Classic 5 Golf pro Ed Miller joins Nestor from Pine Ridge to talk Ryder Cup, the recent politics of golf and how to find your way onto a local course with plenty of room and expertise to elevate your play as the season extends.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
golf, pine ridge, week, ryder cup, year, baseball, weekend, kid, balls, tracer, baltimore, hit, game, pga tour, friends, people, dad, nestor, ravens, tiger
SPEAKERS
Ed Miller, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Looking back at W n s t, Towson, Baltimore, and Baltimore positive celebrating 25 years on the air with our wn st stories of glory of rolling them out. We’re up to number 24 And our barn experiences back in the 90s fine old pictures. People came out to the barn and he realized came after the barn. So we’re sharing that the next week is going to be community and charity series, including a lot of things we’ve done including some golf tournaments back in the day with the Hooters girls as well as lots of other times where we had Hold’em ones for cars and things like that. Mariela crabcake towards that a little bit of a hiatus right now. It’s all presented by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I’ll have these ravens scratch offs to give away I gave a bunch of them away at Coco’s we had a lot of winners last week sat down with Max y sat down with received my sports cartoonist life a friend as well as the great great alternates a the queen of house music here in Baltimore really around the world. Dunbar grad had some fun with her and had a crab cake all of it brought to you by our friends window nation as well as our friends at Jiffy Lube and it’s a big golf week here. I mean, you can’t tell me that with the Ravens loose into the Colts. The Orioles and magic numbers. The Terps are perfect on the football field but Ryder cups sort of comes into this thing sort of like your horse racing and other things it just sort of zoom in on us it How dare anything like preseason hockey interrupt this football season or prime out in Colorado to get in the way of a nice baseball playoff run but Ryder Cup speak to you at Baylor joins us now he is at Pine Ridge where they have those fantastic lessons and ways to get involved with golf to educate me about these 24 golfers doing this Ryder Cup thing. We don’t do it all the time. But we got to stop everything this weekend including let’s see clinching the playoffs. The Ravens going to Cleveland, what’s going on at how are things out on the links man I can be honest with you I haven’t thought about golf in a couple of weeks.
Ed Miller 01:59
Nestor everything is great out here. You know we just survived this monsoon of a weekend and we’re ready to get into some fall golf and talk some Ryder Cup
Nestor Aparicio 02:08
All right well, let’s go here Ryder Cup The last I checked in we’re doing majors we have this fissure between all of this dirty blood money coming out of Saudi Arabia and the Live tour. And last time I got together with you was mortal enemies never gotten together then there’s been a hell I mean good year for the Orioles and interesting and by the way, the URLs don’t have a lease. I want to bring that out. I hate to bring the business to all of this. But the business of golf, the politics or the world the money of the dirty kingdom and the PGA I mean this is a it’s been a wild wild year to be involved in your game not not lessons or leagues or the fun stuff that you do but the professional side of golf but a message here
Ed Miller 02:55
yes sir. It absolutely as and to be honest with you, even though they’ve agreed to, you know, merge and all that stuff. We still don’t know all the details. And we really don’t know where this is gonna go. So I think this live thing is gonna hold over our heads for another year.
Nestor Aparicio 03:10
How does that play into Ryder Cup? I mean, you’re talking to international sport international competitors. I mean, this is the place where it’s supposed to be political country versus country, right? us against them. East versus West. Like all of that. That’s what the Ryder cups. Interest is built on this time of year if they’re trying to pull you away from the Alabama game this weekend, or trying to pull you away from that anything that’s going on this time of year, right?
