When you have a nice entrance to a golf course, it's very transformative where it goes, OK, I'm shutting off the outside world and I'm ushering myself into my golf mindset. And realistically, for a lot of us, our happy place. Yeah, it it, it does The same way when you leave, you're like crap, I do not want to get to the end of this driveway. 0:18 I don't want to get to the end of this driveway. 0:30 Today on Level Select, we've got Wes from The Salty Golfer to talk about the origins of the brand as well as chat a little bit about his favorite golf course. He specifically said at this very moment, Caledonia Golf and Fish Club in Pawleys Island, SC, just I believe South of Myrtle Beach West. 0:48 Thanks for hopping on with us today. Yeah, boys, I'm excited to be here. I love doing this. I love talking about the brand. I love talking about Myrtle Beach golf and I've been listening to your podcast and I was like, man, I want to get on that thing. So thanks for allowing me the time and happy to be on with you boys. 1:05 Appreciate you for listening. Yeah, no, I mean, it's anytime we can get anybody who's on the opposite side of the coast from us that wants to come on and talk to us. It's such a blind spot, I think, for Sean and I when it comes to golf and golf courses. And obviously there's so much good golf on the East Coast. 1:21 Sure that, you know, we tend to just only focus on what we can 'cause we get spoiled with year round weather. But I, I love being exposed to it. Obviously we've had Nick from Bev Voice come on talk Pinehurst. We've talked to a handful of Florida courses and we're we're looking forward to jumping into a little bit of Myrtle Beach here today. 1:37 Dig it. Let's do it. All right. Before we hop in, though, we're going to take a quick moment to highlight today's sponsor of Level Select Bird Darts. Today's episode of Must Play is sponsored by Bird Darts Premium Golf Tees. Nothing relaxes me more on the course than tear and open a box and RIP in a few bird darts with the boys. 1:53 The 100% Bamboo golf Tees feature a clean design with marks to help you tee up your shots consistently. So your only swing thought is worrying about the cart girl who's watching you tee off. You can also use bird darts without worrying about harming the environment. They're biodegradable and the packaging is made from recycled materials. 2:09 Head over to their website, birddarts.com and use code fair wagers for 10% off today. Check out their new 4 packs they just dropped for you and all your boys. All right, so again, thanks to Bird Darts for sponsoring today's episode. But before we get into Caledonia Golf and Fish Club, I want to take a little bit of time, take a little bit of Wes's brain, get people familiar with the brand if they're not. 2:29 And then also I want to peel a few layers back on Wes. I, I got a first one here where if you're, if you don't know, Wes runs a brand called The Salty Golfer. But I want to know just how salty Wes actually is. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's a miss. 2:45 It's, it's miss construed because I'm not really salty at all. I'm, I'm very laid back and chill and, and, and easy to get along with the, the name salty golfer. My wife actually gave it to the that's she, she kind of gave it to the brand. 3:01 We, I love the ocean just as much as I love the golf course. So the salty aspect of the brand brings in water and ocean and salty air and the marsh and places we like to hang out and do other things, whether it be, you know, surfing or, or longboarding or, you know, different things that we we dig and do in the area. 3:24 So, yeah, I have to explain that quite a bit. It's not because we have bad attitudes on the golf course. That's not why we're the salty golfers, because we equally love hanging out with our friends at the beach and, you know, drinking a few cold ones and hanging out that way too. So. Yeah, well, let's pretend that it is because you are bitter on the golf course. 3:44 I want to know what is a golf take that you don't commonly share with people because it might rile people up too much. That I don't share with people. Or what's your most controversial golf take? Just hit it. It's that one. Yeah, I don't know if it's super controversial, but I hate that when you're when you're playing golf, if your ball is in the bunker and it rolls in a footprint that I can't pick that ball up, rake it and then replace the ball. 4:16 Oh yeah. I'm not sure that's a hot take that might be people might agree with that more than than not, but like I've played in a lot of like tournaments and like competitive events and you know, you're already in the effing bunker that which sucks. And then you have a, you're in a footprint because the guy before you didn't know how to break it properly. 4:36 And like that sucks, bro. Like that just really sucks so. Or me. It's in my own footprint and because it's my second. Your second one out there, you're in your own footprint. Yeah, for sure. I'm with you on that one. I'm also not a fan of having to hit out of a divot in a fairway. 4:54 I understand that's just like where the ball rolled, but I mean, what are we doing? Like just move it. I I. Just I I agree, I don't think you should be penalized for something you can't help. Yeah, like if you put it somewhere out of bounds or whatever, that's on you, right? 5:09 You put it down the middle and it just happens to be in a divot that like wasn't on the map. It's just someone left it there. I don't know, I feel like just move it back a little bit out of the divot. I I am 100% with you on that one my friend. I love that on just that's a good. Change on. Just move it. You're not playing in any tournaments. 5:25 Just move the damn ball. No, my favorite guys are the guys that are like, do whatever, man. Like we're, you know, we're not playing in a tournament. And even if you are, it's like. Yeah. OK. So jumping into the brand a little bit, I know we talked a little bit before we hopped on, but actually give us a little bit of how the brand came to be. 5:46 There was probably a tipping point for you where you decided, hey, I'm going to go into this full time. Like how did we get to that point? Yeah, great question. So I was in the medical business forever, like 20 plus years. And kind of what I did in the in the medical field was I was amongst the people taking people out to dinner and and taking them, showing them a good time. 6:10 And then COVID happened, right. And like all that kind of stuff. It was this, it was just it was zooming after that. And that's not me. Like I want to be amongst it. Like I want to be rubbing elbows and shaking hands and, and all of that stuff. And at the time, Katie, my wife and I, we were running this kind of like side hustle called Old North State Clothing Company when we lived in North Carolina. 