Welcome, brewsers, to another episode of the Buffalo Bruise Podcast. I am your host, Jason Ettinger. It is Tuesday.

It is Brews Day, and you know what that means. Hey, I'm starting off the episode here. I've got in my glass, it's Sagamore Spirit Rye.

It's a rye whiskey that's produced out of Baltimore, Maryland. Their original spring house there was built in 1909 on the Sagamore farm in Maryland, and they use naturally filtered spring water that's fed from a limestone aquifer. And they use that same water that fuels their champion thoroughbreds that they breed on site as well.

But this water is used when they're distilling their whiskey, and they use a good spice of rye, which creates this revolutionary type of rye whiskey that they create. So it scores as a 95 in some of the latest whiskey issues, and it looks like they were a platinum medal winner back in 2016 as well. It's a proprietary blend that's sourced from actually Indiana rye whiskeys, but then it is produced using that water in Maryland.

The tasting notes that you get on the front end of this, which I enjoy, are caramel, a little oaky, cinnamon, nutmeg. Get more of the nutmeg and kind of a clove finish on the back end. And then there's a hint of a spiced, like an orange peel in there, which is very inviting.

It's got a good, it's kind of hot when you take this one down on the first sip, and a nice high hug for this. So I really enjoy it. And a little sweet on the back end too.

I don't know if that's maybe a brown sugar note that's in there, but I quite enjoy this one. So we're opening up the podcast this week and talking about, there's just a couple of things that were going on. This is actually supposed to be my audio diary of my four-day golf weekend, but what you'll get after the break is going to be kind of just a dissertation of how the four days went, including a little bit of beer tasting that went on there as well.

I realized when I was doing my audio diary, I sounded like an out-of-shape 60-year-old because I was out on morning walks trying to gather my thoughts, where I'm thinking that I'm thinking clearly while I'm walking and enjoying nature and the quiet, and it just turned into me just babbling about nothing. So I figured while I can gather my thoughts, you could get a more comprehensive sight and sound of how the weekend went, because we have so many great golf courses around the western New York area. This just happens to be a four-day venture that I took out to Rochester as part of the Brian Jacobs Veterans Classic.

But this week, including this past weekend, I was able to travel up to Bond Lake, and we did about three and a half miles of hiking up there. And Bond Lake is actually one of the best disc golf courses in Niagara County. So I went up there with Sabrina and Shannon, and I kind of surprised them both by packing away a disc golf set in my backpack.

So we found ourselves doing a lot of hiking along the golf trail itself that went through the woods. So we stopped and we, you know, monkeyed around with one of the holes and realized that, you know, none of us can really throw a frisbee that well, so I guess it's going to be practicing for us, but we all want to play some disc golf down the road, and Bond Lake might be one of those opportunities. We did stop at one of the trail ends and watched a group of guys that were on the hill, and you know, you could tell they've been at it for a while.

They knew how to throw it straight and far, unlike the three of us. So something to look forward to down the line. One of the other hiking trails that I've been at a few times so far is Emery Park.

And at Emery Park, they have some of the golf holes that literally run through the middle of the woods. I didn't even know that it existed there until I'm hiking through the woods and I realized there's a disc golf cage that's literally in the middle of the trees, and hiking a little bit further, that's where the trail's kind of connected to the golf trail that's there at Emery Park, and I realized that they actually have one of the most challenging courses in all of New York State. So maybe with some experience down the road one day, we'll be able to play at Emery as well.

So that was quite fun. After Bond Lake, we were in Ransomville, so we took a little jaunt up to Wandering Gypsy Brewing. I had only heard of it by name, I'd never even so much had seen pictures of it or knew what they carried there.

But we get there and we realize that they have different brews from other breweries around the area. So I enjoyed the Thin Man 11-Day Power Play, which was a coleslaw that they had made for the fundraiser, and they also make these bomb-tastic breakfast sandwiches that we enjoyed. So we got to sit outside, it was a little bit of a cooler morning, a little eating, a little drinking beer, hey, it was 11 o'clock in the morning, it was fine, and some great conversation.

