Preview

The fifth installment of the Danza series, a milestone mark, is upon us. More than a year has passed since the Blue Team wrapped up their third straight victory with back-to-back wins coming in the sudden death playoff. Outside of ‘21—a blowout victory for Blue—three of the four previous installments have gone to the playoff—a 75% clip and an indictment of how evenly matched these teams really are. Maybe this coming year we’ll just skip the previous ten rounds altogether and go straight to the playoff. We’ll just call the clubhouse and say “Hi we’d like to schedule a tee time to play one of your par-3 holes. Yes, just the one. Shouldn’t take long, just gonna do a quick playoff hole to determine a champion” and then just spend the rest of the weekend hanging out. It is wild it’s historically been that close, and that’s the beauty of it.

The fifth edition will be held in Seven Springs, PA, and it is going to be fascinating. As it stands, Blue should have the clear advantage. They’re the steady team, almost cookie cutter; you know exactly what you’re getting with them. They play the same game year after year, rarely ever deviating. Machine-like. Red is all over the place; constantly having ups and downs. Last year Trey was on his game, West was playing well albeit struggling with an elbow injury, Johnny was playing his best golf ever and Storm was very well-practiced, and yet they still lost. This year Trey has been playing up and down, struggling a bit with driver. West went from having some of the best ball-striking of his life to saying I forget how to hit a golf ball back to I’m amazing again. Johnny is relearning a new swing and hitting an entirely new club in lieu of Golf Galaxy selling his driver they were supposed to re-grip, and has also been dealing with a wrist injury. Aaaaand Storm hasn’t played since the last Danza. So it’s a mixed bag. You never know what version of the Red Team you’re going to get.

Despite how close these matchups have historically been and how even the teams really are, for the reasons above, Blue is the obvious choice if you were a betting man. Red is and has been the underdogs and Blue is very much the overdogs. In a vacuum I would say not only does Blue win, but I would go as far as to say it could potentially be a blowout victory similar to ’21. But, the Danza, nor anything in this world is completed in a vacuum. There’s history that precedes this. One absolute beatdown followed by two brutally close losses the Red Team simply can’t forget. Red is desperate. Hungrier than ever. The Blue Team wants a win, the Red Team NEEDS a win. 

Of course this could play to Blue’s benefit as well. There’s no pressure for them, they’re playing with house money. They can go out loose and unbothered, and just play freely. If Red loses this year, which again is a very likely outcome, the series would be 4-1. That would be embarrassing. The gentlemen’s sweep. A massacre. Uneven, one-sided, unfair. Big brother vs. little brother. Ivan Drago vs. Apollo Creed. Four Goliath’s vs. David. You could go as far as saying the teams need switched up to make this more competitive. Something a little more balanced. And that would be a valid assessment….

…..Over the Red Team’s actual rotting corpses. They will lose. And lose. And lose again, before they will ever submit, surrender, bend the knee, wave the white flag and switch up teams. You will have to pry their red shirts from their decomposing skeletons. They’d rather it be 40-1 than give up. There’s a code of honor here, and surrendering isn’t a part of it. No, that would be unacceptable. In the battle of 1779, Captain John Paul Jones and his men had their backs up against the wall when the attacking British ship, Serapis, had them on the verge of sinking. It was then that the Captain of Serapis, Richard Pearson, having thought this battle was all but a foregone conclusion, shouted out to Captain JPJ asking if he surrenders. To which Captain JPJ shouted back “I have not yet begun to fight!” It was not long after this exchange that Captain Pearson was the one lowering his ship’s flag, signaling his surrender. In other words, The Red Team has not yet begun to fight. They’re down 3-1, sure, but this war of attrition (playing luxury golf courses and staying in nice Airbnb’s) is only just beginning. They will either turn this ship around, or they will sink with it. The Red Team chooses to challenge the Blue Team as is—no alterations—not because it is easy, but because it is hard. Because that challenge is one they are willing to accept, one they are unwilling to postpone, and one they intend to win…

