September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and this month, the Great Gorge Golf Club has a special promotion where you can get a free round of golf by showing proof of a scheduled of recent prostate examination at the Great Gorge pro shop.
John Matusiewicz is the Assistant General Manager at The Great Gorge and he talked about the details with Jim Monaghan.
JIM MONAGHAN – Here on the Jersey magazine at 105.5 WDHA, September is Prostate Cancer Awareness month, and my guest is the assistant general manager at the Great Gorge, John Matusiewicz. John, good morning and welcome.
JOHN MATUSIEWICZ – Thank you for having me.
JIM – You’ve got an interesting program going on for the month of September. “Get Your Putts Checked.” Tell our listeners about that.
JOHN – Yeah, it’s a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek play on it. We want people take care of themselves, and part of that, especially if you look at who the major golfers are, is men and a little bit older men. So we want them to get their prostates examined and make sure that they’re in tip top shape, I guess as far as that goes. And to encourage them to do so, we’re going to say that anybody that comes in and can show us proof of a recent visit to Urologist or one that’s scheduled will get a free round of golf in the future on us.
JIM – That’s a pretty good deal right there.
JOHN – Yeah, really. It’s not a lot of work. I mean, it may be a little uncomfortable, but it’s probably not as uncomfortable as missing some of those shots out on the course.
JIM – You know, one of the tests that they do is the PSA blood test, which is relatively simple, and I’m very surprised – I get that done on a fairly regular basis – I’m surprised more men don’t do that.
JOHN – Yeah, I think it’s just kind of like we were talking before. A lot of people are not so hot on going to the doctor. It’s something nobody likes to do, but it’s definitely getting easier and easier. It’s less invasive, so it’s a more comfortable experience, and hopefully that’ll push more people to take care of it.
JIM – And at the very least, you get your mind relieved to find out. Yeah. Okay, good.I’m okay.
JOHN – Right.
JIM – How often do you get yours checked?
JOHN – Lately I’ve been going to the doctor a lot because I’ve been playing catch up from not going to the doctor for a long time. So I’m guilty, just like a lot of people are. But I think it’s at least annually, if not at this point, I might be getting it twice a year because they’re doing the blood test, and when they do the blood test, I get PSA levels there.
JIM – Great.Who came up with the idea of the “Get Your Putts Checked” promotion?
JOHN – So it was a team effort, but I think that I’m responsible for the less PC version of what that was initially. So this is kind of the tone down name for it. I don’t remember exactly what the first iteration was, but we were just throwing a bunch of ideas around and kind of where we landed.
JIM – Well, if the first iteration of it was something that might lose the license, I’m glad you don’t remember it.
JOHN – Yeah, no, it’s probably for the best.
JIM – We joke about that all the time, that the first rule of radio is do not lose the license. John Matusiewicz is the assistant general manager at the Great Gorge. He’s my guest this morning here on Jersey Magazine at 105.5 WDHA. September being Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. Tell us some of the other things that are going on up at The Great Gorge right now.
JOHN – So right now we’ve got basically a pretty packed fall. We’ve got a lot of golf outings that are going on on the golf course itself. We have our Treescape Aerial Adventure Park, which also this time of the year tends to be very busy as people get out and they want to do all those fall activities. If they’re doing half a day of apple picking or leaf watching, then they’re coming over and climbing with us. And then we also have our restaurant, Hef’s Hut, which is doing a lot of events. It’s going to be busy with those golf outings, things like that too, but then also people just coming out and enjoying a bite to eat on the weekend.
JIM – And what are your expectations for the winter? We’ve had some strange weather the past few winters with not a lot of snow in some cases.
JOHN – Yeah, I mean, from a business standpoint, it’d be nice if it was kind of like last year where it was pretty mild and we were able to do we had people golfing almost all year. Maybe not realistic from an operational stand point, but the restaurant is definitely going to be busy over the winter. We have an indoor golf simulator that’s going to be going up as it gets colder so people can come out and kind of keep their game in shape. But those are the two main things golf simulator and the restaurant.
JIM – Going back to what we were talking about a little earlier, prostate cancer, according to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men. What are your goals with regard to the “Get Your Putts Checked” program, John?
JOHN – So we just want to raise more awareness for everybody, right. It’s one of those things where men are less likely to talk about things. So I guess just getting the word out there and having them know that it’s something they need to do to take care of themselves is really the ultimate goal for it. If we give out a bunch of free rounds of golf as a result too, that’s a great thing because it means that we’re getting the message across and people are actually taking care of it, but it’s really just increasing awareness more than anything else.
JIM – And it’s such a beautiful course and a beautiful area, especially in the fall as the leaves are changing. That’s just gorgeous up there.
JOHN – Yes, it is. It’s definitely kind of a hidden gem. If people have never been here before, I think they’re quite often blown away by what they see.
JIM – For listeners who want to learn more, the website is Greatgorjgolfclub.com. That’s greatgorjgolfclub.com. And the “Get Your Putts Checked” promotion going on right now at the Great Gorge. John Matusiewicz, assistant GM at the Great Gorge, thank you so much for joining us this morning, and I hope this promotion goes well.
JOHN – Thank you for having me. We do as well. I appreciate it.
