Tales from the first tee
Stories about my life experiences and others as I work at one of the premier golf clubs in Charleston, SC. Interviews with golfers around the world that have one thing in common...the pursuit of excellence on a golf course and everything else that happens along the way.
Tales from the first tee
When Private Lives Become Public: From Golf Champions to Kiss Cams
Rich Easton explores why Scotty Scheffler's dominant performances leave him emotionless while other athletes' victories bring tears, questioning what truly creates emotional connections in sports.
• Scotty Scheffler matched Tiger Woods' timeline of 1,197 days between first and fourth major
• Professional golfers face constant pressure of "what's next" even immediately after victories
• The Coldplay concert kiss cam caught Astronomer CEO Andy Byrom with his HR manager in a compromising moment
• Social media amplifies private mistakes and modern technology makes privacy increasingly difficult
• Billy Joel documentary reveals the personal stories behind his music, including relationships that inspired his songs
• Chris Hayes' book "The Siren's Call" examines how technology companies compete for our attention
• Procrastination might indicate our true priorities rather than simply being a character flaw
• Visual reminders help combat age-related memory challenges
Continue sending your thoughts and comments to us at Tales from the First Tee, and remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Spotify
Apple podcasts
Amazon Music
all other streaming services
you're tuned into another episode of tales from the first tee. I'm rich easton telling tales from beautiful charleston, south carolina, the Open Championship. Is it me or is the number one golfer in the world, scotty Scheffler, on the path to chase down Tiger and Jack's records and I find myself emotionless when he dominates myself emotionless when he dominates Both. He and Tiger took around three and a quarter years before their first and fourth major. Okay, 1,197 days exactly.
Speaker 1:For all of you retentive sports fans, not to go down a rabbit hole, but if you're a whiz with sports stats like they matter to you, have you ever looked into the eyes of non-stats people? When you wax eloquently on sports facts and then add more sports facts just to make yourself self-satisfied, you know what you see Dead eyes. I personally check out when people make arguments with sports facts like who was the best 30 years ago and how would they have done in the modern era? I think some people just like to talk. I mean, some of this stuff is totally irrelevant, like the question about could 100 men dominate a 600-pound silverback gorilla? Of course not. Well, maybe if they were zombies or a few of them were Marvel superheroes. I mean, you see why I get semi-comatose when numbers and selective facts are thrown around with the weight of manhole covers. My brain can't hold space for everything I hear, particularly when someone like Carolyn Leavitt, our chippy White House press secretary, justifies everything the commander-in-chief says and belittles the press corps for asking such a stupid gotcha proposition. All right back to the open. You know, even though I'm tearless when Scotty dominates, he is a winning machine who values non-golf related relationships more than winning trophies. Very few people are one-dimensional Now. Tiger gave us the initial impression that he was, but after a few PR chinks in his armor we certainly saw he had multiple dimensions. Some of them might have been like 36, 24, 36. And, by the way, they were never my favorite dimensions. But the standard va-va-voom measurement still stays strong in our modern lexicon. Who knew Scotty's confidence around his distance, accuracy and putting excellence is just crazy stupid and his, his caddy, ted Scott, has the experience and such a level personality to guide Scotty through his winning journey.
Speaker 1:Now I've listened to a bunch of Scotty interviews with the media on how winning golf tournaments is ephemeral, on how minutes after he wins and celebrates. The question is, how are you going to do next week? How are you going to handle the next major? What do you think about the tour championship? And hey, what about the Ryder Cup? What if you and Rory play again All of this? So I think Scotty gives us some insights into his perception of how everybody else is thinking about him and how they're peppering him with questions about what about the next? What about the next, what about the next? And I get it, he makes some really good points, but still that doesn't get me tearful when he wins. When Michael Jordan won championships, he would clutch the trophy and cry like a baby. It meant so much to him and it's great to see athletes when they finally overcome something that they've been challenging themselves about their whole lives and how they feel about it emotionally.
Speaker 1:I, like millions of others, wanted to witness a Rory comeback on Sunday for the ages. I mean, after watching his reaction to winning the Masters, you just want to see how was he going to feel about winning, an hour from his hometown and the patrons did all they could do to help him battle the golf gods. And the patrons did all they could do to help him battle the golf gods, but the number two golfer in the world in Rory, competing with the advantage of home field advantage couldn't catch the number one ranked golfer in the world. And how about Chris Goddard, up again making a charge at the end? I mean, how long is it going to be until he wins his first major? You see, here we go again with facts and expectations.
