The level of golf excellence that has come out of Pensacola is off the charts, featuring an abundance of PGA players, major winners.

One of the sport's most decorated amateurs, as well as robust college and youth programs, will go in-depth with players, organizers and coaches.

On this episode of in-studio Pensacola's Golf Legacy two majors winners for PGA Tour regulars for the last two decades, one of the most decorated amateurs in golf history, an African-American trailblazer and a powerhouse college program that is just part of Pensacola's amazing golf legacy that far out stretches a city its size.

We'll explore all of it starting in this segment with Junior and still going on 30 plus years on the PGA level with a ten wins across the three main tours.

Down in Gray, a stunningly accomplished amateur golfer and member of the Florida State Golf Association Hall of Fame.

And Marty Stein of Itch, executive director of First Team Gulf Coast, and I would say the area's top golf historian.

So.

Well, thank you guys, so much for joining us here.

And, you know, I was starting to rattle off the list there.

Pretty amazing legacy for Pensacola.

So, Joe, you've been out on tours for so many years now.

Are still are do other people know about this and other areas?

Are they aware of the greatness here or is it our little secret?

They're very well aware of what's happened in Pensacola, you know, going back to Downing's career and then to Jerry Payton, Alan Miller, and then, you know, just the legacy that they established and then all of us that came after them that we just tried to follow in their footsteps.

And it's obviously been a lot of fun to be part of golf in Pensacola.

It's been such a great community for all of us.

We've been so supported and so welcomed and treated like royalty, and that's what's helped us be as successful as we've been.

Yeah, we're going to get into all the kind of particulars here.

But Marty, I'll let you take an early stab at the why.

So why has this area been so special with golf?

You know, you can hearken back to 1929 and the founding of the Pensacola Open, having a tour stop here definitely helps.

It generates interest.

Fifth oldest country club in the state of Florida, Pensacola Country Club 1902, and of course, Osceola about to have its hundredth anniversary here in just a couple of years.

But Pensacola Sports had a lot of action.

In 1955, Pensacola Sports Association was established.

And, you know, three years later, they establish the Devitt Derby.

And if you look at the list of the champions, your third segment today, you're going to have one of the ladies, David Derby champions on there, that that tournament right there.

Speaking of Alan Miller, Jerry Pate, Bubba Watson, so many incredible champions.

They made an early investment in junior golf and it really paid off in and having that title, the young people are in our programs, all the other things we do are great.

Everybody wants to put the David Derby on their resume and and it's it's been very meaningful to help developing amateur and professional and just, you know, avid passionate golfers.

And really the first one on a national scene to start making noise was you downing you may made it to Florida State started playing there in Florida at the in 1958.

So what was what got you into golf early on?

Where were you kind of your influences when you were coming up and starting to find some excellence in golf?

My inability to play the other sports, I wasn't big enough about enough for baseball, basketball, football.

So I went to golf.

And you did tremendous one stretch in Florida State.

I think you won seven straight tournaments is what I read.

And it's a rumor.

I've heard of.

Yeah, it's a rumor that I read about it.

I'm pretty sure it's true.

1962, you go to the US amateur, you finish runner up at the U.S.

Amateur.

I did.

And then you finished third place there in 60, 66 and 67.

So naturally, with that kind of ability, the thought, well, okay, you're going to be a pro golfer, but but you never did turn pro.

So how much did you think about that and why did you not turn pro?

Well, first of all, I was married with a child.

And secondly, I wanted to to raise my children that way.

And I knew being on the tour was not going to be what I wanted to do with my family.

So fortunately, I was smart enough to get the heck out of the way before all the good people came out.

But I guess it was pretty special.

I mean, to have those kind of that kind of success of the U.S.

Amateur, What was it like a runner up third place twice?

What were those experiences like?

I was just I had gotten to where I believed in myself.

And and when I played my first amateur tournament.

And I was lucky to get there and then ended up in the finals, I realized that I was capable of maybe doing some good things.

So it made it easy to hit a lot of practice balls and work on it.

And fortunately I was very fortunate and it had many, many wonderful memories that I left behind.

The next kind of Pensacola got it to make a scene on on the National scene as Jerry Pate, Washington High grad, 1974.

He wins the US Amateur and then two years later as a rookie on the PGA Tour, wins the US Open, goes on to win eight PGA wins in the next six years stretch.

So, Marty, just how elite was Jerry Pate at that time?

In the 1970s, only three professional golfers had their own airplane.

Arnold Palmer, who flew his own Jack Nicklaus and Jerry Pate, I mean, Jerry was in rarefied air at that point.

You know, I think back to our young days, Pat Pate being out there on the driving range and watching Jerry's young career here.

He goes to the University of Alabama, where he becomes an incredibly accomplished collegiate golfer.

And he he'd probably be the first one to say, I almost accomplished too much, too young.

And then, of course, injuries derailed.

What was looking like it was going to be far more than eight wins.

I mean, incredibly promising career.

And then he does have a resurrection, comes through and has a half half good career on the Champions Tour relative to his PGA Tour success, probably not as much as we would have hoped for, but, you know, battling injuries, you know, Jerry will tell you, Downing will tell you a wounded golfer is a you know, a wounded bear is one thing.

A wounded golfer is usually not going to have a lot of success.

But Jerry was one of the truly great talents in the world in the 1970s and early 1980s.

And so you kind of came along, you know, about a decade plus or so after that played.

It is going to be a high in the in the eighties.

What was what got you into golf, first of all, and who were kind of your role models?

They kind of helped shape your career.

It was kind of funny because, you know, I used to hit no wiffle balls around my backyard and one summer I cut grass all summer to buy my first set of clubs that I actually bought for Marty's dad's stand at the Hillandale Par three course, my brother used to take me out there at night.

We'd play nine or 18 holes, whatever, under the lights, which was great.

And I had some talent.

But back then, golf wasn't all you did.

You played baseball, you played football.

I attempted to play basketball.

