Watching the PGA and getting ready for summer at Forest Park

Our resident PGA Golf Pro Richard Sheppard Jr. of Forest Park Golf gets Nestor ready for a weekend of Valhalla and the PGA Championship and whole summer of golfing options to learn the game – or make yours better – on a Baltimore’s Classic Five course around the beltway.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

valhalla, golf, week, forest park, weekend, golf course, play, pga, years, championship, tournament, clubs, big, northern lights, rain, pga championship, kid, hit, baseball, coming

SPEAKERS

Richard Sheppard Jr., Nestor J. Aparicio

Nestor J. Aparicio  00:02

We are wn St. Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive it is such a big week around here it is the the crown jewel of the Triple Crown don’t believe what they tell you down there in Louisville. They got their own golf tournament going on this weekend, but it is Preakness week here. The orals are home Luke’s gonna be at the ballpark all week. Toronto Blue Jays Seattle Mariners in town. We are doing the crab Derby races on Wednesday at Lexington market. And BJ sir off, other folks are coming down. We’re getting into the Preakness vibe then on Friday, we’re back and families I will have scratch offs in the Maryland lottery. Our friends given us the Pac Man scratch I was very lucky batch had a lot of winners at the Lexington market last Friday. We did the show down there. And a big week all the way around, right. I mean Oreos are home all week, getting an NFL schedule released this week. And we learned early Monday morning that Lamar Jackson, and the Ravens are gonna well open the season in Kansas City. There’s some conjecture about that maybe being a Christmas game, maybe being a kickoff game. They’re now going to kick that thing off. And they’re playing this little golf tournament this weekend. And it’s all of this and Stanley Cup this and NBA that and all that. There was a PGA Championship this weekend, and I almost attended the last one at Valhalla. The quarter century go. kid named Tiger Woods was just killing it. And my son and I were in Cincinnati. That weekend seeing Pearl Jam, Jimmy Buffett and seeing the amongst other things, and almost went to that that tournament actually watched that tournament in Cincinnati. This week, they go back and I love I love saying Valhalla because it feels like a little slice of heaven. And I actually have a friend that’s a member of Valhalla. Chris Redman Super Bowl champion lives right off the golf course of Valhalla, so I may bother him next week and get a little update from him. Talk some of some draft stuff and some low level stuff. This guy tees it up over at Forest Park. He is a Baltimore he’s now my Facebook friend. So I almost want to call him RJ but I’m going to formally say classic five golf. Richard Shepherd joins us here Jr. as well. In the week of a PGA Tour me what’s going on man? You got oriental fever. I noticed because I’m your Facebook. You got ravens schedule fever because I know this because I’m your Facebook friend you love your family was Mother’s you had all this stuff going on here. But like this is this is golf season for golf guys like you rich, right?

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Richard Sheppard Jr.  02:24

Yeah. You know, getting into may hopefully we had enough rain and stuff. So hopefully maybe we get some some nice weather here and we can get everybody out on the golf course got another major championship coming up this week. And it’s our major PGA Championship. So very excited looking forward to see what happens at Valhalla.

Nestor J. Aparicio  02:43

So you see our championship and I got tipped off a couple of weeks ago from one of your compadres that your being a PGA head golf professional, which you are, allows you for to some opportunities in regard to the masters and PGA what does it mean to be a PGA Head Golf Professional where when the PGA championships this week, you say it’s our championship and you feel the same way that when the Orioles win World Series, I want to feel like it’s our championship, right? And

Richard Sheppard Jr.  03:14

that’s ours too. But being a PGA member, we have 41 sections, right, so each section, we have our championship. So the top, the top, the top finishers and our section championship going to the national championship, which was contested a couple of weeks ago down in Frisco, Texas, which is where the new PGA headquarters is, in the top 20 in that tournament, gets to play in the PGA Championship. So we actually have two members in our section out there playing that qualify so we can we can essentially qualify to play in this tournament if we make it all the way through. So how

Nestor J. Aparicio  03:50

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could your game right now?

