I’m so glad to be home this week, enjoying my son Carl and daughter Annie who is on fall break from school in Indiana. What I love is taking them to Panera Bread and catching up on their lives over a long lunch. It’s kind of my time to see how they are doing and also to express what’s been happening in my life. Karen is usually busy preferring to just stay home have a light lunch and get her projects done.
This past Tuesday I had the pleasure of taking my friend Jim Guerin to Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois. 
We were given the tour of all the interesting facilities which are the best that America can offer. Also, we played a round of golf with great weather at a temperature of around 70 degrees, which might be the last good day this fall for warm golf. Jerry Rich’s wife and son Keith along with Alex Kline –Wedeen, director of marketing, were present for a wonderful lunch in the Plantation home. Jerry is so full of life, fully engaged in all the activities of his club. What I didn’t know about the Rich’ is that they are very romantic and loving with each other. I think this gives the whole complex a real zest that you don’t see everywhere. My friend Jim is a bigwig for Gulfstream and we both were very impressed with RHF’s capacity to host major corporate events. If you ever get an opportunity to play you should jump at the occasion because it’s a once in a lifetime experience.
On the golf side, I’ve been looking forward to practicing and testing out new driver heads. What makes it so convenient is that all I want is to make sure of is that I have the maximum Smash Factor which should be 1.5 on the Flight Scope. Translation, you want your ball speed off the clubface 1.5 times faster than the club head speed. What I’ve noticed lately is that my smash factor has been averaging 1.4 to 1.5 a little lower than what is possible. All metals are slightly different and perform at different rates, especially after they are used a little sometimes giving the face more spring. Maybe this is my illusion, however, the clubs are getting hotter every day it seems and I don’t want to be behind the curve. Callaway has sent me 8 heads. What makes it so convenient is that I can change the head with a Callaway wrench in about four minutes, using the same weights and shaft to measure all the heads which makes it easy to measure one component part. This is so wonderful and saves me a lot of time. In the past we use to travel to California and test equipment at the Callaway Test Center, which took a lot of valuable time away from being with your family. Most of the time I would wait until the off season to test equipment, I still do, however for the smaller adjustments we can do them on tour or at home which has made my life much more fun. This fall Callaway is coming out with a whole new set of irons and Metal clubs that are supposed to be spectacular. I love our tour rep Jeff Opheim, because he is so efficient in helping me take care of any equipment, clothing, or contractual issues, but most importantly, keeping me up to date with all the new technology. This is an ever changing field today because every manufacturer is trying to outdo the next. It is so much fun to test the latest idea that comes down the Callaway pipeline. If you are a lover of golf, to be in the technology loop is one of the most exciting experiences of all. What has really been interesting this year is to see all the new drivers that my friends might be playing and watching how much farther they are going. A player that I could easily outdrive has routinely outdriven me time and time again with a new club. So Jeff is a very big piece to the puzzle in staying competitive with all your competitors. It’s truly a blast to play the latest and the greatest golf clubs that are available today! Callaway is truly a leader in our sport. Jeff, and Callaway, many thanks for helping me have a great finish last week in North Carolina. I’m looking forward to going to my last event next week in San Antonio. Our great TPC Canyons Course is very challenging and fun to play. Also the weather is always warm in Texas at this time of the year. So I’ll keep you posted as to my progress, and I look forward to catching up later. Until next time have a great week, and may God bless you fully. Chipper