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Pipe Dream - Episode 9 (22:15)
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DESCRIPTION
Giving Back: Mark doesn’t want to give up on his dream of playing golf, and he decides to buy an old RV and enter various mini-tour events around the country. Mark and his artist friend John put together a collection of artwork to raise money.
TRANSCRIPTS
-Previously on Pipe Dream. Mark Burk is a professional golfer
and has been homeless for more than 2 years. He
pooled together enough money to play in a Q-School Regional
Tournament but his dream of playing on the Champions Tour
took a hit when he had to withdraw due to
a long-standing hernia injury. But he knows he can play
with the best. He recently went head to head with
senior European tour professional Jerry Bruner in a $5000 winner
take all match, and lost by a single stroke. -God.
I hit a good putt. -Now more confident than ever,
he wants to chase the tour by using the money
he saved along with donations to buy an RV. For
Mark Burk, the dream is alive and well. -I've had
it all and lost it all. I'm a fighter and
I'm a survivor. My name is Mark Burk and this
is my story. -Each week that Mark has been living
at his friend, John's, he's gained more stability and found
confidence in his game. -It's really cold in the room.
-Now he has the courage to set out on a
new dream. -My goal is to get an RV. I
call it my home and I can also, you know,
travel with it and chase of the Champions Tour. -Good
morning, Mark. -Hey, John. [unk] good morning. -Just checking out
the paper. -Yeah. I'm looking at these RV's here. I've
gotta hold my part-time job and also I've got a
teacher on the side. I think with the help from
Dennis, I can earn enough money in no time. -Dude,
Drake is gonna put up to $2500 to [unk] for
all you have, your motor home that you're gonna be
purchasing here pretty soon. -Well, we try to chase the
Champions Tour. It's kinda widespread -Right. -throughout the country. They
start here in California. They have like 2 or 3
tournaments so I'm gonna try that. But on something like
this, I'm looking for, you know. Maybe like a 35
or 30 foot. -That's in 34,000. What's your budget? -Maybe
4,000 or 5,000. -Can you find something like that? -I
don't know. I'm looking now. These RV's are between like
60 to 100,000 or more but even 30,000 is very
common. I'm looking for one for under 5. -You know-
But you know, the former home, they used to sell
[unk]. -Really get [unk] the golf bag or- -Yeah, charity.
The guy who owned this place, he was into golf.
-Really? -Big time. He used to- used this as a
range and shoot balls into the neighbor's yard. -I could
teach out here. -That's a good idea. -Was he a
car dealer? -All I know is he sells RV's so-
-No kidding. -Yeah. He would buy and fix the lot
and sell them. -Really? -Yeah, you should call him. -Hello.
Jerry, he was the previous owner of the house and
I really wanted to meet him because he was some
of the reason why I had an idea of putting
in kind of a driving range up here and I
told him I was looking for RV's. He told me
that he knows a lot about RV's and he might
have one. We've got a lot in common and I
can't wait to meet him. Bye-Bye. -So Mark, do you
notice the A-trims of, you know, [unk]? -No. I just
noticed it. Wow. -It's a trip, huh? So I'm getting
set up for the art show which is in about
2 weeks and the art show is just to kind
of get my stuff out in the world here in
Palm Springs, California. -All right. -Mark and I are doing
an art show here at the Ranch. We're gonna do
it to benefit the mission. We're gonna give them a
percentage of the proceeds and I'm gonna have Mark help
me do some art. That should be fun. -Do you
have any hobbies? Do you collect stamps? Do you- What
do you do? -No, no. No, I read a lot
of [unk]. -See, that's another point. -I kinda get- I
like to cook a little. -Okay. But those pieces of
you need to be developed as they never were. -They
need [unk]. Yeah, I agree. -It's all right if we
get some on the hair 'cause we can- we'll go
over it. No, no, you gotta hold- you don't have
to hold that. -We're trying to get ready for the
art show coming up. Melting crayons and doing some of
these sculptures. It's just melting wax basically. -And I'd like
to contribute a piece that would be significant to what
I've gone through in the last 2 years so I
hope I can, you know, get that done with him.
