Another Successful Sales Meeting!

The 7th Annual Tooling U golf outing took place on Friday, July 24th at Big Met Golf Course in Ohio's Rocky River Reservation. The culmination of our annual sales meeting, the golf outing is our chance to catch up and interact with team members we may not necessarily see on a regular basis. The day and night were exceptional, even if the golf skills were not.

The gorgeous-weather day began with lunch at the award-winning Rocky River Brewing Company. Granted that waiting on a large party is not easy, the food and service at RRBC were outstanding. The foursomes then assembled at the golf course for a series of tee times beginning at 1:30 PM. Despite a shortage of carts (Big Met is, after all, the busiest course in Ohio…allegedly) the Tooling U golfers managed to tee off and subsequently grind the pace of play to a near-halt. Special thanks to the starter at Big Met for his patience, cordiality, and lightness of mood.

Shooting a scorching 1-over-par, Wes Howard, Dan Pruitt, and Tom Torres managed the best score of the day. The winning team had the right combination of power drives and precise approach shots, which gave the biggest competitive advantage.

The team with the lowest number of putts consisted of Michelle Robinson, Hamid Farzad, Carlos Sarmiento, and Chad Schron. Last and certainly least, Cindy May, James Vickers, Chris Pinner, and Gretchen Schultz managed to shoot an amazing 8-over-par in this scramble. That is no easy feat. Nice job guys!

After a long day on the links, the group headed to the home of James Vickers for dinner and to claim their prizes. Individual prizes went to Tony Keating (longest putt), James Vickers (longest drive), and Tim Cunningham (closest to the pin). Bryan Knaack, Chris Petty, Carlos Sarmiento, and Aleah Kapusi took away some pretty nifty door prizes.

Once again the golf outing proved to be a great way to foster camaraderie here at Tooling U. I would like to thank everyone for their participation and enthusiasm. Lastly, special thanks to Greg Herlevi for his efforts in organizing the event.

Ben Johnson
Senior Content Developer

6th Annual Tooling U Golf Outing

The 6th Annual Tooling U Golf Outing and Sales Meeting was held Thursday and Friday, July 24 and 25, 2008. The event was kicked off by 12 straight hours of “Sales Meeting” at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Cleveland, complete with stimulating presentations by the Content, Marketing and Sales teams. The highlight of the day was the lack of flowcharts and PowerPoint presentations – thank you James Vickers!After the meeting, the sales team headed to Ohio City for some fine dining and muchas margaritas at Mamocho Mexican restaurant. The staff would again like to thank Mr. Vickers for moving the Friday morning meetings from 7:00 to 8:00 am. That extra hour allowed time for more margaritas, er…sleeping!

Friday morning found the sales team back at the Hilton Garden Inn for a few more hours of business before moving on to Thunder Hill Golf Club and Fish Hatchery in Madison, OH. Team Daniel Cremieux made an appearance for the second year in a row, but found some stiff competition from Team Roundtree & Yorke. Hats off to both for their team spirit and inspiring a new award category for next year’s event – “Ugliest Team Shirt”. There are not many people who can pull off bright red shirts adorned with various fishing apparatus, or wear pink and teal palm trees with such unabashed pride.

The teams teed off to begin an arduous 18 holes of golf on a course with arguably more water than green. It is still up for debate what is more dangerous – the sand traps, the water hazards or the people driving the golf carts. Some drivers needed to be reminded that they were not on the tea-cup ride at the state fair, nor are “donuts” appropriate on a golf course. Once again it was proven that golf balls don’t float, ugly shirts improve your game, Chris “Seth Rogen” Pinner should never have been given a drivers’ license and golf scores don’t improve as the day goes on. Most important however, is the obligatory injured team member whose sole responsibility is to keep the golfers hydrated. Many thanks to Gary Hill. You’re the best beer man Thunder Hill has ever seen!

