Mini-Summit in Wisconsin
 

I was wondering how many people would be interested in getting together for a few days during the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee this summer. I think it would be a great opportunity to play, practice, and learn what this book is really all about.

The tournament itself runs from July 27th to July 30th. There are many details that need to be hammered out because as of right now this is simply an idea of mine. Thanks to Yoda for helping support it through his website. There are several nice facilities near the Milwaukee area that we could use, so I was thinking maybe having a morning of range time with an afternoon round on Thursday. Then we could spend Friday at the tournament and learn from some of the best players in the world.

Participants as of right now would be: myself; Brad Pluth, GSEB; and Scott Appleby, GSEB. Again, I am trying to gauge interest in something like this. I'm not sure what costs would be involved as that will only be known when we decide what our agenda will be. So who would be up for something like this?

As long as it is within my budget, I will be there.

Matt

I can attend Thursday, July 27th for practice and Golf.

US Bank
 

Sounds like fun, not sure if I can do it, though. Will know as the dates get closer.

That's a possibility for me.....not too far of a trip accross the border.

I would go just to meet Birdie Man. But leave the cold behind, we get enough of it here.

Hahahaha.....flattered man.....:)....lol.

...

Hey it was pretty hot out today (finally)....saw the sun for the first time in like a week.....so nice lol.

Update - 05.23.06
 

First, here is the course I want to use: www.golfwcgc.com. It's ranked #2 in the country among municipal courses and is about 30-40 minutes from the Milwaukee tournament site. There's an excellent practice area there - full range, short game area with plenty of bunkers (and room) around the greens, plus a 3-hole practice course. We could spend a morning out learning the Machine and then play a round in the afternoon.

Second, I want to keep the costs as reasonable as possible. That means costs = expenses. Expenses being range time, course time, tickets to the PGA Tour event, transportation, and lodging. I figure this is the best way to open the event to the most people. Hopefully many are within commuting distance so costs would be very minimal. Perhaps the first night we could organize a dinner as well.

Anybody else have any ideas? I'm open to doing pretty much anything as I plan to be in town from probably the Wednesday of tournament week through the weekend. I'd love to fit more actual golf into the agenda if people are interested.

Matt,

Good job. I'm in for the first day and night. Practice, Golf and Dinner.

Mini Summit
 

Matt,

I might be able to get free tickets. I have a US Bank friend who is always giving out free tickets. Not sure how many I can get from him, but I'll ask. Give me a number of how many participants there might be.

Its been a while since I've been to Washington County. Do they still charge more for out of county residents?

I'll be in Alaska for 2 weeks beginning May 31st, so I may not get any info about tickets until after that (and certainly no golf!!).

Steve

I would be interested in attending.

Anything you could provide would be great Steve. The number of participants is still pending...hopefully I get a response from the course soon so that things can really start firming up. No worries about your trip, as the tourney is during the last weekend in July. Washington County does cost a bit more for non-residents but it's still very reasonable. By the way I'm not a Washington County resident when I'm home so I'd be paying the non-resident rate too.

Rogerdodger: where are you located?

This is gonna be cool....I've always just been a loner machine head up here in Canada. It'll be nice to actually meet some of you.

I am located in Minneapolis, I have worked with Brad in the past.

I'm interested in coming to meet at WCGC, but I don't know if I can make the tournament. It's a little too far out for me to know for sure.

Update - 06.24.06
 

I have gotten a response from the facility and things look fine. They are going to offer us a very reasonable flat fee for the use of the range. However, they have a junior program that uses the range from 9-11am on Thursdays, which is when I wanted to have our range time. So here is what I was thinking we could do:

- move range/course day to Wednesday, go to tourney on Thursday
- go to tourney on Thursday, range/course on Friday
- range/course day on Friday, go to tourney Saturday
- figure out how to work around the juniors, keep range/course on Thursday and tourney on Friday

I'd really rather not be out there at all with the juniors. I also would like to go to the tournament on a weekday because it's less crowded and all the players are there before the cut.

What do people think?

You can count on me for Friday.

Do you know how many juniors/size of range?

Sounds good dood.

Anytime is basically good for me....don't have a bigtime schedule to work around or anything.

W/e it is I jus t have to book it off....pretty sure I'll be able to get a few days off.

Supposedly 75 juniors, but the range is rather large. We could work around it and may have to depending on everyone's schedules. Whatever works best for the most people is fine for me as I'll be around the whole week.

Mini Summit
 

I will ask about tournament tickets tomorrow. Thursday doesn't work for me.

Can we set up some kind of voting system so we can find out for sure what works for the greatest number of people? Basically each person can check off all the times that would work for them.

Matt

Update: 06.29.06
 

I've been told that it's best to avoid the junior program if at all possible. So that probably means not doing range/course stuff on Thursday. I really would like to get out to the tournament on a weekday because once the weekend comes we might not see everyone we want due to the cut.

At this point I say we do range/course on Friday, tournament on Saturday. The end of the week should work out better for people anyhow. So if Friday is a firm date for on-course, who's in?

Mini Summit
 

Range/Course on Friday will work for me.

Still waiting on tickets.

I'm in also.

This is happening on a smaller scale than originally planned but that's okay. If anyone else is going to be in the area, we're getting together Friday the 28th for a morning range session, some golf, and then the tournament in the afternoon.

Some good TGM players in the field too - as of right now Brian Gay, John Riegger, and a handful of Bennett/Plummer players. I plan on being at the tournament Wednesday and then Friday with our group so hopefully at some point we can catch up with them.

Lynn...if you happen to chat with Brian or John this week, could you give them the heads-up that there will be a TGM crew out on Friday afternoon? :)

Home Grown Gallery
 

Brian and I are working together this weekend in Atlanta. I mentioned that Matt's Machiners would be out in force at Milwaukee at some point during the week and to not be surprised if some come up and introduce themselves. He thought it was a neat idea and would be happy to say hello. I'll tell him tomorrow that Friday is The Day.

Thanks Lynn!

Impact Photo
 

Matt,

I told Brian today about Friday in Milwaukee, and he said...I kid you not...

"Matt. Is that the guy with the down-the-line address position in his picture?" [See Matt's avatar in his post above.]

"That would be him, Brian" said I. "He was also our inaugural Homer Kelley Award winner in 2004."

"Cool!"

Very cool indeed. This is going to be an absolutely great week.

Recap..?
 

Just wondering if someone who attended the mini Summit would care to give some details as to how it went.
I really wanted to attend, but the dates just did not work out for me.

How many ended up attending? Who?
How was the range session? Was it mostly a meet and play or was there some learning going on?
Did anyone learn anything new? Any Lightbulb moments?
Did you play 9 or 18?

Sorry for all the questions but when TGM hits so close to home I got to know the details.....

Everything went pretty well. Unfortunately I had several cancellations leading up to the event so it certainly wasn't as big as I had originally hoped. Due to this, we didn't have a very long range session as Wolfman was the lone out-of-towner to make it. Got 9 holes in and then went to the PGA Tour event where we met up with several other local yellow book-ers and watched some golf.

Maybe next year...