And when I came out here and we saw the
box car and I said wow. -Oh, great, great. Great.
-And I said that I was living in these spherical-
-Right. -The tubes to the high [unk]. -Oh, I've seen
photographs. -Yeah. -Yeah. -I mean that box car outside is
exactly the same color almost. It's got that same feel
to it. It's taking me back or I have flashbacks
of being almost down there since I've come out of
the tubes and left the homeless shelters. And I'm back
here to reflect back and show where I'm going and
be able to have John help me project that in
some kind of a free-standing art piece that would be,
you know, a first project of mine that I've done
in kind of artsy. Wanna do like a- What do
they call it when they do a- -Like a sculpture?
-Probably a very small, you know, of the tubes. -Art
can be anything. It doesn't have to be a copy
of the exact thing. -Exact thing, yeah. -But they can
represent it and suggest and then expand on it. Does
that make any sense? I'm sure when I talk about
art to Mark, it would be like him explaining golf
to me. So I tried stirring him in the right
direction. We could keep the pipe shape, let's say but
think in terms of what it could do and the
possibilities are endless. -Whoa. -But I've got a lot of
work to do and you've gotta help. -Fantastic. All right.
-Come on in, Jerry. Hey, Jerry. How are you doing?
-Hey, John. How are you? My, my, look what you'd
done to this place. -I've- changing every day. -Wonderful. -Jerry
used to own the house. He's now the golfer and,
lo and behold, he's got an RV also. What a
crazy coincidence. -Mark, Jerry Roth. -Nice meeting you. Pleasure. How
are you? -All right. -Did you know that Mark was
a golfer? -Good, another man after my own heart. -Right.
You got that. -That's why you too, huh. -That's my
game. I am a golfer. I love the game of
golf. Love the people associated with the game. I'd pay
any day, any day that ends in Y. -Very good.
-That's a good one. -Yes, yes. -I'm looking for an
RV. I'm trying to find- -Yeah. You gave us a
call to find a nice one. -Yeah. I'm finding the
price has [unk] up through- expensive. -Yes, they are. I've
got one that I've had a while. I've got in
storage. You can take a look at it. -All right.
-Yeah, but how much? -Well, if you'd be interested, probably-
I don't know, somewhere between 5 and 7,000 in that
area. -Low, low. -5, 5,000- oh. -Yeah. Yeah, yeah. -Yeah.
-Maybe as a golfer and take you out to the
-Why don't we go play for it? -golf- [unk] on
the golf course. -Let me show you the backyard. -Sure,
would you please. -I'll talk to you guys later. -All
right, John. -Okay. All right, John. Good to see you.
-You too, dude. -Look over here, Jerry. -That looks beautiful.
You've done a nice job here. Oh my goodness and
you've got access to the top of the box. -All
right, Jerry. Let me show you the- -You wanna show
me this area? Look at this. What a nice job
you done up here, Mark. -Yeah. -You're serious about this,
aren't you? -Yeah, yeah. Yeah. [unk] my golf. -You really
are. You're dedicating your life to this, aren't you? Let
me see a swing here. -I tell you what, we'll
go into the pin here and we'll play for the
RV. One shot. No, I'm just kidding. We'll do it
anyway. Here you go. Get in. Oh, go ahead. -Look
at that. -Look at this. -Well, you two for one
here? -You're one more. -All right. So listen, I'll have
to carry you on the motor home now. -Beautiful. -Well,
let's do something on that RV. I think that this
RV would be perfect for you. One of my feelings
on this motor home was to extend the convenience to
a fellow that's going out on the Tour so to
speak. He's struggling to make it and I applaud his
effort. I'll get it and drive it over here and
bring it here on [unk]. -Jerry's gonna go back and
get the RV. I hope that's the one that I
can afford that will work. -I'll only help you down
here. -Where's the elevator. -Yeah, what? -It looks like junk.
