Live Update Thread - 2016 THP Kickoff Classic Sponsored By Kentwool

Would love to be able to make a return engagement to this event!

I am certainly join the others in commending Ryan and Freddie for the phenomenal job they did in leading their teams in this very memorable event. And also to Mike Dean for his usual perfect choice of venues for events. Bravo to all 3 gentlemen, along with JB, GG and Kentwool, for both making this event happen and making it a resounding success!


P.S. Another thanks to Mike for keeping me somewhat level headed on Sunday...haha. As Freddie said earlier, I can get a tad fiesty and intense during the heat of battle.

Tadashi70 said:

Thanks for all your hard work buddy! That was an amazing venue.

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That was the last thing I did yesterday, sought out MD to thank him for doing such a fantastic job on the courses and venue at such a great rate. Mike is simply amazing!

Sox Fan said:

Would love to be able to make a return engagement to this event!

I am certainly join the others in commending Ryan and Freddie for the phenomenal job they did in leading their teams in this very memorable event. And also to Mike Dean for his usual perfect choice of venues for events. Bravo to all 3 gentlemen, along with JB, GG and Kentwool, for both making this event happen and making it a resounding success!


P.S. Another thanks to Mike for keeping me somewhat level headed on Sunday...haha. As Freddie said earlier, I can get a tad fiesty and intense during the heat of battle.

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Don't forget it's a dog leg left

JB said:

Don't forget it's a dog leg left

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Haha. I listened to my very wise partner and hit my 2nd in the correct direction to about 20 feet. Voice of reason FTW!

DawgDaddy said:

That was the last thing I did yesterday, sought out MD to thank him for doing such fantastic job on the courses and venue at such a great rate. Mike is simply amazing!

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And i appreciated that more than you know Randy. Was an absolute pleasure to be in the same group with you saturday i had an absolute blast.

First off thank you to Kentwool, JB, Morgan and 441 for putting on this event and all the work they put into this one. This was the best THP event I have been to and I really like the two day events over the 1 day events as it gives us more time to hang out and get to play with more THPers.

I am just absolutely blown away by the people of this community so thank you all for a special weekend!

So Thursday night I got down and met up with Mojo, Barry and Alan for a drink or two and some food. I had originally planned on sleeping on an air mattress mojo and spicoli's room but Barry offered up an actual bed so I was able to crash there. Super nice of everyone to make sure I had a place to crash.

Friday morning I met up with Mojo and Spicoli for our round with Chump Fries on the Lakes course. We hit breakfast and then off to the range for a little practice. Finally we got out on the course and we had a blast! I dont think any of us played our best and spent most of the day shaking off some winter rust but we had fun and shared many laughs on the course. Later that day we gathered for the meet and greet where we picked up our Kentwool swag and most importantly finally got to meet and hang out with some other THPers. The dinner was great and the company was better. It was nice meeting some new folks and seeing some familiar faces!

Finally...Saturday is here and you could feel the energy in the air. I was paired up with JohnSinVA and we played against Willwhite/Girardcorp. My partner and I got off the tee really well during the shamble 9 but we both struggled hitting the green. Will played really solid finding fairways and greens pretty regularly. John and I started to come around as we made the turn but we got down 4 holes after 11 and managed to get it to only 1 after 16. Then we both hit poor tee shots on 17 but we still had a chance at the end of the hole but we came up short losing 2 up. I was really proud of how we hung in there and kept fighting. John was a great partner and so much fun to play with. Will and Jeremy were also very fun guys and played beautifully. After the round Freddie called a team meeting in the clubhouse where we discussed pairings. I was super excited but also nervous getting paired up with Capt. Panda That night we all had dinner again and match ups were announced and then we all hung out by the fire and were met with some strange guy that decided to sit right in the middle of us and smoke lol. Before too long we were all heading to bed to get ready for the finish...

