Barstool Riggs, Part 2: His 99 days at Pinehurst

already a crowd around ready to watch this play. And I'm like, man, this is serious, you know, over me b s and with you over some text and and we got standard bearers carry its sides out there in the whole nine yard. We had a ball until Riggs made that budd on eight team put another log on fire. Nobody here is getting time. Welcome to the fire pit with Matt Chinella, always going to be back with yet

another story to tell. This being part two of Sam Riggs Brazilians nine day Getaway to Pinehurst, it's mister Transfusions, total immersion into a town of Tartan. In part one, we learned Riggs from Missouri. His father was a golfer, but together they went to more driving ranges than courses. Riggs and his older brother learned how to play a lot of sports with an emphasis on the ice. Riggs played hockey at Harvard and thus had the outside chance

of turning pro. Instead, he ended up writing a political blog for Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports. Once in the Door, he launched four Play, which very quickly became the number one golf podcast in the country, currently number fourteen in the category of sports. Riggs, with the six index, is the best golfer in the foursome of co hosts, which includes Lurch who's about an eight handicap, Frankie at ten,

and Trent who's a twenty five. As Riggs explains, their failures on the course are in part their success as a brand of people fucking suck at golf. So like we look at the handicaps dispersion, they love it and they suck at it. And it might be they're trying to break a hundred and trying to break ninety, and like they're hitting awful shots and I'll post a score guard where I'll go, you know, double double bogey, triple birdie, birdie, and people are like that's my guy. Hell yeah, Like

let's go. Riggs and team are a conveyor belt of golf content. But on March sixteen, when COVID nineteen started to overwhelm New York City, Riggs sent Tom Pashley, president of Pinehurst, a text. He told him he'd rather quarantine at the Carolina Hotel than at his apartment. A sixty two dollar flight later, it was day one of nine days of Riggs at Pinehurst. Pastially and his staff literally welcomed to what the guys out front referred to as quote home. Little did they know, he came out and

played every day. It just was non stole up. And you have to love the game to come out and play it as much as he did. And he shared it with other people, and so uh, he is a the number one fan of the game right now and he's sharing it with a very wide audience. And I think I think we should, as we did, find ways to to support what he's doing and get behind it.

Tendees into the trip. Riggs tapped into his extensive and loyal following and helped support and host an auction to raise money for the Pinehers staff, most of whom had been furloughed due to the coronavirus. Ben Bridgers Pinehers director of Golf reflects on the day that the community got to see yet another layer to the blue collar man

and brand. That was one of those things where we knew who he was as a person because he cares about people and he wanted to help us and our employees, and you know, he's obviously starting to have a you know, having a better time, and I think you just really got engaged to it. And uh so the members are tuning in and just locals were turning in, and it was it was it was a lot of fun to watch together. They raised three thousand dollars that day. Riggs

and what he donated accounted for fifty dollars. That moment sort of took it from Hey, I'm on like kind of a weird, like pseudo vacation thing to like, no, I'm now like part of this team and this team is trying to get through this tough time and and I was very much supplanted on that team and I was I was there to help and that kind of, I guess catapulted me into this relationship with more than just the golf courses in the golfer's or but like

with the people, which which obviously culminated the other day. Not long after the auction, Mike Myers reached out to Riggs on behalf of Peter Myers, his twelve year old son, and they challenged Riggs to a match. Over eighty thousand people tuned in to watch Riggs get beat three and two by the accomplished and polished kid who was already and over fifty junior tournaments. So we shopped Justin Thomas on the um the front nine, and he said, can

you beat in twelve year old? And Thomas applied and said a twelve year old yes, the one you're playing no, And that gave me a little confidence that you know, I could really beat him. The bet was lunch, and Riggs paid out by bringing Peter to a local hospital where they treated the doctors and nurses to a meal. Riggs could do no wrong. He had gotten away and he was given back, and when the circumstances called for it,

he was even calling people. In. In Part one, you hear details of how and why Riggs officially became the moral compass of Pineers by blowing the whistle on a group of guys violating cart code by driving on the course. If we find ourselves at a crossroads, and we need to decide, you know, did we go down this road or that road. We're going to consult with the compass to make sure that we don't veer kind of from

