I PLAYED A PGA TOUR PRO AM!

So, have you ever wondered what it's like to play in a PGA Tour sanctioned prom? Well, look no further because we are playing the Furick and Friends Wednesday ProAm here at beautiful Timuana Country Club. I've done this before, but my brother-in-law Brad just turned 40. There he is. And this was his 40th birthday present. He is getting to play with the big guys, with the big names. We're going to take you along for the ride. So, let's go have some fun. So, your day starts treated like a king or queen, valeting your car just like the tour players do right there at the clubhouse. And then you walk straight into the clubhouse and you're treated to a room full of goodies. This is the tea gift. Sometimes they're shoes, putters, clubs, custom fit clothes, you name it. It's different every time. Brad was certainly feeling very uh spoiled, if you will, going through there getting some great clothes from beyon merch. This isn't merch that you can get in the merch tent for these tournaments. When you play in the ProAm, you get ProAm only merch that people see and go, "Oh, where'd you get that?" Well, I played in the proam. Then you get to go warm up with the pros. >> Good morning. How are you? >> How are you >> doing? Great. Thank you. >> Oh, this is beautiful. You're hitting off the same turf, the same range, the same putting greens, the same chipping greens that these guys are warming up on. And it's a pretty cool experience for Brad watching guys that he grew up watching warm up just on the other side of the pros only sign. He was a little nervous. I think that's very common for a lot of amateurs when you rock up to your pro end. You're nervous. You're seeing the grand stands. You're treated like a player. You're given balls. You're just the red carpet is rolled out for you. It's easy to feel nervous. And Brad definitely was feeling those nerves when we rolled up to the first tea and met our pro Jason Karen. Wow. >> So, on a scale of 1 to 10, how nervous were you? >> It was by far the most nervous T-shot I've ever done in my entire life. >> The old thin topper. >> Everybody watching me, that was brutal. >> But, so we play a shamble. So, you just, you know, we pick the best drive. Luckily, I get to play the up TE's. >> We're all taking pretty fun. Are you going to try to get your ball here? >> I I just probably hit it five yards into this crap. >> Just leave it. >> So, to shake the nerves off. >> Yeah, >> we'll have a little bit of fun. >> But the fun didn't just start on Wednesday. The fun actually started on Tuesday night because when you play in a proam, there's a pairings party. Sometimes they're done at the golf course. Sometimes they're done offsite. And this particular tournament, Jim and Tabitha Furick love country music. I'm not really a country music fan, but every year they've done this tournament. They've put on an incredible concert on Tuesday night. Your pairings party is part of that concert. We got to go to the historic Florida Theater for a private dinner pairings reveal, but then an intimate show from Riley Green. And if you're a country fan, that's a really big deal. Riley Green is a huge artist. But this proam pairings party, you're smoozing with the other people that are playing in the proam. Sometimes some of the pros do show up, but this one we had a fun little game where you had a hat correlating to your pro cuz you don't know your pro until it's revealed. We got a New York Yankee hat. So, we weren't quite sure who our pro was going to be, but it was just a fun thing to do at the party to get you eating great food, having a great time, and then we get to listen to incredible music, an acoustic Riley Green show in a historic theater. The pairings party is uh definitely gets those vibes high, getting you excited to go play golf the next day. >> Oh, go a Oh, nice shot. Your head. Hold your head. Grilled cheese. >> Nope. Ah, there he is. >> There he is. >> Let's go. Let's go. >> Go in. Beautiful. >> And you're playing a shamble and then you're also playing your pros ball. and you'll count your low net. So, chances are you almost never would need your pro, but you can use your pros t-shot on the par three or the par five. This is pretty standard for most proams on the PJ tour, cornfair tour, LPJ tour, champions tour, just so it's a lot of fun, but you also get to feel like you're playing your own ball. You're not just playing a scramble where maybe you don't even putt on five holes. Like, you get to play your own ball, but from the best drive. And for me, being able to play the up tease was pretty great cuz someone gets us in play and I can just send it. And we had a net double eagle on our third hole because we had a short iron into a par five. Guy on our team made a putt and oh my gosh, we're five under through three holes. >> We're grooving it. And there's a leaderboard. There's a live leaderboard that that they use for the tournament that they're using for the proim. And we're like, let's try to win this thing. And we're seeing, you know, -4 -5 up there. But we we were the last tea time. So we're like, you know what, guys? I think we have a chance. When I played in this two years ago, we shot 17 under. We lost by one. So, it was like we need to get to at least 18 under. >> So, we made the turn. We are eight under through nine holes. Leader boards are out there. It looks like 15 or 16 under par is leading this thing. How are your nerves now? >> 17. 