I can't say that I was very good.

But but it was a it was a four sport rotation.

But as like Downey kind of alluded to, as I got older, I realized I wasn't too good at too many other than golf, you know.

So I just kept playing golf and kept getting better out of high school.

I was not highly recruited.

I basically had one scholarship offer arranging.

I was going to go to junior college at Jeff Davis Junior College, but the coach I played for went to Huntington College, so I followed him to Huntington.

He said, Look, come up here for a year.

If you don't like it, go wherever you want.

Well, I stayed the whole time, got a great program, won some national championships at the high level, and just kept getting better.

And so I just made me want to keep playing.

So I decided to turn pro and play.

Had you kind of seen or any weight went down, he had done what Jerry had done to that.

Did that inspire you?

A little bit.

Certainly inspired me, but I was nowhere near that level.

You know, I was I was still learning the game when I turned pro.

We had played a lot of college golf, but I had a lot of learning to do before and had some role models in Downing and Jerry and Adrian Stills, who I grew up with.

O.C.

Olive was someone that I emulated and watched.

He worked very hard and I'd said, If I want to be good at this, I'm going to work very hard as well.

And so I had a lot of positive influences, and that certainly helped me to get better.

And we're going to see Adrian coming up in our second segment.

But but, you know, you went to college at Huntington.

You know that at that time in age three now, but three time all-American there won the national championship there at 87.

So what really elevated your game once you started playing in college?

Between my freshman and sophomore year, I hit a big high hook, which I could never even try to hit now.

But back in the day I played on Hook and my coach said, If you ever get good at this game, you got to learn to fade the ball.

So that whole summer I work on my left hand grip.

I worked on taking the left side of the golf course out of play.

And when I went back that that fall of my sophomore year, I won three tournaments and played really well.

And I said, you know, I might be able to play this game because I can control the ball now, but I still like it.

You know, like I said, I had a lot of learning to do, but but I was just getting better as time went on.

And that and even though you didn't play pro, you had a tremendous amateur career.

You played in the Walker Cup, which is the highest level international tournament for amateurs in 63, 65, 50, 67.

What was it like competing and playing for your country those years?

Oh, it was it was something you dream about.

You don't think it's ever going to happen to you.

But it was.

And when I played, I was they were two of us.

The youngest two guys on the team.

So it was totally different back then in terms of the age of the players and how good they are.

But it was it was just so special being out there with them.

And it was it was in Scotland the first year.

So I've never been out of the country before and it just it brought things to me that I never thought I would and enjoy and endure.

But it was very special.

Speaking of special, you also got to play the Masters seven times and you were the low ham in 65 and 67.

Yeah.

What stands out the most to you about the opportunities you got to play at the Masters?

When I got my, my, my, my first invitation, it was out of the out of the out of them.

Thought and I had no idea and what I, I had lost the amateur championship after being five up at lunch and I managed to lose one up and somebody said, one of the other players said, Well, I'll see you in Augusta.

I said, I don't have any tickets.

They said, And they said, Tickets.

You don't need any tickets.

You got an invitation to play.

And I said, What?

And I did.

And so that that was the first one.

And then the I had six more come after that.

Did you get a sense when you were out there that had you decided to go pro that you could hang with those guys?

Actually, it really never.

Of course you think about it, but I just by my idea of what I wanted to do, I'd, I didn't think I was good enough.

That's the best way I can put it.

And I doubted myself.

Eventually, of course, I'll prove to myself that I could do it.

But it was early on and a lot of things were happening and they were happening in the right way.

But then at that age, you don't stop and think about what's going on.

Well, you you went through doubts also on the pro level.

So you go out there, you're on the 1991, you're on what's now the corporate tour, one notch below the PGA Tour didn't go so great for you and you decided to quit at that point.

You walked away for six months, were trying to sell insurance, you know.

So why did you make that decision?

Well, I.

Needed Dowling's advice to sell insurance cause I was terrible.

You know, I just.

I just fell out of love of the game, you know?

I was putting so much pressure on myself, trying way too hard.

I was my worst enemy.

And you can't compete like that.

You've got to be your best friend out there.

And my wife is terrific.

What's the nice way to put it?

She basically told me to get your rear end in gear.

Then be nice to yourself and go play like you know how.

So when I finally decided to return, I had a completely different attitude.

And from then on, you know, I can't say I've been perfect all the time, but I've tried to maintain a good attitude and be positive and have belief in myself.

And and like Downing said, if you don't have belief in yourself, you're not going to make it in this game.

So that's you know, that's the biggest thing I could ever tell any junior players to have belief in yourself.

Yeah, You became a regular, you played 93, but then 97 you stuck, you know, in the 98, your first win at the Western Open.

What will the emotions like when you get to that level and then you win at that level?

It's certainly validation that you belong, but the second you win, you know, you enjoy it for about three or four days and then it's like, you know what?

Then you want to do it again because it's like, I don't know, it's hard to describe what it's like, but you want another validation that I'm not a one hit wonder.

So you know, you are you prove it to yourself that you can do it, but the great players can do it over time.

And I want to I want to I'm not saying I was a great player, but I wanted to be able to prove that I could do it more than one time.

And that was my that was my goal.

And you did you end up winning four times on the regular two and then more after that.

But in the early 2003, guys from Hilton High School reached the PGA Tour biweekly.

He, Slocombe and Bubba Watson.

We'll talk about Booth first because a very not your typical golfer in a lot of ways very unlikely path.

And Marty I'll turn to you on this talk about that the path that Boo Weekley took to become a PGA tour player.

Well I'll tell you and he came from a golfing family.

I mean, his mom is wonderful golfer, wonderful him and his dad, you know, a pharmacist up in Melton and really all three of those young men owe a lot to a man named Hiram Cook who had the vision of three and a half decades ago to found a nonprofit junior golf association, the Greater Pensacola Junior Golf Association.

The PGA is the organization that I fundamentally run today.