Sunday...Freddie and I were matched up against Cookie and Spicoli aka JeffJohn. I knew we were in for a dog fight when Spicoli hit his approach "mishit" to about 6 feet on the first hole and drained the birdie to go 1 up. It went back and forth for the first 6 holes and then Cookie and JeffJohn went on a tear winning the next 4 holes including the opening Alt shot hole to go 4 up through 10. Them being 4 up was just a testament to how well they played as we were a couple of burned edges to being right in it at that point. 11 is where Freddie and I found our grove...I hit a nice tee ball giving him a nice look in which he found the green and we were able to get one back. I remember telling Freddie as we walked off the green that it starts with 1 and we were 3 down. We picked up another on 12 getting us to within 2 and now we have some serious life. 13 was very interesting though, I hit a poor tee shot putting Freddie in a bad spot just inside the tree line and he gave some serious thought to hitting a big cut out of there but ended up punching us out and getting me a look from the fairway. I end up catching it heavy and it lands just short of the green Freddie then chips us on to around 6-7 feet and we were given a chance to half the hole after I was sure we had lost the hole now I knew I needed to put one good stroke on this putt to half since my poor tee shot put us in the spot we were...BOOM...down it goes and I give a nice fist pump! We go on to win the 14th hole next and we are only 1 down now. Up next is the long par 3 that is all carry over the water...I remember taking a deep breath telling myself to just get a solid swing and I hit it pure and pure can be and its tracking...tracking...long!!! No way! Both teams end up with a bogey and half the hole...onto 16 where Freddie and I were able to get it all square with two to play...17 is a much shorter par 3 and all I could think about was the poor shot I had hit on 17 the day before when we needed a good one after clawing back there too...so here we go...9 iron in hand with water left and a back left pin...I make my worst swing of the day and the ball gets wet. I was crushed but the first person to console me was Cookie and gave me a big bro hug. Very awesome of him to do...JeffJohn and Freddie were also very supportive but the hole wasnt done yet...Freddie took our drop and ended up giving us a 4 footer for bogey just in case the door opened but a solid two putt from Cookie and Spicoli put them 1 up heading into 18...Being that this was the 2nd group out we didnt know how the chips would fall behind us but we knew we needed a half here...Freddie steps up and just smokes one down the fairway leaving me about 100 yards to the uphill green...I looked over at Spicoli and was like I am not sure this is a good number for me as I havent hit my wedges good all weekend while cutting a smile...he says just put a good swing on this last one then...I step up...solid contact...its got a little baby cut to it heading towards the back left pin...I knew it was going to be ok but I couldnt see where it landed until we got up there and as I walk over JB looks at me and says hell of a shot...leaving Freddie around 8-10 feet for birdie. Freddie takes a good look at it and says he likes left edge as I take a look with him and agree...BOOM he rolls it in and we make one hell of a comeback to finish All Square...amazing group and amazing golf played here and so much fun. I still cannot believe Freddie and I shot a gross 38 in alt shot...just insane. Big thank you to Freddie for his support throughout the entire round. He is a true leader and it was truly an honor to share the cart with you on Sunday. JeffJohn was a class act Friday and Sunday and you are one hell of a player and you look just like Matt Kuchar...Cookie was so much fun and a very nice golfer and true sportsman as well.

Congrats to the Wool Warriors on the win...you guys played great and fought all weekend, enjoy those HoF tags! To my MM bros...I enjoyed sharing the course with you and so proud of how we fought all weekend and never gave up!

This was my first team event like this at THP and I am hungry for another one after the amount of fun that was had. The pressure during alt shot is for real but such a rush!

Thank you again to everyone for an amazing weekend. Truly my favorite THP event of the 4 I have been to now.

Much love,
Mike

I was finally able to catch up on the coverage from Sunday. WOW you guys really rocked it out there! Congrats WW and Brian! This was a great follow and I am glad to hear this will be returning in 2017!

Mike watching you hit your shot and Freddie convert was freaking awesome!

Loved reliving the day Mike! It was a real pleasure to partner with you on Sunday. You have a lot of game.

Fantastic recap Mike, it really was a very enjoyable round that got crazy competitive on the back 9.

