My Big Break Experience - The Home Run Derby

by Vincent Johnson
Big Break Disney - Episode 2
Original Air Date: October 20, 2009

Many of you saw that I had a far bigger role in last night’s episode than on opening night.  Much of that was due to me providing the only real challenge to Tony Finau in the Home Run Derby Challenge.  Tony is a real long hitter, and he was one of the first out of the blocks putting up a huge number—22 home runs.

For those of you who didn’t see the show, the challenge took us to Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex and the baseball stadium which hosts the Atlanta Braves during Spring Training.  What we did was tee up some reduced flight golf balls at home plate with the goal of hitting as many “home runs” as possible.  If you missed twice, you were out.

At the end of the competition, you saw both Blake and me going after Tony.  I thought Blake would have been a big threat, but as soon as he missed one, I knew he would be out.  That was really it, there were only three of us that did anything of note in the challenge.

Now what you didn’t know from the show is that I actually hit just a few guys after Tony…not at the end.  I really thought I had a chance, but unfortunately I came up just a little short.  It would’ve been sweet if I could have won the $5,000 from Dicks  and a pass onto the next show.

I really liked how they put the show together, creating far more drama than it felt like when we were filming.  For the most part, the contest was really slow and boring as we did it—taking a couple hours from start to finish.  You also saw that they [the producers] seem to be starting to create the drama within the show, focusing on the personality clashes between the guys and Andrew Guiliani.  Mikey [Perez] had just the right thing to say at the right time, when he focused on the solitude we finally had when it was Guiliani’s turn at bat!

Yeah, Guiliani does have a tendency of talking too much, and that can wear on you in tense situations, but I really enjoyed my time with him.  Although on the show it appeared that I was far more annoyed when he selected me as his challenger in the bunker elimination challenge.    I really felt my short game was far better than his and that I would easily win the challenge but he hit a great bunker shot to 18-inches while I was about 6 feet below the hole.  My putt looked good, but it took a little hop when I had hit it and that was enough to throw it off a little leaving me with a lip out.  Again, so close!  I was left to battle again and not be sent home.

The challenge was simple.  We had a shot of 145-yards from the wet bermuda rough, and fairway shots of 170 and 190-yards.  YOu couldn’t see this from the show, but the green was a little elevated so it was tough to see the 30-foot circle we were expected to hit into in as few shots as possible. 

Andreas struggled right off the bat,  so that took a lot of pressure off the rest of us.  I was able to get the first shot in, but then you saw me struggle a bit on the 170-yard shot.  It was the most difficult shot because the ball was above my feet and with the wet bermuda turf, you didn’t know what to expect even after making clean contact with the ball.  The first one just squirted away.  The 190-yard shot was really the easiest. 

Even though Andreas left the door open, I really thought it would be Blake that would go home.  He’s the type of guy that a bad bounce, bad swing…anything for that matter, gets inside his head.  He was really beating himself up, but lucky for him he was just a little better than Andreas.

Well, bottom line is that I made it onto the next show.

By the way, this week I am in Southern California playing an event on the Golden State Tour.  Its at the same site that I will be playing next week for the first stage of PGA Q-School.  We’ll have one round completed when I get to watch the next show.