On a brisk and sunny Friday morning Tod Mortin, Jason Yormack, Noah Balsam, and Bryan Novick all went to play 18 rounds of golf at Messina Country Club. They all arrived at the club around 8:15 AM considering their tee time was at 9:00 AM.
Tod noted he was using a new ball that came out recently called Chip Away while warming up. He said to all of his friends, "This ball does everything. It has the tiniest chip inside that connects to this app," (As he pulled out his phone to show the app) "It tells me where my ball is located, what club to hit, what kind of shot to hit, and how far from the flag the ball is, its awesome! If any of you would want, you could give it a try." Everyone said, "No, I'm okay, that sounds fairly cool though," and proceeded to warm up with different kinds of clubs.
Their foursome began to play two holes: a par 4 and a par 5. Tod made outstanding shots with the Chip Away ball, and since all of his balls landed in the middle of the fairway, he didn't have to use the locater. To the best of his ability, he made use of every other component. He winded up shooting a par and bogey on both of those holes.
As they approached the short par three third hole, Tod started to speak about how he found the details of the ball. He said he got it from Chip Away's recently created website. Everyone was in agreement that a 9-iron was the best club for use. The hole was about 130 yards from the flag. Noah went first and his a beautiful shot towards the front of the green, while Jason landed one in the bunker, and Bryan in the shrubs to to the right of the green.
It was Tod's turn to hit. He told them that the app says to aim a little to the left because there was wind coming from the west. The app also mentioned that he was around 128 yards from the flag and that a 9-iron would be the club to use. He aimed slightly left and hit the ball. The ball started going towards the left of the green but kept on hooking east. As it landed it took a huge hop and landed behind the trees and towards the huge lake.
Noah shouted, "You're never going to find that one!" He continued to go find his ball. He started looking for his ball near the water, then realized the app locater could tell him exactly where it was. It didn't take long to realize his ball landed on the grass's edge, maybe inches away from the lake.
Tod took out his 56-degree club and took a couple of practice swings on the grass before. He saw a rock in the water, which he thought would be of good use so he could position himself the way he wanted to get the best shot possible. Tod put his foot on the rock and told everyone to "watch and learn." He took a deep breath and went into his backswing. As the club was going towards the ball, his foot on the rock slipped. He fell straight into the water. All of his friends started laughing, while he swam to the grass and came out soaking wet. One of his friends even got his swing and failed on video. Tod went straight back to the clubhouse to dry off and just went home after that embarrassing moment.
Later, in the week Tod Mortin went back to the same hole and saw a sign at the exact spot. The sign said, "Newly Established, Lake Mortin."
The majority of the time Chip Away is a benefit, and that only. Other times, like this time, the benefit turned into an embarrassing moment that he will never forget. All because the locater was able to find the ball for him, otherwise he probably would have dropped another ball somewhere else and it all wouldn't have happened.