Dan Velez
PERSONAL - Had I written this three weeks ago would have put San Jose as Dan’s home, but the man recently made the move to Seattle and can now say he’s lived in the two cities of this country that have been most influential to the foundation of this tournament. Dan has a girlfriend named Natalie and works in software sales for NetSuite. He started playing golf when he was 21.
TIE TO THE MONTEMAR - Dan met Drew McGhie through a mutual friend while they were at San Diego State. He eventually met all the McGhies (there are about 14 of them) and at one point even rented a room from the eldest McGhie. The meeting with Drew and eventual friendship led Dan to Drew’s tournament, The Classic, and that’s where I first sort of met the guy. For the sake of time - I’m down to 22 days until I fly to Seattle and have 85 days worth of work to do for this - I’m going to copy and paste from John De Santis’s profile page about the first encounter I had with Dan…
Tim Wat, myself, Holtzer, and Louie Louie, were dominating Drew’s annual scramble. The 10th hole at Whitney Oaks is a drivable par 4 although none of us put it on the green. We played Holtzer’s ball, which was short and right of the green and hidden from the tee box behind us. The carts at Whitney Oaks give the guys teeing off on this hole a warning to make sure all carts are out of the way before they hit. The screens on the cart even show where the other carts are. They don’t want golf balls to kill the people who are still playing the hole. In this case, we were the people playing the hole, and John’s group was the group missing the warning signs on their cart. While waiting to hit my ball, I heard a missile fly one inch from my ear. I yelled, probably kind of loud, so they would know we were down there and to stop trying to kill us. This worked out well and they quit hitting balls.
As we were leaving the 10th green, John and his buddy (I believe it was Dan) came up and apologized for hitting into us. They seemed like great guys and there was no ill feelings at all. Honest mistake. I then let them know that the next tee shot could potentially be a blind one too, and to check their carts to make sure we were out of the way before they hit. No problem at all.
Louie Louie is a puttin’ machine but he’s not real long off the tee. We needed one more of his drives and the 11th at Whitney is the perfect hole for this, as all 2nd shots funnel into the same general area anyway. As we were waiting to hit our second shot, I see a ball fly over our heads and past us. John’s group must have not understood the part about checking the screen to make sure our carts were gone. I yelled again. It was probably loud, again. Tim let me know that on the 11th hole at Whitney the cart screen doesn’t show where the carts are. I felt terrible, and wanted to apologize to these guys all round for my mistake. Only problem was, every time they would catch us – we were waiting on Luke McGhie all day – Simon would come chat and drink beer but John and Dan always hung back and waited until we were gone before they tee’d off. Simon laughed because he knows how tame I am these days and said “they weren’t too sure about the big guy.”
I’ve met and seen John many times since that day and he’s great but because Dan lived in San Jose and now Seattle, I haven’t had the chance to meet him again. I’ve got a pretty good feeling though that he’s a a great guy and another great addition to this tournament who we hope to keep around for many years to come.
ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MONTEMAR - Nothing yet but anything helps.
WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN IN 2024 - Dan has a solid golf swing from 300 yards away. That was my thought when I looked back from the 5th tee box at Whitney and watched Dan hit his tee shot on the par 3 4th, which I believe he stuck. At least I think that was Dan - it was if he’s left handed. It takes much more than a solid golf swing to win this tournament though and it’s really hard for a rookie to take home a jacket - I’m hoping nearly impossible. What I’m hoping for Dan in year one is that he makes some friends or golfing buddies with his new Seattle neighbors. There are plenty to meet in this tournament.
ODDS TO WIN – 82-1
FUN FACT – Dan’s profile pic makes him look exactly like I imagine Jay and Ryan Cleveland would look if an app put their faces together to make one new face.
MONTEMARS PLAYED – 1st
MONTEMAR ROUNDS PLAYED – 0
LIFETIME POINT TOTAL - 0
JACKETS WON – 0
TOP 3 FINISHES – 0
TOP 5 FINISHES – 0
TOP 10 FINISHES – 0
RECORDS –0
TOURNAMENT HANDICAP - 13.5
INVITED BY – Drew McGhie
PLAYERS INVITED - 0
PRIZES DONATED – Nothing yet.