Ed Miller 03:36
Yes, sir. No, absolutely right and live as actually influenced this Ryder Cup this year. Actually more on the European side than the American side is they got a few stalwarts who were ineligible to play on their Ryder Cup team because they had joined lives. So you know, guys like Sergio and, and Lee Westwood and a couple of their prominent players who have been a part of their last 678 teams will not be playing this year for their team. So we’ll be interesting, as
Nestor Aparicio 04:02
all of this is diminished things right? I mean, it’s made a couple of these guys Mickelson, a few of these guys wealthier beyond the wealth of the wealth of the wealth they already had, taking this money, politically, wherever your your mind is about cutting up journalists into little pieces in embassies. I’m sort of against those kinds of things as a journalist myself, I just want to point that out again. I you know, I there’s no way for this to not be kind of ugly when it comes Ryder Cup time, right? Like maybe you get away with it. And you’d say, well, let’s invite everybody the masters the way we always have or try to play nice for a couple of days or whatever. But then there does come like countries are involved in this. And there’s a major as there should be in any free society protestation to what’s happened here. This hasn’t been good for people like you that will really love the game and just want to see the game be great in the same way that when rival football leagues take players away are, you know, anything sort of college sports has been screwed up to me by the NFL. And I don’t want to I mean, I want these kids to make money. But I can’t say that it’s as interesting to me as it used to be.
Ed Miller 05:10
Yeah, no, you’re right. You’re right. All that money and then these new power conferences and football, I feel like unfortunate. I feel like golf is almost going to head down that same road in 2024. Like I said, I can’t wait till the details come out in this merger and see exactly what’s gonna go on between the live and the PGA Tour. You know, even back to the Ryder Cup this week, it’s gonna be interesting to see how the American team handles Brooks pros. KEPCO, you know, he’s the one live guy that actually got picked and he’s playing on the team and you know, what’s the other dynamics those personalities mess when they get over there this week?
Nestor Aparicio 05:41
What have you noticed on the course this year in regard to me, look man as long as I’ve been doing this my 25th anniversary that was Tiger Woods his first year it was all Tiger it was all Tiger Phil there’s a little feeling in the last five years obviously the tiger is going away and you know, he’s sort of like you know, the Halloween character just keeps coming back to life. But but the game itself and the problems of the politics and the money and the large assets and the international flavor of the game there’s still great golf being played like the greatest golfers in the world and it’s probably more competitive than it’s ever been because there’s there is no jack or Arnold or tiger right at this point or even for you know, for for as long as the shark could do it. He was still the best player even though we didn’t win all the best. But but there is no number one star in golf right now. Right and, and maybe that’s not such a good thing for golf.
Ed Miller 06:39
So going back to the big three of John rom Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, that’s kind of like our new the big three, whether one is the true number one, let’s say we had with Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus. We’re not quite there. But kind of like what you said that kind of answers to the depth of the PGA tour now. Anybody can win on any given weekend? Seems like and yes, while there’s the big three and they tend to dominate, a lot of the headlines are up on the leaderboards. The reality is, there’s a lot of guys that can win any given week on any of these tours, and nobody’s dominating
Nestor Aparicio 07:11
to the point where they’re winning two or three majors in the way that we’ve seen. It, you know, in tennis, and Serena, and this and Tiger and Tom Brady, and you know, I mean the sort of dominant dominant personality that takes over the sport and makes it a must see thing for beat beating the, you know, the new Paul Bunyan, right? There’s no Paul Bunyan and golf at this point. And I think the course is the way it sets up the international part of it, that sort of dominant thing we saw from Tiger, dare I say, we’ll never see it again. But you know, I mean, mahomes is trying to do it. Brady did, right. I mean, there’s always sort of the next thing that comes along. But that’s what made Tiger so unique in this in the modern era is if he didn’t come along, there wouldn’t have been any of that in the same way of if Serena wasn’t there who would have been that dominant? Right?
Ed Miller 08:11
Right. Correct. Yeah, it’s a I have to side with you on that one. I don’t I’m not sure if you’ll ever see anybody who can win a nine tournaments a year wanting to meet I think. I think the way the PGA Tour is set up being so international at this point. Yeah, I just don’t know if you’re gonna see anybody that dominant. Not for a long time.
