the first time. It was the ninety nineteen in the fall of eighty one for the eighty two season. So that's when he got his card the first time and he he he did all right his first year out there. He did pretty good his first year and then he really caught fire.

Gregg Dewalt (17:02)
A at what point did you kind of decide that you could make a living playing professionally? Was it at Florida State? ⁓ was there a moment that that you said, Yeah, I can do this?

Kenny (17:13)
Well I I thought I could until I got there and ⁓ got my tour card and made seven thousand dollars the first year and then I realized it was ⁓ a little harder to make a living than I thought it was gonna be. And then I ended up ⁓ getting my card in eighty two, losing it, and then I played the the TPS tour in eighty three and I did not have my card, so I had to Monday qualify every week or finish in the top ten. Well I finished

in the top ten ⁓ seven times on that tour. So I I never had to Monday qualify except the first tournament, the Tallahassee Open, where I finished runner up in the tournament. Or actually I lost by one shot ⁓ to Bob Charles and Greg Powers, beat me by one shot. So that was a third place finish. And then I went on to play seven events and finish in the ⁓ top ten on the money list. And then went back to tour school and got my card for the eighty four season.

And then I made seventeen thousand dollars, I think, that year. And then the eighty five season, ⁓ I made around twenty-five thousand, twenty-six thousand dollars. so I wasn't making any money. And then I I never knew I could make money on the PJ tour, ⁓ but I still believed I could do it. I like to tell people in the in the the winter of eighty five, the off season, I started getting this vision.

That I wanted to buy a lot, a 2.3 acre lot, ⁓ in Killarn Lakes in Tallahassee. They're building a new golf course out there called Golden Eagle. And we couldn't afford the townhouse we were in. I was trying to sell golf balls or golf equipment or whatever just to just to pay the rent of the townhouse that we were living in. And so but I somehow taught Karen into letting me buy this lot out there for a good price. And I went down and I

I rented a chainsaw and I started cutting trees down on this wooded lot that I wanted my house to go on. And and then so I bought a lot that I couldn't afford. I rented a chainsaw, I didn't know how run. And and I started cutting trees down and I didn't know what I was gonna do once I got them cut down. And so I started really working out hard and by January the tour had started.

And I started watching these guys on TV. So I started getting on my stationary bike, started peddling. I just started dreaming about playing the tour. Now by that time my sponsor had already dropped me. And and so I'm on my own. And so I'm trying to figure out the only chance I got to make any money is a Monday qualified make or cut, right? So when the tour came back to Florida, I had played some mini tour events just to make a little bit of money to

keep keep the bills down, but I didn't have any money. I had a credit card. And I went down to the Honda Classic and as we've stated before, I sh I shot sixty seven and I got in the tournament on Monday. I went to play a practice round on Tuesday. I got rained out after six holes. Could play a practice round on Wednesday 'cause of the pro am. So I started Thursday without even seeing the golf course basically. And play with Davis Love as a rookie and ⁓ Jeff Lewis, another mini tour guy like myself.

And shot 66 and had a two-shot lead. And I went on to I went on to lead the tournament after two rounds. And then of course the third round was the day the ⁓ the Nor'easter came in and the average score that day was 79.2. I played with Tom Weisskoff, he shot 87. And Andy Bean was leading the tournament after three days. I fell back to fourth place and I shot a snowman appropriately. I shot 38, 42.

And I was in fourth place in the next to last group with with Jody Mudd and Buddy Gardner. And it was so cold that Saturday. I mean, nobody could do anything. Nobody broke par. Clarence Rose shot 72. That was the lowest round of the day. Now these are the world's greatest golfers. And so I went out and and and I ended up make a long story short, walking off the practice tee that afternoon.

Chi-Chi Rodriguez was hanging around and came up to me and said, Hey, he called me Fort. He's obviously hadn't seen my book bank account, but Fort Knox was appropriate, right? And so he said, You can win this, you can win this thing. I said, You gotta be kidding. And he said, No, you can win it. So, all right, thanks, Cheech. And so then I went on the putty green. I'm over there putting. Now Chi Chi wasn't even, he already missed a cut, he was gone. But and then Hubert Green

Gregg Dewalt (21:44)
Okay.

Kenny (22:03)
Came up to me on the putting ground, said, What are you doing here? You he said, I'm getting ready for Durale next week. So, but listen, Noxie, you can win the tournament. So I had two Hall of Famers telling me I could win the golf tournament before I went to the first T. I was never thinking about winning the tournament after shooting at 80. But I went to the first T ⁓ you know, on Friday, Saturdays round, I was a hunted. But when I went out on Sunday, I'd made my mind out, I'm I'm now the hunter.

So I went out birdie three, four, five, and just the crowd got behind me because I was not supposed to be in that position. And they just carried my through. I hit a perfect shot on seven and the wind laid down. I buried the ball in the back bunker. And I'm looking at this line, I got nowhere to go. Because it's surrounded by water. So I just tried, I just hit it the best I could. It came out, it rolled all the way through the green, went in the water.

So now my head is spinning, my recorders on fast forward, my brain's going as fast as it could go. And I'm just sitting there, I don't know what to do. I gotta drop the ball back in the bunker. So I drop it back in the bunker after the ruling decision. And I get over the ball and I just have this calm come over me. I waggle my club and I heard a voice. And the voice said, just make it. And then I waggle my club and the voice said, just make it.

