I promised to write about Tiger Woods this week. I attended an event hosted by Nike Golf and Golf Digest through their sponsor, American Airlines. It was a spectacular event. We were housed at the Doubletree San Pedro and played at Trump National. We all arrived at the Doubletree and Golf Digest and Nike ran a flawless check-in for the event. We were required to wear the event identification at all times, either as a lanyard or a clip which was worn on the Nike hat (we were all given a bag of Nike goodies at check-in). We were asked to wear the Nike Tour shirts so that we could feel like tour players. That evening we attended a dinner with the 24 winners of the Nike “Tee It Up with Tiger” contest. This was their event. Nike had placed a platinum ball in the sleeves of their new NIKE ONE Platinum and NIKE ONE Black golf balls. There was only one per sleeve. If you purchased the golf balls and got a platinum ball, you could register to attend this event – cool stuff, huh? Over 2,000 contestants were eligible, and from there, 24 were selected and participated in the event. There were some good stories on how the participants bought the special Nike balls. Most were Titleist players (myself included – ProV1). Some wanted to try the ball, and others had heard about the contest and wanted to give it a shot. We spent a lot of time with Tiger – we each played a hole with him (Hole 10). Tiger is still recovering from his knee and femur surgeries, so he could not hit a shot, but he chatted and laughed with us. On the tee box, my group was made up of people with a three handicap, a two handicap and a nine handicap. I am a 16. And guess who hit the best shot on the Tiger hole? Yours truly! How many people can say that Tiger Woods told them they had a good shot? Later we had a clinic with Tiger and Anthony Kim – a very funny guy. Before the dinner there was a question-and-answer with Tiger and one of the Golf Digest writers. I learned two things about Tiger – he will recover and come back to be the golfer we love to watch, and he was incredibly close to his father. I knew he was close, but didn’t know how close until he continually referenced his father in each session. The bottom line – Tiger Woods told me I had a good shot! What a great feeling. -Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO