When I officially accepted my spot in the 2018 Goslings Invitational, I was undeniably nervous. I’ve played plenty of tournament golf, including a well-documented run at the PGA Tour. But of late I’m far more a professional journalist than professional golfer. A New York City office is not the most conducive place to prepare for a week of real-money golf, despite plenty of training opportunities at our Golden Tee machine.
The format was the most daunting aspect of the event. Seventy-two holes of stroke play across two courses I’d never seen? That’s a lot of golf to play without running into disaster. The doubts crept in before we even took off: What if my swing, which has never been mistaken for that of Bobby Jones, fell victim to rust and decay? What if my caddie (and cubicle neighbor) Sean Zak lost interest halfway through? What if my game didn’t travel well to Bermuda?
Some of the worry was misplaced; some was well-founded. I snuck in a couple of sessions at New York’s True Spec simulators. I punched up my mental game at Golden Tee. I battled the snow for a real-life round Thanksgiving week. And then, armed with the support of my team (caddie Sean Zak, swing coach Luke Kerr-Dineen, assistant swing coach George Gankas, manager Josh Berhow, just to name a few) we arrived in Bermuda ready to take on the world.
What happened next? I’d tell you, but I really want you to watch the video below to find out. Sean and I soaked up every minute of this one-of-a-kind tournament, which featured pros, ams, celebrities and some hybrids of the above. Over the course of a week we battled the challenges of wind, white stakes, missed putts and moped travel, all in pursuit of one thing: a paycheck. And if you like the video, let us know! This is something new for us and we’d love to do more.