Well, it is junk. But, you know, that could represent
pipe. Look at it not as is 'cause we can
cut it, we can shape it, bend it, make it
whatever we want. -John is helping me with doing some
art and I really wanna do something that represents the
tubes and where I stayed. So he started in trying
to find metals. -Here. Stick that in, in there. -[unk]
the other way. -Like a puzzle. Yeah, and now we're
getting somewhere and then we could take this and -Yeah,
yeah. -we could go through it. This one in, [unk]
through. -All right. Let's do this. -It's a start. -When
Jerry pulled up in the RV, it looked like a
perfect size. -Wow. -It looked like a little owner RV
but, you know, it's solid good. -What do you think?
-Watch yourself. -It's nice, isn't it? -[unk] here. -Isn't this
beautiful? -Can I try to get in? -Yeah, do that
please. -Well, well. -Whoa. -It's fantastic. It's in good shape.
The engine sounds great. This is beautiful, huh? -And it's
got low mileage. You see the miles? -48,000. She's fantastic.
Everything works in here, Jerry? -Everything works. The microwave works,
the sink, the stove. -It's got a fridge right here
in here, John. Wow. -Oh yeah. -When Jerry invited me
in, I'll tell you, I was so excited to see
a bed and a sink. It's clean. -Wow, you got
storage here. -Yeah. Plenty of storage outside the [unk]. -It's
got wonderful cabinetry. It's got a nice kitchen, a microwave.
Whoa. That won't hold me, will it, Jerry? -I don't
think so. It's for children in [unk]. -Chicks. -These have
got to go. -Well. -We have to replace that. -You
know, you can change your cosmetics as you go. -Yeah.
-Is this your style or back in the day? -No,
I had a wife at the- -That liked it, huh?
-That liked that look. -Wow. Look at this [unk]. -Look
at the bathtub? -[unk] what? -The [unk]. Look at this.
-Yes. -Nice. -Can you get up here, Jerry? [unk]. -Don't
hurt yourself in here. -I couldn't wait to see how
much the RV was going for. -I told you initially,
5 to 7,000. What are we structured? It's 6 grand.
You wanna do that? How much? -What's your lowest? What's
you're considering on [unk]. -My lowest if your highest. -That's
too good there. -Yeah. I was thinking more like 5,000,
you know, I could give you 4 now. -4 grand
now. -Yeah. -And I'll give you [unk]- -Cash money, no
checks, no promises. -Correct. -And [unk] good. -And the balance
will be paid- well, in each month. -The balance in
what? When you make a check on tour? -Well, I
can teach too and [unk]- -Yes? -I'll be teaching out.
Be trying to [unk] when I travel. -I'll work out
a deal with you where we finance part of it
for you. You look like a nice guy. I like
your style. I guess I can live with 5 grand.
You got a deal. Give me a ride home. -Okay.
-And everybody is happy. -Yeah, I've never driven one of
these so let me- -We'll you're gonna learn. -Okay. Here
we go. It's sounded pretty good. I could see myself
driving from city to city. And swing it wide. -He's
really truly is a good coach. -John started using a
blow torch. I got involved a little. I'm not too
good with the torches. Well, I gotta put my gloves
on here. [unk] spark by in my face. -What do
you think, Mark? -Who are you? Aaron? -I'm Irish. -John
has a [unk] that lives with him. His name is
Irish. His last name is Spring. What are you gonna
do if you catch on fire? -Okay, Mark. Don't look
at the flame directly. -Is it- that level? No, it's
not welded, is it? -I got it, yeah. -Is that
it? How did you weld it like that? Let me
see. -[unk] okay? -Man. -Yeah, Mark, he's trying. -What the
[unk]? What is this? -Take down [unk]. -Huh? -Hey, put
this one on. All right. -John, I wonder why your
art work is getting a little good. You couldn't see.
Don't be scared. He's not gonna hurt you, man. He's
not gonna bite you. -I'm not scared. -Here you go.
