Loud and Clear: How Bobby Weed’s Daughter is Changing the World

I was reporting on the PGA merchandise show for Golf Channel's Morning Drive. I was on the set they had in the middle of Orlando's Convention Center, and I was joined by Bobby Weed, the golf course architect, who was sharing details of the course he was designing and building in Hope Sound, Florida, for none other than Michael Jordan.

At the end of that segment, we talked about technology, how it was helping him professionally but also personally, which is what led us to a conversation about his daughter, Lanier, who at eighteen months old, was diagnosed with nonverbal autism. He told me that when she was fourteen years old, they heard about facilitated communications, a therapy developed in Australia and Denmark in the nineteen seventies which was greatly advanced

by technology and specifically iPads. According to Raising Children dot dot au, facilitated communications involves a facilitator physically supporting the hand, wrist or arm of an autistic person while they spell out words on a keyboard or ler device. What Bobby Weed told me that day and what Leslie Weed says in the intro to this podcast, which is from the video feature we just published on Firepit Collective dot com

and on the Firepit's YouTube channel. When Lanier Weed got in front of a keyboard, the first thing she typed, thank you for releasing my voice. If you haven't seen that feature or read the story, I suggest you do so before listening to this podcast. As you learn in the video, Jailed my entire life was another one of Lanier Weed's first messages. But now she is free, and one letter at a time, she's sending profound messages and perspectives that are having a significant impact on the world

we live in. Her goal, which she also typed, is just that to change the world. Ever since that interview, with Bobby Weed back in twenty eighteen. I've wanted to track him down and hear more of Lanier's story. This podcast, a recent interview with Bobby and Leslie Weed, is a follow up to that feature on Lanier and the Weed family. In this podcast, we hear about where Lanier is now at the age of twenty four, ten years after typing

her first sentence. We hear about Heal and the impact their foundation is having in its twentieth year of existence. We talk about the impact the PGA Tour has had on that foundation. They talk about Arnold Palmer, Dean Beamon, and Jay Monaghan, just some of the people who have helped the Weeds along the way. Bobby and Leslie also reflect on Pete and Alice die and what Players Championship Week means to them in their community. I start the

conversation by asking, how are the Weeds. Everybody's good here. You know, it's checking in almost you know, a couple of times a week whatever daily. Lanier's doing great. R and her group home. The girls were still in Nashville. I think our middle daughter, Carly is coming in to mar for the Players Championship. So we're here this week I was gone all last week on the road, so um I got back this weekend, so we're all going to be together and it should be a good week.

Weather's great for the players championship. The only thing we're missing is you. I'm actually arriving on Sunday. I'll tell you about that later. But Leslie, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Lanier's progress is she's just doing so good. She's in an adult program this year. She's out of school and her group they make candles and soaps and they're selling them online. And we had a little showing and made like four thousand dollars, so you know, she's

got purpose and she's making things. And she picks out the colors and the sense and pours the candle wax and they're all she names them all. It's really cool. Quite the entrepreneur. Yeah, well, yeah, not surprising. What what you know, having now learned, you know, learned about Lanier and her story and then your story and how this all. I mean, I get chills just even starting to talk about it. You know, Bobby, this goes back to that original conversation we had on the set of Morning Drive

at the PGA merchandise show. I don't know how many years ago that was, maybe let's say five years ago. And from that point forward, I was always so curious. I mean, I obviously knew of you. I knew of your work. I had talked a lot about your relationship with the Dies and your impact in the world of architecture. But when you told me that when you gave an iPad to your nonverbal autistic daughter and she was able to type, I finally have a voice, that just that

just that just knocked me over. I mean, uh, and in in so many ways, And from that point forward, I always was more curious to understand more about Bobby Weed and his family, which is what brought us to Pontovidra, in which we were able to actually learn more about this story. Uh. I you know, in so many ways, something like this that happens to a family, Leslie, Like you said, everything was going along and then all of

a sudden, Lanier started going backwards. That can that can that can tear a family apart, or it can make a family closer together. I you know, that's just from my casual observations from families that go through things in which they really get tested and challenged, and I'm just inspired by how you as a family just seemed to

get closer together. I know it's not always that easy, and I know there's probably been a lot of urb in days and stretches, but it just and now looking getting to know you guys and observing through various aspects of social media just really makes me inspired to see how close you guys are as a family unit. Yeah, you know, Bobby set that in motion when she started regressing him. We took her in for all these testings and it was words. I had to learn a whole

new language. I had to, you know, And it was just the shock of it all. And I remember calling Bobby. I think he was in Texas. I could hear him hammering mistake and I was like, I can't be there for the girls. And because I was volunteer coordinator at their school, I was at their school every day for at least three or four hours, volunteering everywhere, and I was always in the halls. And I'm never gonna be

able to do that anymore. I'm gonna not be a good mom and it's just going to ruin our lives. And that's when Bobby said, wait, a minute, Wait a minute, You're gonna be a much better mom. Now we have an aunt, so we have answers. Now we have a list of things we need to start doing. And she will be the blue, the glue, and the bond of our family. And we're going to be Team Weed. And we set the girls down and said, you know you all play soccer. You don't like sitting on the bench.