That shot on 18 was just absolute money, as much as I like to win it seemed that AS was very appropriate for the 4 1/2 hour battle we went through. Would gladly tee it up with you anytime!!

Tadashi70 said:

Loved reliving the day Mike! It was a real pleasure to partner with you on Sunday. You have a lot of game.

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I concur with this sentiment. Mike, if we could have made a few more shots we maybe could have ground out a halve on Saturday too, but Gcorp and Will made some clutch shots when they needed them. Still had a blast partner and hope to tee it up with you again!


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Great post, Mike. Friday and Sunday were a lot of fun. I was gutted for you on 17 as you had played so well that round and you and Freddie were taking it to us on the back. As #cookie said, we want to win but I was proud of you sticking it on 18 with all that pressure. I didn't want you walking away from the battle we had hanging your head. Hope to see you again, buddy.

Tadashi70 said:

Loved reliving the day Mike! It was a real pleasure to partner with you on Sunday. You have a lot of game.

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I echo this statement. It was good to see you again my friend.

I haven't forgotten about posting yet, but I got about 2 hours of sleep after getting back to my apartment at 2am on Sunday night/Monday morning and was still a little excited about having such a great weekend. I'm still trying to get my sleep cycle back on track after sleeping from 5:30p-2:30a last night too!

Loved all the pics from Sunday, especially of the other groups on the course that I couldn't see and a big, big, BIG thank you to old friends and new and everybody who I haven't met yet!

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.

Great stuff GC. It was a blast chatting with you all weekend and watching you enjoy this much needed vacation.

Great recap Jeremy!! Was great to finally meet you and I really enjoyed our round on Friday in addition to chatting a good bit throughout the weekend. Thanks again for taking the lead on the rental situation, you made it very easy for the rest of us!

Great recap, GC. It was great to meet you.

First quick recap with a few first thoughts!

Captain - tadashi70 - You rocked it cap, you ooze what THP is all about, thank you for always staying so positive all weekend
Dhartmann34 - Derek, it was good to see you again buddy, always fun to shoot the breeze
mikedean441 - It was great to connect again and chat events, THP, life in general, just make sure sox always goes left!
e1iterate - Glad we got to chat at dinner, hopefully we can tee it up soon, Go Chiefs!!!
mmaynard11 - Roomie, Partna, what can I say that I already haven't, you were amazing, thank you for being patient while I struggled, I can't wait to tee it up again.
Sox Fan - Don't forget to go left buddy, your fire and passion were fun to watch.
JohnSinVA - Glad we got to share the practice round together, you make ball go far with those C200s!
Just_Hacking - My partna, it was an interesting round to say the least, especially on the back, but we gutted it out and almost kept it going, so much fun to share a cart/round with ya.
OITW - Finally got to meet in person, such a pleasure, your rock buddy.
jhoefer99 - Jed it was great to finally meet you and chat about everything, you are a good dude: family, golf and life!
amsmith61 - Aaron, I need to make a trip to Indy again real soon, it's always fun to see you, but we need to finally tee it up together!


Congrats again to the wining squad, you all played your hearts out and earned that W!
Captain - War Eagle - Ryan, it was awesome to see you again, it had been far too long, you did a great job coaching your team to victory, well played. Congrats again.
Jeff Spicoli - I want your swing, watching you hit balls on the range was amazing, you make BALL GO FAR!!!
#Cookie - We finally got to tee it up together, you certainly didn't get to see good golf out of me, but it was a fun round scouting the course together, now I just need to make a trip down to TX!
Girardcorp - Jeremy, it's always good to see you my man, and planning the WI trip and chatting during dinner and round was awesome, great to tee it up on Friday!
Brianmk24 - Brian, what can I say you MVP, thanks for checking on the rental car once you got in! I know the waiting game wasn't any fun. You earned that weekend buddy, glad we got to chat on the car rides, you are a great dude, remember, don't ingest or squirt the hair dye in your eyes or mouth!
Chump Fries - 1/2 of MoFries, you MFers! Great competing against you on Sunday and you are one great dude, can't wait to tee it up again!
tanker337 - My other carmate, it was awesome to meet you Paul, can't wait to follow along with your journey this year, you may have swung me to cheer for Darth Finley!
Willwhite - Great to meet you, I noticed you always had a shining smile on your face whenever I'd see you, that was contagious man, hopefully we can tee it up soon.
T0AD - Great to see you man, glad the dog is doing better, those are never fun distractions to have on the course, hopefully we get to tee it up later this year sometime!
cpljohnst - Barry, awesome to meet you, I'm super envious of your style game buddy, you rocked those purple plaid pants!
DawgDaddy - The man, the myth, the legend, great to finally put a face to all those deal posts, you are one great man, so glad I finally got to meet you!
Johnny Mojo - The other 1/2 of MoFries, what a pleasure to finally meet, play and compete with you buddy, it was a real treat, you are an awesome dude

Sorry if this get's a bit long winded!

I think I'll do these next few in stages!

Thu PM to Friday PM

Well my journey started around 5pm or so making my journey to Omaha to fly out and after listening to someone puke their guts out at MDW on the way, I couldn't wait to finally get to ATL and meet Tank and Brian at the rental car counter to make our journey to AL. The drive was a ton of fun at 1am, you could tell we were all super tired, and driving through the dark in the backroad of Opelika, I was worried I got lost 1 or 2 times, but we finally made it to the facility and tried to get some sleep before tomorrow's play, only a few short 4 hours later the construction started next door and our day started!!!

It was awesome to tee it up with Cookie, Girard and JohnSin on the lakes course for a windy practice round, the location/views are so awesome on that course. CookGirard took the match that day, but it was so much fun, you'll notice a theme in these comments for Fri and Sat, but my game was not on point, for some reason, whatever I had found before leaving NE, was left in NE! I almost felt at times I had forgotten how to play golf, the short game seemed ok, and my putting felt fine, but from tee to green I felt quite lost. It was a very defeating feeling but I was trying not to bring down the group. Everyone else played great and it was still a super fun round learning a new course.

Friday night was great, thanks to Josh and Morgan for dinner and drinks, picking up or SWAG and chatting about the festivities kicking off the next day, sitting around the fire waiting for dinner and after dinner was a ton of fun, and then making a run to the store to only find out you can't really get alcohol all the time in AL, planning ahead is a must! But we did finally find some beer at the gas station next to the ice cream shop. Scaring the heck out of Freddie and others in the car was fun, me hanging out in the far back seat in the dark, I was kind of hidden! After a long day with no sleep it was off the bed, and unfortunately I think my snoring kept my roomie Maynard up a bit, sorry pal! But after some ZZZZs it was time to kick this part off! (See what I did there!)

Great recaps Jeremy and Kyle!

And, Kyle, fortunately my eyes were working better on Sunday than my memory was Saturday night. Haha

Sat

Well arriving the course I didn't know for sure what to think about my game so I tried to stay loose and get comfortable during the warm up, watching the flightscope is always fun, and checking out the gear is always a gear head's dream! The range setup at the facility is incredible, super large range, putting green and short game green let you get all the aspects of your game dialed in.

We headed to the other practice green shortly before tee time to get a feel for the other greens we'd be playing that day and got some announcements before heading to the tee, even instructions from MikeDean on who shouldn't enter the raffle and it turned out he was right with Maynard winning later in the day!

We headed off to the first tee of the Links to kick it off. First tee nerves are legit, and there were some awesome drives hit under that pressure, Maynard/I were taking on Brian/Tank in the Shamble/Pinehurst round at the links. Having not seen the course yet, we relied heavily on all the numbers and information at our disposal. Maynard played great, I just wish I could have played a little better and helped him out. Brian/Tank played great and ham/egg it to a win. The live scoring during the round was awesome, I was the designated scorer in our group and after every hole it only took like 5 seconds to put the score in and then we could also check the live leaderboard to see how the rest of the matches were doing. Both formats were fun, and Pinehurst is a riot, take a bit of time to get used to, especially since I hadn't played it previously, but lots of fun for sure. After finishing and watching the drone on the par 3 and watching the groups come down the stretch after Maynard getting the call about his raffle win was a lot of fun and a nice close to the day, especially watching Freddie/Dean strategy coming down 18. And Spicoli's amazing approach shot.