6:33 And it was just, it was a complete side hustle. We had embroidery machines. We didn't know what we're doing. It was just we were going to festivals, but everything was like nautical themed. And then one night on a Friday night, we were getting some stuff ready. It was like 2O clock in the morning. 6:49 We just kind of looked at each other and I said, I don't want to do this anymore. This is stupid. I don't want to do it. Like I don't tired of it. And she just like looked at me and you could just see this weight like come off her shoulder. She's like, I'm so glad you said that. I don't want to do it anymore either. I was like, all right, let's don't do it anymore because we, we both had day jobs. 7:08 And so we, we, we sold everything. We sold all the fabric, all the hats, all the, the machines we had. And a gentleman out of Virginia bought it. And I'm kind of giving you the short version, but I had AI had an Instagram page and it only had like 1500 followers at the time. 7:26 This was back in 2018-2019 into 2018, first of 2019. I said, hey, do you want his Instagram page? And he goes, no, I'm not interested in social media. And I go, all right, fine. So this thing said dormant forever a few months. And it's like, I'm just going to, you know, delete it and turn it off and just start a personal one. 7:47 And Kate was like, well, you know, you love going to the golf course and you love going to the ocean and you love taking pictures and documenting both of that. Why don't you just call yourself the salty golfer and just start posting pictures of the ocean And when you go play golf with your friends, it's like, wow, that's kind of cool, let's do that. 8:07 So started doing that and then Fast forward a little bit, right before COVID happened, I was doing this and I was like, let's create a sticker. Like just it was one of those rabbit holes. You're up late and you're like, let's just make a sticker. 8:22 Let's see what happens. So I went on this free copy and paste website and at the time I was rocking this like full blown faux hawk. Like it was like massive. And the first guy on there sort of looked like me as a cartoon character rocking up a faux hawk and a beard. 8:44 And I was like, wow, that's kind of cool. So let's let's copy that's free. Let's pull this over a year. So went to the next page and I wear sunglasses everywhere I go. Like I'm always rocking sunglasses and so it's like, well, those sunglasses look a lot like the sunglasses I wear. 9:00 They're at that's a free. Let's let's download that. We'll put that over top of the eyeballs and then, OK, let's find a cool font and let's put salty in one lens and put golfer in the other. All right, that looks pretty cool. That cost me nothing. Then let's get on. 9:16 No free ads, but I got on sticker mule I think is what it was. And they had like some first time sign up get 300 stickers for half price or something like that. So I already 300 stickers and they came in, I got on Instagram and I've been posting pictures for a while and I said, all right, these are $3 DM me if you want one or $4.00. 9:43 I can't remember something like that. And they were all gone in 48 hours, every one of them. And I was like, whoa, like, OK, what's this is kind of cool. So we just started doing that and then like the world shut down, right? COVID happened and I, I had a chance to move. 10:00 I'm I'm missing a lot of details, but I'm trying to give you the short versions of this podcast. Isn't six hours long. So in my day job, I got took a promotion and my territory was from Fayetteville, NC to Savannah, GA. So I need to be central and Myrtle Beach is you got 3 1/2 hours to Fayetteville, 3 1/2 hours to Savannah. 10:22 So I've known Myrtle Beach my whole life. I've had family, we've had family. We've owned a house or a condo in Myrtle Beach since I was a child. So I knew that area. I was like, we're going to Myrtle Beach. Everybody was on board. So COVID happens and in South Carolina, the number one industry here is golf. 10:45 So we didn't really shut down. We shut down for about 10 days, but golf courses kind of, they shut down and then they open back up. So you go out there to force them. Everyone had their own cart. It was really kind of cool there for a while. Like you're out here playing golf, there's four of you and you've got your own cart. 11:02 And like, it was a lot of fun. So what I was doing is I was getting on Instagram and I was just turning on my Instagram Live and people were living vicariously through my Instagram because no one else could play golf. No, they all just want to be out there. No one. And they were super jealous and they're like, this is awesome. 11:20 This is great. So then kind of like the States kind of open back up a little bit and like I've made all these relationships with the GMs and the head pros and the superintendents. Hey, I'm coming out to your golf course. I'm going to play three holes. I'm going to advertise your golf course. You know, this is free advertisement for you. 11:37 I've only got like 3000 followers at the time, but they're like, yeah, no one's out here. No one's allowed to come to the state anyway, right, Because back then it was like if you leave the state, then you had to quarantine and then all this weird crap, right stuff going on. So then the IT kind of opened up, right? 11:54 And and people were were DM ING me like, hey, Wes, like I saw that you were playing Caledonia. We want to come down and play Caledonia. I saw you were playing TPC Myrtle Beach. We want to play there. I saw that you're playing Prestwick, Blackmore, True Blue, and then so I was just like, all right, well, the state's opened back up. 12:14 And if you've ever been to Myrtle Beach, when you come to Myrtle Beach, if you're a single or double or, or a threesome, you will be put with a fourth because there's so much golf being played here, which if you're a single and you're put with three other cats, 99.5% of the time it works out. 12:32 It takes a few holes to get to know each other, but it does work out. But there are those times where they're pissed because they want to play as a threesome and then you're the single and it's weird. So I was like, how can I, how can I grow this even more? How can I build more of a community? 12:48 So I started making myself available to to finish up the foursome. Or if you're a single, I'll be your partner and then you'll get paired with two other cats. You kind of already know me through Instagram and it won't be weird because I don't mind talking to anyone or making friends with anyone. 13:06 Just a golfer for hire. Yeah, that's exactly right. That's what I was. And I could get kind of discounts because all of these shops knew me. They're like, I'm going to come out and I'm going to post pictures of your golf course. And then it turned into like, OK, we're going to discount it. Then it turned into like, all right, we're getting some traction. 