The Golden Tee Blog

Golden Tee is becoming a Facebook juggernaut. While it doesn’t have the 1,000,000 plus fans that Buffalo Wild Wings has (yet), the GT Fan Page now has well over 4,000 members. Not bad considering we started January just under 2k.

On the surface this might look unimpressive, but those who actively post and check the page know how far it has come in less than a year. In fact, it’s become so busy that monitoring and updating this page sometimes takes hours out of my daily routine.

Why Our Page Doesn’t Suck

The interactions on the GT page between fans and from us is unlike any other page on Facebook – seriously, just look at Buffalo Wild Wing’s one random post every few days with little to no contact with its fans. BW3s is doing something right to get the amount of fans they have, but you won’t get any direct contact with them if you happen to post on their page.

Many people might believe that operating this kind of site is a widespread operation. Time consuming, yes. Deep and complicated, however, couldn’t be further from the truth. I do most of the posting and maintenance for GT Facebook although Duffer Dan checks in every now and then. He has his hands full maintaining the Golden Tee Twitter Page.

The privilege and responsibility of maintaining the Facebook page brings an intriguing new way to operate. The response for the Gamer v2 promotion conducted over the past few weeks was so overwhelming that it surprised the marketing crew at IT. For a recap of what we did, you can check it out here.

And yes, we will offer up better questions than whether you like basketball or hockey. P.S. – I’m a football and baseball guy and either hockey or basketball really does it for me.

Ballz, BALLS, Ballllllllls, and more balls

The word “balls” was written well over a thousand times (in all sorts of ways) over the course of a two-week span for our Gamer v2 Facebook contest.

I learned throughout this contest that our GT fans are creative and don’t mind throwing in a testicle joke, or two, or three because well, it’s timely and hilarious. Plus, as a 25-year-old I can honestly declare that saying or hearing “balllllllz” never gets old.

In this two-week span, the Facebook Page literally doubled – something we were all thrilled with. Because of this, every fan was eligible to receive at least 25 free virtual golf balls for joining. This, however, is where things start to get interesting.

After providing the email address for players to submit their personas, the marketing crew received literally hundreds of emails each day from fans claiming their balls. While we plan to have a more efficient system in place in the future, we, and more specifically IT Marketing VP Scott Morrison, spent an entire day organizing all the names and personas into a spreadsheet. Not exactly a giant operation.

It was, and still is interesting to think that many thought of this as a finely oiled machine. There was no way we weren’t living up to our end of the bargain, but on our side you had less than 3 people actually sorting through and dispersing tens of thousands of golf balls.

“Golden Tee Sucks and Where are My &^%$ing Balls!”

Because the Facebook page never closes, players are able to post anything they want into the feed at all times. This is great (or horrible) news for the 3 AM drunken Facebooker who is simply looking for something to do after coming home from a bad night on the trackball.

During the Gamer v2 promotion, we saw a lot of these kinds of rants. Some were directed to difficulty getting the golf balls, some were good ol’ fashion bashings, and some were just absurd.

Here are a few of the good ones. DISCLAIMER: These aren’t necessarily drunk posts and none of the spelling, text, or wording was altered in anyway.

“All I can say about your ball promo is it sucks, you were vague on the way to get the balls and never returned MY E-MAILS THANKS FOR NOTNING<SAT LEAST SAY THANKS FOR THE OVER 4 GRAND I’VE SPENT ON THE GAME IN3 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” -Jean K.

“I used to be a huge fan of golden tee. no more. you people hjad a good thing going, but the courses are unrealistic. you get no more of my money” -Eric C.

“Grow some BALLS GOLDEN TEE!!!!!!!! come on now! Nice empty promises….” -Kyle S.

“Boobies.” -Scott S.

While these are hilarious to read it can also be frustrating at times. It would be easy to say I don’t take these kinds of responses personally, but it still somehow feels that way in the Facebook setting.

With that said, I would never delete a post like this (unless there is mass profanity) because it is your right as a fan to express yourself, whether it’s positive, negative or ridiculous. Active fans of the page can also attest to the fact that I will respond to almost every single thread – even if my head might be ready to explode.

On The Very Bright Side –  This Is Changing Golden Tee

Regardless of the random posts and occasional unhappy camper, the Golden Tee Facebook Page is by far the biggest advancement for the game outside what’s in the cabinet. It also happens to be the most enjoyable part of my day.

I love seeing what people are talking about, which YouTube moment is making noise, and what is the overall vibe from this growing community. You have a voice on the page and what you say can and will be passed along if it makes sense. (Sorry Scott S. – “Boobies doesn’t quite make the cut).