Team Merino Marauders headed to the clubhouse for a quick strategy session to talk pairing and such, it was great for all of us to give our feedback and watch Freddie strategize his way to the pairings for the next day, I really felt like we all felt good about the new/old pairings and were anxious to see who we'd play!

After round we headed back to the patio to relax before dinner and the upcoming announcements, listening to the captain go back and forth with pairings was so cool, you are waiting to see who you'd play but also have a ton of thoughts/feelings about who your teammates were going to play. After that began the debate that will live on forever, Does hole 1 at the lakes go to the right or left, and hearing sox preach till he was blue in the face that it went to the right and even Alex showing him it went left. After that we headed back out to the patio to hang for a while and even meet a stranger or two who wanted to come hang by the fire with us. The after hours gatherings are such a great time to hang, chat about absolutely everything. It was off to bed to rest up for the final days play!

Did I miss the team photo for Merino Marauders, does anyone have a copy they could send me or post???

IceyShanks said:

Did I miss the team photo for Merino Marauders, does anyone have a copy they could send me or post???

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I don't recall seeing it posted either and would love a copy as well.

Final Round Sunday

Were back to the Lakes course for the final round play and where we would crown the champ and MVP of the KickoffClassic, after my poor play the previous two days I took a different approach to my warm up and really seemed to get my confidence back, I felt much better going into that round, and lucky didn't have to hit driver off that first tee, nice to be able to pull an iron and go from there! Being in the last group I got to watch all the other groups tee off and with the live scoring it was great to follow along and see how my teammates were playing while they were already out on the course. My partna JustHacking and I became IceyHacking and JohnnyMojo and Chump Fries become MoFries for our competitors in our Best Ball/Alt Shot match. It was a great weekend for playing with people I hadn't ever before, all 6 of them. Johnny and Courtney played great they were a tough pair for John and I to try and battle back with, Chump and I seemed to have quite a few holes that ended with putt offs for the halve or win! He even dodges the kiss of death good/good and from then on I kept pimping him around with good/goods. It was a fun round with one of the best formats, Alt Shot, I love playing that. John and I ended up losing but it was a hard fought battle, even to win 15 to continue the match after going dormie.

Driving up to 18 after the match was over and watching the rest of the matches come in before crowning the champ is what THP events are all about, so much fun to stand around and cheer on your teammates down the stretch. After they all finished we headed to the front of the clubhouse for announcements of team winner and the coveted Golden Ticket that came with the title of MVP, Congrats to Wool Warriors and Captain War again, and congrats to Brian for winning MVP, seeing his face after winning was awesome, he was grinning from ear to ear. After saying our goodbyes we all headed back to shower up and head our ways for travel, driving back with Brian and Tank was a ton of fun to reminisce on the weekend that had just transpired, even pondering events for Brian to use the ticket on! Dropping Brian off at the airport and hearing him tell Tank that half that MVP was his was a special experience, they were a great partnership/pair all weekend and two of the nicest guys I've met. Dropped Tank off at his hotel for the night and headed to mine for the next couple days. Finally getting home yesterday and being able to process the weekend, holy cow what an amazing experience. I hadn't had a competitive team competition with THP for a while, and I certainly don't want to wait that long again!!!

Big thanks to Josh, Morgan and Mike Dean for the amazing setup, location and event. Huge kudos to Kentwool, their socks and underwear are legit, I know people may have a bit of sticker shock on them, but they are more than worth it, the quality, comfort and performance are off the charts.

So happy to hear KickoffClassic is coming back in 2017, because 2016 was unbelievable.