13:22 And then it became like, I don't know the last last time I paid for golf. I'm not saying that like to blow my own horn, but like, I don't know the last time Myrtle Beach wise that I paid for golf. It's just I, I, I attribute that too because I've just done a really, I've worked my ass off trying to support Myrtle Beach golf and show people how good it is. 13:43 And it's really cool how the community's just grabbed a hold of that. But so there's like, there's got to be a way I can monetize this. Like what can I do? The free golf wasn't monetization. So then it turned into like bachelor parties were saying, hey, can you book us a trip? 14:03 Like we've only got 13 guys, can you be the 14th or, you know, we've got 20, you know, all these different numbers, like, yeah, let's do it, I'll host it. And I would put these trips together for all these people. And then, you know, if they were down here for three or four days, I'd commit to playing one day with them. 14:21 And on that one day, it'd either be me or a buddy of mine or something like that. And I'd say, listen, all right, put your phones away. Don't I only want you to concentrate on making a memory with your friends? I'll take all the pictures. I'll take all the videos. 14:39 You just have fun. Because what I was noticing is we'd get done and we'd be at the 19th hole or the bar or whatever. And one guy from the group would always say, Dang, I meant to take a picture on whatever hole. Now I know where all those spots are, right? 14:56 Like I know where the sun is going to hit on the 17th hole at Caledonia, that that's where you get the picture, right? Like I know that spot and I can, I can take all these pictures and these videos and I can edit it and then I can send it back to you. And then you got a memory. 15:12 My, my whole thing was I just love to help people create memories. And I think that's what we've done with the brand. Like if you're sitting in a in a, a cubicle in Kansas City and it's snowing and you've got on a salty golfer polo, it might take you back to like, oh man, I remember being in Myrtle Beach in July and I can smell the ocean as I was hitting the ball off the 16th at TPC. 15:37 And, you know, all these different that that's just, I just want to like take you away from your day-to-day, even if it's for, you know, 5 minutes. Just put you in a spot that you're not used to being. And that's just kind of how the, and then after all of these, these hosting gigs, people would always say, Hey, is there a T-shirt? 15:55 Is there a hat? Is there something that I can buy to help remember what I just got to experience? And so then that turned into, let's just do like little like, so now we're like, so like you got you boys know this like everywhere else in the world during COVID, the only thing you could do was get on the Internet and buy shit. 16:16 That's the only thing you could do. Yeah, you could do that. You could play a little golf and you could do a work and you could do a workout in your house. Correct. You could you could tell yourself you were going to do yoga or workouts in your house. Yeah. Well, I did. I did not do any yoga. You. 16:32 Playing golf. That's right. So I would just, we would do these like random, like we'd create some weird, not not weird, but some really cool off the wall logo that like we did a, we did a Kraken and it, it looked like a, it had dreads and it said salty and the, and the little hat he was wearing. 16:53 And then the, the tentacles spelled golfer. And if you didn't know it, you would never see it. Like, and then we'd do 75 or 100 T-shirts and like we'd drop them and they'd be gone in 72 hours. Like you when we did a drop, if you didn't buy it, you were never going to see it again. 17:10 Like that's how we did it. And we started doing that with hats and then T-shirts and then combinations. And then we would do it around didn't like the world just kind of open back up. We'd start doing it around the majors. And then, you know, I was, I was working 90 hours a week doing my day job and doing the salty golfer and then just getting to the point, like I needed to make a decision. 17:33 And the kind of the, the turning point was I was, I was laying a bail with my wife one night and she said, Wes, do you want to be 85 years old and wonder what if? And I was like, Nah, I don't. And that was kind of like the, the, the kind of like the push off the Cliff to go give this a try. 17:52 And she was like, are we allowed to cuss on your podcast? Absolutely. Fuck. So yeah, you can. So so that was just kind of the push and and she was like, you know what honey? Like if we're going to fail, let's fucking fail big. Let's go at this all the way. 18:08 Like you can always find a job. And I was on AI, was on a small business podcast a couple of weeks ago. And I told him, I said, listen, if you don't, if you're going to do something like I'm a big believer in chasing your dreams, like chase them down, run them down. Start a business if you want to. 18:25 But if your circle, if your wife or your other half or your family, if they're not down 100% like you are, don't even try it. Do not even attempt it because there's going to be some really sketchy times. There's going to be some scary times. 18:41 Like I have five daughters and they're all, I got 1 graduating from college all the way down to 14 and all from the same woman. By the way, I like to add that they're all from, they're all from Katie and, and, and that's scary. 18:57 Like I was in the medical business. I had great insurance. Like that went away, you know, like, but it's been the most fun and most rewarding, scariest thing I've ever done in my life. And by no means are we out of out of the woods. 19:13 We're not a Malbon, we're not a Peter Millar, We're not like we're grinding every freaking day. But it's, it's so much fun. And like, I get to go to like the, the PGA, the PGA show and I meet guys like you and, and, and we get to like hang out and I get to meet like, I see guys that reached out to me way back before they were anything. 19:37 And now they're bigger than me. And it's really cool. Like the guy that runs a golf project, like I had him on an Instagram live during COVID. I think now that guy is just like, and yeah. 19:53 And then you got the he's going to kill me Now I'm forgetting his name. But him and his wife, they they run the. They do all the social media for that par 3 stuff out in Nevada. Oh, you're talking about you're talking about Clay and Nicole Esquire golf and yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 20:09 Like he had me on. He interviewed me like way back when, like when he did the. Brand Features The brand spotlights. Yeah, it's like so cool to see like what they've been able to do. And, and it's like the the whole social media golf space has been, it's awesome. 