the north Star. Really. Through countless rounds on the Cradle the Nine Whole, Part three course, Riggs got so close to some of the staff that he and his girlfriend have been asked to be not at but in David Golinski's wedding. Golinsky is one of Piner's assistant pros. I get married on July team and him and his girlfriend are coming. Um, he'll actually announce us at our wedding. You know how cool is that? So Riggs is in deep not since Donald Ross has anyone brought more eyeballs

to pine Hurst. And as we get to roughly day eighty, I'm bringing in Kevin Kissner, a tenure PGA Tour player who has three wins, one of which was last year's w g C del match play. Kissner on how he met Riggs three or four years ago. I had a good body of mine at Fallow Barstool and he's like, k you need to get in with this Riggs. Guys. He's starting his golf thing, and I didn't know who he was. I said, whatever, whatever he goes if I reach out to him when you do interview with him,

I'm like, yeah, if you want me to. And uh, I guess my buddy emailed him like three or four times and finally Riggs like, yeah, where you can get him on? He seems kind of like a straight lace guy and uh, my Buddy's like, now he's far from that. If you get him on, you love them. And I've did a podcast and they text me like what time do you want to do the podcast? I was like, well do you want like business? Kids are are laughing?

Kids said laughing. I said, call me at eight thirty at night then, and we talked for two and a half hours or something on the on the phone doing this podcast. And he's like, this is the funniest dude I've ever met. I said, well, that's just because I've had four liquor drinks. Kids can do a long time ago. This was the kind of brand and content he wanted

to be a part of. I have a huge, huge following that you know, people that are in a certain certain writing in certain areas wouldn't bring me by writing a story about me. So I think I kind of got in front of it five or five years ago examt and I've been you know, thankful that he's brought me along with him, and we've done a lot of stuff together, had a lot of fun, become good friends. And I just think that if the PGA Tour would embrace more of that type of media, you know, our

sport would only grow immensely. Together, these guys are making a significant impact on breaking walls down, creating healthy discomfort, and expanding the game and their fan base. You know, the problem with golf is there's it's too slow, it's too expensive, there's too many rules, and we're gonna kill

the sport with the way our culture is changing. If you're gonna tell all these young kids, hey, come be this country club guy, and where your sear sucker shorts and your college shirt tucked in and take your hat off inside and keep your you know, keep your belt on, and don't ride your golf card over there. And you can't bring a guest out this way. I'm like, who gives a ship man, Let's go play the game and have fun. And whatever these people want to do, they

can do. And and I think that's kind of the way Riggs and and the four play body was go about it, and like, we don't give a ship if you're Bryce and d Shambo our kids. We just want to hear what you do and we want everybody to think it's cool, you know, like that's your special you're good at golf. We want to know why you're good, and we won't tell the people that you're This is what he does, but you don't have to do that.

And oh, by the way, in the process, they're raising a lot of money for charity, which brings us back to Riggs at Pinehurst kis with a need for a plan B you know, one of the the kids big motivations as the Kidsner Foundation and being able to raise money for that, and they're not able to do the events this year that they typically do because of COVID. So he was like, I'm looking for other options. So if you can come up with something, I'm I'm in. I'll

come play and we'll figure it out. So I was just gonna play him from like you know, we're gonna do something crazy, like I play from yards or half the yards or something and can I beat him? And um, and we started talking about the podcast meet Frankie Barelli want a four placed co host who was in New York at the time, and I was like, Ship, do I really have to come up with this? Like do I have to say this idea that popped in my hair? Because then then we're all going to go down to

Pineers during this pandemic. I'm out to drive down their nine hours. But it's the right idea, it's a good idea. So I just blurted it out him, like four man scramble all four of our shots. We have to be able to beat them. Kissner was in Riggs is an unbelievable businessman, right. People don't give him the credit, but and they get annoyed as his little you know videos pumping these brands and whatnot. But that ship sells and these people are buying you know, these old mixers and

