Hello Scratch golfers! This week marks the start of the North American portion of the Nationwide Tour. After four weeks of golf off the continent, the tour resumed here in the States with the Chitimacha Louisiana Open. It might well be the most delicious week of the year on tour, at least if you are into seafood and cajun spices, as I happen to be! If you are into spicy, the food down there certain has the spice and so does this blog! We've got golf, food, good weather, bad weather, shipping issues and even a hooker in this week's Tour summary. Enjoy!

So, this was the first "real" week of the Tour Rep portion of my job. Most of my time will be spent out on the Nationwide Tour, growing the brand and making sure that the players have proper access to the best wedges in golf. It was also to mark the beginning of my Demo Day series on the Mondays of tournament week. Somehow it didn't all go down as planned.

My flight left Cleveland at 6:50 a.m. Sunday morning. I'm much more of a late night guy than an early morning one, but I am functional, even at 5:15 if necessary. I got up, loaded up the car and drove to the airport. I love that long-term parking is about 3/4 of a mile from the terminal, especially when hauling two bags with me. It does wake one up, though, even more so when it is only 30 degrees out.

The first flight was on time, smooth, easy. I met up with Nickent Rep Scott Wilkerson, a close friend of mine, in Nashville, where I made my connection. We grabbed a couple of seats (we flew Southwest, so you actually can just grab a couple of seats) and waited. We pushed back from the gate. We waited. And waited. And waited. The plane had issues. We sat there for 45 minutes or so. Then we pushed back to the gate. And waited. Then we had to get off, re-align, and board a new plane. We had a 12:50 tee time at TPC Louisiana. We were not going to make that by a country mile.

While we waited for our new plane, I decided to call into the shop at the range where I would be holding the demo day. just to make sure we were all set and to let them know that I had equipment being sent directly to them for the demo day. The guy who answered had NO IDEA what I was talking about. Not good. I had somehow misplaced (lost) the sheet where I had all the info written down about this first demo day. I had all the other locations and contacts, just not this one. But the guy said there was another range by the same name down the road that might be the place, so I figured I must have gotten the number wrong. Nevertheless, it left me feeling a bit uncomfortable.

We finally got a working plane and managed to get to TPC Louisiana in time to tee it with PGA Tour player Kris Blanks by 3:00. Kris got an extra three hours of practice in while we fiddled around playing musical airplanes. We went from plane to car to first tee. Now, I haven't played much golf since hanging it up in October of last year. I've definitely got the itch to play, so this was a real treat. I'm finding my Scratch irons to be the incredible pieces of equipment I expected them to be. While I'm still getting used to my new yardages (I tuned up the irons in order to fit 4 wedges in the bag and to produce a bit of off-set), they are incredibly easy to work and control. I hit a lot of good shots for a guy who has hardly thought about playing! It was great being out there and having the chance to get a round in.

Sunday night, my swing coach, Justin Hill, came in from Little Rock. He always goes to the Chitimacha and works with a few of the players. We hung out a bit, had a cigar and talked about the state of the world of golf. He's a great friend and it is always good to have some time to hang out. I was still feeling some trepidation about the next day. I had checked to see if the number I had called while in Nashville was the correct number. It was the right number. Not good. Not knowing whether I actually had a venue for the demo day was weighing pretty heavily on me and I didn't sleep that well.

