John Totura first started playing Golden Tee while he was still in high school. His friend, Chesnut, had a GT Fore! cabinet at home, and the two would play regularly. He quickly made the rounds among locals before discovering Marc “The Mouth” Mucklewicz a few years later in 2001, and in time John would be found regularly spinning games at The Lantern in Naperville.

John and Marc formed an instant bond and became good friends. Marc was better than John at the game, but John was good enough to keep things competitive.

When asked about what got him to take the game seriously John states “I got more serious about Golden Tee when I was drawn for Team USA for the Golden Tee World Championship in 2007.  I paid more attention to The Mouth…got to meet greats like (Graig) Kinzler, Dean (Liakakos), (Chris) Eversole, (Andy) Haas, (Chris) Litzinger, (Matt) Estepp and others who showed me a ton”

Totura manages a bar called Tailgaters in Bolingbrook, IL, and boasts that the location is pretty good for Golden Tee. They have one GT LIVE cabinet and GT PGA TOUR cabinet. They also have an in-house stage which Mouth has dubbed “The Nerd Stage”, with daily drink specials to quench the thirst of regular visitors.

Since Accel Entertainment, an Illinois amusement and slot operator, took the helm of their amusement equipment, their incentive program has motivated several of their regulars to commit to a weekly routine of 5 days of GT a week.

When asked about the impact of Golden Tee on his life, John says “Golden Tee has given me a lot of friends and family. People that I text and talk with everyday.  It’s a healthy way to have some friendly competition with a gambling fix whenever I get together with friends…whether it’s cash games with competitive players or for beers in CTTP on par 3’s.”

He plans to continue playing GT PGA TOUR for the foreseeable future and, in his own words, still needs to “refine” his game a bit.  

He'd love to harness his 20+ years of experience to make a deep run in a tournament soon, whether it be on the National Golden Tee Tour or finding his way to the podium at the annual World Championship.