⛳️ LinksDAO partners with 200+ Global Golf Course Network IMG Prestige

Keeping up with LinksDAO 24/7 so you don't have to

Good morning and welcome back to another edition of The Mulligan, the official publication of the world's greatest community-conceived golf and leisure club!

229 Days Since Mint

Highlights

LinksDAO x IMG Prestige

It's hard to believe that it's only been 229 days since LinksDAO launched on New Year's Day. What was once a small idea floated out on Twitter by Mike Dudas just before Christmas has quickly turned into the preeminent sports project in Web3. In just under 8 months we've put together quite an impressive resume...

• Partnered with Five Iron Golf, making us one of the first NFT projects to offer IRL utility

• Hosted 125 members at our kickoff event in Austin, TX alongside SXSW 2022

• Expanded membership to 48 out of the 50 U.S. States and more than 40 countries around the world

• Launched a token-gated Pro Shop filled with LinksDAO-branded apparel from top brands

• Partnered with Callaway Golf

• Donated more than $50,000 to various charities and organizations

• Signed with Endeavor Agency, who represents Jordan Spieth, to assist us in industry engagement

• Signed with KemperSports to lead our course acquisition process

• Hired an immensely talented team, including a CEO, CFO, Head of Community, Head of Course Strategy, and VP of Product

• Hosted more than 400 members at our Five Iron Herald Square NFT NYC event, where NBC began filming a documentary about our journey

But our latest partnership is the one that excites us the most. So without further ado... we're thrilled to announce that we've joined forces with IMG Prestige, a network of more than 200 golf courses spread across the globe. LinksDAO members now have access to preferred, often discounted tee times at each and every course in IMG's spectacular portfolio.

IMG Prestige was founded in 1960 by Mark McCormack in a handshake deal with Arnold Palmer. Since then, IMG has remained unwaveringly dedicated to being one of the world leaders in sports entertainment, engagement and marketing. Head over to their website to learn more about their history and check out their course portfolio. We promise you won't be disappointed. And yes, before you ask, the course pictured above is available for you to play!

Core Team Offsite

A Note from our CEO and Head of Course Strategy

Last week, the LinksDAO executive team gathered at The Patterson Club in Fairfield, CT to reflect on what's been accomplished so far, and discuss how we can move faster to deliver even more value to members. Coming out of the offsite meeting, the team could not be more energized to continue to go to work for the community. Here's what we focused on:

• Courses: We nailed down a plan around the sourcing and evaluation funnel, and are kicking off a recurring meeting with KemperSports starting this week. Currently, KemperSports is in the process of vetting 11 course targets that we have. As a part of the diligence process, we will be asking a group of members to do physical visits to some of our high-ranking course candidates. Stay tuned for more on this.

• PFP: The art and design is getting to a great spot, and the team is confident that existing NFT holders as well as people new to the LinksDAO community will be thrilled with the plan. Our traits and activations will differentiate us from the ever-so-crowded PFP landscape.

• Perks Perks Perks: While we were meeting, something dawned on us... with the number of benefits that the community has access to, a LinksDAO membership has become one of the most valuable digital membership/subscriptions in the world of golf. We're doubling down on this.

• Community Engagement: This is absolutely critical to the success of our project. We discussed different ways on how we can increase community engagement both within the Discord and outside of it.

• Other Topics: Increasing Reciprocal Golf Access, Diversity, Clubhouse Development, IRL Meetups/Experiences, Full-Time Hires and Player/Tour Programs.

Speaking of Player/Tour programs, we recently spent two hours with C-suite leadership at the USGA Headquarters discussing their NFT strategy and how LinksDAO could be a partner to them when it comes to upcoming USGA events.

- CEO Jim Daily and Head of Course Strategy Adam Besvinick

Clubhouse

The Clubhouse Refresh is Live!

The LinksDAO Clubhouse is the foundation of our membership and until today, it's had minimal design and functionality. Needless to say, it was time for an upgrade... so we're launching a refresh that prepares us for the future while aligning the Clubhouse to the standards of our brand.

Our goal was to give the Clubhouse a much-needed design overhaul, while highlighting important member news, snapshot proposals, and member benefits, plus preparing the Clubhouse for scalability and what's to come next. For the full roadmap on what's coming during the rest of Q3 and Q4, read the medium article.

P.S. LinksDAO is hiring for full-time positions, including CMO, VP of Engineering, and Full-Stack Software Engineer. Head over to our jobs page to learn more.

Additionally, the core team will be hosting a Twitter Spaces with Josh Lesnick, Executive Vice President of KemperSports, today at 12:30pm EST centered around our personal course acquisition process. Set a reminder via Twitter.

Partnerships

LinksDAO x William Murray

In addition to our deal with IMG Prestige, we're excited to announce that we've partnered with William Murray Golf. WMG roots itself in inundating this more than 400 year old game with individualism, style and a fresh energy that only the Murray brothers can provide. Head over to our Benefits page in the Clubhouse to generate your code.

Golf

122nd U.S. Amateur Championship Preview

What's your handicap? If you're a 2.4 or less, you're eligible to qualify for the U.S. Amateur Championship. This year, 312 elite amateurs from around the world are headed to the famed The Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey to compete for the 122nd title.

The U.S. Amateur is the premier amateur golf championship. Nearly all of the greats have competed in it, but only a few have hoisted the coveted Havemeyer Trophy. Past winners include Bobby Jones, who took home the trophy an amazing 5 times over the course of his illustrious career, and Frances Ouimet, who is known as "the Father of amateur golf".