20:27 Like it's so cool. And I just, I just want to continue to, to build this community and meet people and tell the story. And, and it's really like we, I told you guys this earlier, like we did it backwards. Like we built the community before we built the brand and the, and basically the community helped build the brand. 20:48 Like I am not, I am not wealthy. Like I didn't have $1,000,000 just to say let's go try to build something. I I think if you don't have the capital to do it, I think you have to do it the way that you've done it because there it, what's kind of cool is that there is a method to do it now, right? 21:09 It used to only be like, Oh, if I want to start AT shirt company, I have to have the capital to invest in 250 T-shirts and probably 3 different skews. And then I've got a house them all at my house and it's like, no, now I can like start an Instagram account and start a vibe or a community and whatnot. 21:27 And if you really want to from the jump, you can print, you can do print on demand and start that way. And we do it with very minimal capital and do everything. So I mean, I'm on I, I think you're doing it the right way. 21:43 That's I think that's the way that Sean and I are envisioning doing. What we want to do is, you know, we knew, we knew that the, the world necessarily at that at this point did not not need another T-shirt company or another hat company. But now that we have people who who like us and want to support us, those are people who would likely be T-shirt buyers and hat buyers, right? 22:06 As long as what we produce adds value back to the community, I think that's the key piece for us. And and that's, I think that's what we've done with the salty golfers. Like it doesn't matter to me whether you buy $200 off the website or you DM me and say, hey, man, this is really cool what you're doing. 22:27 That is all equal to me. Like, yes, I need people buying stuff from the website. Like I need that. Like that is that is, I'm very thankful for that. But like just getting confirmation that, hey, people dig what we're doing, that helps out so much because it gives you that extra little bit because there's days where you're like, dude, I don't know if I want to do this anymore. 22:49 Like this is tough, this is hard. But you something will pop in your DMS and they're like, hey, man, I bought this shirt. I love it. Like I went to Myrtle Beach when I was 14 with my granddad and we played this golf course. It was so fun. Like, and those are the things like, all right, like that's what I'm talking about. 23:06 So, yeah, it, it's been really cool to be a part of this thing and I've got, I got, I'd be remiss about it. I got two really good business partners, Jacob and Clayton, that came to me when 'cause this is such a capital intense business, like you, you do need the money. 23:24 And they're like, hey, dude, like we believe in this. We want to be a part of it. And it's really cool to have two business partners that believe in something that you created just as much as you do. And, and they, they're not, they're not in it to be on the TV, They're not in it to be on social media. 23:39 You would never know they existed. But they're there to just like, you know, and they, they are business owners and they've helped me become a Better Business owner. So yeah, it's it's been really cool, been really cool. Maybe a good segue, Do you ever treat them to golf at Caledonia? 23:56 Listen, yeah, so Jacob is a hunter, like he loves fishing and hunting. He's not a very good golfer. He'll tell you he's not a very good golfer. He goes to play golf. He is there for, he's there socially to to drink and and have a good time. 24:15 We love those guys. They add. They add. Value to the group right? Right. Clayton is very competitive and he loves the game of golf and he's fun to play with. He's a good partner to have. But like, we'll some we, we meet every Wednesday for a staff meeting and three of you, three of us. 24:31 And when it gets a little warmer once a month, we all three go play golf together. That's our staff meeting. So nice. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Sean, we just talked about that. We just talked about having more frequent meetings or potentially doing a summit. I think as opposed to doing those over Zooms. 24:46 Once you move out here, we'll be doing those on a on a golf course for sure. Yeah, totally. I own a business too. And sorry, I was going to say I own a business too. And it's so important to make sure that you leave enough time in a setting that isn't stressful or isn't part of your daily routine to just have that creativity a little bit with those two guys that you're doing business with. 25:06 And sometimes the golf course is a really good place to do that. 100% I agree 100%. Yeah, go ahead, TJ. Yeah, no, you're good. I was going to transition to I, you had mentioned he's not a big golfer, but we talked about the name being Caledonia Golf and Fish Club. 25:22 I got to know, like what? What does that entail? That is not a, you know, usually you look at golf courses and you see Country Club, Golf Club, golf course. Every once in a while you see a hunt club. I'm assuming that's of a similar vein, but I mean, can you elaborate for anybody who's potentially? 25:41 Yeah. So. It is exactly what it says it is. It's fish club. Like you can, there's a place where you can dock and and you can shoot out on the river right there and you can go fishing and there's a place to have a massive, massive fish fry when you come back and it's it's everything you think it is. 25:59 It would you think fish club, it's anything that a hunting club would be. It's just fishing instead. So like I, I would love, I would love for you guys to make your way to Myrtle Beach. I would love to take you guys out for a long weekend and just kind of like be your host and show you all the spots. 26:15 But so Caledonia Golf and Fish Club is built on what was a Civil War plantation is called the true blue plantation and it was a 3000 acre plantation. 26:30 And there's some of the rivers, you know, they there's the channels are still there where they would go out to the rice plantations. Like there's so much, you know, history in this area via good or bad, but it's history nonetheless. 26:47 And yeah, I would, I would love to show you some of that stuff. It's built right into the golf course. The golf courses do a lot of, do really good of like putting historical markers up. And, and you know, there's a, there's a, there's a really old shack at Caledonia. 