The first Farmers Insurance Open.

I saw a headline back in late 2009. It said that Farmers Insurance is going to be the head sponsor of what was, the Buick Open on the PGA tour. I thought to myself how cool that was. As a lifelong golfer, I was excited to have an event on the PGA tour that I could follow with a little added interest.

I exchanged a few texts with a close friend of mine who works at ESPN named Dennis. He said, “Nice job Dietz getting the old Buick Open”. I took very little credit for the deal looked forward to watching the event on TV.

About a week later, on my way home from work one night, I get a call from my State Director, Kris. He says, “Hey Dietz, did you see that Farmers picked up the old Buick Open? ” I told him yes and how great I thought it was. His next question was one I would never forget. “How would you like to go down next week and play in the Pro-Am”?

I nearly drove off the road. This is a really special opportunity that I have struggled to draw comparisons with. A pro-am is where a group of novice, weekend warrior golfers, get to play an entire round of golf with a PGA tour pro on the course the tournament is being held, the day before the tournament starts.

I enthusiastically accepted his offer and broke traffic laws on the way home to share the news with my wife and everyone I knew. Next, I called Dennis and woke him up to share the news. I even jokingly invited him to be my caddy to which he giggled at and fell back asleep shortly after (He lives on the East Coast and worked the morning shift).

The next day, I got a call from him and he said, “Hey Dietz, I think you told me that you got invited to play in the Pro- am and invited to me caddy. Is that true? If so, let me see what I can do”. I called around and it turns out I could bring a caddy and I reported back to him. He asked his boss if he could get the time off the following week, and even if it wasn’t approved, he was going anyway. He pulled some strings, called in some favors and bought a ticket that night.

This was all a 10 minutes to midnight situation. Farmers picked this thing up with 18 days until the first pros were going to be teeing off. That is an enormous undertaking to be responsible for. To put on a full blown professional sporting event in 18 days? It would be hard enough to organize freaking bake sale in that amount of time.

I fly down there on Tuesday and hop the shuttle to get down to Torrey Pines, the golf course where this was going to be taking place. As we are getting closer I start seeing signs for the Farmers Insurance Open and I am in awe that the company is pulling this off with such little time.

I get on site and I get to stay in the Lodge. I find my way to my room and go out and walk the grounds. This place one of the most beautiful pieces of property I have ever seen. It sits on the shore of Pacific Ocean, it has 36 holes of manicured tournament level golf. The ocean swallows the sun every night with one of natures greatest shows.

I find out that my playing partner the next day will be Steve Flesch. I have heard the name but am not overly familiar with anything other than his name. Dennis gets on site late that night. We go down to the bar to have a drink or two and openly laugh at our fortunes.

We had a tee time around 8:30am and got up early to eat and hit some balls on the range. Our tee time approached and I am starting to get nervous. I have played golf for 25 years and can generally play without embarrassing myself, but I have never been in anything remotely close to this.

We get to the first tee and I meet Steve who is super nice. He hits last and gets to play with 4 jobbers, including me. The guy on the box calls our names one at a time.

“From Boise Idaho, Matt Dietz”. A thunderous applause rings out. It was probably just Dennis, but that’s what I heard. I tee it up and just want to get the ball in the air. It doesn’t even matter what direction it goes. I take a deep breath, tell myself that I have done this 10,000 times, and draw back on my swing. I was so nervous that I kinda blacked out during the swing. My arms didn’t feel like mine. It was an out of body experience. I managed to get the driver on the ball and hit a crappy low line drive about 140 yards into the rough. This is rough you can’t even see your feet in.

This is an average par five so I can still get it down there in three. I get to hit next, and everyone is stupidly walking in front of me. Didn’t anyone see my first shot? I am a danger to others and possibly even myself. My pro, Steve Flesch is standing about 100 yards ahead of me and about 20 yard to the left of where I should be going. I find my ball where the lie is surprisingly good and address the ball.

I rear back and during my downswing, it appears my lower body hasn’t decided to join my swing and I am all arms. This means I don’t get down on the ball enough and I hit a laser that is rocketing right at my pro. Luckily Steve Flesch has catlike reflexes and lunges behind a tree for safety and no real harm is done.

It takes me a few holes to get my feet under me. At the end of the day, I end up playing a really nice round of golf. Shot an 89 that day. I also learned that playing at sea level has a direct effect on the distance your shot goes. I was hitting my 140 yard shot perfect. Except it was only going 130 years. I blame Dennis for this miscalculation.

At the end of the day it ended up being one the best days of my life. I got to play golf, with a Pro on one of the greatest course in the country. One of my best friends dropped everything he was doing to be a part of it. The only thing that was lacking was the absense of my wife who knew what a big deal this was for me. She took care of everything back home with my 4 year old son and two year old daughter.

Later that week, I befriended a gentleman named Chuck Browning who was, at the time, the VP, Head of Sponsorships, Events and Corporate Giving for Farmers. He was guy who was in charge of making sure this tournament went off successfully. I had to chance to talk to him a number of times and he had some funny stories.

I thanked him every time I saw him and asked him how they pulled it off with such little time. He asked me, “Matt, what is it that Farmers does best? We calmly respond to catastrophes. Now this isn’t a catastrophe, but the ingredients are the same. We had a short period of time to come in and put this together and we have phenomenal people on the ground who worked tirelessly to make it happen”

He told me that just a couple of nights ago, that Met Life, one of our competitors, was sending their famous blimp, Snoopy 2, down to cover the tournament from the sky. He quickly got on the phone and told them that their blimp is not welcome at this tournament and if it shows up, we will be sending our blimp north next week to invade their next tournament at Riviera.

He said they also had to remove a Geico trailer from the 15th hole before the tournament started. I ran into Chuck numerous times over the years and always made it a point to catch up and thank him for all he does.

After I left that Friday to go home, I had never been so proud to be an agent for Farmers Insurance. Never in my life, had I dreamed I would’ve had an opportunity to do something like that and it was an experience I will forever treasure.