A Shot Of Hurricane Earl From Space

Hurricane Earl is currently endangering the east coast, and more importantly endangering my ability to watch golf uninterrupted Labor Day Weekend.  Obviously, this has me in a testy mood, unable to plan my weekend around golf, as I normally would do.  However, this got me thinking about the types of weather that I have played in, and how I dealt with it.

Hello again, readers!  I hope you are all having a great end to the summer, and you are getting in as many rounds of golf as you can before silly things like school and work get in the way.  I am writing a little bit off topic today, I want to ask you all about apps…

So I know it seems like all we ever talk about is the tour. Tour players… Tour golf balls… Tour, tour, tour, tour, tour…  Though we may talk tour a lot, it isn’t all we think about. Not by any stretch of the imagination.  Recently, my excitement has revolved around the farthest thing from a tour player golf ball: The SoftFeel.

When I started blogging I promised to keep all of my faithfull(ish) readers up to date with my favorite tips from our Tour Staffers.  This is another tip from deep within our archives, a great putting drill from Steve Flesch.  Now, by no means am I what people would consider a “good putter” and I usually scoff at the idea of fancy putter drills… But I love this drill.

We have also added an Instruction category to our blogs, so now all of our latest tips can be viewed in one place.  Be on the lookout for more to come!

Jrae recently got a chance to talk to Srixon staffer, Jim Furyk at the Bridgestone Invitational.  Furyk answered a few questions pertaining to the event, some of his club preferences’, and even his take on the whole “Team Edward vs. Team Jacob” debate.  (Spoiler Alert: Furyk is not the biggest Twilight fan on the planet!)

Yesterday I got the chance to sit down with Chris Beck, the Brand Manager of Srixon to talk about the USO. Chris told me a little about what is Srixon is doing to benefit a great charity.

First, what are your job title and responsibilities?
Brand Manager – Srixon
Responsibilities are focused around maintaining the brand mission and making sure it is maintained through the ”best in class” quality of products we develop and introduce into the marketplace.

Where did the idea come from to join up with the USO and why did you pick the USO?
We were looking for the right philanthropy for the brand and one that would connect with many of our employees. We chose the USO due to the large amount of employees who served in the military and the current involvement of our military in the middle east. We like that the USO’s mission is to provide morale, welfare and recreation-type services to service members and their families. Some of these recreation activities are organized golf outings that raise money and honor those who have served. The combination felt like a perfect fit.

How exactly does the money benefit the USO?
The money is used to help sponsor events that are organized by the USO to provide moral for our troops.

Is this a partnership you think you will be continuing in the future?
I think it is the correct fit and we are excited about continuing our relationship through 2011.

What ball offerings are available in the USO packaging? What offerings will be available in the future?
The ball that currently supports this program is our premium performance tour offering of Z-STAR and Z-STARx in special camouflaged packaging. In the future, you might see another offering in our all-ability performance category that appeals to a larger audience.

Look for the  golf balls with the camouflage packaging in stores, and help support a great cause!

So the final day of testing didn’t go quite as well as the first day, hence the late post.  It all started well. We got there early and waited, and waited, and waited.  I watched Vijay work with his caddie and swing coach (I think). He is definitely a different animal when he is working on his game. I laughed at the herd that followed Phil Mickelson around, and I got to see Tiger hit 6 or 8 shots before being done for the day.

09:30

So, the first day of testing is under way and it is going exactly as expected… Hurry up and wait.  We made our way over to the course by 7:30 and had a meeting with all of the tour reps.  In that meeting, I talked about the new balls we were going to be testing and made sure everyone was on the same page.

So the first day of my visit to the PGA tour has concluded without incident. I suppose that is a pretty good start knowing me, but I haven’t had to interact with any tour players so how big of an incident can I truly cause.

The Cleveland Golf/Srixon VP of Tour Operations and myself left the office at 7am this morning and headed to the airport. I need to be on the range tomorrow at 7:30 (4:30 in California time) so I have been getting up early the last few days trying to acclimate a little bit.

Hey readers, my name is Nick and this is my first blog post for Srixon.com.  A little background on me… I have been working for Cleveland Golf/Srixon for about a month now and have been involved a little bit with our online team here: facebook, twitter ext… (BTW, if you’re not a fan of us on facebook you are missing out on some cool prizes!)

So, one of my many bosses asked me if I wanted to get involved in the blog and I jumped at the chance.  I thought it would be a great way for me to share all the knowledge I have gathered in my 21 years on earth (I’m not sure if Srixon knows what they have gotten themselves into with me!)

I thought I would start all of my soon to be faithful readers (?) off with a video from our galleries.  This is a video from Jim Furyk showing us how to chip.  Furyk has a great short game and this video has some phenomenal tips.  (Did you know there is something called Srixon TV where there are a ton of videos just like this?  Check it out!)  Hope you enjoy!