Speaker 1:Whatever a professional golfer does to win tournaments, the question is always going to be how does he compare to Tiger or Jack? Or how is he going to do in the next big outing? Scotty's right, it never ends. So you better find something that motivates you to compete in golf other than just holding up a trophy and celebrating. Even Scotty would say he doesn't know why he got so amped up to play in golf tournaments. He just wants to win. That's pretty cool, but still no tears. And I guess if I want tears I'll watch my favorite sports movie, with the hopes and dreams of victory being thwarted with personal setbacks, only to be overshadowed by the ultimate victory at the end. That's what Rory showed us at the Masters, or DeChambeau at last year's US Open, or the Eagles in the Super Bowl having to overcome the Mahomes comeback magic. That's what brings me tears. It's either that or all the new tariffs that are going to cost my life 20 to 25% more. Yeah, that'll give me tears, god. I'm just thinking back.
Speaker 1:Remember the time when you went to a Coldplay concert with your gumad, thinking that you could just blend in with the crowd of 90,000 ticket holders at Wembley Stadium and then get caught in an intimate embrace on the kiss cam. You know, they say it's virtually impossible to create something with the intention of it going viral. Viral things just happen when everybody sees something and it holds everybody's interest. Well, chris Martin learned that from Coldplay when he executed his new viral fame, not as a singer, but as his best impression of host Chris Hansen from Datelines to catch a predator but in this case it wasn't pedophilia, it was just a CEO and his chief people officer enjoying a moment away from their respective spouses. You know what I'm talking about. I mean, who hasn't seen Andy Byron, ceo of the company, astronomer hugging, kristen Cabot, his chief people manager which is a fancy way of saying head of HR and then being caught on the kiss cam? And when they saw themselves on the jumbotron they couldn't move out of the camera view quick enough and lead singer Chris Martin commented that the couple was either having an affair or just very shy One moment doing something secret in public can alter the momentum of so many lives.
Speaker 1:Hey, at least when Bobby Axelrod developed an intimate relationship with Wendy Rhodes, his chief people officer, they kept it private. If you binged billions, you get the reference. And that was all made up. This thing at Wembley wasn't. And what do you think the reason is for people posting, commenting and talking about the Kiss Cam incident? I think because it was a steamy topic, not about them.
Speaker 1:Look, we're human. We all make mistakes. My peeps, who range in ages from 15 years younger than me to 10 years older, all say the same thing and it's basically, boy, we're glad social media and smartphones weren't around when our brains were still developing. We would have been in a lot more trouble then. And now, when it continues to find us in later years, hey, I don't know what type of relationship Andy and Kristen had with each other, with their workmates or with their families. They chose to take a private matter into a public arena and, by chance, get caught by technology, the field that they were both in. It might not have been surveillance technology, but I mean, imagine if he wasn't the CEO of Astronomer and he was the CEO of Astrologer. Do you think he might have been able to predict what was going to happen to him at the concert? Probably not and, quite frankly, if he wasn't the CEO of a company worth over $20 million his own personal assets and wasn't having an affair with his HR manager, then I'm not sure that the fallout from that kiss cam would have been as viral as it was. But you know, everybody likes to see the King fall. The Piano man recomposes his life and it's on HBO Max. The new Billy Joel documentary on Max explains the pressure that formed the performer that we know and the person that he became.
Speaker 1:I spent my early education years in New York State, mostly in Dix Hills, long Island, before I explored upstate New York and a year in the Big Apple. I was a New Yorker. Billy Joel was raised in Hicksville, long Island, 15 minutes from my hometown. He was an emerging big thing in Long Island when I was a kid and, as I learned later in life, he came from a similar historic cultural migration from Eastern Europe as my family did. In other words, we had something in common. I didn't know it, but that had nothing to do with my appreciation for his piano style and voice. He bangs the piano like it was a supermodel. I mean, he views the piano as a percussion instrument more than just a string instrument. You know it's actually classified as a struck chordophone. That's for all you factoidal, anal retentive people.
