Contest and Live Update Thread: 2019 Bridgestone Championship

I was going to say there was pdf attachment in the irons section. I didn't know what to expect for my fitting but it was completely open and they had a ton of options laid out when I was there. That was a different event so they could have different things this go around. As you can see in my signature I pretty much got what fit me.

Yep. Not counting anything out yet. Details will be coming soon, so until then, no reason to get locked in on anything :)
 
Yep. Not counting anything out yet. Details will be coming soon, so until then, no reason to get locked in on anything :)

They made some good products, don't think you can go wrong. Loving my set!
 
Full weekend recap:

Thursday: Lets just say JB and I ate lunch about 4 different times all over the Cleveland area and then followed that up with dessert. It didnt suck and I think im still full.....Pierogis, stuffed cabbage, duck confit'd wings, Mabels pork rinds, spicy sausage, perfect spare ribs, saurekraut, cannolis, it was intense...:bulgy-eyes: After dropping him off at the hotel I met up with everyone at the hotel they were staying at, headed out for a few drinks and yes.....more food of course.

Friday: The majority of guys would be at the course (Fox Meadow CC) friday for some practice and a very casual round of prep. We paired up in our respective teams (minus Pete379, he wasnt getting in till later in the afternoon). GMan and I melded as partners so well on Friday that I coiuldnt help begin to wonder if we had a pretty darn good shot at this thing. We played a 9 holes shamble match that we won 3&1 against Nerdy and his partners fill in Gunner, followed by another 9 hole shamble match that we won 3&2 against Vortex and DJT311. To be honest my game felt great heading into the real deal opn Saturday and Sunday and I think GMan was pleased as well. After golf we all sat down for a few libations and some lunch and laughed about the days events for a while. Then everyone dispersed and headed toward the hotel to freshen up and get ready for dinner. Right around 7:00pm i believe everyone arrived to DBA (restaurant name) and we immediately were introduced to the full gambit of Bridgestone staff on hand. Dan freaking Murphy (CEO) made a point to walk around the table, introduce himself to every THPer there and then THANKED US for all being their. It was at this point in the weekend I knew we about to get our heads blown off by whatever was in store for us. Shortly before dinner JB and Adam "Rehbirdie" made some announcements. We had just ordered some drinks and our dinner and then......BOOOOOM!!!!! Adam told us that after dinner we were to head back to the hotel, change, grab our own 8iron and our own driver because we were going to be heading over to Firestone CC tournament grounds to the Bridgestone fitting center to do our ball fitting. Now, as a previous member of Firestone and a yearly attendee of the Bridgestone Inv....I began to wonder logistically how theyre were planning on pulling this off exactly. Everyone went and did as told, grabbed our gear and carpooled to the course parking lot. It was basically pitch dark. I can honestly say now that afterwards NErdy and I both said it kinda felt like we shouldnt have ever been there.....like we all snuck in and went berserk on the Bridgestone fitting center equipment. We were walking onto tournament grounds without tournament passes to basically screw around. LOLOLOL. During the ball fitting was the first time I got to see Pete379 swing a golf club and after only 3-4 swings, some absurd mph ball speed increases and my ears beginning to bleed from the sound of the ball hitting his driver...... i knew GMan and I could be in trouble. HAHA. I held back a bit in the rotation of fitting order as I wanted the others to go first. I was second last to get fit and admittedly a bit tired at this point. I hopped in nonetheless and did my thing. Id say i hit 15-20 8irons with my gamer and the same with driver. Then switched over to the ball that I really didnt think was on the palate for me. Tour B XS......some interesting notes on this. My ball speed literally stayed exactly the same but I ganed an additional 6-7 yds in carry simply by adjusting the height at which the ball flew with driver. Then the comparison to the 8i boggled my mind a bit. I was pounding both my gamer and the Tour B XS. Both were flying right around 174yds. The ball speed was nearly identical but the biggest difference and something Ive always needed help with was my spin. I gained 600rpms of spin with a much nicer ball flight that produced waaaaaayyyyyyyy more stopping power. Ive never been a big numbers guy but eh numbers he showed me and i produced were hard to deny. That being said i was going to hold of having my jaw hit the floor on the fitting till i saw it with my own 2 eyes visually. BTW.....the swaaaaaaaaaggggggg they gave us is frigging awesome. I needed a new business backpack and have already started using this one this week. Its perfection and the goodies inside werent too shabby either. I made sure to take everything out when I got back to the hotel room. Gloves, tumblers, balls, markers, divot tools, bluetooth speaker, pens, hats, its craziness. Friday was a long ass day....but boy was it special. I probably didnt actually fall asleep till around 2ish. It was the perfect storm of excitement, nerves and Nerdys snoring...:banana:
 