But, you know, in his is his daughter Robin, of course, an incredibly accomplished golfer, went on to play at Auburn University, was growing up dominating the David Derby, but he raised a whole generation of junior golfers out there, along with a man named Billy Weir, who was the longtime pink rep for the Southeast, who lived up in Stony Brook.

But Boo Boo just had an incredible and still does.

Jim will attest to it, an incredible natural ball striking ability.

In fact, you know, at one point I would argue this man right here and biweekly were two of the five best ball strikers in the world.

The quality of the irons that they could hit, you know, in blue got out there.

And I mean, he liked his rain pants.

He didn't like regular pants because the wool was itchy.

And, you know, he loved his camo.

And I will tell you, I was at that 2008 masters at the Monday practice round, and I went and walked with Bubba and Angie Burley in the morning.

He went out solo.

Then I came back and he Boo and Heath played together along with Michael Thompson, who was the U.S. amateur champion, and Brandt Snedeker.

And of the four guys who were there, Boo was the star.

Every hole.

Somebody was like, I'm your biggest fan.

And they said it like that, too.

And, you know, but that's the thing is Boo had this incredible success because he tuned the rest of that out.

Boo was just being boo and great ball striking when you combine it with good putting goes a long way.

Yeah I know he you know he played high school but then he played in junior college and I think after that he didn't really play all he was like clean and fast or something like that.

I heard.

And then, but then he was do what he like development, developmental tours.

And then all of a sudden he realized he you know, he should go out there, though.

Absolutely.

And he you know, he'd go out with genius talent.

And I've talked about it quite a bit.

You know, he would go out and and have these dominant ball striking performances make tons of birdies on.

And the reality is, if you can, you can do it there.

It's a matter of what both of these gentlemen have talked about, finding the confidence to know you can do it at the next level and you know and boo found that and you know, Heath and Boo were best man in each other's weddings.

And I think finding that success together had probably a lot to do for both of them being able to find success and victories on the PGA Tour.

Yeah, Boo won three times on tour, famously was in the Ryder Cup and was a huge star there.

He Slocum went on to win four times on the PGA Tour and then about five years after them graduating from Milton was was Bubba Watson.

So how legendary was Bubba when he was a junior golfer?

Was the incredible and unique skill he has Was that already the people noted that was not on display already.

It was well known that he was a he was an artist.

He wasn't just a golfer.

I mean, he was the type of person that I could never teach Bubba how to play golf.

And his dad actually asked me to help him one time.

I said, I can't because I'll destroy his creativity because he would envision shots that I would never envision.

I mean, he hit these 30 yard hooking wedge shots and I'm trying to hit a dead straight, you know, And I would have done a disservice to him, you know, And it was it was just well known how good he was.

Just the natural ability had and still does this day.

Yeah.

He won 12 times on the PGA Tour.

Two masters.

Two masters champions as well.

And you mentioned the oh, eight year because that year we've got to bring that up.

So 928 top 45 in the world at the Masters, make the cut three from Milton High School, three of the top 45 in the world from Milton High School.

I mean, how mindblowing is that to you guys?

It's absolutely astounding.

I have they have three guys.

I've you know, both of these gentlemen played in the Masters.

I'm able to get in with the ticket.

So I but what I tell you is I would wonder if it's ever been another case where three people from one high school now in the I would say now in the modern prep era where you go to places like IMG Academy, which technically are high schools, but they're really not high schools, I mean, face it, you're getting you're getting a diploma, but you're there because your parents have sent you there to develop incredible skills that you already have shown.

But I it's it's got to be some sort of anomaly.

I mean, Joe, I don't I'd say if you had two people playing in a tournament from the same high school, it would be an anomaly.

Right?

Right.

Yeah.

I've never heard of I've never heard of another high school like that.

And all, all the travels I've had.

Speaking of anomalies, in 2018, you win on the PGA Champions Tour, the senior tour same day there.

Bubba Watson wins on the regular PGA Tour.

I mean, were you aware of what he was doing that week?

And how unbelievable is that?

Two guys from Pensacola area winning on the same day on the PGA Tour's?

I was aware of the bar bill at Pensacola Country Club.

Yeah, no, you know, I knew he was near the lead in his tournament and I was near the lead in my tournament.

But I, I think I finished before he did.

I think he was at Riviera that he was.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I think I finished first and then I found out a few hours later that he had won.

And that was pretty cool.

I mean, you know, just the fact that we're from the same hometown and we're able to do that.

So.

Yeah, yeah.

You're down and you've stayed involved in different ways.

We talked about the Walker Cup.

You played in it.

You also were the captain coaching it in a couple of years, 95 and 97.

In youth golf, you've been involved.

There's a tournament that bears your name down in gray Cup carpet played at the Pensacola Country Club every year.

How have you tried to stay involved in the game.

Of just just just any time I could get involved with golf itself and the players and in the different golf courses, I took advantage of that and I still do it.

I have friends, fortunately, that I have over the over the years.

I have friends from everywhere.

I will be not that many, but I have some friends and it's still wonderful to see them, you know, in a calendar year in one place or another and catch up with each other and just tell old stories and what have you.

So it's been it's been wonderful to take it along with me when I'm away from the competitive end of it.

But I've still got all the friends that I made while I was playing.

And Joe, you've you know, you've stopped for so many years on a regular tour.

You were a PGA regular for 15 or so plus years.

You won four times.

You talked about your your ball striking.

You're always known for driving accuracy, greens and regulation among the leaders almost every year.

Why were you so good at that?

I think it was just a lot of this reverts back to an old gentleman named Andy Penick that used to teach here in Pensacola.

And he was tough on me.

He we would go out to a field out by Monsanto and hit balls for 3 hours, and in 3 hours I might hit 30 balls because he would make me go through my routine meticulously.

And they used to drive me crazy.

I'm like, What am I doing and why am I doing this?

But what he was trying to drilling me for was under pressure to be able to count on something in my game that I could do like clockwork.

