Ridin’ with Rymer Episode 10: Country Music Singer Rudy Gatlin

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Ridin’ with Rymer Episode 10: Country Music Singer Rudy Gatlin

All the gold is at Pine Lakes Country Club! Charlie is joined by Country Music singer Rudy Gatlin on episode 10 of Ridin’ with Rymer. Watch as they have fun at Myrtle Beach’s first golf course, known as “The Granddaddy”

Show Transcription

Charlie: Today, all the gold is not in California, it's right here in Myrtle beach at Pine Lakes Country Club. I'm Charlie Rymer, and this is Ridin' with Rymer.
Charlie: Rudy, where are you?
Rudy: What? I'm right here.
Charlie: I'm going to tell you what, Rudy.
Rudy: What?
Charlie: We don't normally do this show like this, but you're not normal, so we're going to do a little bit different. So give me hug.
Rudy: Oh.
Charlie: So we've got a couple of old guys here, granddaddies. This is the granddaddy of them all. This is where golf started, 1927 Myrtle beach. Did you play then here?
Rudy: I was here. Yeah, I shot 300 that day.
Charlie: I'm sure you hit with Hickory and all.
Rudy: Oh, sure.
Charlie: All right, well you've already messed things up. Go get in the car. You don't drive. You ride. It's Ridin' with Rymer.
Rudy: We can change it to riding with Rudy.
Charlie: No, this is my show, Rudy.
Rudy: It was your show.
Charlie: No, this is my show.
Rudy: It could be my show.
Charlie: All right, so Rudy, let's go back to the last century. I'd say 85 to 95, the celebrities that played golf, you were the top of that list. You are the top dog, weren't you? There wasn't anybody better than you in the 80s and into the 90s, on the golf course, that sings or entertains her living, was there?
Rudy: No. I was number one. I was playing so well. People said how you play? And I said, "You know, I'm thinking about playing blindfolded." It was that easy. Golf has done incredible things for us, in that we're just old field trash from Odessa, Texas. I can remember-
Charlie: I'm not going to feel sorry for you.
Rudy: But we just grew up simple, hardworking, and then all of a sudden we're playing with all Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Crenshaw, Kite, Curtis, all those guys are our friends, and through the years, we got great relationships with them. And a couple of country bumpkins from Odessa, Texas, golf has just really played a big part in our life.
Rudy: The music has of course, the hit records and singing and touring, and I've been over the known world and parts of Wisconsin.
Charlie: Mr. Palmer loved hearing you guys play. Tell me an Arnold Palmer story.
Rudy: Well, he played in our senior event. We had two senior events, the Gatlin Brothers' Senior Classic in Reno, Nevada, and the Legit classic in Abilene, Texas. He was just AP. If you called him Mr. Palmer, he'd correct you, "Call me Arnold."
Rudy: Palmer, good Lord. He came to our seniors event in Reno and just lit the place up because, "Arnold Palmer's in town." It was a regular event for a couple of years.
Charlie: At Legit?
Rudy: At Legit. It was the last tournament on the tour and you know what the purse was?
Charlie: At lot less than it is now.
Rudy: $350,000. Deane Beman called me one day and say, "Well, you've got to bump it up. Rudy, one of these days, these guys are going to be playing for $1 million."
Rudy: And I went, "You're kidding. No way." Million dollar purses.
Charlie: All right, Rudy, you'll notice that my golf ball is right in the middle of the fairway.
Rudy: Whoa. Wait a minute. What are you doing out here?
Charlie: I'm going to show you how to properly play an eight iron, but we've got this guitar here.
Rudy: Oh, we do.
Charlie: It might be cool. Would you play me that song? The one that you all did so well with its [Singing 00:03:20] You know the one I'm talking about?
Rudy: I've got your [Singing 00:03:26] right here, buddy. I won't bother you back here, will I?
Charlie: No. You can't bother me at all.
Rudy: [Singing 00:03:35].
Charlie: I think I made it.
Rudy: You might've made it.
Charlie: Sing it for us, Rudy.
Rudy: [Singing 00:03:49] Now, the real country version is, well, you would know, being a country bumpkin. "Oh, that they're gold in California." [Singing 00:04:11].
Charlie: I'm going to tell you what folks, Rudy's like me, he talks a lot. People that talk a lot are seldom correct, but you've been telling me for 15 years about this kid by the name of Scottie Scheffler, how great he is. And I'm sitting here, and he's turned into a heck of a player. He's a rookie on a PGA tour right now, won the USGA junior championship. You were right about this kid. Tell me something about Scottie Scheffler.
Rudy: He owes a lot of it to me, and I'll tell you why.
Charlie: Hold on.
Rudy: You lost your breakfast. Are you okay now?
Charlie: Yeah. Scottie, you a lot of that to Rudy.
Rudy: Yeah.
Charlie: But go ahead and finish your story.
Rudy: Because at Royal Oaks, Randy was working with him-
Charlie: Randy Smith.
Rudy: Randy Smith.
Charlie: Yeah.
Rudy: He would say, Scottie, now look over there. Now, see that guy there? Don't do it like that. And that next guy, Oh for God's sake, don't do it. And see Gatlin? Do not do it like that."
