Back home in Charlotte after an outstanding weekend. I had an absolute blast (despite how I was looking and feeling during the finals). As many have said, there is no way I can tag everyone in one post, but we’re going to try.
Thank you @Double_Bogey_Dave for the invite and to the entire NLU crew, @Privatecollection, and the staff at Jax Beach for putting on a really fun event. Big Congrats to @JCO on the W .As a close witness to the round, you played so extremely solidly. Well done, sir.
It started with a lovely 27 hole day at White Oak where we got to see some rhinos and get our feet wet with a quota game before the NIT. Thank you Damon, Harrison and Clint for putting this together. White Oak is a really enjoyable 9-hole layout that I would recommend checking out, especially if you’re into wildlife! I especially enjoyed their signature 4th hole, which had this really cool water feature:
Other highlights included, but are not limited to, meeting and playing with refugees I had not yet met, reconnecting with refugees I hadn’t seen since the Swig & Swing (which feels like 5 years ago at this point), and the canned Gatorade.
Moving into Thursday night and the opening ceremonies, the drinks were flowing, the tacos were delicious and plentiful, and the team reveal was 
e l e c t r i c
Friday morning brought some wet conditions, but that didn’t stop anyone from grinding on the range and putting green. In the morning, I played pretty well and exceeded my quota including a birdie on #12, which was pretty cool considering I rarely make birdies. I had the pleasure of playing with one of NLU’s godfathers in Mr. Solomon, but didn’t put 2 & 2 together until we were riding to our starting hole and I realized he was that Chris’s father from Dublin, Ohio.
Friday afternoon was an absolute power pairing that included 3 flight winners and the NIT winning caddie in @ChickPhilA, @JamesHCard, and @Hwhite. The wind picked WAY up during that round and I certainly struggled, but was able to grind out -1 of my quota. The 3 gents in our group eventually decided we were tired of saying “nice drive Casey” because she was absolutely automatic riding the high from her personal best earlier that day. Here is the only pic I took at Jax Beach of the 3 of them putting out on #16 while I was in my pocket (shocker):
Friday night’s dinner and wine bottle share was a great hang. We took it very deep during the wine bottle share, and some absolute gems were opened throughout the night. Head to the wine society thread to see Mark’s content from that night 
On Saturday morning I had the pleasure of playing with fellow McSplinters @djpie, @MackReiter, and @skibum232. Learning more about the course from DJ was really cool and my cartner Tim/Ted kept the vibes trending upwards with his playlist of what seemed like mostly Andrew W.K. and shotgunning Fat Tire’s unprompted by choice. I played pretty well this round and was able to close out the flight with another birdie (!) on #4 and my best par save of the weekend on #9. Shout out to Young Hitter Lauren for tagging along with our group, she was definitely a good luck charm because the birdie happened as soon as she joined.
Our group+Lauren had some fun ramping up the PR/outrage machine and getting into my head early with calls of “These are late quota points, they don’t count” and attempting to get #NotMyFlightChampion trending on twitter. I proceeded to not score a point on my final 3 holes…hmmmmmm…
My goal this weekend was to win my flight. I hadn’t necessarily considered anything beyond that. As a very high handicap, I’m constantly teetering on the edge of completely forgetting how to play golf. The added pressure of the gallery, betting, and expectations in the final round completely exposed me. I failed Tron’s psychological examination in spectacular fashion. It was one swing, one lost ball off the first tee and things only got worse from there. I was pitching the perfect game through 15 holes, no points on the board, I asked if WD’s were allowed, I felt small, and the last place I wanted to be at that moment was on a golf course.
But this brings me to the most important part of of this weekend: how amazing and supportive this group of internet (and now real) friends can be. My caddie NanerMan was relentlessly positive (and I owe him a big thank you for slogging through that with me), multiple groups were coming up to us and asking if there was anything they could do to help (the answer was beer, I wish I had known sooner), Soly offered swing advice and nearly tackled me when I hit a solid chip on our 18th hole giving me a putt to save par, and the entire gallery was wildly supportive despite me costing them amounts of money I do not wish to know. Ultimately I stuck it out and ended up with 2 total quota points, which is decidedly not great. However, this group of people made it easy to put that behind me and enjoy the festivities throughout the night. Thank you all for that.
Thanks again to all involved on an outstanding event! I can’t freakin’ wait to come back next year and do this all again. Redemption arc, anyone?