Richard Sheppard Jr.  03:51

I mean, I haven’t been there yet, but I’m working on really good place. Those are really good players out there. Yeah, well,

Nestor J. Aparicio  03:59

I you know, and I guess that’s what this is all about. And it’s what you do every day. So I love getting your background, you know, on all of this and golf and coming from the west side of town, northwest side of town and being from a family that loves golf. I’ve heard your story before lots of folks haven’t. And you know, going from being a kid banging golf balls and on the edge of a golf course maybe not all your friends were playing, or maybe some of your friends were playing but I didn’t have that opportunity. I’ve said this to you many times I played a little bit of tennis in my neighborhood nobody played tennis so it’s hard when you don’t have people to play with golf is something you can go do and I definitely guys hitting tee shots on football fields and stuff like that. But unless you have a rocky point A Sparrows Point on my side of town or classic five all over town, right? But there was nowhere I could walk to play golf as a kid right? You know, when I could play football, baseball saw all that basketball that was available to me. Things really changed and you know, classifieds. A big part of this. You guys are my sponsor. We talked about it Getting people out and getting them playing at a young age or at any age. Really? My backs get a little better. That plane ride. I gotta tell you about the plane ride. I did the craziest thing over the weekend, man. You told my Valhalla. Yeah. Now to me would be seeing the Northern Lights. So I you know, and I’m writing about this this week. So, you know, like sort of a little piece of heaven your piece of heaven would be like playing around a Masters right? At a cost, right like that. Or pebble be you one of those right for

Richard Sheppard Jr.  05:26

you. Right? That’s out there. Yep. Yep. For sure. Well, man,

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Nestor J. Aparicio  05:29

I did the dumbest thing over the weekend. You know, the Northern Lights popped up. Yeah. So like, for me, my wife and I woke up Saturday we were left out other people have seen all over the country all over the world over the atmosphere. Right. And they said the storm was the largest ever and it’s gonna last all weekend. And then they started forecasting. My wife and I used all of our our airline points and flew to Spokane, Washington. On Saturday night. We’re we did this on an hour notice one o’clock, two o’clock out the door. 230 on the plane and four on the ground at Denver on the ground in Spokane rented the car that will Dairy Queen drove to a place called loon Lake. Okay, lunatics. And we sat under a blanket stars. It was almost like Valhalla. It was almost like smelling the azaleas at Augusta. It was almost like how cold the beer will be. And an Oreo World Series parade. Yeah. And we sat there and we stare. And I kept looking at the forecast and the forecast completely disappeared. But it’d be like you me saying to you, you get to play Augusta on Tuesday, except it’s going to rain sideways all day. You’d say I’d play anyway. Would you?

Richard Sheppard Jr.  06:40

I’m playing anyway. Yeah, I’ll bring my rain gear. I won’t be prepared. Yeah, by the way. What

Nestor J. Aparicio  06:45

so we obviously didn’t see the northern lights. The forecast went away. We flew all day Sunday in Alabama and beat seeing heart Cheap Trick. Preakness Preakness draw Orioles home games all week long. PGA I got RJ at breakfast on Monday we’re going to talk some golf and all of that stuff. What What are conditions that you won’t play through? Because I got to ask you this because you’re like, it was raining it was this we’re trying to get on course kind of like Cedric Mullins, you get some at bats and whatnot. But rain is the ultimate enemy for your golf courses. Right. And ultimately, for you get your game together and springtime, if it’s raining too much, you just can’t play. It’d be like me being a kid not having a place to play. Yeah, rain

Richard Sheppard Jr.  07:24

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rain kind of dampers things in more ways than one. But, you know, if it’s if it’s if it’s a light rain, I don’t mind but if it’s a torrential downpour. You know, that’s, that’s not ideal. And if you get too wet, the golf courses actually have to close you have standing water on the greens, where you can’t even put you know, the ball will just stop in a puddle. It gets to a point where it’s unplayable. So it’s a groundskeeper

Nestor J. Aparicio  07:48

issue to say, All right, we’re not playing anymore today, right? Because there are some guys out there to go out there, tear it up and play in the rain. Right?

Richard Sheppard Jr.  07:55

Right. Right. So you know, that’s where we get things like we have car path only where if it gets too wet, we don’t we’re not letting the cars off the paths that can do damage to the golf course. So you know, we have things in place, but if it gets too wet, we got it. We got to call it. Yeah.

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:10

Tell everybody about Forest Park. If they haven’t been over there, you’re the head golf pro over there. We’ll get to Valhalla. We’ll get to some golfers this week. And we’ll have some fun. And I’m going to talk about baseball with you because you watch too much for me.

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Richard Sheppard Jr.  08:21

I love baseball.