Chris Lemley (23:03)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Kenny (23:31)
And the third time I waggled my club, the voice said, just make it. I took the club back, perfect. Came out, splashed it, came out, ball checked up, rolled down, trickled in the front door, went the hole, crowd went crazy. I make a bowie that felt like an eagle. And I went on to win the tournament by one shot. And so that that that is when I realized I could play the tour. But not until then. I never gave up on it. I had that dream.

Chris Lemley (23:50)
That's awesome.

Kenny (24:01)
And and then I went back and we started ⁓ designing the house plans.

Gregg Dewalt (24:06)
Mm.

Chris Lemley (24:06)
Yeah, what was the winner's check for that that w that win?

Kenny (24:11)
It was ninety thousand dollars. Which we laugh at now, but that was a lot of money. Ninety thousand dollars. And ⁓ I had a really, really good year. I didn't play any of the West Coast. I played about thirty-one golf tournaments, and I finished twenty-fourth on the money list, and I had two Sundays where I shot a seventy-five and a seventy-seven out of the last group. And I I had a chance to really

Chris Lemley (24:17)
That was a lot of money. Yeah.

Gregg Dewalt (24:18)
Yes.

Chris Lemley (24:20)
Hmm.

Kenny (24:40)
really, really do well. But you know, I just didn't know how to handle it really.

Gregg Dewalt (24:47)
What do you think is the difference between somebody making it out there and not? Because, you know, I mean there's a million great players coming out of college that have talent, ⁓ but there's something that that kind of separates the guys who make it from the guys who don't.

Kenny (25:05)
Well, obviously the obvious answer was the mental the mental part of it. for me it was mental. ⁓ because I had no business being where I was at. ⁓ but I but I I I heard the voice, I listened to it, and it gave me a whole new frame of mind. And that one shot set the tone for the rest of my career. It gave me the platform to be able to go out and help people listen for the voice and pay attention to the voice.

Because we're always talking to ourselves. You can it's relative to anything else we do in life. You know, if you want to be successful, you have to listen. You have to listen. You can't just be bullheaded and just run through the fence. You gotta figure out a way ⁓ to make it. And so that's what I think is the biggest thing is y you wanna surround yourself with good people, but you can't you can't depend on them to hit any shots. You're the one that has to perform.

You're the one that has to handle the pressure. ⁓ you have to surround yourself with good people. If if you have the wrong people around you, that that could hold you back. And as we all know, once you get in a position when you have that much talent, when you have that much talent, ⁓ a lot you have a whole lot new friends. And they want to be part of it. They want to be part of why you know hopping on hopping on the train and riding along the

tracks with you. And so you have to be real careful who you associate yourself with and how you spend your spare time because they can drag you down. It's a lot easier to pull somebody down than it is to lift somebody up. And so you just have to be real careful not to let people pull you down.

Chris Lemley (26:54)
That's well said. good inf a good ⁓ a good philosophy. Y y go back to the time on the putting green. Obviously you knew ⁓ Hubert from I guess from Florida State ⁓ and ⁓ playing on the tour a little bit. he was he was lifting you up on the on the putting green that day. ⁓ tell us a little bit since you know he's a an Alabama guy. What

Kenny (27:16)
Yeah.

Chris Lemley (27:22)
What what impressed you and ⁓ about Hubert's game and what was was there anything that you learned from him?

Kenny (27:29)
Well, the one thing I learned from Hubert is you can never measure a man's heart by the cover book cover. Because he didn't impress you one bit except when he was holding that trophy up. He had a mental capacity like very few players have ever had in the game of golf. He he had a he he believed in himself. He never watched this, he never watched a video of himself. I don't think he ever watched himself swing a golf club. If he did, he would have been crushed.

But he was able to get the ball in the hole better than anybody. I I used to love watching him. I used to watch him I used to sit there behind the pane glass in at the country club of Columbus and watch these guys come up, these big named amateurs come up. And I used to love watching Hubert Green, you know, sitting there with that putter and and is b bobbing his head up and down, up and down. And and you know, he was just an amazing athlete, amazing athlete.

He was so sure of himself. And you have to be sure of yourself. You have to believe that you can achieve the things that you set forth. And you believe ⁓ and you achieve. And so he did that. He just had a he was not the most approachable person in the world. And but he had a great sense of humor. And you just kind of had to listen for the sense of humor because you didn't know which barrel it was coming out of.

Gregg Dewalt (29:03)
I just ⁓ kinda going back to to the Honda real quick, what was it like for you coming down the last three holes? ⁓ do you do you remember those thoughts and you know, how were you h I don't know how you were able to pull the club back?

Kenny (29:21)
It I had you know, JC Sneed I'm gonna credit with my golf swing, he he pulled me aside ⁓ a year or so earlier at the Southern Open actually. And we we practiced for a couple of hours on the range at the Southern Open back in it was in ⁓ the ⁓ fall of eighty four. And I ⁓ he taught me how to swing the golf club more efficiently.

And so I went out the next day, shut sixty-four after he after after JC gave me the instructions the night before. And I shot sixty-four and finished eighth eighth in the golf tournament. And I went on to get my card back and played better in eighty-five, but still not up to the expectations. But it carried my through and I stuck with that swing. And so that week of the Honda, when the wind was blowing, the weather was bad, and I had that seven degree burner.

