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Design-a-Hole 2009: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Part 1 of 3)

"Duffer" Dan Schrementi — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:11:41 +0000

“I’ve never seen so many men wasted so badly…”

"Vote for me, or I'll Shoot!"

Clint Eastwood grumbled these words while surveying Civil War carnage in the classic film this blog is so subtly themed after. And while sitting here at Golden Tee HQ surmising the Design-a-Hole carnage from last year’s contest, The Man With No Name’s words reign true. There were so many good men wasted in the Design-a-Hole archives of 2009… And probably, so many wasted men too, for that matter. Thankfully today, through the power of the GTB, we can give those men our tip of the cap in this – part one of the three-part, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

The Design-a-Hole Archive: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly series began last year as a way that I, “Duffer” Dan Schrementi, could take my crack at choosing the best and the worst designs of the year. You see, while everything at IT is a team effort, let’s just say the Design-a-Hole project is sort of my baby. And ironically, “my baby” was challenged last year by none other than my other baby – my real baby son – who was born precisely on the day that DAH presentation was to be made to judges Jim Zielinski and Larry Hodgson. As I smoked cigars and drank scotch in the waiting room of the nursery, Jim and Larry pined over the 100+ design submissions back at Golden Tee HQ. Helplessly giddy at the hospital, my opinions on the designs were no where near the office.

Jim and Larry are Golden Tee Gods which is why they choose the finalist in the contest. But Jim and Larry do not get the luxury of watching the DAH entries stream through their inbox for 30 straight days. That’s a perk bestowed upon only the most *ahem* respected and talented “duffers” in the company. And until young GTB’er Adam Kramer can defeat me 47 rounds of dizzy bat baseball – and note: he’s got a hell of a way to go – I have remained the DAH chairman.

As a marketing professional, a design hack and a true fan of Golden Tee, I truly love checking my inbox each morning the contest is open. And over time, like a biased Simon Cowell, I begin to secretly root for and against certain entries. (secretly being the key word – this is exactly why I am NOT a judge!) It’s that time again and we’ve received more entries so far this year than ever before at this point. In fact, there’s a virtual cornucopia of crayon and marker mastery that awaits in my inbox as I type! All this means that now is the time when I get the opportunity to present the best and worst entries that you never saw last year. And in order to get your creative juices flowing, today we’re going to kick it off with The Good!

Press play – if you’re a real man…

THE GOOD

Here’s what you’re not going to see in the GTB’s The Good list: Dave Hollingshead, Jim Little, last year’s finalist entries or bacon-cheese-fries. These items go into the category of “assumed awesome” and have no place in The Good. No, instead what you’re about to see are the finest assets that just fell short of awesome and are – in my opinion – still worthy showing off to the world. These designs are great and they should show you 2010 DAH participants what you’re up against. One last thing, if it’s “Pants On The Ground” mockery that you’re in to, tune back next week for the BAD and subsequent UGLY parts of this series. Until then, without further ado, I offer you loyalists of the GTB The Good Design-a-Hole submissions from the 2009 contest. Enjoy~

If the name "Jason Thomason" rings a bell, it should. Jason had horse in the finals with "X Marks the Spot". But to me, you're looking at what very well could have been a winner last year. I give Jason huge props for putting this level of work into the Design-a-Hole Contest. Yes, it's true, if this design was handed to us as a pencil sketch it may have been glossed over, but his added level of effort made the judges notice. And not only that, there was a video too! I'm not sure what Jason does for a living, but he probably could "quit his day job"

Here, you're looking at another entry from another finalist, Jeff "Dank" Epperson. Yes, this hole is gimmicky as hell, but I am in awe of its creativity. It's not likely that you'd ever see a hole like this in Golden Tee Golf but it's hard to deny that you'd love to play it at least once.

We didn't call them finalists for nothing! Chris Rice represents another DAH finalist with a second design to make The Good list. Again, here's a great example of a design that received extra attention because of it's level of quality. Chris did a great job here and Ocean Spray would have been great fun on Tahiti Cove, in my opinion.

