Well I hit balls for the first time this week. There was a blizzard in Calgary with a foot of snow and freezing temperatures. Yowzers! Nice start to the season!
We do have indoor golf domes here but they are only 100 yards long. I prefer an outdoor range where you can see your ball flight as I am working on a high draw. There are several facilities in the city with heated stalls. As long as there is not a head wind and you layer properly, you feel like a warm chick under a heat lamp up to about 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees Celsius ).
It is also essential to start with a good warm-up with lots of stretching and rotating so that you don’t pull or strain anything. I have to admit my fingertips were numb at first but once I got swinging it felt better. I focused mostly on irons and didn’t even hit driver as I was just trying to groove my swing. I worked on solid contact because every mishit reverberated through my body like a tuning fork! Ouch!
I also was excited this week to talk to Nike and order some of the Spring apparel. I have been sponsored by Nike for the past nine years and was thrilled to confirm sponsorship for the 2013 season with them again this week. I know it is not the same level of excitement as signing Rory McIlroy, but in my world it was a big deal.
I think McIlroy will be an outstanding addition to the Nike family. He is young, enthusiastic and has mad “skillz!” I think he will complement his elder statesman and staff mate Tiger Woods who, in my opinion, will be making a charge this year. I loved their new ad together, “No Cup is Safe.” It is a great mix of fun, friendly trash talk and fantastic swings.
As part of my sponsorship I will be converting all my woods this year to the Covert. It is the first cavity-back driver that conforms to USGA and R&A Rules. I am excited to try it and love that it is a deep sexy red. It is a testing process and I love to go on the launch monitors to see all the numbers but also need to feel it and watch how the ball reacts.
I have decided to stick with the Nike Method Drone belly putter. They will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands Dec. 31, 2015. I have less three-putts with it, period. The Nike Oven’s putter guru and inventor of the Method putter, David Franklin, fit it for me personally so I can’t part with it! I’ll learn to go back to the standard putter in three years’ time.
I have also been slammed this week getting ready for the biggest show in golf, the PGA Show in Orlando, Fla.. There is over 1 million square feet of booth space with every gadget, widget, golf cart, green cutter, travel destination, golf-apparel company and all the big club manufacturers that you can imagine, sharing their new wares and touting their products. I will be attending as media and will cover some of the hot new products for 2013.
The best thing about the PGA Show is that all of the “who’s who” in the golf world is there, so when you go to a booth to talk to a company about their new product offerings for 2013 you are usually speaking directly with the president, CEO and head designer. I have been making appointments all this week setting up key interviews. It is also important to make time blocks to be available to chat with people you just bump into in the isles.
Also balancing off the mom side of Lisa Longball I celebrated my son’s 6th birthday this week. On the weekend, we hosted a kid party with 14 little ones at cooking school. Mom could use the lessons, too. On the actual day all work was put to the side and it was out for lunch, a matinee seeing “Hotel Transylvania” and dinner at a pizza joint. Every kid’s dream! The movie was fabulous if you have kids check it out; I loved the Dave Mathews Band references in there. (Ok, I am a closet DMB fan…it’s out!) Birthdays are special days and it is important to spend as much time with your children as they grow up way too fast!
Off to hit balls again this afternoon, it is above freezing which will be a treat!
Until next week, go long!
