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Golden Tee World Championship – March 25-27 – Rio Casino, Las Vegas
For those in the know, the Golden Tee World Championship But for the uninitiated, it’s hard to understand the passion, spectacle, and raw competitive spirit inspired by what some might call a “video game.” Or even an “arcade game.” They would be dead wrong. We’re not talking about Pac-Man here. This is Golden Tee, the most popular coin-operated video game EVER. This “game” has attracted more than twenty million players worldwide, and just like real golf, it’s easy to play, but requires immense skill and strategy to play well. This “game” brings in more than $400 million in revenues per year and has paid out more than $15 million in prize money. The game consoles—there’s about 100,000 of them—are so high-tech, they even take credit cards and gift cards. Golden Tee is so successful, it catapulted its creator, Incredible Technologies, from a home-based business to an award-winning, industry-leading, $65 million company.) So do fans take the Golden Tee World Championship seriously? You bet. It’s a once-a-year opportunity to watch the best players in the world—true celebrities in Golden Tee circles—compete head-to-head. For the players, it’s a shot at the coveted title of World Champion, plus the $15,000 prize that goes with it. This year’s tournament promises to be an even hotter ticket, because for the first time, some “everyman” players from across the U.S. will get to play alongside the pros. For these regular Joes, going up against the world‘s greatest contenders will be a gut-wrenching, nerve-wracking, dream-come-true. In a nutshell, the World Championship is a Ryder Cup-style event that pits Team USA against an intimidating World Team (composed of top players from England, Canada, Australia, and South Africa). Most elite players practice several hours a day. Some have earned upwards of $250,000 in prize money during their careers. In past years—this will be the fifth World Championship—players have competed rigorously for a place on the team. Historically, Team USA has dominated the event, claiming three of the four team Cups and four individual World Champion titles. But everything’s up for grabs this year. Half of the 16-man Team USA squad will be made up of “regular” players whose names will be drawn from a Golden Tee draft pool. To make the pool, a player simply needs to play 200 18-hole games of Golden Tee LIVE during the two-month online qualifier. It doesn’t matter what a player scores, as long as it’s par or better. This intriguing departure has ignited the already-passionate Golden Tee fan base, which is exactly what Incredible Technologies had hoped for. For the Love of the Game“In 2006, we travelled across the country for 4 major regional tournaments,” explains Elaine Hodgson, IT’s president and CEO, “and wherever we went, the same thing struck us.” “We learned that there are thousands of players who will travel hundreds of miles just to compete. They may not play at a professional level, but their love of the game is undeniable. So we decided to reward them with a chance to play in the Worlds.” For the Golden Tee hopefuls, the upcoming drawing itself has become a much anticipated event—so much so that Incredible Technologies will webcast it live on www.goldentee.com on March 2 at 3:00 p.m. CST. Then, the eight new members of Team USA will have three weeks to prepare for the most demanding competition of their lives. They’ll get an all-expenses paid trip to Vegas, plus at least a $1,000 piece of the $57,000 prize pool. And they’ll get to meet the Golden Tee superstars they’ve been reading and hearing about for years. And they’ll get to compete with them, elbow to elbow. Imagine golfing against the likes of Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, and Phil Mickelson. It’s like that. Gulp. Be There: The Tilted Kilt Pub
2007-03-09 |
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is like the Superbowl, World Series, and Olympics rolled up into one.