17. >> 17's leading through 14. So, we got some work to do on this back nine. How are your nerves? >> I'm settling down. It took nine holes, but I'm finally starting to get a hold of things. >> Conditions are immaculate. These greens are >> like just the purest things you'll ever roll on. >> Fast. >> You get to play how the pros play, where the pros play. >> Yeah, we need a big back n to try to win this. >> We got it. >> Slow-mo that. >> Oh, boys. Oh, get in there. Oh. Oh, nice. >> So, this is our pro. We've got Jason Karen, who is not from New York. >> Not from New York, >> but they gave us New York hats last night as a clue to guess who our pro was because you live there. >> I live there. Yes. >> But you are >> a Boston Massachusetts. >> How's the season been going? >> Great. No, it's been an awesome year. >> You had a second place this year. >> I had a couple seconds. Yep. uh lost in a playoff early in the year in Tucson and then finished second at the Dicks event up in upstate New York >> cuz last year you had a really good event here. >> Correct. Yeah. >> To kind of keep your card, right? >> Yeah. Adam uh tournament director and Jim Fur gave me an exemption here cuz I was close to keeping some status of some sort uh as a PJ professional. It doesn't really happen and gave me the shot and I tied for fourth. Yeah, it was pretty awesome. >> The rest is history as they say. >> Rest is history. Yeah. >> How's your ProAm team today? >> ProAm team's great. I mean, it's nice having a guy like you out here bombing it down the middle every hole. >> It's nice that I get to play the up TE's in a shamble and just have free swings. The wedge play >> leaves a little to be desired. >> It's okay. That's why it's called team, not high, right? >> We got uh seven holes left. Pretty much have to run the tables. We're going to win this thing. >> Yeah. And we can I got a great team that can do that. We have guys that can. >> So, here's a question. >> I mean, you don't care if we win or lose, but it's kind of like the Masters par three. Don't want to win the bad >> luck. I've done that, too. I've done that, too. I did that in Calgary. My team won and then I played well there. So, >> got some good Canadian ties. There we go. All right, let's keep that guy. >> Oh, taco time, too. >> Oh, no. Oh, look at that. >> Right back at it. >> Yes. Yes, >> that's right. >> There you go. >> So, how many under are we? We have three holes left and we're like >> 14 under. So, we're about seven behind with three holes left. So, we got to finish with um >> three ones. >> Yes. >> Okay. And we'll do one. >> We can do it. I think we can do it. >> And by golly, we almost did. We made a net two on 16. We made a nice two on the par 17. And then we had two putts for a net two >> on 18. Oh, good try, bro. So we finished strong. We finished 22 two three. So 17 under. Probably going to lose by like four or five. But on a scale of 1 to 10, how was that proam experience? >> 10 for me. >> 11. >> 11. >> 10. Fantastic. Top >> notch. Yeah, that was so good. Golf course. >> Awesome. Yeah, >> Jason was fantastic. >> Jason was outstanding. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> So Fork and Friends, thank you for having us. And if you're thinking about a ProAm experience, this is the one. >> But your ProAm experience doesn't end there. When you play in the proamp, you also get elevated passes for all the tournament rounds. You get clubhouse access where at Timuana, it's a beautiful clubhouse right there on the St. John's River. So, you can go in there, get very discounted food and beverage and sit and relax in a peaceful setting looking at the skyline of Jacksonville. So, before your day starts or after you've watched the golf, you can go chill in the clubhouse. But other parts of the proam, other proam participants would get club 58 access which is in the thick of it. The 18th T, the 17th green, the 10th green, the 11th and 13th T. So you have this elevated grandstand with open food open bar where you don't have to leave. You've got snacks, ice cream sandwiches, but you're watching so much action. And again, a lot of tournaments create these activations or areas for the pro and participants because you're paying a good penny to be there to play in the tournament and get that experience, but then your tournament golf experience to watch the pros play is unlike anyone else that's out there with just like a general grounds pass. Like you get that elevated pass, you get I mean I got to bring my wife each day we went. So you get a plus one with those passes. The ProAm experience is unmatched. and and coming from the other side of it. Like when I played on the Canadian tour or Latin tour, we put in the odd prom here or there. We didn't really get to, you know, the AMS didn't get that type of experience, but it's fun being the pro who you get to kind of give back to the amateurs, but then at the highest level, these big names spending time paying attention to engaging with the people that are the reason these tournaments exist. It's an unparalleled experience. I'm so fortunate I've been able to do this now twice with Europe and friends. You play an incredible golf course with the best players in the world. Pretty low pressure, a lot of fun. And then you get to experience the actual tournament unlike anyone else does. I can't thank Constellation and the Furan friends enough for letting me do this and taking you along for this. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know in those comments below. Have you ever played in a PJ tour, Cornfree Tour, LPGA, Champions Tour, ProAm? Sound off in those comments. let others know that maybe it's something they should add to their bucket list if they are a golf lover. We'll see you in the next video.