After an exhausting 5 hours of trash-talk and poor sportsmanship, the group moved on to the Grand River Cellars Winery and Restaurant for dinner, the post-golf party and awards ceremony. The following awards were announced: Best Score was awarded to Tim Cunningham, Dan Pruitt and Toni Neary who all received Gift Certificates to McCormick & Schmick; Greg Herlevi, Cindy Bernosky and Len Scaffidi were awarded Gift Cards to P.F. Changs and an assortment of golf instruction books for Lowest Putts AND Worst Score; The Longest Drive prize went to Jeremy Sobeck who took home a Ping Craz-e Anser Putter; Dan Sloan took home a Nike Tour Sand Wedge for Closest to the Pin; and Tim Cunningham was awarded a Ping G12 Hybrid Club for the Longest Putt. An assortment of door prizes were also awarded: A pair of much-needed noise-cancelling headphones went to Michelle Robinson; a $50.00 Gift Certificate to the spa of his (wife’s) choice went to Wes Howard; I won a $20.00 Chipotle Burrito Card; Katie Strand and Gary Hill each took home golf instruction books; and Chris Pinner received a $75.00 Gift Certificate to McCormick & Schmick.

Many thanks to the Golf Outing Committee for putting this event together, and to all participants for providing such an enjoyable day, despite the general lack of skill.

Chad Schron

VP Operations

The 5th Annual Tooling U Golf Outing

The 5th Annual Tooling U Golf Outing was held on Friday, July 20, 2007. The golf gods accepted our tribute (two Briardale range tokens and a "Congratulations Cindy and Bryan" party favor golf tee) and granted us a beautiful day with blue skies and temperatures in the low 70s. The day began with a quiet lunch for the assembled linksters at Chammp's at Crocker Park, at least until the sales group arrived and commenced the traditional pre-golf trash talk. It was an enlightening lunch, mainly because the group never knew that Dan Pruitt is a descendant of Old Tom Morris himself, beat John Daly in a longest drive contest, and left the PGA tour qualifying school for a career in sales.

After lunch, our twenty duffers took to the Hilliard Lakes Golf Course in Westlake OH for 18 holes of championship golf. "Little Augusta" was in great shape and was poised to be a strong test of golf. And our golf teams also looked great and were poised to test the limits of the game and each others' patience. Hats off to Team Daniel Cremieux for landing an endorsement, er…buying matching shirts. You looked good; we just never want to see those shirts again…ever! After a brief and hurried stop at the driving range, the foursomes teed off the starter, then teed off. Special thanks to Bryan Knaack for agreeing to play, in spite of his embarrassing lack of skill. We were pulling for you to break 125 and were hoping your team could use at least one of your drives. On a side note, can someone tell me where the sandbags in Bryan's cubicle came from? It's a mystery.

The grueling 18-hole test of golf separated the winners from the losers, which were to be distinguished at the post-golf party. Special thanks to James Vickers for opening up his Pottery Barn showroom, er…home for our exclusive use. The following award winners were announced after dinner. The following members of the team with the lowest score (i.e. best team) each received a gift certificate to Dick's Sporting Goods: Bryan Knaack, Dan Pruitt, Dan Sloan, Tom Cramer. The team with the highest team score (i.e. worst team) each received a copy of "Happy Gilmore": James Vickers, Greg Herlevi, Kathy Puskas, Beth Ray. Bryan Knaack, the undisputed underdog of the entire day, came out of nowhere to claim the longest drive contest and a dozen Callaway balls. The disputed longest drive for a newbie contest was awarded to Toni Pattison and Dan Sloan, who both received gift certificates to BestBuy. Chipotle gift cards were awarded to the team with the lowest putts: Wes Howard, Ben Johnson, Steve Klein, Kathleen Davis. A dozen Callaway golf balls were awarded to Cindy Bernosky (closest to the pin) and Bryan Knaack (surprise surprise…for the longest putt contest).

The golf outing committee would like to thank everyone who participated in this outstanding Tooling U tradition.