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Great recap, GC. It was great to meet you.
You as well. I appreciate your captaining skills. You saw what worked and kept it going. Worked so well on Sunday!
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It has been a little while since I have had to write a recap for an event, so it feels great to have to do it again. I first want to thank Josh, Morgan, Mike and Kentwool for such an incredible event. The whole weekend was incredible and Grand National was a perfect venue for the event. Thank you for everything you did to put the event together!
About Grand National - I saw the pictures online and was excited to say the least about playing both courses. Johnny Mojo got us fired up on Thursday with the preview of the Links course and finally getting there – I don’t believe the pictures did the course justice. The way both courses weaved around the Lake Saugahatchee, was spectacular. I went back through both courses to think of 1 or 2 holes that I didn’t like – and I couldn’t think of any. To me that is a testament to both courses being well designed.
Friday morning hits and I am up before my alarm goes off. Combination of getting pushed out of bed by a black lab and being a THP travel day - it was no surprise. Easy flight to Atlanta where I meet up with 441, OITW, MMaynard and War Eagle. An easy drive to the Grand National, we had a quick moment to unpack and head to the course for our Friday round. OITW and I met up with Sox Fan and JHoeffer. It was great to finally meet both in person, we had a few minutes to warm up/get the rust off and away we went. After the first hole, we ran into one of the groups that included Johnny Mojo and Chump Fries. Johnny immediately gave me a huge hug which told me everything I needed to know about the guy - more on both guys later. The Friday round on the Lakes course was a bit of a struggle for me. Tempo issues throughout, I think I pulled every shot I hit with my PW and 8 iron until I blocked a PW dead left on 18. Regardless it felt great to get out there and play. Even better that I got to share the round with each of those guys.
Friday night was the meet and greet. Got my big man hug out of the way with Toad. I think we knocked a few people out of the way, but it was all good. It was great to see so many familiar faces and getting to meet those who I hadn’t met before. The rest of the night was good food, drinks, Kentwool swag and laughter. I was able to sit with Tanker, DHartmann, Willwhite and Chump Fries and we chatted about anything you can think about. After heading out to the patio, the talk of ice cream comes up. Being roommates, Alex and I talk about the need to get water and we head out with the guys on the ice cream run. We ended up with water…. and ice cream.
Saturday morning arrives and I am up before my alarm.. go figure. Headed downstairs for a workout and stretching. We then head down to Grand National to warm up… Earlier in the week, it hit us both that we were potentially hitting the first tee shots of the 2016 year for THP events, so to say we were excited was an understatement. On the range I focused on the PW and 8 iron right away, and both felt much, much better. I wanted to take advantage of the Flightscope, but completely forgot. Made my to the short game area and everything seemed to be working there (yeah right) and headed back to hit a few with the driver and 3 wood.
Open tee jitters were there, but I felt under control – far different than past THP events. Alex and I are up first and both tee shots are in the fairway – success! We took the first hole, but Johnny a birdie on 2 to get the match back to even. MoFries were more than a formidable opponent. They quickly got up on us on the 4th, but we squared the match on the very next hole thanks to a great shot by Alex. They immediately went back on top thanks to a phenomenal birdie from Chump Fries on the Par 5, 6[SUP]th[/SUP] hole. Alex and I made a mess of the next hole and suddenly we were down 2. That was when things started to click for us.. We birdied the next 2 holes to even the match, then took the next two holes with pars to go up 2. Johnny and Courtney didn’t go away though. They got back to within one taking the 13[SUP]th[/SUP]hole, but we took the 14[SUP]th[/SUP] to go up by two. On the 16[SUP]th[/SUP] Par 3, Johnny hits a great tee shot to about 10 feet and Chump Fries drains the birdie putt to bring them back to within 1. On 17, Alex and I got aggressive and it bit us in the butt big time. We dropped the hole and the match is all back to square, heading to 18. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous at this point. MoFries are both in the fairway with their tee shots, Alex follows and put his in the fairway as well. I pulled my drive slightly, but thanks to the slope on the right side, it kicks back into the fairway. Playing into the wind, the approach shot was intimidating. With both guys getting a pop, Courtney decided to lay up and the ball took an unfortunate kick forward and rolled into the water. Johnny tried for the green and came up just short. My approach from 180 barely made it over the hazard and slowly rolled back towards the hazard – playable – phew. Alex’s shot hits the green, but kicks forward and rolls off the back. We decided to use my approach shot and Alex hits a great chip to about 5-6 feet above the hole. I am able to sink the par putt and we take the hole and the match.
