The Golfer and I are geeks. As such we are both heavy users of various instant messaging. AOL. MSM. Yahoo. In addition to various friends, family, and co-workers, we usually have several conversations between each other during the day. We are sort of used to being able to ‘talk’ to the other person when we need to, instead of thinking ‘Oh, I better make a note to talk to The Golfer about that this evening’.
Where I work all IM traffic goes through a secure connection. Meaning they keep a copy of every message I type, for some, very important I’m sure, legal reason. If the secure connection goes down, I have no IM. It rarely goes down, and when it does it’s usually back up in an hour or two. And I still get e-mail and have an internet connection. So no big deal. You would think.
Last week the secure connection went down for a few hours. After it had been down an hour or so I got an e-mail from The Golfer. This was the subject line: You’re not online….I’m in a panic!
Well. As I open it I am thinking…..Berry quit working? Lost his wallet? Uh, no. Here is the text of the e-mail:
they can’t take away my ball !!
http://www.ontgolf.ca/g4g/2008/11/12/titleist-says-injunction-wont-impact-prov1-sales/
If you click on the link you will find a story about how Callaway has received an injunction against Titleist and the ProV1 ball over some violated patents. What this means is Titleist can’t sell it’s ProV1 ball. Or maybe they can. Titleist says in September they changed their production to work around the patents.
As discussed before, for 90% of the golfers out there what ball they play makes absolutely no difference to their game. But for those where it does matter, it matters A LOT. Over the years they have tried hundreds and once they settle on one you can take it from them when you pry it from their cold dead hands. And lots of Golfers have settled on the ProV1. The ‘original’ ProV1. Whatever Titleist did to get around the patents will effect the ball. Which for most of the people on the planet means nothing. But for those who searched until they found the ProV1 and settled on it as ‘the ball’, it means they have to start trying other balls again. They are not happy.
So these days a Golfer may maintain their equilibrium through plummeting stock markets and 401k’s. They may not break a sweat during layoffs and foreclosures. They may laugh at bailouts and tight credit. But take away the ProV1 and panic reigns.
As for me, I’m thinking picking up 6 dozen or so of the ‘old’ ProV1 as a Christmas present would go a long way towards further cementing my position as Worlds Greatest Golfers Wife.
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