Golf is truly a game for everyone, from all walks of life. Retired or in your prime, west coast or east or overseas, a passion for this game is universal. That passion can motivate golfers to do some seemingly crazy things, including taking some big leaps of faith. Twenty-four golfers recently took that leap of faith when they descended on Williamsburg, Va., for the third annual MyGolfSpy Forum Outing.

The MyGolfSpy Forum

If you’ve ever spent time on an internet forum, you know the experience can be great—or awful. The inconvenient truth is that anyone can be anyone on the internet because you rarely have to prove it. Spend time on the wrong forum and you’ll see all sorts of characters and golf is no exception. The golf interwebs are loaded with individuals boasting (and I mean literally boasting) 130-mph clubhead speed and 400-yard drives and trolling anyone falling short of their fabricated numbers. 

The MyGolfSpy Forum is different. It’s a haven for golf enthusiasts who are dedicated to the game and are intensely interested in the equipment, the apparel, instruction and all things golf. Most of our Forum members are striving to improve their games. Some simply enjoy golf and are less concerned with their scores. Regardless of their skill levels, members turn to the Forum for advice and insights, the opportunity to follow equipment tests and possibly become a tester themselves, and for camaraderie and community.

A Golfers Blind Date?

About three years ago, we started getting together in person. There’s that leap of faith I mentioned. It can feel a bit risky to spend your time and money on the hope that people are who they represent themselves to be when they actually step out from behind the keyboard. Honestly, it feels a little bit like a golf blind date. If you’re uncomfortable with that analogy, I’ll move on. The point is: buy the tickets, make the deposits and you’ll instantly begin hoping you actually like these people when you meet them in person.

Year One, the Forum went to Queenstown Harbor Golf Course in Maryland. In Year Two, it was North Carolina to play Pine Needles, Mid-South and Talamore. This year, 24 diehard Forum members stayed and played at Kingsmill Resort. Their leap of faith was rewarded—and then some.

Kingsmill Resort

If you’ve never been to Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, you really ought to fix that. Kingsmill, featured on the Golf Channel’s third season of “The Big Break,” is home to three beautiful 18-hole courses: the River Course, the Plantation Course and the Woods. The Plantation is an Arnold Palmer design that weaves its 18 holes (eight with water hazards) among historic landmarks from the 1700s.

The River is a challenging Pete Dye design that earned its fame as host to several PGA Tour and LPGA Tour events. The Woods, a Tom Clark and Curtis Strange collaboration, is a members-only track only available to the public on a stay-and-play basis. Overall, it’s the superior layout of the three courses, including a unique shared green between the par-3 12th and par-4 15th hole. That said, the three-hole finishing stretch of the River is as memorable as it gets. The 16th is a slight dogleg-right that leaves a downhill approach to a green with Kingsmill Bay in the background.

Hole 17, the signature hole of the course, is bordered by the bay and is one of the more scenic tee shots in golf. No. 18, the finishing hole, is a dogleg-left that challenges your nerve as you measure just how aggressive you want to be in taking on a forced carry over water to reach the fairway.

Much More than Golf

The outing began at the new MyGolfSpy headquarters where founder Adam Beach greeted each member, handed out some handsome MGS swag and gave a peek behind the curtain at the best equipment testing in the industry. From there, a smaller group hit up the links at Royal New Kent, a fun but devilishly hard course north of Williamsburg. 

Rapsodo Challenge

Then came checking-in at Kingsmill, and three successive days of golf, but not without some Rapsodo-sponsored fun first. Rapsodo makes the MLM2PRO launch monitor. If you’re not familiar with that device, it was MyGolfSpy’s Best Value launch monitor for 2023. At a fraction of the price, the MLM2PRO provides launch monitor performance on par with top end devices.

Rapsodo generously offered one up for the outing, along with Callaway balls made for use with the device. Forum members competed for the chance to win an MLM2PRO by entering a combine, with each “spy” guessing their distance with a pitching wedge, 7-iron and driver and then hitting their shots accordingly. Adam presented the winnings to member Stroker Ace, who somehow knew his total distances within two total yards!

Combine complete, the spies hit the course for the first of three rounds. (Some crazy souls played 36 on Saturday for four total rounds.) After some nervy tee shots with Adam looking on, we were underway. Nobody shot a course record. No aces were made. Some played well and some struggled. None of it mattered. Each round and evening concluded over dinner, maybe drink in hand, socializing and talking golf, and life.

MyGolfSpy Forum Magic

Therein lies the goodness and magic of a MyGolfSpy Forum outing. Finding out that the internet personae you’ve gotten to know over years of golf chat are exactly the good dudes and golf-a-holics you thought they were is an immensely rewarding experience (and a bit of a relief at that). Our scores might have been a bit lower with a little more sleep and a little less grandpa’s cough medicine but friendships were forged and solidified. 

Equipment Trends Among Spies

Of course there was lots of equipment talk. These outings are great for a golf equipment junkie looking for a fix and MyGolfSpy Forum members are a discerning bunch of golf equipment junkies. A look in the bags and at the gear at an outing and you’ll see a lot of equipment that MyGolfSpy has tested and rated well. This year, Red Rooster golf gloves, Ghost Golf Anyday stand bags, and LAB putters were all the rage.  LOTS of L.A.B. putters.

Next Year’s Outing

Where the 2025 outing will be is anybody’s guess. I’ve made all of them so far and I expect next year will be no different. I’ve made lifelong friends and I relish the chance to link up again every year, and it all started with the Forum. Back in 2017, I was curious about speed training, Googled SuperSpeed and, after several clicks, found my way to a test of the SuperSpeed training sticks by golfers just like me. I’ve been hooked and a part of the community ever since. If you’re not, it’s time to get to the Forum and see what you’ve been missing.

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