So that pretty much encapsulated my Saturday morning, got home and changed. And then for me, for those of you who might have seen my live video on IGTV, Professional Wrestling is back. After 17 months, live crowds are coming back.

Anybody who's been watching on television knows that the organizations like AEW, WWE, NXT, they're all already entertaining live crowds locally. Buffalo Championship Wrestling, Nickel City Wrestling, and then my favorite personally is Empire State Wrestling. So we went down to RiverWorks to take that in, sold out crowd there, a lot of energy in the room, well I should say the room, we were kind of outdoors on the ice rink out there.

But it was, you know, what great energy, and it's always great to connect with some of these guys. So, fun fact, is I am part of a little MARC group, kind of a crowd plant group that we call ourselves the Chop Card Guys. Essentially what you're looking at is a bunch of guys who are holding up scorecards like they used to do back in the figure skating days in the 70s and 80s.

And you would, you hold up the cards when they would do a maneuver that's called a knife edge chop, which is basically the equivalent of slapping your opponent's chest. And for somebody who wrestled professionally for four years, it hurts like a bastard. So especially when you get somebody who really knows how to lay them in.

So we would always hold up scorecards. We have our favorites out there. Shout out to folks like big time Bill Collier, Jay Freddie, who is a, he's a Chop Card Guy, and one of our newest Chop Card Guys is Invincible Vince Valor.

So we had an opportunity to meet up with them, a few pictures that I'm going to post online for the evening. And, you know, we had just a great time with professional wrestling being back. I like to look at it because for me it's my idea of a soap opera.

52 weeks a year, never repeats, there's no, there's no break, there's no off season. So it's, you know, it's always something that I've enjoyed. It was kind of a first love as a kid, you know, growing up being a, you know, a Hulkamaniac and growing up with stars from the 80s.

So it was really great to take that, take that in. So what I want to tell you about now that that's behind us is that there are two events because we like to drink, we like to drink, you know, bourbons, beers, you know, we like to go see things. We like to go do things around the Western New York area.

So I've got two things that you can put on your calendar. You can put one on your calendar for this week and then you can mark your calendar for a couple of weeks from now. And here's how this goes.

This Thursday, that's August the 5th. So August the 5th, meet me and folks from the Buffalo Brews podcast. We will be at Windy Brews down in Strykersville and we'll be down there from 6 to 9 p.m. We're going to be taking in some of the beer, some of the homemade pizzas.

I got to find out what their pizza special is for August. I meant to look that up and I sadly did not. If you are looking for a fantastic interview to watch, I would encourage you to go back to Episode 4. That was from April the 13th, I believe it was, and my interview with Russ William, who is the brewer at Windy Brews, and listen to the story about how they came to be.

And it's one of the most downloaded episodes that we've had to date. Fantastic interview, and I love going back down there every time. So Thursday nights, they might have a new beer release, we don't know, but they do have cornhole tournaments.

So if you want to come down and get in on the action and be my partner or bring somebody with you and partner up, get in on that tournament because they actually will advertise the winners and who knows, maybe there's some prizes that are involved. So come on down. The first one, Windy Brews, that's out in Strykersville from 6 to 9 p.m. The second date that you want to put on your calendar, and this is going to be coming up in a few weeks from now, is on Tuesday, August the 24th.

And this, again, is going to be a 6 to 9 p.m. meetup. This meetup is with the Western New York Beer Trail. So found out from Tom Whitmarsh, who's the head of the Western New York Beer Trail, that they're going to be doing their first ever meetup.

And that's going to be at Rusty Nickel Brewing. That's located in West Seneca. And if you go back to our Episode 1, that was the interview that I did with Tom Whitmarsh.

