December 2011

Chicago Randy: Confessions from the winning teamOn August 8, the Chicago chap-

ters of the EACA and EDPA held the 8th Annual Chicago Randy Charity Golf Outing. The proceeds from this tournament, which is held at the Maple Meadows Golf Club in Wood Dale, Ill., benefit the Randy Smith Memorial Golf Classic that is held in Atlanta ever year.

This year, the winning team con-sisted of Robert Laarhoven, founder and CEO of Laarhoven Design Inc., Dave Flory, director of sales and mar-keting for CORT Event Furnishings, and Joe Houle, director of strategic de-velopment for LAB Exhibits.

The following is Robert and Dave’s narrative of their experiences partici-pating in the tournament.

Robert Laarhoven:“Other than the rain late in the day,

Monday was a great day for golf. Es-pecially given the fact that I had the op-portunity to play with my good friend, Joe Houle. Our group was made up of Joe from LAB, Dave Florey from CORT and myself. There are typically some good players in this event, so I did not have any aspirations of win-ning anything, especially since there were no mulligans available for sale! Little did I know that Joe was so good. Over the past year, he had shared with me on more than one occasion that he was pretty good, but I thought it was all talk.

Well, Dave and I were given a show on Monday along with a golf lesson. Not only could Joe hit the ball a mile off his drive, but he could chip and putt as well. I think Dave and I did sink a couple of putts on our way to coming in

10 under par, which was good enough for first place. What an amazing feat given my and Dave’s high handicaps. Glad Joe has a strong back. I think I’ll buy Joe a plane ticket for the Randy Smith in Atlanta!”

Dave Flory:“Recently, I had the pleasure of at-

tending the Randy Smith Memorial golf classic held in Wood Dale, Ill. Those of you who have been involved in this tournament already know of the won-derful benefit this provides for families in our industry that have suffered from loss and hardship.

The experience this time around was particularly memorable due to the learning experience provided on this rainy afternoon. I arrived with no knowledge of what my team would look like this day, as I was a single and pairings were assigned by the organiz-

ers, which did an excellent job pulling off the event!

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I would be playing with Robert Laarhoven, who I’d never had the plea-sure of being paired with, but have seen play at many a Randy classic and know has great skill at the game. Robert has an exceptional mind for business and a positive mental attitude that I knew would make for a great afternoon. Shortly thereafter, I was introduced to Joe Houle, and after brief introductions, we began our afternoon together.

The first thing I noticed about Joe was that he had a practice routine that required a bit of time alone to focus on important aspects of his game that included some positive self talk and a few practice swings. We all got off to a good start, and I soon realized that I was in the company of a couple

From left to right: The winners of the Chicago Randy included Dave Flory, Robert Laarhoven and Joe Houle.