1200 Rounds, 2 Balls, Fused Elbow = Calvin Peete
E14

1200 Rounds, 2 Balls, Fused Elbow = Calvin Peete

So Panda, the craziest stat in golf.

We brought it up on our last episode.

In my opinion, that's 1,200 rounds, only hitting one ball out of bounds.

Can you tell me who did that?

That is Calvin Peet.

Yes, Calvin Peet is correct.

So thank you.

So this is gonna be a little bit different of an episode.

We're gonna be doing a deep dive on Calvin Peet.

And we've started doing some of these really because

There's times that we'll bring up some interesting stuff on the show.

We did it on Sam Snead because he played chicks for money.

I thought that was really interesting.

So we did a deep dive on that.

And Calvin Pete, when I read this stat, shout out to Lou Stagner, golf stat pro.

Like when I read that stat, I was blown away because I think that could be possibly one of the most interesting stats ever in golf.

I had to learn more about this guy.

And like, it's a fascinating story.

He's the most accurate golfer potentially in the history of golf.

Embarrassingly, I didn't really know much

We're going to dive into his story, so let's kick it off.

Welcome to another episode of Did I Tell You About My Albatross?

I'm your host, Albie.

This is the goth podcast for honest degenerates.

It's like teeing up with your favorite foursome every week and diving into the best stories in and around goth.

You guys ready to tee off?

Let's go!

So let's just start, Panda, with

Let's just start with his with his beginning.

So our boy Calvin grew up in Detroit, Michigan.

All right.

Again, in kind of a rural.

That's not rural.

That'd be that'd be more urban, rural Detroit.

That would be more urban.

Yeah, I mean, the guy has like, his story is just unconventional right from the beginning, right?

Born in Detroit, Michigan on July 18th, 1943 to Irena and Dennis Beat, a Detroit factory auto worker.

He was raised in Detroit.

His dad actually married twice, so he actually had 19 children.

He came from a family of 19 kids.

Hella kids.

Dude, at age 12, Pete fell from a cherry tree near his grandmother's house in Haiti, Haiti, Missouri.

Surgeons did repair the fractures, but the elbow joint remained permanently fused.

He called himself the Ugly Duckling.

That was his self-named nickname, the Ugly Duckling.

But he said, didn't the Ugly Duckling grow into a beautiful swan?

That's a spirit animal.

That is a spirit animal.

Which one, the Ugly Duckling or the swan?

I mean, the swan is probably more majestic.

Yeah, we're going with the swan on Calvin.

He couldn't do heavy or rough work because of a bent left arm, right?

That's the arm that turned him into the beautiful swan.

The doctor said that if he broke it, again, the arm might have to be amputated.

So Pete could never fully straighten his arm.

For several years, Panda, he actually supported himself by selling clothes, watches, this is like around age 15, selling clothes, watches, jewelry, stereos, and other wares to migrant farm workers up and down the East Coast, from areas from Florida to Rochester, New York.

He had a little business going, dude.

Hustling.

Yeah, he was hustling.

When he first picked up a golf club, take a guess on where.

I can see it, so it says Rochester.

Good guess.

In 1966 at the age of 23.

23 is old for golf for sure.

To pick up golf and then to win the players championship, that's pretty fucking old.

Is there another example of that?

That even alone is fascinating to me.

There's a couple others who took up golf real, real late.

One prominent one, a guy who still plays.

This will be good to showcase my knowledge.

is this guy who's now on the Champions Tour, but he was on the Asian Tour for forever.

His name's Thongchai JD.

Wow.

All right, that's it.

Okay.

He's from Thailand, and he was like in the military, and he was like a fucking paratrooper until he was like 30.

Okay.

And he actually like won quite a few times on the Asian Tour, and now he's on the Champions Tour.

Now, does he... Oh, so he plays on the Champions Tour over here.

Yeah.

We got to do a deep dive on just the Asian Tour, because we've got... Who's our other guy that we love so much?

The dude that twirls around when he makes a putt?

Oh, Ho Sung Choi.

so much.

He's the best.

Yeah.

That's coming.

Everyone stay tuned.

Cause that guy's one of my favorites.

