BeeeJay's Big Golf, Gambling, Beach & Booze Adventure!!!

Hello friends, it has been a while since my last VMB trip report and I am happy to return in a big way with an extended report involving lots of golf and gambling! As always it is important to maintain a balance in life so the final two cornerstones of my upcoming existence will be developing a dark tan and keeping the liver well lubricated. Hence we set off together on BeeeJay's Big Golf, Gambling, Beach & Booze Adventure!!!

 

This will be ONE extended months long trip, leaving the day after my younger sons golf season ends in a little over a week, and returning back next summer in time for my older sons college graduation, so things will necessarily evolve on the fly, but so far the itinerary includes the following activities:

4 Vegas stops (Early October at Cosmo, NYE at Vdara, March Madness at Palazzo, early May at MGM)
Vegas trips are more focused on the golf, pool, and dining scene these days, but there is some gambling included as well.
South Beach & Caribbean Destinations
I've got 14 islands and 20 rounds of golf planned.
Extended winter stay in Scottsdale with near daily golf
3 BR airbnb, only working remote part time, so will be trying to get out to the courses 4-5 times a week, plus WM Phoenix open and general Scottsdale shenanigans along with numerous planned visits from friends and family.
Monday Night Football
Packers @ Raiders Monday, Oct 9th.
Final Four Saturday
April 6th, in Glendale, AZ attending the two final four games.
Augusta for The Masters Monday Practice Round
The morning after the final 4 games I have a 5am flight to Charlotte where we will set off in my buddies Airstream for Augusta and the Masters Monday practice round.

 

Nothing like a BJBGGB&BA…

 

The first installment will be GOLF related as I recently participated in The Breezy Invitational in Chicago. This event is a showcase of golfs most famous youtubers, presented by Bob Does Sports. I have been a big fan of this show since they started a couple years ago at the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straights which my son and I had attended after playing the course a few weeks earlier. At that time my son was just getting started in golf, but now he has developed into a decent player and is a sophomore in high school playing on his team's varsity with regionals coming up soon. Last year his team was decimated so he got thrown into the fire as a freshman and was shooting upper 90's less than two years after starting golf. He grew and got much better this year, shooting a 74 to win one summer tournament and shooting his best high school round of 80 at their recent conference tournament. Most importantly he is having fun and learning a sport he can use to talk smack with his buddies for the next 70 years.

With no further adieu let me present my pics and videos from The Breezy Invitational Chicago!

 

After the Breezy Friday, we hit the LIV tournament on Saturday, played with the buddies Sunday and had some cigars to celebrate shanks tops and chunks. I attended Seany's meet Monday. In other news its been 69 and rainy here every day despite 15% chance of rain, its rained nonstop (only sprinkle so no golf impact), I got a Yacht Club Upgrade (YES!!!!), and we have a dog now---questionable behavior as pictured.

 

The Vegas itinerary for the first leg includes 5-night comp stay in Cosmo Terrace Studio Fountain View.

I'll be flying in a few hours before Kakha and NYC Chic who are staying with me. They are minimal gamblers so our first day will be a strip walk, casual pool day, culminating in attending the Monday Night Football game with the Packers visiting the Raiders.

@alexanbo arrives Tuesday and will meet us at Cosmo where we have a daybed reserved and plan to spend a full pool day. After we will hit the VMB meet and slot and VP pulls before Matty Ice arrives later in the evening when we plan to hit Lemongrass at Aria for dinner.

Wednesday NYC Chic has to fly back to NYC so Kakha and I are playing Rio Secco mid-morning. We have an early dinner at Javiers (also Aria) with Alexanbo, Matty Ice, and Matty Ice's brother. Kakha flying out after so I'll have the room to myself for a couple nights. COUGH COUGH.

Thursday is a full Aria pool day with dinner at Bavette's for the remaining crew.

Friday I have a 6am flight out to Miami for a couple nights on Miami Beach before the next leg of the adventure begins!

