See & Free Studio: Meet Eric Gilliland, PGA Golf Pro at Louisville’s Audubon Country Club

Intro [Music] welcome to see free studio this is jen and this is the place where you come to figure out what's unique special and different about you i'm very passionate about talking about your usd because i think once you know it and you feel it it drives your decisions your choices and it helps you get through some tough times and i want everybody to have that feeling of knowing their value and their potential everywhere they go and i think this next guest has found that in his career and his family and over the years that we've known each other eric gilliland is in his 21st season as the pga head golf pro at audubon country club in louisville kentucky he's the proud papa of three children tony connor and libby and libby has followed in dad's footsteps as a member of her golf team and at the university he serves on the executive committee of the colon cancer prevention project he plays 100 holes of golf to raise awareness and money for the group but a little known fact is that you're looking at eric's worst caddie ever after catting his junior golf tournament in san antonio texas when i was younger i found out that real golfers have to walk the course and so do their caddies and so that did not work out for me clearly was not my usd but eric went on to be very successful golf pro and i'm so glad he's joining us here welcome eric thank you jen it's great to uh to be invited and uh you're selling yourself short i mean i think this caddy thing could still be a possibility for you so don't give up on it yet thanks i appreciate it i think the first time i carried for you i was probably as tall as your golf bag so that's how long ago that was true yeah but but i have gotten uh to know you over Where are you now the years and uh and watched you uh you know we grew up together and we've grown up together since but it's been a fabulous time getting to know you and having you in my life you want to tell everybody where you are and what you're doing these days sure i mean again you launched this whole golf career for me so i guess i owe it all to you but uh this is uh as you said my 21st year at ottoman country club kind of found my way into the golf business through playing in college and really had no intention of being in golf at all um i was interested in government and history and that's what i studied and was on my way back from the conference tournament my senior year and my roommate said you really need to try oh if you're so eating up with golf why would you go a different direction at least try the business so i deferred graduate school for a year really liked the golf business and stayed with it for another and next thing i know i'm 21 years in at ottoman country club and it's just been a really great ride yeah yeah and um and i've never actually What is your USP seen the club but it sounds like a really fabulous course there in louisville so if anybody ever is in town please go see eric he'll give you some tips and and help you play the course you know eric one of the things we talk about is you know your usd your unique special and different goes beyond the job and your interest and so when you think about your usd what would you say it is you know i think i've kind of tripped into that jen i i didn't realize when i got into the golf industry just how varied the the the job of being a golf professional would be you know you bump into somebody at a golf or at a cocktail party who's a golf crow and and the kind of questions that that pro would be asked is uh where do where do you play or what what names do you know uh you must play golf with tiger woods it must be great to play golf all the time and you know as a as a golf professional at a private club we teach i i with my my wife own the golf shop inventory so we merchandise and do everything that's involved with owning your own business we do tournament operations junior programming charity outings right now i'm working with a world-renowned architect on doing a social putting green in a short game area that's good for kids and families there's just so many different things that come along with it so when you ask what is that usd i guess it's it's kind of a an understanding of of what people are looking for how they enjoy their experience um connecting with them and and using all the various skills that that i've developed over the years to connect with people in all those different ways so when i come to work uh one day i may spend half the day working on a tournament that we have coming up and the other half may be instruction with a four-year-old and then a senior who's 80 years old trying to hit all 10 yards further and there's there's i think something special not just within me but within all golf professionals to be able to have that kind of diversity of day and be able to to excel in each of those things and make people feel um in a way like you're their best friend i feel like i have 300 families that are that are my best friends and it's just been a really fun way to spend every day Discovering your passion yeah i love that and do you think i mean having that attention to the experience that people want um and and you know helping them set their aim high and and shoot for it do you think you discovered that when you were younger and then you just recognized it as you got older or do you think it's something that you it that's evolved over time i would say a lot of that developed in college for me that was when i really started trying a lot of new things and stepping out a little bit you knew me when i was young i was a very shy high schooler middle schooler not anxious to take risks and i think the more the more opportunities i took to put myself in places where i was not comfortable the more i realized what i was capable of doing and uh each each time that probably pushed me in this unique direction that i finally landed in and uh you just you find out in this profession that it's a wonderful platform to do so many things more than just be a golf pro it represents a lot of different things but there's so many more things you can do in your community uh with this platform and so many tight relationships Favorite part of your job tell me what's your absolute favorite part of it i mean working with all those different types of people providing all those different kinds of experiences do you have a favorite thing that you like to do to provide that experience all of the things that i mentioned i love doing i love to teach because that's the deepest connection that you make with your members um i find probably the most rewarding instruction to be with junior golfers because the appreciation that comes both from the junior and the excitement that comes from success from a junior is really really special but also the the parents realizing the value you