Southern State of Golf
A podcast dedicated to all things Golf in the South - courses, resorts, logos, food, travel, & more! Follow @SSofGolf on social media and email your favorite southern golf things to John at southernstateofgolf@gmail.com.
Southern State of Golf
Talking Golf & Food with Ryno Reviews
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This week, John is joined by Ryno Reviews to talk food in golf.
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Welcome to the Southern States Golf podcast. Hi, I'm your host, John, and I'm excited for today's episode. I've got Ryan from you may know him from Rhino's reviews on TikTok. Ryan's got over right at 50,000 followers on TikTok. That's crazy amount. Ryan, how are you doing today?
SPEAKER_00I'm doing great, man. I'm looking forward to talking about golf and hot dogs and anything else you come up with.
SPEAKER_01Oh, well, we can certainly do that. Well, tell us, Ryan, just give us a little bit about your journey and how does how does a person decide, you know what, I'm gonna start posting on TikTok and I'm gonna make this a thing to the point where you got nearly 50,000 followers.
SPEAKER_00Well, I started before COVID. I was a Pepsi sales rep and I traveled around to all these mom and pop selling soda, and they all had hot dogs or some kind of grill. So I started, and then when COVID came, it kind of stopped. That was before TikTok. That was YouTube and Facebook and Instagram. And then when COVID ended, uh we were at home, and I she kept Melissa kept showing me videos. Look at this person, look at this person. I'm thinking, I can do that. I can do that. I mean, I can do that. So I just started out, and my goal was to find the best hot dog around the Midlands area or whatever. That's how it started. And that was in I don't even know, like 2024, maybe or 2023. I'm not sure. Anyway, and it just it was crazy. It was like a hundred followers, then like a thousand, and then twelve hundred, and next thing I know, it was five thousand, then it was ten thousand, and then people started recognizing me, and it hadn't slowed down. It's I guess like you said, it's almost fit, it'll be fifty thousand this week, which is crazy to me for a guy who drives a dump truck and eats hot dogs every day.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think your reviews are uh entertaining, they're relatable. Uh I just I every time one comes up, I I I love to listen to him. But then I you know, it wasn't that long ago where I started saying, man, he does golf too. He starts posting about golf. So tell so tell us about your golf journey. Where did you learn to, you know, uh, you know, uh start loving the game of golf? Is this something you picked up later in life or is this something you've been doing for a long time?
SPEAKER_00It's it's been stages. It's been uh when we were in high school, we had a we had a free golf course, a state park called Picket Thomas, that you could go play for free. It was a nine-hole course. It wasn't great, but it was free. And then we had White Condes, which is now Pine Creek in Camden, 18-hole course. And we had the nine-hole course, which is pretty close to you, closer to you, up 34, called Green Hill. And that's where we really started playing golf. We played uh scrambles every Wednesday night. In the summertime, we played 18 holes. In the winter, we only played nine, and then we just played whenever. And then again, like COVID kind of slowed us down because golf was so you couldn't get on the golf course hardly because everybody was working from home, everybody was working from remote, or wasn't working at all. They were at the golf course. So it kind of fell back a little bit. And then recently, I worked for a construction company and we went and played the last year a couple of times, and when this started warming up this year, we just started talking about golf, and everybody got enthralled by it. Like we got eight or ten guys that went and bought new clubs, got lessons, uh always talking about golf. So we're we're a little crew of construction workers between four and eight of us, they go play every Sunday, and then another crew plays every Friday afternoon. They get off work. So it's just one of them things that it's something you can do that you don't have to be great at, like we talked about before we went on. You don't have to be great at it to enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01Oh, you're 100% correct. I love the game of golf, and I'm terrible at it. I I I just I I love the play. I did see that you posted you were looking for the best golf instructor in the Midlands, in the Columbia area. Have you have you found one that you like? Have you taken any lessons yet?
