The 2019 Destination Open was a complete 180 from the 2018 version. Orlando proved to be nicer, warm, drier, and well-attended. Fourteen dudes from various parts of the country (ok, just PA and Florida) attended the trip to compete in a dual Ryder Cup-Individual Competition. The Ryder Cup competition spanned 4 rounds. The first and second rounds were team matchplay competitions, the third round was an alternate shot and the fourth round was 7 singles matches, which ultimately determined the champions. The individual aspect of the Tournament counted 3 rounds of golf to determine the champion for the YPGA Cup. We still got no group picture though 😦

On Thursday evening, the Ryder Cup draft was well attended at Twin Peaks (where the beers are maintained at a cool 38 degrees) except for a few individuals whose flights were delayed. Team Carney/Grambo selected Billy Kelly first overall. Team Hybrid Fire (Vince and King) then selected Matt Kelly and Paul Koch (mistake) in quick and arrogant succession. Chris Meyer and Matt Launi were then selected by Team CG to make up the top half of each team.

Things kicked off on Friday and after the day was said and done, Team CG led 2.5 to 1. Chris Meyer and Matt Launi, who were paired together, posted a blistering 84 and 81 to lead Team CG and cement Ed and Dave’s drafting as superior to Team Hybrid Fire. The pundits believe that Chris and Matt would have shot even better had they known they were on the same team. That’s just speculation though.

Saturday featured 36 holes with team matchplay in the morning and alternate shot in the afternoon. The morning round was kicked off with some 7:30 AM fog that didn’t lift for 4 holes. Matt Kelly shot a gross 79 that got him nowhere and Chris Meyer again posted a nice mid-80s round of 86. No team really gained an advantage during the morning round as the score was 2-1.5 for the morning round and the total score was 4.5 to 2.5 in favor of Team CG.

The Alternate Shot afternoon round was a nice mixup and received positive feedback from the Tour, except Matt Kelly (what a shock). Team Hybrid Fire seemed poised to gain a big advantage in the round to jump back into the thick of things, but Carney and Kraynak were able to dismantle the King Brothers handedly so that the round split at 1.5 to 2 for Team CG and Team Hybrid Fire, respectively. After 3 rounds, the score was 6 to 4.5, with Chris Meyer leading the way in the individual competition, followed by Vince and Nate. Anything could happen on Sunday given all the strokes that Nate and Vince were getting. All they had to do was not blow up….Repeat, all they had to do was not blow up…

Hello Sunday! Nice to see you! Vince insisted that he and Nate play in the final pairing. I guess he envisioned a scenario where he would tee off on 18, hit two hybrids and two putt to a dream where hoisted the trophy on the 18th green to a collective round of applause. Haha, the golf gods are funny….

Not only did Vince lose the head-to-head match to Nate, he posted a woeful 112. My fingers type fast (something north of 65 words per minute — What’s up Mr. Canney), but that is not a typo. One Hundred and Twelve – just for clarification purposes. Nate didn’t perform much better en route to a 108 showing. But Nate won the matchup so he’s got that to show for it. Meyer shot an 85 en route to the individual championship and he also bested Matt Kelly in the process for the Ryder Cup point.

The Singles Results were as follows:

Meyer vs. Matt: Meyer

Billy vs. Pook: halved

Ed vs. D. King: Dave King

Carney vs. Andy: Carney

Marino vs. Drew: Marino

Launi vs. M. King: halved

Nate vs. Vince: Nate

Final Ryder Cup Score: Team CG – 11 vs. Team Putter Fire – 6.5

What’s next? YPGA Open, June 9, 2019 at the Golf Course at Glen Mills. BYOB. Seriously.

Long Drives:

1. Winning Ryder Cup Team: Team Carney/Grambo, 11 – 6.5 beatdown. Members included: Carney, Grambo, Billy, Nate, Marino, Launi, Meyer.

2. Welcome Back Man!: Chris Meyer. After winning the YPGA Open in 2017, Chris has been relatively quiet on the Tour. He came back with a vengeance and grit in his game this weekend. Chris shot 84-86-85 over the weekend and quickly found himself to be the workhorse of Team CG.

3. Deadliest (Literally) Hitter on Tour: Marino. He almost hit his prestigious team captain, David Carney, on numerous occasions with a 280 tee shot…with a 4-iron. Hey Mike, what did Dave ever do to you? Squash the beef already.

