[Matt]

It was fall of 2000 and my instructor had the book. He was a GSEB authorized by Sally and was well grounded in the TGM principles. I did some poking around on the internet, found the TGM forum, and eventually bought the book. I distinctly remember when the book came and I sat down on the couch and started to page through it. I remember thinking to myself, "What have I gotten myself into? This is crazy."

But slowly it all started making sense. As always, there were questions that I couldn't find answers to - either because people simply didn't know or because the nature of communicating via forums wasn't the best for communication. With the help of my AI I improved rather nicely nonetheless. I was a high 80s/low 90s shooter that first year of high school in 2000 and by junior year had cracked the varsity squad - I beat out probably 12-15 other guys for one spot. I won our state regional tournament that year with a one-under 70 (many more stories can come out of that round because it was a clearkey epiphany!) Senior year I was individual conference medalist and our team lost the state tournament in a playoff.

I am of course grateful to Lynn for making St. Augustine happen. Chuck and Randy also were big influences there. I had hit a semi-roadblock in my book study around that time and felt that to progress forward I had to really get some info from "outside the box." It needed to be first-hand stuff because parts of this book are just plain hard to understand using only a keyboard. St. Augustine opened up a lot of the book for me. I remember Danny Elkins asking me after the first day, "Matt, what is the biggest thing you've learned so far?" I told him, "I never knew how important the right forearm was." I still feel that way.

I feel fortunate to have connected with these people because it opened up such a network for me. There are countless others on the forum here that I've met as well and it was a pleasure.