You like to get out on the field. Well, Lanier's on the bench and we're gonna get her off the bench and on the field. And Team Weed is going to do that. And Bobby really set that in motion because I was a mess, and he just said, yeah, day by day, we're gonna do this, and you know we're here today. Well maybe so, but Matt, in reality, she was. She was as much the glue as anything for being a mom, being a mother, being a wife, and just just totally immersed herself in all of this.

I mean, we were pioneering. We didn't know anything about the mission we were on or where we were going with it. We just knew we were in a crisis mode and it was twenty four seven and and um, we just had to figure it out. We had to deal with it. We had to figure it out and deal with it on an hour to our basis and a m and with the rest of our family and our children. Um, it was. It was a mess. It

was a true mess. And while I was traveling and working, um uh you know, we didn't have the benefit of We had plenty of insurance, but insurance didn't recognize they do now, but then they didn't. Back then they didn't. So we were loading up, we were loading up with therapist. Um we were. Leslie was seeking out information on how who we needed to go see what kind of uh I mean because you looked up autism and dictionary or Encyclopedia or medical journal and there was virtually nothing. Yeah,

there was nothing substantial, nothing substantial about it. And so we we basically had to learn on our own. And Leslie was the one that really took the bull by the home. Remember I came home one day and I said, I have to we have to get Lanear to the specialist in Chicago. We had to get her to Chicago.

I'll just drive and because we knew she couldn't handle me in an airport, and Bobby came, you know, very nonchalantly came home that afternoon and he said, Arnold Palmer's given us his plane to fly us to Chicago to see the specialist. And it was like wow, it was just we had to go to New Orleans and we had to run a plane. We you know, everywhere we went, we had to do. That's beam and we had to charter plane. Helped us get his plane, you know, you

know the guy. As you know, the golf world is really small, so uh uh so small circle of folks and um, you know when you have friendships and relationships uh in business and uh and personal relationships, you know, uh, it's okay to reach out and um that's that's what we did and uh um you know, we got a lot of help and uh and then ultimately when we started our foundation. Our foundation are the pillar of our foundation was the support of the PGA Tour, you know,

which I worked for for thirteen years. And they were like, look, you know, we we want to we want to choose some charities to help and um, we think you have a good cause and we want to be part of you and your family because we know you personally and uh, we know how much time you spent with the PGA Tour and um, you know, we want to is called adopt a charity. We want to adopt your charity. And they gave us their clubhouse. We had the very first

gala and the brand new clubhouse. It gives the golf course and I mean, I just couldn't even believe it. I didn't when I met with them. I didn't even have a board, and they're like, where are your people. I'm like, Oh, they couldn't make it. I's like, man, I got to get the word fass. But you know, our first gala, I think we raised five hundred and eighty thousand dollars or something crazy like that. So it

was really great. That's been good. Al this relationship with the tour, Bobby and specifically saw Grass and the dies and all the TPC properties that you've been a part of, that is that's a big That's a that's an you look you got you know from what I'm hearing, you guys look at that as almost an extent. All of this is an extended family for you. Is that what I'm that what I'm hearing. You know, the whole time I was at the PGA tour, it was a family. And I think Dean Beam unset that in motion as

much as anybody. And you know, even to this day, the players, the players feel like they are part of a family being the PGA Tour. And I think that's one reason why the PGA Tour has sustained itself to the highest level over many, many many decades. And basically

the history and heritage that comes with the PGA Tour. Um. You know, we have so many people to think to be thankful for, um, from so many decades ago, and now all of a sudden we have this new millennial generation playing on the tour and UM, you know, they've just they've bought in, they've bought into the family. And UH and and and that's truly what it is in

our sense. And certainly, certainly I found that to be true within my years of working with the PGA Tour and uh from an administrative standpoint, and in all my travels,

it's very close knit. And to this day, I've been gone a long time and I still have a lot of very close friends associated with a PGA tour well, and our neighbors J Monahan, and you know, he's very generous to heal and to us, and he brought us the stack stack of iPads one time and you know, here or your mission and it was just you knocked on my door. Hey, I've got some iPads for you. So it continues, well, so many really cool things that

you guys just mentioned. The Arnold Palmer loaning he was playing Dean Beamon helping you guys get and obviously the dies I'm sure had a lot of big role in that. All to the stage J Monahan now giving you guys a stack of iPads. Technology gets, you know, a bad rap sometimes as it relates to you know, we've got teenagers kids, we're trying to balance the understanding of you know, how much is okay, how much is too much? You know,