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:21

I know you do. So what you know, that’s why I gotta I gotta last yesterday, but I mean, we got it. We got to talk about the pitch and we’ll get to all that but put the golf part of this for this time of year for you. When masters happens and you start to get into the flow of there’s going to be a major there’s going to be champion rewatches Yeah, I It’s such a crowded life. Lacrosse is going on this weekend for the girls people right? Like graduations. Life’s busy. But golf is one of those things for folks that love it, enjoy it. Enjoy good weather part of it. And some people are so addicted. They play all winter because they’ll fly places. I have all of you in my life. I can’t begin to tell you how many people I have that all winter long are flying off to Myrtle Beach are flying off to Florida. They can’t wait to get their sticks. Even if just one weekend, somewhere January, February, they can get out and actually hit. But what

Richard Sheppard Jr.  09:09

next? I’m actually going to Ocean City in a couple of days and play some golf. So

Nestor J. Aparicio  09:13

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well. Did you play all winter? Yes,

Richard Sheppard Jr.  09:16

I actually did. We didn’t have too bad of a winter. We had a couple of snow storms. But other than that, that’s really when I get a chance to play because we’re not as busy in the wintertime. So I got some free time to play but now what’s what’s

Nestor J. Aparicio  09:28

the barometer for you? 38 and clear Do you play are like

Richard Sheppard Jr.  09:32

40 guy? Yeah, over 40 I’m good. Not too much. When? Yeah, sure. You get

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Nestor J. Aparicio  09:37

a 42 degree day on January 20. It’s the only day that week where it’s above freezing. That’s the day you’ll Yeah, you’ll play nine All right, what dictates 18? Is that 55 degree what does that?

Richard Sheppard Jr.  09:48

Yeah, over 50 Yeah. 5050

Nestor J. Aparicio  09:51

Which nine Do you play at Forest Park? As

Richard Sheppard Jr.  09:54

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you play the front nine in the end? No, what’s everybody’s kind of cleared out for I hit home play a quick nine

Nestor J. Aparicio  09:59

Gotta keep the game know your course that well do you feel like a real chump when you miss a shot?

Richard Sheppard Jr.  10:06

Everybody misses shots. You know, we’re not robots, so you’re gonna miss a shot every now and then. But it’s good to know the lay of the land and you know, it’s an advantage to know the course. For sure.

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:18

What’s the first time you walked in Forest Park?

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Richard Sheppard Jr.  10:21

First time I played for Spark, yeah. And your life. I was probably I was young, maybe 12. Wow, I started when I was 10. Now you walk out

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:31

on that first hole. That’s the same first hole you walked on when you were 12 years old.

Richard Sheppard Jr.  10:35

We switched to nine holes. Okay, now the first hole is the 10th hole now, and the 10th hole is the first hole. So we switched the nines. And we did that. So after nine holes, you can come back into the clubhouse. It’s easy access to come into the clubhouse, get a hot dog get

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:50

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a beat be on the other end of the course of 10. Right. Okay. Yeah,

Richard Sheppard Jr.  10:54

that’s why we did that. So yes, it’s a full circle. For me. I grew up playing Forest Park and now to be the head golf pro here. It’s it’s, it’s amazing. And, you know, I love it. We’re rocking and rolling. We got a bunch of leagues bunch of clinics, bunch of juniors coming out. And I’m looking forward to another great season and keeping them keeping the course looking good for our patrons. And if you need lessons come come see me we got lessons we got clinics for beginners to advanced players. So welcome to everybody to come out and check us out got a drive arrange two. People don’t know the first thing

Nestor J. Aparicio  11:27

you say to somebody if somebody brings their 12 year old boy out to you and says I look. Get my kid off the street and the baseball thing into this off the lead thing, just what he can play when he wants. You know, like, that’s part of the golf things you pick when you want to go when the weather’s gonna you know, whatever it is, when you play more organized stuff it you know, I think even from a parent perspective, if like, my son and his wife, maybe I’ll be grandpa pup maybe. I believe me I’m not egging that on at all. I see what these people went through in the airport going to Spokane this weekend. But like if I had a child to put them into a game, and you know, I’m not the biggest golf guy. We’ve talked about this because I didn’t grow up with the game. I got the blood point. Oh, kick your ass in Ocean City right now. Oh, Pro. Okay, so

Richard Sheppard Jr.  12:10

you would meet me down there?