I know this is a lot of play by play, but I wanted to give everyone an idea of how tightly contested the match was. The round was an absolute blast and I wouldn’t hesitate a second to tee it up with all three guys.
Johnny Mojo – you are true gentlemen and a THPer to the core. You truly are a bulldog on the golf course and you don’t miss a fairway. It got a little ridiculous after a point… kidding. But what I wanted to point out was Johnny had the luxury of playing the Links course on Thursday and was gracious to give us a little background/recon on each hole. That was true sportsmanship at its finest. It was a pleasure to share the round with you and I look forward to doing it again.
Chump Fries - Like Johnny, you are good one my friend. I know you struggled off the tee a little and I was very happy to hear Freddie helped you out on the range Sunday. Your wedges and putter were tough and that shot from the bunker on 15 was one of the best shots I saw on the weekend. It truly was a blast getting to know you and I would tee it up with you again in a heartbeat.
We spent the rest of the time watching the matches behind us come in and it felt great just being around the 18[SUP]th[/SUP] green of a THP event. A quick team meeting with Freddy to talk strategy. It was impressive watching Freddie work, as he asked us how we all felt and asked us how our rounds went. He listened, took notes and then made his pairings. Alex and I talked about being partners again on Sunday, but we knew it was up to Freddie and neither of us pushed the issue. Then Freddie tells us we are partners again for Sunday and announces the rest of the pairings - I like our chances.
After the meeting, we run into Chump Fries and he says the magic words - "chicken tenders" and off we went to Guthrie's.
More to follow...
Pro Tip: Don't order bubble gum ice cream with gummie bears, it's delicious but you'll be made fun of.
We didn't make THAT much fun of you. We would have though if it had come with a toy
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We weren't very good at closing the doors quietly or John might have spent the night in the car.Which was soooo good nothing like great southern fried chicken, their secret sauce was delightful.
And after Guthrie's we headed back to the hotel and out to the patio because 441 kept saying how wonderful it was outside.
We hung out around the patio with THPers asking us where their Guthries was (in my belly) and hung out and rehashed Saturday's rounds. Santa War Eagle came around with some great beers for everyone too (Thank you!!!)
Then it was time for dinner and the (drumroll) matchups!!!
JB kicked it off with a few words then Tadashi went first and said amsmith61 and I would be the first group off for #MerinoMarauders War Eagle scoured his paper for a long few seconds and said that he and cpljohnst would be our foes for the Sunday rounds. After that the rest of the pairings were announced and we were off to dinner.
Dinner was quite fun chit chatting with everyone and agreeing to disagree with Sox Fan that #1 on Lakes does in fact go left and not right, thankfully he listened and parred the hole the next day.
After dinner we headed back outside for more drinks and conversation. At some point the conversation took a weird turn to getting in the hot tub, but before anything could go any further, the 25th THPer, MysteriousSmoker showed up and joined the group and just listened to all of the conversation and really enjoyed our company.
After that experience a couple of the fellas and I grew tired of sitting by the fire together and felt the night was taking us for Ice Cream.
Pro Tip: Don't order bubble gum ice cream with gummie bears, it's delicious but you'll be made fun of.
Pro Tip 2: Don't fall asleep in the back of the car, people will not wake you up.
Pro Tip 3: Apple Skoal is pretty difficult to find, call ahead first. And in AL when they don't have it, they're cool with you texting your "friend" to see what flavor they want.
Sunday:
Wow, Sunday, It was a heck of a day, I slept fitfully and was up at 6am with my alarm. Met up with Toad for his morning coffee and casual conversation. - I did enjoy our chats in the morning Sean is a great dude with lots of interesting stories.
Headed back upstairs and put the scripting out,
we had the first tee time of the day so we wanted to get over to the the clubhouse for breakfast
ProTip 4: spicy sausage wrap with salsa was soooo good, i recommend it for breakfast (price was a steal) and kudos to Ashley and the rest of the RTJ Grand National dining staff for taking great care of us.
Headed down to the range, nothing like range time with THPers, nothing like watching Spicoli just crank out driver shot after driver shot he is Lllooooonnngggg. 3rd day out there and the swing was feeling great, I was pumped for the round. Also seeing all of the green on my Marauder teammates and the red on the Warriors definitely helped amp up for the coming match.
