[JacksHH]

It is that time again and the 2011 THP Golf Outing & Demo Day has officially come to an end. What a wonderful weekend that GG and I had seeing old friends and meeting new ones. This is the thread where our attendees can offer their thoughts up on the weekend as a whole. We will have other places for demo day reviews as well as pictures of course.

To see the pictures from the 2011 outing that everybody took, click here.

http://www.thehackersparadise.com/fo...picture+thread

I will be back at some other point with my complete rundown, but I have to give some awards out while they are fresh in my mind.

The Rocky Award goes to Puttin4Bird. Playing a round of golf with my buddy Jake is truly worth the price of admission to the outing. We always have a great time and he has me laughing for the entire round. P4B quoted Rocky 4 for about half the round because apparently that is considered a new movie in Fargo.

The Choke Award goes to me. Granted I still won, I was -1 after 6 holes and then put up a quad bogey and looked like an internet golfer going through a swing change during it. Back and forth across the green from sand trap to sand trap en route to a blow up hole was just awesome.

The I'm Going To Be Sick Award goes to One-T. Drinking heavily, not sleeping and then playing your last 18 holes with virtually no warm up was both impressive and crazy. I tried to trade him to a squirrel for a player to be named later, but the squirrel balked. In the end, One-T pulled through despite lines like "I think I might throw up" and "Im really struggling out here" and we won our match.

The Least Like Their Forum Presence Award goes to Ole Gray. Once again he wins this one and I still don't know why I got to see no smileys the entire him. OG is near iconic at outings and one of the most fun people to be around. Plus his snakes put a curse on his love for a Cleveland driver apparently.

The 'Learned a Short Game Award goes to RBelbin. Uh Oh....That could be a scary combination.

The Ddec award goes to....Ddec of course. How many people could wish for miracle outing shot and in the end lay on the ground in the fetal position (or close to it) but still come out okay. (dont forget my advice nerfny).

The best service award goes to Wider of course. Once again Wider provided everybody with amazing service that could only be described as electrifying.

I have a bunch more to go up and some memories that must be shared, however I must pack now and get ready to start our journey today across the state and then up it as we head home.

Once again, GG and I are leaving an outing saying we have the most incredible members in the world and it was a pleasure seeing old friends and meeting new ones that we hope to have forever. You guys make these trips what they are and it is a pleasure hosting them for a group of people as wonderful as you. Thank you all that came out for helping to make this one incredible weekend for us.

[fuslkdhfma]

I loved the awards you gave out. Look forward to everyones post. Will make for good reading

[ImmimiFruff]

Awesome initial recap JB. Looking forward to seeing more 'awards' and reading more about what others thought as well. I'll put my .02 in when I'm at a real computer at some point. There's a lot of threads and posts to catch up on after being away for a bit


^^^^^^ I Tapped That ^^^^^^

[NickGrass]

great recap, sounds like everyone had a good time as expected

[gardeniyas]

Great recap. I will post more tonight when I get home. I will say that my leg has no ill effects of my mickelson shot gone wrong. I was looking through my pics this morning. I didn't take nearly as much as last year but I have some good ones. Headed to the airport now. Hope everyone has/had a safe trip home. Thank you JB and Golfergal for another great weekend.

tappin from the THP 2011 Outing at PGA National

[NumsAmenniams]

I'll throw up some awards based on my groups and experiences from the weekend...
Best Shot(s) of the weekend:
3: Mr Blind 9 - Squire hole #6 or 7, he managed to block one right off the tee, only to have a magic bounce off a house back into play. He followed this up with a 190y hybrid to about 12 feet. AMAZING.
2: DDec - #9 Champ course (as described above), I call it the whack, whack, ouch shot. Off the club, off the tree, into ddec's knee, ddec ends up on the ground.
1: Mr Blind 9 - On the first hole of the squire (our third) Mr. Blind 9, managed to hit a ball that bounced 4 times as it crossed the bridge, it ended up cozying up near the green.
(honorable mentions go to Uncle Daddy's sweet tea, and to TC's scramble winning putt)

Best and most entertaining person of the outing: Jake (Puttin4Bird) - there really isn't enough I can say about this guy, he is just a ton of fun and a joy to be around.

Foot in mouth award - TC - oh yeah, the look on his face when this long knocker hit it stiff in the short game challenge was just priceless.