Peter Millar pants because of the ship he's doing. And uh, I'm like, yeah, I'll get behind it. And we raised like thirty grand in two days from announcement, just from him and I talking Ship back and forth on Twitter again. Tom Passionlely, president of pine Hurst. The generosity of people

with their time and with their resources. Is one of the foundations of this whole story, that that Kissner would come up um, and that that Riggs and the four play guys would have enough creativity to come up with that four man amble not surprising. The more Frankie thought about his idea, the more he liked it, until he didn't anymore. UM, And confidence was really high at first. We're like, oh, man, like, I actually think this is

this is something that we can be competitive at. Right, Because when you play in your local um restaurants, golf outing or something, and you're playing at a public track and you see these scores coming in of all these these local drinkers at at the local pub, they're coming in seven under, six under, You're like, wow, you can

actually put together a pretty good score here. So, um, I think confidence was high to start, and then the more attraction it got on on Twitter, everyone's saying, you know the yards pine us number two, you have four shots, but all four shots are bad, right, and we're getting a lot of hate on Twitter about there's no chance we have it. So for me, it was a huge roller coaster. First day I said automatic win. The second day I said, we're absolutely dusted. This is the waste

of a trip. Anyone who plays golf a good amount, Like you've played four man scrammas before, whether it's a charity event or whatever the hell it is, and you wonder, like I wonder how good we could really be as a four man scramble on And so this was our opportunity, Like we can play the top player ranks player in the world at a US Open course from US Open teas and we'll just see what we shoot. Like we might shoot eighty, we might shoot sixty, No idea, Let's

just do it and see what happens. It was amazing to watch Riggs the whole day. I mean, he treated the match like it was a tour event. When I got to the range that day, he had like focus, didn't want to talk to me. I'm like, dude, what's going on here. He's like, we're gonna beat your ass. Kids, We're gonna beat your ass. And I'm like, okay, you're

gonna take it serious all day. Riggs was so serious he called on the services of Thomas Trinkitella, a longtime Piner's caddy who has carried banks for both Tiger and Rory in US open practice rounds. Even Thomas was in camp Kisner. Yes, no, yeah, I was on Kisner side. I figured we were gonna be done around fourteen fifteen. Closed out. I hate to say, but that was my first time ever seeing Lurch. He can absolutely murder the

golf ball. My not go in the right place, but he can hit it very far, and that was part of their chemistry. Even Riggs leading up to it said that they he thought they were gonna shoot seventy five and I would be right around there, and I was like, I'm not gonna shoot seventy five. So if y'all shoot seventy five is over, I mean it's not. It wasn't in like us open conditions, so it wasn't that firm and that fast. No one thought they had a chance

at all. Um. We were really stretched out about this distancing. You know, there were people showing up and people calling, can we can we spectate? And we really weren't comfortable having people spectate. But they came and we spread everyone out. They maintained their distance. The standard bearer was Peter Myers, twelve year old match playing ninja who beat Riggs earlier in his stay. The first to the first team was Trent Ryan, who admits he's the worst golfer in the

four play foursome. No, I was nervous too. I couldn't get my ball in the tea on the toll. I was like freaking out and so much to the point where I looked over and doing Kissers Caddy was he was just like just breathe, Like this is my competition. He's looking at me and he's like, you just gotta breathe because otherwise you're gonna have a panic attack. And we also had thousand people watching on a live stream, and I think that was also because, like you said, Math,

there's no live sports. People are looking for something to watch. But you know, playing that close to a guy like Kevin Kissner and it sounds stupid every time we say it, but we had played with him before Paul Meadow, and he's a professional golfer, and you're still just completely wowed by the guy when he plays golf, like Frankie saying, you have these moments of barstool where you just gotta pinch yourself and be like, I can't believe I'm doing this. Meanwhile,

fort Play was holding their own. They birdied the fifth hole to go one up, and Thomas the caddy was being converted with the scramble with them, it was so odds and evens. Everybody contributed at different times of the match. That's what was more impressive. Yeah, uh, not play out as I plan. I assume that I could play very conservatively. Obviously I need to play conservatly. I only have one ball, right, so I'm playing pine nurse number two with us open pins.

There's not a lot of birdies, so I'm thinking, you know, I'm gonna go out and play conservative. Hit it towards the middle of green two caught him to death, and when they screw up, I'll just pop in there and makeup car for a win. I don't expect him to make a lot of birdies. They made three birdies on the front nine, including one at eight which tied the hole four play stays one up as they approached the turn.