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Nestor J. Aparicio  12:14

They would level the playing field at least I’d had a chance. Yeah, yeah. Everybody

Richard Sheppard Jr.  12:17

can put you know what I mean? It’s not as much focus and concentration as a full swing. So, you know, like you said, if I had a 12 year old kid coming to me, I’m going to start them off on the budding right. Okay, I’m gonna start them they’re building up their confidence there because you know, every

Nestor J. Aparicio  12:35

12 year old kid that comes to you has played putt putt. No should sit here like that. Right? Like, I

Richard Sheppard Jr.  12:39

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think so. Yeah, I think so. But just kind of break, but they probably don’t know the fundamentals of the putting stroke, they were just trying to like just, they’re just trying to maybe just roll it out there. But now they know the fundamentals of you know, not flipping your wrists using your bigger muscles to move the putter back and forth. You know, keeping that white sheet with your arms in the putter maintain throughout the stroke, you know, distance control, where we’re putting in different distances to learn the distance control the length, the stroke, where we’re hitting it on the putter face when they hit it in the sweet spot. So we’re just kind of breaking it down to that I start there and we work our way back to being pitching full swing irons, full swing driver, they get them out on the golf course as soon as possible. Because that’s that’s what really is going to get them hooked. When they see hey, I’m I’m at Forest Park golf course. I’m in Baltimore City, but it doesn’t even look like it with the scenery. You know, you can’t even tell you’re in Baltimore City when you when you’re out in a forest park golf course. You know, you’re back. 914 13 it’s like, wow. In a country. Beautiful. Yeah. Yep.

Nestor J. Aparicio  13:42

Walk in the park. Richard Shepard Jr. is our guest. He’s over. He’s the PGA Golf Professional at Forest Park golf course. Part of our classic five we love having these guys on there’s a major this week. So it gives us an excuse to talk about Valhalla as well, some Oriole baseball in the Northern Lights, amongst other things. But, you know, if I had a grandchild, though, I think about like, you know, would that child want to play soccer? Would they want to do this? Well, you know, I see people putting their kids in the MMA, just all sorts of things that may help them in various disciplines, different ways. But like when I think about golf being this thing you can do anytime. The mind game out in the woods get you outside a little bit. I think it’s a beautiful thing to involve children with. And I think every time I’ve gone up, certainly to Pine Ridge where they have all the drivers and they have all the simulators. And you could play that way. Yeah, that just sort of blows my mind in a different way. As a kid who was in a duckpin bowling league on Saturday mornings when I was a kid that was what my social thing like because we can walk across the street. You know, it’s really accesses everything right? You have the ability to come do that. I think people say why I grew up in the city. I don’t really like that’s what classic five is all about. You guys have been here. 100 years doing it this way.

Richard Sheppard Jr.  14:56

Yeah, yeah. Well welcome everybody. We have a first The program, they actually kind of funded our driving range them in the case Valley foundation. But we have a lot of junior programs actually on Saturday mornings we have the younger kids come out we actually have a p we first see how are we talking here or to six year olds coming out Saturday morning 930 They’re out there swinging on the rains and having a blast. So the kind

Nestor J. Aparicio  15:25

of little clubs do they have? It looks like a little band band gloves, right? Yeah, we

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Richard Sheppard Jr.  15:28

it’s called snag golf. So they make like plastic clubs. And they had like, the bigger it’s really like a tennis ball. They’re hitting. It’s not really a golf ball. It’s like a tennis ball. They’re kind of hitting out there like people literally Yeah, it’s safe. It’s fine. And I

Nestor J. Aparicio  15:44

learned stuff when I have you on rich you know, I mean, like I didn’t even know about this. So

Richard Sheppard Jr.  15:48

yeah, they’ve been they’ve been around for a few years now. So it’s a great great way to because you know safety is a big thing with the younger kids. You know a hard golf ball a metal iron, you know, you want to you know kind of limit that and they got the plastic clubs soft in this ball to hit so safe and fun.

Nestor J. Aparicio  16:06

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How old were you when you swung the golf club the first time?

Richard Sheppard Jr.  16:10

I was a little late. I started at 10 I started Okay, so

Nestor J. Aparicio  16:14

hold on 10 years old How does your parents get you clubs that you know make making kids clubs 25 years ago like you know different kinds of club then or you had a regular club you didn’t you didn’t go

Richard Sheppard Jr.  16:25

Yeah, I actually had well and adults looking back at it I probably had the wrong said I had an adult set. At 10 years old I probably should have had a

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Nestor J. Aparicio  16:34

junior you’re playing with these long ass things and you’re disappointed okay.