Our match was absolutely phenomenal, as the "Mardi Gras" matchup Barry's scripting was BOSS! Our match was AS thru 2 then we grabbed the lead...
More to come
We weren't very good at closing the doors quietly or John might have spent the night in the car.
I needed a few days to put my thoughts together and let the entire experience sink in. I started my day Friday about 2:30am as I needed to drive about an hour and a half to the airport to catch the flight to Atlanta. Meeting Dhartmann at the airport about 5am, we got on our flight and no sooner than the plane left the runway we started talking golf. Before we knew it, we were coming in for landing in Atlanta. After getting to baggage claim we found JohnSinVA who waited for #Cookie to arrive while Derek and I tried to find our rental car.
For some reason, the very nice lady at the Budget counter must’ve seen some concern on my face and asked if I wanted a free upgrade to a suburban. 4 guys with 4 travel bags wasn’t going to work in a standard SUV, but somehow this all worked out and we had a pretty nice ride. Drove back to the terminal where we picked up JohnSinVA and met #Cookie. We headed out on the road to Alabama.
Nice smooth drive got us to Alabama and we grabbed some beverages at the local Winn-Dixie. The other guys would say this is where I almost sent some poor guy into cardiac arrest as I made a quick turn and almost t-boned a guy with the school bus I was driving (I see it differently but oh well. Made for a good few jokes the rest of the weekend). After fueling up at the local Chick-Fil-A with chicken fingers (my first experience) we were off to RTJ-Grand National.
The golf course is set apart from the community a good ways, so you travel on some back roads and then we turned right into a giant planned community(there are lots of spaces available if anyone is interested). It seemed like we drove for a mile or two (and several roundabouts…which isn’t easy to navigate in a Suburban) and finally started seeing some golf holes. The facility was absolutely gorgeous. Unloaded our clubs and found our Friday afternoon foursomes. I was paired with #Cookie against JohnSinVA and IceyShanks and we setup a little match on GolfGameBook.
The Friday practice round was good for me as I had just purchased a set of Ping G irons. As many know I had been sweating their arrival as they didn’t get shipped by Ping on time. Anyway, they arrived Thursday afternoon, so I had them along for the trip. While not playing my best, the practice round allowed us to see the Lakes course which we would be playing on Sunday. The greens were different then what I was used to, so it took quite a bit of adjustment for me. #Cookie and I made a great team, and we defeated JohnSinVA and IceyShanks in our little matchup. #Cookie had some words of wisdom for me during the round Friday that really helped me out Saturday and Sunday. Having never played match play before, i wasn't sure what to expect.
Headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner, and most everyone was outside at the patio behind the hotel. Very nice setup with a couple pools, and an outdoor bar with fire bowls and a good number of tables. Right about then, it was dinner time and we all headed into the restaurant. Swag was distributed and a good deal of appetizer type food was provided. Lots of golf talk was had by all.
Saturday morning brought our first matches in the event, with play out on the Links course. I had not seen this course previously (except via website/satellite). My teammate for the round was WillWhite (Andy) and we played against JohnSinVA and e1iterate. Will and I made a great team because when I was struggling, Will was right there to step it up. He could find fairways like no other. On #2, I had about a 50’ putt for Net Eagle that was incredible. All the guys were standing by the hole and I was all the way on the other side (front right) and they got to watch it come in. Probably the only good putt I made that day. We battled the Maurino Mauraders back and forth most of our round. Will and I had put up a decent lead, then gave it away, and came into #17 1 up. Will have hit his approach long and left and I found myself with a chip up onto the green from about 15 yards away. I had been recently working on wedge shots with my instructor the Wednesday before the event, so I just did what I was taught and hoped it would work, even though I was on some wood chips and whatnot. Chipped it to about 2”. That ended up closing out the match, so we played #18 for fun. Seeing everyone out on the 18[SUP]th[/SUP] green was awesome. We joined the group and watched the last teams play in for the day. Afterwards our Captain asked us how the rounds went and if anything we would change. I have to say WarEagle must’ve known what he was doing because when Sunday teams were announced, he kept the groups that did well together. Little did I know this was genius at the time, even if the formats were different on Sunday.