4. Biggest Disappointment of the Weekend: Paul Koch. After months of boasting that he would shoot in the low-80s (stop me if you heard this story before), Paul posted rounds of 98-101-86. He also found himself at the bottom of the leaderboard when all was said and done. Not a good start to the year, Snookie Pookie.

5. Biggest Surprise: Nate Kraynak. Posted a few mid-90s rounds, won all 4 of his Ryder Cup matches, and found himself in contention on Sunday….only to blow up with a 108. Yikes. Hey, at least you got a taste. Taaaaaaaaste.

6. Epic Collapse: Vince Sobo, aka Hybrid Fire, aka Putter Fire, aka Dragon, aka my ribs hurt. Vince nursed a phantom rib injury all weekend after he hit his hybrid too hard during Friday’s warmups. He posted 100-94 on Friday and Saturday to put himself atop the leaderboard. But an astonishing 112 on Sunday left Vince way down the leaderboard. Maybe time to retire the name “Team Hybrid Fire”.

7. Undefeated 4-0 in Ryder Cup matches: Nate Kraynak

8. Most dismal performance in Ryder Cup matches: Paul Koch. Honorable Mention: Paul Koch.

9. Most intriguing matchup of the weekend: Drew v. Marino. Not because they both hit in the triple digits, but because they wagered $100 a hole. Marino is up ~$300 and maybe has a property claim to Drew’s sterling silver watch.

10. Match that got out of hand: Drew v. Launi, instead of golfing, they just took shotguns every hole.

11. Most Annoying Thing All Weekend: Vince’s math. Isn’t he in fi-nance? Doesn’t the spreadsheet do all the work? Never stop confusing everyone, Vincent.

12. Greatness Goes Unnoticed: Matt Kelly. Matt posts ridiculous rounds, hits shots you only see on TV and yet no one speaks about him. Sorry Matt – try sucking more though. It helps. We do have that video of you ridiculing Pook for his mulligan usage during Alternate Shot. That was enjoyable. Keep striping the ball en route to 5th place finishes. Also, Vince won’t stop talking about that genius expert swing advice you gave him where you told him to place the ball in the middle of his stance. OMG, how did you come up with that!?!?

13. Gayness to Victory?: While the Ryder Cup was hanging in the balance, Ed and Marino considered removing all doubt by kissing each other, teeth first, in order to clinch victory. Witnesses to Ed and Marino considering the proposition: Vince, Paul.

14. Weather Gods: In the sight of gods and man, the weather gods smiled favorably on the YPGA Tour during the Destination Open. Four straight days of sun, clouds, warm weather and no rain?! What is this!? This is almost as good a start to the season as Pook sitting in 12th place. Almost.

15. Congrats to…?: The YPGA Exec Committee for planning a great trip filled with sun, warm weather, beers, shotguns, bad golf and Pook losing big time. Next year….Tampa? It looks cool in the movie Magic Mike.

16. WTF was that?: Mike King’s weird pre-putt routine. Is he playing imaginary cornhole before he putts?

17. “I learned my lesson…”: Vince during the Champions Dinner. He didn’t black out before the appetizers came out this time. He also didn’t come close to winning, so….. Why mess with success Vince?

18. Rental Car of the Weekend: Carney’s Red Fire Dodge Minivan over Kotulka/Pook/Meyer/Nate’s pretentious silver Mercedes GL 63 AMG SUV. Did you guys have automatic sliding doors? Unprecedented storage? Minivans are IN.

19. “Of Course They Did…”: Pook, Andy, and Meyer going grocery shopping as soon as they landed in Orlando. I hope you guys kissed the chef each morning.

20. Delirious/high moment of the weekend: Continuous zoomed in, cropped photos of Andy’s mug on Saturday night— see below.

21. “Well, I’ve never seen this happen before….”: The foursome of Paul, Vince, Launi and Carney were slothing their way through Round 1 at Panther Lake on Saturday morning. With an angry twosome of randoms behind them that were paired up with Marino and Dave King, the foursome continued to take heat for their slow play. Well, things were about to get better, right? Upon arriving at the Par 5 seventh hole, Paul pures one down the middle of the “fairway”. Vince also gives a hybrid fire down the middle of the “fairway”. Launi rips one as well down the middle of the “fairway”. Carney lines up his tee shot and after multiple practice swings to allow the tension to set in, the foursome hears multiple screams from the group behind them. What’s that they’re saying??? “YOU GUYS ARE HITTING THE WRONG WAY! TURN AROUND!! THE HOLE GOES BEHIND YOU!!”