So he had sort of like a deformity almost in one of his arms.

Correct?

Yeah.

His left arm never really set and he couldn't extend it.

So he like couldn't get his left arm straight.

It was kind of bent that helped him hit it straight.

When you got like a permanent something to like, you just swing the same way.

And like, I think his full philosophy of why it worked is that he just did the same thing 80 billion times.

Like the anti you.

He had one swing thought like for his whole fucking life.

And he just mastered it.

He just did it.

That's silly.

And he never, I mean, he only became a... He didn't dick around.

He didn't buy a training aid.

Like, he just whacked balls.

If he was having a bad day, if he was having a good day, he just hit them balls.

Yeah.

And I mean, left arm, you had it really fucking straight.

It's just crazy, dude.

I cannot, I still can't get over the fact he'd started so late.

If you're gonna become the best at something, you gotta be obsessed with it, which he did.

So he'd practice day and night.

He'd have floodlights outside practicing at night.

He also took a night job managing apartments in Fort Lauderdale.

So he'd have really more time for golf.

And in 71,

It happened.

He became a professional golfer, Panda.

And in 75, he completed the PGA Tour Q school.

You kind of turned me into this golf nerd, slowly but surely.

I knew what Q-Skool was.

What's the name of the book that you recommended?

I just downloaded and listened to it.

It's really good.

It is Tales from Q-Skool by John Feinstein.

We'll put the link in the description.

I highly recommend it.

I was captivated.

The stories coming out of Q-Skool and how close a lot of these guys get and like the nightmarish tales.

There's a chapter in there called the Lake Javita Blues.

And it's all these stories related to Lake Javita and all these people falling short.

I didn't realize that like all the players you see on tour

Most of them had to come up through QSchool.

Eventually, you're probably going to have to go to QSchool.

Like, if you're really, really good in college, then you can get a bunch of sponsors exemptions.

And if you can parlay that into just playing well, because if you finish in the top 10, you get to play the next week, or you use up all your sponsors events, sponsors invites, and you like make enough FedExCup points or money, then you can just become a PGA Tour member.

So that's like Tiger Woods,

Jordan Spieth, like Joaquin Neiman, like those guys just did it that way.

They just had one chance or like a couple sponsors invites and they just parlayed that into playing there full time.

Pretty much everyone else had to go to some sort of a Q school or they just made their way up for the Corn Fairy Tour, which used to be the web.com, which used to be the Nationwide, which used to be so-and-so-and-so.

But that's always been the feeder tour to the BGA Tour.

Yeah.

I mean, and it's crazy that, like, you know, even in the book, and the book's a little dated, like, I mean, I think it came out in what, the early, what was like 2006?

Yeah, it's not super, super recent, but it's still good.

Yeah, no, it's great.

I mean, the names are a little different.

The Q School then was a lot cooler too, because you could go directly to the PGA Tour.

You can now do that again this year, but they only allowed five.

You used to just be able to go, like, off the street to the PGA Tour if you obviously got through, like, all the stages of Q School and stuff, which is incredibly hard, but it was possible.

That's no longer possible.

So what do you mean?

Except it is.

All right.

I'm a little.

He used to only get to the corn fairy tour from Q school.

Oh, I didn't like the last few years.

It used to be.

You go right to the tour.

It's evolved a lot.

The PGA tour.

So now it's like the forties, but now it has now, now you, you graduate to the final stages of Q school.

Isn't it the top 20 to go on tour?

No, it's just five this year.

Oh my God.

Only five people after you go through five people after you go through all of that.

Yes.

Five.

A lot of people have to go back to Q school to win it.

So now the fact that there's only five spots that go on the tour is just crazy to me.

Yeah.

That's also, we could do a lot of deep dives on Q school itself.

Yeah.

That's how champions tour Q school.

So like a lot of times people

And like I've even given lessons to people who are like old delusional guys who are like, I'm going to get really good when I'm like 48, 49 and get on that champion's tour.

And that's actually tougher to get on.

That's also just five.

Jesus.

So like, that's actually the hardest one to probably get through because they just allow zero fucking cards to the actual champion's tour.

So how do you get it?

How do you get into it?

You go to Q school.