You know, a fantastic interview about how they came to be. We're looking for pass holders, non-pass holders, and potential pass holders in kind to come on down and join us for an evening to meet up and to say hi. And I had the opportunity to be asked by Tom to be a moderator for the Western New York Beer Trail Facebook page.

And I enjoy, you know, the photos that you folks will post for the trail calls. What are you drinking tonight? I love that you're sharing pictures from, you know, around the area, even outside the area. So, you know, keep those coming.

Join up. Just find us at the, it's the Western New York Beer Trail group. And you know, you just have to join the group.

We give you an approval. And you know, come join us. So August the 24th, that is going to be a Tuesday night, 6 to 9 p.m. at Rusty Nickel Brewing in West Seneca.

As I've mentioned in previous episodes, part of coming home from being an active duty service member or from a long time deployment, there are difficulties that our veterans have with transitioning back into everyday society. I'm part of several groups that help with that from a social standpoint, and it's really helped with my social base, especially over the last four or five years. The first one that I have talked about frequently is Team RWB.

We're looking for enrichment in the lives of our veterans, and we do that through group activity. One of the things that you can do, especially, we have a large group of runners that are a part of Team RWB, and if you like to run, if you like to even walk, what we do is on Wednesday nights, starting at 6.30 p.m., we're usually down at the Buffalo Naval Park, and we'll do our thing down there, usually out to the Erie Basin Marina and back. And once we get back, we have some space there, actually at the Naval Park, where we're actually able to congregate and talk and kind of wind down, and it's a wonderful opportunity.

We have things that are going to be coming up as we're coming out of COVID, but now with the, I hate to use the words, Delta variant, but things are starting to tighten back down again, so I think we're going to have to wait before we can get back into our big social gatherings, like our monthly meetups. We usually, on the second Wednesday of the month, we would get together and have a few beers someplace and just have a little camaraderie and compare some notes. One of the things I do miss was the opportunities that we had to go up to the VA hospital and visit our veterans who were part of the in-house program, they were in our nursing home care.

We would do activities with them on a monthly basis, but when COVID started, they moved them to a different location, so we haven't been able to do that in well over 17 months, and I miss that. I miss talking to folks like Captain Cole, just being able to make that connection with them and to know that we're there for them constantly. But we'll get back there.

If you want to join us, if you like to run, if you like to walk, if you like the fresh air, the waterside down by the canal, you can join us down at the Naval Park. Like I said, it's Wednesday night, starting at 630, you can come down and take in a few miles with us, and then sit around and just chew the fat for a little while. Great group of people, Jeff Gray is the leader of our local chapter, he's actually a senior master sergeant with the Air Force Reserve, and a fantastic individual, I can't say enough great things about Jeff, I love him like a brother, and he does so much for the folks in the area here.

The other organization that I have talked about is PGA HOPE, and PGA HOPE I kind of tripped on almost by accident, because it was an opportunity for me to get out and really socialize with a large group of people on a weekly basis. I hadn't played golf in nearly 20 years, and I wasn't that good then, and I'm not really that good now, so I'm just gonna put that out there right now. But one thing that I found out about the PGA HOPE community is, you have got a group of wholehearted guys and girls who put it all out there for the guys that are serving, who serve, and all in the name of the game of golf.

I've talked about support groups in the past where you could sit down and talk about what ails you in a room, and you never get judged by the other people in the room because they're in a similar situation, and the same thing here. You've got your good golfers, you've got your bad golfers, but I'll tell you what, aside from some playful heckling, you're never gonna hear anybody talk to you about how bad you play, and I am thankful for that, because trust me, I've had some real stinkers of some shots with the HOPE program this year. But this is my second complete season, well, theoretically my third season.

I did a full season last year under the mask, and then I did a winter season that we did at the Paddock Golf Dome, which was a lot of fun, but our graduation week was cut off because that was the week that everything happened with COVID, when everything went into the shutdown that Friday. And then this is the second full season that I completed, and the big difference from last season to this season was I got to individually know so many more people. Coach Brian Jacobs, he is a PGA professional that runs out of Mill Creek Golf Club, that's out in Churchville, New York, and Rochester.

