As the golf seasons starts to peak and the Nelson starts to gear up, our tournament director, Jon Drago starts to get a little sentimental. If you don’t know him, he’s truly a great guy, LOVES quotes, writes a poem for every occasion and leads the golf staff with enthusiasm. Each Friday, since he started (11 years ago), he has sent out a weekly e-mail. Since this is the Nelson Insider, we want to share the last few leading up to the tournament. Enjoy and get motivated to Come Play at the Nelson!
Friday, May 2: Really? It’s 2 May! Is that possible? Tournament week starts in 10 days! Tournament HQ opens up in three days! Two weeks from tonight we’ll be making the cut! 17 days from now this thing will be OVER, and our tournament will officially have a new name!
As we enter into advance week, or really the most intense week of the year as it relates to the tournament, we get ready for the final sprint!
This week was a great week. We had really good weather, we hosted the Media
Challenge, we got great press, we packed up the office, we made plans for the move, we put up more tents and installed more generators, we talked about 2015, we made a few sales, we motivated and informed the membership, we hosted the Corporate Challenge, basically, we made stuff happen!!! We got ourselves prepared for Advance week!
Advance week brings many new vendors, the PGA TOUR Rules staff, Shotlink, CBS, Rope and Stake, and really all of the final touches to the implementation of the tournament. Advance week is where the rubber meets the road and where we ensure we position ourselves for success the following week when we invite 250,000 people to “Come Play at the Nelson!”
To anyone who is experiencing the tournament for the first time, relish the next two weeks. There will be times that you will think you couldn’t be so tired. There will be times that you will think you couldn’t be so frustrated, There will be times when you’ll think “what have I gotten myself into.” There will be times when you’ll think, “is a Tiff’s Treat really the only thing there is to eat out here?” There will be times when you draw from adrenaline you didn’t know you had. There will be memories that last FOREVER!!!…Let me tell you from experience, 10 years from now, these are the times that you will remember. You won’t remember the things that went perfectly! You’ll remember the times we realized that something wasn’t right and, rather than pointing fingers and blaming someone, we rolled up our sleeves and figured out, together, how to get the job done!
Lastly¸ I will say that there is NOTHING EASY about the next two weeks. But if you were looking for easy, you never would have become a part of this team. We, as a team, value hard work, hard play, great rewards, teamwork, determination, and oh, did I say hard work? Let’s bear down and finish this, together! Yes, it’s hard, but don’t’ fear it, because the “win” is too great! And I promise you, if you give it everything you have, you’ll go to bed every night with the satisfaction that you did something that truly mattered!
Tonight’s quote is a focus on the determination and belief in mission to do what we have to do, to overcome our fears, and to understand that it’s all worth it and will produce results beyond our imagination!
“Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.” ~Robert Kiyosaki
“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” ~George Lorimer
Get some rest, take your vitamin C, and I’ll see ya Monday.
Jon Drago @jddrago
Tournament Director
HP Byron Nelson Championship
