Watch the Exceptional Driver Championship Thursday at 10pm ET on Golf Channel
EDC Television Schedule
August 28, 2008 10 PM EST PREMIERE!
September 1, 2008 3 PM EST
September 2, 2008 9 AM EST
September 29, 2008 6 PM EST
November 11, 2008 10 AM EST
December 4, 2008 2:30 PM EST
2 comments|August 28th, 2008
2008 Exceptional Driver Championship Finals Are Underway. Pinnacle is the official golf ball of the EDC, the amateur competition that tests nerves, power and accuracy. 140 EDC competitors are battling against the grid and each other for the $100,000 prize. Click the link below to check out the live scoring, competition photos and story updates, courtesy of Long Drivers of America, as we learn who will be crowned “The Best Driver of the Golf Ball in North America”:
http://www.longdrivers.com/edc_cw_proam.php
Titleist Sales Representative Bobby Andrews has advanced to the Friday rounds. Bobby will be checking in to give us a competitor’s-eye view of the Finals, so be sure to check back soon!
Bobby’s Notebook:
Friday, June 13th, 11 A.M. – Well, I cleared another hurdle. I entered this morning’s elimination rounds as one of 50 remaining contestants and posted 48 points for the two rounds of 5 balls, good enough for first place in the group. Two of us now advance to the afternoon rounds, where the field will be cut the the final 8. The televised 8!
So far I feel pretty confident. My swing is holding up and I’m hitting the grid with regularity. I know that anything can happen out there, though. One of my fellow competitors had a pretty impressive 39 points in his first round, but he couldn’t hit the grid once in the second round. Zero points, and it prevented him from moving on. It’s tough, so I know I’ll have to be sharp this afternoon.
Friday, June 13th, 11 P.M. – You always hear that it’s a game of inches. Not that you need it, but I’m walking proof. I made it this afternoon’s rounds as one of twenty competitors. If I could score well enough to get in the top eight I’d move on to the final televised matches tomorrow. After two rounds I finished tied for the eighth spot. Playoff.
I was pleased with how I was hitting it and pleased with how I was handling the pressure. In the playoff I had a great rhythm going — bang, bang , bang in the grid. I just knew that I had put all five balls in the grid so I reached for that all-important sixth bonus ball. An official held me up, listening to the crew out on the grid. My third ball had roll a yard outside the grid on the right side. And that was the difference between the final 8 and going home. Missed it by that much!
What a great experience, though. I had a lot of fun and learned a little bit about myslef in the process. LDA and Pinnacle - all the sponsors staged a first-class event. I hope to compete again. 36 inches away is just irritatingly close enough that I need another shot. Thanks for the support out there!
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Wednesday, June 11th — A quick preface on the format for the Exceptional Driver Championship: In the EDC the 140-man field is broken into two groups of 70. From each group of 70, 7 sub-groups of 10 players are formed. So I started the day hitting with nine other guys. The competition begins with two rounds of hitting 5 balls (plus 1 bonus ball if you hit all 5 balls in the grid). The combined points from Rounds 1 and 2 are added up and the top three drivers from each sub-group of 10 advance to the next stage of competition on Friday. The remaining 7 players go into the “losers bracket” and have to compete in two more rounds (Rounds 3 and 4) to try to advance to Friday.
What an intense day! I knew from local qualifying for the Exceptional Driver Championship that the pressure can really build in this format, but here at the finals you really feel like every ball is crucial. You have to put points up with every shot possible and you can’t do that if you miss the grid. As you advance and the competition gets stronger and stronger the bonus ball becomes the key to winning and losing. I qualified for Mesquite by relying on my bread and butter, a little cut shot. I can hit it farther with a straight ball or slight draw, but the cut is very dependable for me. And it was working perfectly in the Round 1 – I hit 5 out of 5 balls in the grid. I missed the grid with the 6th bonus ball, unfortunately, but I was still sitting pretty.
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3 comments|June 12th, 2008
(FROM ART SELLINGER)
Brian Pavlet and I kicked off the Pinnacle Tuesdays on Tour promotion on February 26th at The Honda Classic. I have been looking forward to the day since we put the event together at the end of last year.
Be sure to check out the photo gallery below.
The set-up on the range at PGA National was great. There was a nice buzz
with all the attendees taking a few swings at our Pavillion driving cage set-up.
All visitors were treated to samples of the new Platinum Feel and Distance balls.
Big hitters walked away with a dozen, all in all more than 500 fans had some
new ammo for their next round of golf.
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4 comments|March 13th, 2008
The Pinnacle Soft Serve Man made his first public appearance at this year’s RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship and was well received by the thousands of fans in attendance. Caleb Moody, an actor from Los Angeles who starred in the new Pinnacle television commercials with long drive legends Jason Zuback and Brian Pavlet, arrived with his authentic Pinnacle Soft Serve truck to distribute two-ball packs of the tasty new Platinum Feel and Platinum Distance golf balls. Check out the video to see highlights of his visit and keep an eye on this space to find out when the Pinnacle Soft Serve truck will be in your neighborhood…
1 comment|December 7th, 2007
We’re off and running on the new Pinnacle Blog and hope you’ve found it useful and interesting so far. Our goal is to deliver new, exciting content on a regular basis while interacting directly with you. So click on the Comment link, let us know what you would like to see on the blog and we’ll do our best to deliver. More information on the Pinnacle golf balls and which model is right for you? Interviews, tips and demonstrations with the Pinnacle Long Drive Team? Behind-the-scenes slideshows and videos from long drive events, TV shoots? More in-depth coverage of the Exceptional Driver Championship ? Anything else we can do better?
Thanks for your support. We look forward to hearing from you!
11 comments|November 20th, 2007