Saturday / Sunday: Other than waking up pretty tired, I felt pretty good about our chances. I knew PEte379 was going to be a monster on a 6300-6400 course playing it fron the whites and Nerdys short game is pretty solid. I figured if we kept the ball in front of us we have a fighters chance vs them and the other guys. There were a number of first time THP event attendees at this event and I thought the shotgun start would actually help their nerves a bit. I think it did because as some of you know oh too well......those THP event first tee jitters with the entire group standing around are realll and hard to shake. GMan and i were fired up a bit and were quickly facing a deficit I just wasnt expecting if im honest. I thought we would kinda of float around middle of the pack most of the day and once we settled in we could capitalize on some holes. Turns out we were +4 through 2 holes and it was mehhhh golf from then on out. Much like Nerdy said Pete379 did everything he couldnt do well......it was kind of the opposite for us. My putter (go figure) let me down all day long. Every single time I had a putt for par or birdie id have a complete aneurysm and miss it or even three putt. I was actually playing quite well after 4-5 holes. My ball striking was on point. I saw exactly what I wanted to from my ball fitting and I was pounding the ball off the tee. GMan was playing pretty decent as well, it just seemed like neither of us could take advantage of any pops given to us and our goal was to get back to even par by the end of the round if not better. We finished the day at +1. We werent thrilled and werernt annoyed either. We just came to the realization that if we wouldnt have started out +4 through2, we probably wouldve ended up -3 or -4 on the day and right were we were hoping to be.

After the round we headed into the clubhouse for lunch. I needed to get my obligatory cup of soup lol...and afterwards we walked around the corner to a bad ass private board room for some "INTERESTING" disccions on their new ball coming out in 2020 and their new platform VFIT for custom ball fittings. To put it simply, look out in 2020 because this ball is going farrrrrrrr and stopping faaasssssssttttttt. from there we trekked to the left side of the Firestone Driving Range to get a personal tour of their tour truck!!!! Look, i could spend all day on that thing opening up drawers, bins, closests and chatting with the tour fitter about all things PGA tour, i was in awe. It was a Pretty cool experience Ill never forget. As we were exiting the truck "Daryl" the Bridgestone Mgr of Tour Operations was there to have a bit of a chat with us regarding the VIP event later that night at the HACKERS bar & grill. He mentioned that Rocco would be there and that Freddie might show up as well. We all walked back to the clubhouse (which 98% of the public doesnt have access to on tournament days) and headed straight for the proshop. lol.....fireston made some coin on our group that afternoon.

The VIP thing was unreal. We were literally shoulder to shoulder with Rocco and Freddie all evening. Some of us played a game of cornhole. some of us hit a million drives on the rage for the "out of towners to oooooo and ahhhhhhh at" lol. (Pete379). Some of us drank and ate. ALL OF US....enjoyed the hell out of it. There was a demo range, an open bar, multiple putting greens, steaks, chicken, cornhole, ice cream station. a presentation by freddie, Rocco and Connor, a game of horse with golf equipment, more drinks, conversations with Dan Murphy, I personally met Rocco Mediate and told him my dad was a big fan......the dude asked me to tel him about my dad (87 and doesnt play golf anymore). Everything about the VIP event was surreal. If you didnt have fun there......you just simply didnt care about the experience as a whole and tried not to have fun. Every single guy there left in awe and sheer amazement of the access we had just gotten.