This massive active fan base is unlike anything the game has seen before. While there are message boards and forums, these don’t have the same feel that this page has. I am a Golden Tee Fan Boy at heart, so talking and answering anything people might muster up doesn’t feel much like work.

The page will continue to grow, a select few players will drunkenly post how much they hate us, and thousands of fans will continue to spread the GT love and create an even larger community of talking trackballers. And If you’re going to get hammered and start posting away – don’t drop any F-bombs because I’ll have to probably delete it. Otherwise, the stage is yours.

Can’t wait to see what’s next and if you aren’t in on the action yet – come join us.

After a weekend of NFL playoff football, I came into IT Monday morning looking forward to a close battle for Shot of the Year. Unfortunately, however, I found this.

On the surface this looked like a weekend to remember. I mean 30,000 votes?! After a few seconds of excitement, my expression and excitement turned stone cold and tilt circulated through my veins. Massive Golden Tee Blog TILT.

I quickly realized that the spike in voting was the direct result of an Internet bot, which Wikipedia describes as the follow, “Internet bots, also known as web robots, WWW robots or simply bots, are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone.”

Ding, ding, ding. And so it turns out that our first-ever Shot of the Year vote has as much validity as the Baseball Hall of Fame.

It took me most of a week to come up with a solution, and I have, but before we discuss our Shot of the Year winner I have to ask the following. Are people this lame? Bored? Weird? With no prize other than Golden Tee notoriety and bragging rights up for grabs, someone still decided to use a voting bot on a Golden Tee Blog. While posting on a virtual golfing blog won’t have women flocking my way, rigging the GTB (with no monetary gain) would fall under the same category as the guy that brings an entire gallon of water to the gym. Or the guy that takes out the catcher in a 12-inch softball game. It’s just that pathetic.

I mean come on, folks.

And so we come to this. We still need a Shot of the Year but our 30,000 votes are more or less completely useless. Consider the following to be executive decisions carried out by the marketing team.

The “Pig Bounce” Shot has been officially disqualified from the competition. Whether or not the Internet shenanigans were a direct results by the “oink” crew, this brilliant effort is relinquishing its spot on top. This shot will not be removed  – it simply cannot go on in our disjointed contest.

This was by far the most enjoyable shot to watch and will be a YouTube staple for years to come, but this cannot be our Shot of the Year. BANNED from competition.

With that shot out of the equation we are left with four – all of which are worthy of being in contention. Still, we believe that one of these shots separates itself without question.

Brian Bernhardt’s super albatross is a shot worthy of a showcase. I was standing right next to him when he hit it and I can confidently say that I will never see anything like it ever again. It took skill, power, luck, and one hell of a kick to get into the cup – but getting an ace on a par-5 is an achievement worth celebrating. Because of this, his shot on Savannah 12 (at the Minnesota Open by the way) is our 2009 Shot of the Year.

While this wasn’t how we wanted to come to a solution, I feel in this instance the correct shot has been selected. Congrats to Brian on winning this title and congratulations to the other shots as well. All of these moments are the reason YouTube replays are so cool, and we appreciate all of these efforts.

Getting back to the spam, it’s safe to say that this contest went no where near what I expected. I certainly learned a few things while putting it together and will definitely do things differently going forward. And to the spammers out there most likely reading this straight from their mother’s basement. I have only one thing to say, that can’t be said any better than by the fine folks of WWE – which I imagine you Wordpress bot users/abusers have probably already seen.

After literally tens of thousands of Golden Tee Great Shots, the field has been narrowed down to five. Now the rest is up to you.

Throughout 2009 we saw some absolutely ridiculous shots that wowed us GT nuts each and every month. While many of these shots were worthy for a spot in our monthly feature, only five of them made the cut to have a chance at Shot of the Year.

Up until now, the marketing team had the honors of selecting the monthly winners. It would only be fitting, however, to allow the players and the fans to have the say with supreme GT bragging rights up for grabs. Below are the five finalists for Shot of the Year along with a poll so you can cast your vote. Our winner who receives the most votes between now and January 15^th will be celebrated on Goldentee.com and the GTB for years to come!

And your finalists are…

Selection #1: This shot was hit back in February and featured one of the most bizarre shortcut attempts in recent memory. While it may not look like it, this shot was certainly planned. The outcome, however, was too good not to have a spot in our final five.

Selection #2: Our only animal-aided hole-in-one of ‘09 made some serious noise on the GT social media sites and for good reason. The “oink” you hear mid-shot is something that many GT fans will never forget and the bounce that followed was even sweeter.