I guess they they really did play to the definition of a scramble, because really it always came down to one one guy who everyone else was out of the hole, but one guy hit the miracle shot. Kids played great. Um. He just kept waiting for them to to show some weakness and they just never did. On the front nine four play shoots thirty four Kissner shoots thirty six four play one up. All his kids said all day long, one hit wonders. Here they come, one hit wonders. And

I hate to say it, that's exactly what happened. I knew I was in trouble early because it would be top shank and then all of a sudden, the third or fourth guy would stripe it in there to ten ft or they would not have a ball in play, and Frankie, out of nowhere would drive it to ninety down the middle. And I'm like, man, this this is not working out well. Early they're they're like, one shot wondering me to death. So I'll tell you a good one. On on the thirteenth hole, they moved us up so

everybody could try to drive the green. Well, kids never put it right in the middle of the green, and so we had two choices we had I don't remember who had to drive, but we had a fifty yard chip shot and uh Lurge hit it greenside left to the left of the green, okay, And so I talked him into using the fifty yard chip shot from below the hole. Well, the first two chunked it, and so I started really sweating. Then I just talked him into this ball, and Riggs pulled out a chip and stuck

it there two ft from the hole. It was beautiful. When the tides turned on, I birdied uh ten. I think to go back to even, and then they bow you to eleven and I was like, all right, this it's over now there there, there's no way they're coming back. And Lurch hits his five iron on twelve from two hundred yards into the wind, so a pen literally hanging on an edge to four ft and I've already got six iron out just in front of him. I'm gonna hit it thirty ft right of the pin and just

make my car and stay one up. And when I saw that shot, I'm like, oh ship, I'm not gonna make birdie here because I'm not gonna hit it that flag. And we go back to even. And then the two shots that Riggs hit on thirteen and fourteen last got a chip. I'm like, I can't win. Ben Bridgers, pine Hurst, director of Golf, was in the small gallery these guys

and it was funny. We were out there while and and kids just kind of gives it looks you know, he looks back and the guys they got four push cards, they're all on their phones, and he's like, what am I doing here? You know? It was awesome. It was so awesome. I'm like, man, I don't even know what he's thinking right now. They have toles through fifteen with the birdie and two parts, then four play Birdie's they go one up. It was so much fun. Kids was

such a trooper. Uh. He was genuinely like rattled, like he wanted to win. Um, he's competitive. You don't get to that level without being crazy competitive. So he wanted to win badly. He could not believe that we kept pulling shots out of our asses. On the seventeenth hole, in which Kisner had a much longer put for part four, play offered the pro good good. My dad always says there are two kinds of fools in golf, those who give putts and those who don't take them. Kissner went

to the one down. Um, I don't know if it gave me the charity twelve foot or seven team when they had five feet. But as we were walking the eighteen riggs goes Kids, we had a long discussion over there, and we could not fathom the idea of you making that putt and us missing the five ft and having to go to eighteen all square. So we just wanted to get it out of the way for one up on eighteen. For those of you don't know, eighteeth holl par four up the hill with the clubhouse behind the green.

Kissner is on in two while four players over the green and two chipping in front of the assembled crowd on the porch advantage. You know, as I saw them chipping, I'm like, all right, they can't get it within twenty ft where this pin is and where they are, and and that was about right, and I was already looking at my butt. My put was breaking like four and a half feet from fifteen feet, and so I was like, I'm gonna have to lag the ship out of it, just so they'll give me the par to win the whole.

Frankie Batt's third in the fourth place scrambled lineup, But I think everyone once we were on the green and we saw that kids had to make whatever that was, a thirty five forty ft slider to to win the whole, I think we all felt pretty comfortable because his position wasn't too great to make that put, and ours was barely moving. If anything, I had a little bit of a turn at the end. You have four tries at it,

and it's almost identical to pain Stewart's. But in fact Tom pat pactually was on the green with me, and I'd go that that's almost the exact put they ain't have when they were standing over starting the put, and he said, no doubt. And everybody looks at it and wants this ball to go left to right, but it goes the other way. And so all as I pleaded with him, is just that, you know, hit the ball firm and hit it straight. So Lurch hit his trend, hit hiss, but both were super close. I went up there.

I honestly thought mine was going in. I like, it's funny, because like you want to do something like you're thinking about what's your celebration gonna be. And I know pros don't think that way because they just do it like straight up. But I was like, all right, I have a little bit of a backboard like rings behind me, so let me just think. If this goes in, what am I gonna do? I didn't even know what I was gonna do maybe something embarrassing, like high knees or something.