Now, lets get to the rounds and matchups…

Best-Ball

The all-time best-ball matchup record currently stands at 5-2-1 in favor of the Blue Team. It’s been rather one-sided thus far. The A/B matchup has a record of 2-2 with Blue taking the first two years and Red going back-to-back in the two most recent matches. The first year’s Blue pairing consisted of James and now-retired member, PJ, who won in dominating fashion at Crispin Golf Course. Since the Inaugural Danza, with the replacement of PJ with Jeremy, Felton has moved onward and upward, relieving PJ of his B-player duties. Since the advent of Felton in this pairing, the record is 2-1 in favor of the Red squad, with all three matches being as close as can be, resulting in some of the Danza’s most memorable moments, namely Felton’s 150-foot putt and Trey burying a ten-foot putt for the win on the eighteenth hole in the ’22 matchup. These rounds are always so tight, and with the best golf of the tournament being played in this round, it really just comes down to which guys can bring their A-game. This round is impossible to predict who will win on any given year as they are so evenly matched.

The C/D matchup is a little more lopsided. To date, the Blue Team has never lost. They stand at a record of 3-0-1. Year One saw a pairing of Felton and Blatt run Johnny and Storm off the golf course in a blowout victory. Felton has since been retired from this pairing with his promotion to the B-slot, and for the Red Team, that’s probably for the best. With Jeremy’s arrival to the Danza in Year Two, this matchup was met with a draw, the first of three total matches ever to finish as a tie. Since then, Jeremy and Blatt have had a stranglehold on Johnny and Storm, winning the next two matches in a close, yet convincing style. Year Three came down to a finish on the eighteenth and Year Four showcased a come-from-behind victory on the back nine for the Blue Team, marking their third overall win in this event. The Red Team appears to be getting closer, but as it stands they remain winless.

As for this coming year, I predict the score will be 1-1 at the end of this event. Thing is, I’m not even sure which team will win in either of these matchups. Red’s C/D pairing is starving for their first victory and over the last couple years it seems both Johnny and Storm have tightened the gap in skillset between their counterparts Jeremy and Blatt, respectively, but is that enough to finally get over the hump? Or will Jeremy and Blatt continue their reign of dominance? It could really go either way. And the same can be said for the A/B matchup. James and Felton are looking to end their two-year losing streak, but West and Trey know from history that if they don’t get the job done, the Red Team could very well come out of this round 0-2. This year I really believe either team has equal odds of sweeping this event to start the tournament 2-0, but because it is so even all-around, my final prediction is a 1-1 split.

Scramble

The scramble round remains the most deadlocked round in the series with a perfectly split 4-4 record. Oddly enough, as even as the overall record is, each matchup has been vastly one-sided. In the A/C grouping, the record is 3-1 in favor of the Red Team. Trey and Johnny had started a perfect 3-0 before James and Jeremy were able to topple them in the ’23 tournament. Trey and Johnny have historically had great chemistry playing together, even beating what is now the A/B players of the Blue Team in James and Felton in Year One. The two years following the Inaugural Danza, they had manhandled James and Jeremy in each match off of the backs of their putters of fire and flames. They felt like King Arthur pulling Excalibur from the stone with their mystical putters, but in ‘23, they became unworthy, and it was now the Blue Team’s turn to hoist these mythological putters of glory en route to their first victory.

Conversely, in the B/D matchup, the 3-1 record is in favor of the Blue Team. In the Inaugural Danza, West and Storm fired off a dominant win over Blatt and a very sick, puking-his-guts-out-PJ. Since then, Felton has filled in for PJ and the Blue Team is on a three-year run of excellence; notching a 3-peat, and making Felton and Blatt the only remaining undefeated pairing at a record of 4-0, counting their best-ball victory from Year One. They plan to continue their reign of terror while West and Storm are more ready than ever to end this drought. Outside of last year, which was a runaway victory for Blue, the West/Storm vs. Felton/Blatt combo has produced two of the Danza’s most epic rounds ever. The first being in ’21 in the round that is now known as the McHenry Monsoon—yes, I just now named it, deal with it—in which Felton, defying all logic, put on a legendary performance in the pouring down rain, hurricane-level winds, and tundra temperature on the back nine to close out a victory for Blue. And secondly, the ’22 edition in Myrtle, when a hard-fought, dead-even round came down to the eighteenth, in which the Red Team had a one-and-a-half-foot putt to halve the match, and both West and Storm rimmed out in historic fashion, in what is now known as the Tidewater Terror—yes, I just named that too, get over yourself.