Well, you can Monday qualify in.

And then when you just get old enough, the champions tour, it sends you an invite.

If you meet their certifications of like however many wins or career money.

Okay.

And then you're just on that tour, but it's really difficult for you to just get there if you're not already on the PJ tour and just get old.

Wow.

And so that's how our boy Calvin found his way into, onto the PGA.

So maybe, I mean, obviously it was a little different back then.

And then he actually got his first victory in 1979.

So it took him four years.

And that was the Greater Milwaukee.

It was the Greater Milwaukee Open.

And that was in 1982.

He had four PGA Tour wins.

He continued a winning streak with two wins in 1983.

one in 84, two in 85, including the Tournament Players Championship, which is the TPC as we know it, and two in 1986, among the others, were the Texas Open, shout out Texas, you love Texas, and also the Phoenix Open.

Let me read off some stats here.

So he was the leader in driving accuracy on the PGA Tour.

for, take a guess on how many years.

Was it like 10?

Yes, it was 10 years, of course.

Ding, ding, ding, ding.

Our resident, our resident Ace Panda nailed it.

So PGA Tour for 10 straight years.

This is the crazy part, 10 straight years from 81 to 90.

I mean, just incredible.

He also played on how many Ryder Cup teams?

Two.

Yeah, 83 and 85.

He won the Varden Trophy for the lowest scoring average in 84.

He was in the top 10 of the official world golf ranking for several weeks when they debuted it in 1986.

He also liked

One, if you want to pull up the stats, he was also really high in terms of the greens in regulation for that time period as well.

He didn't really just hit drivers straight.

He hit fucking everything really fucking straight.

You're totally on point, Panda.

He won that 1981, 1982, 1983.

He had a good stretch there.

He was not only the most accurate driver, but he was also... How shitty of a putter was he?

Yeah, exactly.

Great question.

So how do I look that up?

It's probably way down the list.

It's putting statistics.

Yeah.

I guess I didn't pull that up.

Yeah.

He's gotta be, I mean, he's gotta be dead.

I would think so.

I mean, I don't know.

I mean, it's a great question.

Cause it's like, no, he didn't hit it far.

Right?

Like, okay.

But if you lead, but that's kind of, it doesn't matter because if you're also like leading in greens and regulation, like it doesn't really matter if he was first in driving accuracy and like

180th and how many times he hit the green.

The putting goes back to 1987.

He was 153rd in putting average out of 180.

Wow.

Yeah, there's your issue.

So he was a bad putter.

That just sucks.

He still won 12 times.

Yeah.

Probably his most noteworthy victory was what the, he won a player's championship.

Yeah.

I mean, I, I think that's, yeah, I would, I would agree.

That was, I'm looking at the list here.

Um, that was probably the best one for sure.

Um, no majors.

I mean, I guess he probably played in a bunch, right?

probably played in a bunch, but no career major victories for Mr. Pete.

Yeah.

While he never won one of golf's four majors, the masters, the U S open, the PJ championship in the British open.

He did win the 1985 players championship was a member of two Ryder cup teams in 84 and beat Jack Nicholas to capture the Varden trophy.

Like we'd mentioned before.

Pete earned his high school equivalency.

So to be eligible for a us Ryder cup team position.

Wow.

So he couldn't, that's interesting.

So we knew that he had become a Ryder cup

um, player, but he couldn't even join the team until he had his high school equivalency.

So that's interesting.

And some archaic ass law to keep him not on the team.

You think that fuck you all go back to school then bitch.

Yeah.

And then he got his, he got his degree.

He was like, look, here it is.

Here's the equivalency of going to school.

And I like to play on the Ryder cup and they're like, okay, come on.

Did he win?

Do you know anything about that?

I don't know the outcome of the 83 and 85 Ryder Cup off the top of my head, but I can get back to you on that.

Okay, I'm shocked.

In 86, Pete's back and shoulder problems slowed him down.

Yeah, I mean, that happens.

He earned over 2.3 million on a PGA Tour through 1993 at age 51.

He started competing on the Senior Tour.

This is where I saw him.

I started seeing him on the Senior Tour, but he retired from golf in 2001.