The mind just dipped off. At the end, Riggs's new best buddy, David Golinsky is also watching. I just I turned towards Ben and a couple other guys that we're standing right there, and I was like, can you imagine if this guy drains this punt and everything that Riggs is done here at Piners and this is basically like the capstone event his entire existence at Piner's. Anybody would

anybody who plays golf would kill for this chance. You're on you know you're we had I think we had our peak twenty six thousand people watching live on Instagram live. You know, the video is gonna get tons of views. And we put the edited video out, which I think it has six seven hundred thousand views something like that already on YouTube. Um, there are a couple of hundred people there, and you're not just playing against your Joe Schmo like weekend Golf group. It's this is to beat

Kevin Kissler. So it's like all of that. I think the Instagram pull that I put up when I said, um, who's gonna win us? For kids? It said like eighty four percent of people, said Kissinger. So it's like, now I have this chance to prove that we could do it. I know the put because I just got three perfect looks at it, so like I know what it does. All I gotta do is hit a straight put the

right distance, and it's just it's gonna go in. So um so yeah, I mean part of me was absolutely like, good, I get I get my moment, and now it's up to me to deliver. Let's go to where it's Riggs putting for bar stool glory walk. You're kidding me. Start when when Riggs walked into that pud and I was on I was actually over there near him when he hit it started walking it in, and I was like, oh my god, there's no way I'm gonna make mine now.

And I don't know if you could hear all the people in the video, but there was a bunch of people on the on the boorch and throughout they all game the roar when he made it. It was pretty pretty epic scene up there. You kidding me. As unlikely as it was, the pain would make that putt even less blankly that Riggs is going to make that putt, and it just it brought so much of his time, you know, the the amount of of hate that people spewed at him about his putting stroke anytime he would

post a video of his stroke. Oh my gosh, the putting aid recommended every everything. And so the thing that it could come down to eighteen that the anchorman, after three guys have missed it, would step up, hit the putt and then walk it in. Are you kidding me? I don't think it could have worked out in any

better way. Riggs walking that putt in. I mean, that's the benefit of being there for months on months on months is you know, you know that green like the back of your hand, and he knew as soon as he hit it, Like Frankie said, he started walking with you know, eight to ten feet left and it's just an iconic moment. Also, his putting stroke stink, So he gets made fun of all the time, but he actually is a pretty damn good putter. He gets the ball to the whole. So like him being the anchor um

was huge that that whole day. And then you know, he solidified it on a team as much ship as he's gotten over that putter, and how bad his stroke is for him to hoop that butt to win. Uh. I get to experience cool shit all the time with mostly me achievings, but to watch him, to watch him do that, he'll never forget that the risk of his life, absolutely And I just respond A lot of times I just copy that link to like my video of that pot, and I just respond to people like you have the

ugliest putting stroke in the world. I just respond on that video, like what can you say about this? Like I found a way to get myself to the eighteenth green of Piers number two with a huge pot to win a big match, and I made it so like that's just what else? What else can you really ask for? But you're right, It's like I don't know how it could possibly get better than that for someone like me or like us are doing what we do, Like I

don't play a major championships like that was it? Like we we got to play a p G A pour Pro Touring pro pg w g C winner at this iconic golf course where I have all these connections now and this kind of emotional history and I got to hit the pot. It was It was awesome. That's so cool. It was great. Having having Kisner here. After the match, there was a session around a fire pit at Doring at Cottage with with Kisner and the and the barstool

guys um. So with the theme of this podcast, there was another fire pit moment that happened at the end of that match, which I don't think ended the way anybody thought it was going too. We got into the livation is pretty well, we all sitting in the rocking chairs by the fire pit, and I mean, just an incredible even We ended up, you know, doing a couple more auction items on on Instagram and Tom Tom was being super generous with giving us a couple more trips

to Pinehurst for the foundation. So, uh, you know that's where where all good things happening around the fire pit, you know that, And it was it was just a cool experience to go there and do that. I tell you what, I felt some kind of terrible that next day, having to draft home. I took my tail between my legs with my loss and got out of there. I asked kids her the obvious question, is there gonna be a rematch? You know, Rigg has been up there for

ninety days when we played, or eighty days. He knew every break, every ship. I hadn't played there in five years. So I'm gonna take them back to a place that I know everything, and I'm gonna dust their ass. As you might know, Riggs has inquired about the potential for

a statue commemorating his putt. You know, Matt, I'm trying, like I'm hard, trying to like poke poke passionately a little bit and like like I'm kind of kidding, but also like give me something like I want to be maybe in one of those one of those UM displays when you're walking through the hallway, there's like a subtle like, wait was that was that? Riggs? And I just saw it that like what was that? Like that would something?

