Chippo does Whalebone: The Golf Tournament

When I woke up in Montauk the morning of the Whalebone Golf Tournament, it was raining and my mouth tasted like I had gargled with sand scooped from the parking lot at Ditch Plains Beach. I didn't actually do that (to the best of my knowledge) but I did consume numerous and various adult beverages the night before. That might have been why my mouth tasted like that. You'll forgive me. Bars had just fully opened up and the excitement of 1.) Drinking beers with friends at a bar again and 2.) The thought of playing golf with said friends the following morning was too much for me to handle like an "adult".

Bad hangover and bad weather couldn't dampen our spirits, though. Come hell or high water, Team Chippopotamus, a sponsor and co-conspirator behind the idea for this tournament, was determined to smack a little white ball around Montauk Downs later that day. So we downed a greasy breakfast, a bunch of coffee and cracked our first beer of the day on the way to the course.

Whalebone can thank me later, but I have an arrangement with the folks Upstairs who control the weather, and while some were bummed about the rain that morning, I assured everyone who would listen that it would blow over and that we all had blue skies and sunshine in our near future. Sidenote: I say this all the time and recommend it as a strategy leading up to planned outdoor activities and more generally as a philosophy for life. When the rain does blow over, you look like a genius or Nostradamus or maybe just an optimist. When the rain doesn't blow over, well, at least you don't have to be around people talking and worrying about the weather. Also, the rain usually blows over. Also, my friends don't like me very much.

But my peeps Upstairs hooked us up and just before tee time, the rain stopped and the 15 foursomes gathered there together at Montauk Downs were looking at what most would call a perfect day for golf. From a weather perspective that is. That day was already - in every other conceivable way - a perfect day for golf. Let me explain. 

Actually, upon further review, I don't have too much to say by way of explanation. Every day is a perfect day for golf. To clarify this point; every day is a perfect day for everything, golf included. I say this because there are some preconceived and perhaps well-deserved notions out there about golf that have long kept people away from the sport. You know. Judgemental. Exclusive. Expensive. Time-consuming. Divorce-inducing. Etcetera. Chippo Golf, the company I started with my brother-in-law Matt, is centered around the outdoor game I invented called Chippo, which is kinda like golf...but it is none of those other negative things. I think it is one of the reasons Chippo the game and Chippo the company have been relatively successful. People love fun and golf is fun but they don't love those other things associated with golf that aren't fun.

The Whalebone Golf Tournament was also - and extremely - none of those negative things. It was a beautiful day, organized by the beautiful people at Whalebone, attended by excellent and well-meaning and optimistic people, sponsored by excellent and well-meaning and optimistic companies; and the proceeds went to a great cause in Youth on Course. For those who were wondering, Montauk Downs is hard and we played well but not well enough to win. But winning wasn't even an afterthought. A tournament where winning isn't even an afterthought seems odd but strangely perfect.

After golf, we headed back to Whalebone's space in Montauk called The Boneyard. We drank some casual adult beverages, had some pizza, played some Chippo, listened to some music, met some awesome new friends, watched the sunset. There were some great adult humans hanging out, some cute kids running around (also playing Chippo) and even a beautiful black lab. She received many belly rubs. The ratio of belly rubs this pup received to human beings in attendance was very high and this is actually a mathematically proven indicator as to the quality of the human beings in attendance.

It feels really good to be able to attend and host in-person events again. To do it with such great people for a great cause feels even better. And so, in summary, the next time you have a planned outdoor activity coming up and the weather forecast looks bleak...remember this: the rain will blow over. It almost always does.

-Brendan