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Ladd man wins Golden Tee World Championship after 20-year pursuit · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Ladman wins Golden Tea World Championship after twenty year pursuit.
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  Written by Derek Barrichello, This article is being read by
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  an automated voice brought to you by Everlet. Lad's Jeff
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  Lannon has been chasing the Golden Tee World Championship for
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  two decades. Lannon, who plays the arcade golf game as
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  a full time job, has won many Golden Tea tournaments
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  over the years, but it wasn't until Sunday at the
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  Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas that his goal became
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  a reality. Going into the final hole of the championship match,
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  Lannon found the cup on his second shot from one
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  hundred and ten yards out. His opponent, Andy Fox, missed
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  from one hundred and two yards on his second shot
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  of the par four to clinch the title for Lanin
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  and a thirty thousand dollars prize. It was pure joy,
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  Lannon said in a phone interview Tuesday. I've won other tournaments,
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  but I've been chasing this one, and to look back
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  at it and how I won, it's so rewarding. It
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  hasn't finally sunk in. Lannin said the World championship was
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  a fourteen hour marathon. The day began at nine am
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  with practice rounds and didn't conclude until after eleven pm.
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  The thirty two player tournament is played through head to
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  head matchups in a double elimination bracket. It's a mental grind,
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  Lannon said. You have to remain mentally focused or these
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  guys are good enough to knock you out. Lannin is
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  among the top ten Golden Tea players in the world.
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  He started playing the game as a teenager about twenty
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  five years ago. When he worked at Rips in lad
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  He and some coworkers would play the game found in
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  restaurants and bars across the country every day. After playing
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  for a while, he realized he could compete at national
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  tournaments and his game continued to grow from there. Playing
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  competitively for money online and at tournaments, he started to
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  tackle it full time. He still uses Rips as his
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  home base. He said. He practices six days a week
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  to stay among the best players in the world. I
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  still have people who are interested when they hear this
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  is what I do to make money, Lannon said. Lannon
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  won Player of the Year about a decade ago and
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  many traveling tournaments, but this is his first World Championship.
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  He said he was appreciative of all the support he's
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  received from friends and family who watched him compete on
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  YouTube and many others who have sent congratulations after hearing
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  he won the title. He said he is expecting to
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  celebrate at RIPS soon. Many of the players in the
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  World Championships come from larger cities and play in groups there,
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  but Lannon continues to compete from his hometown in the
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  Illinois Valley. Nobody has heard of lad They ask where
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  it is, and I have to tell them it is
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  about an hour and a half from Chicago, he said.
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  One of rip's coworkers from when he started playing lives
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  in Oswego now and competed against him in the World
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  Championships in Vegas. I've played a lot of a lot
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  of games, he said. I've played in tournaments. I've played
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  a lot of good players. It's been a lot of
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  working on stuff. It's been a long time. This is
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  the one I've wanted