It's True - Time Flies When You're Having Fun
12 DEC 2018
For those who are wondering, everything was smooth sailing at this year’s Pro Am in South Florida – and the 2018 trip was unlike any other. The venue, the competition, the courses and the added presence of live scoring to track the action, and then check the results later that day really took the trip to the next level. All was good including the scoring for a few teams - not all - but a few!
Thanks to our partners at Michelob Ultra, WestJet Airlines and Merit Travel, 25 teams hit the Deerfield Beach area south of Boca Raton last week for five days of golf, sun and fun. Although, different teams may have had differing views on what order of importance that list should be in.
On the competitive front, the thoroughbreds ran well, and ran away from the balance of the field. Ten teams got to 25-under-par or better with four of those teams besting 40-under across the 72 hole competition. Bond Head Team #1 at 40-under, National Pines Team #1 at 41-under and a Heron Point team at 42-under all fought hard, but eventually wound up a bit behind our winners, a visiting team from Dalewood Golf Club in Cobourg who grabbed the four-day aggregate total at 45-under-par. Dalewood golf professional Brad Pemberton gave his team a leg up, shooting 68, 66, 70 and 71 to pace his team to the aggregate victory.
But the heart of the competition wasn’t the high performing teams tracking across all four days, it was the fresh start every golfer received each day. For the first time, the Florida Pro Am put the emphasis on renewing opportunities to share in some glory, as each of the days had their own respective competition just for that 18 hole round. Daily blind pairings, daily team top performers and daily Closest to the Pins on all par 3’s allowed a lot of gift card prizing to be sprinkled across the field. More than a few teams enjoyed the notion that if today didn’t work out too well, there is always tomorrow.
On the sun & fun front, Deerfield Beach gave the competitors a host hotel on the Atlantic Ocean, featuring complimentary daily breakfast buffets and evening cocktail receptions to bookend around each day of golf. Conveniently just a quick walk up the beach to the Pier, you will find the restaurants and nightlife of this fun seaside community.
Vince DiRisio, a ClubLink Member who helped make this event successful through his work with Michelob Ultra, understands the importance of events like these and how much they mean to ClubLink Members.
"I actually have a couple different important uses for these destination pro-ams I sponsor. Supporting all the efforts in place for ClubLink Members is a year-round mandate of mine," said DiRisio. "While we just came out of a big season and Michelob Ultra was front and centre with a brand new Member benefit resulting in five Members having their dues covered by Michelob Ultra – these trips continue to garner the attention of ClubLink Members all year-round and I want to be a part of that. In addition, I secured two teams to participate this year and am happy to entertain some of my other customers and share in the fun."
Thanks again to ClubLink Members Vince DiRisio of Michelob Ultra, John Pease of WestJet Airlines and Jeff Knuth of Merit Travel, as their continuous support and efforts made life easy for our travelling participants.
It went by too quickly, but we will be eager to get back next year.