Jan K From Northville at the Puma / Maxim Open

First of all I want to thank everyone at Carl's Golfland, especially Carl Rose and Neal Feldman for making a great trip possible.  I won a trip for two to play in the Puma Open, a 9 hole four person scramble in Ft. Lauderdale, FL on Friday, September 19.  My friend Kim L and I left for Ft. Lauderdale at 9:30 am that morning, flying first class for the first time.  We met up with the other winners that we would be playing with, Mike Baand his friend Rick W and were driven to the Westin Diplomat  Resort and Spa, right on the Atlantic Ocean.  After check-in, a shuttle took us to the Diplomat Golf Course a few miles away.  There we were greeted with a nice Puma travel bag and free snacks and drinks.  The tournament was a shotgun start, with different games on each hole.  For example, number 7 (our first hole) had to be played with just a 7 iron.  We got our bogey 5 and moved on.  The next hole had cards to draw with different clubs, and each person had to play with the club that they drew.  The hole that was the most fun (although it was after the tequila hole, which may have helped!) was the "On the Clock" hole; our last.  You had to play it as fast as you could, and anything under 2 minutes was scored as a "1", no matter how many shots you took to hole out.  We just let Kim hit the tee shot, because she was hitting it farther than anyone and there was no point wasting any time with anyone else.  The guys took off as soon as she hit, and mostly thanks to Mike we got a par 4 in 1:51 for our "ace"!  It was only the fourth fast score, but we were still proud!

 

After the golf there was a buffet and casino gambling with our 500 "Puma Bucks".  Kim and I learned to play Blackjack while Rick showed his expertise at the Craps table.  The idea was to win as much as you could, and the total would somehow be combined with your golf score (ours was 33) to win a trip to the Dominican Republic.  With just a couple minutes left, Mike took his "$2500" that he won at Blackjack and combined it with Kim's $200 (Rick and I were broke by then) and put it all on a "hard 8" on the craps table at Rick's request.  It hit and we won "$27,000"!!  For a while we really thought we could win the whole thing after checking out everyone else's winnings, but one team won about $77,000 and won the whole thing!  I have to think we came in second though.  It was fun to think that we almost did it, though!

 

The trip was a great experience and we had a wonderful time.  We got to walk on the beach twice and swim in the pool before heading back to Detroit late Saturday morning.  What really helped make the trip so special were the two great guys that we met.  Mike and Rick could not have been nicer and we hung out together the whole time.  It was the best 25 hours I ever spent in Ft. Lauderdale!!  Thanks again Carls Golfland