JB thanks for the award, but if you ever saw the rest of my game I would NOT have any part of receiving a short game award Drive for show, putt like SH^T.

Flashy and I gad a great time this year, and we are already looking forward to attending the next outing whenever/wherever it may be.

[ReginaPerss]

Im sitting on the plane coming home wishing I was back at the outing. I'll post more tonight and more likely tomorrow as I haven't slept much this weekend. Need to catch up on some sleep and whatnot. Sharing a room with Ike was an experience. Lol. Josh, Morgan and the rest of the THP crew thank you so much for such a great time.

I did pure the heck out of JB's CG16's

Wider was epic but Tara and Vanessa showed wonderful qualities as well. Haha.I seriously have so much to say about this whole trip. Lots of new friends were made and it was great to see old ones.can't wait to recap. Probably from my Playbook ha!

[ReginaPerss]

i also want to add my ears are still ringing from hitting in between Belbin and Biggsy during demo day. Lol.

[offinoNem]

I will post a lot more like everyone else once I get home, but my "man I wish I wasn't here" award goes to ddec hitting drivers in between biggsy and belbin. I would have either left or grabbed a wedge cause that was silly.

[Alina20100]

Like others, it'll be easier to post more once home but this is to fun to pass up.

First off, thanks to JB and GG for making these possible. It's a logistical nightmare at times, especially when you pull as much gear as they do. It was a great weekend and it's only possible b/c of you guys.

My awards:

Most awesome tee shot: goes to Hawk for his tee shot on #1 at the squire. Even the starter hadn't seen a tee shot like that since he's been working their.

Most awesome iron shot: goes to biggsy and his 9 iron on 18 on the squire. He knows why, it was a beautiful golf shot and trust me, I know there were nerves.

Most intelligent golf shot: belbin going early in the wedge contest. Must've been nice hitting out of grass and not mud dude :P

Great shot though!

Most awesome putt: seriously? We all know the answer to that one.

Most awesome workability: ddec for his nice draw on the par 3 6th on the squire. Mostly b/c he called it.

Most awesome divots: jake with his burner 2.0 driver.

Most awesome gesture: junior, collaborating with some folks to truly give me an incredible surprise. Thanks again guys that really was neat.

As well as JB & GG for the incredible, limited edition, THP TP Mills putter. It was a lovely surprise and it's a gorgeous putter. It means a lot and it will look sweet in my now growing collection.

That's it for now.

tapatalk: even available for lefties!

[gardeniyas]

Sitting at the airport looking over my notes. Not sure if it was me or Charlie sheen writing them. Describing one set of irons I wrote "long and straight. Predictable results. Aim, swing, it goes where you want. Duh winning."

I played with some long hitters this weekend in biggsy, belbin, and tc. I can say I got biggsy once off the tee. Yay for me! Playing with both Morgan cup captains on sat was a daunting task. I had no idea how my nerves would hold up, but I was not nervous one bit and held my own till the 18th when I took an 8 after lying 2 with 110 yards to go.

I can say that for all of the mc players that were there I'm sure it was a great experience. It was awesome meeting everyone, and I will have more on that later.

tappin from the THP 2011 Outing at PGA National

[Glamyclitlemi]

Great recap everyone...loving the awards! EPIC weekend for sure!

[SallyIsNice5]

It really was a fantastic weekend. We're home safe - got in last night at 1 am - and are up and ready to run this Monday morning. Thanks SO MUCH to Morgan and Josh for working so hard to put on a fantastic weekend. I can't imagine how much work went into putting it together.

I played my first round on the Squire with a group of fantastic women. I was lucky enough to ride around with Mrs. Freddie Couples herself (ahh2fly) and really had one of the funnest rounds I've ever had, even though I played terribly and my ribs hurt every time we rounded bump. We were itching to see a gator, and sure enough, we saw a little baby one swimming in one of the water hazards near the end of our round. Two other wonderful women rounded out our group - Adamsgirl and Mrs. Clam Fist (I can't remember her screen name). I wish I had thought about taking pictures - but I had forgotten the camera completely and left my iTouch in the room on the first day. Anyone in our group take any photos?