So, and then he, he was the father, this says five, but really we've read seven.

So I don't know.

I don't know what's going on with that.

Their parents had two daughters, Aisha and Aaliyah, who get a lot, like they seem to be the only kids that people talk about maybe because they're into golf.

They were born in 96, 93.

And then he passed away in 2015 at age 71.

What a man, what a story, Calvin Peete.

Calvin P, the most accurate, potentially, is that, is he the most accurate golfer in golf?

I think that we're gonna give him the record.

I think you have to, right?

I mean, there's- If we're gonna award Calvin under the gun, give it to Calvin in his prime.

Congrats, Calvin.

You win.

You win from the Did I Tell You About My Albatross.

We're gonna award you the most accurate player in golf.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

I mean, the 1,200 rounds to me with only one ball going out of bounds, I just think it's just crazy to me, but I don't know.

That's insanity.

No, that's a unit right there.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know of a better, like a crazier stat to me.

I wish I had how far he drove it.

I got you, buddy.

Now, let me ask you this, so what, who else was he, who were his, like, during that time, like 80s and 90s, well, really just between 1980 and 1990, who were the top golfers?

Definitely Tom Watson.

I mean, that was the tail end of Nicholas.

You had some player.

You had some Arnie.

Lee Trevino?

Yeah, you had Lee Trevino.

Also didn't take up golf until very late in life.

Lee Trevino.

Lee Trevino is one of my favorites.

All right.

Here, I got you here, bud.

I got you.

Papa's got you.

So 10 was Nick Faldo.

Tom Kite was number nine.

Lady's Face.

Yep.

Let's see.

We got Larry Nelson was number eight.

We got good old Jack Nicklaus at number seven.

Yeah.

It's only won five tournaments though.

Only won five of those in the eighties.

He's more of a seventies guy, huh?

Uh, Lanny Watkins.

Yep.

Lanny could move it.

Lanny was fucking stick.

We got Greg Norman.

I didn't realize how many tournaments Greg Norman had won.

He won like 70 some tournaments, didn't he?

That's pretty good.

Like not PGA- Greg Norman?

Yeah, he didn't win, not PGA tournaments, but like he won 70 tournaments.

Total.

Yeah, total.

Roberto DiVincenzo won like a hundred and something.

Really?

Yeah.

And then didn't win a masters because he signed his scorecard wrong.

No way.

Are you serious?

Yeah.

Roberto DiVincenzo.

Oh my God.

That's terrible.

I've never even heard of that guy.

Who the fuck is- Because he signed a wrong scorecard and they gave the masters to somebody else.

But yeah, he won 106 times.

Wow, that's, I don't understand, because that's more than Tiger, that's more than Sneed?

I mean, some of them were on like the, what is now the Latin America tour.

Oh, I see, okay.

He was from Argentina or Chile or something, and he just fucking dominated down there for forever.

Wow, why did he do the PGA?

Like, well into his 60s.

Why didn't he come to the PGA?

He just didn't want to.

He did, and he won a shit ton of tournaments here too.

Oh, he did?

Yeah.

Wow, I feel so stupid.

Like, I feel like I should know that guy.

What about Curtis Strange coming in at number three?

We got Seve Ballesteros.

Shepard calls him Steve.

I got some, I got some information on how far does he hit it?

Okay.

How far does Calvin Pete hit the ball?

The 19, I found the driving distance for 1988.

So he was definitely playing well then.

He ranked 162 out of 185.

Wow.

at 254.9 yards.

Wow.

Average.

So different time, obviously.

The PGA Tour average for that year was 263.

Wow.

But like they got fucking wooden clubs and stuff, obviously.

Exactly.

So yeah, towards the bottom in distance, towards the top in accuracy, just like you.

I would love to have you break down this dude's swing here.

So let's just, if you don't mind, let me pull this up on the big screen here.

They already drew the lines and everything for you, dude.

Yeah, the camera angle on the right's a little tough, but I'll get there if you move your skull.

If I move my skull?

Okay.

All right.

You want me to technically break this down?

I would love to.

Okay.

Yeah.

So first thing I noticed, no divot there.

That's sick.

All right.

He kind of, that's a tough angle.

