Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Zane Tabari (left) and Patrick Shea first met playing Little League in Saratoga. More recently, they invented the popular game Golo while having lunch at C.B. Hannegan's.
Locals invent golf dice game they call the 'next Yahtzee'
By Kara Chalmers
Saratoga natives and friends Zane Tabari and Patrick Shea had just finished 18 holes at Summit Pointe golf course in Milpitas one rainy morning in April 1998, when they went to their favorite pub, C.B. Hannegan's in Los Gatos, for lunch.
This was the usual routine for the pair who first met in Saratoga Little League. They had no idea they were about to invent a game that would cause them to quit their jobs as a sportscaster and a golf pro, and delve wholeheartedly into the unfamiliar territory of patents, corporations and marketing.
On that April day, the two sat at the end of the bar where dice cups are lined up behind the beer tap handles. Amid drinks, they began playing a game with nine dice and a cup.
"We said there's got to be a way to play golf with dice," said Tabari, 33. "It's the golf junkie mentality--find golf in anything."
Tabari and Shea played four rounds and kept score on a napkin, which they both signed and dated. Shea, 31, won the contest, framed the napkin and gave it to Tabari as a gift.
"It wasn't a gift so much as to rub it in," Tabari joked. From then on, the two always played the golf dice game when they got together.
"We had no idea what it was going to become," Shea said. "We really enjoyed playing the game. It just hit us one day--let's release it."
The game, called Golo, entails rolling nine 12-sided dice, like playing nine holes of golf, for scores. The die are separated into pars by colors. Reds are par three, whites are par four and blues are par five, just as in real golf.
A player can roll the dice up to nine times, taking as many dice from each roll as he wants. The player rolls the remaining die until happy with the scores on each hole. And there is no limit to the number of players.
"It's golf in a cup," Tabari said.
The object of the game is to "go low," hence the name. Tabari and Shea came up with 'Golo' after turning down several less attractive options, such as "Golfstones," which they said sounded too much like "Gallstones."
"It's a fun game," Tabari said, "It's fun and it's simple. It's just a cup and nine dice and it just plays really easily."
Shea adds that the game is social, like real golf. "In between, while you're playing, you're talking about life," he said, adding that the game is addicting.
"Social, addicting, fun, simple," Tabari said. "Those are the key elements for anything."
Tabari and Shea were friends when they were young. They lost touch when Tabari went to Arizona State University to study broadcasting after graduating from Saratoga High School in 1984. Shea attended Santa Clara University, where he earned a marketing degree, after graduating from Bellarmine College Preparatory. He is a PGA class A professional and still teaches on the weekends, mostly as a volunteer.
The two met up one night at The Bank in Saratoga on Big Basin Way when Shea was working at Summit Pointe golf course and Tabari was a sportscaster with the Fox affiliate in Salinas. Although Tabari lived in Salinas, the sportscaster and golf pro had the same days off, Mondays and Tuesdays, so they started playing golf together.
"Golf became such a passion for me and that's how we got to be friends again," Tabari said. "Golf has been a big part of my life for the last couple years."
"Golf is definitely the central focus of the whole deal," Shea said.
After that day in 1998, the two spent 10 months refining their game, playing more than 2,000 rounds to get the game just right. They call the book in which they logged all their rounds the bible.
"We put a lot of sweat into the company," Shea said. "It's consumed our lives." They launched Golo in September, began making a profit in January and to date, they have sold more than 10,000 games in 35 states.
But what the two seem most shocked about is that they are actually making a living from their hobby.
"I thought being a sportscaster was the greatest job in the world," Tabari said. "Now, I own my own company."
"We truly believe this will be the next Yahtzee for the millennium," Shea said.
While their backgrounds in golf may have helped open some doors for their product, Tabari and Shea at heart are just two beer-drinking young guys who turned into successful businessmen almost overnight. While they seem energetic and ambitious, they still seem almost surprised at how well their company is doing. They are genuinely excited.
"It's fun to think we launched a product and we're selling it," Tabari said.
Golo is available at Double D's and C.B. Hannegan's in Los Gatos. Visit www.iGOLO.com for information.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