Rudy: I'm taking some credit, showing him a perfect example of what not to do. Don't do this.
Charlie: Well, whatever you did or didn't do was perfect because he is a heck of a player.
Charlie: In all seriousness, you know I love cutting up. But to watch a young man put all that work in, have a great teacher in Randy Smith through all those years, and then make his way the PGA tour, that's just got to be something that was fun for you to see.
Rudy: It really was. Since he was six, seven years old.
Charlie: Who is the most fun person you ever played golf with? Just straight up fun.
Rudy: One incredible story would be playing with Jack Nicklaus.
Charlie: I don't think about him being fun to play with. He's scary to play.
Rudy: Fun, scary. But we played at Palm Springs, at the Skins game one time. I took the Nicholas clothes that he gave us at Muirfield.
Charlie: Yeah.
Rudy: And I took them out there and I hit some good shots with Jack. I was playing with Jack. I wanted to get a good shot from Jack. The golfer of the century said, "Good shot." Come on Jack, give me a little something.
Charlie: Yeah.
Rudy: But it'd be like him singing and me going, "Yeah, that sounds good, Jack." I'm probably not going to compliment his singing.
Charlie: No. Definitely not.
Rudy: But I knocked some in, like this. Come on Jack, give me ... Well, we played at a golf tournament, TPC a year later, and I got to play with Jack. Three guys hit, then I hit, the Jack went last.
Charlie: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Rudy: I said, "What the heck?" 275, sawed the top half of that ball off. It's on a rope, and all of a sudden the crowd from up ... We had a big crowd, all the way down the fairway, all the way around the green. All of a sudden, "Woo!" The noise just starts coming back down the fairway. It hung on the lip.
Charlie: Would have been a driver driver.
Rudy: For a double Eagle, in front of the golfer of the century. And I almost got to turn to the golfer of the century and say something, ladies and gentlemen, that had never been said to Jack Nicklaus, and that was, "Jack. Nevermind. We don't need you."
Rudy: Can we go play some golf or what?
Charlie: Well, I'd rather just talk.
Charlie: Come up here on this tee. I just want you to hear a pure strike.
Rudy: Just hear it?
Charlie: Okay?
Rudy: Uh-huh (affirmative).
Charlie: That's going to require you to not talk, which I know is very challenging.
Rudy: Okay. It could hurt my ears.
Charlie: A little closer, maybe. This is just pureness, right here. Are you listening? Are you ready?
Rudy: I'm ready.
Charlie: How pure did that sound?
Charlie: All right. So talk to me a little bit about Myrtle Beach. Gatlin Brothers were based here for four years. You guys had a theater here. It was a pretty good setup because you'd play at night and you'd play golf during the day.
Rudy: My toughest decision every morning was which golf course am I going to play today? That was it.
Rudy: I think I played 36 different courses.
Charlie: So you didn't even get half of it in four years.
Rudy: We tried. We gave it our best shot.
Rudy: Thanks for a great day here at Pine Lakes Country Club. I've been looking forward to come over and doing this for a long time. I really enjoyed it.
Rudy: What do you got there, caddy?
Charlie: Rudy, this has got so much left to right in it, there's no way you can miss it left.
Charlie: He's going to miss this low and right.
Rudy: Low and right, you think? Oh.
Charlie: Was it low and right? Nothing's changed. You still don't listen to me, Rudy.
Rudy: This putter right here.
Charlie: No, no, no, that's mine.
Rudy: Watch this.
Charlie: No, no, no.
Rudy: I wonder if this thing will fly.
Charlie: Rudy, come up. Give me the putter.
Rudy: Okay.
Charlie: Thank you, Rudy. Buddy, it's always fun hanging out with you. I appreciate you coming riding with Rymer.
Rudy: I enjoyed riding with you, Charlie.
Charlie: Finally I found Somebody crazier than me. Come on, Rudy. Let's go on and I'll buy you some iced tea. You're going to need it.
Rudy: Yeah. I need something to just calm me down a little bit. They was low left. I thought I had ...
Charlie: I know.
Charlie: Book your next vacation or get a customized quote at myrtlebeachgolftrips.com.
Charlie: Rudy, where are you?
Rudy: I'm right here, Charlie. How are you doing? Now, where's reverse?
Charlie: That's what I was worried about.
Rudy: Yeah, Charlie.
Charlie: Now why don't you do it the way we were going to do it, Rudy? Get your ass back over there.
Rudy: Get your ass in the car, Charlie.
Charlie: This is going to be a tough show.
Rudy: You might want to use some of that.
Charlie: No.
Rudy: It was funny. I thought it was funny.
Speaker 3: If someone asked you to ride with Rymer, what do you say?
Rudy: If you asked me what? What was the question? If someone asked me to ride with Rymer, what would I say? Well, I'd say I thought I was riding with Kelly Tillman. That's who that guy was. I've seen him. Was that ... He was the guy that was ... Had a great career on the tour for about 30 minutes. That's awful, isn't it?