Creating the 2024/2025 Texas Spy Showdown Tour - help decide When & Where

[The TXBexar]

After some discussion with a few others that live here in Texas, I got to thinking there has to be a better way to set-up a meet-up that happens more then once a year and in different locations to help those that might not be able to make a meet-up because of it's location. After getting the votes of approval by some of the other spies, The Texas Spy Showdown Tour was initiated! (Titles a work in progress, so work with me. Could also be a perfect opportunity for Tour sponsorship if any entity is interested in a prime marketing opportunity to establish yourself in the middle-aged, mid-handicap amateur's market of Texas)

The Idea is that there will be 4 Tour Stops (approximately every 2-3 months) around the State of Texas, hitting the Major Metro areas that make up the Texas Triangle (Austin, DFW, Houston & San Antonio) to allow the best opportunity for spies in the area to be able to attend at least one of the meet-ups throughout that year. Each Tour Stop will have a Spy that is local (or local-ish) that will help select 3 - 4 good course options (that aren't expensive but also ain't the worse goat track out there either) that will be voted on as the course of play for that stop. The course voting will take place about a 1 - 1.5 months out, and will also serve as the RSVP where each spy that can/will plan to attend will get with the Spy hosting and let them know. Additionally, once the course & head count is known for that Tour Stop, it'll then be decided which actual day(s) & Tee-Time(s) will work best for everyone; With that info, the Tour stop will be officially finalized, so everyone can get it planned & on their calendars.

Ideally, it'll be that these meet-ups are area specific locations that can repeat every year, so that it is easier to plan to make one, or more, of these meet-up(s). Nothing will be too formal for each Tour Stop, (regarding Dates/days, times, #of rounds, etc.) so that way those that plan to attend will be able to have a little flex room to determine which day(s) works best & if multiple rounds will be played when we get closer to the actual date of the Tour Stop; This way, there is something at least somewhat set though, so everyone can plan for it ahead of time. Also, hoping this will help foster more of a locale specific community for us Spies and make it easier for us to get together to have fun and play some good golf throughout the year. But, you don't have to live in Texas to make the Tour, anyone & everyone is invited that can make it! 

This Tour ain't perfect, since it doesn't currently include any of west Texas in it's current iteration (and El Paso is like, 11hrs East of San Antonio) but that doesn't mean that as this gets underway, we don't add additional Stops, or have Dual-Locations on some of the stops that take place within the Tour each year. But this seems like a good start to me, and I want to put something together to hopefully get this going and maybe see it become something that will grow & expand in the future.

So with saying all that, there is a Poll attached to this post (I think... I Hope) with Time Frame and Location options for each of the 4 stops I'm suggesting we start with. Hit up the poll and help decide how we set-up this tour and where you would most like to be at for each stop. I believe I set it up so that you can select multiple options per question, so select all the options that make the most sense to you so that way we can see what would have the best chances of getting the most spies together for each stop. The Poll should expire on 10/28, that way there's 2 weekends and a full week that the poll is up for everyone to vote, and maybe we can get the first Tour Stop under way by the end of 2024.

Last Note: My idea is that each Tour stop will have a Spy (or spies, if multiple people want to help), that is (are) local to the area, Volunteer to get the stops course location options determined & best time(s) to play poll set-up. This way, they have the most knowledge on the best courses in the area to play (hell, maybe even have a connection to some nice places that we wouldn't normally get access too) and also be better fit to work with those that will attend to get the info needed so that the reservation for the Day(s) & Tee-Time(s) can be maybe more easily. I have no problem helping getting things going for each Tour Stop, but hopefully this will become something where each stop will have a Spy (or Spies) that take charge of that Tour Stop, and makes it more like a personal invite for others to come to your area and experience & enjoy the same golf that you do throughput the year. If your interested in being the local spy for a Tour Stop, respond to this post and let us know and all those that are interested will be noted in my initial post under each Tour Stop they want to help with. 

 

Tour Stop Top Spies (those willing to help set-up each tour stop):

• Austin: @Josh Parker
• Dallas/Ft. Worth:
• Houston:
• San Antonio: @Rico_de_Gallo

Edited yesterday at 04:30 PM by The TXBexar
Adding Info

[Josh Parker]

2 hours ago, The TXBexar said:

After some discussion with a few others that live here in Texas, I got to thinking there has to be a better way to set-up a meet-up that happens more then once a year and in different locations to help those that might not be able to make a meet-up because of it's location. After getting the votes of approval by some of the other spies, The Texas Spy Showdown Tour was initiated! (Titles a work in progress, so work with me. Could also be a perfect opportunity for Tour sponsorship if any entity is interested in a prime marketing opportunity to establish yourself in the middle-aged, mid-handicap amateur's market of Texas)

The Idea is that there will be 4 Tour Stops (approximately every 2-3 months) around the State of Texas, hitting the Major Metro areas that make up the Texas Triangle (Austin, DFW, Houston & San Antonio) to allow the best opportunity for spies in the area to be able to attend at least one of the meet-ups throughout that year. Each Tour Stop will have a Spy that is local (or local-ish) that will help select 3 - 4 good course options (that aren't expensive but also ain't the worse goat track out there either) that will be voted on as the course of play for that stop. The course voting will take place about a 1 - 1.5 months out, and will also serve as the RSVP where each spy that can/will plan to attend will get with the Spy hosting and let them know. Additionally, once the course & head count is known for that Tour Stop, it'll then be decided which actual day(s) & Tee-Time(s) will work best for everyone; With that info, the Tour stop will be officially finalized, so everyone can get it planned & on their calendars.