 

Can’t wait for this one. Been about a year since I’ve Vegas’ed but been closer to 5 since Ive done one with Beeejay. Going to be extra special finally dragging my brother @BigTomCallahan along for the ride. He’s been a handful of times but he’s in for true shock and awe at what he’s about to witness. Should be a fun ride

 

@BeeeJay with this itinerary you will be like Rick Flar Stylin and Profiling




Good luck happy travels, following along ,

 

Damn it. I'm gonna miss you and the crew by a few days.

This TR is going to be epic, I can feel it.

 

saw that on the meet thread---would have been good to get an updated pic!

 

Today is a big day for young Seany, Regional Golf, last year as a freshman was tough on a course far too long for him after playing golf less than 2 years. This year he has grown 6+ inches and gotten much better at golf. It is still a tall task to make it through to Sectionals so we've enlisted some outside support:

https://youtube.com/shorts/vzAmR34f85Y



We played a couple practice rounds over the past week and with the constant rain the course is playing long. It is a tight, quirky, poorly conditioned course. Greens are questionable BUT they are soft and slow enough you can chip close so up and downs and two putts are probably easier than most courses. Fairway lies and mid-range putts are questionable due to the poor maintenance. There are a lot of spots where you can be in the fairway and have overhanging branches. The bunkers are absolute dog shit. Overall it does make for an interestingly strategic course and it does favor Seany's game as driving is his strength with a high draw which works well on this course. The slower greens should alleviate his putting speed control issues a little bit.

The teams have changed this year but they are competing against some of the best golfers in the state. Last year I believe we finished second to last, the team is much improved this year, but again the competition is incredibly stiff so it will take everyone's best day for the team to make it through. Last year it took an 86 to make it through as an individual and 81.5 team average (top 4 scores from 6 players count). That was on a very long Par 72 course, this course is Par 70, so just guessing 83 individual and somewhere around 310 would be necessary for the team to advance. The teams who moved were REALLY tough but this field might be deeper with more teams capable of shooting sub-310. The top 3 teams advance. Last year we got second to last and only had one player make sectionals as an individual.

As Fat Perez stated, the most important thing is to have fun. A good day could go a long way, but golf is a tough sport and you can't force it. Seany's already exceeded the expectations and goals he made for this year so anything additional is gravy. The boys are very motivated to work for next year either way.

 

Good luck! It’s hard being the parent of a competitive student athlete.

 

Welcome back to VMB!
As I started reading the thread I was wondering if you made it out to LIV this past weekend. Rich Harvest Farms is such a nice place. I met a neighbor of friends a few weeks ago who works there as well.

 

Always love your reports. Bob, Perez and Coldcuts seem like good dudes. And Perez can really play. Great stuff. Spiranac seems nice as well!

 

def REALLY hard for the parents who take it super seriously. one of the dad's went OFF on this kid who was being a real asshole (throwing clubs and walking in the other way, making noise during the others shots, etc)---I can't criticize the dad too much for his reaction, his son is the top player in the regional, D1 senior, and the other kid was acting VERY badly. I mean I wouldn't have said anything because that could get your kid DQ'd. I was also really mad at that kid for messing up my kid but its up to the coaches/officials to intervene. High school golf is a bit of a joke compared to the more serious summer junior circuits.

Anyway the team made the cut in 3rd place by 6 strokes (realistically more like 12, the misbehaving kid lied on his score by at least 6 strokes, he was in my son's group and I followed all day). Seany did 20 strokes better than same tournament last year, 102 to 82 lol. The team moved on to sectionals for the first time in 13 years!! They will get smoked in sectionals. I thought they had about a 50/50 shot of making it through regionals, including the chance of making it individual (Seany would have made either way--the cutoff was 83). But for sectionals to make it thru to state they have to shoot mid-70's, either as a team or individual, and only 2 kids have shot that low at the same time all year. But they have an outside chance if everyone has their best round of year at the same day they could do it. Lol.

 

Thanks, this one should be interesting in a different way than usual. Not as much gambling or drinking but some good beaches and island golf!