And then I would set up the same way I would go to the same number of wackos, this and that.

So I think was just the consistency of my preparation that enabled me to be consistent, a consistent hitter over time.

But we all go through phases where we don't hit it good, but it has helped me a lot.

Well, you're still going strong right now.

I mean, ten years now on the Champions Tour, the PGA senior tour, you've won five times.

You just won in March again, just before you turned 60.

So what keeps you at this level still right now?

I still enjoy the competition.

I'm trying to squeeze a couple more years out of this old banged up body and mind, but, you know, I like down, he said, You know, I have so many friends that I've made on the tour and golf's just such a blessing to me.

And just to still be part of the game.

As long as I feel competitive, I want to continue to play.

Who knows how long that'll be.

But I do enjoy when the flag goes up on Friday, when we tee it up and play for real.

I enjoy the competition, gets the blood flowing.

Because he got BU and Heath both turning 50 recently.

Both are out there with you right now as well.

Three Pensacola guys on that tour.

Bubba still going, playing on the live tour.

How amazing.

Marty right now as this just kind of continues with these guys representing Pensacola.

You know, Joe said something just a moment ago talking about coaching, maybe mentioning Andy Pettitte, Nick Rush's name.

We don't talk about enough and anymore.

And I think, you know, we need to we had Tommy Welch when we were in high school, Joe and I did.

And you have a good coach that pushes you, I think, of Murray Rutledge and what he did with those young people up at Milton High School.

And you know, that that that level of mentorship.

We need to make sure that we give those coaches and those mentors and those folks who work with these young people to push their careers forward, whether it just be a high school career, whether it be a successful college career, whether it be an amateur career, that's there have been we have we may don't have the greatest golf courses here in the world.

In fact, I got two years ago, I got to host the ed of of Links magazine, George Pepper hair, and he played six golf courses.

I took him to six restaurants.

We shook hands at the end and he said, I want you to know, I think your restaurants are better than your golf courses.

But I also think about the culture that we have in the golf community here, and I'm blessed to have both of these men's.

These men is friends and mentors and people who give back to this next generation.

And the young people see that.

And, you know, you talk about the mentorship of of, you know, Bubba's late dad coming to you, wanting you to help.

I mean, well, the reality is we see that we give to each one of the next generations dining experience.

Is it every year with approximately 70 young people, including your son, got to play him several lay down and great cups.

And so I think we have a culture here in golf, Steve, that's under appreciated.

No doubt.

That's why we're here because it's just a phenomenal culture.

But, you know, we all know how special it is and down and you were kind of the first one on the big scene, seeing what's come after you, all the other pros, all the excellence and how much pride is there for you and what Pensacola has done on the big stage in golf.

Oh, it's huge.

It's it's nothing I ever would have would have thought I would be living in and watching and growing with.

It was just a game that that that I wanted to play.

And I started to do that.

And and I have watched it ever since the beginning.

And it's just amazing for a city, this tiger, this size to be where they are in terms of how many people they put on the on the world of golf and all the wonderful things that have happened here because of golf.

Absolutely.

Jo, as I'm sure for you to also, it must be amazing to kind of be part of this legacy.

I'm just privileged to be a part of it.

You know, we're fortunate to have people that kind of blazed the trail before us and we try to pave the way for the guys behind us.

So it's just been a community effort all the way around.

Okay.

Well, that's the that's can be the end of the segment.

Downey and Joe, thank you guys, so much for joining us and for everything you've done over the years.

Marty, you going to be sticking with us for another segment?

This we'll get into the first Gulf Coast and what that means for junior golfers in the area.

Plus, we'll be joined by a trailblazing African-American in the sport that's coming up adding to the stunning level of Pensacola's pro and amateur golf success we discussed in the first segment is Adrian Stills, the Pensacola native made it to the PGA Tour in 1985 through the qualifying school tournament, one of the last African-Americans ever to do that.

He went on to teach and coach golfer over 30 years.

Many and I'll see all the golf course in Pensacola.

And Marty Savidge also going to be joining us here for this segment to talk about his role as executive director of First Gulf Coast, which is a wonderful youth golf association.

So, Adrian, thanks for joining us.

Marty, thanks for coming back.

And I'll start with you as a young man.

Yo, you got you went out there sort of playing golf.

So what got you into golf?

Why did you start and how to go for you?

Steve My dad, like Marty, he was the founding father for golf in the Stills family.

My brother played a few years before me and it was an opportunity for him to spend time with his kids, with his two sons, kept us out of trouble.

Golf is the only sport that I know, Steve, that you can get your kid engaged in and you have his undivided attention for 4 hours.

My dad was a pioneer, understanding that, and he went a long way.

Were there a lot of other African-Americans playing at that time?

No, no, no, not at all.

It was from a youth standpoint, it was just my my brother and I.

Now, they were other guys that played golf out there at the time.

That kind of took me a little bit under their wings.

A lot of the guys that worked at Pensacola Country Club would play Osceola on Mondays and then they would bring Bill Woodbury over and we would play golf and stuff like that.

But I was the only African African-American junior playing when I first started.

And obviously you excelled pretty quickly because you got your college scholarship offer in the seventh grade.

So how did that come about?

South Carolina State My brother and I both graduated from there with their four year golf scholarship.

The coach came down to recruit my brother and three other guys from Escambia High School.

Actually.

And so they go play different courses.

They played nine holes at Osceola.

And I said, Hey, can I tag along?

I was in seventh grade, and after that the coach came to the house and said, Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Stills.

Roy Stills has a four year scholarship to South Carolina State, and then he looks at me and he goes, Young man, all you need to do is get out of high school and you've got yours too.

And I was in the seventh grade.

My dad just broke down in tears at that point.

It's pretty cool.

And then you ended up going to South Carolina State and not three time an all-American there.

After that, you go to try to become a pro cook a few times.

But the PGA qualifying school, you got through you earned a PGA Tour card in 1985.