social media all that. But in reality, technology changed your lives, right, changed the life of Lanier and a lot of a lot of people like her. Tell me a little bit more about that. That moment in which you guys go from having a nonverbal autistic daughter who you you know, you're trying to understand and to you know, to to raise as as you know, as as your daughter, and then she gets then she gets a voice, and now

you get a look into who she really is. That to me, is where this whole story just goes to a whole other level. I wouldn't got trained. It's just not handing an iPad. And then she starts typing. It's a technique. And we started this technique. We went to Syracuse, New York, a bunch of US moms and teachers and got trained and came back and I was like, there's just no way, there's you know, I believe these other kids were doing it. I just didn't. I couldn't, you know,

fathomed that Lanier could do this. And she sat down with her coach and the first thing she typed was thank you for releasing my voice. Tell my dad, Tell my mom I love her, Tell my dad he's my hero. Stop the baby talk. Now. That is when I was like, oh my gosh, said that's her. And it took her at least forty five minutes to get that out because she typed a letter and then I have to, you know, get that letter in her head and then you know, hand eye coordination and hit hit it on the iPad.

Now she's we called turbotyping. She types pretty fast, just pecking with one finger. But it is really just an example. Last week, we three three or four weeks ago, we changed her onto a different medication, and so we went in with her doctor and he's like, on a scale to one to five, one to ten, you know, where are we on this? You know, how are you feeling?

And she goes, we're out of five, which means we're getting there, but just to monitor her medication or I have a headache, or you know, where do you want to go? I want to have pizza today. You know, just little things like that are so huge for us.

It's feedback, it's it's communication, it's it's insight also, and this, you know what she says and we talk about this, but what she says in the in the in the piece about like people who judge, you know that incredibly perceptive quote, people who judge, people who think they know people are like, that's an indictment on them, as you know what I'm saying, Like that to me is also what kind of turns everything is when she's absorbing all of that for so much of her life and now

she's able to turn that back around and say no, no, no no, no. If you think you know a person, whether whoever that is color of skin or autistic or what, you know, what you know any kind of handicap or looks or appearances. You don't you got it? That the fact that you're judging that person and you think that, oh, an autistic person has no ability to like process the world around them. That's wrong. And we've we've were all wrong.

I mean, look at Stephen Hawkins. You wouldn't have if you walked up on him, You would have never known how brilliant he was had he not had his ability to communicate. I think he did with the eyes m But that's the same thing. You know, somebody could walk up on him and judge him ago you know, who's that over there? And but he's brilliant, and our daughter's brilliant. And all these kids in Pontovitra now who are non verbal, I think we have thirty kids who've never spoken a

word in their life. Who are you know, typing away? And are they're brilliant, brilliant, genius. They are incredibly Lanarius's words I have to go look up. I'm like, wait, is this a word? I don't think that's a word. Gosh, it has worked, and it's it's amazing, it's it's really it's it's powerful, it's very heavy, it's powerful, it's inspirational, it's informational. It's like it's just all of these different things that that fold into one and uh and you

guys have lived it. Um. I just uh heal, tell me a little bit more about where you're at with your foundation and the progress you're making to try to help so many more people other than just linear. Yes, he'll stands for helping enrich autistic lives. Next year is going to be our twenty year anniversary. Makes me feel old, um, and we guys looked great by the way you look. We've pulled out about over five million dollars uh since then. And we're just a tiny, little, tiny little um foundation.

I have a one paid employee that's executive director. I'm you know, major volunteer. I don't I don't pay mysel self. UM. I consider my ministry to help others. UM. In the summers, we have about fifteen camps. We have one at the PGA tour um hug help us Golf. We've done that camp probably sixteen or seventeen years. And all the teaching pros take three days off, half days off and come and do golf camps with our kids. They'll let them ride in the ball picker up thing they get with

the maintenance, they cut holes in the greens. I mean, so it's very holistic almost. They'll they of course, you know, they go out on the course with um um. They have a checklist of all the native plants and all the animals and they'll you know, spot an eagle and check that off their list. So that's you know, they incorporate the whole golf and to not just putting and hitting. And then the last day they get hit on number seventeen.

And these boys and girls you know, started to fifteen years ago and now you know they're out playing on the olymp you know, the Golf Olympic Special Olympics, and they can't wait for that week and they video them all. They can see themselves on videos, and the teaching pros tell me, this is truly we do TPC, We do all that, but this is really a fun are really fun week and they can see each year how the kids,

you know, get better and better. But the Surf Camp is Surf Campus full as soon as we announced it. Two hundred volunteers, unbelievable volunteers. We have bowling, we have fishing, we have we go to the museum, so I mean horseback riding. Um, if the lyst goes on, and then we've raced enough money. We've given out five hundred iPads to five hundred teachers in a five county area. And then the trips, the three real trips as big trips.