SPEAKER_00Well, I got a lesson tomorrow at 4:30 at Fairway 24, the golf simulator in uh Blackwood. I don't know if you've seen it before, but it's inside. It's air conditioned. It's uh track man ran thing, and uh, we went out there, a group of the same group that I played with, we went and played like uh St. Andrews and Pebble Beach one Sunday. It was too hot, so we went and played that. So anyway, the guy from Fairway 24 reached out and said he had a guy named Rohan. So I think he's uh foreigner, foreign guy. And I'm gonna meet him tomorrow at 4:30 to see if he can help me hit my irons better because I just don't make good contact with irons.
SPEAKER_01I get it. Well, I'm I'm excited to see see what the review is with there. Tell us about Fairway 24, because that's not far from where I'm at. And I know that it's starting to become a bigger thing now, these indoor simulators. Tell us about the experience you had there.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, uh the thing about it is this it's it's personless. So you sign up and they give you a code for the door. So you show up at whatever your allotted tea time is, you press the code just like you do maybe on your on your home uh a door, and you go inside, and there's three bays set up, and it's got a bathroom, and it's got snacks, and it's got a couch, and it's got a TV. And you just go in and sign up, and you can play wherever you want. We like you said, we played nine holes on St. Andrews that more that day, and then we played nine holes at Pebble Beach. And it's just a simulator, uh, and it gives you all the all the facts that you want about your swing and speed and and ball spin and everything else. So you can go in there actually and just hit balls and get the information like a track man, or you can actually play golf. So if you just want to know, you know, how well you hit your seven wood or you know, your pitching wedge or whatever it is, you can just go in and just hit like at the driving range. But, you know, if you got and I think it's I think it's around, I want to say it's $65 an hour. But if you take four guys, you know, that breaks it down to like $15 an hour. And you know, if you pay four hours, that's $60. And you're gonna pay that for a round of golf on Sunday anyway. It's not gonna be air conditioned. There's probably not gonna be a bathroom and snacks, you know, at free will or a couch or TV. So it's pretty economical, I think.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and too, it won't be blazing hot either. That's gotta be a bonus.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think their main marketability is like hot summer and rain. Rainy days when you can't go hit golf balls, you can always go in there for an hour and hit away if you're trying to work on something in particular.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I I think that that is an awesome thing. You know, one of the things that I love about your reviews, you know, you you your food reviews, but I know you did one the other day. I it could be a little bit longer than just say the other day, the the Hartsville Country Club buffet. That thing looked fantastic. Now, was that something you had after your round, before the round, or were you just going in there just to eat that day?
SPEAKER_00It was afterwards. Uh it was afterwards. Uh we were set up to play that morning. We played at 8, I think 8.15. We got done around 12.30 or whatever it was. And you walk in there, and there's a lot of people who come that don't play golf. Like, I guess it's like the local spot for like after church, maybe on Sunday. There was a lot of people dressed up. It was a packed house, and it was really good. It's 20, 20 bucks, 20, 20 and some change. I don't know, with tax or whatever drinks. Like 23 bucks, I think. But I mean, it was like five meats, 10 vegetables, dessert bar, salad bar, cold bar, ice cream machine. So you definitely get your money's worth. And and that's as far as we played so far, that's the best uh looking golf course we played uh this year. And you kick in a buffet, that's even bonus points.
SPEAKER_01All right, Ryan. What is your favorite snack on the course? Or do you like to eat anything while you're out there playing?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, if I don't get a good breakfast, I'll generally have the uh orange toast tea crackers and a sweet tea, or maybe a Pepsi. Something like that at the turn just to get through. So uh lunch isn't never guaranteed. And depending on the course we go to, they may not have something really good to eat. So I'll definitely eat a pack of crackers, um, a snicker bar, and you know, a tea if they have it. If they have sweet tea, that's a bonus. If not, I'll drink a Pepsi or Coke.
SPEAKER_01I I understand. Well, tell me what what's the last course you played?