On day 2, I played with Mr. Blind9 and Mr. and Mrs. Clam Fist. Also, another great ground on the Champions course. We had to run to catch our flight so we missed completing the Bear Trap - we only finished through 16 and were racing back to shower, check out and catch a flight back to LA. I'm happy to say that we didn't hit any houses, screens or bridges (sorry Uncle Daddy that Mr. Blind 9 didn't live up to his name) and didn't lose nearly as many balls as people had warned us we might. It was a gorgeous course with great company. Oh and Clam's drawl wasn't nearly as strong as I thought it would be!

These re-caps don't really put into words how sweet and friendly everyone was at the Outing. Mr. Blind 9 and I should have spent more time at the iBar and the Sports Bar - but that heat and humidity put me out of commission more than I thought it would. For the times we did find our way down to socialize, we had a blast. Always found friendly and welcoming faces. And if there are any other women that are thinking about coming as a single or as a wife, I just want to say YOU SHOULD COME!! I played with a bunch of semi-beginner women, where we picked up when we needed to (esp when we were rushed), dropped when we wanted to, and just had fun. Ahh2fly and I commented that all the women are super-friendly and encouraging. I could tell it was going to be a great weekend even from first hours of Demo day, when the women would come around and pass around the clubs they loved or hated hitting. When people (men and women) would swap out hitting bays when there wasn't enough room for all of the THPers to demo clubs at the same time.

I really enjoyed meeting people face to face. There were moments of confusion for me when I met a few people. I thought AHA said "A J A" was his screen name and it didn't click until a few hours later the he was AHA (part of the problem there was that I imagined AHA being about 15 years older). I thought Cmoors was "SEE MORES" and that took me a few seconds to click that into place. There are some who were older than I thought, many who were WAY younger than I thought, and some who fit the bill exactly. Just in case any of you at the outing didn't know, Mr. Blind9's name is Dennis. I could see when he introduced himself that there was a blank stare (who?). And there were many people who I just never met - sadly. I have heard so many great things about SW Fla and about his real life job - both Ahh2fly and I really wanted you to help us find a gator. But there's always next year right?

Thanks again everyone for a fantastic weekend. Oh and my two little kids? They didn't even miss us!! I guess that's good, right? Off to get the day really started. We have to go and get our dog out of the kennel this morning and can't be late!

[Glamyclitlemi]

Great write up Patty and it was great meeting you and Dennis as well! Glad you made it home safely and glad to hear that your kids had fun while you were enjoying PGA National. Sorry for the confusion about my screen name, but I guess it's a good thing that I'm younger than you thought!

[xochgtlm]

I just finished downloading all my pictures to Photobucket and there are over 400 of them! The only thing I didn't capture was demo day because THP covered that.

I will write much more but here is summary of our trip:

Day 1 (18 holes of golf on the Squire)

Arrived at PGA National at 11:30 a.m. Best ball round with Ole Gray, CG13 and Uncle Daddy (TC's/One-T's dad). What a BLAST! It was the first time meeting CG13 and he is the nicest guy ever. Uncle Daddy is just a sweetie and quite comical to be around. He keeps me laughing all the time. The course whupped my butt and OG and I shot 87 as a best ball team. Good thing CG13 rode with Uncle Daddy because he was sharing his sweet tea. I-Bar and then bed around 1:00 a.m.

Day 2 (THPer's hit so many balls that we kept running out)

Demo day started at 9:00 a.m. I hit so many balls that my shoulders were killing me by lunch. Of course, I just hit more balls! My focus was to try to find a 6 hybrid or iron that I loved. I hit a bunch of them and ended up taking a Cleveland Hb3 to demo for the next 2 rounds. Loved it so much that I have already ordered one. Of course, I stole the idea from the K. Choi thread about his use of a 6 hybrid. So much easier and consistent IMO. I need all the help I can get. My favorite driver was the Razr X but I didn't try too many since I didn't want to overdo it. The goodie bag was awesome! It included a dozen Bridgestone B330RX yellow balls, a neat ladies visor with interchangeable bands, a Pukka hat, Epoch tees, and more. The contests were a lot of fun to watch. The THP staff were fantastic at helping everyone.

The THP dinner was great. I took a lot of pictures that I will share with you in the picture thread. The food was delicious and I really enjoyed the excitement of the prize drawings and spinning of the wheel. You will see the drama unfold in the pics! I am hoping no one caught a picture of me jumping up and down when I won the Yonex Ezone driver! My excitement got the best of me.

