HISTORY

Story

The Concrete Classic began on the drive home from one of the worst rounds Jake Willis and Andy Terry ever played. On February 18, 2018, they headed south looking for golf. Champaign still had snow on the ground, so they kept going until they ended up in Effingham. The weather was cold, the golf was terrible, and the whole day was miserable. Somewhere on the way back, the frustration turned into something useful. Jake and Andy started outlining a golf trip — not just a place to go, but a weekend built around games, points, and competition.

A couple weeks later, that idea found a home. At a golf show, Andy met the head of golf at Fox Hills in Mishicot, Wisconsin and got a Memorial Day weekend deal put together. That was the opening. The original field became Jake Willis, Andy Terry, Bryan Willis, Austin Willis, Dean Johnson, Tom Seaborg, Troy Seaborg, and Gabe Friend. From the beginning, the trip revolved around team games, and from the beginning, total points determined the champion.

Fox Hills fit almost immediately. The property had 45 holes and the group had its own villa, which made it easy to stay together and build the weekend around more than just tee times. The first year also introduced one of the trip’s smaller but lasting traditions: the early morning breakfast crew. Austin, Andy, Bryan, and Dean became the guys who got up and went out early while the rest of the house moved slower. That became part of the rhythm of the trip almost as quickly as the golf itself.

Tournament Breakdown

Several of the formats that still define the Concrete Classic were there from the start. ABC-D was played in the inaugural year and remains a staple today. Vegas was also part of the original lineup. In that format, the lower score became the first digit and the higher score became the second, so a four and a five turned into 45. Vegas was eventually retired and replaced by the current two-man aggregate final round format, but in 2018 it was still part of the core schedule.

The group also played a single-elimination two-man scramble bracket known as 9x9. Jake and Dean won that event, and the trip also marked the beginning of a friendship between them that grew far beyond golf. A four-man scramble was played as well, won by Austin, Bryan, Tom, and Troy at two under. Both the four-man scramble and 9x9 survived and eventually became permanent pieces of what is now the 27-hole day.

The final round in 2018 was true alternate shot. That format no longer decides the overall champion, but it still lives on inside Ryder Cup play. Even in the first year, the group already had the right instinct: rotate formats, keep everybody invested, and let the total body of work decide who came out on top.

Defining Moments

The first great clubhouse story came at dinner. Several guys ordered the prime rib special. Tom took the queen cut because he thought the king portion would be a waste. Andy and Gabe ordered what they thought was a pound of wings. What arrived looked closer to six or seven total wings. By the time the clubhouse tried to make it right, everybody else had already eaten. The two guys who thought they had found the best order on the menu ended up eating last, and Andy has been hearing about it ever since.

On the course, Andy and Tom took control of the final round. At one point Jake brought both groups together and played eight wide for a good stretch of the back nine in an attempt to slow them down and get in their heads. It did not work. The shot that lived on came when Tom hit his third from the 10th fairway onto the 18th green, and he and Andy two-putted for par and the win.

The closing moment of the trip became part of Concrete Classic lore. On the 18th tee, Bryan Willis stepped in to hit when Dean, trying to be supportive, inadvertently iced him by stopping him right before the swing to tell him how great he was going to do. Bryan promptly skulled the ball into an evergreen next to the tee box. It was such a perfect first-year moment that the group took a picture in 2019 specifically to remember it.

Legacy

The first year established the operating system of the trip. Team formats mattered. Points determined the champion. Fox Hills worked as the home. ABC-D worked. 9x9 worked. The four-man scramble worked. Most importantly, the group discovered that the stories off the course could matter just as much as the scores on it.

Very few pictures were taken in 2018, and most of the ones that survived came from Bryan. That scarcity actually fits the year. The group was not trying to document a tradition yet. They were still discovering that they had one. But even in that small set of photos, the identity of the trip is already there: Austin at breakfast, Jake on the green, Tom holding the champion memento, and Bryan holding up his winnings in the pose that would later become a signature of his.