He's got a bent arm, dude.

No shit.

I mean, I guess that's the whole point.

He's got a crooked arm.

I mean, he kind of flails at it at the end.

He takes it way kind of in to start and then up, and then he kind of hits it almost up, like picks it off the fucking turf.

Beautiful, masterful.

Takes it inside, reroutes it up, gets vertical there, shallows on the way down, flings a fucking draw to five feet.

That's what we just saw there, ladies and gentlemen.

From the other angle, what do we got here?

Give me that side.

Which side?

This one here?

Yes, old line boy over there.

Yes, there you go.

He's putting it in there.

All right, we're putting Calvin in the box.

We got a head box and we got a hip box.

This is where I really fail.

This is where I fall apart.

From this angle?

Well, I just slide.

I'm a slider.

Let's see if he slides.

He slides into it, I bet.

He's a slider.

He's a slider.

Look at that.

That is straight up, dude.

Then, whabam.

That's a little fjerky.

Yes, exits left.

Once again, camera angle is a little tough, but swipe at the end.

All right, gets away from it.

Loads into the right side.

I'm going to guess he's a head really still kind of guy.

Is he?

You think so?

That's going to be my prediction.

All right, let's see.

Let's see what he does.

It's a little bit away.

He's got that crooked arm.

Yeah, bent left arm.

Sets it up at the top, goes in and then up.

And then just takes a one-way ticket to shallow town right about here Gets that club going straight fucking vertical Yeah, we're 78.

We're 77 degrees right there.

Now.

He's just gonna drop it in the old slaughter ruski Yeah, look at him crooked arm and all let's see what he does here Get it Calvin.

He's gonna reroute get shallow that shafts gonna come like right through his shoulder and

What are they doing there?

He's just showing the four to five in technical terms.

Wow.

Four, five.

Wow, there it is.

Coming in at six.

He's going to throw it.

His foot's completely, look at his back foot.

Yes, it's a good move.

Then right there, he's just, now he's in a good spot.

He just kind of picks it.

He picks it.

He's not.

He's a picker.

He's a flipper.

It's probably a long iron.

Like if you're, if you're hitting anything more than a six, it's cool.

If you don't take a divot, if you're not taking divots with like nine iron, then we got a problem, but that's fine.

It looks like something longer.

That's five or six.

Yeah.

Look at him sway though.

Look at his swag.

Fuck.

Yeah.

Wow.

He's swaying.

All right.

You got to sway forward, everybody.

I thought that was my problem.

You were telling me this week that I was not.

We talked about one thing this week.

Yeah.

None of it was sways.

Okay.

All right.

You, if you would sway forward, that would be okay.

You sway diagonal and your nuts get closer to the ball.

Let's just real quick.

Watch the 30 yard chip from him.

Look how old he is here.

Look at, he's still looking good though.

I mean, this is a 30 yard chip with Calvin.

I just saw something on leecher vino today.

He was saying the same thing the same ball position like a lot of amateur players.

They don't know how to hit the ball.

They're not making good contact.

He was like, hey, just move the ball around in your in your stance and you'll be able to hit opposition is very important.

All right.

Um, and unfortunately, so then shortly after, actually shortly after this video, sadly, he, uh, her boy Calvin passed away.

He got, got the cancer.

He got pancreatic lung cancer.

I mean, a couple of different articles said different things, so I don't know which one, but it looked like he got cancer, unfortunately, and passed away.

Um,

but it's kind of sad, like I know like personal life, he had seven kids, looks like he was married to, do you remember her name?

Pepper.

Pepper, Pepper Pete, great name.

Great name.

Hot sauce.

Strong name.

Pepper Pete, that sounds like a hot sauce if I've ever heard of it, like I would absolutely down some Pepper Pete.

but she seems pretty nice.

She actually did some volunteer work with the first tee.

Like I mentioned, one of his daughters, it sounds like Aisha and Aaliyah were both involved in golf.

Quotes.

If it wasn't for golf, I'd probably still be peddling jewelry or be in the sugar mill somewhere.

Interesting.

So he's able to get out of there.

Now that is, those are the only quotes from Pete.

Come on, man.

Do we have quotes from Pepper?