Shipwreck Cove is proof that you don’t need a design degree to come up with a great idea. I thought Kyle’s idea of “playing through the ship” would have been loads of fun in Golden Tee. Perhaps it was a bit “over themed” which is why it didn’t make the final cut but I applaud the creativity that Kyle put fourth. Besides, I don’t know if we recorded Peter Jacobsen saying, “Yarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!”

Call me a sucker for gimmicks but I still think that Steve "Maestro" Snyder's Heartbreak Ridge was one of the most creative and fun-spirited designs received last year. The shape of the green forces you to control the ball and the "risk/reward" shot is as enticing as it could be. Well played, Maestro.... Well played.

Sean Dockry's "Lone Tree Harbor" is another example of the talents we saw in last year's event. I chose this hole for its level of quality in presentation but I can tell you, it suffered from what many DAH entries do - the inclusion of an always-played shortcut. A few tweaks to this layout and I think Sean would have been another one of the finalists. But rest easy, friend, you made it on the GTB.

Keith, I don't know what the hell I am looking at but you, my friend, get the award for best name. Ok, you're crayon lines are pretty nice too!

Before I bid you all farewell, I’d like to leave you with a final gallery of OH-SO-CLOSE-TO-GOOD designs. Why? Because missing the cut as a DAH finalist the first time wasn’t demoralizing enough…

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Coming Up on the GTB Next Week: THE BAD

WERE YOU BAD ENOUGH?

Design-a-Hole 2010

Submit Your Design Today for a Chance to Leave Your Golden Tee Legacy and Host the 2011 Launch Party at YOUR BAR!

Video – Making Waves: Golden Tee At Sea

"Duffer" Dan Schrementi — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:32:28 +0000

Special thanks to the NAVY and USS John C. Stennis for permission to post this video on Goldentee.com

Well, it’s been nearly six months since the team from Incredible Technologies completed Operation: Golden Tee aboard the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier… and nothing has changed. Our sense of patriotism. Our sense of pride. Our wonder and awe – it all remains as strong as the day we disembarked in San Diego.

Our experience took place in January, you followed the before and after stories right here on the GTB. It’s now nearly July and while most of us have lived our normal lives – working, relaxing and spinning trackballs with our friends, the men and women aboard the Stennis have had a different go at it. They’ve been dedicating their time to protecting our country on a deployment half way around the world. They’ve worked, worked, worked – hard – for us. They miss their families, they miss their friends and long to return to normalcy. This dedication has been an inspiration to the Incredible Technologies family as we hope it’s been to yours as well.

Going aboard also taught us that the person behind the sailor is as inspiring as the sailor themselves. Like us, they love their family and friends. They have hopes, dreams and their own experiences. I look at it as if we met “the Golden Tee player” inside. The average Joe (or Jane), looking for a short break from reality to wind down and be entertained.

That’s where we come in…

Incredible Technologies is an entertainment company – we work to play. And not only did we walk away from the Stennis inspired, we were proud. Proud to provide fun. Proud to be a small, yet happy, piece in peoples’ everyday lives. Proud that whether folks Tee-up at their corner tavern or while crossing the international date line, they do it for fun, to relax and be entertained.

That’s our mission accomplished.

The video above is an homage to that sentiment. It’s also a thank you to the dedication of the men and women of the US Navy and all forms of service. And a thank you to the fine folks on the USS John C. Stennis that took us in as part of their team – our time aboard was short, but the impression left will last a lifetime.

Finally, the main purpose of this video is to remind all of us Golden Tee fans out there to never forget that it’s sometimes the little things in life that can mean so much.

Good times,

- DD

Golden Tee 2.0 are Incredible Technologies

"Duffer" Dan Schrementi — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:16:50 +0000

Every corporate boardroom on earth is full of ‘em right now. Big, important boss types pounding their scared marketing team with words like “Twitterspere” ,”Blogroll” and “Wiki.” ”We need a iPhone App!!!” they demand. Why? They have no idea. But they move forward, paying their crack R&D team to interview 12-year-olds and study the likes of “marketing genius” Ashton Kutcher for “business” research. They think they need this stuff and duh!? They want to be cool with you, dawg!