27:05 It's a white when you, it's a white little shack. And when you make the turn during the peak season and during, when it's cold, you get, you get a free bowl of chowder. And that recipe is that recipe is very, very old. And there's a gentleman there that that makes it. 27:23 He makes, I know it takes 10 lbs of fish and 10 lbs of potatoes, but that's all he'll tell you. He will not tell you what else he puts in on. So I love stuff like that and that. And then, you know, Caledonia is just, it's just such a really good piece of property. 27:38 I'm a huge Mike Strands guy and he, he built, he built that golf course and it's sister course is right across the street, true blue. But Caledonia just it has my heart. It was one of the first golf courses when I started the salty golf for Bob Segane, the GM out there. 27:56 He goes like, dude, this is freaking awesome that you're doing this right in my backyard. Please use my golf course as your playground if you want to. And he got it early. He he kind of saw what social media was going to be as far as golf and how he could use it to his advantage, even though that golf course is already a top 100. 28:16 You know, he, he, he saw the writing on the wall like I need to get in front of all this before it's too late. And he's been great. He's been great to work with that that whole true blue ank out. I mean, all the golf courses down here, they've been great to work with for sure. 28:32 Yeah, yeah, No, I mean, it's, it's always interesting when, when, when social media plays a part in what golf courses think is important because a, it's not a traditional marketing effort that, you know, a lot of GMs who have maybe been at a golf course for a long time or a superintended, it's, it's not a priority for them. 28:52 And then in the last five years, a lot of golf courses, the T sheets always full, whether they do good social media, bad social media, no social media, whatever, right. So it's a, it's, it's always a breath of fresh air as a, you know, as a, as a group of guys who run a social media account in addition to a podcast they recognize. 29:17 Yeah, I think, I think what else is cool to to your point, there is like the golf courses that get it, that understand how important social media is not only for advertising. When you go into Caledonia, are you going to true blue or are some of the other golf courses down here that are really using social media to their advantage? 29:34 You're going to see more guys like us playing those golf courses than not. Like to me, it's like I love golf. I love golf. Like there's there's not many other things I love more than golf, but I don't want to be at your golf course for six hours. 29:52 Like I'm sorry, I love it. But, and I think like being I'm not of the younger generation, probably I'm, I'm probably on the back end of like this whole social media golf thing. But I do understand like if you guys are coming down to Myrtle Beach with your family and everyone else in your family doesn't play golf, you're going to get shit on by your family if you take 6-7 hours to play that round of golf. 30:22 Like, and I think some of the, I think that plays into a lot of what Caledonia and true blue, like they understand that like, hey, these guys are here. We need to treat them with the the most respect possible, but we also like need to respect their time and like, hey, if they're being held up, if, if they're being like, you know, let's, let's keep the pace of play as good as it can, as good as it can be without, you know, pissing a bunch of people off. 30:50 Because a lot of people, a lot, what you'll find out in Myrtle Beach is there's a lot of people, they're on their golf trip, they're on their golf trip for the year and they've spent a lot of money and they deserve, you know, not to have. Cause a lot of them have booked a tee time at 8:00 in the morning and they're trying to get over to the next tee time at 1:30. 31:09 Yeah. You know, so it sounds like the Marshall test might be a question we come up against today. True, true. We can we, we can hop into some of the the the reviews here and then then we can get into to Wes talking about the must plate test. I want to get into some of the reviews of the reviews here because obviously from what you've listened to, Wes is a huge fan. 31:31 But we have some people out here who are fans. We have some people out here who aren't fans. So we're going to dive into the first and only bad review here. This person preferred to remain anonymous on the website that they left this at. And I will say this review is from 2022. 31:47 So I think the precedent that I want to set here is, was this potentially an issue then, and then is it still an issue today? So the review here reads, we have played here for many years but what a disappointment this year and shame on Caledonia. 32:03 This year there were at least 5 unplayable greens. All the bunkers had not been cared for. We were told they were now waste bunkers, no sand in the bunkers and like hitting off of concrete. All of this at full price. Something has gone very wrong at Caledonia. We won't be back. 32:20 Yeah, so 22, I do think, I don't know the full story, but some chemical got sprayed on the greens wrong and they did lose some that year. Oh, wow. Yeah, I, I, I, I do remember it. 32:35 Like, I'll be completely honest with you. I remember when that happened. And that in fact, that, that that review sounds very, I feel like I've read that review and, and yeah, I don't, I think some on, I'm not trying to stick up for the golf course, but I think some of those trips that came in, it fell through the cracks with the that maybe it wasn't explain to them what had happened and maybe they did have to pay full price or something like that. 33:05 So, yeah, I do remember when that happened. I do remember like, like it was a chemical that's supposed to be sprayed on the fairway, got sprayed on some of the greens before they realized it. And yeah, I guess, yeah, it's tough. 33:20 It's tough scene, especially, you know, when you're that caliber of a golf course. Yeah. But I would assume that everything is totally fine now. It's it's. Obviously been. Flipped, I played out there. I played out there last week and OK, that's it's my like, it's hard to it's hard for me to explain how pretty it is out there. 33:41 Like it's just. Yeah, it's beautiful. When Sean and I were doing a little bit of pre production and talking about the golf course, we were just talking about how picturesque of a golf course. Something like that. So that's so that's what's that's what's so great about Caledonia is it's not that it's a difficult golf course. 33:58 I think it only tips out to like 6700 yards. It's not like crazy long, but what happens is the beauty of it sucks you and you're like, God, this place is beautiful. Holy crap. How am I3 over through 2? Like that's kind of like what happens. 