Pepper have an opinion.

Pepper and him did not get along.

They actually got a divorce.

And that's one of the sad things about it.

The money was going to come and go between a wife and the IRS.

The thrill of beating the best field in golf is really what will always stay with me.

Wow.

Okay.

Wow.

That was a pretty strong quote.

The money was going to come and go between a wife and the IRS.

The thrill of beating the best field in golf is always what stayed with me.

Here we go.

12, top 12, top 12 Calvin Pete quotes.

Here we go.

The same thing.

Yeah.

The money was going to come and go.

Number two, I have a beer belly.

This, that does not sound like that's his, that is not his.

That is not Calvin Pete.

You're like Ron Burgundy.

You'll read anything that's on the screen.

Wow.

Well, it says Calvin Pete quotes.

Maybe it's a different Calvin Pete.

Yeah.

Man, there's just nothing.

No, that's him.

Yeah, but I mean, it's not... That's why he needs a deep dive.

There's nothing.

There's really not much going on.

We're trying our own thing.

Can you tell me about Mo Norman?

Is that who you want to go next?

We can either go Mo Norman, or we can go Harry Cooper, or we could go... Harry Cooper might be tough.

Yeah.

And I suggest one that you can do a rabbit hole.

Let's do it.

Let me just... I'll give you a guy, I'll give you some stats, and then I'll...

You can pivot.

Okay, yeah, do that.

Okay, his name's Mac O'Grady.

Mac O'Grady, is that M-A-C-K?

No, M-A-C.

Damn, see, I like that C. I don't like the K. He's still alive.

Mac O'Brady.

O'Grady.

O'Grady.

O'Grady.

Ooh, even better.

He's still alive.

He went to Q school like a bazillion times.

Did he?

And he's full-blown fucking crazy.

What do you mean?

Like he's a psycho.

Tell me, tell me more.

He only plays with, he still plays today.

He still, he still goes to Q school at 72.

Does he?

Yes.

He only plays wooden clubs still.

Yes.

He tried to, Oh, I love this guy.

He tried to say that, well, I'm a professional golfer right-handed, but I should be able to play amateur tournaments left-handed.

And they said no and they like wanted to play on the LPGA tour and all sorts of crazy.

Oh, he's ambidextrous.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

He's a right handed player.

He's ambidextrous.

He can also play left handed at scratch level.

Wow.

That's that's impressive.

Holy cow.

Yeah, I can read you this whole article.

Do it.

Do it right now.

It's all in there.

Oh, and he's still alive and he's like a recluse.

Like you can get a lesson from him, but like, oh, he might not show up.

Oh, we're totally getting a lesson from him.

Yeah.

Like he still has a school in California.

Yeah.

Palm Springs.

It says right here.

Wow.

You can still talk to this guy, but he's full blown fucking crazy.

And like, I've talked to people who like worked for him and stuff.

And they're like, he's a fucking psycho.

Like he'll just fire people because he just wants to.

And like, is this complete, complete, complete psycho.

So he said, and he like started off as a teacher.

He just grinded and he got on the PGA tour.

I believe he did win once he won.

Oh, he won on the PGA tour.

I believe he has one row right there.

Yeah.

Bob hope.

Oh yeah.

I know he won twice.

Yeah.

It says right here, Bob.

Uh, let's see.

He won twice.

It's the cannon Sammy Davis, jr.

Greater Hartford open and the tournament of champions.

The M-O-N-Y tournament of champions over Roger Maltby and Rick fear.

That was a stout.

That sounds like a stout group of players there.

Like that was a tough competition.

I mean, I did probably was, I don't even know when, when was that?

Like, so he's still doing this.

It's 1984.

Yeah, no, he still goes to Q school, but to get on a PGA tour.

Yes.

What with wooden clubs.

Does he even come close?

No, but he still tries.

Anything is possible.

Anything is possible here.

Did I tell you about Malibu trust, including an Albatross to win a golf tournament?

As we all know.

Yeah.

So let's, I mean, look at this guy.

He got cut at the PGA championship a bunch 1984, 85, 86, 87, 88.

Yeah.

But he has a T nine in the 1987 U S open.

Yeah.