Oh, okay. As Carney tees off, the other three go pick up their tee shots because they are probably just in the middle of the “fairway” right? Nah, say hello to a massive alligator infested lake just beyond the crest of the “fairway”. Anybody avenge Chubbs, guys?

Take our YPGA poll and let us know if you’ve ever hit the wrong way on a hole. I’m sure it’s pretty common.

Quick Chips

1. Club toss: Ed Type of club: A betting man would guess that it was either his hybrid or 3-wood.

2. Most shots hit with one club: Vince – 192 swings with Hybrid Fire. Honorable Mention: Ed – 149 swings with hybrid (150 if you include his club toss)

3. Carney Par (on par 5): cuts the corner with a 240 yard 3-wood, whiffs out of a bush, punches out, 200 yard laser on the green, one-putt from 55 feet. ‍Sorry Matt.

4. Did you know: that Vince loves Dixie cups ice cream?

5. Crazy Dress: Easter came a bit early for Launi.

6. Wtf Dress: spandex Bill? Like, why? It was 70 degrees. Hope you brought a moist towelette.

7. 1990s Dress: Meyer and his dad khakis, sponsored by Dockers and Izod. Meyer: “I won, didn’t I?”

8. Twinsies Dress: Drew and Marino on Sunday. Cute striped teal golf shirts, guys. Kiss.

9. Most Potential in 2019 on the Tour: Matt Launi. This is strictly from an intangible standpoint. Seeing his face after taking more than 5 shotguns has us thinking that Matt has what it takes to fit right into the YPGA Tour. Welcome Matt. Oh, and he’s in second place. I know the secret to his brilliant play. We’ll see if it carries over to local courses.

10. The Leaking Banana: Andy’s tee shot every time. The guy is above-average from within 50 yards, but man, so much evidence of low T on that tee shot.

11. My Putting is on Fire…En Route to a 104: Pudd. Dave was very happy about his putting on the final Sunday. He finally learned to follow through!! To his credit, he did putt well and drained a 20-footer to clinch his match against Ed. But he still shot a 104 when all was said and done. Maybe one mention of your great putting would have sufficed.

12. New Year No Temper Tantrums?: Carney. No clubs were broken, no club tosses, no multiple cursing spells. Only one ball was casually thrown in a lake after a few bad holes. Could it be his off season work with his sports psychologist? A renewed mental drive? His escape from the persecution of the Jews? We’ll never know but Carney seems destined for the middle of the pack finish again this year. Watch out!

Weekend Grades:

1. YPGA Executive Committee Planning: A++

2. Orlando nightlife: C-. Chain restaurants still aren’t fun or cool. Neither is Disney, sorry Pudd.

3. Del Friscos: A+ (creamed spinach D-)

4. Golf Courses: B+. We need more of those courses where you can hit the ball 100 yards left and still be in the fairway. I’m a big fan.

5. Pook’s Game: F. This needs no additional details. It’s comical as is.

6. Team Hybrid Fire Drafting Algorithm: D- Back to the drawing board guys. Your strategy on matchups needs work too. But hey, they gave us a good giggle.

7. Prestige of the YPGA: A+

Final Leaderboards:

Ryder Cup Draft Order

1. Billy Kelly

2. Matt Kelly

3. Paul Koch

4. Chris Meyer

5. Matt Launi

6. Mike King

7. Andy Kotulka

8. Nate Kraynak

9. Mike Marino

10. Drew Kerr

Team CG Captains: Carney/Grambo

Team Putter Fire Captains: Vince/Pudd

2019 Destination Open Champion: Chris Meyer

Lowest Net Score Friday: Matt Launi (+10 bonus points)

Lowest Net Score Saturday: Vince and Meyer (+5 points each)

Lowest Net Score Sunday: Meyer (+20 points)

Final Standings and Points:PlacePlayerTotal Net ScoreYPGA PointsBonus PointsTotal Points1C. Meyer210125251502M. Launi222110101203M. Kelly22495954B. Kelly22580805N. Kraynak22670706D. Carney23060607D. King23250508V. Sobocinski236405459E. Grambo237303010P. Koch24117.517.510A. Kotulka24117.517.512M. Marino252151513D. Kerr2621515

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