SHAGBAG

Not Just a Pretty Container to Carry you Golf Balls

We chat with David Marzetti, Award-winning radio host on Shagbag

FT: Congrats on being honored by the NCPGA for best in broadcast. It’s a great accomplishment for you and your weekly show, Shagbag. How many years have you been doing the show? DM: It will be eighteen years this April.

FT: Where did the idea to name your show Shagbag come from? DM: The name was actually taken from a golf column that writer John Hallisey did for the Monterey Herald years back. Neil Allen, the head pro at Del Monte suggested we use it.

FT: Shagbag is rapidly approaching the 1000th show. Any special plans? DM: Show 1000 will be in June of 2021. No plans at this time but April 2022 will be a big on air party for the 20th year. FT: How did you break into radio? DM: I was doing the morning announcements on the high school PA each morning and was listening to George Carlin’s AM/FM album a lot and kind of mimicked him. All the kids thought I was funny and that I sounded like a DJ. After graduation I attended WIXY Broadcast School in Cleveland and started my radio career. I got on my first station in 1976. 2020 is my 44th year in radio. FT: AT&T is coming this month. How many years have you been broadcasting at the event? DM: This is my 29th year and I love it! We do our shows from the Lone Cypress Shop next to the putting green.

FT: Surely after all those years you’ve made a lot of friends. DM: After being out there so long, you get to know certain guys and they remember you. I’ve become close friends with comedian Tom Dreesen. He was Frank Sinatra’s opening act for thirteen years. Talk about some great stories! He’s always on several of my shows at the Pro Am. We hang out and have dinner in Carmel with Rich Pepe. Each year, actor Andy Garcia and I always get together and share a cigar or two. Of course I look forward each year to seeing my friend Jim Nantz. Jim does the special introduction to the Shagbag Radio Show that we play back to start the show. It’s great to be able to go up in the tower behind the 18th hole with him for a birds-eye view.

FT: What are some of your most memorable experiences? DM: I have been fortunate to see quite a few cool things while out there over the years. Like in 2000. Tiger was making a late charge and I just had to go out and watch him. So I left the broadcast booth

and ran out to the fifteenth hole. I

got there just in time to see him hit his second shot from ninety-seven yards to hole it out for eagle. He ended up winning that tournament after being down seven strokes with seven holes to play. Witnessing something like that is a very special experience.

FT: You’re a golfer. What’s your handicap? DM: I usually stay between ten and twelve. I just don’t have the time to play much. Usually once or twice a month. Just enough to stay bad.

FT: Engagement Director at Monterey County Conversion and Visitors Bureau, emcee for events, a round of golf when you can fit it in and Shagbag every Saturday morning. How do you keep up? DM: I like it. It’s all interwoven. It’s not that I’m doing something totally different with each thing I do. It’s all related. Shagbag, MCVCB, the singing, the emcee jobs, playing golf. They all have to do with entertainment in one way or another. They are all in that “lifestyle” category. Almost everyone I know is from that walk of life. The “enjoying life” category.

FT: When you finally retire and make that long walk up the fairway to the eighteenth hole, who will carry Shagbag in the future? DM: I have to walk? Can’t I at least get a cart? Seriously though, when that time comes, which hopefully isn’t too soon, I am sure the show will just fade away. Like when you’re on the road listening to a radio station in the car and the signal dips a bit more and more until it just fades out.

Shagbag is broadcast from Del Monte Golf Course. Tune in to hear David and his special guests from 9-10am every Saturday on 1460am or 101.1fm.