He played the masters too.

How do you get into the masters?

Cause he won.

He won those two times, huh?

Yeah.

That'll get you in there.

Yeah, right there.

You're right.

It's weird.

Cause it says you're right.

The M O N Y turned the money tournament, his swing to fucking, we got to look at his disgusting.

What do you mean?

Like he made like a, yeah, he made, he has like a whole system of like how you should hit a golf ball.

And it's got like 17,000 different variants.

Well, it said, it said, um,

Yeah, where'd I see that?

I just saw that.

It said there was a swing thing.

I'm like, oh, I probably need this.

Yeah, he calls it Mo Rad.

And it's like how your body moves.

Really?

Yeah.

Oh, I love this guy.

All right.

We got to get more info on this guy.

We got to get a lesson from him in Palm Springs.

I got to see a swing right, right away.

For all the folks on YouTube, hop on right now or just stay tuned if you're already there.

Let's just take a look here.

Let's just take a look here.

I'm so excited.

Oh my God, I'm so excited.

Magic move of the greats.

I don't know what this is, but is that him?

Yeah.

Oh, he even looks cool.

Dude, look at that outfit.

Oh my God, this guy's amazing.

So what's so great about his swing?

Watch it.

Okay.

That's inside.

That's okay.

You would yell at me if I did that?

No, I wouldn't.

Yeah, that's definitely, that's how I swung before you started working on me.

It's behind your hip.

Wow.

So that's pretty good right there, huh?

Yeah.

He says, Oh, this guy here says, I recommend shout out to Wayne, to Francisco, the golf learning center.

You know who you are, uh, on his YouTube channel.

This is recently a bunch of max was up with the Lincoln, the YouTube, but, uh, it says recently a bunch of max swings were posted on YouTube and I encourage everyone to check it out and see how his action has changed over time.

It was always a great swing and his ball striking abilities are legendary.

Yeah.

Apparently like he just striped everything.

Wow.

But it was also like a really bad putter.

Wow.

Like to the point of he tried to get it abolished.

I think it's so funny plays with wooden clubs still and he still shows a big Q school.

That's crazy to me.

And he's ambidextrous.

That's just great.

Um, yeah, he has previously attempted to gain status as an amateur lefty and a pro righty.

Oh, Grady once tried to enter the Chrysler team championship as both halves of the same team.

He would have played one ball left-handed and the other right-handed.

I love it.

I love it.

My father-in-law was telling me like we, there's a guy in Tampa.

I don't remember his name, but he's good friends with the guy that him and his brother won the lefty righty tournament.

And I think that's what that is.

The Chrysler team championships gotta be, um,

Oh, listen to this, in the 1984 USF and G Classic, O'Grady got into an altercation with a female tournament volunteer.

Eventually, O'Grady was fined $500 for it, and the fine was taken out of his winnings at the 1985 Bob Hope Desert Classic.

O'Grady soon afterwards began a series of verbal attacks against tour commissioner Dean Beeman.

At one point, O'Grady said, Dean Beeman is a thief with a capital T.

He was fined $5,000 and made to serve a six-event suspension in late 86 for conduct unbecoming of a professional golfer.

Five years after he left the tour, O'Grady called a crackdown on beta blockers.

What does that mean?

O'Grady saying, of the top 30 players worldwide, I would be surprised if less than seven stepped to the first tee each week without the use of beta blockers to calm their nerves.

So interesting, so he called people drug addicts and fucking, I love this guy.

This guy's great.

This guy's awesome.

We need more people like him.

The main focus of his career now is teaching the game of golf.

You're right, so he's got, now I don't know if he still does, but this says recent years, and this seems pretty recent, Mack O'Grady Golf Schools and lives in Palm Springs, California.

And it's really concepts that were influenced by the Homer Kelly's book,

The golfing machine.

Do you know anything about that?

I do.

The golfing machine and Homer Kelly is like... Are we recording this?

Yeah.

Is that okay?

Yeah.

The golfing machine and Homer Kelly.

Homer Kelly was like a airplane something, like an airplane scientist, if that's a thing.

Oh, was he really?

Airplane engineer.

So he's just really smart.