Nestor Aparicio 08:29
Ed Miller is here he just doesn’t give a Thoughts On Live and PGA and Ryder cups and majors. He’s also add on the course on a daily basis as the PGA pro at Pine Ridge. I thought Forest Park I’m like no, no, no, that’s right. Let’s see a Mount Pleasant that’s where it used to be. I drove past Mount Pleasant the other day down the apparent Parkway and Helen and I was over by Carol Park was my my lottery friends are right across the streets, Carol Park, and I do drive past the reservoir up past our radio station on occasion and visit with you. Leaves are changing. And I would just say this from a weather perspective this year, because I don’t remember it being oppressively hot. We’ve had this sort of long, weird fall where it’s been in the 60s and 70s, little San Diego weather, boy boy your your golf course and even rainstorms. And the Ophelia thing with 550 yard field goals in the game on Sunday, I would think you could have played around a golf on Sunday, other than the slop that was left behind which a guy like you probably wouldn’t mind playing and all that. But it’s been a really good weather here for classic five for you for all the golf courses. And I think for anybody that wants to go and play golf this year, it’s been easier to keep the bikini wax green to this year, hasn’t it?
Ed Miller 09:43
Yes, sir. And actually, as you know, we have had a couple of stretches but nothing that’s lasted more than three or four days and honestly, I believe this weekend may have been the most challenging weekend weather wise we’ve had in the last four months. You’re right. It’s been a great year for golf.
Nestor Aparicio 09:57
Why don’t get people going when they come up and visit with you You if they’re watching Ryder Cup this weekend to get inspired. If there’s somebody like me I mean my back it’s this is the two year anniversary me screw my backup two years ago this weekend was the the weekend Tucker hit the kick in Detroit that I missed my backup. And, you know, getting back into literally the swing of things right? Like I got Rick Dempsey on this week, he’s going to try to talk me to do with fantasy camp baseball with the Euros. I’m like, I can’t throw a party right now. You know, let him run a wiffle ball. Thinking about swinging the golf club but but for people who love golf and people who may have been injured or getting a little older and pick the club up in a while, the first step really is to find somebody like you, right?
Ed Miller 10:37
Yes, sir. No, you know, especially here at Pine Ridge, we are the headquarters of the Baltimore Golf Academy. You want to keep come see myself one of my assistants or even Coach Jay, the head of our golf academy, and we will get you on the right path to either improving or getting you back into golf if you’re coming off of an injury. Because obviously, we don’t want you to hurt yourself. You know, we want you to
Nestor Aparicio 10:58
guys get me going academy that sounds too big league for me. I don’t feel like I’m ready for that kind of. I’m not ready. My parents tried to put me at Academy out of McDonough when I was a kid. I’m like, no, no, I’m going to Dundalk. You know what I mean? Academy tell me what the academy is about. I love that.
Ed Miller 11:14
Well, we call it the Golf Academy. And it’s really you know, we have coach J, who’s our head instructor, and we have four or five instructors under and we just run classes all year long for juniors, adults, beginners accomplished. We’re really good at keeping it casual for the new golfer, making sure that you learn but most important, making sure it’s fun, because that’s why we want you to play golf. Golf can be fun. And you know, once we get you hooked you’re in, that’s usually the way it works. So my
Nestor Aparicio 11:42
son turned 39 over the weekend. And it was the 50th anniversary of my first Colts game was Saturday, St. Joe Nemeth 1973. So I’ve been a little wistful and all this and I found old pictures of my kid, right? So I won’t embarrass him a little bit, show some funny pictures of him running around in diapers. And you know, me being a 15 year old parent with him on my lap, right? So I sheroes. And I started thinking about like, things we did that were fun. And I found a picture of us from hitting golf balls over on cane street behind Patterson High School, when they first put the, the screens in over there. And we get over there for five bucks with a bucket of balls. And my kid loves shooting baskets and throwing football and baseball me his last name is Aparicio he likes sports, right? Not as much as a 39 year old, sort of a fan of sitting in the upper deck, he did all of that, right? So that’s half the reason the stadiums empty. The other hand, people like Chad steel, but for me, that hitting the ball with my kid, that experience of going out, and just watching him whacking and trying to tell him how to hold his arm the right way. And like not hit it like a baseball bat, right? Like all the things that norm taught me, you know, back in the 90s about, you know, hold that like, so we go to do that. And then I think about that experience today. If I were come up or I’ve been to Pine Ridge, and I see what computers do, and how a young person like my kid that just, you know he’s not he was 1213 he had all this energy. I just wanted to take them out and spend 1520 bucks and let him get better bid on something. It wasn’t uh uh, you know what, maybe they do sledgehammers now. And they have all of this throwing knives all day. How about a golf club and a bucket of balls, kid, right? Come to Pine Ridge with that. Like my wife, my wife loves to play golf. She’s not. But But like, if she wants to get better at it, and she want to come up there and get a bucket of balls with her sister on a weekend hit the ball. It’s a different kind of thing now with video and with getting better at it, because you can probably get better at it in the first hour. Pretty quickly. Sir, with the tools you have now that aren’t just I’m gonna go get a bucket of balls and whack.