Selection #3: Here was a 1^st in 2009, a hard-to-come-by super albatross, aka a hole-in-one on a par-5. This also just happened to be one of the longest shots of 2009 and was hit only months before 2010 debuted. Unbelievable effort here and perhaps the most “skilled” of the bunch.

Selection #4: Our one and only shot to make the cut from a 2010 course was the best of many outstanding Monument Valley moments. A favorable wind/ball bounce made this shot defy all physics on it’s way to jumping over the giant wall and just barely make the green. The rest was history.

Selection #5: Our final shot was the only old school course featured in our final five. There’s no doubt that this shot required an obscene amount of luck on its way to finding the hole, but it managed to do just that. This was also the only Skins Play shot to make the cut. Words really can’t describe the following 22 seconds.

You’ve seen the selections, now you have the chance to decide which shot deserves a spot in Golden Tee history. Vote early, vote often, and cast your vote below between now and January 15^th and stay tuned to the Golden Tee Blog and Goldentee.com for more!

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And so it comes down to this.

The final hole in our Toughest in 10 is upon us and while I’d love a suspenseful selection, I have a feeling many of you already know which hole will hold the top spot. Our previous selections certainly all presented very challenging looks. In my opinion, however, none of the holes selected 2-5 come close to our #1 selection. There, that should do juuuuuust fine for build up.

Ladies and gentlemen your Golden Tee 2010, Toughest in 10 hole is…

Bella Toscana 18.

The 18^th on Bella Toscana is a drivable par-4 that can usually range anywhere from 260 to 300+ yards. The green is extremely narrow and is surrounded by water on the front, left, and back. There’s a large hill guarding the green which is positioned directly in front of the water.

Typically this hill can be trouble for any ball that may happen to find, although as seen in the shot below – that’s not always the case.

So if you happen to hit a shot like this, you’re gravy. Otherwise there are plenty of items of note that can be trouble when trying to finish off the round. The hole is intimidating from any tee box with any wind, and while there can be some more favorable setups, bagging an eagle requires a truly outstanding shot.

Here are a few of the major factors that make this “The” toughest hole in 2010.

The Green: The green itself is tough to hit even with very little wind and a comfortable club – aka a 3 or 5-wood. It’s extremely narrow, perhaps smaller horizontally than any hole in recent memory. Oh and it has a down-10 slope!

If you’re slightly off laterally, you’ll get wet. If you come up just short, you’ll hit the front wall of the green and ricochet in the water. If you over hit your club slightly, your ball won’t be able to spin enough because of the slope and you’ll find more water. It’s easy to be off on this hole even when you’re off only slightly.

The Wind: It’s obvious that the wind is a critical variable in Golden Tee. Heck, it’s been a major factor in all five of our Toughest in 10. Bella 18 is no exception; in fact, it’s the leader of the pack.

On the rare occasion where you’re given a straighter wind of less than 12 mph you better take advantage. More times then not, you’ll likely have a cross wind that will typically range anywhere from 12 to 17 mph. Yikes. You’ll have to get extremely creative with your shots to battle these winds and also learn to control how your ball spins when it hits the green. Bella 18 has the toughest winds in the 2010. Period.

The Stagger: Stagger is a Golden Tee term that might be new to some. Usually players are lined up straight at the hole from the tee box or fairway, but in some instances they will be moved left or right creating a more difficult shot. This in essence, is a stagger and is seen more on Bella 18 than any other hole in the game.

This particular stagger forces players to be right on with their direction and precise with their distance even with angle or cut shots. Staggers are typically small and sometimes you may not even realize you are playing slightly off of the pin. Not here though. This is a stagger I particularly enjoying cursing out almost every game.

But that’s not all. Say you are having the round of your life and you’re simply looking to birdie this hole. While there is a layup area in the back right portion of the green, this can be a tough spot to get to and can actually be one of the trickiest wedge shots to hit from if the wind is remotely tough. Well, maybe not for you pros but for guys like me.

You can also layup by playing for the middle and knocking it in the fairway, but you might be left with a very challenging look especially if the pin is tucked up near the top portion of the green. While laying up is certainly safer and is almost necessary with some of the looks you’ll get, it doesn’t mean you’re home free.

While the hole is truly challenging, I actually love playing it. I think it plays fair and requires one, (sometimes two), good shots for an eagle or birdie. I’ve seen the hole played in one live event so far and the suspense and strategy that it created in match play was outstanding.

There’s also the chance you’ll have a shot like this and won’t even have to take the putter out of your bag.

How you decide to play Bella 18 is up to you. With time you’ll figure out what works and what doesn’t. While many will share a variety of strategies on how to play this hole, I think (key word here being think) most everyone can agree that this is the Toughest in 10. So I have to ask…

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