So next weekend is my hockey team's annual Ryder Cup tournament, and I'm pretty excited for it. I know I've posted about this before, but we started this about 6 years ago with just 8 of us, and cobbled together a 4 on 4 (including
@NickEsasky) one day tourney over 36 holes. After that we expanded to 45 holes, gave Esasky the boot and kept it to just our men's league hockey team, and went on the road to Plymouth for a weekend.
The year after that we expanded and brought in another group of guys from a team we're friends with. Moved it to 8 vs 8, did Plymouth again, and started a tradition. Last year we went to Portsmouth, NH. We trade off "host" teams who pick the destination/venues and are returning 15 out of the 16 guys from last year.
The format is three 9 hole matches on Saturday (Best Ball, Alternate Shot, Scramble) then two 9 hole matches on Sunday (switching opponents within our foursome at the turn. Pairings and orders for Saturday are submitted blind in advance, Sunday's matchups/pairings are drawn out of a hat after Sunday (which is HIGH drama). Everyone is handicapped as well, so it ends up pretty fair.
This year is in Newport, where we're each renting a house for the weekend. We're playing a friendly/prep round at Montaup CC Friday, then 27 holes at Newport National GC Saturday, staying over, then driving halfway home in the morning before playing our 18 at Olde Scotland Links on Sunday.
Going to be an awesome weekend of golf and beers, and I'm most excited that now it's a real tradition that's taken hold. We've kept it within driving distance for the first few years but I can see us going a bit further in the future. Will update after the carnage subsides next weekend.
Anyone else do any fun trips/outings like that as a yearly tradition?