34:13 It's just so beautiful out there. That's funny, 'cause you're you're almost paraphrasing the the upcoming review. Sean, did you have something to chime in on there? Keep him moving, go for it. All right, all right, all right. So this one comes courtesy of Ray B, his review reads. 34:29 It's no wonder people have considered Caledonia the best golf course in Myrtle Beach area for many, many years. This is a really, this is really a very high end, greatly maintained golf course. That's a lot of adjectives there. Very fair and very enjoyable to play. And the setting is hard to describe on certain holes because it just feels fabulous golfing this golf course. 34:49 It really is hard to put my finger on why, other than the way the fairways are shaped and where the trees are placed and the way the trees are maintained provides a very comfortable and enjoyable backdrop to every shot. This course is a must play and so is True Blue. 35:05 These are arguably the two top courses in all of Myrtle Beach and Pawley's Island. I I I like, I would just repeat what he said like. Yeah, I mean, you were starting to like, go down that path. And I was like, hold on. Like it's not just your words. Like other people believe this too. 35:21 Well, like just to, I don't know if you've seen pictures of, of the drive in like just when you turn and you, you go down the main drag to the clubhouse like you're it's, it's very similar to Magnolia Lane. I'm. Just going to say that I got aghastified when I was looking. 35:38 At it is amazing what Mike Strands like, you know, Mike Strands was an artist first. He wasn't a golf architect like he drew and painted like and he saw this and I don't think a ton of land was moved because there wasn't a whole lot because there's water, like all the back of the property is nothing but water. 35:59 But like what he saw and what he was able to do. Like I get goosebumps thing about it because when I turn right, like you could have a absolute shit day, shit week. You turn right on the Caledonia and those trees and you see that par 5 #10 as you're driving down, you hopefully there's someone in the fairway going for it. 36:19 You can see what they do. And you got #1 to the left, which is a super gettable starting hole. Like you can get it down there within 6070 yards from the tips if you pipe your drive like and you're like, OK baby, this is what I get to do today. I get to go. 36:35 Do this, you know, I think. That's a that's an underrated aspect of golf courses is golf courses that have nice entrances that like give you this weird. It's almost like very transformative of what it does to your brain of like, here's, well, here's where I turn. 36:55 But when I turn, I'm not just like turning right into the parking lot and like drunk slamming it. It's like, oh, the golf course is like I'm in the middle of watching Severance right now. If you if you haven't watched Severance at all, but they go down an elevator and it changes them from their innie to their outie. And that's like what it feels like. 37:11 It's like when you have a nice entrance to a golf course. It's very transformative where it goes, OK, I'm shutting off the outside world and I'm ushering myself into my golf mindset. And realistically, for a lot of us are happy for this. Yeah, it it, it does The same way when you leave, you're like crap, I do not want to get to the end of this driveway. 37:30 I don't want to get to the end of this driveway. Back to reality. Yeah, you're like. You're like that drive on the way in felt so long and on the way out it was really short. Really. Short, really short. Yeah. All right. Real quick, I had a question for you. How would you explain low Country, that type of golf to someone who isn't familiar with that style of golf real quick? 37:53 2 words Spanish Moss like that, that low country to me is like 100 year old oaks, like Spanish Moss, crickets, frogs, sunsets. 38:09 Like it's so cool to be in the South in the summer or the spring. And we're lucky in Myrtle Beach. We can play year round down here. Like, I don't know, man. It just the low country golf scene is just such a it's, it's probably, it's kind of like a sea Island vibe. 38:32 I think. I don't think, you know, it's two totally different play. I mean, not 2 totally different places, but like, if you've ever been to Sea Island, a lot of, a lot of looks there. Like when you go to Caledon, you're like, all right, this is low country golf. That's what this is. 38:47 That's what this is and and it it translates into how the people treat you. You know how many times you hear the word y'all and like the foods you eat and you know, just from the top to the bottom. And I'm speaking not just Caledonia, which they do a great job. 39:05 Like everyone down here does such a good job of making you feel like you're the only one playing their golf course that day. And I think that's just, you know, I'm a Southern boy. I believe in Southern hospitality. I think it's a real thing. 39:21 I say yes, ma'am. I say no, ma'am. I say yes, Sir. I say no, Sir. It's how we were raised. And I think that all correlates into low country golf. It's not just about golf. It's about did you have a good time? 39:37 And let's go up here on the back porch, drink a couple of cold ones, watch these other groups come in and let's just let's make a memory. I think that's low country off to me. Put that on the commercial right there. I mean that that that directly rolls right into essentially what we devised the must play test around, right? 39:57 Like we, we built the 10 question test to to be around what the golf course feels like as the experience. It's not just the golf you've got to take in. You know, was the price worth you paid that day that you know, do you want to hang out and have a beer on the patio afterwards? 40:13 Like do you want to buy stuff out of the pro shop? So I think that's a perfect transition for us to jump in. We asked you to come to the table today with a few questions on the must play test that you think Caledonia would exceedingly pass. What do you think is the first one that you want to take a look at today, Wes? 40:31 Well, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm willing to handle all of them. I like, I feel like. For the sake of time, well, because here's the thing also when we talk about this, ideally we're going to, we want to take you up on that offer at some point. Sure. So we want to be able to put this to a full episode and do a full must play test for. 40:50 The three of us with first hand experience from with. First hand experience from us being there playing it, but we want you to give us the preview, right? What are going to be the three that you think stand out the most that maybe, no doubt no one would ever disagree on? 41:08 All right, all right. I got my notes here. All right, I'm just trying to figure out which ones I want to do. I got my notes. Dude, don't get me wrong, I love when people come here and they're like, I'm ready to talk about all 10. Right, I I get For the sake of time, I understand I only have one. 41:28 What is question 4 usually? Question 4 is the Jonesy test that's could you see yourself spending $100 on merch in their pro shop? Do they have a logo or apparel worth wearing? OK, the answer is the answer to that is yes. And it's not solely because of the logo. 41:47 There's two logos, but it's not solely because of logo. It's I believe you're going to enjoy that experience so much there that you're going to want a couple of things that when you wear it, you'll be like, dude, you've got to go check this place out. It's not because you're solely in love with the logo because I think I will be honest with you and I might take some criticism from the Myrtle Beach golf community like we they could do better on logos across the board in Myrtle Beach. 