How amazing was that, that feeling?

It it was fantastic.

Obviously, I wish had a dream that I had long time ago came true.

I got an opportunity to get my card in 85 in a sudden death playoff actually was seven of us for six spots.

And I got my my tour card in 85 with Davis Love and some other really accomplished players and played in my first tour event at L.A. Open and then played in two years open.

So it was a great experience.

No, great.

No doubt about it.

I'm already legendary is what is what he accomplished with that?

Well, you know, the greatness as I'm, you know, half a generation behind grown up.

And I'm watching.

And my father I was let me tell you how blessed I was, 1965 to 1977 on Michigan Avenue.

It's now an Adams home development.

But Hillandale Par three golf course, along with Osceola Golf course, was sort of the incubator for youth golf.

Adrian and Roy spent a lot of time out there playing golf.

Jerry Pate was out there.

Joe The last segment bought his first set of clubs for my dad in 1971.

So here I am a kid and I'm soaking it up.

And I was the little toe headed blond kid that was running around here playing with all these older guys.

And and it was just when I talked in the last segment about the culture that we have here, it was a culture of brotherhood in golf.

And yeah, we were competitors.

And, you know, but the the reality is there was a there was a congeniality and a family nature to it that really, I think has a lot to do with why you're having this program creating an incredible legacy in golf.

So you play that 85 season 23 events, made the cut 11 times, play the US Open.

You know, what's the big memories that come back to you about being on the PGA Tour playing that season?

You know, of course, the first event being LA Open was a big deal.

I got in as an alternate.

I'm playing with a couple of established players and there was a famous comedian.

His name was Flip Wilson, who happened to be in the area.

So I got Flip Wilson watching me lot of my brothers and sisters that were living in Southern California, that was a big a big thrill.

Obviously, playing the US Open was big.

I did lead one round in Anheuser-Busch tournament that day, seven Kingsmill, Virginia had 65.

The first round crashed and burned on the weekend.

But it was it was a fantastic experience.

But yeah, you know it playing around the country, being exposed to the best players in the world and the best golf courses in the world was a dream come true.

It really was learned a lot.

Yeah.

You were a good player in your own right playing in Escambia.

You're in the Hall of Fame there now.

You played at Florida State as well.

You know, your dad's been mentioned a number of times already.

You know, during this, obviously, what was I imagine he was the big driving force for you?

I had a gift.

I mean, I had a father who he was career military, but he used his G.I.

Bill in 1955 while stationed in the Air Force in Korea to become a class-A PGA member.

And then as soon as he was out, he looked for a golf course.

He retired mid 64, 1965.

He buys Hillandale par three lights, the golf course.

I mean, you know, my mom ran the pro shop and my dad was the teaching pro and Miles Potter was the green skippers, the three person staff.

And I mean, I look back now and look it's it's not glamorous.

I did not we did not grow up at the country club, but we had this incredible incubator that was just full of fun and in in little Saturday games that we could come play in.

And I used to play 45 holes of golf a day.

It's a reason I still can't hit a driver is because they were all a hundred yard par threes.

But but you know the talking about the legacy of golf I look back and you know each generation inspires the next and we you know we've talked about it quite a bit.

Adrian has become one of my my my very best friends through the years.

We kind of went our separate ways for three decades.

He was I have one.

I remember one day turning the Golf Channel on and popped up and it was, you know, lessons from the pros.

And Adrian Stills is teaching now in one of the Disney resorts at Grand Cyprus.

And I'm like, well, I'm going to watch this.

And then you hearken forward and you go back what is now and we sit down with a great friend of both of ours, Doctor Mike Cooper, 23 years ago with the aforementioned Hiram Cook, founded the Greater Pensacola Junior Golf Association to talk about bring in a first tee chapter here.

And one of the people that it wouldn't it be great if we could get Adrian Stills to come back and be the leader of that effort?

And I thought, man, if could we get Adrian out of Orlando and back to Pensacola?

Yeah, well, speaking of that, you went into coaching and you and you coached down at that academy down in Orlando and eventually head at Osceola.

Why did you decide to go the teaching coaching route and how how rewarding has that been for you?

It's been very rewarding.

I never had the any idea I was going to go into teaching.

Steve, But where I practiced and when I got my tour card, Grand Cypress, I wanted to add state of the art facilities in one of the city teaching facilities.

So I had the opportunity to learn how to teach.

And as Phil Rogers and some really accomplished teachers and I loved it, I just loved it.

And coming back to Pensacola was part of it was just one of those things that kind of bestowed upon me and wanted to come back home because of health issues of my mom and my father in law in And that's how we got back.

And you talk about people being inspiration to you.

I can remember working at the pro shop in Osceola when I was about 15, and Jerry Pate is winning the US amateur and I'm it was at US amateur or was it the US Open one of those two events.

But I had played golf as a junior golfer at Osceola with Jerry Pate, and then I'm watching as I'm closing the pro shop up at Osceola.

You know, I'm a junior and he wins the US Open.

It's like, okay, all right, I just got to work hard.

Got to work and make it happen.

Yeah.

So.

And you did?

Yeah.

And I haven't we've mentioned several times the Greater Pensacola Junior Golf Association, founded in 1990 by Hiram Cook.

How much did that the founding of that really help and aid?

You know, junior golfers, they don't come since.

Oh, without question, to have a structured association that becomes a clearinghouse for junior golf.

And, you know, I was I was gone.

I was in a way in college and then post college did not get involved until about the sixth year of the organization's existence.

When I moved back here, actually to teach here Pensacola State and to have an organization that brought everything in under one umbrella, because if you look, you had we did not yet have first tee.

First tee would be founded one year later, in 1997, after I moved back to Pensacola, we had the Devitt Derby.

But in 1996, after we had become a five, a1c3 nonprofit, Pensacola Sports says, okay, you guys are going to spend your time every summer because it was just summers at this time developing youth golf.

