2020 Tas-Tee Road Trip

 2020 Tas-Tee Team Road Trip Itinerary:

• Desert Classic Marathon Saturday morning in Surprise AZ
• Waste Management Open Mon-Wed in Scottsdale AZ
• Vegas Trip Thurs-Fri in Las Vegas NV
• Waste Management Open SAT at TPC Scottsdale
• Drive all night to be home for the Super Bowl Party

To start, we left our home office in Arlington Texas on Thursday night, Jan 23rd & drove to Amarillo TX to stay the night (about 350mi).  Friday we drove the remaining 700+mi to Surprise AZ where we met up w a friend that drove up from Tuscon & stayed the night at a Days Inn.  The following morning we woke up before the sunrise to run in the Desert Classic Marathon. It wasn't the easiest marathon we've done but the after party rewards were well worth the arduous effort. 

Sunday was a recovery day but we were able to play a little golf at the local TopGolf in Glendale AZ.  We met up with some of our TopGolf connections for dinner and planned out how to attend golf's wildest event of the season.  

The next morning we got to the course early to see who the early birds were at this tournament. After getting a sense of who was working on what, we focused on Chesson Hadley who was clearly grinding away in practice bunker.  His coach was intentionally giving "Chess" very difficult bunker shots as he threw the next ball into the lip of the steep faced hazard.  To his credit, none of the balls remained in the bunker after he swung at them, a feat unworldly to the unskilled onlookers (us, lol) Another early grinder was Sung Kang of South Korea, the Koreans are notorious for their deliberate practice techniques and they are technicians at their swings.  Danny Lee,  Im Sung-Jae, An Byeong-hun, and CT Pan were all out there early dialing in their respective games for this beautiful TPC course.

Tuesday was much of the same although we were able to follow a few groups around the course.  Keith Mitchell and his caddie Crunchy Pete proved to be a cool connection. Pete, a river raft captain when he's not on the bag, had some insightful answers on what it takes to be a caddie on the PGA Tour.  

Wednesday was an incredible day for all of us.  The Waste Management ProAm is one of the best events a golf spectator can enjoy.  As if it wasn't great enough seeing all the celebrities and sports stars, it was the first time we sat at the infamous hole 16 at TPC Scottsdale. We saw Emmitt Smith, Larry Fitz, Reggie Bush, Michael Phelps!, Josh Allen, Dude Perfect, Cart Barn Guys! and so many others, it was really one of our best days as golf fans.

 We were also among the "idiots" that were lined up on Sat morning to race to hole 16 for a general admission spot in the bleachers... and we got em!  Having trained at the Desert Classic Marathon just the Saturday before, our legs and lungs were ready for the challenge.  The crowd was absolutely insane!  Starting at 8am and before any grouping was even close to the renown stadium hole, the cheers and chants could be heard throughout the golf course.  By the time the first group got to the hole, over 25 thousand of our closest friends were in full voice.  We got chills when the crowd reacted to close shots and we ragged on every golfer that missed the green.  IT WAS INCREDIBLE!