Ed Miller 13:55
Correct? Correct. Now, obviously, for the small percentage that is still available. If you don’t want the technology, you can still hit bucket of balls. But you’re absolutely right with the top tracer up here. It just gives you a lot of information and feedback that can make improvement a lot quicker, as well as keeping the younger golfers entertained are more into their practice. Because there are a ton of games involved with this toptracer system. It’s not always about practice, but it’s a way to help make practice fun. And that’s one of the things that we’re starting to see with the younger generation. They definitely have fun with that they have contests with each other and you can actually have a contest with a friend who’s in a different state if they’re at a top tracer facility. So it’s uh, that part has been pretty neat, pretty unique. And you know, going back to the Father Son thing, that’s kind of how I started with my dad kind of similar stories that what you’re talking about so I think my dad used to want to wear me out so I could take a nap and being here at Pine Ridge, I still see a good amount of that parents and kids coming out whacking balls. And you know getting future golfers involved.
Nestor Aparicio 14:54
Well, you know, I’m a baseball guy, right baseball family hit a baseball, play baseball. I can’t Dad didn’t play golf. My dad played basketball. He played baseball. My dad didn’t play soccer, right. So I didn’t play soccer when I was a kid. My dad box so you know, I had boxing gloves when I was a kid. But no My dad grew up in in the 20s and 30s My father was much older than me. But the baseball thing that he that my dad was my dad lost his son in 1969. I was sort of replacement child my dad was always the guy that had five helmets the bag the bats the balls, the catcher’s equipment in the in the in our in our spare little personal storage facility we shed that we had in our backyard and I think about like him cart and all that out. I was the bad boy when I was 345 years old. And and sitting out what a baseball practice where the kid and right fields picking daisies and nobody plays and nobody moves a baseball practice. And then I think about like a golf where you can meet a ball boop, boop, boop, I just get to do things. It’s like pod pod and Ocean City. I just have to wait to do that when I was a kid and loved it. When I was a kid playing puppet. There is something about like if you’re coming out the golf that you’re pulling. You can make it fun pretty quick. Oh yeah. Here’s a club. You know, here’s top tracer. We can make this fun for you and you can get better Radek quickly that I could see that being a little bit more than my dad pulling all this stuff out of the shed and going up and hitting fungos and ground balls because baseball practice was not fun dude, especially not in March it was cold as hell it was not
Ed Miller 16:26
right here and that’s you know, nobody ever likes to practice so you know if
Nestor Aparicio 16:31
this is Allen Iverson
Ed Miller 16:34
we got to make it as fun as we can otherwise you know who wants to practice You’re right. Look I’m still
Nestor Aparicio 16:39
practicing radio here trying to get it right give everybody your digits tell buddy how to find you Ed Miller’s here awesome classic five Tom comes on. Sometimes we get the guys from all over the place with Ryder Cup coming up this week. I want to make everybody aware that dad the ravens are playing games sometimes better than others yay the Orioles are gonna get a buy in a but you can still play golf and it’s readily available and you don’t need to be countrycode you don’t need to go to the academy to play golf right and you can just come out and play right
Ed Miller 17:08
yes sir. No, no please come visit us you know Pine Ridge is just one of five you can always visit us on classic five golf.com Come out and get some lessons play golf have fun go to the driving range and remember this you can get your golf round done and still be home in time to support your Orioles you know they don’t usually for about seven o’clock at night so plenty of time to go golf get your exercise and and go home and still tear the home team on
Nestor Aparicio 17:33
I had occasion this week to book and this will tell you to kind of company your keep and add okay because you know Tom calls you in the maroon pa gotta go home Nestor alright. It’s not the Al but I mean, he’ll be fun, but nobody will listen. Rick Dempsey, I reached him over the weekend to come on. And you know, when you’re booking Rick Dempsey on the show to talk about fantasy camp and my old friend Jay Harris, and you know, the baseball academy that he has down to Columbia now, I book Rick on he’s like, Hey, I got t times. Yeah, I got we got to work that we got to work the show and he’s out in California got to work the show in between. When you’re the super are World Series MVP, you play golf is what you do. Play a pillock this week, I got to work around his teeth. Well, Marvin Lewis Margaret, I got to do what between t times so that’s where I am this time of year. Because all you knuckleheads gotta get all of this in before the leaves change in the weather changes. I mean, it’s just it’s right. I mean, it’s just like the last weekend at the beach for people like me that like the beach, right?
Ed Miller 18:32
Yes, sir. This is like our home stretch. You know, obviously we have some people that are play all year round, but if you like that, over 60 We’re starting to get to that time. So does that leave change? Yeah, it’s a it’s cold.
Nestor Aparicio 18:45
Everything that happens and speak to me if I’m wrong about this. I had Max Weiss on from Baltimore magazine. She’s the editor in chief for SIG came on. She did a whole essay on Oriole bandwagon fans and whether how invited are they? You know what I mean? How much are we going to deal with these these bandwagon fans and whatnot? I would think every spring somebody comes out and says add Mr. Miller teach me golf March April by May they discovered girls or boys or the summer or the beach or the Orioles or playoff tickets or whatever their thing is September and October. It’s just guys like you and gals like you Right? Like it’s the people that love golf. There’s more availability, there’s many it’s, it’s a it’s a better time to play than spring when it’s a little more like everybody in the gym Planet Fitness today after January 2, right? Like this time of the year you sort of weeded out. It’s just a series people.
Ed Miller 19:42
There’s definitely some truth to that for sure. And, you know, usually the golf courses are in great state this time of year too. So it kind of benefits the diehards that kind of stick through it all year round. So it’s kind of like our bonus.
Nestor Aparicio 19:54
We got the Pine Ridge you’ll find the top tracer you’ll find beautifully beautiful greens Up in the woods and the leaves changing and and suburbia but you can hit the Carroll park you didn’t mount pleasure you get hit in Forest Park. I’ll find your way around the beltway classic five. I forgot one. Which one did I forget?
Ed Miller 20:14
Would you say Mount Pleasant Pine Ridge arrow, Clifton?
Nestor Aparicio 20:18
I forgot to lifting. Philly cocoas last week I can I forget Clifton Park. I was always sitting in it. Alright, so there you have the classic five, find the classic five golf bind the Ryder Cup this weekend. Edie did you get playoff tickets?
Ed Miller 20:34
No, I did not. All right.
Nestor Aparicio 20:35
All right. Well, I’ll be watching the game up at the Hollywood casino in parallel before it’s all over with or over Coco’s or Pappus or somewhere good. Good. Costas will be somewhere good for these playoff games. Looks at the ballpark all week for clinch, miss Lucas and Owings Mills, because they don’t let me in any more for Cleveland. I did have some questions in the aftermath is Sunday as you can well imagine. My column now is now up at the bottom. We’re positive columnists on the power of three and three seconds at the two minute warning and three points that happen one way or another. And the Orioles magic number that began the week three, we’re celebrating 25 years here courtesy of our friends carry your wellness and foreign data and 25 stories of glory and time will not dim the glory of your deeds and helping us keep wn st alive. No one listens. everyone hears I’m Nestor, we are wn St. am 1570, Towson Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive
