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It was great meeting you Steve.
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So, the Recap thread is up. The event is now officially over and in the books. Very sad, I had a great time. Unexpectedly, I experienced some interesting emotions during the event build-up, during the event, and after. Personally, I feel incredibly lucky to have been a part of this event, to have met the Callaway captains, to have met (and re-connected) with a number of THP members, and to have made new friends along the way. THP, as others have said for years, is more than just a community where golf is discussed, it is a living, breathing group of avid golfers, all of whom are solid individuals who are great people and golfers who are more concerned with having a good time golfing than anything else.
The Build Up
I live in Scottsdale, 20 min from WeKoPa, so this event really was "in my back yard". I had the opportunity to play both the Saguaro and the Cholla course before the Gauntlet started. I love Saguaro, I do not like Cholla at all. Cholla is a golf course that you NEED to play a few times before you can really appreciate the layout and design.
The days before the event, I was feeling pretty good about my game. I played a pretty good round at Cholla the Monday before the event, and I thought it would get better at the event.
Thursday, I met Molton in the restaurant of Talking Stick resort, and kensisland, Will82 and NoLine were there, having finished their morning round. Over the next 30 minutes, everyone playing showed up, I met a number of new people, and we got out to play the South course (which is the easier of the two courses, also the shorter course). I played with JP_CO and Will82, and had a blast. Will was hitting these low, running draws, for his "handicap" he was playing very well!! JP just flat out hits the ball - it was fun to watch, especially since he had just had an Albatross in CO! I wanted to see his 317 yd 3w shot!! The scores were not that great, but the golf was a blast!!
After golf, I met up with Awkward Silence, drove home for a shower, and rolled into TopGolf just before 7pm. I was not the first one there, we had three bays, food and drinks were coming, and the gang started getting their golf on. It was great meeting everyone, and over the three hours that we were there, almost everyone came by. A few local guys who were playing golf but not in the event helped fill the spots so we could get the bays reserved next to each other. A toast to Mixalot's dad, whose passing prevented Derryck from participating, and the event "unofficially" started for me. Great time - if you have never been to TopGolf, it is a blast, ESPECIALLY with THP'ers.
Friday AM - I am glad that the guys decided to play a round at my home course. Wubears71, mr.Hicksta and NoLine were in the walking group with me. Funny - we started on the "easiest" hole and nobody hit the fairway. It was a great time, nobody played particularly well (because of the set-up of the course, the wind, and the course is hard anyway). Lunch afterwards was fun, good times and good food. The staff at the club was very nice, and I have heard a number of times how much they enjoyed our group of guys!!
PGA SuperStore was our next stop, for the people who do not have access to a BIG golf store to check out (and this store has the 2016 Cure Putter line up at it).
Turns out that JP, Awkward Silence and I left our credit cards at TopGolf, so we swung over and grabbed them before heading to the resort.
Friday evening - AS and I shared a room, we checked in and met BigTex, rozo22 and Xman at the bar before the dinner. Just shooting the breeze, a little team strategy, mostly just getting to know the guys.
Fri dinner - Meeting the Callaway captains and hanging out with the team during the meal was the highlight. And the swag. A couple of jokes about the kosher cheeseburgers, wubears eventually arrived, and the dinner seemed to be over as soon as it started. I loved the team balls!!
After dinner, some went to the casino, most just hung out in the outdoor patio. The weather in May in AZ is perfect, the temp was great, and no rain. Ethan brought beers in Callaway bags, which I though was great! Meeting the captains and the teams is, as others have said and I agree, the best part of any of these events. Everyone is just a solid, interesting, friendly, fun person, some drink more than others, some talk more, but everyone is just fun! We hung out until around 11pm, then went to bed.
Sat - First round. I got to the course early, but did not get my normal warm up - I wanted to try the XR drivers. This lack of warm up cost me dearly during my round. My teammate, BigTex, and I were paired up against JP_CO and JRod (which I requested Friday night - can't be the champ if you can't beat the champ). First tee jitters, I pushed my drive into the desert. Luckily, BigTex was in the grass (which was the pattern for our entire round). JRod pretty much set the tone, this was to be FUN, and it was! May be the most fun I have ever had playing golf, especially considering how poorly I played. JRod has serious game, JP drained putts from everywhere, hit every fairway (it felt that way), and our team lost 3&1 on the front nine.
