Well, it’s Sunday, and our departure for Seattle is only 18-hours away.  Over the weekend, I must have gotten the question “why” over dozen times.  And while the sarcastic side of me usually wanted to respond “WHY NOT!” (ala Belushi in Animal House), I resisted and explained the tale.

So for those of you I didn’t meet over beers this past weekend – here is “why!”

- Lt. Mike Hall of the US Navy sent a letter to Incredible Technologies expressing his passion for Golden Tee and his longing for the game when at sea on the USS John C Stennis Naval aircraft carrier.

- The coordination responsibilities fell to IT’s marketing/PR director, Gary Colabuono.

- The Navy invited us to install the game, meet the crew, see the ship, etc.  And duh – of course we would!

-  To get the full experience captured on video, we will do a civilian ride along from her port in Bremerton, WA, to San Diego, CA, where she’ll prepare her next deployment.

Wow.

Sobe (L) and Duffer (R) in Prior Podcast

- So, a video team consisting of Steve Sobe (3-time Golden Tee National Champion), Sean McMenemy (IT videographer/animator) and I, “Duffer” Dan Schrementi (mkth mgr, host of ITtv) have been given the honor of making the videos happen.  We’ll also be joined by Carol Anderson (purchasing director at IT) and Richard Ditton (co-owner of IT) .

There are dozens of people at IT that helped make this trip a reality.  Nick Frank (CSR Manager) who handled the logistics, to Ed Koeller and Matt Randazzo in game manufacturing, all the way to our graphic artist Christine Campana, who designed the custom wings for the game (with a John C Stennis  seal).  It was a an incredible team effort and I am honored to be able to tell the story.

So that’s it – the power of Golden Tee never ceases to amaze me time-and-time-again.  This game connects millions of people in lands across the world – and now we have our first game on an active Navy carrier.  Where will it end?

- Duffer Dan