We have a series of clinics will run, the Southern Juniors will run the Devitt Derby.

Osceola City Championship, of course, and then said, okay, so we're kind of slowly building towards something.

BAKER Well, Hiram's vision was summer, summer, summer, and then he was actually the one that called us all together in the year 2002.

That's about right at at the Pensacola Sports offices on Main Street in Pensacola, and said, you know, we really need to take a look at what is happening at the national level.

First tee, I remember somebody in the room said it's the £800 gorilla of junior golf.

Okay.

Well, then Dr. Mike Cooper comes in, he sits down and explain what it's going to take in the summer of 2002 for us to become a first team chapter.

And I have to hire a couple people, got to have an executive director, got to have a program director, got to have a home office kind of start, you know, building, building programs, training coaches, that sort of stuff and putting all of these programs under one roof, which took a few years to get them all merged.

But having Adrian come back to lead that effort, having Osceola, the golf course, which once again, two years from now, we're going to be celebrating 100 years finally on the golf course being the incubator, which it was, you're talking about his career, my career, Joe's career, Downing's career, Jerry Pate.

We all you may get to go play occasionally at the country club in Scenic Hills was still a moderately new course.

But the reality is it all comes back to Osceola.

It really does.

And in fact, Osceola also forced you to learn great short game skills because even though it is not a long golf course, you have to be incredibly accurate around the greens.

And that's something I think we also take for granted.

You talk about the green side skills of an Adrian steals Joe Durant's incredible short game.

Blue Weekly's incredible Bubba shot making.

You know, you have to have all of those skills.

So it was just it really was a beautiful, perfect storm that all kind of came together for junior golf and having Adrian come back.

And now I'm honored to say, Adrian, you know, our our facility that we have in Warrington, Adrian is the director of instruction for First tee Instruction.

They're leading classes for our kids and their summer camps.

And what a gift.

You're executive director now.

First Tee, you were the first one here.

How special is first hand that the whole all it encompasses?

You know, it's as Barney mentioned, it is a worldwide organization it was geared for.

Yes.

We're going to try to get kids to play golf, but the life skills component part of it was the catch.

And unbeknownst to us, growing up at Osceola with all the other adults watching us, you know, you had the whole village watching you.

So first Tee is has allowed us to grow the game and also inadvertently a lot of really good people, two of them that you're going to be interviewing next, and one in particular, those values that come with the game of golf tie in the first tee that originated into these kids, myself included.

Of course, what you accomplished going back as an African-American is something that was not done very much after that.

So there was like a 25 year stretch where you were the maybe the last African-American to qualify for the PGA Tour through the Q School, through qualified school.

So first of all, you've been doing something about that.

But first of all, why why do you think that is?

You know, I had the question that was form to me about that is cost of being able to play competitive mini tour golf as it's called.

It's just it's just astronomical.

I was fortunate enough when I moved Orlando, I was very, very single minded and stubborn.

I was going to make this happen.

And so I got an opportunity to be there around good players and good courses, and it allowed me to get better to where when the qualifying school came around on my fourth try, I got through and it's the cost value is a big, big part of it.

That's why I would, along with Kim Bentley, co-founder of the Apga Golf Tour, it was an effort to try to do something about the cost differential that minorities went through trying to play this game professionally.

Yeah, So I want to get your next the Advocates Professional Golf Association, sir.

So what exactly is that and how much has it grown?

How successful has that been?

Yeah, well, we're working on this is our 15th year and as a co-founder of it, I've been there from Grass Roots.

We started with three events a year and now we've got 18.

We had a budget of about $40,000.15 years ago.

Now it's 2.1 million and we're playing all kinds of golf courses.

We played at Valhalla where they're playing the PGA Pebble Beach and the PGA Tour has been very, very helpful from a standpoint of allowing us to play TPC golf courses at a reduced or no fee.

So our entry fee for the kids or for the kids, for the young men and women now that are trying to pursue this game remains relatively low compared to the other golf tours.

So it's given them the opportunity to play really good golf course, good competition at a very low rate.

And it's it's taken off.

And I'm pretty about it.

Yeah, that's making a big impact on the national scene.

But, you know, getting back to the to the local scene, we've talked about all these pros, all this greatness.

You know, you've been really growing.

First to the chapter here, how much how much is the pros, the guys we talked about, how much have they helped contributed to that?

Everybody gives back in the ways that they can.

And obviously, you know, Bubba and Joe and Jerry Pate, they they they do it with their pocketbooks.

There's there's no lie.

You know, those of us who can't we give back by teaching and mentoring and coaching, you know, but I, I do want to hearken back to one thing.

You heard an incredible story about how Adrian wound up at South Carolina State.

And back in our day, it was totally different.

He threw some you know, maybe the coach knew the coach, maybe a phone call was made.

Maybe somebody had a friend who was an alum.

Yeah, it was a totally different era.

If you had the game, it didn't matter.

If you didn't have any money, the coach was going to find you, you were going to get the scholarship.

You might even get a chance to play pro golf.

Yes.

I'm going to have to ask a bunch of people, throw some money and have to get you there.

Right.

But it would happen.

And it is a totally different era now.

You know, you're about to have two college coaches on.

They go to National Junior Golf Scoreboard where every kid is ranked and rated.

And you went through this with your own son, you know, and his his decision to go follow through and play college golf after our programs, which we're very, very proud of and very, very proud of your son.

But they it is a totally different era than the catch is catch care and era that Adrian and I and Joe and all these other folks you've been talking about.

And it's it's very much become a business.

But I'm proud to agree with Adrian completely.

I think we're still raising incredible young people, even if they don't go pro.

They're still going pro in life.

Yeah, well, that's a great way to end the segment.

So mortified you so much for your time and thanks for all you do for junior golfers.

I've seen it in my family, so we appreciate you And Adrian.

Thank you for everything you've done, your amazing story and what you continue to do to help us grow.

Greg, in a.

Family, this is fantastic.