Other legends - Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson - have also emerged victorious. Five players have won both the NCAA Individual National Championship and the U.S. Amateur in the same year: Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, and Ryan Moore. Vanderbilt's Gordon Sargent looks to add his name to that prestigous list this year.

Some notable names have sprung their U.S. amateur victories into strong professional careers in recent years, including Viktor Hovland (2018), Bryson DeChambeau (2015), and Matthew Fitzpatrick (2013). Hovland, who has yet to capture a major championship, played in the final pairing at The Open Championship this year, finishing in a tie for fourth place. DeChambeau won the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot in commanding fashion, and Fitzpatrick won this year's U.S. Open at the same venue as his U.S. Amateur victory - The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.

The Country Club and Ridgewood each utilize their three sets of nine holes on property to form 18-hole championship routings. The two clubs also called upon architect Gil Hanse for their restorations. Hanse is known for returning courses to the original architect's intent while maintaining a championship-level quality.

Ridgewood, the A.W. Tillinghast design, has played host to a Ryder Cup, the U.S. Senior Amateur, a U.S. Amateur, a U.S. Senior Open, a Senior PGA Championship, a U.S. Girls' Junior and was a four-time host of the Barclays and Northern Trust during the FedEx Cup Playoffs. It's been around a long time... so long that Byron Nelson served as an assistant professional there in the 1930s before his playing career took off.

RCC's three nines are named after their position in relation to the clubhouse. The routing for this weekend's championship will be as follows: holes 1-7 of the East Nine, holes 2-6 of the Center Nine and holes 4-9 of the West Nine. The total yardage stretches to 7,487 yards.

It is impossible to discuss greater NYC golf without Ridgewood. It is impossible to discuss championship golf without the United States Amateur Championship. The two are perfect for each other, and should provide for excellent matches throughout the weekend.

Web3

What's Up in Web3?

Adoption Updates

• In early August, BlackRock announced a partnership with Coinbase to provide institutional investors with access to crypto trading, custody, prime brokerage, and reporting capabilities through connectivity between Aladdin and Coinbase Prime. Alladin is BlackRock's end-to-end investment management solution and its 200+ institutional users include insurers, pensions, corporations, asset managers, banks, and official institutions.

• Schwab Asset Management, the asset management arm of Charles Schwab, launched its first crypto ETF in late July. The Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF, which began trading on August 4th, tracks the Schwab Crypto Thematic Index and, while it does not directly invest in crypto, provides investors with exposure to companies that make cryptocurrencies and other digital assets a part of their business activities.

• 21Shares announced the listing of two new ETPs on SIX Swiss Exchange. The ETPs are designed to provide investors with exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum.

• Meta expanded its digital asset integration on Instagram to over 100 countries, allowing users to connect wallets such as MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet to the platform and showcase their NFTs.

Solana Hack

• Earlier this August, the Solana ecosystem was hacked as approximately 8,000 wallets were affected with more than $5 million in assets taken. According to Solana Labs CEO/co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, the hack was likely a "supply chain attack" on iOS-based wallets designed to steal users' private keys.

Other News

• Central African Republic launched the public sale of its Sango Coin in late July. Foreign investors will be able to qualify for citizenship by locking fixed collateral of Sango Coins worth at least $60,000 for a period of 5 years.

• In early August, cryptocurrency data firm Messari acquired Dove Metrics, a crypto fundraising intelligence database, for an undisclosed amount. A week later, it was announced that Messari was in the process of raising capital at a $300 million valuation.

• ICYMI: CoinDesk published an article late July during their Sports Week titled, "For the Fans: How DAOs Could Change Sports" that featured a section on LinksDAO.

Market Updates

• As of August 17th, the total crypto market cap sits at $1.118 trillion with Bitcoin leading the way at 40.1% market share.

• The price of Bitcoin was below $21,000 on July 27th, but rose sharply to over $24,000 in the span of 24 hours following the FOMC meeting in which the Federal Reserve raised U.S. interest rates by 75 basis points. Fed chair Jerome Powell commented that the pace of rate increases could slow down soon.

• Ethereum's price rose to over $1,900 for the first time since early June as investors continue to anticipate "The Merge", where the network will move from the energy-intensive Proof-of-Work to the environmentally-friendlier Proof-of-Stake mechanism to secure the blockchain.

But what's The Merge?

The Merge (Ethereum 2.0)

This fall, the current Ethereum Mainnet will "merge" with the Beacon Chain. Since its creation in December 2020, the Beacon Chain has been running parallel to the Mainnet, reaching consensus on its own state by agreeing with the active validators and their account balances.

During The Merge, the two separate systems of consensus will come together... the entire Ethereum Mainnet will seamlessly coalesce into the Beacon Chain, making it the primary consensus layer of the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world. Analysts haven likened it to a plane hot-swapping an old engine out for a newer, more efficient one mid-flight.

The Merge eliminates the need for energy-intensive mining, instead securing the network by using staked ETH. It marks an exciting step in Ethereum's future toward more scalability, security and sustainability, while also cutting energy consumption by ~99.95%.

Contributors

Nick B (barbs#7712) - Creator of The Mulligan & Project Lead

Martin C (martinc#0532) - Lead Golf Writer

Chris K (ckelly627#0963) - Lead Web3 Writer

Jack H (systemic_bliss#9897) - Web3 Writer

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