I need something? So again I think that they think I'm kidding, but they also know that a part of me is like, you know, come on, like what am I gonna do to get on the wall here or something. It's there's been a lot of amazing moments that have happened on that green and uh, that was certainly one of them. UM and we'll just we'll just leave it at that. Was that here's a guy who did the

nine for nine for days, he did the putts. He should have made the chip really close, he should have made the butt from all that practice, am I right pastially told me a statue is out at least for now.

But how good is the game of golf that it facilitates and fosters the unlikely chemistry between barstool Rigs and the president of pine Hurst, And after ten years of updates and enhancements, how relevant is this resort that man and and his ability to juggle everything to miss nothing, to also have the foresight to create the cradle and how bold that was and blowing up two golf holes that have been there forever to put on the front lawn, a freaking nine hole golf course that has speakers in

the trees and people were playing barefoot at Pinehurst. Um is just so amazing that he was able to do all that and and for him to now have become um, you know, legitimately one of one of my closest friends is UM. It's something that I'm like proud of, Like I think it says I think it says a lot

about me that Tom Ashley likes me. Like that's like, that's incredible, because that that guy is awesome and so I'm as surprised as he is that that the host of four Play podcast is a good friend of mine, And I mean it's it's something that I don't think either one of us would have ever anticipated it. We met through through your event at the Uncle Tony, and we began to find commonalities, and then the more time we spent together, the more we realized, you know, with

kindred spirits. And I think, like I said, when when he came here, I don't think any one of us knew what to expect, but I think we both got more out of it than we ever dreamed of. I asked, passionately, going back ten years and prior to all the enhancements, if he thought Pinehurst could have held the interest of

a guy like Riggs for more than three months. The fact that he can be here for ninety nine days and not be bored out of his skull and find a way to entertain in himself each and every day, and keep an audience all over the world captivated watching him and his pine Urs experience, it really does kind of validate everything that's happened here over the last decade.

For them to have done that is easy for us to say now as a success, but but back then, um, it's so ballsy and worked out so well that I'm really pumped that I got to share it with people, because you know, they deserve proper exposure and proper excitement, right And I think that that's something that I'm able to convey, is that, like, I'm not I'm not posting the stuff that I post because I feel this deep obligation to I. I share things in my life that

I've experienced and say, holy ship, this is so good, I have to share it. And like the Cradle was something that I shared all the time because I just couldn't help it. I was like, people, the Internet has to see this right now, like they won't believe it. And and so you're right, like they deserve that, and and the place really is that awesome and it never gets old. Frankie has now been to Pineurs three times,

all within the last eight months. Pastially at one point made a statement when we were there saying, um, you know, Pineers used to be this place where the dad would drag the kid there and hope that the kid would fall in love with it. But now it's kind of turning into like the kid drags the dad there and been like, look at what I saw on Twitter, Look at this place, look at look how cool this par three courses, and like, let's go. Let's go hit the

same place that Frankie, Trent and Riggs did. And like instead of saying like oh Tiger Woods and paints, like it's weird like that. It used to be this like untouchable place that like only Payne Stewart's putt could go in and maybe you see it on TV every once every ten years whenever there's a tournament there. But now it's like, oh no, you can just go there. You

can just stay at the Carolina Hotel. You can you can you can eat downstairs, you can get that room service Sunday that we talk about on the podcast, and you can just go play Piners number two anytime you want. This was Kisner's first time seeing the Cradle the Part three course. What a cool place to learn how to play the game right, Uh short short holes, run ups, cool little valleys and stuff to stop your ball. You can play off of different slopes, you can gamble, you

can drink liquor drinks. I mean, the whole, the whole setups unbelievable and and to see the transformation. As a kid, you know, I grew up playing all these tournaments. Pinehurst was the mecca, not only at the Connurst Resort but around there and all the different courses, and pine Hurst was probably always the kind of stuffy place, you know that it was the you gotta pay full d dollars to play number two. And now it seems like it's it's more of a friendly opening. Let's go, let's go

