Monday, December 12, 2016

Dallas Man Wins $10,000, Myrtle Beach Golf Trip in Golf is Great Video Contest

David Watkins, 3 Friends Recreated Scenes From Famous Golf Movies in Award-Winning Video

(Myrtle Beach, S.C.) - David Watkins stumbled across the “Golf is Great” video contest, saw a prize that included a trip to Myrtle Beach and $10,000 and figured, why not?

Always the creative type, Watkins, a sports reporter for NBC’s Dallas/Ft. Worth affiliate, knows his way around a video camera, and had no trouble convincing life long friends Derek Johnson, Stephen Slate and Sean Davis to participate.

[Watch: Winning video entry]

The quartet never expected to win but figured they would have the 3-minute video to look back on and laugh at for years to come.

[Watch: Watkins group reacts to finding out they won contest]

Their effort will provide them a lot more than laughs. The video submitted by Watkins was named winner of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday’s Golf is Great video contest, netting the group a trip to Myrtle Beach and $10,000, among other prizes.

“The entry submitted by David Watkins and his friends was everything the Golf is Great video contest was about,” said Bill Golden, Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday president. “Their video was funny, creative and their passion for the game was obvious. Congratulations to them and all of our contestants, because the choice wasn’t an easy one. We look forward to hosting David and his friends here in Myrtle Beach.”

Watkins, Johnson, Slate and Davis plan to take their trip to Myrtle Beach in the spring of 2017.

While the idea to enter the contest was Watkins’, his friends were eager participants.

“You had to make a golf video to enter the contest, so I figured, let's use famous scenes from golf movies to show why golf is great,” Watkins said. “When I showed them the contest and came up with the idea, they were on board immediately. The boys did a great job of acting.”

Watkins selected scenes from Caddyshack, Tin Cup and Happy Gilmore and had his crew act them out. Imagine Carl Spackler, Shooter McGavin, Judge Smails and Jim Nantz all sandwiched into 180 seconds.

Johnson enjoyed the most prominent role, playing the parts of Spackler, Ken Venturi and Al Czervik, among others. Davis enjoyed his star turn as Happy Gilmore and Romeo, the caddy in Tin Cup. Slater played roles from Tin Cup.

Watkins was at varying turns Judge Smails, Shooter McGavin and Jim Nantz.

The award-winning submission jumped between scenes with great comedic effect, highlighted by the performance of Johnson as Spackler (yes, the guy in the background really was looking at them like they were crazy and no, the squirrel wasn’t a plant).

While the video is very good, the entire process was remarkably smooth. They shot everything at Prestonwood Country Club (sounds a little like Bushwood!), where the quartet regularly plays, and actually had to leave 4-5 scenes on the cutting room floor to get under the 3-minute limit on video length.

After all the videos were submitted, fan voting determined the 10 entries that advanced to the final, where Watkins’ effort was judged the winner.

“It was a fun idea that we got behind in a big way, and here we are as the winner,” Watkins said. “It’s still shocking. This memories - the trip, video, the money -  will last a lifetime.”

Golf is Great, a Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday promotion, was created to get people to share what they loved about the game.

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