And hold on to that for a little while, you
know, he's not gonna hurt you. -Oh. -You got it
going, yeah, you know. -Thank you. Very cool. -Yeah. -What
do you think? He's gonna put- I think he's gonna
put some marriage or something in here. Broken marriage or
something. -For people to see themselves, you know, in this
situation. -All right. -So they remember that they're part of
this. -The tubes. -Purpose gives you something to focus on,
something to dream about at night. Now as he heads
to his new home away from home, he has plenty
to think about, how to sculpt the real plan for
the future. -My God, what a beautiful RV. -Sometimes you
have to learn to walk before you can run. Mark
knows that playing the Champions Tour will be easier if
he can get more experience under his belt on some
mini tour events. -Rich has invited me over to his
shop to get me ready for the Pepsi Tour. -We're
gonna get you on video. -I've been to Rich's place
already one time. -Hold on. Let me show you your
speed here. -Why [unk]- -94.8. -I lost that much? -Right
there. Right there. It's gotta be right there. -You got
me on tape? -I got you on tape. -Show it
to me. Rich has got a lot of high-tech equipment.
He's got impact bags. He's got launch monitors, very sophisticated
imagery. -Hey. -Come on over here. I need more just
off the tee and my swing here is not where
I want it to be. My powers are not where
I want it to be. Hopefully, Rich's equipment will help.
So we'll see what happens. -Whoa. I'm gonna show you
why you don't get any distance. Check this out. Well,
your impact position is too flippy. -Kind of seeing my
swing on a monitor, it looks like it's losing some
power. I've gotta try to pick that up [unk] if
I wanna try to chase the Champions Tour. -Picture is
coming. You started to swing. Which way is the ball
gonna go? You go right. So the only way for
you to square it up is to do this so
you get a lot of flip. -It now [unk]. -Yeah,
it's flipping. Check it out. Watch your next frame. Flip.
-All right, I'll buy that. -He's got a long haul,
you know. He's gotta get himself healthy. He's gotta get
his mind right to be able to sustain himself for
a whole year out playing golf. -John and I are
having an art show. I invited some of my old
friends I haven't spoken to for quite some time so
they would be able to see me in a different
light and maybe buy some of the art that John
and I have been working on. -Good seeing you, buddy.
-Hey, Mark. -Dwight [unk] is a really good friend of
mine. We've known each other about 20 years now. Doug
Fields, finally made it. -Fine. -If it wasn't for Doug
Fields, I'm not sure how my life would have turned
out. I met him right when I became homeless. He
befriended me and made sure that I stayed strong. -Yeah,
we did meet at [unk] -Okay. -up at about 1:00
a.m. -2:00 -1:00 a.m., 2:00 a.m. -Yeah. But I'll never
forget it. I strolled in. It was raining. They have
an ATM machine for the EBT and I just got
my government card and I don't really know how to
use it. It's a credit card for food stamps. I'm
trying to plug this in and I guess I hit
it the 3rd time and it goes reject because I
guess you can only hit certain number of times. I'm
like, Jesus, I had no food. And Doug was sitting
there and he goes, "How are you doing?" I'm like,
"Not too good." He goes, "What's wrong?" and I said,
"I don't wanna be here anymore". And he said, "No,
no." He's just, "Come on over here." He says, "Sit
down with us." And I sat next to him and
started talking. If Doug didn't pick up the pieces for
me, I probably wouldn't be where I'm at right now.
It's incalculable what he did for me and how he
believed in me. What I'm thinking, you know, you can
stack them so forth and then cover a wall [unk].
-I'm [unk] coming through this. -Some of my golf students
have taken the time to come to the art show.
One of them bought some artwork and I thought that
was really cool. I'll tell you, you get all three
of them, $40. -$40 for all three? -Yeah. -I think
I can do that. -Are you gonna sign up this
week for a lesson, though? -I think I'm gonna do
that. -Yeah? We did make some money and John's been
nice enough to donate some of his proceeds to the
mission. It was a good day. I'm really proud of
the sculpture that John and I made. It truly represents
where I came from on the street and it just
symbolizes what my life was about and then those times.
And it also shows that I might be able to
pursue artwork as a hobby. Since I bought the RV,
I'm now setting my sights on the Champions Tour but
I've gotta get ready and play as many of these
little mini tour events as I can. These particular ones,
one of their championships, the Terra Lago Golf Club in
Indio which is ironically, very close to where I stayed
in the tubes. It's my first tournament, a series of
tournaments that I'm scheduling, trying to get these response to
the Champions Tour qualifying. -And 4th on the tee from
Palm Springs, California, Mark Burk. -Navigating my way through the
front side, it's an extremely difficult golf course especially if
you're not really long ball hitter and I'm not. You
can't be erring off your tee shot. -Oh, Mark. -I
got off to a bad start. It was 3 over
par after 3 holes, 4 over par after 5 holes.