have again i feel like i'm a part of so many different families and you see these young people grow up to be successful in a lot of different areas whether it's golf or otherwise some come back to uh to be members of the club which is really really neat to see and and when they become avid golfers you feel like you you've done something for them giving them a gift that they're going to be able to enjoy for the rest of their life so that's the instruction part of it we're able to connect with a lot of charities in this business we do 10 to 13 corporate slash charity events a year and almost every one of those is tied to an organization that needs support from the clientele that we serve and so it's phenomenal to see groups like down syndrome of louisville colon cancer prevention project within my work cystic fibrosis foundation all of these organizations are supported by events that we run so there's just so many different ways in which you you find yourself fulfilled through this work that's great Do you still enjoy the game you know eric i i think the thing that was going on in the back of my mind and and i'm not anywhere near a golf pro if i were up to me i'd play like a 3-wood all the way through and you can use use a t which i know is sacrilege for you um but you know for you to choose this is i mean the word pro right that that's a certain standard of playing uh you know do you still enjoy the game from a recreational perspective yourself as you're playing it and and you know what have you learned about yourself as you've played over the years well sure and that's a great question i do still love to play um the responsibilities and the position have grown so much being a golf pro now in 2021 is so different than it might have been for my mentor dick brado when he started it was very much teaching instruction club fitting not not so much budgeting and uh data-driven work which i haven't mentioned but there's a lot of that behind the scenes as well but when i can get out there it's i most enjoy it with my family and friends i still enjoy competing but it's difficult to go out there and compete when you know you haven't practiced what you preached so when i'm working with uh better players you know you're you're trying to get those better players to uh work really hard at what you're teaching them and to put in the work and i found myself for a number of years really just showing up at golf tournaments and and hoping it worked out and i wouldn't advise that if you're paying large entry fees to play in tournaments but there is still even going to those tournaments and playing with my peers and getting a chance to compete allows me to still get those butterflies and and feel what it is that that i'm trying to teach my students um i have one right now that uh we're hopeful is going to make it on the lpga tour she's down in florida playing in events and you know still getting getting out there and playing in events myself allows me to connect with her in a way that i wouldn't if more playing i will be a senior this year which means i get to move forward a little bit this fall so that's pretty exciting for me that's very cool can you explain what Becoming a senior that means what does it mean to become a senior sure you're right you're right i need to i need to be fair to the whole audience so when you turn 50 in kentucky the kentucky pga events are played from what's considered a senior t or slightly less so when you're built like me five nine and and not exactly cut like most athletes it's nice to be a little bit further a little closer up to the green so when you hit that t-ball you have a little less club in so um they don't let me use a 3-wood and a tee all the way around the golf course being a little closer is going to be helpful Advice for future golfers i don't think they let me do that either eric if it makes you feel better um well i mean i'm so glad you still enjoy it because i mean i remember growing up you really did as well and um and you just it's you seemed natural like that was just your space and and i think for me the reason golf never caught on is because it required a lot of quiet precision and and deliberate kind of intention none of which i had mastered but you clearly have so i think i think it's wonderful that you've pursued this and have found your passion and been able to share it with others and as you've shared it with others i mean is there any advice you give people who are thinking about going into this field now that you've shared like there's a lot of breadth to it it's not it's not just getting out and golfing it's it's a it's a business that you're running and an experience that you're providing any advice you give well again i do think it takes a special type of individual and we're fortunate there are so many of them out there all over the world that are that are spreading this great game and in a covered year golf has actually had a huge resurgence so rounds of golf were up over 20 percent uh in the united states people figured out that it's a great way to spend time outdoors to spend time with family in a safe way and i don't see that going away anytime soon so if i were to speak to somebody who's expressing interest in the business i would say if you're okay working weekends and working when everybody else is playing that's a good start because it's it's a very different kind of schedule you have to make a lot of sacrifices family-wise to to be in the business but i i just can't fathom for someone who's passionate about the game and has a a varied skill set um and uh and the it the it that i try to hire in every individual that that comes into my operation i've been fortunate to have so many golf professionals uh that have worked under me go on to become head professionals or leaders in the industry um if you've got that that passion and that that ability to connect with people at least give it a shot you know if you're a decent player and like to teach and and have that connection and i've got some in in the golf shop right now that are working with me that really have that it factor uh you can be extremely successful and you can be very uh rewarded in your work that's great Give it a try that's great and i think that's great advice is just give it a try like that's something i think all of us need to do more of and you talked about that that was a moment for you in college where you got uncomfortable and you took risks and you gave it a try and it's worked out for you so i think that's fantastic to share with others and to get them out there in that discomfort and to triumph over it um eric this is a part of the show where i like to ask a random question and the good news is the the only choice you get in this is is to pick a number between 1 and 25. and therefore you have some control over what the question is well i'm a huge aaron rodgers fan so i'm going to go with number 12. which one what number number 12. 