Michael Addison

PERSONAL – Mike grew up in Saratoga, California but now lives in Leawood, Kansas with his wife, Ashton, and 2 dogs, Cooper and Burgundy. As if the making of the making of this profile, sounds like they’re in the process of moving back to California. He’s made a solid career for himself in the restaurant technology industry. Mike started golfing when he left the womb and was an accomplished junior player. He’s a fun dude and a joy to be around – as long as he’s not talking about WINNING!.

TIE TO THE MONTEMAR – Mike moved into the house on Montemar Way a couple days before me and we ended up being roommates for a handful of years. Some of his buddies he introduced me to have become life-long friends of mine and at least a few – Gober, Puckett, Foster – will more than likely be life-long Montemar players. Mike deserves a ton of credit for this tournament happening. He’s always been a man full of suggestions – most of the time annoyingly so (Chiles, Applebees, Elephant Bar, BJs, etc) – and once a month, for 4 or 5 years, through text, Mike brought up the idea of a destination golf trip. The rest of us Original Ochos loved the idea, and we would talk about it often, but nothing was ever done to get the ball rolling… Until Mike texted one day, and in typical “Addi” fashion, said Eric Church is playing in Vegas in a few weeks and we should all go and also have our first golf trip. Most of us have lives and wives and children and budgets and can’t commit to a destination golf trip with only a few weeks-notice and so the idea was shot down immediately. But a few days later it came to our attention that Eric Church was also playing in Sacramento, where the majority of us live, where we could all swing a golf “trip” on short notice. Neil Krech, Ryan Bradley, Patrick Haley, and Mike all bought plane tickets, we added a dozen more guys to the event, and the Montemar Classic was born!

ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MONTEMAR CLASSIC – Mike continues to operate as the bank of Montemar. He’s very gracious and uses his credit card to pay for all the deposits required (golf and catering) in order for us to have this event and to be able to do it at the prices we are. It’s a lot of work on his end and I’m super appreciative for all he does. In addition to the financial contribution, Michael is always a source of good ideas. Last year he came up with the idea for Rookie of the Year, something we will continue to do moving forward.  

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN – See my note for this from last year… My goal going into this tournament in 2022 was to create a scoring system that allowed everybody the chance to win. In some ways it was wildly successful – A player who shot 122/115 finished 3rd overall, a 15 handicap won day two at Darkhorse, and the leaderboard was loaded with players of all abilities – but the best player (Addi) still won. This year I’ve tweaked the system even more in an effort to even things out. Mike can still win this thing but it won’t be as easy as his first. The field has grown, his handicap has shrunk, and there’s new elements of randomness and strategy added to the scoring system. Mike will need to avoid King’s cup, avoid the strip clubs, get lucky in the draft, get lucky on the random pairings, pepper the flags on par 3s, and play the three best rounds of his life in order to bring home a second consecutive jacket.

We had more of the same in 2023, with the top half of the leaderboard filled with average to below average golfers. Neil Krech finished 3rd and if you’ve ever seen him play, you’ll know the scoring system is working. Kind of. Paired up with the worst player in Montemar history, Mike went Nuclear on Championship Sunday and single handedly beat a field of 2-man and 4-man teams. There will be one change to the scoring in 2024 – the implementation of losing your clubs in the scramble – and I think this one change will be enough to get somebody else on that podium. Also working against Michael will be his inability to read emails thoroughly and in a timely fashion, as he failed to obtain any of the very easy referral points on the table. With a field twice the size, Mike will have to play like he did on Sunday for three days straight in order to have any shot at a 3rd consecutive jacket.

 ODDS TO WIN – 18-1

FUN FACT – Mike was a really fat kid. Still a fat kid at heart.. and maybe waste!

MONTEMARS PLAYED – 2 (2022- Sacramento, 2023 - Scottsdale)

MONTEMAR ROUNDS PLAYED – 5 (2022 – Yoche, Darkhorse, 2023 – TPC Scottsdale, TS Piipaash, TS O’odham)

LIFETIME POINT TOTAL – 459 (1st)

JACKETS WON – 2 (2022, 2023, barf)

TOP 3 FINISHES – 2 (1ST in 2022, 1st in 2023)

TOP 5 FINISHES – 2 (1st in 2022, 1st in 2023)

TOP 10 FINISHES – 2 (1st in 2022, 1st in 2023)

RECORDS – 17 (Too many to list)

2024 Tournament Handicap – 9 (fuck)

INVITED BY – Member of the ORIGINAL OCHO

PLAYERS INVITED - 2 (Mark Foster – 22, Jackson Lambirth – 23)

PRIZES DONATED – None so far but Mike is a generous dude and will come up with something good.