Later that evening we were all on our own but had decided to go out very locally to get some grub and some drinks. Operation "get Pete and Nerdy hammered" was about to commence. GMan and I knew we needed some help and adult beverages might be the way to go. Quite honestly, everyone was chatting so much I dont think there was that much drinking going on. I may have had two drinks all night. The plan wasnt working and everyone was pretty tired. After a lonnnnnng conversation with VOrtex and DJT311, it was off to bed.
 
I should have mentioned the in the parking lot of a bar impromptu video that @Jdax setup for Nerdy and I to be a part of Saturday night. That was a lot of fun and Id do it again in a heartbeat.

SUNDAY: The morning came early.....really early. Again we were heading off on a shotgun start but this time on a different hole from the previous day. I felt like we could make a run at the leaders but theyd have to falter. We happened to be playing with them. We had a chance on our first hole to get one back and my putt lipped out.....the next hole we got another good shot to get one back and we did. So through two holes i was saying to myself....."these guys arent playing lights out, but they arent far off. We literally need to capitalize on every opportunity here. From there it was a bit of a circus lol. 17 we both dunked it in the water. 18 I hit a great drive but had a wonky lie i had to dig out and leave short. I walked up to a slightly down wind 156yd approach shot. I pulled a PW figuring at worst Id be in the middle of the green.....:doh: For the life of me I have no clue to this day how I hit a PW 185yds into the back of a villa that was a good 30-40yds behind the green OB, but I did. I was flushed and im sure as hell glad that it missed a window somehow because the noise it made hitting that siding or roof or whatever it was.......was pretty epic. I go back and drop in my appropriate spot and have about a 35yd pitch that i need to dunk for par. It basically lipped out. That would have been crazy.....from that point on we headed to alt shot. Alt shot is that format that you always wanna play until youre in it.....playing it and then you cant get it over with fast enough. I love you GMan but were werent very good alt shot partners hahahah. We quickly learned that we needed to just have fun the rest of the day and cheer on Nerdy and Pete the best we could so they diudnt get down on themselves and they could close the door. They did....HUGEEEEEEEE CONGRATULATIONS to both of those guys. They were steady and complimented eachothers games perfectly both days. Two great dudes and respectable competitors.

Who wants to hear my story of the day?????? We were on the par 3 8th hole. I was last to tee off and hit it to the middle of the green. I bent down and picked up my tee and I hear a guy from across the pond (hole 2) yell "hey!....you mind "hitting my ball back over here?" I walked up to the ball (which he couldnt access from anywhere on that side. I paused and said "you want me to just throw it to ya?" he response was "nahh if ya chunk it in the pond i kind of deserve it anyways....its cool, just pitch it over!" Now.....honestly the throw would have been like 30yds and zero issue. But, against my better judgement I had my 52 degree Bridgestone wedge in my hand and i kicked it to a perfect lie. Nerdy was pulling up behind me at this point and yelled "this is the most pressure hes had all day long!!!!" He was totally right, I just wasnt thinking about that until he said it. ....so I took a swing.....annnnnnnnnnndddddddddd.....(worst case scenario here was me chunking the piss out of this shot and losing the guys ball in the water in which he missed so badly left he wouldnt be able to say anything).......I swing and make contact. Im not sure ive hit such a bladed thin lightening blot fast 52 degree wedge in my life. It was a frozen rope that flew directly at his buddies cart (which they were in and watching this unfold) they duck outta the way, it misses their cart completely and the guys whose ball it was turns around to see his ball skampering across their fairway, through the rough and into the other pond on the other side of their hole. uhhhhhh whoops, glad I didnt hit someone? It was absolutely hilarious. Our group, the group behind us DJT311, Smiter, and the Bridgestone guys, and the group acorss the pond + @JB were all literally dying laughing. Ill never forget it and quite honestly it was exactly what some of us playing poorly needed. Im an idiot sometimes....