Well, well, well – here at the inner sanctum of the Golden Tee marketing universe – we are hip. We are with it. And yes, bro – we can hang with you wiki-tubey-tweety hip cats too! But damn it – we do it with some common sense and style.

Ya know, the Golden Tee marketing team is small, but we are MIGHTY! And you’ve probably noticed an equal amount of Golden Tee Goodness on and off the game this past year. We kicked it off with YouTube Great Shot Replays in last year’s 2009 update. The simple idea of replaying holes-in-one has always been around, but when our team first eyed YouTube the drool starting forming. It was a way to make everyone happy – YOU, the player, are happy because you can show off your off-the-ubrella-stick-nothin-but-cup. And I, the marketing geek, am happy because we’ve uploaded 30,000 videos and are approaching 1,000,000 advertisements, errr, views! User generated content at it’s best, baby.

Here's My Incredible Stat Card, Where's Yours?!

But we didn’t stop there. And likely by now you’ve seen our killer new Facebook Applications. The addition of dynamic stats cards for Golden Tee and Silver Strike Bowling, along with our new “Dress Your Golfer” app for Goldentee.com/Facebook – this stuff’s just the tip of your 2.0 iceberg.

Yesterday, we launched a fun project for those millions of iGoogle users out there – our very first Golden Tee iGoogle theme! (insert applause here) So whether searching for important items like dogs on skateboards, celebrity smut or, aaaa , “private entertainment” – we here at Golden Tee Central hope you git’r done within your fun Golden Tee frame!

So, are you left wondering, “Duffer, how is this any different than those big-time-poser corporate fat cats you speak of?” Well, my friends, I can proudly say that social media is only as good as the community that’s powering it and YOU GUYS ROCK! Whether it’s through our presence on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, you – THOUSANDS OF YOU – were there first and greased the IT social media marketing machine. We came along merely to add a little more insight and legitimacy into your already existing communities and thanks dudes – we’ve learned a ton along the way.

To end this post, I propose the challenge for you to challenge us…

HOW CAN INCREDIBLE TECHNOLOGIES HELP FURTHER YOUR ENTERTAINMENT EXPERIENCE THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA?

An easy question, with no right or wrong answers. We’ve already heard many great suggestions like “blog about course creation” or ” exclusive contests for Facebook and Twitter users” – whatever your suggestion is, now is your chance to voice it! And maybe, just maybe, your suggestion will help shape the future of Golden Tee Golf! And that, my friends, if anything else, would be an AWESOME acheivment on your ol’ resume…

Good times,

- DD

Design-a-Hole Archive: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Part 3)

"Duffer" Dan Schrementi — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:22:47 +0000

(Part 3 of 3)

Part two was fun, huh? Picking apart “The Bad” – it really made me feel like a big man! Crushing the hopes and dreams of Jim Zielinski wannabes with every touch of a character on my keyboard. It’s so damn fun to be a critic! Finally, I’ve learned I can relieve all that pent up “Duffer” angst by bullying fans of the game I am paid to professionally market. It’s a beautiful thing.

(Wow, I really become a sadistic jerk… Do you see what you’ve done to me, Chris Eversole!!!)

But throwing my inflated ego aside, we had a ton of fun with “The Bad” and now it’s time to cover “The Ugly!” What is “The Ugly” you say? Well, my friends, it’s the ambrosia salad of Design-a-Hole. A dash of good, a pinch of bad and a whole lot of weird ingredients.

And when it comes to “The Ugly” the old adage of “save the best for last” applies. This is the grand finale’ of our three-part series and we wouldn’t be posting these designs if we didn’t think they were, well, fantastically ugly! So scroll down and enjoy the best of the worst… or the worst of the best… or the rest of the worst’s best… or whatever the hell you want to call ‘em. Just enjoy!