We realize these these kids can't ride a bike, they can't balance, So we've given three hundred trikes, two hundred fifty schools two trikes so that coaches can get on, we get we do it through the pe and then the kids get on and ride in the track and the whole classes like running beside them, so they're you know, learning coordination and it's just so much fun to ride a bike. So that's our big initiatives that we've been

doing it. It's just so much fun to deliver them and see the kids get excited and um, you know get on the bike and ride around the track. To go from you know, feeling like we are in crisis mode to now you've raised over five million, you're giving ipat year, You now have this, you know, you strengthened relationship with your daughter and your family is where it's at, Like does that just feel like lives ago that you that you went through all that it does. And you know,

my daughter's Haley and Carly. I mean they just they were like little mamas. They were just running around helping me. They never complained ever. I think they're like moms out of pretty bad. So I think we're you know, we're I can go through that teenage stuff. We're just we're here to help, you know. Um. And you know, I tell moms now because I was always felt like I was in a sprint sprint sprint sprint, you know, and it's a marathon, you know, pace yourself day good day

by day. It's easier to say, but when you're in the middle of it, you're just you're gonna hardly breathe. You're like, I gonna help my daughter. You know. I'd be somewhere at a cocktail party or something and somebody's talking about something, and all in my head is like, my daughter can't talk. I gotta help her. I gonna help her. I just I couldn't get out of that total um. You know, sprint. I'm in the sprint. I

gotta keep going, I gotta keep running. And I look back now and I could have relaxed a little bit along the way, but I didn't know what I was dealing with. Doctors didn't you know, Autism just sprang up out of nowhere. Really, these type like my daughter, the non verbal, and you know, they were trying to figure it out too. So we're all there in and out.

There's something to that, right. I know you've spent a lot of time researching, but you know the idea that autism is and I know you know the numbers, but we've gone from a time in which autism wasn't really you know, it wasn't happening very autistic children, you know that were there, weren't a lot of them, And now it feels like that's something that's more prominent. You know, I don't know if you want to get into that, but what's one of forty four and four out of

five are boys, So the girls are rare. I mean, the boys just got nailed. And um, you know, you can't you can't have a genetic epidemic. It's an epidemic. And like I go to these high schools and every high school has at least over a hundred in population, and these kids are in classrooms no more than six So it's like a whole city behind these high schools as modulars. Yeah, and it's like a whole city back there. And you know, there are a lot of theories. You know,

ours was vaccine injury, you know, without a doubt. I mean, you don't have a perfectly walking, talking child at sixteen seventeen, eighteen months and then they lose all that and she didn't walk till she was almost three again, so I mean she lost all her motor So it's it's really brain motor, it's not and so her intelligence wasn't touched.

But because somebody walks with the gate, or somebody can't talk, or they you know, do funny weird stuff, you just think, oh they don't you know, the brain is not in there. But we have realized it's it's all motor. That motor that's connected to the brain is somehow damaged. A lot of these kids also have autoimmune disorders, and that's the

immune system got nailed at the same time. So, yeah, invulnerable leaves in vulnerable in a lot of ways obviously, and then and then being nonverbal, being able to now get access into what they're what they're feeling from inside that that unlocks the box right being able to now then yeah, and then she telling us the first time she realized that she she wasn't speaking because you know how you talk in your head. And she was about three or four, and she said, I always thought that

thoughts were transferred through the brain. I thought I was talking to you. And I said, oh my gosh, did you think we're ignoring you? And she said no, I just I felt like you just immediately forgot what I said and then putting her putting the pieces together that oh my gosh, I can't speak. And that's when she became inconsolable and um, you know, upset all the time and coming after people because she said, I was trying to get great words out, trying to get great words out,

and now she can get her words out. She's she says that she wants to change the world. How is how is how is her mission going? I mean day to day and in what you're doing through heal, I mean you are changing the world in this, in this story, in this these conversations and within your community in a way you would Does she feel like she's making progress

in her mission to change the world? Oh, definitely, Um, And you know I've read her excerpts from Helen Keller, who you know couldn't see and couldn't you know, speak, and you know, learn how to do this in her hands, and people didn't believe that. You know. Um so I I gain a lot of my own inner strength because I've just read every single thing I could get my hands on that Helen Keller wrote and her mother and and um Annie Sullivan and I feel like we are that.

And so because of the typing, another mother has opened up a school where we're on the same curriculum at Saint John's County High Schools and we have teachers facilitating these kids and near did all she was doing algebra and stuff, and so that is huge. The fact that we have over thirty kids in the Jacksonville area that have been trained, and we brought in trainers to train teachers, and now we have teachers that are training other teachers. So we really have kind of like a mecca here.