Taylor May and I was hitting bullets down the left side of the fairway. So I had total control of my driver swing. I was driving it perfect. Now when you hit irons and that wind's blowing that hard, they're subject to go anywhere. But if you're hitting that that piercing, boring shot that he taught me with I had a new set of clubs. I had the ping I twos, copper berylliums, and I only had about a month. And before the tournament started I was playing titles

But Joe Moses with Max Fly approached me and said, Hey, you want to play these balls? They're really good in the wind. And if it was free, give me three. So I would take what I could get. I'd got the titles and the max flies, right? But I played the max fly and it was the perfect combination. And had a micro taper shaft in those irons. So I was just hitting the ball. I didn't hit on a great amount of greens, but I knew where it was going. And if I missed a green, that ping wedge was.

It deserved to be ⁓ outlawed. It was so good. I didn't need a 60 degree, I just used a fifty-six and I could hit it from anywhere. I got the ball up and down from everywhere. ⁓ because I was playing away from trouble a lot of times. And so and then you I could get it up and down. And so coming down the last three holes, I mean I I just birdied 15 to stay ahead of Jody Mudd by two shots, ⁓ and I didn't

As far as I knew, I had a two shot lead. I just didn't know for sure. And so came to sixteen and just just hit a perfect drive in into the wind a little bit, left to right into it, and had nine hour to a front left pin placement. And the nine hour was where I really, really messed up. Really messed up. It was the first shot I I wasn't aggressive at and small green, war to the right, wind blowing into us from the left to right.

And so I came up out of it a little bit, flipped it a little bit, shot it up in the wind, came down short left of the green, and I had a next impossible shot. And going back and reviewing the video, Lee Trevino and Vin Scully up in the booth, and Lee said, He's got no shot. He pulled a Rossi. He's got no shot. If he gets within 15 feet, he's gonna be happy. Well Lee, you know, didn't have the luxury of watching me play that week and hit those wedge shots.

Gregg Dewalt (32:38)
Ha ha ha.

Kenny (32:48)
And I didn't know I was gonna hit it. I just stuck to the same technique. And I hit that ball. I had a one-foot spot to land the ball, and it landed on that spot and trickled up and came up about eight to ten inches short of the hole. And then just everybody went crazy. I tapped that in. So now go to 17 and Lee on the cast, you know, it's a seven-iron over the water, down right to left wind. And so he says it got nothing but drinking water after this shot. So

I played a perfect shot out to the right, 20 feet right the hole, and two putted downhill. Came to 18, just bombed a drive. The day before I hit driver, driver to 18. That's how hard the wind was blowing. And I hit 127 yards to the hole. ⁓ and I on Sunday. And I hit a hard wedge. I didn't want to let up on anything. I hit a hard wedge and came up about 30 feet short of the hole. And

Chris Lemley (33:27)
yeah.

Kenny (33:46)
That's when that's when the wheels started turning right there. Made the mistake. My cat and I read the putt the same way. We read it to break left and it broke right. We misread it from 30 feet. So I had a I had a two and a half footer. Then I went and sat on my golf bag. And that that's if I'm teaching anybody anything, don't go sit on your golf bag and start thinking. Then I gotta watch Buddy and Jody finish out.

I'm gonna putt last. And then the whole weight of the world is on my shoulders. And so I've stand over that putt and I'm trying not to choke. So what I ended up doing was, you know, don't be that guy that stands here and then backs off and starts all over. Go ahead and hit this thing, get it over with. and I I choked. I my my hand stopped, the putter went, and I pulled it, caught the lips, punted out to a foot and a half, twelve, fifteen inches. And

⁓ somehow I made that little putt, and then I had to wait. I had to wait on ⁓ Andy Bean and Clarence Rose and Payne Stewart. Payne was out of it, so I was only dodging two bullets. And Andy hit his shot in there the same spot I hit mine, about thirty feet short of the hole. Clarence hit it right behind the hole about twelve feet to the left. And so I felt pretty comfortable that Andy wouldn't make his since I had misread mine so bad.

And he hit the same putt hit. He hung it out in the right. And ⁓ and then when Clarence missed his putt, just kind of stood there in awe for a moment and and just it was over. Cause I there's no way I would have even been able to go out and win that playoff. So the good lord was looking down on me and he gave me the platform to win a golf tournament, the PJ Tour, and to kind of set the set the tone for the

the next six years of of playing professional golf at a high level and winning tournaments and and then of course the bad back. I hit you know, I I changed my swing and I had a I had a perfect swing looking back on it to to play the rest of my life and I've I play with John Dale in the PGA in ninety one in the last group and I'm trying to win the tournament and he's out driving me by seventy yards and I said, you know, I said to myself, I can win tournaments but I I can't I can't compete with this. So I

I tried I wasn't because I was a weak or anything. I had I could lift, I could push weight, but my golf swing was not designed to hit the ball a long way. And so I changed my swing and ended up hurting my back 'cause I worked more upright and put my body in a position 'cause I was a really hard I practiced really hard. And so I just put my s body in a bad position. I ended up hurting my back and and then I then I really hurt it and then I I blew it out and then and then I was done.

That was the about really the end of my career, even though I got back in the ring with Mike Tyson every week after that.