The round finished and some had to depart and head back to the hotel for a early flight and others headed to lunch. Then everyone left to go their respective ways. There are some crazy good dudes in this small yet awesome group of THPers. Guys that I hope I never lose contact with and encourage them to stay around THP for al long as they can. This was a once in a lifetime experience that we all we able to partake in. A few of the guys leading up to this event who havent been around very long kept referring to me as a "veteran" and every single time I made sure to let them know that there was no such thing. THP gives everyone the same treatment across the board and if youre lucky enough to get in an event the OEM treat every single participant the exact same way. THP isnt about guys that have been around and post alot. THP isnt about newer members who need to be given opportunities like this to entice them to stick around. Its about golf, community, love of the game, respect for eachother and a genuine interest in bringing all sorts of people together for some once in a lifetime opportunities that wouldnt exist otherwise. GMan turned to me during our round on Sunday and asked "do you think its good or bad for a guy like me to enter these events....slowing down play....blah blah blah blah blah blah?" (whatever the hell else he said). Heres what I told him...."high caps, mid caps low caps are what make these events fun. The greater % of golfers out there arent below a 15hdcp...so youre what make this place tick. It simply wouldnt be the same culture if THP only allowed low caps into these events. Thats not golf and that wouldnt be right. If that were the case here, I'd have left a long long time ago. Noone here cares trust me. The only thing they care about is that you are here and that you enjoy the hell out of yourself and other THPers. And dont be a dick....to anyone....ever. LOL.

Im not sure I can thank THP & Bridgestone golf enough for this weekend and this whole experience!!!! Thanks @rehbirdie, @golfergal & @JB......you all did a phenomenal job once again and i cant wait to see where next years iteration of this event goes!
 
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Awesome recap @Pkorf
 
Sunday:

Sunday in a way started Saturday afternoon. After the round, Pete and I had some discussions about what to expect heading in to Sunday. I told him it would be pretty shocking if the format stayed the same and we kind of talked about what we might have in store for us the next day. Once it was announced that we would be playing best ball and then alt shot, I think the worry crept up a bit for Pete. Not because he was worried about his game, but I think he saw my tee game and thought we might be in trouble. I had previous experience in alt shot playing in the 2017 THP Championship, and I learned a lot from those 9 holes. The most important thing I learned was to play safe and avoid the giant numbers. Basically, bogey is a good score on most holes in alt and you won’t be shooting yourself in the foot. The driver was staying in the bag.

As we get to the course on Sunday, we see that we will have 4 holes of best ball, then 9 alt shot and finish up with 5 holes best ball again. I felt pretty confident that if we maintained our lead in those first 4 holes, we could get through alt shot and still be in pretty good shape. We were paired up with G-Korf for the day and knew no matter what, we were going to have some fun. The first hole I think we both felt some nerves and neither of us played the hole very well. I was over the green in 2, then chipped from one rough across the green to the other rough, followed by my only 3 putt all weekend for a double. Pete made a great putt to save bogey for us and we didn’t lose any ground to G-Korf. The next hole was pretty sloppy as well and we walked away with another bogey on a pretty simple par 5 that G-Korf parred and got one back. We head to 17 tee, which is the iconic par 3 almost island green, with a little bit of doubt creeping in. It may have worked in our favor losing that stroke on the previous hole because it meant G-Korf had the honors. After watching both their tee balls go into the water, I stepped up knowing all I had to do was keep the ball dry and we had a good chance to get at least that one stroke back maybe more because I was popping on the hole. I hit a decent shot that landed on the back and ended up in the mounds behind the green. Hit a great chip to about 3 feet and made the par net birdie to their double and that 3 shot swing relaxed us more than either of us probably wanted to admit. The next hole Pete has a natural birdie and we head in to alt shot even for the day having extended our lead.

