2017 @Tour_Mindset Invitational Highlights – Universal Cargo

Back in March, we told you about your chance to take a break from shipping and golf with the pros. Universal Cargo CEO Devin Burke‘s son, Micah Burke, is a pro golfer. He ran a pro-am golf tournament called the @Tour_Mindset Invitational that wasn’t just a golf tournament but a golf vacation where amateur golfers paired up with pros.

Here are the highlights of this great event that took place May 17th-20th:

Our first pro-am event was a huge success!

A sincere thank you to everyone who competed in the 1st annual @Tour_Mindset Invitational presented by Perfect ProAms. We are immensely thankful for such a fantastic group of golfers to represent our first ever tournament field. We all shared some incredible memories together and we look forward to creating much more to come.

The @Tour_Mindset Invitational is a pro-am event that introduces a new breed of pro-am golf tournaments that create a fun and exciting experience for all amateur golfers, and, at the same time, empower tour professional golfers toward a breakthrough. Congratulations to Paul Imondi and Liv Cheng for both winning $10,000 plus paid Q-School and also earning the titles of the first ever @Tour_Mindset champions.

We now invite you to relive all of the memorable moments of our fantastic pro-am event. In case you missed out, here’s a little narrative of what went down at the 2017 @Tour_Mindset Invitational . Sign up for our future events and you’ll see youself in these photos next time around.

May 17th, 2017

Opening Party at TopGolf Scottsdale

The event kicked off with a private party at TopGolf-Scottsdale. This venue presented a really fun way for pro-am participants to check-in for the event as well as an opportunity for teams to mingle with each other before the competition began. We also invited some distinguished guests to join in on the fun and hang out with all the tour pros in the field.

May 18th: Round 1 begins…

1 pro + 1 am = ProAm team

Each Pro-Am team competed in a Chapman format and enjoyed a variety of fun games on the course. The Chapman format proved to be an exciting way to start off the competition as both the Pro and the Am had a vital role in the outcome of the score. Day 1 was all about team bonding and FUN!

Out on the course, we had a variety of fun games to compliment the day of competition including hole-in-one prizes for both the Pro and the Am and a “Beat the Pro” competition with Sean Shahi.

Sean Shahi at the “Beat the Pro” Station & Tyler Ostrovsky leading the way on “the Puttskee”

After golf, we all gathered beside the clubhouse to check out the scoring results and eat lunch at the taco bar. We all enjoyed kickin’ back and relaxing, playing the corn holes game laid out for everyone and also the extremely popular “Puttskee” game that proved to be the talk of the tournament.

Day 1 continues on…

Vision54 Seminar

At 2:30 pm, Vision54 joined in on the action and performed an exclusive seminar open only to our pro-am participants. The golfers that took advantage of this opportunity received invaluable mental game strategies that proved to be extremely beneficial in the competition, especially for the eventual winner, Liv Cheng.

Junior Clinic with the First Tee of Phoenix

To cap off a great first day of the 2017 @Tour_Mindset Invitational, a select group of tour professionals performed a clinic for the junior golfers of the First Tee of Phoenix. This was a truly special occasion as the tour pros gave back to their former selves by performing an instructional clinic, passing on years of knowledge to the future stars of the game. The clinic started with a fun game of “golf baseball” and finished with a long drive contest between Zach Cleland & Brian Hopkins, and the kids were the judges. You can see from these pictures how the kids decided the winner…

Round 2: Team-play resumes and the Pro competition begins…

The second day of the pro-am event symbolized a unique change in atmosphere as the format switched to Best Ball and allowed each professional, and amateur, to play their own ball out. Competing separately, 9 male and 8 female professionals tee’d it up Friday morning to begin the 36-hole competition for $10,000 plus paid Q-school. The 2-person team competition resumed on.

At the end of round 2, Paul Imondi and Liv Cheng both fired opening rounds of 67 and stood atop their respective divisions. With one round to go, Paul Imondi held a one-stroke lead over Kevin Stanek, and Liv Cheng jumped out in front with a 5 stroke lead over Katelyn Wright.

Liv Cheng also recorded her first ever hole-in-one on the 9th hole during this round. Congrats Liv!!

Horserace with all the Pros!

We were all having so much fun hanging out after the round that we decided to host a horse race competition. Each team had to have one guy and one girl, playing alternate shot against each other until only one remained. When all the dust settled, Katelyn Wright and Tyler Ostrovsky were crowned the winning team. Each of them won an Echo Dot from Amazon. Thanks to Talking Stick Golf Club for letting 18 people play one hole all at the same time, that was a sure highlight of the week.

Round 3: The Finale

The final round, culminating both the team and individual pro competitions, was set for tee times starting at 11 AM. The leaders were going off last and the teams were assigned a tee time based on the standing of the pro within his/her respective division. With each pro accompanied by their amateur partner, Liv Cheng & Katelyn Wright tee’d off last for the women and Paul Imondi & Kevin Stanek tee’d off last for the men.

The “First Tee” on the 1st tee

3 junior golfers from the First Tee of Phoenix program took turns hitting the ceremonial tee shots for each group on the tee. The kids that volunteered were so happy to meet all the pros and we had a number of donations to the program from all of our amateurs. We were able to raise $4,000 for the local junior golfers in the program.

Above: AJ Joiner and Lena Durette

Ceremonial tee shot in action

Competition gets tight: Only 9 Holes Left…

The leaders in both the men’s and women’s division shot over par on the front nine, opening up the race to everyone in pursuit. On the men’s side, Paul Imondi and Kevin Stanek shared the lead at (-4) with Sam Saunders one back at (-3) and Matt Hansen two back at (-2).

Pictured Left: Liv Cheng, Katelyn Wright, John Burnett.

On the women’s side, Liv Cheng stumbled early and lost her 5 stroke lead by the turn. Katelyn Wright stood atop at (-1) with Liv Cheng one back at even par. Melissa Mabanta shot an even par front nine to pull into 3rd place at (+5).

Only 4 holes left…

Sam Saunders had pulled within just one stroke of lead through 32 holes. Sam sat at 5 under par and was looking to catch Paul Imondi at 6 under par, who just birdied holes 12 and 13.

When Paul Imondi reached the leaderboard on hole #15, he saw that he only had a one-stroke lead over sam saunders and in that moment, he reacted like a true champion. Paul Imondi finished the tournament with 4 straight birdies (-10),  earning an impressive 5 stroke victory over Sam Saunders and the rest of the mens field.

The pro-am field gathered around the 18th green to watch the leaders finish. Paul Imondi closed his round with 6 birdies in his last 7 holes.

When the women’s final group reached hole number 15, Liv Cheng and Katelyn Wright were tied at even par. They matched each other shot for shot coming down to the end with the entire pro-am field intently watching.

Katelyn Wright battled the entire round and had a putt on the 18th hole to force a playoff with Liv Cheng. Katelyn’s putt just slid by the hole and with that miss, Liv Cheng was now your champion.

The winners of $10,000 plus paid Q-School

For more, check out https://www.perfectproams.com/.