Day 3 (36 holes of golf on the Squire and Champion)

AM - Back to the Squire course for a round of 18 holes with the ladies. I played with MaryC, Nerfny, and Mrs. AHA. These girls have game! We had a blast and I shot a 92 AGAIN. There is a lot of debate about whether the Squire or Champion is the hardest. They both kicked my butt pretty good.

PM - 4 man scramble. KB and the Sunshine Band (me, Chunkylover, SeemoreGuy, and Thainer) were ready with all four of us having a Seemore putter. We played great as a team and had a chance to tie on the last hole but that turned out to be our worst hole. I think the scramble was the most fun of all the rounds I played. We were hugging and giving high fives every time we hit a good shot. Everyone played so well together as a team. It's funny how close I feel to the 3 guys already. They were so good to me and I really appreciate them accepting me into their group.

I got to witness TC's long putt for the win and it was fantastic. The man can handle pressure with all those people on the green watching!

It was hilarious hearing One-T's team from across the fairway hollering and carrying on like they had a hole-in-one. Later I found out it was their first birdie after many tries.

Day 4: (18 holes on the Champion)

Ole Gray and I joined AHA and his wife for this round and we had the best fun ever. AHA is a 3 handicap and it was obvious. The man can play some serious golf! Mrs. AHA has only played a few years and is already playing great. She has a beautiful swing and is a threat to beating AHA one day! Of course, he says he will give it up if she ever gets that good. Go get 'em girl! I shot a 91...at least that's what I am entering in GHIN as my ESC score. I have to admit I had two holes that I gave myself a 7 after picking up.

We had lunch at the I-Bar, said our goodbyes and headed back home. We got home around 11:30 p.m. and Ole Gray got out of bed about 11:30 a.m. today. Talk about exhaustion!!!! I'd do it all over again in a flash!!!

Thanks so much to THP, PGA National Resort and Spa, and all the sponsors who participated. It was absolutely the best time ever!

[Sdinozes]

Hey JB, I know you guys are probably tired from an awesome weekend, but are yall gonna post some pictures from the weekend?

[CO2490pL]

I have a few awards of my own to give out!

Best drive of the trip goes to who else but Rbelbin. Everyone who witnessed it knows why. He put his drive on the first tee of the Champions Course about 20 yards from the hole, just in front of the bunker. I don't know how long that was, but it was LONG! Believe everything you hear about this guys distance. It is crazy!

Best chip of the trip goes to RxGus when he sunk a long chip from way off the green for birdie. It was impressive!

Best putt of the trip goes to dakotagolfer. It was during the scramble on the Champions Course. He was on the 15th hole (the start of the Bear trap). He hit a 75 footer that had to climb up about 3 feet and had a HUGE left to right break. I was on the tee box watching this happen and it was no less impressive from 170 yards away. I tried to make that same putt and could never get closer than 5 feet to the hole.

The Is This Guy Serious Award is a tie between Rbelbin and AHA. Rbelbin wins for his mind blowing distance off the tee. He makes Dustin Johnson's drives look like 7 iron shots compared to him and AHA wins just because this guy is AMAZING! I wish I had the pure ball striking ability of AHA. I just sat a watched him hit shot after shot at the demo day and my jaw was just dropping. He is seriously amazing to see hit golf balls. All I know is whoever has to play these two in the Morgan cup is in TROUBLE!!! That would be a cool match up to see. The incredible distance of belbin against the pure ball striking of AHA. Captains make it happen!

The Suck It Up award goes to SW Fla. While we were all complaining about how hot is was, up walks SW Fla wearing pants. Pants in 90 degree weather with that kind of humidity? That's a suck it up moment

I have to give myself the DUH! I'm a Moron Award for getting all excited to see a baby gator on the Champions Course and then trying to point it out to who else but SW Fla. Like he had never seen a gator before (this dude sees 500 gators a day!) He is the nicest guy and just says "Yeah man! It never gets old!" Great response!

Thank you to everyone for making this trip an AMAZING one! I loved getting to know the so many of you and wish I had more time to spend with everyone who was there. I will never be able to read any of your posts the same, now that I have met the people behind the posts. It was a real pleasure and I know that I have made many great new friends.

[fuslkdhfma]

This is getting better & better. I want Pictures!!!!!!!

[resegooredo]

I am sitting at Dallas airport not sure I will be able to fly out. A hail storm is hitting the airport and it sounds like TC's "two house shot" this past weekend. I am hoping I can get home tonight and post some info. My buddy Yoccos is on the other side of the airport with his flight already cancelled.