SPEAKER_00The last course we played was Kershaw uh golf course up in Kershaw. And uh it was kind of crowded Sunday morning. So um I was gonna talk to those guys about they don't really have tea times. So everybody just kind of showed up. And we had guys that were there at 6.15, and a group of eight was in front got in front of us somehow. So we split and it started on like four. And you know, and then the group behind us, they started at three, and then it just got to be a cluster, and it wasn't well put together. And I get it, it's a country golf course. They don't have a lot of rules, and you know, the people I think the people that was in front were members, so they took precedence over us who are not members, but it made for a rough day of uh golf. But it was still fun. I mean, we still played, and you know, we we Kershaw's close to us. We play uh I'm going to Pine Creek in the morning. They did red six greens, and they got one that's still uh they just resolved it, but the other five are playable now. So I'm gonna go check out Pine Creek in the morning in Camden and see what it looks like.
SPEAKER_01Well tell me, what's your favorite thing about playing golf? Why why why did you s you know, why do you like to play golf?
SPEAKER_00Well, I'll be honest with you. I I realized years ago that I'm not great at golf. You know, I think that's the biggest part about playing golf. Either you either you're either gonna try to shoot 65 or whatever you're gonna try to do, or you're just gonna have a good time. So you either gotta make that decision. And I don't get me wrong, I try to get better, but it's not make or break for me. If I go out there and shoot whatever, 90, or if I shoot whatever, I remember the good holes, the hole I made a birdie on, or the great chip, or a great putt I made, or whatever, and it doesn't stick with me anymore. But I also play a lot of well, I guess what you'd call fantasy golf, and we got a bunch of golf pools we play. So it's a big deal. A bunch of the guys at Camden Country Club. Uh, we got a we got a weekly pool, we draft players. So I watch a lot of golf. I watch more golf than anything but college football. So I watch a lot of golf. I enjoy, I watch a lot of YouTube golf. I watch those kids. I like the Brian Bros and Grant Horvath and Bob Dust Sports. When I come home from work and take a shower, after I eat, the first thing I usually do is see what's new in YouTube golf. I just love, I just love golf. I just golf my thing. I guess I just like I enjoy watching other people play.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, when you're do you like to play with other people? Are you okay playing by yourself when you go out? I mean, I I'm one of those that I love meeting new people and playing with new people. It doesn't, you know, if I go out as a single, I love being paired up with different people, but I also don't mind playing by myself. How do you like to play?
SPEAKER_00Well, generally on the weekends it's always a group. It's always either four, six, or eight of us will go. But tomorrow I'm going by myself. And I like going by myself because I can just go. You know, I don't mind playing with somebody new or whatever like that, but I like to go out there, hit some balls, and then I'll start it, say tomorrow morning like 8:30, and I can just run through it. And if I want, if there's a couple holes I don't want to play, I just skip them and I just, you know, you know, play what I want to play. A lot of times that's what I'll do out there is I'll play, I'll play nine holes, so it's the nine I want to play. It ain't one through nine. It may be one and then six, seven, eight, and then I might skip a couple and play 13, 16, 17, 18, and that's my nine, and then I go uh home. So I like playing by myself, I really do.
SPEAKER_01Now tell me why why are you skipping a hole? Why are you skipping holes?
SPEAKER_00Because there's some I like to play more than others. Okay. Um, like there's a couple, like the the best hole out there, I think, at Pine Creek, in my opinion, are the two are the two holes I really like to play, are 16 and 18. 16 is a far three over water, and 18 is the coming into the clubhouse, there's a big pond there you hit over. It's it's it's a it's a fun hole. The water's not a problem. You're hitting over the water, but it's still, I like those holes. And but then on the front, I like one and uh like four, five, six, and seven. It's just I don't know. There's you know, a par four, a general par four is just like a you know, a 350-yard straight line. There's most courses have six or though of those, you know what I mean? There's not really anything that stands apart on a par four. Usually par four is just 400 yards straight down the straight down the way, and they got you know six of those. Uh I'm just, you know, I'm trying to get in and out because I I got other stuff I need to do. I got food reviews I gotta do tomorrow. So, you know, um, and I'm just trying to get it done by 1030. So I'm not really I'm not really skipping holes per se. It's just a nine I want to play.