Richard Sheppard Jr.  16:37

And adjust but my dad found a set at a at a thrift store use you know, you can find some hidden gems at your Goodwill store thrift store, you have to spend $2,000 to get a new set of clubs you can go to a local thrift store people are getting rid of stuff that cleaning out the garage and putting it at the thrift store and you can find some really good stuff there. So that’s where I got my first set. Nice,

Nestor J. Aparicio  16:58

rich Shepherd juniors the head golf pro over at Forest Park and classify somebody that classic five I mean, nice we talk some forest park we gotta give some love to Mount Pleasant Carolina, all the rest of these out here. But, you know, I promote you guys all the time as the local affordable place not just to play golf, go hit some balls, whatever. But to get great instruction with really I mean, I’ve gotten to know all of you on the air off the air a little bit different ways Facebook, just Baltimore people good good Baltimore people doing introducing you to the game of golf in a way that’s affordable, fun, local down the street. It’s not going to to your point on budget, because when you think you know, sometimes no offense, I think I think it is Country Club types. You know, and I think that’s you know, that’s not in the realm of some folks who do want to go out and and love the game of golf and they’ll fall in love with it. Watching Valhalla this weekend, right, seeing these courses, getting to know the players wanting to be a Scheffler and saying how can I go do that? Or how can I get my case maybe grandchild? You know, maybe out there doing it now get them the right clubs if he or she? I’m not going to get them a little bam-bam clubs you’re telling me about

Richard Sheppard Jr.  18:10

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There you go. Snag Yeah, yeah. So classic five, golf. We’re in the community. We’re in the neighborhoods. You know, welcoming to everybody. We’re not discriminatory. We’re not excluding anybody out we’re inclusive. You know, anybody can come out and play for you. If you don’t know how to play, we have the resources for you to learn. And enjoy this great game of golf is the golf is only game where you can get a four year old and an a 94 year old to play, right? Basketball, baseball, and once we get a certain age. No, we can’t play it as good as we used to. Right. But golf you can really play for your whole life. I

Nestor J. Aparicio  18:49

would say like Father’s Day coming up, and I’m getting to be a little older. I lost my dad 30 years ago, but like if I had a father of that age, or me and my son right now, yeah, we could go bowling maybe but like playing basketball with him right now or tennis with him right now. He’s younger and sexier. And just like you don’t have the backing. We just have some back issues. Thank God for Dr. Steven Elliot chiropractic life but but you know, that’s the thing that fathers and sons will see everybody doing that because it’s something granted. You go three, four generations out on a golf course on Father’s Day, right?

Richard Sheppard Jr.  19:20

And that’s that’s my dream of mine. I have I have a two year old son right now. Me and my dad we play all the time. So once once my son gets he’s

Nestor J. Aparicio  19:28

taken for granted bought away and what playing with your dad all the time? Oh, no. I love it. I love it. I want to say don’t take that for granted. I mean play with your dad. I don’t get to play with my dad. So go love your dad out man. Go play.

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Richard Sheppard Jr.  19:41

Yeah, and he anytime he wants to play I try to I try to make it a point to join him. And yeah, so what’s my son he’s my son is two so once he gets a couple years older he can he can really join us out there and that’s a dream of mine. Already got him swinging. He’s he’s been five

Nestor J. Aparicio  19:55

years now. Maybe Father’s Day you go out there. Yeah, yeah. Hey, Be

Richard Sheppard Jr.  20:00

when he’s six or so and he’s already had to drive a range took him there. He’s got his little plastic set, so

Nestor J. Aparicio  20:07

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I can’t wait. Now let me follow an ad on Facebook now that we’re Facebook friends. Okay Valhalla that’s the reason I allegedly have you on telling Valhalla. You’ve given me a great reason to call Chris red because I know we’re Valhalla is driven by it a million times the horse race down there two weeks ago.

Richard Sheppard Jr.  20:23

And you’ve been there? No, no, I plan to Yeah. Well, it’s one

Nestor J. Aparicio  20:27

of those courses. That’s not a major course. But it’s a course that’s on everybody’s radar as I’m not going to go to Louisville and not play it if you can’t get on Derby week. I mean, no doubt about that. But I can’t believe it’s been 20 years. I mean, more net since that weekend where Tiger Woods did his thing. Whole different field here and this.