42:16 I would concur. Yeah, but I think that you are buying $100 worth of merch from that pro shop strictly because from the time you turned into Caledonia, from the time you left, you had the most wonderful time playing golf with your boys. 42:36 That I can tell. Well, and I think you said on one of your other podcasts, if you buy a polo, you're probably already at 100 bucks anyway. So you got to. Maybe we got to adjust back to 200 bucks, maybe, I don't know, but I I think that you would buy 100 bucks worth of merch there no problem. 42:55 OK, yeah, I remember looking at the logo and, you know, I've, I've, I've put myself into this weird guy who rates logos category. By the way, I love that I love that shtick that you do on on on socials. I love that I. Appreciate it. I, I get a lot of Flack for, you know, some of my people, a lot of people think that they're rage bait. 43:18 I think I'm just being honest. I think just, I think objectively, some people just are stuck in their old logos from the 20s and don't want to change it. Listen, this is this. Is what I love about this. Like what you like, I don't have to like, But we can still be friends. 43:34 We can still get along just fine. Yeah, I'm not saying I'm not saying I don't wanna go play Cow Club and own things from Cal Club to tell people that I played Cow Club. What I don't think is that I need to buy one of everything with the Crest logo on it. That's all I'm saying. 43:51 I'm with you homie, I'm with you. All right, what? What else? What do you remember? What other questions you? Had on here number 5. What's the what's that question? #5 is the buzzworthy test that's Are there multiple holes worth talking about? Does this course have more than one hole that a group would want to immediately go play again? 44:09 Yes, the the, the immediate hole that everyone will want to go play again. I, I wrote down I have five holes marked on here, but the hole that everyone would immediately want to go and I cannot wait to be with you. 2 when you experience #18 is the par 418th. 44:26 You have to hit your drive somewhere between 200 and 230 yards. Then you have a forced carry over water to the green that is probably 5 yards from the back patio that's going to be filled with 50 to 60 players that got done. 44:46 If you don't hit the green. You're going to be booed and jeered if you do hit the green. Everyone yells. It's an incredible experience. A lot of people say when I this is what I love, hosting people that have never played there. It's the closest a lot of people will ever feel to playing in a tour event because they've got 60 to 100 people on that back patio watching them hit their last iron of the day into the 18th green and are you going to put up? 45:16 Are you going to shut up? And it is fantastic. I've seen some incredible hole outs. I've seen some plus 2 + 3 handicaps Duff it in the water. It is fantastic to watch how certain people adjust or not adjust to pressure. 45:35 And that hole alone, yes, like that's what everyone will talk about when you get to the bar that night or the 819th hole or whatever, for sure. Have you seen? Have you seen the golf clubs that sometimes have a camera out there? 45:50 And so for people in the bar that like aren't on the patio, they can watch it too. Sometimes it's not delayed. I don't know. I don't think they do that Caledonia, but they have TV's all over that, that restaurant. They should definitely do that. That'd be sick. Yeah, I've seen it where it's on delay and so you can watch your shot come in when you go to the bar at the end, which is so cool. 46:10 But to your point, with like a crowd watching and like, that might be the one time you get to feel like you're, you know, a professional or whatever. That moment of oh shit, there's guys watching and you're standing over it and you feel your heart do different things or you feel your body feel different. 46:27 It's one of the scariest, but also it's one of my favorite feelings ever. And it it's. A sport. It's so. Good, because you're feeling something and you just want to perform. You know you just want. To like I played I played college basketball I I played basketball at a pretty high level. I was pretty good at it. And like, I miss that about playing sports. 46:46 Like that little upset stomach feeling like, all right, I got to produce like here we go. Like, can I do this? And yeah, I love to see how different people handle it. Like some guys are like they think they got it and then they hit the they hit 4 inches behind the ball and it just goes splat right in the middle of the water or it goes sideways like it. 47:08 And, and then there's other guys that are like 151620 handicaps and they handle it like it's a pro and like they knock it up there to 20 feet and they, they 2 putt for par and it's really, really fun. Like we have our, the last three years we've had our, we have a golf tournament every year called the plunder on Pawleys Island. 47:28 And it's a two man event and it's a, it's a cash grab and, and that's the finishing hole and that's where the shootout is and got 120 dudes like watching you come in like, and a lot of them are already drunk by the time you're coming in if you're in those last groups. 47:44 And it's a lot of fun is to see, to see what you got in the tank. See. What you got? That's cool. That's awesome. I I love a it makes the IT makes a good golf patio, a great golf patio when you have a good view of the green on 18. 