SPEAKER_01I I'm I'm with you on that. I'm with you. Now, now tell me what got you started on wanting to do some golf content as well. Once you you did some of your food reviews and you got some cool golf content out there. What do you like? What got you going with that?
SPEAKER_00Well I feel like I don't know if you've watched any of the YouTube stuff, but it's like it's one of the hottest things on YouTube right now. So I feel like right now, while my uh my my social media is hot, I should I should take advantage of it, I guess. So I don't know, maybe people want to watch me play. I hope they do. Um so I I don't know. I mean, they want to watch me eat hot dogs. I figure they maybe want to watch me play golf, and I'm hoping so I'm hoping we can bring a little different uh aspect to it. We got a we got a golf tournament in a couple months that I'm doing with just construction guys. Like, you have to be a construction guy. I don't want scratch guys, ringer guys come out there taking the money. It's all guys who work for local construction companies, got a lot of sponsors from construction companies. So it should be a fun time. You know, most guys like to swing it, even if they don't do it but once or twice a year. So uh I I don't know. We're filming, we're filming next Sunday at Hartsville. It'll be the pilot episode. I'm paying a guy to come in and supposedly do a really good pilot broadcast. So we'll see what happens after that. If that's something that's good, then it'll continue.
SPEAKER_01I think that's great. I I'll certainly want to watch that because I I I enjoy watching people play. And right I think I'm more interested too in watching, you know, the people have fun while they're playing and the the talks that you have with people in between. And yeah, I I'm also interested in the food too as it comes out on there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's what I hope to catch is the candid, like the cart cams when you're riding to the ball, what you say, you know, and we got some really good, we got a couple guys who shoot low 70s. So we're gonna probably try to team up and beat those guys, or or we're gonna have different kinds of little, you know, make it interesting. It won't be just going out there and watching us get our butts kicked up and down the course. We'll make it interesting, make it fun. You know, you know, I think it's pretty clean. I try to keep everything pretty clean, just because I don't know who the audience is. So it'll be a, you know, it may be a little on the edge, but not nothing crazy. Because, you know, I know I got some old ladies who watch my uh watch all my boot reviews, and I don't want to pick none of them off.
SPEAKER_01No, you you certainly might, with all those followers, you'll certainly if you don't do a clean a clean show, somebody might say something to your tattoo. Well, tell me, what is uh you know, what are some of your favorite courses, you know, that you like to play?
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, I've only played places like Wood Creek and Cobblestone like once, or Camden Country Club once. Now I'm thinking about possibly taking up, I got a bunch of friends that's at Camden Country Club. So I'm thinking about going there and playing, checking it out. I really don't want to become a member of a place because I don't want to like you talked, we talked about earlier. I like to play a lot of different golf courses. Like I know people that play Camden play Camden religiously. Like they go out there Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoons and Sundays and everything. But I like going to Linric or Oak Hills or some of the lesser, uh like you said, the uh woodlands. We used to play the woodlands a good bit before it was bought out. So I like anything. I don't have a pro I mean, Mid-Carolina Country Club uh played it. We'll go wherever and play. We're not good enough to critique a golf course to say it's a bad course. You know what I mean? Like a a good course is bad for us. Like a good setup is probably bad for me. Like I need bunkers, I need easy bunkers. I don't need the you know, Augusta National bunkers, I don't need water everywhere, every turn, and I don't need thick rough. So, you know, I smell like the country golf courses. Just take the bush hog and run it down the middle and give us a big lane to hit a drive into, and then hopefully we can get it near the green on the second shot.
SPEAKER_01I'm I'm I'm with you on that. I will you know, to me, golf courses, you know, I I like uh the conditioning of it, but I also like the service you get too at the these different places. That's a big big part of it with me. But a lot of it is the people you play with.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01You know, are you having fun with the people you play with? And to me, that's that's a big part of matters. Now tell me, do you have a bucket list of courses you want to play or you know, a couple here in the south? I I would imagine, you know, you with 50,000 followers, you're probably you've probably gotten some invitations to go play some places now that you start getting a little bit of some good places to go.