Just like best-ball, I too predict that this round will end in a 1-1 split. And again, I do not know which pairings will be the victors, it’s just too close to call. James and Jeremy could certainly continue their putting magic they displayed last year, but it’s also just as likely Trey and Johnny get back to their dynamic putting roots and turn the tables again. As for the B/D matchup, it’s easy to say Felton and Blatt are the heavy favorites, considering they’ve never lost together, but that fact alone makes West and Storm more desperate than ever, and if you believe in the due theory, their due meter is off the chart.

Alt-Shot

Through four Danza’s and eight rounds of the modified alt-shot, the Red Team holds a decisive lead at 6-2 in this event. Honestly, if not for their consistent performances in the alt-shot they would’ve gotten blown off the courses in all of these tournaments. It’s their one saving grace, the one round that keeps them in it, because Lord knows it ain’t the individual round. Each set of Red Team pairings maintain a 3-1 record, with both of their combined losses occurring in ’21—the Danza now known as the Maryland Massacre, or in some small circles, the Deep Creek Devastation… alright I’m done I swear… But that is a fun fact, no Danza has ever seen a split alt-shot. Only sweeps in this round.

The A/D pairing has seen the Red Team dominate in three of the four installments, with ’21 being the one year the script was flipped on them. Trey and Storm have managed to find a chemistry that continues to propel them to victory—a chemistry that James and Blatt are still looking to discover for themselves. The B/C matchup is also one of purely dominant wins. In Year One West and Johnny laid a beatdown on one-time pairing Felton and PJ. Year Two was met with Felton and Jeremy laying an even worse beatdown on West and Johnny—a 6&4 victory, the third largest winning margin in Danza history. The ’23 round was a closer match, with Red nearly blowing a huge lead down the stretch before managing to close it out, and ’24 was a 6&5 victory for Red, making it the second largest winning margin in Danza history.

We all know anything can happen in any of these rounds, and it’s easy to call for another split, but I’m not going to do that this time. This round has never seen anything but sweeps, and I think that trend will continue. As for who will get the sweep this year? I’m sticking with the team whose done it three out of four times. I’m saying Red takes this event 2-0.

Individual

Oh, the individual round… This is where the Blue Team makes their money… their bread and butter. Through four Danza’s and sixteen total individual matches, the Blue Team holds a record of 10-4-2. Not once but twice were they down 4-2 heading into the individual round and each time they managed to finish with a 3-1 record to force a playoff. And in ’21, they didn’t lose a single match, finishing at 2-0-2. It wasn’t until last year that the Red Team finally at least evened the score at 2-2 in this round. So yeah, this round has been the differentiator and the reason the Blue Team is up 3-1 in overall Danza’s. So let’s dig into it, starting with the team captains.

Storm vs. Blatt 

The D-players. This matchup is always a fan-favorite. Through four matches to date, Blatt has the upper-hand with a record of 2-1-1. Storm got his first win in last year’s Danza and he is hoping to ride the winning wave. Blatt of course will be determined to get back on track and increase his win total, as he would also like to retain his title of the Danza’s highest point scorer. This year will be an interesting matchup and quite impossible to predict how it will go.

From last year’s Danza until now, Storm has played a grand total of two rounds. To say he will be rusty is an understatement, and unless he was able to freeze his game from last year and put it in a time capsule for him to use again this year, I’m gonna say he’s the underdog. However, despite Blatt making progress over the past few months or so, he has recently been dealing with chronic back pains. I would say Blatt has the advantage if his back holds up solely due to Storm’s lack of playing, but as we know, back problems are a touch-and-go type thing. We all hope for Blatt’s sake that he will be just fine, of course. You never want to see an injury of any kind rear its ugly head, and Storm certainly doesn’t want to see that. If you’re going to beat your opponent, you want to beat them at their best. Blatt has taken the last few weeks off to rest, and hopefully that does the trick, but obviously with rest comes the whole rust debate. It’s hard to say how this one will go, but we’re all rooting for a fully-healthy Blatt. And if that’s the case, it should be a good match.

