[12 piece bucket]

The Chairman of the Board of Henry-Griffitts and I had a chance encounter that changed my life. His name is Billy McDonald. He's a delight and a very knowledgeable man. When I was at my previous facility, we had hired a new teacher, Steve Ferguson. Steve has become one of my best friends. He and I have also changed facilities and have remained together. Steve was an HG fitter and thought it would be a great product for us to use in fitting, as I had not been exposed to HG.

Billy, as anyone that knows him would know, is not one to sit in a boardroom and let things happen. He makes things happen. So, he wanted to be in the field as a Regional Director in addition to his other duties. Therefore, I had my encounter. I call it an encounter, because Billy is like a squirrel on crack. If you blink, you miss him. I love his energy and passion.

When he was spending time at my facility and was observing me as a teacher, he said he was having trouble with his short game, mainly with chipping. So, he asked for a chipping lesson. I gave him one and he said it had been a long time since he heard that sound. I jokingly told him that it was called "compression". He asked me, "where did you learn how to do this?". I told him that I had taken lessons from a TGM instructor, and was just telling what I had been told. Billy thought it was the best chipping lesson he'd ever received, and wanted to know more about it. So, I recommended that he contact Danny and Joe, who at the time were co-owners of TGM.

Billy started piecing things together and found that his most successful accounts had ties to TGM. When he realized this, he started his quest to get everyone TGM Authorized, including me and all other fitters in his territory. So, our chance chipping lesson evolved into something much bigger.

So, I went to get Authorized in TGM. And, then the greatest blessing to my teaching ability walked through the door during one of our classes, Lynn Blake. He was just sitting in my class and listening, but in true Lynn Blake fashion, he couldn't sit still when G.O.L.F. was being spoken. Joe Daniels let him teach part of our class, and from that point on, I started wearing out Lynn's cell number to get him to come see me at my facility. I was relentless with the calls, because I knew he was one in a million. I had the hunger and he could fill it.

Lynn finally came to my facility after all the badgering, and he watched me teach. He loved what I was doing (as he should have, since I was doing everything he told us to do in the class). Then, I showed him the changes that I had made in my own motion since the class. I think 'astounded' would be an understatement, because he couldn't believe it was the same guy he saw in the class. As a result, he asked for my participation on his site and we became partners in the schools. I was honored to do anything he wanted.

All of this resulted in the largest number of new AI's in TGM, thanks to Billy. He wanted all of his fitters to also be the best teachers. So, TGM and HG have been joined at the hip ever since. I'm happy to have served any role in that evolution.

So, my journey:
Ted with some TGM > Steve Ferguson > Billy McDonald > HG Fitting > TGM Authorization > Lynn Blake

My life wouldn't be as rich without each of these people and experiences. I've been blessed beyond measure by each of them.

Great post! Love all this history - how it come to be stuff.

Question: What was the chipping lesson?