SPEAKER_00That's my hope too. And that's the thing I tell people, it's like I don't want the money necessarily. I like the convenience of it. I like the guy at Edgewater reached out, the superintendent. We're gonna get up there and play Edgewater, supposed to be nice. White Plains is supposed to be really nice. I talked to the owner up there, we're gonna get up there eventually. Bucket list, for me, like they're building a new one in Pit Mount Pizzas called Candy Root. I don't know if you heard of it. Um it's Michelle Wee. Michelle Wee actually is part designer or whatever, and that's one of them deals where you pay like $150 a day and you play, only 40 people play a day, are allowed on, and you can play as long as you want. You can get there early as you want and play all day, as many rounds as you want. You gotta walk, of course. Um, Broom's Edge and Rimbert. Uh Buddy of mine's father is the maintenance guy out there. We're gonna get out there once they reopen. So that's a Brooms Edge is a bucket list, but that's that one there's gonna hurt my feelings and heart and everything else because this is so long. I mean, I this is I watched the Bryan brothers play it, and I'm sure that they play from the tips, but there was a hole out there. I can't remember which one. But it's like 280 to the fairway from the tips, but still, and you know, uh you're gonna have to get right with one and get down there. But um I'd like to go back and play. I haven't played Aiken in forever. It's this really short course. I really enjoy that one. Uh, I want to bucket list, if you're talking bucket list, I want to play Sallgrass. Like, I'd love to play Sallgrass. I don't want to pay $700 to play it, but I will, you know, if the opportunity arises. So, yeah, a lot of Southern golf courses. I'd love to play the new uh the new course Tiger Woods put together up at, you know, near Augusta National. You know, at some point we'll get down there. So um old Barnwell, Pre Farm, all those places, we'll end up going there. Now that we're playing golf and we're willing to travel, we'll end up knocking off everything that we want to do, that we're available to do, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, those are all great golf courses, Janane. Candy root. I I I can't believe that Kershaw is going to have a a golf resort. And right that that's I mean, it sounds like an amazing thing. I'm ready for the preview play to start up and Broomsed. I I did I did have an opportunity to play it when it first opened, you know, like his first week it opened. And I no, I did not play it from the tips. Absolutely. But I actually thought for God, I don't hit it long. But you know, it's it it's demanding for the guys that want to crush it in certain spots, but for a very average golfer well, let me let me back that up. A below average golfer like myself, it was very playable. I mean, it wasn't one of those where you know, I it was just as easy or as hard as any other course. Oh, they're all hard for me. You can put no bunkers straight away. I'm not setting any records, but Bream Sage, I I really, really, uh, really enjoyed that. And you know, all those other ones, the the patch down there and August that you talked about. Yeah, I didn't get a chance to play the big course. I did play the their little the par three down there. That's a lot of fun. Right. That's why I'd love to see more municipal golf here in the the Midlands area to be able to get some things like the patch, uh you know, the the things that they have down there. Well well, tell us what do you got in store? What are you planning for some of your you know, you've already teased it a little bit with your golf content. You got some other things in the work with golf that you want to do, or are you just having some fun while you do it?
SPEAKER_00Well, we're doing a we're doing a tournament August, I mean uh October 16th in Camden. Uh it's gonna be 36 construction working company teams, and we're raising money for food for the soul. I've already taught for that to talk to them. We're gonna pay for food for the soul for Thanksgiving and Christmas. So we're gonna take care of that. And and as easy as it was to pull it off, I thought it would be tough. I only thought I wanted 18 teams. I was just gonna do a morning flight and get on out of there. And it just uh sponsors came out of everywhere, and companies came out of everywhere. Like I work for a pretty big company, and we have a lot of vendors, I guess you would say, but like Blanchard, Caterpillar, you know, uh Peterbilt, Luxone, and Volvo, John Deere, all these people was just like, we want to be part of it, we want to be part of it. So it came out of Woodward. So I'm I'm thinking that's gonna be something we do at least twice a year to raise money for whatever. Like we'll just figure it out, like whoever needs it. And uh we're gonna do a big thing for Christmas for like Toys for Todd's kids who need Christmas. So we'll take care of all of that. For me, content-wise, I think if it's if it goes off well, which it will, just because I think people watch, and I I don't I hate to say it this way, but people watch what I do. Some people I got a pretty good following for a small town thing. So I think it'll be entertaining and it'll be popular for people, especially around South Carolina. So yeah, we'll we'll do golf content every Sunday. Like I said, I I got a uh pretty expensive camera guy who is confident that he can uh do it the right way. So we're gonna give him a shot next uh next Sunday. And what I'm thinking is we'll probably do content every Sunday and Monday, which will be the f it'll probably break on YouTube the following Sunday and Monday. But I'm hoping we get a lot of local people in involved. And I you know, I don't know where it's gonna lead, to be honest with you. I hadn't done it yet. You know, I know I know I can eat, but I don't know if I can pull off the golf yet. But I think I can.