see this awesome place and you can. You can have access to it now, and I think that's really cool. Riggs had had access to it for ninety eight days. And so here we are the evening before departure. And as the Great Dr Seuss once wrote, don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened the night before. We actually did, you know, pastially put to other a crew

that played the Cradle. So it was Barksdale, Bridgers, Dave Pastilely, myself, a few other folks on the staff that I'd become close with um and we took a spin on the Cradle and it was kind of our last finale around in the Cradle and we we had a couple of drinks. She La had it got us a couple of drinks up with the pine cone, and then we did um uh dinner at the brewery in the back room at

the at the Pioneer's Brewing Company. Afterwards, we had a lovely dinner and to me, this was this was my farewell. I thought, I really honestly thought that was it. And I actually, you know, I got a pin flag, a pineers pin flag from the pro shop and I wrote, um, you know, uh, I kind of poured some of my feelings out too patially in the whole team on this pin flag and put the date on it and signed it and presented it to patially at dinner, and I

read it out loud and I started crying that. I mean, I was kind of an emotional mess then because I was telling them, you know, right in front of them, to their faces, sort of how much they meant to me, and how them going above and beyond was not something that they had to do. Which brings us to the morning of day. And so I'm running around all the morning.

I finally get up there we're leaving at noon, it's like eleven fifty five, and I'd run over to the golf shop and I actually looked for Bashley to say goodbye. So I wanted to say bye real quick, you know, I know last night was the whole thing. But um, he wasn't there. I went to see Dave and and he wasn't there, and I was like, something's going on here. I don't know. The bell staff knew him, the front desk staff knew him, the coffee shop people at the

Carolina Hotel. He really had ingrained himself into the daily lives of so many of our staff that it felt like we wanted to send him off in the right way and thank him for what he did, because he really did shine a bright, bright light on pine Hurst during a very challenging time. And I've got four bags. So I've got, you know, two huge Duffel bags full clothes. I've got a golf travel case with my golf clubs, you know what that's like. Um, and then I've got

a backpack. So I've got all this stuff. And I barely get on the elevator and the elevator door opens, Pastially standing there in his in his blazer and um and Kevin, one of my guys from the front door standing there with Kevin says, you know, Griggsy this is gonna be your last walk out. You're not You're not

carrying your bags, man, I got them here. I am just a nobody from Missouri who would have been lucky my whole life to just make one trip to Piners where I pay every dollar they asked me to pay, and here I am. I've been here for ninety nine days. And the people that make Piners so special, they came from the restaurants, they came from the pro shop. People that I've become very close with, have lined up passion.

You didn't even say it work, and you just said, you know, a couple of people wanted to see you off. I was. You could see me in my finger at pastially in the way out, like you son of a bitch, because I he knows I'm an emotional guy. I had notes. I was gonna, you know, I was gonna say a few words, and he just kept walking straight out the door into the car, and I had no chance. In that moment, I was overcome with the motion. I was

surprised by the whole thing. I have so much respect and like love for those people, and to see them reciprocate that, it just meant so much to me. That I I mean, I couldn't even handle it. It just meant the world to me. Some reflections on the tearful Goodbye Frankie. First, it's not like they like picked him up off the street, like he went to freaking Piners to go golf. Pinders number two in the Cradle every single day. It's like, so obviously you're gonna be emotional

when you leave me. It's the best place to be in the world. I was in my five by five room for nine days watching people dropping in the streets in New York City. He's he's at the Pioneers Brewery playing the Cradle everything when that was transfusion in his hand, So yeah, he better be crying when he leaves. It's the greatest thing of all time. It's the greatest move in this world during the whole world has been shut down. It is the single greatest move that I've ever seen yet.