Atlanta has a few people and you know, all these big cities, but they are not connected like we are. And that is because of Planeer, And you know, that's her mission. She brings awareness on a onl this daily weekly basis. She's really proud of what we're doing with Heal And it's incredibly gratifying to us with the foundation to be able to go out and assist other families, knowing how we struggled with some resources and so many

don't have, uh, don't have some of those resources. So it's very gratifying for us to um to establish the pillars of our foundation, mainly bringing about awareness and education along with these summer camps just giving the family some hope and some relief, respite and uh so you know that's just a big part of our our family taking all this on being you know, being givers and and and not takers and uh and and trying to help other families. I mean, that's that's the gratification that that

we're that we've received out of it. And uh and we'll continue that mission. And Lanier understands and knows that she wants to go to college and um, um she she has, she has a lot of things that she wants to achieve and um she's just a beautiful young

young lady inside and out. And you know, I have to say that Leslie single handedly brought her out of that deep, dark, autistic world to where she is today, and you know, we'll all be forever grateful for that because so many children get left behind and aren't aren't cared for properly, and it just breaks our heart. And so you know, we're trying to do something right here in North Florida that makes the difference. And you know, we have we have a lot of folks that have

been generous donators to UM, to our calls. UM along with the PGA tour early on, been a they've been a big supporter. So we live in a wonderful community and people are moving here in part because of what Leslie and her team of mothers. I mean, between Leslie and these other mothers of autistic children, I'm telling you, Matt, they they can truly move mountains. I've seen it, and uh, I'm just I'm just so proud of all of them.

And uh um, you know, without Leslie, uh, most of our dreams would never been you know, have never been able to come true. So that's a big part of it. It's amazing. I yeah, No, I've known you, Bobby for a long time. We've you know, and I've learned a lot about your career and your architecture. But when I met Leslie. I was like, okay, well this is this is the heart and soul of this family. I love you, Bobby, You're an amazing guy. But I was like, okay, Leslie,

is that this is like a rocket ship. I mean this is like, yeah, how do how do how do people help? How do people help? How how can people get involved if they're so so inspired? Well, our website is Heal Autism Now dot org and there's a little donate button you can hit it. I think Bobby has our web, our website on his Bobby bobbyweed dot com. Um. So yeah, I mean money, money, money is where it's at.

And you know, we we enable so many teachers, so many educators at school, and uh you know, I'll say, hey, once you write a grant, don't you need twenty five hundred dollars? And they're like what, Yeah, we buy smart boards, And I mean, you know, they get all the dregs, they get all the hand me downs, and these teachers

are just it's like they've won the lottery. We always go in surprise them with iPads and call them all to the office and they think they're in trouble and they're just jumping around and kissing us and you know, the kids are excited. So well, it's a wonderful tool. It's a wonderful tool for all of these public schools

and all of these teachers and therapists as well. So U it's proven, it's proven to really open up new channels and avenues that these that these children and young adults have never have never had because a lot of them can't hold a pencil, but they can tap and

they can swipe. And that's why the iPad is just revolutionary. Well, it's incredible, and I can't thank you enough for sharing all of this with me and us and and uh and and and we look forward to then sharing this story with with with everybody you know who who who would be so inclined. It's it's just a it's a gift. You know what you guys are doing, and your story is a gift that keeps giving obviously day to day,

you know, week to week, month to month. I mean this kid to kid, family to family, it just keeps keeps going. Um, and so so thank you for all of that. It was it's been a very special Of all the stories I've told or you know, been I just this one is just one that just means so much more than most so well appreciate we appreciate that map. And you know, most people know Pete, Dye, Bobby we Tom Fazzio by their name and what they've done in

the golf business. But let me tell you, Tom Fazzio has a wonderful foundation and a very very giving individual. Pete and Alice had a heart of gold, and they were just such a dynamic duo and they did more than just golf course design. Uh No, different than Arnold with his charitable giving and Jack and Barbara as well. I mean, the story just goes on and on and on.