SPEAKER_01I love it. I can't wait to see see how it comes out, how it how it goes down. What what would you tell people? What is the biggest surprise for you as you've gone down this journey creating videos on TikTok and you know, not only food, but now golf. What's the biggest surprise you got out of it?
SPEAKER_00Well, I tell people all the time that people ask me, I said, you got it, you have to post it. You have to do it. You have to put it out there. Nobody knows you. Like, well, most people don't know you. So the only way, I mean, this is crazy crazy to me. Middle-aged white guy drives a dump truck for 118. It's still amazing to me. Because I see, I watch a lot of videos, and people do a great job editing, they do a great job introducing, they do the whole walk-up, and they got all the razzle dazzle, and things pop up on the mine are just basic. I don't use any editing software, I don't do anything. I just take a video, post them, paste them together. But you got to post the content. I mean, people look forward to seeing what I'm gonna eat today, tomorrow, whatever. It's it's it's I'm telling you, we went uh uh we we go every time we go places, people reach out and ask, are you that TikTok guy? Are you that Facebook guy? I watch your videos. I went aid at Old South Catering Camden today, and uh the whole police force is back there eating lunch, and I stood over there and talked to them for 10 minutes, and then another lady and another guy and another guy, and it's just one of those things that you become somebody that people recognize and they almost like they know you. People send me messages all the time. Hey man, next time you're in Lancaster, stop by Johnny's, or hey man, you need to come down to Ladder or Lamar, wherever, all the time, all the time. And they talk to me like they know me because they I'm an open book pretty much every day. They know I drive a dump truck, they know I eat hot dogs, they know this, that, and the other about me, whatever I you know, tell them. And so you if you want to do it, you just gotta post it. I mean, people are making a lot of money on these on these sites, just posting everyday stuff. I mean, people are interested. If you're doing something people don't know about, just post it. People are interested. People just sit here and watch YouTube and and TikTok for hours.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I think it I think it's awesome. So you're telling me you when you post these videos, you're you're like a one take. There's no multiple takes. You can just do it one, then you just upload it and you're good to go.
SPEAKER_00Every now and again, uh if I'm if if I'm trying to do like I do a lot of ads for people now. I realize that people watch my videos, so then I was like, okay, now I did a couple ads from the company I work for, just saying, hey man, come buy rock, rocks from us or whatever. And it blew up. So then I started like, now if I'm trying to remember, I'm gonna tell you what, I can talk for 12 hours straight. Me and you sit there, we played golf, I talked to you for the whole four hours we played. But when the camera comes on, sometimes your brain don't, your brain and your tongue don't connect right. So yeah, there are some there are some takes. But once you start eating food, it's pretty much go. Because once I take a bite out of the food, I can't take, I can't put the bite back on it. So you get what you get. So mostly I call the order in on my way, I pull up, go in and get the food. I got a mount on my on my windshield, put the phone up there, hit go. It's like, hey guys, I'm at, you know, Jimmy's, whatever. I'm about to eat this whatever, it's great. You gotta try it, whatever. And then it's usually a minute to three minutes long. I was like, all right. And for me, it's a 9.4. Y'all need to check it out. Hit the button, and I just if it's more than one clip, I just put them in order, chronological order, one, two, three, hit next, and then it's on TikTok. I mean, it's it's there.