Chris Lemley (36:48)
Yeah. Well I know that ⁓ we want to talk about ⁓ s John Daly and some of the guys that you're playing with, but I've gotta know, was that ball, was that the D D H

Kenny (37:01)
Yeah, the the dodecahedron. The dodecahedron. D D H. Yep. Max five D D H.

Chris Lemley (37:04)
Yeah.

Gregg Dewalt (37:05)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Lemley (37:11)
With the with the crazy dimples. I I liked that ball back then. It's interesting that that dimple pattern was so hot and now you don't see it, but that's cool.

Kenny (37:20)
No, it's I don't know why they don't have that. I mean Max Slides tried to come out with a new ball and they they claim it's done wood good and and ⁓ Ben Griffin did really well with it. ⁓ so but he won a couple of tournaments there and played the Ryder Cup. but that Doe Decahedron that was a perfect ball for for the wind and everything. So we we got quite a quite a group of players playing that. I mean it they really

I got a pro there were seven of us or six of us playing in the beginning of it with Foodie Zeller, Bob Murphy, John Mahaffey, Mark Hayes, and Dan Pohl and myself. We have a a photo of the magnificent seventh. The seventh guy was the Bagman, remember that? And so I've got that series of ⁓ photo shoots that they would do every year for about six years there. And we had a lot I mean, Hal Sutton, they all came on board. Hal may have been one of the first sevens too. There was there was anyway.

Gregg Dewalt (38:03)
No.

Chris Lemley (38:05)
Yep.

I do remember that now that you mention it, sure do. Yeah. Yeah, back in that time the that was everybody everybody had to have that D D H golf ball. Eighty four, eighty five somewhere along in there. Yeah.

Kenny (38:23)
Yeah.

Yeah, 86, yep, 86. Well after I won with it, everybody figured they could win with it.

Gregg Dewalt (38:38)
But when when Daily came along, was that really kind of when the game changed where everybody started chasing distance?

Kenny (38:51)
Yeah, you know, we had our long hitters, but people were still using wooden clubs, you know. ⁓ a lot of guys, Davis Love and Landy Watkins, a lot of the the purists were still u using wooden clubs. ⁓ so but that thing that he was hitting in ninety one was that cobalt. Remember the white cobra cobalt. And he would hit the ball and I would ⁓ he cut corners and like are you gonna hit another ball? You're out of bounds. He's like, I'm all right.

Chris Lemley (39:20)
Yeah.

Kenny (39:20)
And you get up there and he's in the middle of the fairway on a par five with a seven iron to the green. And I'm like, it looked like he was popping it up. He was hitting the high trajectory. I mean, he must have been launching 18 degrees. It was crazy. And so ⁓ that's when that's when everybody started that's you know, that's when they started designing golf equipment to hit it afar a long way. Then the t the golf instructor started learning how to teach the golf swings to accommodate the equipment.

Chris Lemley (39:53)
That ⁓ that PGA ⁓ that was ninety one yeah. ⁓ crooked stick, yeah. Well that's that golf course was was built for somebody that hit it a long way too, wasn't it?

Gregg Dewalt (39:53)
Go ahead, Curtis.

Kenny (39:57)
Ninety one. Yeah, crit.

Yeah, and and I led the tournament ⁓ for a couple of days you know, I was in the last group on Sunday. But yeah, everybody's looking at me because it was wet too. I mean it was it was it was rainy and wet. It was it dried out later in the week, but ⁓ early on. So they kinda had to take a double take seeing my name up there, knowing I only hit the ball about two hundred and fifty five yards. And so but ⁓

Yeah, it was a tough golf course and you had to cut corners and it was a perfect golf course for daily. ⁓ he he didn't have any par fives on it. Part sixty eight for him.

Chris Lemley (40:44)
Yeah. Yeah.

Gregg Dewalt (40:48)
When when you your back issues kinda derailed your your competitive career, how did how difficult was it to kinda transition into a a new life?

Kenny (41:00)
Yeah, so now we go from the fun part of telling great stories to th yeah, there was nothing fun about ⁓ going out there and beating your head against the wall. Cause I when you have that kind of success for six straight years, you kind of think you can do it forever. But ⁓ it was very, very difficult. Very difficult. And that's why I wrote the book really, because I want people to I want people to understand how difficult professional athletics is.

And how how difficult it is to to raise a raise children and to keep a a a marriage together and and still and still thrive strive to compete ⁓ at the same level you once comp competed at. And so it it's something you don't want to give up. But at some point it's just like you gotta throw your hands in there and figure something else out to do.

Gregg Dewalt (41:59)
And ⁓ how long did it take you to kind of realize what your next career path was?

Kenny (42:08)
I I actually finally gave up ⁓ really competitive golf in ninety seven when I was introduced to synthetic turf ⁓ putty greens and I had a guy taught me into putting one in my yard at my house in Tallahassee and he did such a bad job. I I said I realized that I could do this ⁓ much better just by watching him and so I tore his out and I

I ordered the turf, I did it myself. And I became one of the leaders in the industry in building ⁓ putting greens, but I built golf courses also. I did a number of nine hole courses and one eighteen hole golf course up in Atlanta and with teas and greens, synthetic and and driving range, golf range tea boxes.

Chris Lemley (43:01)
Yeah. Yeah, that was Tour Greens.