Ernie has a great school down in Jupiter. So I mean, there's a lot of folks out there that are that are helping to push the mountains to give these children

and young adults a better a better future. The Winnie Palmer Hospital in Orlando saved saved our son's life with if we weren't in that hospital under that care with a pro prolapsed umbilical cord, with our son, he had five minutes, you know, and and the doctor came in and said, if you weren't here and at this hospital, and that nurse hadn't identified that situation, you know, and that's the that's the Winnie Palmer Hospital, you know, I mean that was you know that, So you know what

I mean, And I know Jack is very involved in to your point, it's not just about, you know, leaving a legacy of old people running around and making birdies and pars and bogie. It's it goes beyond that. So

it is it is a pretty special community. Um this week obviously, and all the effort you put into saw Grass, Bobby, and this golf course and now what it's become as a players Championship, and going back to those days where you had to walk around with that notebook and you had to you had to take notes on what the players thought about that original design to where it is now. Does this week always mean just so much more to you than than a lot of other weeks that come

up on the on the PGA Tour calendar. No question, it harkened back to when I came here and and all the folks Um starting with Dean Uh and the vision he had and all the staff Vernham, Kelly Uh and then Tim finching behind him and now Jay Um leading the helm at the PGA Tour you know, all the charitable moneies that have been have been generated, not only here at the Player of Championship, but throughout the

PGA Tour. I mean, we're all about charity and giving and uh, it's a it's a family and for me here this week, um, you know, to host one of the biggest events um uh if not the biggest event on the AJ Tour being the Players um Championship course here and the Players Championship for the players. Uh, it's

very special. It's grown in every way from from where we were back in the early days and uh M to a point where all the other tournaments send their chairman here uh every year to see what we're doing here at Sawgrass and because it's it's showing the way for all these other events and tournaments to improve. And so it just you know, it takes the village. I mean, we have a massive amount of volunteers that that work tireless, tirelessly, and all of the PGA Tour event saying we have

great sponsors. So I mean it's just a it just feels good, it feels right, and the players, the players are just as good as they've ever been. It's the best tour on the planet and h the venue that we have here this week and coming up this weekend, you know, we'll be showcased all over the world. And for me to play a very small minute role in that process early on in the foundation and building of this property, it's a little bigger than minute. Bobby, I

think you get Pete. I think was like, hey man, you take this. I'm busy. I'm moving on to other things. Bobby, you go back to Saga Grass and fix that place. Well it turned out it's turned out to be a great golf course and a great venue and uh, I'm just proud to be here and I'm gonna enjoy some of it this week. But uh, it does. It does bring back some very fond memories of some you know, a lot of hours and a lot of changes and

transformations that have taken place on this property. But to be where it is today, it's one of the preeminent events in the world. Yeah. The the you know, your guys, is life. I mean, you guys, it's a movie, it's a book. It's books. I mean, you have you know simultaneously, you know, as a family. But Leslie, what you're doing

with heal and obviously Bobby's involved there. But but what Bobby's been done doing in his career, you know, going on to build Michael Jordan's private golf court, Saga, all the all the different projects you've been a part of, your relationship with the Dies and then beyond and all the people that you've met. I mean, it's been the life.

The life you guys lead and could very easily have been one where you get you know, tunnel focused on yourselves, but you but here comes Lanear and all that you got. I mean, it's just it's just a very it just seems like a very enriched, uh you know path that you guys are on in a way with the people that are involved and the giving that's going on, as you said, you know, not being takers, but being givers.

That's something for all of us to learn from. For me, the perspective, you just to provided we get caught up in this live verse tour and this is this is then and that is then and you know, but you can see that this has actually brought the PGA tour closer. It's getting them to kind of refocus on what their product is so to speak. I mean, I just think it's important to keep looking at things from a big picture,

the philanthropic aspects of what the tour has done. I think we we get we forget that, and I think, uh, thank you for you know, helping us remember that this isn't always just you know, checks for the winner and uh and and it's and it goes, it goes much further than that. And I think you guys are an example of that. Is that would that be accurate? Do you think? I mean, is that kind of no question? No question. I mean, nobody's bigger than the game of

golf itself. Uh, golf is going to live on. It's very healthy today and we're in a good spot, will continue to grow the game. A lot of folks, all the allied associations involved in growing the game. So uh um. You know, the game of golf is worldwide and um um, and it has far reaching impacts on on on lives, um through the charitable benefit of all the events across the country. I mean, it's a it's a nationwide it's a nationwide and global game today and um and we're all, uh,

we're all part of the game. We love the game and it gives us so much more than just the golf itself. Um so I think we're all blessed to be where we are. I know, I'm very blessed, and uh, I don't, uh you know, I'm I'm I've never really had a chance to take a mulligan. So I'm playing. I'm playing it down every day and uh, you know, you just take you just take what it gives you and deal with it. And that's you know, it's part

of life. I mean, it's very similar to life. That goes back to your guys's first date where you told me you had to see how she plays it out of these she played out. I remember that story, right, didn't that go back to the first day of date. Yeah, that's right, that's right. You watch how people play through the through the tough parts of a round of golfer. You knew right then you had something a lot of hilaritas. Yeah.