Back 9 was different - but BigTex and I could not string together two good holes. We ended up pushing the round, which really was appropriate, as neither team played so well that they deserved to win the match.
Post round, drinks at the golf course, then to the pool. I met up with a number of guys, but the most memorable part of that time was getting to speak with Velardo about golf clubs and his experience at the Grandaddy. Really a nice guy, I could sit and pick his brain over beers for a good long time if it were possible. He recommended I try the GBB driver (given my experience w the mini 1.5). Then it was dinner time.
Dinner was another great time - terrific food, better company, and the day 2 match ups were announced. Rozo22 and I were paired up against Pokeslice and Finley. I was really looking forward to playing w Pokeslice, as we had not played any golf at all, but spent a lot of time after the rounds discussing the courses, the holes, and the shots that he hit. I also wanted to see his distance first hand.
After dinner, again we overtook the outdoor patio, drinks, some shots of tequila and Mescal (no worm), and just good conversation. Again, the time with the other guys is the part of any of these events where strong bonds are forged, this night being no exception.
Sunday - Our group was the fourth to tee off, which was fine. I was feeling pretty good until I started seeing tee shots head left, into the crap, and then a few into the fairway bunker that I assumed was out of play for all but Wubears. I put my tee shot in the grass (which was NOT the case on Sat), and we were off. Finley called our first two holes a "pillow fight", they won #3, we won #4, 5, and then we held on for the one up win on the front. Finely hates to lose, and it showed on the back. Alt shot was not our strong suit, we got waxed 4&3 (which stunk, because our team got pops on the last three holes).
On the 17th hole, we were told that Ethan and BigTex lost their match, and we were tied with 4.5 points. I figured 3 points Sunday would win it for us, it just did not happen. We earned two points.
Congrats to Team Rookie on the fantastic win! I will say, that team played well, and it was really close the entire day.
Thank you to Steve for buying everyone (who ate lunch at the course) lunch!
I drove home, sat in front of the tv, and fell asleep. I was emotionally spent after the weekend. I had a bunch of mixed emotions - I played like dirt, but had a blast playing with everyone, felt great for GregDan (who finally got a HOF tag) and the entire winning team, and being sad to say goodbye to a bunch of really great people.
This will go down in my mind as one of the best, if not the best, golfing experiences I have ever had. It rivals many other THP events, (B'stone Events, ProjectX #HandCrafted, #PersonalDistance) as absolutely fantastic golf events, with great people organizing and participating, like every THP event.
Big thanks to JB and GG for organizing the event, Fupresti for all his help before and during the event, the Callaway captains for their energy, enthusiasm, time, and love of the game. Without them, events such as these would be less fun, especially if you get to golf with JRod!!
I hope to run into everyone in the near (and not so near) future - I am honored to have participated with you all, and thanks for all the memories!!
There have been some really good recaps so far! I'll just try to hit some of the highlights from my perspective:
Thursday:
TopGolf is really cool! I had never been to one before so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect but it's a really neat setup. I tend to be pretty introverted at times, so showing up at a place with 20some strangers was a bit daunting for me, but everyone was super nice and Spivey was there to greet us right away, so it wasn't really uncomfortable at all. It was a great way to meet everyone and break the ice, and get a look at everyone's swings. THPers really are the best. Props to Spivey and Fupresti for setting up all of the extracurricular stuff!
Friday Morning:
Spivey's course is hard, but it was a lot of fun and I've never seen a course in better shape. I actually played fairly well to start, but once the wind picked up my balloon drives were getting blown all over the desert. GregDan was killing it while the other 3 of us (JP_CO, AZRSX and I) kind of hacked our way around the course.
Friday evening:
Dinner with everyone and the Callaway crew was a great time. The Callaway guys are also super nice and down to earth, super generous with all the swag they gave us and just good people. When it came time to pick teams, my captain (Jason Finley) got to go first and took a looooong time to deliberate, but he ended up putting the two of us together on the first day. I was pretty excited to get to play with Jason, but also pretty nervous. I had been practicing a lot in the 2 weeks since I found out I was in, but I still never know what kind of game I'm going to have day to day it seems like. Anyway, Koske picked next and we found out we were going to be playing Awkward Silence and stevececil which calmed my nerves a bit because I'd met AS a few times before and knew it'd be a fun round.
Later that evening a bunch of us gathered together in the patio and drank some beers with the Callaway guys and had a good time just shooting the breeze.
Saturday morning:
I got my first glimpse of the We-Ko-Pa course at the driving range. It was probably the biggest driving range I’ve ever seen and was in great shape. I started hitting some balls to warm up and could not hit a decent shot - slices, chunks, etc, it was ugly. After 10-15 minutes of that I’d had enough and got some short game and putting practice in. I went back to the range and something clicked and I started hitting some decent shots so I had a shot of confidence before the round started.
Jason and I had discussed our strategy, which was basically I’d tee off first with something conservative since I’m not a very long hitter, and then he’d go after me with something more aggressive. We were the first group up, which meant I was hitting the first shot of the mother #@#$ Gauntlet! It was gut check time and I reeaally didn’t want to be the guy that duffs the first drive of the tournament with 24 other guys watching. Luckily I was able to bang one out in the middle of the fairway (granted it was a pretty big fairway), but I was mostly happy to make solid contact. After that a lot of the nerves went away.
The two rounds that day were a lot of fun. Jason and I played off of each other pretty well, though he’s so good it’d be hard not to play well off of his shots. The banter between Jason and Awkward Silence was entertaining and may have been the reason we were able to pull out both matches, as I think it made Jason play juuust that much better.
Since we were done first we got a little food and watched the rest of the groups come up 18. In the last group or 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] to last, I saw XMan hit the best chutt ever, putting it to within inches from I don’t know, 20 yards away or something, it was pretty incredible.
Saturday evening:
After getting back to the hotel, a group of us went to the pool for some drinks before dinner and I got to know some of the guys better.
Dinner was excellent with a full bar, and again had the chance to talk with more of the guys and get to know people better. We did matchups again at dinner, but this time the teams were put into a hat for a blind draw. Jason decided to mix it up a bit and put Tanker337 and I together the next day, and we were the last group drawn to play with JohnnyRod from Callaway and BigDG.
That night a bunch of us gathered on the patio again having drinks and shooting the @#$!. It’s the times like that, just hanging out with new friends that I’ll really look back fondly on. Near the end of the night after a few beers and a few shots of Mezcal, Awkward Silence bet me a dollar he could make a basket with a bottle cap and one of the glasses on the table, and damn if he didn’t do it. Might have been the best shot I saw him make all day
Sunday
Since we were the last group out to go we got to see everyone else’s tee shots, which was fun but at the same time kind of hard because I was just itching to get out and play.
JohnnyRod and BigDG were a lot of fun to play with. You hear a lot of stories about JohnnyRod and I understand why, he’s just a really cool, fun guy and I’m glad I got the chance to play with him.
Tanker337 and I didn’t play great the front 9 (him better than I). I had a couple holes where I just could not get out of the desert and had to rely on Tanker to finish the hole for us. We kept it pretty close but got closed out on the 8[SUP]th[/SUP] hole I think? On the back 9, I think we loosened up a bit after getting a loss on the front 9 and we started playing pretty well. We had it in hand on the 16[SUP]th[/SUP] hole I think. We just played a couple shots on 17 and I hit probably my best drive and best second shot of the weekend when it didn’t count. We didn’t finish 17 and rolled up to 18 to watch the finish of the Velardo and Koske match, which was pretty epic.
Final thoughts
All said and done it was an awesome weekend and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. I haven’t done much team match play like that and this was an awesome introduction. I can’t thank JB, GG and the rest of the THP staff and Callaway enough. Definitely going to try to get in again next year and bring home the trophy!
Ill be honest I dont remember making this bet, haha.
Miss you guys
Man I need to get my recap up. Stupid life getting in the way.
But hey, to the victor go the spoils.
Man I need to get my recap up. Stupid life getting in the way.
But hey, to the victor go the spoils.