Kenny (43:04)
Yeah. Tour Greens by Kenny Knox, yeah. And I franchised it out, ⁓ sold dealerships and then ⁓ I realized that I needed to get rid of for the ready for the champions tour 'cause I would have some exemption out there. So when I was forty seven years old I I ⁓ I sold the name to one of my distributors and ⁓ they they've done a great job with it and ⁓ and so I'm really proud of the

that they're they are the leader in the industry in my opinion. ⁓ but I still do ⁓ every now and then. I did my last one back in back in August this year in Tallahassee. And when I say it's my last one, it is my last one. Because it was five thousand square feet of putting green and and fringe area, five thousand square feet and a an office complex in Tallahassee. And it turned out really, really nice.

But it's my la it it just about killed me. At seventy years old, you don't want to be in the hundred and twenty degree ⁓ turf without any breeze blowing. 'cause it it doesn't la I went through more I never drank Gatorade that much 'cause of the Gator, but I drank the Gatorade that week. It was for ten days there it was beating me up.

Chris Lemley (44:23)
That's funny. That that ⁓ that industry has really matured s over the last few years too, hasn't it?

Kenny (44:32)
It's so nice and and they have improved the turf so much that that's the reason I got back into it little bit because I see you know the the the the product is so much better that it the it turns out you don't have to you don't have to hope and pray that it turns out it's gonna turn out good. And so you before you had to make sure everything was done perfect for for the those

for those fibers to stand up and not get bogged down, you know, in the sand that you top dress with.

Chris Lemley (45:09)
Yeah, what can what can what kind of stint reading can you get on those things now?

Kenny (45:14)
I usually like this I like to leave the project with about nine because it's gonna go to about ten, eleven pretty quick. You know, unless you're keeping it brushed up all the time, it's gonna roll, it's gonna it's gonna get worn down by traffic or whatever. But but typically, you know, you can get it as fast as you want it. You have to keep you have to be careful not to get it too fast. And I think that's one of the reasons I don't like some of the companies that the products use that they use.

the products is because they they try everything they can not to let it get fast. And because and so as a result, their greens in my opinion are not as good as the ones that we do because they don't roll that smooth. They're still a little bit choppy.

Chris Lemley (46:00)
Well, you're I'm I alluded to in the intro and ⁓ I think you've got three putting records on the tour, if ⁓ maybe more, I'm not sure, but you've you've been known as a ⁓ as a really good putter. you've you've had your own ⁓ putter line. ⁓ so putting greens certainly is in your wheelhouse. Let's talk tell tell us a little bit about your philosophy on the greens and why you were such a good putter.

Kenny (46:30)
Yeah, and and just to set the record straight, ⁓ I had three records. I had eight putts on nine holes, eighteen putts on eighteen holes, and ninety-three putts on seventy-two holes. So David Frost ⁓ beat my ninety-three with ninety-two. He's got ninety-two putts for seventy-two holes. And and Stan Hutley beat the eight putts for nine holes. He had six putts on nine holes. And so I

I'm still tied with about five or six other guys, Corey Pavin and several other guys that have had eighteen putts for eighteen holes. So I still stand in that in that group. The philosophy, in my opinion, ⁓ putting is is ⁓ very unique unique to each individual. You can see guys like Alan Doyle, for instance, that one had a great amateur career and one had a great senior tour career.

But you would never want to teach anybody to putt that or or try to copy yourself. So putting is very unique and ⁓ so much of it is mental. And I say there's really only three things that matter in putting. And and I use and I've studied a lot more since I left the tour, but I use I use the putting yard robot as my model. Because if you align the putting yard robot up perfectly.

He'll never miss a putt. even the intangibles won't happen because the balls just gonna track every the same way every time. But so alignment to me is the most important thing. So I teach alignment first, first and foremost. And I like to use a railroad track scenario where your feet are on one rail and the putter heads on the other rail. So your feet hit the shoulders or parallel.

In my case, parallel left of intended target has a right-handed gaffer, and the putter face is square to intended target. And so the second thing is your mechanics. And so the putty arc robot mechanics are very simple. You got shoulders, arms, attachment to the ⁓ grip, so hands, and putter head. So if you move the shoulders on the putty arc robot.

Then the arms, hands, and putterhead move in unison or in one unit. So you want to maintain a unit in your stroke. And so the unit is the shoulders, arms, hands, putter head. And then if you do that correctly, the putter face will always come back to square every time. It's when you disconnect from that unit where you have to manipulate the putter to get it back to square.

So I always tell people I'd rather be good than lucky. It's okay to be lucky, but the only way I'm gonna miss a putt is if I misread the putt or my unit breaks down. Now the third thing is trust. So you've got alignment, mechanics, and trust. And so I if I ask you, gentlemen, are you trying to make the putt? 99% of people are gonna say,

Absolutely, I'm trying to make the putt. And I'm gonna say that's your first mistake. Never try to make a putt. You don't try to brush your teeth, you don't try to write your name. You just instinctively do it. Okay? So you never try to make a putt, you expect to make every putt. Whether it's a one-footer, ten-footer, or fifty-footer. I expect to make it. Am I gonna make them all? No. But I expect to make every putt because I believe in my alignment, I believe in my mechanics.

And I believe I'm gonna make the putt. And so then it comes to the mental part. The trust is the mental part. So what I what I recommend my students doing once they learn how to line up and they learn the proper technique or mechanics of the stroke, once they set the putter on the ball, never look up again. Once you know you have that putter face lined up properly, when you practice your putting, when you get on the putting clock and you practice your putting, line the putter face up, set your feet, hips, and shoulders square.