Our game plan for alt shot was fairly simple. Both par 5’s were odd, both par 3’s were even. We decided to have Pete take the odds, so we could potentially do some damage on the par 5’s, and I would take the par 3’s as my iron game is usually solid. Our strategy actually worked out almost perfectly. We had one bad hole, but it wasn’t even a bad hole, it was just one bad shot that cost us, but those things happen, and we quickly put it behind us. We came through alt shot pretty healthy and that was when Pete went to work once we started back to best ball. On 10 he burns the edge for birdie and settles for par. 11 I bogey but net par. 12 Pete makes par net bird. 13 he sticks it to about 3 feet and makes birdie net eagle, and I’m just enjoying the show at this point. We come to 14 knowing we had the event won, but we weren’t 100% sure where the Bstone teams were and we wanted to stay aggressive. I hit my drive pretty well, but 14 is a giant backwards C and I went through the C and it ended up in the hazard. No big deal, Pete is going to keep trucking along. Well Pete hits his worse drive of the weekend and suddenly we are both dropping and hitting 3 from 220. Pete is blocked out so after his drop, he punches to leave himself about 180. He hits his 4th shot and it’s in the bunker short of the green. At his point we decide to go over and have me drop and hit just to see what happens. I hit a 5w that is pushed a little but ends up pin high. The problem is, it’s on the side of a mountain with a downhill lie. I have to go over the edge of a bunker, I’m short-sided, and we have a nice gallery all with their eyes locked on me. My only goal was not to chunk it, and to get it on the green to give us a putt for bogey. I ended up hitting a great shot that very nearly went in but ended up about 8 feet past the hole. Miss the come back putt, but we settle for a double net bogey and quickly find out that the Bstone teams ran in to some trouble themselves and we not only managed to beat one of them, but both. Pretty surreal.

After the event, most of us along with the Bstone teams went out for a casual lunch. Zack from Bstone rode over with me and it was really nice to get that one on one time and we had some good conversation for the 20-minute ride. Once we found the place (thanks @PKorf) we enjoyed a nice relaxing meal, and everyone slowly came down from their clouds knowing we would soon be heading back home. It was a great weekend with some really great people. Every single person I met and played with, I would gladly play with again.

Thanks to everyone for making this a special weekend for us. @JB, @GolferGal, @Rehbirdie, and everyone else involved, thanks for everything. It was a pretty incredible weekend.
 
You gents did great with the recaps!!! Was an awesome event to follow and you guys killed it.
 
Loved the recaps! I was thinking the same thing as PKorf - getting into the course and the clubhouse during a major tournament is crazy next level stuff and I know I would’ve felt like I was sneaking onto a place that I’m not supposed to be lol!

I sure hope Bridgestone does something like this again. Major kudos to them for putting this on for THP!
 
getting into the course and the clubhouse during a major tournament is crazy next level stuff

Modern THP Events...:D
 
Great job with the write ups guys! Sounds like a complete blast.

New ball in 2020!? I thought these just came out in January or so?

Did they mention anything about new clubs in 2020?


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Wow... How is it already Thursday... I have a bunch of notes from traveling this week, mine will be coming up. I took a different approach as this was first event and hope to excited others (not like its needed) on these events regardless of golf skill.

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Great job with the write ups guys! Sounds like a complete blast.

New ball in 2020!? I thought these just came out in January or so?

Did they mention anything about new clubs in 2020?


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No, this line came out about 18 months ago.
 
lol.....wrong thread
 
Awesome Sunday recap Will.

Good take on the Alt Shot strategy, glad it worked out for you guys
 
Popping in to say boy am I glad it was last weekend and not this....

Heat index expected to be in the 110 range over the weekend. This fat boy is not a heat lover. 80 is warm, 90 has me thinking maybe I shouldn’t play, and 110-I’d still play Firestone but probably nothing else:)
 
Just got an awesome PM! All the info to order our woods and irons!!!! Holy options!
 
Just got an awesome PM! All the info to order our woods and irons!!!! Holy options!

Will mr “Fu” be doing the assembly for ya?


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Just got an awesome PM! All the info to order our woods and irons!!!! Holy options!

Working on my order now. Has a kid in a candy store feeling to it for sure!
 
Will mr “Fu” be doing the assembly for ya?


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That's what I was just asking JB cause that is what I'm hoping for to get in touch with him before I order

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Working on my order now. Has a kid in a candy store feeling to it for sure!
Me to homie! Me to

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That's what I was just asking JB cause that is what I'm hoping for to get in touch with him before I order

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Tipping in small increments will be the same as hard stepping. Sam would go with the latter if that was the best fit.
 
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