He has been integral in bettering my game. I used to hit a driver and I would bruise my hands after five or ten swings because I just didn't know how to grip a club correctly, but with the help of folks like himself, Rob Kijewski, who's one of the teachers there at Glen Oak Golf Club up in Getzville, I've had the opportunity to really jump in leaps and bounds in my golf game. And that led me to the invitation that I got the weekend before last to go to the Brian Jacobs Veterans Golf Classic.

It was the second annual. I didn't know Brian well enough to consider the first one, and I was still kind of coming up through that social exercise that was going to the HOPE program, but kind of come out of my shell in the last year, big time, obviously talking to you on this podcast, all one, two, three, four, five, six, maybe five after this episode, I kid. But it's been really enlightening to work with people like Brian who not only have deep caring for our veterans, but is the most patient teacher in the game of golf that I have ever encountered.

Even during a game of golf with him, like I did play around with him, he was taking time to educate and teach and motivate, and it's just invaluable what he brings to the game of golf and to all the veterans that were there. So imagine, if you will, 16 people who come together, and essentially we're camping for three nights, and this is, so long story short on the location was, we were supposed to be on property, which was essentially Brian's property, but that changed because we've had these deluge of rainstorms that come through in recent weeks. I believe that we had almost eight inches of rain in the month of July locally, but I think that came in like three spurts because one of those I was caught in literally in Lockport, and in the time I was in Lockport, I'm pretty sure it rained about three inches in the hour that I was there.

So they moved the location to what was at what would be Mill Creek Golf Club, is where Brian teaches, but they used to own a short course on that property, and it's not there anymore. They closed it down because it wasn't turning a profit. So what's there now is basically just the parking lot.

You can still see the old clubhouse that's there. It's all overgrown with weeds, and then they mowed down this platform that's down off of the parking lot, which essentially was where the driving range was. And we camped on what would have been the launch pads for the driving range, but where the driving range used to be, that's all cornfield now.

So there we were. We camped out for three days. I rolled into Rochester that Friday, made a stop at REI because I had a couple of accessories that I wanted to pick up for my new backpacking gear that I've been slowly accumulating here.

I'm no longer doing the giant tent camping. No reason for a giant tent and stuff like that anymore, so I'm kind of giving that all away or selling it to certain people, whatever. So everything now fits in a handy-dandy backpack now, and I can just pick it up and go.

So that includes tent, inflatable camp pad, got the pillows, got everything that I need. Everything's in one little handy little satchel, which I think is great. So it's set up there.

After I get done with REI, I took a stop over to Rohrbach Brewing Company. I'd never been there before, so I stopped in and I had their Scotch Ale, which was absolutely on point. It's their most popular beer there.

And then I found myself kind of getting immersed in what was on TV, which at the time was the Senior Open. So I've officially crossed over to being that guy who now sits around and drinks beer and watches golf when I'm by myself, because now I'm actually starting to learn how the game of golf works, I guess you could say. So I had the bacon, what did they have there, it was a bacon burger, a bacon bourbon burger, which was delicious.

And I believe the young lady that was trying to get me outdoor seating, but it didn't work out so we just stayed inside, was Brittany. So shout out to Brittany and quite attentive. And once I got out of there, I headed to the site and got everything set up and a little change of clothes.

And then we went to dinner at the Bill Gray Ice Rink that's on the campus of Monroe County Community College. And while we were there, we had an opportunity to talk with each other and kind of lay out the way the weekend was going to go. Brian had a sponsor that had made us yardage books that I'll post a picture of in the golf grouping picture as well.

But I had never thought about having a yardage book, but I always see players on TV, they take them out or their caddy will hand them to them and they'll make notes on particular courses or what clubs yardage that they hit. But it was nice and it has my name on the back and then the stars and stripes shape of the mainland United States on the front. And it was a wonderful gift.