Ideally, it'll be that these meet-ups are area specific locations that can repeat every year, so that it is easier to plan to make one, or more, of these meet-up(s). Nothing will be too formal for each Tour Stop, (regarding Dates/days, times, #of rounds, etc.) so that way those that plan to attend will be able to have a little flex room to determine which day(s) works best & if multiple rounds will be played when we get closer to the actual date of the Tour Stop; This way, there is something at least somewhat set though, so everyone can plan for it ahead of time. Also, hoping this will help foster more of a locale specific community for us Spies and make it easier for us to get together to have fun and play some good golf throughout the year. But, you don't have to live in Texas to make the Tour, anyone & everyone is invited that can make it! 

This Tour ain't perfect, since it doesn't currently include any of west Texas in it's current iteration (and El Paso is like, 11hrs East of San Antonio) but that doesn't mean that as this gets underway, we don't add additional Stops, or have Dual-Locations on some of the stops that take place within the Tour each year. But this seems like a good start to me, and I want to put something together to hopefully get this going and maybe see it become something that will grow & expand in the future.

So with saying all that, there is a Poll attached to this post (I think... I Hope) with Time Frame and Location options for each of the 4 stops I'm suggesting we start with. Hit up the poll and help decide how we set-up this tour and where you would most like to be at for each stop. I believe I set it up so that you can select multiple options per question, so select all the options that make the most sense to you so that way we can see what would have the best chances of getting the most spies together for each stop. The Poll should expire on 10/28, that way there's 2 weekends and a full week that the poll is up for everyone to vote, and maybe we can get the first Tour Stop under way by the end of 2024.

Last Note: My idea is that each Tour stop will have a Spy (or spies, if multiple people want to help), that is (are) local to the area, Volunteer to get the stops course location options determined & best time(s) to play poll set-up. This way, they have the most knowledge on the best courses in the area to play (hell, maybe even have a connection to some nice places that we wouldn't normally get access too) and also be better fit to work with those that will attend to get the info needed so that the reservation for the Day(s) & Tee-Time(s) can be maybe more easily. I have no problem helping getting things going for each Tour Stop, but hopefully this will become something where each stop will have a Spy (or Spies) that take charge of that Tour Stop, and makes it more like a personal invite for others to come to your area and experience & enjoy the same golf that you do throughput the year. If your interested in being the local spy for a Tour Stop, respond to this post and let us know and all those that are interested will be noted in my initial post under each Tour Stop they want to help with. 

 

Count me in for the Austin area to help out.  

[ZackS]

Sounds like fun, I am definitely down for the DFW area. Maybe could do random other. 

[Josh Parker]

My initial thought would be once a quarter and if we want to make this an ongoing thing, make it the same week/month in that quarter every year. 

A couple of things to think about. 

March is spring break time.

End of May is typically end of school

December is tough 

 

[The TXBexar]

14 hours ago, Josh Parker said:

My initial thought would be once a quarter and if we want to make this an ongoing thing, make it the same week/month in that quarter every year. 

A couple of things to think about. 

March is spring break time.

End of May is typically end of school

December is tough 

 

Yeah that was my original intent: have this be a set week of a specific month for each quarter, that way it's more easy to plan around for everyone. 

And I felt the same on the December timing, but was trying to think of a good time frame when it was cooler but worked around Thanksgiving & Christmas. Also didn't want to push it too far into Jan/Feb when it does typically get real cold during those months around the State. 

[Josh Parker]

1 minute ago, The TXBexar said:

Yeah that was my original intent: have this be a set week of a specific month for each quarter, that way it's more easy to plan around for everyone. 

And I felt the same on the December timing, but was trying to think of a good time frame when it was cooler but worked around Thanksgiving & Christmas. Also didn't want to push it too far into Jan/Feb when it does typically get real cold during those months around the State. 

Yeah, the Jan/Feb may work best in Houston or San Antonio.  

[Rico_de_Gallo]

Love it. I can help out with the San Antonio portion

[Prodigal Duffer]

On 10/20/2024 at 4:44 AM, Josh Parker said:

My initial thought would be once a quarter and if we want to make this an ongoing thing, make it the same week/month in that quarter every year. 

A couple of things to think about. 

March is spring break time.

End of May is typically end of school

December is tough 

 

All good thoughts. I actually like the idea of it being during spring break - I can bring the family and everyone gets a trip out of it.

Makes sense to me that we'd do Houston or San Antonio early from a weather standpoint.