Uh well, um, uh just just give me one last reflection and and and obviously I would imagine it's a week like this that you you probably think about Pete and Alice every day, but uh, this week in particular, I miss Pete and Alice. I got the pleasure of getting to know them quite well as my you know, my career went on and followed them and had conversations and went to their house and got to feel the warmth you know, of them as people and not necessarily

as this architectural tandem. Um is this is this a week in which you think about them more than most, no question. I mean, Pete's been gone, um a little over three years now, and it just seemed like it flies by. There's probably not a day that goes by that um. Um something that that he said, or something that he taught me, or I asked myself, you know, what would Pete do or would Pete approve of this?

So uh? Um Yeah, it's um, you know, the duo of Pete and Alice, who for for the longest time, I think we're probably the most powerful two people in the game of golf and um and you just you just never could tell it because um, they were just so immersed and uh. And then to parallel that with deemed Demon and his vision and what he had done with the tour um uh when when he came to pon Avidra and grew and grew the tour to what it is today. I mean, we have a lot to

be thankful for for Dean. I wrote him a note last night and sent it to him. I wrote Vernon Kelly a note last night as well, early early, early on. Um. You know, they they really, they really um um together had the vision and brought this tournament Players Club to where it is today and UM, we're all better for it. And you know Tim Fincham you know, took over and did a great job. So I'm I'm very very thankful for the mentors I have, Uh, I've had access to,

but these guys are so dedicated. They're so so so dedicated not only to the game but to the PGA Tour and doing the right thing. Um just conducted themselves

in the right way. And with the hundreds and hundreds of millions billions now I think in charitable giving across the country, I mean it's impacted so many lives and you know, to volunteer for this event to give back and then to see how much money is being distributed to all the local charities, Yeah, we received money from them too, So it's just it's just it's just a wonderful, warm feeling. There's so much gratification that goes with it.

So yeah, it's a it's a special. It's a special week for us, and uh, it's one for me to reflect back on. You know, where would I be without being being and where would I be without Pete die in our forty five year friendship and relationship. Um, you know,

it's just I don't know. I have no idea. I'm just fortunate and blessed to be where we are today and back then, like forty employees when they started one little building and now you know, now look now, look at what's going to transpire this week and how many people are going to be around that golf course, that seventeenth green that you know that that that do you?

What do you remember about that, Bobby when when they're making the island green, that was there any part of you that was like, I don't know what the hell we're doing? Well you, I may guess you were already familiar with island like at that concept? Was that just mind boggling at that time? It was I think kind of evolved. Alice obviously had a lot to do with that, but it evolved. I mean, we have an island green from yeah, a little eader fob and and then I

know there's another one up in Connecticut. Um, I think at Weeburn so um um. But nonetheless it evolved and um turned out to be an iconic golf hole, you know, one that people loved, one that people hate, but you know, regardless, Uh, it has a tremendous amount of drama and uh, you know, people just flocked to it and uh it's just been it's just been a real staple to the to the golf course, to the event and uh and I'm sure, I'm sure it'll be it'll be a big factor this weekend.

Uh here once again to get sand. That's why they were doing they were trying to want to get some sand. Yeah, yeah, we needed we needed sand and uh in that particular area had quite a bit of sand. So we kept they kept mining the sand out of there, and and the next thing, you know, we had a peninsula, and then the next thing, we had an island. And because we needed all the sand that we could possibly find on site, and a lot of that sand came between

the ninth and the eighteenth golf holes. It's probably the probably the biggest lake on the golf course and and the source of most of our sand for capping capping the golf course. So you know, stadium. Golf evolved a little bit during that process. Obviously, the golf course evolved, and you know, it goes back to what Pete always said, you know, she'll be a golf course built by a set of plans, and I'll show you a bad golf

course because it truly happens in the field. And nobody was in the field more than Peepe And so you know, a lot of that he handed down to myself and many others that are out in the business today. So we're all we're all better for it. We're all very grateful and hum every one of us have Pete and Alice to thank for for much of our career, but also leaving a legacy of golf courses, much like much like some of the great musicians or you know, leaving

their music music behind for us to enjoy. Um. You know, all these great artisans are leaving golf courses here for future generations to enjoy and um. And that's a great thing about golf. Well, I know all about your your music collection, your record collection, the actual vinyls which which which which I were thoroughly enjoyed that night going through that was that was incredible. Uh. Lastly, what you know

you talked about. There isn't a day go by that you think something that Pete might have said or would Pete approve? What? Give me a couple Give me a couple of nuggets that that you'll always think about when you get going on a project or when you're assessing your own work. What what What are some of the

things that he taught you that always go through your head? Well, he always uh, at the start of a project, even talking to an owner about a new project, you know, one of the first questions he always asked was who was he building the golf course for? Who? Who are we building this golf course for? Because that's that's very, very very important and um so uh first and foremost, UM, I think you have to understand that on the front end,