48:01 Yeah, yeah, and, and they did great. Like Caledonia has 18 and true blue. It's sister course across the street. They're finishing hold the back patio comes right up to there and it's it's an island that's kind of peninsula green with water. Like it's such a good hole. 48:17 But yeah, so yes #5 I think, I think I answered that correctly. OK. Yeah. And then what was the last one that you wanted to take a look at today? OK, what's number six? Is that the food 1? That's the glizzy, yes. Yeah. Doesn't have good food at the turn. Fantastic food at the turn #1 like to get a free on on a on a October, November day, you're down there playing, you make the turn. 48:41 It's a little chilly, but not like I. I love fall golf, big fan of fall golf. You're making that turn and there's that gentleman Frank, Frank Beckman is his name. If you catch him on the day that he's there, he's in his little shack. You see this big cauldron of, of, of chowder and you make that turn and he just hands that to you and says, have a good day. 49:05 Enjoy your back 9:00 and you're just you're free chowder part of the experience. And you can, I highly recommend like there's another like little shack there too, like you can get like a hot dog or whatever at the turn. 49:21 I highly recommend the grilled cheese. It's a Swiss American cheese, grilled cheese, but add bacon. Make sure you add the bacon to it. It's fabulous. It's it's a they, they do have a hot dog. Their hot dog's fine too. It's, it's great. It's a glizzy. They do the glizzies there. It's, it's good, but then post round, the restaurant's credible there. 49:43 That's where you can sit on the back patio, watch the guys come in on 18, make fun of them. My wife and I will go up there on a Sunday for brunch. She'll get ten $1.00 bills, I'll get ten $1.00 bills. And we bet back and forth who's going to hit the green guy until somebody has all $20. 50:02 It's an amazing experience. I love golf courses that the experience happens when you turn into the golf course and when you leave the golf course. I'm not a big fan of golf courses that the experience is between hole one and hole 18 and Caledonia. 50:20 They have done that. They they, they know what they're doing there. The staff is great. The guys that are there waiting on you when you get done to clean your clubs off. A lot of those guys have been there for a very long time. Miss Miss Jen, the cart girl, she is phenomenal. 50:37 She's been doing it forever and she is the best. She it rarely. I think another thing is like if you go there and Jen's work in the cart, you will see her six times, which is a lot more. 50:53 Yeah, that's great. She whispered. Around that thing and she knows what she's doing and you'll see her a couple, maybe three times on each nine so. Do you have a beer? Do you have a beer you recommend with a chowder? Probably. Yeah, Cat can hang on. 51:11 Yeah, hell yeah. We love an audible. You asked the right question. He's like, I've been waiting for an excuse to crack this guy open. Well, I'm, I'm, I'm when you when you grab that chowder, I I would recommend our beer, the Salt. 51:30 And pepper. Beer it is. It is at Caledonia. It is at most golf courses up and down the Grand Strand. But yeah, it's a, it's a 4.2 pineapple blonde, little hint of pineapple. It's not a fruit beer, just a little bit of pineapple. 51:45 Super crushable. So yeah, a high pairs very well with anything on their menu. That's so good. You know, funny though, is like, I think that like I know that you have beer. I don't know if Sean knew that you had. 52:01 I didn't. I set you up. I didn't know. That's perfect. I'm glad you didn't know, and I'm glad that that you set me up like that. That's perfect. All right. I think you did a phenomenal job summing up Caledonia there on the way out here. 52:16 I do have a few bit of fun facts slash trivia. We're going to see how much of A Caledonian nut that you are on our way out here. You you alluded to at least this first one. You talked about another 1. So we'll see if we we'll see if you can round it all out. The first one here is that you knew that Caledonia was on a plantation before it became a golf course. 52:38 Yeah. What kind of plantation was it? It. Was rice. Correct, correct. And then obviously the clubhouse was the old plantation home that they have renovated and reconverted. Yeah, it was. Everything was rice down here, plantation wise. 52:55 OK. It was actually called the True Blue Plantation, which is also the sister course's name is True Blue, yeah. OK, so then Speaking of the name of this one, what does Caledonia translate into in Latin or Spanish? 53:11 I have no idea, I've been asked this before and shamed on me for not knowing like I don't know. Sean, any guesses? OK, I know there's like a new Caledonia island out in the Pacific and I thought it was French related but I didn't realize. I'm going to guess like heaven. 53:27 Now, Sean, you're going to be very pleased to hear this one. Based upon your upcoming travel schedule, it actually translates to Scotland. Really. Oh, yeah. OK. OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I mean. There's the Caledonia in Scotland. 53:44 I never even thought about that. Yep, Yep. So there's that. And then Salty had alluded to this. 12425 golf.com had put Caledonia as one of the top 100 golf courses that you can play in the US So they're public golf courses. What number was Caledonia? 54:07 You got at least a 1% chance in getting this. Want to give us a a range there Tji? Will say it is in the IT is between 50 and 100. Man I got 2 numbers in my brain for some reason I don't know why I got I got 77 and 91. 54:26 Oh, it's 76, man, there's no way you're getting closer than that. Oh, man. All right. Yeah, I'll take that. I'll take that. Very, very close, Very, very close. So yeah, I mean, pretty, pretty spot on. Like I said, you you'd you'd alluded to a few of the before and I was like, damn, is he going to steal my trivia from me? 54:45 It almost always happened. I mean, obviously we're talking to people about what some of their favorite golf courses usually they know a lot of the insurance and the outs of the golf courses. So yeah, glad I could, glad I could surprise you with with at least one. On there. Love that. All right. Well, closing out salty. 55:01 Thank you so much for hopping on. No thank you guys, I really hope you both can come down for a like just get here I'll take care of everything else y'all just get here all. Right. Like I said, ultimately with with these level select episodes, our goal is to follow through on some of these promises. 55:17 We want to try and make some of these as a trip, go out with the guest and then have a follow up and put them to the must play test. So stay tuned, make sure that you're subscribed, make sure that you're following so that when we do that, you guys get to see the the updates on these. And like I said, if you're if you're someone who's watching on on YouTube, don't forget to like and comment. 55:37 Give us a rating. Let us know if you like it or not. Tell us if you hate us. Engagement is engagement, right? That's right. But again, Wes, just want to thank you for hopping on. We had a great. Thank you guys so much. Happy to be on here. You guys are killing it. Keep it up. Appreciate it. 55:53 Appreciate it. I'll talk to you guys soon all. Right, see you.