I definitely appreciate that. And we'll get some use for that down the line as I get more experience, I'm sure. But afterwards, we went to a fitting event at Club Champion in Rochester.

So for some of the guys that were there that wanted to get fitted for a new set of clubs or maybe a new individual club, they did some hitting in the simulator and then they had one of the other simulators set up for us to just kind of play around with. So I hit a little bit, did some putting, and really just got a chance to sit around and talk to a lot of folks, including Brian, about more about how things were going to go and more about the game itself and just talk about current events, etc. So we go back and wind down the evening and then that takes us into Saturday morning where we ended up going up the hill to, well actually, Saturday morning I got up super early, earlier than most everybody.

And I took a walk actually all the way up to the golf course and back, which was about three, three and a quarter miles, just to kind of check out the grounds and see if I could see some of the holes that we were going to play from the road. It's definitely some terrain there. And looking at the handicap rating for the course, I knew I was in for quite a day.

So it was myself and my coach Brian Derrick, who was a retired lieutenant colonel from the Army, and then there was a fourth gentleman that was supposed to be on our team who they ended up switching out for somebody else. We had a fantastic day, learned a ton. One of the things that we could see from our campsite was we could see the 10th hole coming down the hill and the 11th hole going up the hill.

So I looked forward to when we got to the 10th hole, which was essentially this par three, 170-ish yards that literally came about 90 feet down off the hill. So we're hitting it short, almost like it's like a 120-yard hole, you know, clip it with a nine iron. You think I could hit the green? Nah, nine, whatever.

We're learning the game. We're getting there. And then the 11th hole going up the hill was a very long 400-plus-yard par four.

Much more fun than I thought it would be because it looked very intimidating from the bottom of the hill, but it was actually a lot of fun to play. And then I think my personal best hole was probably 13 on that course. Great drive, landed on the right-hand side, a good approach shot that was just off the edge of the right bunker.

And then that's where things go horribly wrong because why is it in PGA hope that I can hit wedge shots all day, but then I use my wedge at a golf course and I can't hit it to save my life. I had about all the wedge shots I hit during the weekend. I probably hit two quality shots the entire weekend with my wedge club.

So yeah, 13 was fun. Then we finish up the day, back to the camp, and then we had a sponsored dinner of some great barbecue. We had brisket, we had chicken, we had pulled pork, you name it.

It was just wonderful. Brian's Next Door Neighbors, who are originally from Puerto Rico, they brought a Spanish rice dish, which was fantastic. And it was great talking to them and getting to know them a little bit, sitting around in the circle and just kind of chewing the fat for bedtime.

And of course, Mr. Old Man here was number three to hit the hay out of the 16-plus people that were there. And then up on Sunday, we ended up driving out to Churchville Municipal Course. So it's a pretty flat course, a lot of straight holes.

And then that was kind of a two-on-two matchup where I teamed up with a gentleman named Remo, who, very accomplished golfer, he's got a lot of years under his belt, plays a mean game, I'll tell you. We took the opportunity to be able to assess our putts and everything, and that was probably my best putting day. A lot of two-putt holes, a couple of one-putt holes on that, it was a lot of fun.

We ended up winning our match play there against the other team we were playing against. And then, I believe that was the night we went back, so Brian has many students from Brian's not afraid to name drop, I'll tell you this right now, but I won't name drop here, I'll just tell you that a lot of his clients are, we'll say, Bills, and other football players from other teams from around the country. So Brian does travel, and he has a lot of great clients.

So I know that I've got a good coach there. So he also does a lot of junior teaching as well. And one of his students, who had, his mother actually cooked an entire layout for us.

It was just fun to be able to meet people, talk, have some great food. We had scallop potatoes, we had brats, you name it, there was a great layout there. And then there was a local family that owned an ice cream truck, and they brought the ice cream truck to the event for us to be able to indulge in.

