2019 BJG International (Florida) Golf Championship

Broken Joe
Feb 16, 2019
4 min read

In 2014, Chris and Joe played the first International (Florida) Golf Championship. We flew into Tampa and drove to Napes where we stayed at Matt’s mom’s place. This is also the place where “Broken Joe” Golf” had its birth. In 2016, Chris and Dan played at the Disney Resort where Chris became a back to back BJG International (Florida) Champion. In 2017, Chris and Joe were heading back to (Jensen Beach) Florida, this time with our wives. Dan and Dave jump in at the last minute to make it 4 players. This is where Dave got his first “International” win.

After weeks of preparation, Super Bowl Sunday came and 6 of us flew to Florida for the 4th BJG International (Florida) Championship. We drive the hour and a half to the resort in Kissimmee and then we played a practice round before the start of the Super Bowl.

There are way too many stories for me to cover in this blog post but please know that I (we) had a great time, comradery and competition were the words to live by and "Laughter, Alcohol, Golf and Shit Talking" were the staple of each of our days. I am sure that these players will be more than happy to share their stories once you buy them a beer.

On Monday morning we played our first round of the BJG International (Florida) Championship 25 minutes north at Oaks National Golf Club. This felt like it was a PGA level golf course but on a horse farm with LOTS of water, hell sometimes you had to cross the water twice on the same hole.

Scores – Handicap (Actual)

Dave – 108 (102)

Chris – 113 (113)

Joe – 114 (114)

Jake – 115 (112)

Dan – 129 (132)

Matt – DNP

On Monday afternoon we move back to Stone Gate Golf Club which is about 7 minutes from the resort we were staying at. Stone Gate has two golf courses, Oaks and Cypress. We had an afternoon practice round on Sunday at the Oaks but for our 2nd round we would be playing Cypress, unfortunately we only have time for 9 holes. Oaks is longer with the yardage being 6,112 yards from the whites tees but it did not feel like there was a lot of water. Cypress is much tighter, more challenging and it definitely has more water.

Scores – Handicap (Actual)

Dave – 49 (46)

Dan – 55.5 (57)

Chris – 57 (57)

Joe – 57 (57)

Jake – 60.5 (59)

Matt – DQ (80 / 86)

After 27 Holes, the Handicap scores are (Actual):

Dave – 157 (148)

Chris – 170 (170)

Joe – 171 (171)

Jake – 175.5 (171)

Dan – 184.5 (189)

Matt – DQ

On Tuesday, we play both rounds at Stone Gate Golf Course. The morning round is on the Oaks Course and the afternoon round is on Cypress.Course. Yes, there was plenty of wild life to see at the golf courses.

Morning Round:

Dave – 98 (92)

Chris – 106 (106)

Joe – 111 (111)

Dan – 118 (121)

Jake – 128 (125)

Matt – DQ (119 / 125

Scores after 45 holes:

Dave – 255 (240)

Chris – 276 (276)

Joe – 282 (282)

Dan – 302.5 (310)

Jake – 303.5 (296)

Matt - DQ

Afternoon Round Scores:

Dan – 99 (102)

Dave – 103 (97)

Jake – 105 (102)

Chris – 110 (110)

Joe – 116 (116)

Matt – DQ (133 / 139)

Scores after 63 holes:

Dave – 358 (337)

Chris – 386 (386)

Joe – 398 (398)

Dan – 401.5 (412)

Jake – 408.5 (398)

Matt - DQ

We decided early in the week that we would drive back from Kissimmee to Tampa, this way we didn’t have to make the hour and a half drive on Thursday morning at 2:30am. We also picked a golf course in Tampa for our final round, Westchase Golf Club. This was a very nice golf course but little did we know that we would be playing “survivor” golf.

At the turn the actual scores were:

Jake – 61

Dave – 62

Joe – 65

Chris – 71

Dan – 71

Matt DQ (79 after 8 holes complete)

This was a very nice golf course but the water was EVERWHERE. The only nice thing about all of this water was that they had designated “drop zones” on every hole. The major problem was that with all of that water, we were running out of balls FAST. The word on the back nine was “be short and be straight”. The plan was to stay dry and not lose your ball. No one wanted to be the golfer who received a DNF because they ran out of golf balls.