Good times,

Duffer “U-G-L-Y you aint got no aliby, you ugly” Dan

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THE UGLY

E.T. phoooone hooome... And tell our pal, Fred that this hole is crrrazy cool! I'll tell you what, if it would have been submitted as a mashed potato sculpture it totally would have won!

Our pal "Jefe" Allums strikes again and this time he's ugly! Now, the judges understood the Olympic tie-in last year but they disqualified this entry because of the obvious fraud involved - we know your little daughter REALLY drew this, Jeff.

Brad here is a big cigar fan and was obviously inspired by his passion in designing "Smoke: The Experience." But after looking closer, I am starting to think Brad's really not a "cigar" fan at all...

By far the most beautiful of the ugly and an homage to the Civil War hero, General Stonewall Jackson. You know, Shane, the General was once quoted saying, "Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy." Congratulations, my friend. You win.

Judging for Design-a-Hole 2009 is This week!

Online Voting of Finalists Begins May 1 at Goldentee.com!

Make Your Mark on Golden Tee History and VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!

Design-a-Hole Archive: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Part 2)

"Duffer" Dan Schrementi — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:59:37 +0000

(Part 2 of 3)

Alright, that’s it – enough of the lovey-dovey crap. This isn’t tee ball ladies and gentlemen, and not every player is a winner when it comes to Design-a-Hole. Where there’s up, there’s down; black, there’s white; and good – well – THERE’S BAD! MUUUUHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

But don’t fret oh-dummies-of-design, the world loves bad! I’d go as far as to say we NEED bad. Without bad, good would be nothing! Think about it – a world of mediocrity where “The Godfather” and “Gigli” sit side-by-side on DVD shelves. Where the “Beatles” and “Michael Bolton” play back-to-back on “This Week’s Even-40 Chart.” Or one where Golden Tee World Champ Andy Haas and “Skipper Ripper” Horner are awarded participation ribbons in Prize Play. NOOOOO!!!!! (Ah, you know we love ya, Skip!)

You see, bad is good. Hell, even the dictionary goes as far to say that bad can be “outstandingly excellent.” You’re damn right it can be! So now you’re about to see what we deem as “bad” from the 2008 Design-a-Hole archive – but were they really? Naaaa… They’re more fun than they are bad (well, bad in this case meaning bad, bad not bad) and that’s why we love ‘em!

Time for you to take a look at these “best of the worst” selections and do so with a grain of salt, remembering it’s hard to be so bad that you’re good.

Good times,

- DD

(Que Michael Jackson Outro) And the whole world has to answer right now just to tell you once again, WHO’S BAD…

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THE BAD

This idea was submitted by one of the best Golden Tee players in the world and certifies my suspicions that yes – my pal “Dannyboy” Beall is clinically insane! A 30-to-300 yard par 3 with a CONCAVE GREEN?! Come on, Danny!?!?

: The Bat Cave is so bad that it would be, without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest Golden Tee hole in history! Stalactites, stalagmites and spiderwebs? TO THE BAT CAVE MY FRIENDS!!!

: The nostalgia factor is great here but come on, Gerard, when the wind is blowing out an easy lob wedge would land in Lake Michigan!

: The one and only “Jefe” Allums of the Baja Bean Burrito Co. in VA tried to suck up to the judges with this commemorative anniversary design but somebody should get Jeff a ruler. Viewed to scale, the green is larger than the forest and the pin is the size of the Statue of Liberty! Here’s a hint, my friend – suck up with burritos this year and have a much better chance of success!

Stay tuned to blog.goldentee.com next week for the entertaining conclusion of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!

And there’s still time to enter this year’s contest!

CLICK HERE to learn more!

Design-a-Hole Archive: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

"Duffer" Dan Schrementi — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:11:48 +0000

(Part 1 of 3)

Ahhhh… I can smell it in the air – can you? Eraser dust, modeling glue, paper mache’… Design-a-Hole season is upon us once again! A time where the dreams of Golden Tee golfers from around globe are doodled on a piece of paper, judged only to either be crushed or immortalized.