And never look up again. Once you get that putter face where you want the ball to start, then you're going to develop trust and feel. So you're going to have great feel, great trust once you learn the proper alignment and mechanics. And people say, Well, I like to use my hands. Well, that's fine. You're breaking down. You're breaking down when you use your hands. What you want to do

The more the less you use your hands, the more you're gonna feel your hands. Because they're working properly. The more you use your hands, the more they're gonna break down, the more you're gonna you're gonna get stuck trying to use your hands. Now, Stan Lutley is probably the best putting teacher out there, in my opinion. And his whole philosophy is to break the right wrist and unbreak right wrist. But in the meantime, that right elbow needs to be going back a little bit.

And the left elbow needs to be going back a bit. So that's we worked a lot together. So he and I, he took my philosophy and he made it even better for him to be able to teach students. My philosophy works for me and for my students. And I believe it's the best philosophy because I'm rotate the putting arc robot lined up properly over anybody in the world. So I say he's the greatest putter that never lived.

Chris Lemley (52:13)
Yeah.

Gregg Dewalt (52:14)
Hmm.

Chris Lemley (52:17)
That's ⁓ that's good. ⁓ I w I want us to spend some time talking about your book and and some of the other endeavors you've got going. Before we tr transition to that, I had seen us ⁓ something on one of your social accounts. You told a story about getting to play with Arnold Palmer. Would you would you mind sharing that one again and then then let's let's ⁓ let's get into your book.

Kenny (52:37)
Ha ha ha.

Yes, yes. And you were one of the 130,000 viewers on that that little story. And I tell those stories all the way through my book. And that's why I wrote the book was for people to understand those type of stories. So because when I won the Behonda Classic, I was able to get the courage up to go to Jack Nicholas at the TPC, ⁓ which was the last tournament of the Florida swing.

Before the masters, and asked him if I could play a practice round with him at Augusta. And he agreed. This was 1986. And so he agreed to play. So we played. And we must have had a good time because he invited me to play again the next day. And then we played the part three course. And so we started making a habit of playing because I was so aggressive and he never rejected me.

I just pushed the limit. I wanted to play a practice round with him in every major championship. Whenever I could play a practice round with him, just to learn what he he could dish out. And so 1988, Jack and I would always play Greg Norman and somebody. Right? So that year, I don't even know who the somebody was. I just knew I was playing with Greg Norman, Jack Nicholas.

And I was on the range hitting balls getting ready for the practice round.

And so I hear the noise from the patrons and I look back and Arnold comes through the crowd with a sweater draped over his shoulder.

And I looked at him and I went, man, I've never played golf with Arnold Palmer. I wish I could play golf with Arnold Palmer one time, I told my caddy Brian. And so I kept hitting balls. And I kid you not, five minutes later, Jack Nicholas walked over to Kenny Knox and says, Hey Kenny, I said, Hey, you ready? He says, Listen, so and so dropped out. Is it okay if Arnold plays with us today?

Gregg Dewalt (54:54)
Yeah.

Kenny (54:58)
I looked at him, I said, Are you kidding me? And so we went to the T and I said, all right, great. I got Jack, me and Jack against Arnold and Greg Norman. What a great day. This is gonna be a great match. And Arnold and Jack looked at each other and they went.

And Greg and I look to each other like what's that all about? And they go, Old guys against the young guys.

Chris Lemley (55:28)
Yeah.

Kenny (55:31)
⁓ man. And so when we finished the round, I mean I was like that little puppy dog that you see on the commercial ground the big dog. You know, I was a little puppy dog. I was I finally had to apologize to Arnold. I said, I'm so sorry, but I can't help it. I just I can't get enough of you. And he just smiled. We finished the round. Come on, boys, let's go to part three course. I said, Are you kidding? We're

Chris Lemley (55:39)
Yeah.

Kenny (55:59)
Now I get to play the part three course with Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicholas, and Greg Norman. So one of my songs in the book is called The King, the Bear, The Shark, and the Kid.

Chris Lemley (56:11)
⁓ Well that that's a great story. Well and a good segue. Let's let's jump in. You just had a a new book re Just Make It released ⁓ earlier this month. There's the cover. There it is. ⁓ just guide us through. Tell us tell us more about it, and we're certainly gonna put links to your Amazon account in the in the descriptions and ⁓ but ⁓ we're look

Gregg Dewalt (56:25)
There it is.

Chris Lemley (56:40)
T tell us about the book.

Kenny (56:43)
The the I always I remember sitting at my old house ⁓ starting to write my book about 'cause I had this great story about playing golf with Jack Nicholas. I was standing on the first T at Pebble Beach in nineteen eighty two and waiting for my tea t ⁓ my practice around tea time at the US Oakland and I hear a noise again.

This is eighty two. Now I'm a rookie on the tour.

And I look back and the crowd is moving towards the T. And out from the crowd comes Jack Nicholas and Tom Weisskoff.

I looked at ⁓ and they went up to the tea sheet, looked at it, saw my name, and says, Hey Kenny, how you doing? Do you mind if we join you?

Chris Lemley (57:38)
Yeah.