SPEAKER_01Now, I haven't seen you post any negative reviews of any places. Do you choose not to do any? Or is there some out there I just haven't seen yet?
SPEAKER_00I won't, I won't do it. I won't do it to a I won't do it to an independent. I won't do it to a mom and pop. I won't do it. I know a lot of guys do it, and that's where they they get their little you know, shock value, or this is trash. And I wouldn't dare do that to anybody. And there's a couple reasons why. Number one, I am no culinary genius. So what I might like is not what you might like. So me telling you it's nasty or terrible or no taste or whatever, maybe the total opposite of what you get out of it. Number two, and I said this at Old South last time I was in there, I said, if I take a bite of your broccoli casserole, I'm going to say it's nasty. Now, Melissa eats it religiously, she loves it. But it ain't because it's bad, it's because I don't like broccoli. So if I was to say though, man, this is nasty, somebody would say, Well, I'm not going to eat there. He said the broccoli casserole is nasty. Everybody's broccoli casserole is nasty. But mainly, I just want you to go. I want you to go try it one time. You know, I say it's great. You know, and I've I posted this a long time ago because people got on to me about you never say nothing's bad, you never, I'm not going to. So get it out of your head. I want you to just go try it. If it costs you six bucks, eight bucks, ten bucks. It ain't gonna be the most you ever wasted on food, you know? So if you don't like it, that's that's bad. And then it happens sometimes. People put in the comment, you lied about that, that's wrong. Well, we all got different tastes, you know what I mean? Like some of us love to go eat it, whatever, McDonald's, and other people prefer cookout or whatever the case. Some people like substation, some people like Jersey mics. We all got different preferences. For me to stop you from going because I say it's nasty is an injustice to those people. And I wouldn't dare never take try to take money out of somebody's pocket by saying their food's terrible. I just, you know, I might just be like, you can kind of tell by my facial expressions whether I like it or not. If I give it mid-eights, you know I probably didn't care for it. But if it's if it's good and I'd eat it again, it's a non-something.
SPEAKER_01No, I I love it. That's the way I feel about whenever I talk about golf stuff or a golf course or an experience that I had. I'm not, you know, I might have had some experiences that are not great, but I'm not gonna uh trash a place. Because what am I? I mean, I'm I'm just a dude that likes to play golf, likes the golf experiences. You know, I I'm certainly not gonna criticize you know other people, you know, like that. Tell me, what's the what's the most fun you've had playing golf?
SPEAKER_00Oh man. Well, I'm gonna tell you this. Back when Green Hill was open, we had that Wednesday night scramble, we had two man scramble, and it was two of it was me and my partner and two other guys. We always played a force in together. And it was a trash talking seminar. It was uh trash talking for four straight hours. It didn't matter. They beat us sometimes and we beat them, and it was only 10 bucks. It was like 10 bucks a side or something, it was like 20 bucks. It wasn't even enough to pay for the go. But I mean, we would we get that $10 bill and we make them sign it, we'd hold it up, and we we acted like we had just beat Tiger and Field at Dagum, you know, Pebble Beach. It was the greatest, it was just fun, you know? It was just fun. We had a big pot for whoever won. But just to I, you know, for a time there before everybody started having kids and life and things changed or whatever. It was just we look forward to Wednesday every day. And it was a small golf course, and sometimes a course would flood. But we'd get out there and just have a good time. And hey, there's nights we'd stay out at midnight playing cornhole, you know, for five or ten bucks or around, or we'd go eat chicken wings after. It was just simple like that. You know, that's the funnest I've ever had. It's not necessarily the golf course, it's just who you is, I think.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's something we've always said here. Um golf is people, and that was one of the things that we we simply love about it. Well, tell us what what do you you know what what do you look forward to getting better? Is there a particular part of your game you want to get better at, or is there what you trying to do with that?