So he was like, how should you swing the club if you were a robot?

And that's the golf machine.

Wow.

And people still...

People either think in like my line of work, people who like teach golf are either like pretty much all in on it or all out on it.

Bryson likes the golf machine.

Oh, he does?

Yeah.

What's your take on it?

Uh, there's some cool concepts in there to read it.

It's not like a book.

It's like a workbook.

Oh, is it?

So like he got to read chapter one and then go to chapter eight, but I've read, I haven't read all of it.

I've read some of it.

I, there's good information in there.

Yeah.

That's interesting.

Wow.

It's just kind of old, but it's not necessarily wrong.

So this dude like believed in it and uh, yeah.

And then he developed his own system called Mo rad.

Okay.

Yeah.

And then he says here he had, he was forced to retire in 1990 due to a congenital spine disorder known as, I'm going to try to say that as spondylolisthesis.

Nailed it.

Yeah.

However, he has been trying in some cases to succeed for qualifying in the champions tour event.

So he's even trying to get in the champion tour too.

This guy.

Yeah, no, I love this guy.

All right.

Oh yeah.

Right here.

He's attempted to qualify the PGA tour through Q school 17 times.

That's amazing.

Never give up.

No, no, no, but no, but he didn't.

That's the thing that's cool about this guy.

I will say he didn't give up.

He tried 17 times on the 17th time is when he was finally able to get it.

And then he also changed his name.

He changed his name from Phil McGlintoe to Philip McCleveland O'Grady.

And then to Mac O'Grady.

Why not?

O'Grady won two events on the PGA.

This is great.

Wow.

This is a good one.

God, that's crazy.

He has 18 top 10 finishes as a PGA Tour player.

But there is a lot of information on him.

We could collectively come up with good stuff.

With more stuff on him?

Yeah.

There's hundreds of hours of YouTube videos of him talking and all sorts of stuff.

He's a super golf dork.

Oh, he is?

Yeah, he's a mega golf dork.

and it might be two hours long like that one.

Yeah, this one's two hours, 1986, Morad.

Wow, black and white.

But yeah, it's just like him talking, like you could figure it all out.

You just gotta put the hours in.

All right, I'll put the work in for the people.

This is what I'll do.

I'm gonna bring back to you guys the Mac O'Grady.

But yeah, he's definitely worthy of a deep dive.

Okay, all right, we're gonna get into him.

I mean, okay, I love it.

Crazy scientist, bro.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I just wanna see him like get crazy with people.

I wanna see him like,

Oh, he's on David Letterman.

What?

I'm surprised.

Oh, well, all right.

Well, that's pretty interesting, man.

All right, cool.

Well, that is our boy Mac O'Grady.

So more to come on Mac O'Grady.

He's one of our new favorites here on Did I Tell You About My Albatross.

Fits our show perfectly.

Love to interview him.

He seems a little aggressive, though.

Yep.

We'll have to keep him out of the show.

We might get him.

We might have to keep him.

We might get him.

We could probably get Mac.

I might not believe in phones and stuff.

You might have to go see him.

He's probably wearing a tinfoil hat.

I love it, dude.

I love stuff like that.

All right.

Well, I think that wraps up the deep dive on good old Calvin Pete.

I think we got a little touch and a little taste of our boy Mac O'Grady.

And that's that.

So until next time, everyone.

Do you have any final words?

No.

No final words.

All right, buddy.

All right.

Until next time, everyone.

Laters.

Thanks for tuning in, everyone.

Don't miss out on our upcoming golf giveaways and experiences.

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And until next time, golf's easy.

Think fairways and greens.

Creators and Guests

Brandon Redding,
Host
Brandon Redding, "ALBI"
Like a walk-off Albatross to win, this podcast is a rare bird indeed. Less etiquette, More hilarious, No story is too wild for our golf podcast. sept 23 launch
Laken Fischer
Host
Laken Fischer "Panda"
Husband, PGA Teaching Professional, Superpowers: Comedy, One Liners, Whit, Intelligence. Crowd Favorite, Favorite Course: Tobacco Road, NC, Caddied at Bandon Dunes, Special skill of one liners and fixing slices, made Albi a reformed hooker.