and the fact that he was never completely satisfied. He always thought that whatever he was working on shaping and molding a golf hole, um, you know, there was always something that he would go back and say, you know, I think he could be better. Let's change this or or or or let's just keep rubbing on it until he gets better. And uh. It was always somewhat funny because the saddest day for Pete always was a day we grasped the golf hole because he couldn't do anything

else after that. But that didn't stop him. That didn't stop him. If he wanted to make a change, he could make a change. And uh, you know, he was a great salesman. Um. He was so passionate and um, I mean he could you know, he could say he could sell Rachearl's prescription sunglasses that he needed there, I mean he was he was just he had that great Midwestern wit about him and uh, um he just um,

he treated everybody equally. He treated everybody the same, and that's that was That was an important takeaway from me. It didn't matter if you were um in the trenches, putting in irrigation, putting in drainage, running a piece of equipment, um, if or the superintendent or the owner. I think he

seemed to be able to treat everybody the same. And you know, the bottom line is if you were a lover of the game, you were a friend of Pete Dies And so a lot of a lot of that mum has been handed down to many of the folks that worked under Pete and worked for Pete. I've often said many many times that as uh for in regards to his legacy of all the great golf courses he designed, um another aspect of his legacy was all the people that he impacted and brought into this business and into

this game. I think that's an equal component of his legacy, that family tree that he has of all the people who've worked for him and all the tentacles of his legacy. He analyzes legacy, you know, and obviously you're a key component to that. Always considered you know, a third son, a third die son. Basically you were you were on that. But I mean that that to me is is tremendous.

I tried to do that story and create that that family tree, and even then I was missing missing names, and it keeps going on and on now to this day, it just keeps going. So modern architecture whatever is referred to as modern architecture, obviously Robert Trent Jones Senior, but also Pete Die that that Pete Dye is the man. I mean that there's arguably arguably the greatest modern day

architect of all time. And right now it's only you know, Pebe's the last representative of that of that family immediate family, I should say he felt lots of cousins and relatives that are actually in the business as well. But Phoebe and I are talking about teaming up and doing some work together. Yet once again, so um. While we started a company back in the eighties, UM called die Weed Die for Pete, Phoebe and myself called a die Weed Die.

But now we're just like to die weed. So I thought, I told Peven like, we might as well keep Pete's name in there so we can just maintain the die Weed Die a name. I say that every year every day in my yard, Die Weed Die, Die Die. How is how is? How is your? How many projects do you have going right now? What's your what's the status of weed design? How how's it going? We're small by choice. We don't take on a lot of projects just because

we kind of operate similar to how Pete did. And more often than not, I'm moving to the site and um and working and being hands on. I've got a great partner and associate, Joey Graziani working with me that I'm bringing him along and he's he's the future of the business in the industry, just like so many others.

And again I think that's inherent upon me, which also gives me a great gratification just like it did with Pete to bring home in terms and students and uh and give them a platform an avenue to ultimately go out on their own eventually one day. And so that's open one in Jacksonville. That's a big part. Yeah, we just opened another golf course here in Jacksonville call still Water first course here in almost twenty years. We've got some good projects going on. We're always chasing a few projects.

So Waynesville, we're blast, we're blasting, fortunate. We're we're finishing up a project in western North Carolina right now in Waynesville, North Carolina, Waynesville and Golf Club, and so we're excited about that. So last week I was back out in Austin and up in North Carolina, back in South Florida. So um, we're constantly, we're constantly on the run. And uh,

it's great, it's been it's been great. And we're just like I said, very fortunate and blessed and uh um to have a few projects that we can we can work on and keeps us playing in the dirt. You know. The one thing that big takeaway is you guys are each other's biggest fans. And that to me is is what I talk about to my wife is when I you know, anytime I'm talk to you guys, or I'm around you guys, or I see you guys, or I

get little bits and pieces, it's very obvious. And I think that that is probably why all of this has worked with so much. Uh, you know, so that's why you guys are so effective. That's why you guys are able to do what you do and have had the impact you've had and uh and that also extends now to your daughters and certainly obviously Lanier. So all of this is just so inspiring. Thank you again for letting us in and uh and sharing your story and uh it keeps going on and on and uh and uh

and thank you. I just I guess that's probably just the best thing to say at this point. It's just thank you for being you and for doing what you're doing. Yeah, you're kind and generous. You're kind and generous, and thanks for taking the lead and running with us, and uh it just helps get the word out even more so you're doing a big part and helping us as well. So thank you, well that talk about a minute part that would be that would be that would be an

appropriate use of that term at this point. But uh yes, Bobby Leslie, thank you and uh and uh and nothing but hugs and loves to Lanier as she continues to change the world. Thank you, Thanks so let us know and thanks us know any time you're heading back to North Florida. Yep, that you're always my first, my first text, my first call ever. Will spend some vitals in, put another log on the fire, nobody hears. Get the time