Every original participant except Gabe continued attending through 2022. Tom became the first champion. The breakfast crew became a routine. Bryan’s pose became part of the visual language of winning. And a miserable round in Effingham turned into the first chapter of something that clearly was not going away.

Story

The second year started with a completely different kind of energy. In 2018, nobody knew what the trip was yet. By the time 2019 came around, everyone did. The group was excited to get back to Fox Hills, not just to play golf, but to continue something that already felt like it had momentum.

Gabe did not return, and Dean brought his brother-in-law, Bob Sieloff. From the start, nobody was quite sure what to make of him. The first night, the group played some kind of game — cards, dice, Ship Captain Crew, something along those lines — and Bob sat there with reading glasses on, taking everything very seriously. At one point, somebody broke a rule and Bob immediately shut it down. It was very matter-of-fact. Very direct. It did not exactly scream seamless fit.

The next morning did not help. Around 7:30, Dean was trying to get him moving for the tee time, and Bob yelled back, “I’m on vacation.” The idea of waking up early to play golf did not seem to line up with what he thought the trip was. Through the first day or so, it was not obvious how this was going to work.

It ended up working perfectly.

As the weekend settled in, Bob became one of the defining personalities of the trip. He struck up an immediate bromance with Austin, who at that point was still the young guy in the group and already one of the best players there. The pairing just worked. Austin had the talent. Bob had the steadiness and the personality. Together they became a problem.

The structure stayed mostly the same as the year before, but the difference was obvious. The formats were no longer new. People knew how to compete inside them. The trip did not feel like an experiment anymore. It felt established.

Field

Jake Willis, Andy Terry, Bryan Willis, Austin Willis, Dean Johnson, Tom Seaborg, Troy Seaborg, and Bob Sieloff.

Tournament Breakdown

The 9x9x9 format remained, with the final four-man portion still making up the last nine. Andy and Troy won the 9x9 that year. The four-man scramble was won by Bob, Jake, Tom, and Troy — another close finish in a format that always seems to be tight.

Vegas returned as well, and Austin and Bob won that one, with Jake and Dean finishing second. ABC minus D was won by Jake, Dean, Bryan, and Tom in another close result. A format called Split Ball also appeared that year, with Andy, Bob, Jake, and Tom coming out on top. Record keeping from some of those early years was not perfect, but the structure and competition were very real.

The final round changed from true alternate shot to Modified Chapman. Both players hit drives, both hit each other’s second shot, then the team chooses one and alternates from there. It gave the final round the same kind of pressure without being as punishing as full alternate shot. Austin and Bob won that final round, with Jake and Dean again finishing second.

Defining Moments

As the weekend went on, Bob developed a line that would outlive the tournament itself. Every time he won anything — golf, cards, whatever — it became “Bob wins.” By the end of the trip, that was no longer just something he said. It was the theme of the weekend.

The shot that best summed up the tournament came in the final round. On hole four of Red, Bob hit one essentially backwards. The hole looked dead. Austin stepped up and hit a 270-plus yard three-wood over Jake and Dean’s heads in the fairway and completely flipped the situation. It was a perfect summary of the partnership: Bob never out of it, Austin capable of erasing almost anything.

The dinner at Harborside in Manitowoc added another classic trip moment. Bob had watched Making a Murderer and wanted answers. The staff was much less interested in the details than Bob was, but that did not slow him down. By the end of the night, the full group had gone outside after the picture, and Bob was still inside talking while Andy tried to get him out of there. The photo taken through the glass became one of the signature images of the year.

Legacy

If 2018 created the trip, 2019 gave it more personality. Bob arrived as a question mark and left as one of the defining figures of the Concrete Classic. “Bob wins” became part of the vocabulary of the trip and never really went away.

It was also the year where the stories started stacking up faster. The walk on the National dragged on forever. Dean and Bryan talked their way through six hours while the group in front finished, ate lunch, and still had time to spare. Jake took his shirt off. Tom may have eventually done the same. Austin made fun of both of them for their golf etiquette. It was the last time the group ever walked like that again.