12. all right okay ooh i have no idea how you're going to answer this what is something that you collect and why oh gosh you should know the answer i do know the answer um and i'm gonna stay with it so uh in 1980 uh i was playing little league baseball and uh was really really into everything baseball and uh started collecting baseball cards and uh also became a pittsburgh pirates fan in 1980 which uh the significance of that is the pirates haven't won anything of significance since 1979 and i became a fan in 80 and i'm still waiting but i started collecting baseball cards behind those bubble gum packs and flipping through all the cards and i'm kind of a numbers geek so i'd put them all in order of batting average and earned run average and all these things but the date now i would say i have somewhere over 50 000 baseball cards and uh my wife susan she's wonderful she got tired of looking at all these binders and she bought me these really nice they look like books the way they're bound and they sit on shelves in our bedroom now and don't look like baseball cards at all so i feel like we're both i remember those binders you had so many of them you're the one that taught me how to read a baseball card if i remember um we had shoe boxes and binders i mean there's so many of those things i remember that um well that's that's great i didn't know you were still collecting so i and i think right that's worth something the baseball cards if they are i don't know that i could ever i don't know that i could ever sell them but yes they would have some value for sure yeah hopefully one of the three kids will want to keep them Charity work okay yes i i suspect they will those are definitely mementos and dad has had them forever kids so you definitely want to keep them um eric you do i want to make sure that you talked about you give a lot to charities and they're involved with a lot of charities and here at scene free we want to raise awareness for charities as much as possible so that our viewers can get to know those charities and help them with their cause and and impacting people so with that i know you're supporting the kohler colon cancer prevention project you want to share a little bit about the organization and why it's important to you absolutely so um at the age of 36 when my children were were all very young um i experienced a little bit of rectal bleeding and uh didn't really know what it was didn't think a whole lot about it but brought it to susan's attention and she had very fortuitously just read an article about 10 symptoms you should never ignore and that was one so fast forward to what happened i wound up having an emergency resection on my colon i actually had colon cancer at the age of 36 no family history no reason to believe that i had any any possibility of having any form of cancer i had a pretty healthy lifestyle so it took a few months to recover um and uh i will say that that uh my mom and your dad were phenomenal through the whole ordeal helped out with our family quite a bit because it was tough for susan as a young mother to have me down for a while but uh i was very fortunate to make a a a full recovery i had a surgeon who uh knew what i did for a living and wanted to make sure that he he did an aggressive procedure to to return me to my lifestyle so eventually once i kind of got my legs under me again i thought well this is a new lease on life for me this is an opportunity to as i said earlier use my platform uh use my relationships to drive awareness uh and make sure that that folks have symptom recognition and so i got involved with dr whitney jones organization the colon cancer prevention project in kentucky a lot of folks would would think maybe we're a little bit of a backward state and with colon cancer prevention we absolutely are and at one time we were 49th in colon cancer screenings in the country we were really terrible we have a lot of environmental issues and habit issues in kentucky particularly in appalachia uh and inner city that that exacerbate that problem so we uh we as an organization are very uh on the offense uh we're not about uh helping people uh at the end of this process were about beating this thing uh at the start so we uh uh in the years that whitney has has led the project and amanda smart our current executive director and with our board's involvement we have gone from the 49th state to the uh 20th state and in the nation for colon cancer screenings we've had a 25 reduction in incidence 28 reduction in mortality and so every year we we come up with a new plan uh where are we going next how are we going to fight this thing and beat it back and what's scary jen is that people are getting younger and younger that are getting this and so that's why i play a hundred holes every year uh we within our membership it draws attention to this issue and they've raised over 70 78 000 friends and family at audubon since 2013 just with our little uh a little work for the project so we're just going to keep on battling this thing because it's unnecessary most of it's preventable and if we uh if we get people paying attention we're going to continue to be successful yeah we will and i'm so glad Closing that you're healthy and doing well and that your doctor took care of you uh and our parents took care of you as well um you know and thank you susan for reading that article and and pushing him to go to the doctor everyone needs one of those in their life somebody in their family that just says no you should go um but that's phenom those are phenomenal results and congratulations to the colon cancer prevention project congratulations to kentucky because that's you know that's those margins are phenomenal so please everyone if you're watching and you've heard eric's story you know one get yourself checked out and two go check out the colon cancer prevention project if you're listening to us on spotify or apple podcasts you could go ahead and check it out online and if you're watching us on youtube or linkedin we'll have the code up again here in a little bit for you you just need to take your camera snap the qr code and it'll take you right to the donation page so we want to make sure we do as much as we can to help people find this disease early and fight it with that i want to thank you eric for coming on the show and giving us the opportunity to check in with each other i've really appreciated the chance to do that today and eric thanks again my friend i miss you and i hope to see you soon thanks so much for having me jen it was a pleasure and i want to send us off with a reminder that everyone can subscribe to cnfreestudio.com and check us out on youtube or linkedin or spotify or apple podcast and you can probably find us everywhere at this point we're so glad you come back every week and talk soon [Music] you