All right.

Pensacola is also home to a remarkably successful college golf program.

We'll be joined by the men's and women's coaches at the University of West Florida.

That's coming up.

The University of West Florida men's golf team is consistently one of the nation's best in Division two, winning the national title in 2001.

In 2008, Steve Fell has masterfully led the Eagles program for the past 30 years.

Kristen Dorsey is one of the Pensacola area's most accomplished female golfers excelling on the high school and college levels.

She now has the UW women's team on the rise as their head coach since 2009.

Team, thank you both for joining us here today.

And Kristen, I'll start with you.

We're talking about golf legacies.

Your family has has a nice little golf legacy.

Talk a little bit about that, starting with what your grandfather did.

You know, to my knowledge, when my my grandfather and his family moved to the area, he got really involved in sports.

And in 1990, when the PGA Greater Pensacola Junior Golf Association was formed by Hiram Cook, he was one of the first volunteers that was, you know, ready to go.

And he I think he gave a lot of his time.

And when he passed away in 1994, hiring, named a winter junior golf tournament after him.

And I think actually this year we're celebrating 30 years of that tournament.

So in Bubba one, the first.

Bubba won the first one.

Yes.

And that's like the nice little tidbit.

We try to inspire the kids.

This is a great tournament.

My son's played in a few times.

So you guys do a great job with.

But you went on to be a terrific player.

You know yourself, start a Gulf breeze and then play Division one golf at Kansas State for a few years.

And you finished up at eastern Kentucky where you won a conference championship there in 2013.

So what was it like for you kind of coming up, How special was it to have that kind of success and what kind of helped you get to that kind of success?

Well, first of all, I mean, I you know, I grew up playing in the PGA every summer.

I saw volunteers, you know, giving time.

I worked with a lot of instructors in the area, got to play in some organized events and I think one of the most aha moments for me before I went off to school was, you know, I would play in these events.

I'd see these 18 year old young women like winning the Divot Derby, and I never saw myself there.

And the 50th Divot Derby, the one that Bubba Watson sponsored, I won that, and I think that was the first time I was 17 where I was like, you know, I think I can think I like this game.

But, you know, I was recruited by Kansas State, You know, it was a wonderful time out there for four years with one year of eligibility.

I went out to Eastern Kentucky, but I couldn't do it without the support from the people in the area.

Golfers, Optimists played a huge role in helping me get on the national scene.

And then, like I said, the GP has just been phenomenal, keeping something structured.

So yeah.

Steve, you also started golf, raised a few years earlier, but dolphin pride here.

Yes, and they're playing at the US Amateur Championship in 1998 and play college at Huntington and at UW.

RF What was it like for you coming up?

Obviously it was already some some good role models that you were watching.

What was it like as a player for you growing up?

I would say Jerry Pate was probably the role model during my time.

And, you know, I remember shagging balls for him when he was probably in his prime with he had the orange golf balls back then, and I'd be back there catching them with, you know, a mitt and stuff.

And it was incredible how how great he was.

And then in high school, growing up with Joe Tarrant and being his teammate of his at Huntingdon, just you know, it was it was a blast back then.

And I wish I could go back and do it all over again.

But, you know, it was just incredible growing up playing golf with my my dad got me started when I was young, playing back in Albany, Georgia, actually.

And we've it's it's been in my family for years his dad was a very well known player in the southeast who I'm named after actually.

So it's been in our blood for for a long time.

And then you went into coaching.

Your first kind of crack at it was was pretty cool.

PGA Apprentice at the Players Championship over at Sawgrass.

How did you get that opportunity?

And what did that kind of do for you?

Well, I just I was actually the assistant at Pensacola Country Club, and they had to let go of some people.

I was the new kid on the block, so I got axed and I applied at TPC Sawgrass.

I think Jerry actually helped me get the job there.

And that was that was a great experience.

And then I came up, played some many tour stuff for a couple of years and, you know, and I was just taking a lot of money and just wasn't going to work out.

And so, you know, somehow I got into coaching after that.

And then you had you left you got that job in 1995.

Yeah.

How special was it to land that job?

And you had success away?

I mean, you were coach of the year the first year.

Well, the conference championship, your first year.

So how was it to get it?

And then what kind of worked right off the bat for you there.

For jeez, I don't know.

That's so long ago.

But you know, it was actually I kind of took over for the for the previous coach stepped in and and kind of helped out And Richard Berg, the athletic director at the time, said, you know, I'd like for you to stay and be our coach.

And here I am 30 years later.

But it's just been, you know, something?

I took my competitive nature.

You know, I wanted to be Jerry Durant and Jerry Pape, but that didn't work out.

So I took my competitive nature and I've pushed it into coaching and helping my players to try to reach their goals, which is obviously to get on tour.

So it's just been a blast and we've done pretty well.

I'll say we'll get back to more than a minute.

But Kristen, you made a stab at pro golf.

You played in pro tournaments, played on the Symetra tour, which is a level below the LPGA.

What was that ride for you like getting out there and and playing some pro tournaments?

Well, like Steve said, it was tough.

It's tough.

I mean, first of all, chasing your dream and is was the time of my life.

I don't know if my bank account thought that, but it's it's a grind.

I mean, it's a different type of approach to the game where, you know, your success determines, you know, what you're doing the following week, the following week.

Whereas you know, before that a lot of the times, you know, you were funded by like your parents or other people.

So but being able to, like, wake up in the morning and plan out 8 hours of golf, it was everything I loved it.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it.

But, you know, similar to Steve, I was just super.

I love to have a huge passion for golf, especially players and other players.

I did some caddying that I think that's where I first realized I enjoyed coaching and, you know, being able to redirect that competitiveness and that love and that passion towards coaching is it's been really great.

So yeah, it was tough on on many tours.

Well asked tough it's tough out there to make it.

We now have great, great golfers and it's so hard.

But you channeled it into coaching.

You also worked at the first tee, you know, for a while.

How special was that?

And then it also kind of that I help kind of spur your opportunities and your learning for becoming a coach.

Yeah, you know, I think at a young age I started volunteering at the first tee.

I remember I worked with we talked a little bit, I think early in this segment about Heath.

So Tom, his dad, Jack, worked with me.

And part of one of those things was he had to volunteer 2 hours a week.

And so I'm 16 years old and I volunteered at the first team.

I was one of the first times I really just enjoyed working with junior golf, so it led me back here.

Every summer in college, I would work as a tournament director and five years while I was trying to play on that pro circuit, I also would come here and run the tournaments and, you know, both experiences just go hand in hand.

You learn how to communicate with players.

You learn like, you know what's more important?

You learn how to have fun, incorporate that stuff.

So there's a lot of learning experiences I took from both playing on that circuit and working with the first team.

Yeah, and then Steve, we talk about your program's success.

You got off to a good start in that it just kept getting better.

You won the national title, the D2 National title 2001, 2008.

What was it like for you to reach that pinnacle, you know, as a coach?

Well, it's what everybody dreams of as a coach.

And once we won it the first time and won, it was like, I want to do that again.

I want to do it again and again and again.

And we were able to do it in in oh eight again.

And that was like, I guess, you know, solidifying what we can really do.

Like it wasn't a11 shot wonder, so to speak.

And then we've just really been very consistent for the last eight years.

I don't think any other program in the country at the Division two level has has done what we've done and we're going back this year and hopefully we can we can pull off a national championship this year.

Yeah.

And the national tour in a little bit, but I'll back up those stats.

Six of the last seven years, you finished top five in the nation and top three five of those seven.

So what's been, you know, your kind of method in terms of recruiting, in terms of developing players.

Well you know it's worldwide now.

So we're looking everywhere and trying to trying to get the best players we can.

But it's also got to be someone that fits into the culture that we've created.

It's got to be the right fit or, you know, it can cause, disrupt session with the team chemistry and so on.

So there's not a real simple answer for that, just that, you know, it's a three 6524 seven job recruiting and I'm just looking for that perfect fit, perfect piece of the puzzle.

And, you know, I think I've done pretty well with it.

No doubt about it.

Well, Kristen, you land the head coaching job at UW out for the women's team in 2019.

How special for you to to land that job here in your hometown.

Oh man I was so excited I remember in 2019 when it was around that time I was thinking about hanging it up and, you know, being, being gone from here more or less, except for the summers, for around ten years.

It was everything that I had wanted to come back to my hometown and help continue to develop our next generation.

But one of the big things was also to, you know, the men's coach, Steve, I wanted to kind of learn from him a little bit.

You know, like you said, it's one of the most successful programs in D2 golf and it it has been a blast being back here, getting to see up close like what we're doing in the northwest Florida community, especially in the golf community.

And just, you know, it.

Yeah.

Well, what you found success.

I mean, through the last three years, you're kind of on the rise.

You've won the conference tournament to the last three years.

So what's kind of been your your method in terms of, you know, how you recruit and how you try to develop your ladies?

You know, again, what Steve had mentioned, a lot of it is trying to find that perfect piece of the puzzle.

I'm still learning how to do that, but I'd say winning the coming in and making a statement, I think in women's golf and in the program is really attractive to potential student athletes, but also to, I'm hoping to women's golf in the area.

You know, watching a program you know, be successful within a couple of years and just continue to trend on that.

That graph in like I said, we're hoping to do some good things.

I guess next year.

Hopefully we'll be sitting here or, you know, we'll be going to the national championships.

So we're pretty close this year.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Well, you know, over those years, of course, so many great players, 40 plus All-Americans, I think.

David Illingworth on the PGA Tour, Charlie Bloss, who was National Player of the Year for all all of college and he's on the the I think the Korn Ferry right now.

I think Kristian Bosso, who is most accomplished local player that you've had with for the tech grad play in the PGA Canadian he was an all-American as well.

Let's talk about my question.

How special to have a local guy like that come through and find that success?

Well, that's something that I really try to to recruit the good local talent, and I've had quite a lot of them over the years and Christian being one of them.

And, you know, you're talking about a class act.

Christian Bosso is a class act in every way, and I'm just so proud of him and what he's doing now, being an assistant at Pensacola Country Club, and he's done great in the section tournaments that he's been playing in.

And he's really he's always represented our program extremely well.

And you try to recruit local as well when you can.

You got a few on the team right now stretching all the way to Okaloosa County.

Everything, you know, how important is that part of it?

What are you seeing with the local talent on the female side.

And the female side?

It's starting to develop right now.

I think we're in a little bit of a boom, but having somebody local I think always gives players here something to hope for work towards.

You know, like, Oh, I played in a summer tour event with them and now look at them on that college scene.

I can do that too.

You know, everybody that's been on this segment today has talked about how they just saw something local and they realize, hey, that's attainable.

And I think that's really important for Steve and I to keep some type of local tie on the West sort of team.

I mean, it's great for the community and seeing them interact.

But yeah, we have two this year and they've done a phenomenal job representing.

Our area.

Well, of course, this whole show we've talked about the great legacy of pros and the amazing players that have come out here.

How much does that help recruiting?

Does that help, you know, when you can point to people that weren't in your program necessarily, but they they're from Pensacola?

I think so.

And, you know, Joe actually does help with kind of being a mentor to some of the guys.

If I ask him anything, he's more than willing to help.

So, yeah, definitely.

It absolutely helps when you can say, hey, if you come play for us, I have a Champions tour player or whatnot that can help mentor you and show you what it's like to be out there.

All right.

Well, thank you, guys very much for joining us and thanks for all you're doing for our UWF and local golf.

Thank you.

All right.

Thanks to our guests also for the earlier segments, Joe Durant, Downing Gray, Marty Stanovich, and Adrian Stills.

Let's hope the Pensacola area continues, adding to an amazing golf legacy.