The pictures got better too. Not just more of them, but better at capturing what the trip actually was. The group shot at Harborside. The window shot with Bob still inside. The winning selfies and posed pictures that started becoming part of the trip’s visual language. The first year had the foundation. The second year had the life.

Story

2020 was not a normal year anywhere, and for a while it was not clear if the Concrete Classic was even going to happen. Wisconsin ultimately opened things up, and with that, the trip went on. Outside of flipped cups on the greens, the golf itself felt mostly untouched.

What did change was the size of the trip. The field expanded from eight to twelve players, and that shift was immediate. Harold Billings, Caleb Billings, TJ Dauphinbaugh, and Fredo Gomez joined the group, turning what had been a tight core into something noticeably bigger.

The travel day changed with it. What used to be a slow roll-in became a full day of golf. Harold, Caleb, and TJ showed up around 10:30 in the morning ready to go — hours before the rest of the group was even close to arriving. By the time things were organized, they already had holes played.

Unlike the year before, there was no single personality shift that defined the weekend. Everyone more or less fit right away. The group knew what it was by now. The only real unknown was Fredo, and even that was softened by his connection to Troy.

The increase in players forced changes in how the golf itself worked. Pairings shifted. The usual duos split. Depth of field started to matter in a different way.

Field

Jake Willis, Andy Terry, Bryan Willis, Austin Willis, Dean Johnson, Tom Seaborg, Troy Seaborg, Bob Sieloff, Harold Billings, Caleb Billings, TJ Dauphinbaugh, and Fredo Gomez.

Tournament Breakdown

2020 was the only true version of 9x9x9. The bracket format fully played out across Red, White, and Blue, with teams advancing round by round and a wildcard advancing based on score. Austin and Fredo won that event.

The four-man scramble followed, won by Austin, Bryan, Fredo, and Tom. Vegas returned for its final year, with Jake and TJ winning. Split Ball was won by Austin, Bob, TJ, and Tom. ABC-D went to Bob, Jake, TJ, and Tom. The final round (Modified Chapman) was won by Andy and Bob.

Defining Moments

The entire tournament came down to the final round — and even then, nobody knew who had actually won.

Austin entered the round in first. TJ sat in second. The path was simple: beat TJ and win. Jake and TJ made sure that did not happen.

But Andy and Bob won the round outright, shifting the points just enough that Austin taking third became the only scenario where he still wins — and that is exactly what happened.

At dinner, nobody knew the result. No app. No live scoring. Just guesses. When it finally came together, Austin had won by ten.

Legacy

2020 changed the scale of the Concrete Classic. Twelve players meant more combinations, more variability, and more ways for the tournament to unfold.

It also introduced a new kind of finish — one where the winner was not obvious, even after the final round ended.

Story

2021 was the largest structural shift in the history of the Concrete Classic. If the trip is the iPhone, this was the iPhone 4. The field expanded to sixteen — the number it had always been building toward — and with it came the format that still defines the trip today. Outside of the inaugural year, no chapter changed more about what the Concrete Classic is.

But the week almost started without it. Two days before arrival, a late dropout left the trip at fifteen players. With almost no time to react, a search started to find a sixteenth. Carl Flint got the call. Within an hour, he was in his car driving from Missouri to Wisconsin to join a group he had not planned on being part of. He did not just fill a spot. He saved the trip.

The returning core was strong — Jake, Dean, Tom, Bob, Austin, Troy, Andy, Bryan, Harold, and TJ — but the new additions changed the feel immediately. Eli Schaefer arrived as the youngest player in trip history at just seventeen. Carson Anderson and Jackson Dillon joined through Austin. Ryan Johnson and Johnny Mack came in with a different kind of reputation — high energy, unpredictable, and potentially disruptive. There was real concern the trip could drift into something it was never meant to be. It did not.

The opening round set the tone — just not in the way anyone expected. On arrival day, the group teed it up for ABC minus D on the National. It was late May in northern Wisconsin, but it felt like February. Rain, wind, and temperatures hovering near freezing turned the round into survival. Scores reflected it. Across a field of strong players, only Jake and Andy Terry broke 50 over the nine holes.