Kenny (57:41)
Yes, sir, yes sir. So after I duck hook it off the first T, you know, we get around, there's other stories I'll tell you, but we're limited. But we get to 18 and ⁓ Jack was always hitting last off every T. Well he left 17 green and went to the T box from 18. So we looked and we gather our stuff up and headed that way.

And he hits this drive. And Weisskoff, you know, his his protege at Ohio State looks at it and says, Did you catch that? And Jack looked up at him and says, He said, Did you hit that one? And Jack looked up at him and said, You can't catch it.

Gregg Dewalt (58:33)
Mm-hmm.

Kenny (58:35)
And I went, ⁓ my goodness. Weisscov hits it down there. I hit, walking off the T and I hear Weisskoff goes, Hey Jack, you wanna play for something on this hole? Yeah.

Gregg Dewalt (58:36)
Mm.

Kenny (58:51)
What do you wanna play for? Jack goes, How about dinner at the open next month? Okay. Hey Jack, is that for you or you and Barb and all the kids? Everybody.

Chris Lemley (59:07)
Ha ha ha.

Kenny (59:11)
Get in the fairway, wise calls hitting first. Hits three wood. Two hops it up in the front bunker at 18 at Pebble. Jack pulls one iron out. And just hits a rocket down the down the coast. Cuts back, hits up, runs up on the green about twenty-five feet from the hole.

So we're up on the green. I mean we got ten thousand people every step.

And get up on the green and I'm just standing there watching Jack. He's gonna put 'cause Weiskoff is blasted out to about eight feet past the hole. So the best Weiskoff's gonna do is just tie, right?

If he makes eight footer. Jack locks in. He's down there, crouched in there. He locks in. I'm standing there, I'm eight feet from him, just and he hits that thing about halfway the hole, he raises that putter in the air, and he center cuts it. And that putters up in there like he just won the masters in eighty six, right? And and that was a part of history. And so I got that story to tell.

Chris Lemley (1:00:13)
Yeah.

Gregg Dewalt (1:00:17)
Thank you.

Kenny (1:00:25)
the world. So I'm sitting on my couch and to finish that story a month later at the open, I'm in Tallahassee. And I'm looking at the Tallahassee Democrat, reading everything I can read about or catching the you know, the eleven o'clock, eleven thirty sports cast to see who's leading the open because we didn't have ESPN. And I'm reading down the corner in the briefs down there in the notes.

Wysckoff treats Nick Nicholas and family to dinner.

Gregg Dewalt (1:00:58)
Ha ha ha.

Kenny (1:01:00)
So I'm I back off and go like I'm there for the why. I know why that happened. So fast forward back in I don't know right around 2010 or something. I'm in my chair and I'm I'm gonna write the story about I'm gonna write that story. So I write that story. Then I got hooked up with a a travel business company and I was doing tales from the tour, so I was kinda writing little stories that I had.

And so nothing ever happened from me. And so I kept trying to write my book. I said, nobody wants to read this. Nobody wants to read this. And so how this book literally got started was I was sitting in here where I'm sitting now at 1:30 in the morning, and I'm writing my wife a poem before Valentine's Day. And she comes in and says,

What are you doing? I said, You ruined my surprise. I'm writing you a poem. And she went, whatever. And she went back to bed. I said, No, I gotta read it to you. So she got in bed, I read it to her. She says, That's the sweetest thing you've ever done. I said, probably the only sweet thing I've ever done. And so the next day we found out about this Suno. We can make a song out of it.

Chris Lemley (1:02:15)
Yeah.

Kenny (1:02:24)
Because in that morning when I woke up, she says, listen to your voice message. She wrote the chorus to it. So we ended up making it a song. So after that, I said, I'm gonna wr I'm gonna write my book. I'm gonna write my book.

And once I started writing the book, I said, I can write a song about that Pebble Beach experience.

So I just that motivated me to keep telling stories. And I had written over 60,000 words in six weeks. I just kept writing. And she's she tells everybody now I gave him one week, maybe two weeks. Because I know him. He's not gonna finish this. He's just gonna get bored and tired with it. He's not gonna finish it. But those songs kept me going. Because every song.

Is my story. So you can read the chapter, listen to the song, and it it's a song about that chapter. Well, that's awesome, Kenny. You got about 15 songs, right? Fifteen, sixteen chapters.

Chris Lemley (1:03:23)
Yeah.

Kenny (1:03:40)
No, because I wrote sub chapters. I wrote stories. I got a hundred and seventeen songs. And they each take about two hours to I mean to per perfect. So I I use AI and and it puts a music to it, it puts a vo whatever voice I want to use and whatever music I want to use, it puts it all in there, it it becomes my song, my lyrics.

My words and if it tries to do any AI stuff I'll I'll take that out and I'll put my stuff in. But you know, a song's different than just telling a story, right? So it's gotta and so that's I've got well over a hundred and eighty songs now published.

Chris Lemley (1:04:27)
Well, I haven't listened to all of but what I have listened to, they're really good.

Kenny (1:04:29)
Yeah.

wow, thank you. Thank you. I think they are.

Chris Lemley (1:04:35)
They're really good. And Greg will Greg being a retired sports writer, when you start talking about sixty thousand words, he's he he knows what you're doing.

Kenny (1:04:44)
Yeah.

Gregg Dewalt (1:04:46)
How many of the sixty thousand made it into the book?