I got through a really bad place. -Come on. -I
was a little deflating. -You gotta be kidding. -These bad
starts, they're- it's tough mentally to gather yourself. Still back
to basics. Set up. [unk] left from here. But I
just had to gather myself and move on. It's easy
to continue to go on a path of mass destruction
out there. -[unk]. I can't play golf [unk]. I gotta
[unk] have an edge [unk]. You know, just gotta be
patient and just hope for the best. No, my golf
needs to just [unk] straighten up. You know, I'm trying
to shoot par better, a 3 over par you gotta
make it, it's a tough battle. Idiot. Don't give up.
[unk]. Here I go again. I'm ready to go, you
know, shoot another big number which is disappointing and I
saw my friend, Chris, in a pink outfit. checkered shorts.
I spotted him right away so I knew that my
friends from the Mission had come out and supported me
and it was nice. It was a surprise, yeah. I
was really excited and they- my little mini [unk]. That's
when I started, you know, playing fairly well. Got about
as much out of this as I could have, considering,
you know, I got off to a bad start. Maybe
2 or 3 over the front sides, right- I brought
it back and I birdied 4 the last 5 holes.
That was- should place for 73. Hey, Chris. Wow. I
owe you buddy money. Am I right? I mean [unk].
It was good to see them. Curtis was there and
Matt was there. -How is it going? -How's it going?
-Good to see you. -Curtis, what's up? -I didn't [unk].
-How are you doing, buddy? -I'm all right. -Where did
you get that outfit, man? I saw- -He got it
yesterday. [unk] perfect? -Really? Beautiful. -I'm wearing this today. It's
actually a golf shirt [unk]. -I mean, oh, it's unbelievable.
I've done some work on the RV. -Yeah, I seen
it coming in. -Did you? -Show me that, man. That's
nice. -Yeah, it's a nice [unk]. -Yeah, it looks nice.
-All the guys, you know, they're supporting me. You know,
they're all homeless, all of them. I wanna show you-
this is the RV and- -All right. -Close your eyes.
Close eyes. -Yeah, all right. All right. [unk]. -I broke
out the banner for the Coachella Valley Mission that was
put on the side by John and myself. -I've put
a little something on the side. -Oh, what a [unk].
-What? -I think- That's good. -Righ? -I like that. -[unk]
from a truck, is it? -Yeah. -The missions gives everybody
some hope. So it's been nice coming out here and
seeing Mark golf a little bit and give us a
little hope to- for our futures. -Yeah. What I'm trying
to do, you know, with this RV we talked about
what [unk] to chase the Champions Tour. -Really? -And they
have qualifying, you know, weekly. But I have to travel
all over the, you know, they've got it nationwide. You
guys wanna take a look at [unk] and take a
look inside if you want. You're welcome. -Yeah. -Sounds awesome.
-Yeah. -You go in, make sure you have [unk]. -Gotta
stomp your feet. -You're fine. -Yes. -Come on in. -All
right. -It's cool. -Where are the [unk]? -This is nice,
brother. -A lot of these guys had actually a tough
time getting them out of the RV. They wanted to
stay there. -Okay. It's a nice motor home. -It's really
nice. -I'm kind of happy for you, man. -Fit like
8 people in there. -Yeah. -We got bunks in there.
-We could [unk]. -Maybe your road [unk]. -Yeah. -Now that
I have this, I could travel and continue golf for
however long it lets me. -All right. -You be careful.
-Next time in Pipe Dream. Therapy moves from the couch
to the course and it isn't any easier for Mark.
-Just don't laugh. -I'll probably cry. -You did the last
time. -The path to success is mapped out and a
plan is hatched. -There is a tour in central Florida
that has a senior division. -Mark Burk's new home is
the road. And the one time homeless golfer begins a
life pursuing his dream.
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