At one point, Austin’s hands were so cold he threw his 3-wood into a pond. He did not wait until the round ended to get it. He stripped down, swam out in near-freezing conditions, retrieved the club, and finished the round. It remains one of the most absurd — and perfect — moments in trip history.

That night brought a different kind of chaos. What started as concern about Ryan and Johnny quickly flipped. They came ready to compete. The real energy instead came from Bob — who turned the upstairs balcony into a full production, pouring wine down onto Austin before taking his turn getting drenched himself. The trip had been tested in two very different ways in less than 24 hours. It passed both.

Field

Jake Willis, Andy Terry, Bryan Willis, Austin Willis, Dean Johnson, Tom Seaborg, Troy Seaborg, Bob Sieloff, Harold Billings, TJ Dauphinbaugh, Eli Schaefer, Carson Anderson, Jackson Dillon, Ryan Johnson, Johnny Mack, and Carl Flint.

Ryder Cup

2021 introduced what would become the centerpiece of the Concrete Classic: the Ryder Cup. Sixteen players split into two eight-man teams. A captain for each side. Morning best ball. Afternoon alternate shot and singles. Nine total points. First to five wins.

Tom Seaborg and Bob Sieloff served as the inaugural captains. Team Tom — Andy, Carl, Jake, Johnny, Ryan, TJ, Tom, and Troy — won the first Ryder Cup, establishing what would quickly become the most anticipated event of the week. It was immediately clear this was not just another format. This was the format.

Tournament Breakdown

ABC minus D resumed the next day under normal conditions, though the scores still reflected how brutal the start had been. Bryan, Carl, Harold, and Troy won with numbers that would normally be nowhere near the top — a reflection of just how extreme the first round was. The lowest score on their winning team was 105.

The 9x9 evolved into two flights for the first time. In the A Flight, Jake and Bryan delivered one of the most meaningful wins in trip history, posting the lowest round and winning the bracket together. In that same match, Eli announced himself. From 150 yards, at seventeen years old, he holed out for eagle — a shot that immediately cemented him as a factor on the trip.

The B Flight was won by Johnny Mack and TJ Dauphinbaugh — a breakthrough moment for Johnny that marked the beginning of his real competitive presence. The four-man scramble was won by Bob, Dean, Jake, and Ryan. Ramble & Scramble — the format where one player plays his own ball while the other three play a three-man scramble and the two scores are combined — was won by Austin, Bob, Carson, and Johnny, giving Carson his first event win.

The final round changed permanently in 2021. Vegas was removed. In its place came a true aggregate format — two-man teams, both scores counting. Carson Anderson and Eli Schaefer won the final round. Eli shot an 84, one of the best rounds of the week, and the duo finished two shots clear of Austin and Carl and three ahead of Ryan and Tom.

Carson finished the tournament with 220 points, powered heavily by a massive final-round payout. He became the third first-time participant to win the Concrete Classic.

Defining Moments

This year produced more than one defining moment, but the one that gave the chapter its name came from Eli. At seventeen years old, in his first trip, he holed out from 150 yards for eagle during the 9x9. It was not just a great shot. It was an arrival.

The Austin pond swim will always live near the top of the list, but so will the first Ryder Cup, the first night balcony chaos, and Jake winning the A Flight alongside his dad. 2021 felt like a week where the trip stretched into its full size without losing the thing that made it special in the first place.

Legacy

2021 established the modern Concrete Classic. Sixteen players became permanent. The Ryder Cup became the centerpiece. The final round format evolved into what it is today. The structure locked in.

But more importantly, the identity held. The trip absorbed new personalities without losing itself. Competition intensified without breaking culture. And a new generation of players arrived — not just to participate, but to win.

For Jake, the year carried something more personal. Winning the 9x9 alongside his father became one of the most meaningful moments the trip has ever produced. In the years that followed, those pictures — once just part of the weekend — would take on far greater significance.

The trip had grown up. And it was not slowing down.