For Sunday’s round, WillWhite and I were again teamed up, and we faced off against JohnSinVA and JHoeffer. Once I found my golf swing, Will and I were an even better team than on Saturday. We had won a few consecutive holes, and halved a few on the front to make the turn at 5 up. The highlight of the round was watching Will do a Happy Gilmore using his GBB with his Oban Kyoshi Purple shaft into the woods while we were waiting for the group in front of us to clear. Hit it perfectly! Switching to alternate shot, we lost the hole on a few bad hits, and moved to #11. Having never played in a match play format prior, I needed to get a little fired up so I played some music that meant something to me and got refocused. Will put us out in the middle of the fairway, and I was up with about 124 yards to the pin. I pulled out my new friend, my Ping G pitching wedge and put the ball, a Callaway Chrome Soft, to about 10’. Will made a good put that just missed the hole and we went back to 5 up. We halved the #12 hole do to my poor tee shot, and lost the #13 hole with a bad chip on my part. The Merino Mauraders played excellent on that hole (albeit I hear they had a little help from a branch that kept them in the sand instead of over the green). There may have been some tree movement on that hole also… Anyhow, we moved to #14, with team WillWhite/Girardcorp 4 up. Will and I managed to finish out the hole ahead of the other team and that finished out the match. We took a few fun shots at the #15 green and then called it a day, hanging out on #18 for all the groups to come in. A couple of the other matches came right down to the wire so it was tense on the 18[SUP]th[/SUP] green. Wool Warriors ended up pulling it out, and they announced the MVP; my roommate BrianMK.
We took some team pictures, said our good-byes and sprinted back to the hotel to clean up and pack the car before heading to Atlanta to catch our flights. Watched some of the golf from Riviera on the plane ride home, and had some more good conversation with Derek.
A couple parting thoughts. Thanks to Kentwool for supporting this event. Kentwool has some amazing products. I was fortunate enough to be a tester for the Kentwool socks on the THP forum previously. From that testing experience, I bought 4 additional pair prior to the Kickoff Classic. I know these socks work. As I’ve stated before, I use them for everything including our cabin construction days where it has been in the 90’s with significant humidity. The socks held up all day without problems. I was highly skeptical of the underwear when they were first announced, solely due to price. I could never see paying $50 for a pair of underwear. Boy could I have been wrong! Having spent the weekend wearing these boxer briefs, I’m not sure how you could go back to ‘low quality’ offerings. They are comfortable, and do exactly what they say they will. I remember both days, getting to about the 7[SUP]th[/SUP]/8[SUP]th[/SUP] tee box before remembering I was even wearing them. That’s how comfortable/effortless they are. Last night I did the laundry, following the instructions, and they came out exactly like new. Kentwool states right on the box that these will last a long time, and I look forward to having these in the rotation. I will likely be buying a few more pair (some grey to balance out the two black pair I have) along with some additional socks. I’d like to try one of their shirts as well to see how they perform.
Trying to play competitive golf, score the match, and keep up with live updates/social media is hard work. I struggled with this due to an aging iPhone 4s that needs to be replaced sooner than later due to battery issues. I should’ve taken more pictures as we went along, because I do not think anyone else in our group was doing so.
Lastly, thanks to Josh and Morgan for creating the event, Mike Dean for his usual expertise (even if he didn’t get that 4[SUP]th[/SUP] HOF tag) and team captains Freddie and Ryan. You guys did a great job getting your teams out on the course and playing competitive golf. As I’ve mentioned in a previous posting, this time I didn’t have a THP event hangover. Instead of being sad it’s over, I’m looking forward to my next opportunity to play some golf at an amazing location with great friends.
Some more anecdotal stuff...
WillWhite has one of the most confusing names on THP. He goes by "Andy" in real life.
Icey- I really enjoyed hearing about all the events you've been to on the car ride in. Just upped the excitement for me, since it was only my 2nd event.
Saturday and Sunday on #1 couldn't have been more different for me. Saturday, I pumped a beautiful draw right down the middle of the fairway. Sunday...I duffed a 6I and barely got off the tee boxes. First tee nerves are real!!
I'll post more, as I remember them...
Jeremy,
It was great having you as a partner, perfect recap. I got lucky will the happy Gilmore haha.
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And here are the swings off 1 to start that match.Sunday...Freddie and I were matched up against Cookie and Spicoli aka JeffJohn.