Personally, I love Design-a-Hole! Since I began at IT five years ago, we in marketing land continuously explored ideas that would be fun for players to take part in. Honestly – this one was a no brainer! But as the coordinator of the contest, you have no idea how much joy I take in by the little (usually) emailed nuggets of Golden Tee goodness that await in my inbox each-and-every day of the contest. Damn you guys are clever!

So far this year, 30 ideas have been sent in and it looks like last year’s record of 50 is going to get blasted out of the water. And while I can’t reveal any of this year’s nominations, I thought it would be fun to go through the Design-a-Hole archive and shine a spotlight on some of the ideas that didn’t make the cut in 2008.

In film, it’s the outtakes. In music it’s the b-side. In Golden Tee, it’s the good, the bad and of course, the ugly. Welcome to part one of this three part series, right here at blog.goldentee.com.

Stay Tuned to the Golden Tee Blog for Parts 2 and 3 of Design-a-Hole – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (And trust me, “The Bad” and “The Ugly” or even more fun than “The Good”)

Good times,

- DD

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THE GOOD

You know “The Falls” and surley you remember Bert Loftus’ “Frog’s Pond,” as well as other finalists “Steps” and “Beware of Gravity.” But what you don’t know are the good ideas from last year that narrowly missed the cut – the semi-finalists! Take a look at what designs interested Larry Hodgson and Jim Zielinski during the initial judging period last year. And while the designers of these works of art may not be immortalized in Golden Tee, they can rest easy knowing their ideas can live for ever, right here on the Golden Tee Blog! (Well, until I need to clear hard drive space…)

Gotta love a hole designed like a fishing lure. Very clever and would be fun to play!

Gotta love the CAD work on this design. Kudos, Don! The layout thoroughly impressed the judges, the hole just needed a little extra something and it surely would have made the cut.

: Mmmmmm…. Donutssssss…… This hole probably had a shot, but it was the hazard in the middle of the green that ultimately turned off the judges.

: Jim and Larry thought this was a clever layout and would be great fun to play. I think it looks like a mixture of Heather Pointe and Savannah 17! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!

My Journey to Make the Cut

Adam Kramer — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:27:26 +0000

Okay, I’m no Sobe, and I’m very well aware of it. I do however work and play with Sobe, and am privileged to hear his tutelage on a regular basis. His advice along with some practice have transformed me into at a respectable Golden Tee player, capable of shooting -25 but also very capable of shooting -12. For those who have never met me, my name is Adam Kramer and I am the newer marketing associate at IT.

I played in my first live tournament before working at IT at the ’07 Midwest Regional event and I was B-A-D. Since joining IT I have played in three more events, and while my play as improved (kind of), I have never made a cut. The initial nervousness of playing with some of the best players in the world has slowly faded; yet my play hasn’t really improved.

In January, I played at the Frozen Open in Chicago and blew up on the 18th hole in my first qualifying game and may have well posted a DNF in the second it was so ugly. I played well early on but then came undone like Phil Mickelson in a major – sorry Lefty fans.

In any case, I hope to finally get over the hump at the Missouri Open this weekend and finally make the/a cut. No, I’ve never been really close, but this is my time and here’s why.

When playing in the tournaments, I never really gave myself a shot at qualifying. I took a lot of high risk shots, played reckless, and perhaps dove into one or two Bud Lights I could have done with out. I lacked confidence in my game, especially when playing alongside and watching the cream of the crop tear a course apart. As Sobe has taught me in the weeks leading up to the event – in a sweet North Carolina accent – “You don’t need 30′s to qualify, you need 20′s.”

So forget the course records and the desperate attempts to drive par-4’s where I will undoubtedly miss the eagle putt anyway. I’m going to play the way I would if somehow someone gave me a seat at the World Series of Poker. Don’t do anything stupid, take shots (not bombs) when you feel comfortable, and most importantly avoid the blowups.

This tournament is loaded with top players so I will probably need to shoot an average of –20 to –22 on all three qualifying courses. Still, I will not press or try “doomed” shots anymore. I am as confident as I have ever been in my trackball skillz and this is my time. Hopefully.

Can I do that? Absolutely. Will I?

To be continued…