Johnny vs. Jeremy 

This matchup has become very exciting over the last couple years. Prior to ’23, it was obvious who the better player was. Spoiler alert: it was Jeremy. Though Jeremy hadn’t played a whole lot of golf throughout college and beyond until his partaking in the Danza, he was a former high school golfer and his old natural ability was able to shine through. Johnny on the other hand didn’t pick up golf until he was around twenty, and without ever having a lesson, he has a homegrown swing that is about as ugly as it gets. Definitely the ugliest swing of the Danza group, that’s for sure. But over the last few years, particularly with the advent of the Danza, Johnny has become a fanatic. And despite his awkward looking, mechanically-unsound swing, he has been able to make vast improvements in his game through sheer will and repetition and more repetition. His work ethic is up there with anyone in the group. A couple months ago, after playing eighteen with West, he had to get to his appointment to see a house that was for sale, only to be talked into pushing his appointment and playing thirty-six that day. When he arrived to the house for his appointment he found out that it had sold just an hour prior. His practicing may have potentially cost him a home. So it’s clear how bad he wants this. Regardless of all that, I would say that as it stands, Jeremy is still the better, more consistent golfer, but it’s undeniable Johnny has closed the gap from what it was in ’21. Through three matches together, Jeremy has a 2-1 lead over Johnny.

Their upcoming match is going to be one to highlight on the calendar and circle in red. I think it will be a doozy. Both guys have worked hard on their game and both are going through a swing change. Jeremy made an adjustment to his drive that transformed him from the shortest hitter off the tee to arguably the longest. He also bought a new putter this year and is eager to give it a go in its first Danza. Johnny too has revamped his driver swing and is now using a brand new, 2024 Ping model driver that he got for free. Well, I guess you could say it cost him $150—the price he paid for Blatt’s old Callaway XR and a bottle of Blanton’s. That’s right, Johnny recently went to Golf Galaxy to have all his clubs re-gripped, and when he returned to pick them up, he found out that Golf Galaxy thought his driver was a trade-in, so they sold it. Fortunately, they made it right and gave him a free fitting and any driver of his choice to take home. While at the fitting, the GG employee gave Johnny essentially an hour-long lesson to fix his swing. So, like Jeremy, Johnny has been relearning a new driver swing. This is going to be fun.

In last year’s match, Johnny was able to get his breakthrough win, but last year has nothing to do with this year. What have you done for me lately? Well, so far, it’s been pretty even between the two. They’ve played two rounds together this Spring—eighteen at Rolling Green and nine at Hickory Heights. At Rolling Green, they both shot an 81. Going into the last hole, Jeremy had an opportunity to have his first-ever round in the 70s. Had he parred the eighteenth hole, he would’ve finished at a clean 79. Unfortunately, he was very-well aware of this fact. Probably too aware. Granted, he hit an excellent drive down the middle. But, the golf gods decided today was not going to be the day for Jeremy, as his ball took a bounce into the sewer stream that is beyond the green—quite literally the only place on this hole you could possibly go out-of-bounds. He took his drop and hit a chip-shot onto the green to about thirty feet. And with his dreams all but dashed, he left his par-putt way short and then proceeded to three-putt his way to a double-bogey six, finishing his round at a very good, yet very sad, 81.

Coming off both of their 81-rounds, they followed with a rather uninspiring nine holes at Hickory, both barely keeping it out of the 50s. They’ve been damn even through two rounds, and who knows what this year has to bring, but the individual round, and honestly, these two guys in general could be the difference maker of the tournament. Similar to a military-tactic of gaining control of a certain piece of land that is crucial for winning future battle endeavors, the C-matchup throughout the tournament could be the deciding piece in their respective team winning the Cup.

West vs. Felton

Year after year, this matchup in this round is the marquee event of the tournament. Through three matches together, Felton leads 2-1. Since the inception of their matchup in Year Two, once Felton became a B-player, these guys have traded blows. Felton took their first matchup to complete his perfect 4-0 tournament in ’21, West won in ’22, and Felton in ’23. If history continues this back-and-forth trend, I’d reckon it’s West’s turn to take ’24. But I’m not sure that’s how things work. History doesn’t have a whole lot of say in the matter once you take the tees again. If you want to get a win, you have to earn it.

