On Tuesday, September 5th, 2023, I was so honored to help organize a golf outing with 11 former colleagues and friends. We had a fantastic time!
September 5th, 2023 was on a Tuesday, the day before we had an already planned our annual ‘Capture & IDP Conference’ in Itasca, Illinois (a 15 minute drive from Chicago), which was held on the 6th and 7th, so we decided to finally organize a golf excursion on the day before the Conference started.
Our golfers included mostly ex-Law Cypress Company and ex-Fujitsu colleagues who have maintained a good relationship over nearly two decades. A great addition to our group was that we were joined by a few of newbies including Guillermo from Buserdi and Grace from Photon Commerce. Both of their energy, willingness to have fun, as well as participate with the group was incredibly awesome!
Golf was a lot of fun, but most of the on-course smack-talk and activities would earn an R-rating from the internet so I’d rather not share these discussions and rather focus on the more family-oriented highlights for the purpose of this blog update.
For the on-course highlights, Dave Gerber won two of three contests which were the long-drive contest (302 yards on hole #10) and a closest-to-pin on hole #6. Ralph Gammon won the other closest-to-pin contest on hole #13. Congratulations to both Dave and Ralph for their winning efforts!
After golf, a huge highlight of the day was an intimate concert where the Revenue Man (https://www.therevenueman.net/) played for two hours a selection of homegrown hits, plus also popular cover songs. Everyone really enjoyed the show and interaction. Please check-out the Revenue Man’s songs, download his music and support his dream.
One of the post-golf activities that I planned for “The Inaugural Capture & IDP Classic” was a 30-minute “award ceremony” with gag-award certificates to all golfers so that we could recognize everyone and have a little fun at their expense.
Although I spent time to create and print the certificates for the fun of the group, I fully expected for them to end-up in the trash can. However, I was surprised that everyone was appreciative of their awards and took them seriously! The awards themselves were intended to be “gag”-type certificates, but for everyone to respect them was totally cool.
Below is each award for your viewing pleasure!
- Bob Fresneda – “Gift of Gab” award
2. Dave Gerber – “El Cigarro Grande (The Big Cigar Guy)” award
3. Steve Baldwin – “Best Judge Elihu Smails” award
4. Cesar Vega – “Best Score for Irish Player” award
5. Ralph Gammon – “Best reporter and most inquisitive” award
6. Doug Cripps – “Biggest Troublemaker” award
7. Guillermo Chavez – “Most Distance Traveled” award
8. Jay Stobie – “Like a Good Neighbor, Jay is there!” award
9. Grace Zarzecki – “Best Score – Hockey Player” award
10. Erin Dempsey – “Best Event Organizer” award
11. …and, finally, myself for the worst golfer, I received the “Pickleball Training Class” award because they think I need to stay off the golf course for the rest of my career!
Overall, I hope everyone had fun at “The Inaugural Capture & IDP Classic”. I’m not a professional organizer, so if anyone has suggestions for next year’s event please send me a message or call me.
I really appreciate everyone that participated because, after all, it’s sincere friendships that matters.
Sincerely,
Kevin
Great event and the best part was catch up with you my dear friend.