So that was a lot of fun. Basically, you have an ice cream truck that pulls up and says, oh, you can have all that you want. Yeah, don't tempt me, sister.

So a couple of ice creams later, and a little winding down, and again, here's the older guy now. And off the bed, I go at a pretty decent hour. It was a long day, and it was quite warm, and I was slightly sunburned.

So I knew I had one more day of playing. So a few folks went home on Monday. I took the day off of work, and I stayed out there, packed up camp in the morning.

And then we went out to Caledonia Country Club, which was a very, very nice course. Everybody was super nice there, the ladies behind the bar. I was talking to one of the gentlemen in the pro shop, which I forgot to go back into because there was a shirt in there I really liked and I wanted to take a second look at to see if I wanted to pick up.

And even the marshal, when I got out to the first hole, great guy to talk to, and there was kind of a backup there. So he was talking with us about where we were from and would tell when we were part of a veterans group. So we had a lot of fun.

So it was basically individual play at that point, which is not my forte because all I want to do is just be better than I was yesterday and not to make anybody cringe here who might be listening who's good at their golf game. But prior to that match, my best game in my life was a 132. I know, I know.

I know, you can stop holding your nose. But I ended up walking out that day with a 126 and my nickname was Mr. Three Putt because I, except for one hole that I actually one putted on, every single hole I ended up three putting on. Just wasn't my day to drop a putt for nothing.

So bogeyed a hole. I think I was 16. I remember bogeying and that went well.

And you know, it was a real fun course and I hope that there's an opportunity to play there again someday. So I've already gotten an email from Brian talking about how the event was such a success. And we already got the invite to come back for next year.

The dates are already set in stone. So I'm looking forward to going back already and hoping to get a few more days of golf in before the season starts winding down around here locally. I joke with people all the time that I stare at the wall most of the time, but I really don't.

I find myself being super busy doing all kinds of things. And I guess it's good. I mean, that's what I was looking for in my life.

You know, like, okay, I'm going to be a workaholic, I'm going to be a gymaholic, and I'm going to keep myself busy because keeping yourself busy stays out of trouble. Okay. So and then we find new little passions to mess around with, you know, including golf.

So we'll move on with that. But it was a great time, you know, like on top of the gift that I received with the yardage book, one of the gentlemen that was there, he's a schoolteacher, and his class made some chemically etched pint glasses, which again, I'm going to post these as part of the picture group that I put on our Instagram page. But some wooden coasters that were lasered, these great pint glasses, received a set of Encore balls.

Now Encore is the brand that I like to use because it's a local company here in Buffalo. So they have the Elixir brand Encore balls that are monogrammed with the Bill's Mafia logo on them. So I got a sleeve of those, one of those will go into my little golf ball case.

And then the rest, you know, we'll figure out where they're going to get lost, you know, whatever. So I, you know, I'm trying my, one of my goals is not to feed $40 of balls into a weekend of golf like I did this weekend. But you know what? Such is life.

Hey, Mill Creek, I lost eight balls total, but there was a lot of high grass and it was a very difficult course. So it was what it was. Churchville, I had the same ball until the 10th hole, until I hit it far across the road into a neighbor's yard and into some tall grass.

And I wasn't even going to be bothered because I don't want to deal with the cops and answer that question. What are you doing in the yard with a golf club? I'm looking for this ball. Prove it.

Well, I would if I could find the ball, but probably can't. So I'll just go backward to the course here. And then there was only, I think there was only two balls that I lost at Caledonia.

A lot of straight drives. I was very proud of myself. A lot of straight drives, approach shots were in, and I was, of course, like I said, Mr. Three Putt.

A wonderful golf weekend. Get out and enjoy. Hey, if you're looking for somebody to fill out a foursome, send me a message because if I'm available, I would be more than happy to pay my share in and get out there and play with you guys and get to know more folks out there.

So that's it in a nutshell.