Day 3
Another great day at the 2015 PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, FL!!
This was the day that was to be the busiest and it proved to be true. I decided to show early in order to get parked a bit easier and, indeed it was quicker than trying to park at the last minute. The traffic is horrendous.
Great surprise right away; Nancy Lopez showed up at the booth beside us and hung around for over an hour as she endorses their product, iDGRIPS. I took a moment to snap her picture and talk with her a bit about Mulligan Magazine. My understanding is that she has been a woman of faith through her Catholic upbringing. She was open to our concept and Dann Lemerand was able to speak to her later in the day and further gain a commitment from her to take a look at the magazine and see how she may want to contribute. She's a wonderful ambassador for the game with her incredible career with 52 victories. I call her; "the Arnold Palmer of the women's game".
This was the day that was to be the busiest and it proved to be true. I decided to show early in order to get parked a bit easier and, indeed it was quicker than trying to park at the last minute. The traffic is horrendous.
Great surprise right away; Nancy Lopez showed up at the booth beside us and hung around for over an hour as she endorses their product, iDGRIPS. I took a moment to snap her picture and talk with her a bit about Mulligan Magazine. My understanding is that she has been a woman of faith through her Catholic upbringing. She was open to our concept and Dann Lemerand was able to speak to her later in the day and further gain a commitment from her to take a look at the magazine and see how she may want to contribute. She's a wonderful ambassador for the game with her incredible career with 52 victories. I call her; "the Arnold Palmer of the women's game".
Thankfully, Wally Armstrong called me and asked if we might have a coffee together to discuss the ministry. He is always so gracious. We decided to head out to the concourse and sit for a time and talk. I am so envious, to a degree (I know that's not a positive trait for a Christ follower), but, I am sorry that we aren't able to spend more time together in order to 'download' his knowledge and experience with "giving the Gospel thru golf". Our discussion began with his comments on reaching out to the world of golf as Christ followers. He mentioned how he had discovered that the word "Christian" was somewhat of an offensive term to many and that we ought to try and avoid using that term as much as possible as it can turn many away from engaging with us initially. I had heard this before and agreed that we were trying to draw every golfer into the "Mulligan Golf Club" and we needed to be a welcoming as possible. Good point remembered.
We continued to discuss the direction of the "golf ministry" group, including; Jim Hiskey, Bill Rogers, Links Players International as well as a couple of other folks I did not recognize. He talked about how the "Mulligan GC" was originally meant to be the vehicle by which they would reach all golfers for Christ, but, the medium just didn't happen the way they expected. He was encouraged by the direction of Mulligan Magazine and Kingdom.golf in moving the concept forward. He also mentioned the 2016 Payne Stewart Cup location being changed to Northern Ireland, in fact, the group was discussing that concept this weekend.
We continued to discuss the direction of the "golf ministry" group, including; Jim Hiskey, Bill Rogers, Links Players International as well as a couple of other folks I did not recognize. He talked about how the "Mulligan GC" was originally meant to be the vehicle by which they would reach all golfers for Christ, but, the medium just didn't happen the way they expected. He was encouraged by the direction of Mulligan Magazine and Kingdom.golf in moving the concept forward. He also mentioned the 2016 Payne Stewart Cup location being changed to Northern Ireland, in fact, the group was discussing that concept this weekend.
Ron Potter and Greg Powers of the Challenge Golf Association (CGA) showed up in the morning as well. I accompanied them to the Ping display as they were to meet with Mr. Solheim, the President of Ping. They introduced him to the CGA concept and he was interested in talking further about participating or sponsoring the CGA. This was very encouraging because Ron has done so much work with the organization and it is, essentially, ready to launch the ministry outside of Tennessee where it, generally, has been operating. Ron had his Executive Summary and Sponsor packets with him and they look very professional and are succinct and to-the-point; introducing the ministry well enough to capture the interest of committed golfing Christ Followers who have the heart to participate in the ministry, financially. We further discussed the strategy for implementation of the ministry and that we would pursue ministry partners to join with us for distribution and further implementation of the model within other areas of the country.
While hanging at the booth and walking around the show we were able to see many other things going on in the world of golf, including; Paula Creamer, Bob Toski and incredible gadgets and new products. See some of the photos below...
Ohhhhh, and of course, I traveled over to Disney World to enjoy the sunny day with the top down on my BMW 6 series and play about 10 holes at the Magnolia Course. I met a very nice young man and shared with him the Gospel as well as the fact that Jesus is real in the world of golf. Great day.... in Him!!!!
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