I do want to take a moment to that Josh, Morgan and all of the THP staff for making this an incredible weekend for me. I am exhausted but I would not change anything from this weekend.

Posted from my BlackBerry using BerryBlab

[JacksHH]

GG and I have picked up Ellie and made our way back to THP HQ. Just reading some of the recaps make me miss the weekend already. However don't worry everybody, there are hundreds of pictures from people at the outing that we will put up (as will they) when we get the picture thread going tomorrow. I have some more feedback I want to share from the weekend if I can.

Thursday we arrived at the resort and a special thank you goes out to the Calloway clan and the P4B clan as we had a nice little 3 minivan caravan headed driving from Windermere to PGA National and this could not have been done without them. Between loading and unloading equipment and assisting us with setting up, these two deserve a ton of thanks.

Thursday night we had a nice evening at iBar with everybody. Seeing old faces from last year and meeting new faces from this year. What a great night to kick off the THP Outing and get everybody ready for the rest of the trip.

Friday was a long day. Thank yous go out to Hawk, Hanks, P4B, TC and GG for setting up the demo day. They did an incredible job of helping everybody while I worked the launch monitor for people. I enjoyed working with each person and with the help of our staff assist them in getting some great launch numbers that hopefully help them decide what works best.
The driver contest was awesome. 65 yards or so to hit a staff bag with everybody cheering was so much fun. TC and I almost getting peppered by a few was pretty funny.
The wedge contest was a blast. RBelbin winning it was both ironic and funny.
Spank's friend won the custom Never Compromise putter which might now be affectionately known as the Tire contest forever.
By the end of the day Friday, I was dead to the world, but had time to shower and change and get ready for the THP Banquet Dinner.
I want to give a shout out to PGA National here for putting together an incredible meal for everybody. The food was fabulous and even better was the company. Then came contest time! We saw laughs, cries, hugs, and even some heckling as lucky participants got a chance to spin the THP wheel of destiny.

Saturday round I played with Hanks, P4B and Hawk in our equipment tester challenge. Needless to say the two of them are still dealing with their wounds from that complete devastation they took at the hands of us. Poor P4B...Somewhere for the first 4 holes, he actually thought they had a chance. Somewhere on the Squire, you can still see the chalk line outline of Hanks' body.

Saturday night was an interesting night to say the least. Lots of drinks flowing and a great time hanging out with everybody. A shout out to Wider for making OEM Kevin's dream come true to be served by him again.

Sunday I had a chance to play with Chunkylover, RxGus, One-T and myself. What an awesome time on the Champ. Chunkylover might be my favorite keebler elf of all....hehe. Apparently the lady at the Bear Trap liked him too...hehe. What a great round and the course was in awesome shape. It was closer than it should have been, but One-T and myself came away with the victory....Just remember "good good" right CL? hehe

Sunday night was a nice evening to unwind and chat with those still around at iBar.

Some more awards that need to be giving out.

The Vanilla Ice Award - TC...Dude has ice water in his veins (along with lots of Miller Lite) as he drains the big putt.
The Steve Stricker Award - Chunkylover....Guy gets boring just hitting fairways and greens all day long.
The I am going to kill JB award - Mrs. Golf4Life for me showing Golf4Life his new favorite driver...Of course it was the Williams and a hefty price tag.
The best dessert Ever Award - Yoccos for ordering one that does not exist and waiting for it while it was never coming.
Best Drive of the Weekend - Definitely agree with TC. It was Hawk and his 26 yard dead left into a balcony.
Best pitch out from the OB Stake - P4B....He got to do it 3 times in succession.
Best Topped Ball Award - Pale Hundy. Nobody with a swing that perfect should top 5 balls a round.
Tweet You Very Much Award - I don't even have to give out the winner here.

So many incredible memories capped off with some amazing prizes including one given to me by the wonderful folks in attendance that was the TaylorMade Season Opener Staff Bag. Gorgeous. Pale Hundy giving out a gift that was a tribute to himself (that was classic). GG and TC getting all emotional on us. I could sit and write for days about how many great people were in attendance and how they made this weekend truly one to remember.

As we said at the THP Banquet Dinner....We do these for the people here and seeing so many smiles this weekend makes us excited to get to finalizing and announcing 2012 pretty darn soon.