Richard Sheppard Jr.  20:49

Last time, it was 10 years ago. Was it okay, yeah, actually Rory Rory McIlroy run there and I think it was 2014 2014. Look it up. I

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Nestor J. Aparicio  20:59

will look up Valhalla tournament past let’s see past winners. It was 2000 was the year I remember. Okay. That was the year I was in Cincinnati. So that was 24 years ago. And they did play there and 14. You know, I don’t remember it. My wife was really, really sick. I mean, my wife was battling cancer. Awful. 10 years ago, this month. So I I lost track of all of that. But Rory wants it. What do you have for me this week here? Yeah, go ahead. Well, where are we just in all of this? Because all I hear chef or chef, that’s all I hear. You know?

Richard Sheppard Jr.  21:39

Yeah. Yeah. So here’s the thing. So Roy, I don’t know if you followed yesterday, but Rory just won yesterday at the Wells Fargo Championship down in Charlotte. Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s a big event. It’s a designated event. So it was a big it was a big tournament. So he just won yesterday. And you see Roy one the last time the bow the PGA was at Valhalla 10 years ago. So the stars are really aligning for Roy to win this week. I think he’s gonna be a popular popular pick. He’s, you know, everybody loves Rory. And here’s the thing with Scotty Scotty just had a baby. Right. So Scotty wasn’t able to play the last couple of weeks since the masters? I don’t think he’s played No, he played the the week after the masters. A big month for him, huh? Yeah. So but he’s taken a few weeks off with the birth of his baby. But he is coming back this week as reports that he did have the baby so he’s able to come out and play.

Nestor J. Aparicio  22:34

So how much did you play after you had a baby?

Richard Sheppard Jr.  22:38

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Now, my son was born in July so I my fiance wasn’t happy with me. But I took some time a little bit, you know, a couple of days off a week off and I had to get back to it. But um, you know, he’s born in July 3, he’s a July 3 Baby, so very patriotic of you. Yes. He was almost a fourth. He was 6pm on the third. So

Nestor J. Aparicio  23:00

you get celebrated on the fourth one on the cookout? Do I was born on October 14, I celebrating the 15th because it’s Jim Palmer’s birthday. Okay. birthdays together, you know, but it gets for the tournament this weekend and watching Valhalla and how it plays and whatnot. I’m very familiar with because I almost went to the tournament years ago and I joke around with Chris Redmond. But but this is the course that very, very highly thought of on the circuit, right? Yeah.

Richard Sheppard Jr.  23:30

Yeah. You know, when when a major championship goes to a certain course, every decade or so that means it’s you know, it’s very high regarded. It’s a awesome course. It was managed by the PGA at a time. I don’t know if they still manage it. I have to look into that. But yeah, it’s a great course love to get down there and check it out. It’s going to be a good test as well.

Nestor J. Aparicio  23:54

All right, last thing for you. I gotta go back to this. Like you bring a kid out to the course and you give them a putter. And like I obviously held a lot of putters in my I never had held a driver and Mike, I didn’t even know how to hold it until I took a lesson with a guy like you 25 years ago because I held it like a baseball bat. I’ve told you I arms in the whole deal. Because I had held a baseball bat like that or a tennis racquet were bending the elbow is like the most important thing. Keeping the elbow straight is the most important thing. And it took me two years, like literally two years of trying hard to to not want to live on the grip. Yeah, yeah. And so when you bring someone young out and you give him a pot, I mean, the kids want to whack the ball, right? I mean, and that’s probably wrecks them like the putting part of it has to be the most important part. Right? Yeah.

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Richard Sheppard Jr.  24:43

Because it’s all it’s all using more of your your bigger muscles to move the club back and forth, right. So we start with flooding, right? So a lot of a lot of people I kind of stand up but I try to lift the ball in the air. Right? We try to lift the ball here. and

Nestor J. Aparicio  25:01

you’re moving too far off Mike for me now rich, can we come back down here? You gotta get back down here. Yeah, sorry. But

Richard Sheppard Jr.  25:07

yeah, I mean it’s the fundamentals is easier to hit a putt right than it is than it is to hit a driver.

Nestor J. Aparicio  25:13

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Sure, especially to direct the ball have success you can’t hit a putt

Richard Sheppard Jr.  25:18

how we going to hit a driver down the road, right. So that’s why I always start with the putter and then we work our way back chipping, then we’re just off the green pitching 5060 yard shots, playing shots in the 100 150 yards. Then we get into the driver, right so it’s all about starting small and working your way back if I can’t do something at a slow speed, how can I do it at a fast speed.

