$100,000.00
That was the check amount for the winners of The Press Golf’s innaugural golf tournament at Briggs Ranch Golf Club just outside of San Antonio Texas. A dollar value like that will certainly catch the eyeballs of many skilled talents and they came in hoards to the great state of Texas. Waiting to greet these players as they stepped out of their rental cars was Briggs Ranch, one of the Dormie Network’s finest courses in a stable of high quality golf courses.
I was able to play a practice round with several of the competitors and here are my quick takeaways from that experience.
Even as a 1 handicap, I suck at golf next to these guys.
Comparatively speaking, my short game has never truly been “dialed in.”
Briggs Ranch really pops at sunset.
With an entry fee of $15k, the Press Golf Series is a series of high stakes professional golf tournaments. The total purse for the inaugural event is $210k and the top 4 place teams take home some serious cash The tournament format is a two man best ball and you and your partner basically try to make as many birdies as possible. Since just about every player in this field is capable of making 9 birdies on a good day, the ole “ham and egg” strategy is a key factor in determining success. You need to drain sick bombs and stick your wedges on call. Just liking ham and eggs won’t get you very far with The Press Golf in town.
At the pre Press pairings party, participants played ping pong. Which only severed as a reminder that I suck at ping pong as well. Constructing sentences will 8 consecutive P words continues to remain a strength.
As soon as the tee balls were high in the Texas air, these guys got to work on making birdies. Stories of individual players getting hot flashed around the course. “-6 through 7” or “5 under in the last 4” was the rule and not the exception. These guys wanted to cash that $100k. After day one, it was the combo of Tee-K Kelly and Patrick “Flavor Flave” Flavin that emerged with a two shot lead after hanging a fresh Texas 60 on the leaderboard.
I decided to take a cold shower to cool myself off from the hot heat of high level golf and then skip around Briggs Ranch at sunset. After two previous visits to Briggs that produced only average photographic results, I was excited to see that Briggs was finally ready to show off for me.
The view of #10 and #18 from above the Briggs Ranch club house.
With the hot shots on lock down, it was time to capture all of the action on the 2nd and final round festivities. What started as a 2 shot lead for Kelly and Flavin, quickly dwindled as birdies and eagles quickly lit up the leaderboard. The dynamic duo of Bryson Rottluff and Max Nimmer seized a two shot lead with a chip in from the woods on 14. The groups behind fought hard to keep pace as Rottluff / Nimmer hung a second day 60 and a team total 123 on the leaderboard. That’s a smooth -21 for 36 holes of golf. For the math nerds, that is a birdie for every 1.71 holes of golf played.
As the dust began to settle down the stretch the Kelly / Flavin team arrived on the 18th hole 1 shot behind Rotluff / Nimmer. The task was clear, they needed birdie on the 18th to force a playoff for $100,000. The $50,000 second place check was little consolation for these two warriors, they wanted the W. After piping two big drives right down the middle of the fairway, both competitors were provided an opportunity to earn extra holes with a birdie on the final hole of regulation.
Flavin was up first with a lengthy up hill attempt to send it into extra holes. I am not sure if the right edge of the cup actually caught on fire, but the edge was severely burned. Tee k Kelly had a great look at the cup from about 10 feet and the crowd gathered around to see if overtime was in the cards. He pulled the putter back and put a good roll on it but it would burn the same edge of the cup that was still smoking from Flavin’s earlier miss.
A groan emanated from the crowd which was quickly followed by jubilation from the clubhouse area. Rottluff and Nimmer had wrapped up the inaugural The Press Golf victory and were $100,000.00 richer. Wait a second, $110,000.00 richer. They also cashed in on the second day low score prize of $10k.
Cory and Wes from The Press Golf show off the big check with champions Nimmer and Rottluff
Bryson Nimmer is all smiles in the post Press Golf presser.
The next Press Golf event is going to be held at Ballyhack Golf Club in Roanoke Virginia on July 27th - July 29th. Only those with the cash and the game need apply.
For more information and final standings visit The Press Golf
To relive the magic of the event, check out the details on my Instagram Highlight.