These guys are all incredibly good dudes, and Paige was so nice. I sat down with a bagel at a picnic table and her and her asst randomly sat down across from me early in the pre-round brunch. She won a tournament at this random second tier course in Scottsdale which is kind of our back-up go-to so we talked about that. I'm a big fan of the youtube golf scene. Kids got me into it. I've bought so many shirts, I think I have 3 shirts left from this time last year and like 20 new golf shirts lol. It's the easiest way to support the free content and you get great shirts.

 

"Paige"! Now you're on a first name basis. She does seem genuine, and honestly she has a great athletic swing. Some of those youtubers like Garrett and others can really play, but still that separation between them and pros!

 

her last name is much harder to say and spell lol. I'm more an Alexandra O' Laughlin guy.



i'm not as versed in golf expertise as a lot of the guys on here but my take as a rabid fan who plays a bit of golf is that there is a level of my buddies who cheat to break 100, you serious weekend warriors trying to break 80, then the legit scratch golfers who shoot around par at the munis, then you have these youtuber levels like Grant, Garrett, Rick Shiels, and Fat Perez who played like D3 or small D1 and can shoot legit under par but are primarily entertainers. The difference between them and the low level Korn Ferry dudes is even night and day. I think Tig came in last place on a Canadian Tour event. We played at Kierland the day of the Good Good Championship, and I believe Fat Perez shot low 80s and the Korn Ferry dudes were shooting mid-60s. Then you have the difference between those guys and the worst PGA Tour pro. I think the Korn Ferry guys maybe +3 or +4 and a guy like Nick Hardy is prob +6. Then onto the best PGA Tour pros, Max Homa is a +9 and John Rahm is a +9.5. Those guys are shooting low 60s for handicap rounds on the most insanely hard courses ever. It's freaking nuts.

i feel like golf is super fun once you can shoot 80s. it was REALLY fun watching the kid paired with my son shoot 70 on Wednesday. any sport you are encouraged to drink before noon while driving a go cart around a field I'm all for lol.

 

Quality round with the bros today. We have a group of around 25 whoever can play every other Thursday we do team scramble skins. Only 6 guys made it today so we had two teams of three, played tips on tough course and thought we got smoked shooting +2 but I guess it was playing super tough.

Drove really well but chunk some irons from wet fairways and putted AWFUL. We still won by 4. Haha.

we also have a par 3 contest, the par 3s playing well over 200. I hit 4/5 greens but far from hole and you have to 2 putt I 3 putted twice ‍♂️

This was a wedge to 4 feet setting up a birdie:



3 wood second shot on a par 5 somehow fit it into this narrow strip of fairway just short of the green lol:



7 wood from 196 to long hard par 3, i putted it past and down that hill leaving a 20 footer back lmfao:



Perfect drive on difficult dogleg right par 5, left 218 in with accessible pin, but I caught my second shot just a smidge heavy and it ended up just short right at the pin. Easy birdie at least.



Kind of a frustrating day for the boys, hate to see a 3 putt and only 2 birdies in a 3-man scramble lol. That said the other team had a better lineup and did worse by 4 and we did have a lot of really good shots so maybe it was just playing super tough. It's been raining for 2 weeks and the courses are so wet you get zero roll and its easy to chunk the fairway shots. I smoked 3 shots with 3 wood that all were within a foot of their pitch mark. That sucks for me cause I depend a lot on roll, hard fairways, sprinkler heads, cart paths, whatever it takes lol.

 

Agree 100% - the talent gap as you get farther down is crazy. I played Torrey two years ago with two guys in their late 20s who played upper-tier college golf and they could just rip it. I think I shot 78, but they were just goofing around and were so much lower. Just a different flight and sound.

While golf is fun usually the better you get, it is hard to accept reaching a pinnacle. I played in HS and have played most of my life, getting to the 74-77 range in my twenties and could still break 80 up until a year ago (I'm nearly 50) when I just got frustrated with play and distance, and honestly I had just played too long. But I'll likely get back into it - as you said "drink before noon while driving a go cart around a field I'm all for lol" I need to take on that track! Enjoying the report, and we'll all be happy when you get to Vegas and do some heat checks.