And I don't know if someone wants to pick point someone else out that had a better pandemic, but I think Riggs had the greatest pandemic, which is a crazy thing to say, but listen, it's a funny thing that you know that we get to joke around with him about it now. And I'm not a sociopath. I I understand feelings and connection and and maybe I was a little hard on him on the podcast, but like I said, I feel like one of them. We had to do

it to some degree. But like we've been saying the whole time, having that sort of connection, meeting those people and having friends for life. And I think he is going to go to one of the guy's weddings once everything is you know, the pandemic is over and all that. It's just, you know, it's like I said before, it's great for bar Stool, great for Barstool Golf, great for four play, for Pinehurs and Barstool to have that sort

of connection. And maybe, who knows, if I had stayed there for ninety nine days made the friendships that he did, maybe when I was walking out, I would have wagged my finger and the tears would have fallen down my cheek. Who knows. I wasn't in that position. But Frankie made a good point where once you get down there, you realize how tight the community is and just how great of a place it is. So leaving there after nine nine days, I could see how someone could maybe get

a little emotional. Kevin Kisser. I know we've all seen the video of him crying as he was leaving, but I can guarantee you. I can't speak for you, but for me, if I went somewhere for ninety nine days, I wouldn't get that same reception leaving. They'd probably like, kids, get the hell out of here, we're so sick of you. I don't think the entire staff would line in the halls and give me a walk out. Thomas the Catty.

That's what Pinehurs does for you. You know, it holds you, it cradles you in Golf of America, and then when you leave, you're like, what am I I'm missing out? Why am I leaving? David Lynsky, who provided some tough love. Oh yeah, yeah, I was driving away in a golf card and he's just started banging out the vad door trying to get our attention. See thirty days, buddy. Unbelievable Ben Bridgers with a final thought, he's just a genius.

Like when when you think about the whole kids match, and and how you know you think about what he did in the nine days, I mean, you know he's pretty humble about these kind of things. But you know, he raised uh, you know what a quarter of a million dollars for us and then probably almost almost a hundred thousand for kids in his foundation. The kidsner Verse four play four man Scramble video, which is an hour and seventeen minutes now has over eight hundred and fifteen

thousand views. I had nothing going on, and so I needed to go playing something to get to get kind of serious about golf. Right before we went back, Um drove up there. We had a great time, and uh, I think we raised like ninety thousand dollars together in that event. So that's that's the incredible especially you know, with our our crowd is kind of the common man, and we didn't give a shot if you give a

dollar or ten thousand, you know. And I just love watching all these people, you know, betting with each other while we were going, and twenty dollars you know here and twenty dollars there. That stuff adds up over time, and those are the people we want to support us, you know. And lastly, Riggs told me he figures he played the Cradle a hundred times, number two forty times. Pine Hurst and passionately are still tabulating the tab working on it, and and you you gave me some good information.

I didn't. He's not disclosed the number of times he played the Cradle or number two. We've it's soft, it's fuzzy math um. But we're working on it. We're we're working on that invoice. We're trying to decide, you know, what's the guest fee. He had a lot of accompanied guest fees. He he uh, but he did some good you know, the auction. What what value do we assign to him hosting the auction? So my senses the in

the end, it's gonna net out. It's gonna net out to to you know, be less than a hundred bucks either way. But like I said, I think we both got more out of this than either party ever anticipated. I ask everybody at the end of the podcast, what's your favorite fire pit and why do you have Do you have a place that that sticks out amongst the rest where me and pastially sat down at that fire pit that as at Bandoned and that's when we first

got to know each other. And that's where this friendship began and spawned, and then it concluded and it's sort of or I guess grew and flourished at the fire pit at the Dorknet Cottage, which is just out back it's god maybe a hundred steps or so from the third Green at Pineheers Number two, Donald Ross's old home. And you know, pioneers bought it and they restored it

and they made it so so so cool. And we had several nights where pastially myself, from kiss Ner to some of my friends too Ridgers to Dave, to all kinds of different people. UM sat around that fire pit many different times and talked about God knows what my favorite fire pit is. UM in the backyard on the back patio at the Doornat Cottage. Are you looking for

good value on great golf apparel? As a listener to this podcast, my friends John Ashworth and Jeff Cunningham at Link Soul in Oceanside, California are offering you a discount on all future orders of what I Wear all day, every day, on and off the course. Whenever you go to link soul dot com, just use promo code MATTI G M A T T Y G. Thank you for listening to the fire Pit. It's produced by Alex u Peggy. It's edited by Rex Lint. The theme song is by

Joe Horwitz. Please rate and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts and we might track you down and send you one of our new Imperial Road Pads. Got a question, comment, or a story for us to track down. You can find me on Twitter at Matt Janella or on Instagram at Matt Underscore Janilla. And if you haven't already done so, please subscribe to the fire Pit on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to a story like this one.

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