This coming year, as always, I imagine will be a barn-burner. This pairing is hard-work vs. talent. I know they say hard-work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard, but I think Felton may be proving that narrative to be false, considering he leads this series 2-1. West, who lives on a golf course, plays at least nine holes damn near every day. Since the last Danza, Felton has only played a handful of rounds, and only two in 2024. But given his natural talent, in those two rounds, Felton shot an 80 at Lindenwood on his first outing of the year, followed by a 38 at the nine hole course, Frosty Valley. West on the other hand, has played a million rounds, as that’s the only way he knows how. Unlike Felton, who has a natural and consistent flow to his game, West’s game varies wildly. So far this year he has said “This is some of the best ball-striking I ever had in my life” to “I have completely lost my game and have no idea how to even hit the ball anymore” back to “Oh, I’m amazing again and my game is better than ever.” West is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. When his ball-striking is on, he’s up there with Trey and James as one of the best players in the whole event, but it’s well known his rollercoaster ups and downs are drastic, and his slumps can sometimes be painfully bad. Meanwhile, when Felton steps on a golf course for the first time in months it’s like reuniting with an old best friend from your past that you haven’t talked to in five years, and yet, when you see each other, you pick up right where you left off. His game doesn’t change. It’s simply suspended in time, just waiting to be unleashed the next time he decides to hit the ole links. If West shows up slumping, Felton will mop the floor with him. If he shows up in prime form then he’s probably favored. It really just depends more on which version of West decides to present itself.

One quick note, it is cool that the weekend before the Danza, the two B-players set aside their Danza rivalry and unified in the annual Fairmont Field Club Member-Guest Tournament. It’s like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird teaming up in ’92 with the Dream Team. The fellas wanted to enjoy a fun day together battling it out against randoms before taking it out on each other four days later. They played well together in the event but due to possible handicap inflation from their opponents, they finished dead last. You’ll have that.

Trey vs. James

The top dogs. The two best players in the Danza. It should be noted that in part of the reason these guys are the cream of the crop, is aside from their natural ability, they’re among the hardest working players of the bunch. Over the course of the past year, James has joined a Pittsburgh golf league, playing different difficult courses amongst real competition on a weekly basis; something that has improved his game tremendously, and what allowed him to sort of move up to a tier of his own. As for Trey, he didn’t join any leagues or any of that, but he is known to grind at his home course of Moundsville Country Club, as well as working to get in peak physical shape. Trey is absolutely capable of beating James, but as it stands James maintains a 3-0-1 record vs. Trey in individual play, and based on that alone James naturally holds the edge in this round. But I have seen both guys routinely beat one another when out and about on a casual Saturday round, so nothing is ever guaranteed when these two guys take the tee box against one another. 

In the rounds the boys have gotten out this year, James has posted a 79 at Rolling Green in some pretty terrible weather, which was very impressive, an 84 at Avalon at Buhl in his Pittsburgh golf league the Sunday before the Danza, and also a not-go-great round of nine at Hickory Heights along with Jeremy and Johnny, but that’s just golf. Trey has posted some really good rounds and some uncharacteristic rounds. He noted he had struggled with his ball-striking a bit lately but his short game has been sharper than ever. He is confident the ball-striking mishaps have been a fluke, and he is positive he is going to bring his A-game this coming Danza. As to who will win this year, I guess we will find out.

The individual round is very difficult to predict who will win each match, as all four matchups are extremely close. So once again, I am going to say it will be an even split, 2-2. Which, if you’re doing your math correctly, you’ll have noticed I have Red winning this thing 6-4. That’s right, I’m taking the underdogs. I am well-aware Blue should be the favorites, and if this were Vegas betting odds, they’d probably be favored at around -150 or so. But it’s time. All streaks come to an end eventually. And guess what? If the Blue Team’s streak doesn’t end quite yet, the Red Team will be back next year, telling themselves this is the year. And they’ll do it again the year after that if they have to. They will strive onward, putting in more and more work until eventually, they persevere. And I know they have their naysayers. Hell, they have them in their own corner. West’s own wife thinks Red doesn’t have a chance and that the teams need mixed up. Is she right? Maybe so. Doesn’t matter. Because as Teddy Roosevelt once said, 

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Buckle up Blue Team. Red Team is coming.