Our Experience Playing in a Pro-Am at the Arnold Palmer Invitational

For those who know me best, I’ve always wanted to play in a Pro-Am. I always imagined it to be a dream come true to play inside the ropes with the best players in the world. The experience was easily in the top three on my bucket list and now, I can cross it off my list.

Here’s how it all went down.

Day 1

We touched down in Orlando a little after 3pm on Monday exhausted from airport switches and long Uber rides. The good news is that the clubs made it to Florida; I was nervous all day about that. You’ll notice how excited I was in the VLOG (below) when I was reunited with my sticks at baggage claim.

Team 18 Birdies threw an awesome reception the first night to welcome all of the DreamGames winners. We met the other amateur players and found out which of them we were going to be paired with on Wednesday.

What didn’t make the video is that Frank and I, as tired as we were, still managed to hit Top Golf Orlando for an hour and half range session that night. We met some fans of the show and had a pretty fun night.

Day 2

Day two was the final tune-up. We shuttled over to Orange County National for an instructional clinic in the morning with Travis Fulton.

Travis is a local teaching pro with an extensive background in golf and multiple appearances on The Golf Channel. He recently partnered with 18 Birdies to launch a new show on their platform called, The Stripe Show.

The clinic was perfect. It brought ‘feel’ back in my golf game, just in time for the big day. Thirty minutes of chipping, putting, and full swings was the ideal recipe heading into a Pro-Am.

That evening was the pairing party at Bay Hill. Frank and I headed there early to walk the grounds using our media credentials and to watch the field take an afternoon range session.

Around 5:30pm, the pairing party began. You’ll have to check out the video to see how this process went, and who our playing pro was. You’ll see how this experience rocked my nerves.

Day 3

We set multiple alarms for 5:30 am and made it to the range before sunrise. Had a great warm-up and went right off at the 8:00 am start time.

It was a rocky start, but you’ll quickly see how I got the game going on the 5th hole with an incredible birdie on a downhill green. Even the pro made par.

I have dozens of awesome photos I could post here but why waste any more time? We documented the whole trip in our VLOG below.

I know I can speak for Frank and say that this was one of the best experiences of our lives.

PLAYING WITH FRANCESCO MOLINARI [APV PRO-AM]

In a word the Arnold Palmer Invitational Pro-Am was EPIC. Follow along as Frank & Mike travel to Orlando for a once-in-a-lifetime experience at Bay Hill with Francesco Molinari.