Speaker 1:You know, at that time I was both an Elton John fan as I was Billy Joel. They were both competing for our ears and a percentage of our wallets at the same time and if you have a limited budget as a kid during the early listening years, you had to stretch that dollar, particularly your music dollars, your record dollars. If you're collecting the Stones, beatles, beach Boys, zeppelin and the Doors, you might have just enough money for one album for a piano-driven pop singer. And which is it going to be Now? I can't imagine that either of those two artists thought about each other as competitors, but I'm certain their management teams did. It wasn't until later in their years that they combined forces and played together, and I happened to see them in LA playing together and what was really cool about it is they played each other's songs and there's nothing like listening to Billy Joel playing Elton John song and vice versa. I mean, it was pure genius.
Speaker 1:So I've watched the first of two parts and it was over two hours long and I was 100% focused watching it, no devices other than the TV. That's rare for me. I usually have two devices up. I'm usually looking something up that I thought about while I'm watching something, or looking at sports scores, or maybe I'm bored during a scene and I'll start watching TikToks. So, going back to Billy Joel, I knew nothing about his first wife, elizabeth, and his eventual manager for the band. I mean, when you listen to the arc of his love with Elizabeth, it's songs like she's always a woman, just the Way you Are, she's Got a Way. These were love songs introducing his complex feelings for her and then, as the years go on and she's manager of the band, their relationship takes a left-hand turn, particularly when she flexed her managerial muscles and he wrote Big Shot about a pompous, arrogant person.
Speaker 2:All your friends were so knocked out, you had to have the last word.
Speaker 1:An interview in 2010,. Billy inferred that the song was about Bianca Jagger, but I think he wasn't ready to open up his life for all to see it. It's almost like listening to Taylor Swift bash her ex-boyfriends or Kendrick Lamar dissing Drake. It just goes to show when you're in a relationship with an artist, beware what you say and how you behave, because it could end up in just about any song or even podcast. So while I'm watching this documentary, I start thinking how can I grow up 15 minutes from legend Billy Joel and know nothing about his life's trials and tribulations that influenced his music? I'll tell you why. Nobody cares about the whys.
Speaker 1:I've said this before. Well, perhaps it's a dominant male gender trait, because I know many females that hover over the why, maybe even more than the what. Hey, you know what I think I'm starting to get it. We appreciate each other, despite differences in wiring. Holy shit, what an epiphany. And if you were moved by Billy Joel's songs and have put them away for a while, the docu-series might spark you to throw a few of them back in your playlist. Step back in time just for a minute and enjoy them. I know I did.
Speaker 3:I know how many of you just love book reviews. Well, my summer book is the Siren's Call by Chris Hayes.
Speaker 1:So I'm a binge reader. I used to read the Wall Street Journal daily until recently. My distribution dried up and I'm too cheap to pay for another subscription or streaming service. So let me give you the cliff notes on this book. Chris Hayes has a handle on how we all are being distracted, on how we all are being distracted, how most companies are in the hunt to get a high share of our attention, while your Facebook friends, insta contacts, snap contacts, tiktok performers and YouTube videos are bombarding you with content and the advertisers are just sitting and wait to track the moments when your eyes and ears are focused.
Speaker 1:Even as a boomer, I have to make a concerted effort to disconnect so I could smell the roses. Gen X and Gen Zers were born with devices in their lives from the earliest years, so something powerful has to come into their lives to dislodge them from the grid, because it's always consumed them. Even with mindful parents who try to prevent or delay the inevitable over time. Most everybody is connected all the time, like a drug. All the time like a drug. When I write down my thoughts in each episode, I try to disconnect from AI as long as I can, with intermittent inquiries and perplexity to get my facts close to right. The barrier island beaches with the sound of wind waves and families are my muse. Sound of wind waves and families are my muse. Okay, susan, you're my other muse. Okay, I have two muses. I tend to find stories at the water's edge.
Speaker 1:The book Sirens caught my attention when I was walking down one of the library aisles that said large print edition Don't laugh, my eyesight's not getting any better and large print gives me the ability to go to the beach, wear sunglasses and not have to wear readers when I'm reading it. So I picked up the book. There was something about it that caught my attention and I just read a few paragraphs and I thought you know this will be enlightening. If you have any interest in self-awareness of your device, facetime, and want to understand what everybody else is doing and how it's affecting mankind, I recommend it. And if you don't, don't care about it, I'm okay with that, as long as you continue to listen to this podcast. Procrastination just another word for manana.