As soon as it was light out, I was up and moving. We headed to the range to see if I actually had a space or not for the day. Golf World Driving Range is a decent sized facility with a small-ish shop and plenty of hitting space. Bart and Mike were there in the shop in the morning and they knew what was going on. No worries. We had our space. I was very relieved to say the least, especially since this was where the clubs were being shipped. I had the demo day set up from 1:00-6:00, the time Bart said was their busiest time of day. I had time to kill and had already checked out of the hotel, so Jay Hill and I decided to go grab an energy drink and find a Kinkos so I could run off some order forms. We stopped at a gas station with a convenience store to get our caffiene fix. I'll admit that I'm an Amp addict. I'm a one-can-a-day drinker, but it is a firm part of my routine and has been for a few years. I got my can and went to the checkout. As Justin and I waited for the clerk to finish up she was doing and ring us up, from behind us we heard, almost whispered, "you guys do golf?" We turned around to see a young-ish woman who really rather resembled Marilyn Manson after an all-night bender waiting to get her Red Bull and cigarettes. My thought was "yikes," but my reply was a considerably nicer, "yep, sure do. We do golf." I wanted to ask her just what she "do," but it was a question pretty much without a need of asking, so I just turned back to the checkout counter. Justin and I deflected a couple other questions from behind us and tried to get out of there as fast as possible. Of course, she caught us at the car and asked a question that wasn't new to her lips, "you guys looking for a good time? I'm an "entertainer." I used to work in Vegas." Oh, brother! I politely added that I was happily married and NOT looking for anything like what she was offering. Justin, unbeknownst to me, had by way of reply just stuck out his left hand to display his wedding band. The look on his face when I turned back to him was priceless. As she walked away from the car, clearly disappointed, Jay Hill and I burst out laughing. Getting propositioned hadn't been on my list of things to do for the day, but then, Monday just wasn't going to stick to the script.

Before we would get to Kinkos, I got a call from Paul. He'd gone down to FedEx to check on the status of the boxes he had shipped to me. The clubs had gone out. The staff bag was still sitting behind the counter. Yes, at FedEx, where shipping is what they do, the bag was still sitting behind the counter. So, it was to be me with a carry bag and a bunch of wedges on the range for the first demo day. That was until two hours later when we found out that the clubs had gone out ground, rather than express and were not due to arrive until Wednesday. I would not be in Baton Rouge on Wednesday. All of a sudden I found myself in Baton Rouge with nothing to do. I made my apologies at Golf World. I felt bad that the whole thing had fallen apart. They had been very nice. But without a bag and with no clubs, there just wasn't anything to demo.

A couple of hours down the road and I'm set up in my hotel in Fayetteville, answering e-mails. Our credentials weren't set to come in until Tuesday, so I was basically banished to the hotel room. Paul got in at 9:30 and after a few laughs about the way the whole day had gone, we called it a night.

Paul's credential came in just fine in the morning. Mine came in, too. Says Kevin Gessino-Kraft right on it. Spelled right and everything. With Greg Kraft's picture. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I was out there for four years! Our names aren't the same. I only used to be Kevin Kraft. Now I've got another whole name attached. If you do a search, you have to search the G's, not the K's. We don't look anything alike. I had that haircut when I was 14 years old. I use gel; I spike it up! I was bitter. But I'm feeling better now, even though they sent out my new (correct) credential with my old (and much less appealing) picture. What a struggle.

The Nationwide event went well for us. We don't expect to get 50 wedges in play overnight. It takes time and some connections help, too. I happen to know a lot of the guys on the Nationwide Tour. Being out there feels really natural to me, even if being there and not playing feels a bit strange. It was bound to be a little weird, having been a player for so long. But we got a couple new wedges in play this week and have some more wedges being built for guys wanting to try us out.

The weather was good on Tuesday, but very windy. Not really a great practice day, but the range was far from deserted. There is a decidedly different vibe out there this year. Gone were the Titleist and Nickent trailers. Gone were all the bags from the range. The only bags out there this week were ours, Callaway's and Fourteen's. Add a few on the putting green and that is it. It seems that most everyone has cut back to some degree at least. We got done what we needed on Tuesday, as the expectation was for a total wash-out on Wednesday.

Paul bolted early. He caught an earlier flight and headed home. I stayed and spent some time on the range. It was good that I did. I picked up another potential player. The weather held for quite a while, then it rained. Then it stopped. Then it rained some more. By 1:30, with weather threatening more and more the range was mostly empty and the equipment bags that had been there had been taken back to the trailers. I was soaked and headed to the car. Note to self: next week, bring a towel for the clubs and an umbrella for your head. I guess I'm out of practice!

The rest of the trip was pretty standard. I drove to New Orleans, caught my plane in the morning and made it back home in the afternoon. It was quite a week and this has been quite a long post. But Scratch is all about the details, so details is what you get!

Next week: The Nationwide Tour in San Francisco. Stay tuned!


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