Nestor J. Aparicio  25:41

I just remember being on the 18th hole with a little pink ball and a little Potter down an old pro. And I zoom right into the mouth of the clown free ticket you look free game of golf. And then you feel like I’m I’m ready for Valhalla. I’m ready for a Forest Park. You know, Richard Shepard Jr’s here you can find him at Forest Park. Somebody had to find you just come out and and maybe spend a morning with you and learn a little bit of golf. Yeah,

Richard Sheppard Jr.  26:09

I’m at Forest Park golf course. We’re at 2900 Hillsdale, road. Phone numbers 410-448-4653 classic five golf.com. Come check us out. Got a lot of stuff going on for juniors women, adults, seniors. Come check us out. Have a good time. Enjoy yourself got a great grill in the back which is important. I know. I know. You’re a food guy. So

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Nestor J. Aparicio  26:33

all about I’m not coming to the golf course fed. You got to feed me.

Richard Sheppard Jr.  26:37

I gotta tell you something. i My birthday was May 4, right. May the Fourth be with you? I went to Jimmy seafood. All right. And I got the boss. There you go. I thought I thought of you. That’s the funny thing. I said you know Nestor would like this duck.

Nestor J. Aparicio  26:52

there because I don’t go there. But

Richard Sheppard Jr.  26:56

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for a guy. You’re the crab.

Nestor J. Aparicio  26:58

I am a crab cake guy. Absolutely. Yeah. So I go to Costa, that’s my joy. But hey, you know what? I’ll take you take me on a Golf Tour. And I’ll take you on a crab cake tour. And we’ll see. I just want everybody that Forest Park. Maybe it’s like it’s working on essentially right. It’s like East. I mean, you are a mile inside the beltway. Really? Yeah.

Richard Sheppard Jr.  27:18

Yeah, you can take you can take Liberty Road exit security Boulevard exit or 70 lax exit off of 70. So yeah, we’re not we’re right off the highway. Not too far. Right in your neighborhood. We know Woodlawn.

Nestor J. Aparicio  27:33

Well, I’ll get over there. North Dickey Ville is I would say and frankly, I didn’t know Dickey listen, I tell molar this all the time and your west side so you can appreciate this to hell, you know about Dundalk. You tell me about you coming to Dundalk. Like, East Side west side. I mean, I didn’t know Dickie Ville. You know, I knew Edmondson village because the bus I got on the number 23. That’s where when Edmondson village is what it said on it. And I’m like, where’s that? My dad said that’s west Baltimore. You have to go over there and stop at the arena. We’re going to so I never went past Howard Street.

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Richard Sheppard Jr.  28:06

Dickie feels like a small little neighborhood. It’s a cute neighborhood really an enclave? Yeah, yeah. It’s awesome. But yeah, they come out and they come out at the they have a neighborhood group that comes out they do a little tournament like the Dickey Ville tournament, they do they come out and have a good time. We’ll

Nestor J. Aparicio  28:24

look to at some point, our paths will cross if we’re gonna get to Morial baseball together before it next time. I bring you on We’ll talk tomorrow. Baseball will still be in first place. We’ll have an eight Man Mark starting.

Richard Sheppard Jr.  28:34

We got the Blue Jays this weekend, right? Yeah, man. I mean, this week, pitching

Nestor J. Aparicio  28:38

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has been everything’s been good new owner splashing Kameen. This is young guy. You can’t appreciate all the suffering a guy my age has done for two years. I don’t know, man. You young guys don’t know anything about winning the championship. So I mean, Luke was born two weeks before they won the last championship in 83. And he always brings that up and I’m like, I

Richard Sheppard Jr.  28:57

didn’t see yours. Look. I was born in 90 So I didn’t see that. Oh, you barely

Nestor J. Aparicio  29:03

saw Brady Anderson Cal Ripken you were 11 when cow retired right? Yeah,

Richard Sheppard Jr.  29:07

I saw the IndyCar Yeah. All

Nestor J. Aparicio  29:09

right. Well, yeah, I got socks older and some guys like you. Richard Shepherd is PGA golf pro he’s over Forest Park go see him all of our friends are classified very appreciative for their sponsorship their partnership to a great great thanks for your ball nothing more positive, more Baltimore positive and going out and being a part of what we’re doing here classic five because they are Baltimore positive like we are. Yes.