SPEAKER_00My goal tomorrow will be consistently hitting my irons the same every time. Like there's sometimes I flush it, and there's sometimes I chunk it, and there's sometimes I thin it. And I I've gotten a little better with my pitching and chipping, but long irons I just can't figure it out. I drive the ball fine, probably 12 out of 14 long holes. I I'm I'm satisfied with my driver. And I don't put well, but like I my main goal is just lagging it within a circle. You know, just get it up there, close, whatever. But like, and and like I say, uh I play with a kid, he's a senior at Lugo Fashion High School, and he actually, his name's Hayden, he actually gave me some tips on uh making contact with my wedges, close around the green, which was good. But I still, man, my there's just times, my seven, eight iron, they just pitch and wedge. Like sometimes I'll crush that thing, and sometimes I don't crush it. And it's hard to play good golf when you're supposed to be hitting it 150 and you hit it 170 or 70. And if you hit it 70, that's even worse. I even I don't even mind. If I crush one and it goes over the green, I'm like, hey man, I hit that one great. But if you hit one terrible and you chunk it down there and leave a, you know, leave a skid mark on the on the fairway, it sucks, man. I just I haven't I I don't have a good contact point when my when my irons go in consistently.
SPEAKER_01I I'm with you. I'm the same way. It doesn't even bother me if I make great contact and I fly green because I actually hit the ball well. I was like, I didn't think I'd hit it that good. All right, well, tell us who would be if you could who would be in your dream for some of people you could play golf with? Any any three other dudes or or ladies that you want to play golf with, who you who you want to play with?
SPEAKER_00All right, start with I'm going uh John Daly. Uh, because I I mean I just feel like that would be a great time. I I I would like Tiger is one that maybe you would and maybe you would like to see Tiger up close, just watching the preparation and uh everything, that would be one, but like probably not in this force of. I would play the Bob Dor sports guy, Robbie Berger. I'd play with him. I think he's a great guy. He's not good at golf, but somehow he's turned it into a uh a dynasty of you know of playing golf. And uh I don't have to play with Charles Sparkley. I think, you know, I want to play with guys who aren't gonna go out there and and and shoot 63. You know, I want to I want a bit of laugh. And maybe Michael Jordan. I know that's an extra one, but like somebody like Michael Jordan, who is the elite level of our tra of our era, you know, of growing up, the elite of the elite in sports, and now has like dove headfirst into golf to where it's it's a religion. Like 36 holes a day, built his own golf course, built up the shape his, you know, his fade. Every hole is is shaped to you know his the way he hits the ball. I I I love that. I love seeing all these sports guys that are getting into golf. It used to not be that way. You know, golf was just kind of stuck in the corner, but now LeBron James has a channel, he's playing golf, and you know, everybody's getting into golf because I think that camaraderie of three guys card and playing and having a good time, I think it's it's it's taking over. It's it's it's there's a resurgence in golf, I think.
SPEAKER_01I I'm with you a hundred percent. Well, Ryan, man, I appreciate your time so much tonight. This has been awesome to get to meet and chat with you. Tell tell people where where can they best find you or and find you on social media and you know see your content.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so my name is Ryan Branham. If you're from around here, there's a million branhs, so you know that's you can find that on Facebook. Uh Rhino Reviews on TikTok and YouTube, and then on Instagram, I think it's Rhino Loco, but it's you can find it. It's those uh reels go pretty pretty high as well. So anything with Rhino or Ryan, I think you can probably find it. But yeah, I you know, reach out if you got a place that you want me to try, or if you have a golf course you want me to try. We will travel. So I love eating new places and I love playing golf at new places. And and me and you, me and you need to get together and uh hit some as well. I mean, maybe, maybe once candy root blows open, we can get on that uh opening soon and go up there and and walk it for 18 holes.
SPEAKER_01Man, that sounds awesome to me. I I don't need much of a reason to go play golf with anybody. I think it'd be a blast to play with you. We'd we'd certainly have a good time, and I can't wait to see some of the golf content you got coming out. I think that there's gonna be some fun stuff, and we'll make sure we put it out there on our social media uh channels as well. Well, Ryan, thank you so much for your time again today, and I appreciate everybody listening to another episode of the Southern State of Golf Podcast.