Kenny (1:04:49)
All of them. Yeah. But there was a lot of edit my my editors edited it to correct my punctuations. I didn't I didn't go to school for that. I went to school to play golf. And but the and my wife edited the editors. So so we we changed it to make it where you could read it. But ⁓ I did a pretty good job, I think. Probably 90% of it was all mine. And then the editors

Fixed, you know, the the punctuations and things like that.

Gregg Dewalt (1:05:22)
The one the one thing I wanna know b before before we get out of here, you tell Eag Nicholas makes Eagle, did Weisskoff make his putt and what did you make on

Kenny (1:05:33)
I don't remember either one of those. The the party was over when when ⁓ when Jack made his put, the party was over. I was, you know, the next day was the tournament and I shot my I I I made the cut. ⁓ I made the cut in the storm and I was playing behind Jack Nicholas for two days. So I had to follow him for two days, and and I ended up

Chris Lemley (1:05:33)
Yeah.

Kenny (1:06:04)
Boat I had the seventeen, the pin was tucked left and I had to I hit it on the right part of the green, I had to chip over the mound there and I made bogio seventeen, it came to eighteen and I almost four putted, but I made the cut on the number and I went off first the next morning. ⁓ playing with Tom Wiskoff first the next morning and all he cared about was how fast can we play? He just wanted to set a record for the US Open how fast we can play.

Chris Lemley (1:06:29)
Yeah.

Kenny (1:06:33)
He had no interest in playing the tournament and I was just made to cut the biggest tournament of my life.

Gregg Dewalt (1:06:39)
You're trying to make a check, a good check, and and he just wants to get out of there.

Kenny (1:06:45)
A good check back in those days was seven hundred dollars. Which didn't cover nothing. Air flight and cali caddies and hotels. Whew.

Chris Lemley (1:06:48)
Yeah.

Gregg Dewalt (1:06:58)
Well so where where can everybody find a book? Where can they find you? ⁓ if they wanna come get a putting lesson from you?

Kenny (1:07:06)
I I I teach when people want to learn. I don't I don't solicit. I don't go out there and beat the doors or anything. I'm I'm retired. I'm I'm gonna focus on this book and the speaking engagements and I'll I'll do I'll do golf instructor instruction at the speaking engagements and stuff. We'll go on the putty green and do all that. you can go to Amazon and buy it. ⁓ Yep. And and Amazon's the you know, the number one spot place to buy it. We've

Chris Lemley (1:07:30)
We'll put a link in.

Kenny (1:07:37)
I've got a surplus here. I've got plenty of books because fortunately the speaking engagements are buying a bunch of books, you know, to have me come speak and we'll do book signings there. So I may do 200 books at one event, a hundred and forty-four at another event, and a hundred at another event or whatever. So it's it's ⁓ and then I have some here if people want to contact me. I don't really wanna be distributing the books, ⁓ but if you if you want me to

Some wanna ship it back, just expect to pay a little bit more money, that's all.

Chris Lemley (1:08:11)
And you've also you talk about your speaking engagements, you've got one coming up in Alabama.

Kenny (1:08:18)
Yeah, yeah, I do. Loxley, Alabama. ⁓ I'm going over there at the end of the month, the the twenty-ninth and thirtieth. I'm speaking ⁓ to the college golf teams there. I've invited, been invited. and we'll have the books there, but I'm really this is right in my wheelhouse. This is and I get to share my faith also, which is ⁓ the most important thing to me ⁓ is the book is is called Just Make It and

You know, yes, the golf is very important. All the stories are great, wonderful and everything. That's that's that's the hook, you know. That's the hook and seeing me in forty year old clothes. ⁓ but you know, really I want I want I want people to know how difficult professional sports is and how what a what a what a rough ride it is to to try to make it in that arena. ⁓ and not to discourage people, but the main thing is that they're they're

The the good Lord is is there for you no matter what your situation and he can hold you up when you're down and he can he can help you bring others up as well.

Chris Lemley (1:09:25)
Yeah. Good well said. Thank you so much. Gosh, Kenny, this this has been we say this a lot, but this one especially, the hour, actually over an hour now, has really flown by. Thank you so much for giving us a little bit of your time and your day. It's meant a lot to us and I think our listeners are gonna enjoy this episode. So thank you so much again.

Kenny (1:09:47)
Well thanks for inviting me. I appreciate you guys, Chris and Greg, and and anytime ⁓ I'm happy to come on and and share with you guys and and hopefully your listeners will ⁓ continue following you and I know you guys need to need some money, so they need to send you some money too, don't they

Chris Lemley (1:10:03)
Ha ha.

Gregg Dewalt (1:10:03)
We ne next time we have you on, we want to hear some Charlie Krankel stories.

Chris Lemley (1:10:09)
Absolutely. Yeah.

Kenny (1:10:09)
I got all those, all those you want. When I said the older I get, the better I used to be, that's the definition of Charlie Crinker right there.

Chris Lemley (1:10:16)
Yeah.

Gregg Dewalt (1:10:19)
He's in my scramble for some tomorrow. I'm gonna tell him that.

Kenny (1:10:22)
He's the best. He's the best. He was my mentor.

Chris Lemley (1:10:25)
He is

Well thanks again, Kenny.

Gregg Dewalt (1:10:29)
He's good. He's good. Thanks again, Kenny. Appreciate you.

Kenny (1:10:31)
Thanks for having me. Appreciate ya.