Speaker 1:The last topic of this episode wanted to be the leading entry story. I thought it would pique someone's attention, particularly if someone that lives with somebody or knows somebody or just recognizes themselves as chronic procrastinators.
Speaker 1:But, I just couldn't get around to it until the end. And what does procrastination say about us? Maybe we take life less seriously, we're indecisive and need more time to weigh in on the facts. Something else always pops up, more important. Maybe that thing that we delayed didn't need to be done at that time, or, probably more likely, we just didn't want to do it. That's right, isn't it? You just don't want to do it. The weight of I don't wanna far outweighs the fuck. I've got to get this done. I don't wanna is a freighter ship sized anchor. I mean.
Speaker 1:Some people, as an example, are clean freaks. It takes constant active clean as you go. Now, I love clean environments, new homes staged for sale, hotel rooms when you first enter. Nothing I like better than everything in its place. Well, there might be one thing and not doing the work to get it there.
Speaker 1:I said earlier I am a binge reader. I'm also a binge cleaner. I procrastinate until I see things out of place for just too long. That's what fuels me to organize and deep clean. Or maybe it happens to do with having company. Maybe I like to be organized when Susan visits. Okay, I do most of my deep cleaning before Susan comes to visit. I don't want her to think of me as a slob, because I'm not a slob, I am just a binge cleaner. Hey, what can I say? I don't enjoy bending, scrubbing when my body is contorted or lifting buckets with mops and cleaning fluids. My back is always one bad twist away from three nights sleeping on a hardwood floor. Hey, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Yeah, so maybe I'm an intermittent procrastinator.
Speaker 1:What needs to get done gets done. Everything else gets done when the mood hits me that it's about time for that thing to get done and this might be a senior thing, but things sometimes stay out in the open to visually remind me that I have to do something with that thing. I've gotten to a point in the journey of my life, in my brain development or maybe senior decline, when I think of something that I'd like to get done. If I don't do that thing immediately, there's a really good chance that I'm going to walk into the next room. Something's going to come up, I'm going to do that thing, maybe even leave and go travel someplace and forget to get that thing done. And I'll remember that when I'm driving and say shit, I knew I should have brought that thing, did that thing, mail that thing, whatever that thing was. When I think of something and it's got to get done, I've got to do it right then and there, or there's a really good chance it doesn't get done. So just about everybody I speak to says hey look, you just got to write it down, which I do for shopping but not for stuff around the house. And it kind of reminds me of that joke.
Speaker 1:There's an elderly couple sitting in the living room. When the wife says I'm going to the kitchen, do you want anything? And then the husband says yeah, I'd like a bowl of ice cream. The wife says I'm going to the kitchen, do you want anything? And then the husband says yeah, I'd like a bowl of ice cream. The wife says okay, and he adds with strawberries on top. She says got it. He says maybe you should write it down and she replies I don't need to write it down, I'll remember. A while later she comes back with a plate of bacon and eggs and he looks at her in dismay and says I knew you should have written it down. You forgot the toast, you know.
Speaker 1:So for me I leave things out, so I'll I'll leave out the vacuum cleaner the mop and bucket. I'll leave out some bills. I'll get to all of them if I could see it, so that I could create that pristine environment that I so much like living in. Look, I know what most of you all right, some of you well, at least one of you are thinking. Should you and Susan make the move to cohabitate, all of your thoughts of when the mood hits will have to change, and I know that. But today is not that day. So the golf stuff that's sitting on the kitchen island is going to stay there until I get the urge to move it, and I think I feel that urge right now back to sleep.
Speaker 2:Wait, the deadline was today, oh no. Well, puppy, go back to sleep. Wait, the deadline was today, oh no.
Speaker 1:Thanks for staying to the end. You've been listening to another episode of Tales from the First Tee. I'm your host, Rich Easton, telling tales from beautiful Charleston, South Carolina. Talk to you soon.
Speaker 3:Now, that's no lie. You always say good morning, hello and bye. I know where you go, how you feel and why. Google Plus, flickr, spotify so many out there for you to try. Put your life on the web and you will find Like-minded people. All have a good time and ever since you entered my life, I don't feel alone anymore. So go on and YouTube, twitter, facebook me. That's the way to get closer. You see, we used to be strangers, but now that won't be. No-transcript. No-transcript.