Changes!

Hello Everyone!

It has been quite a long time since I last posted on my blog. I have had a very busy last month or so and have had some big changes take place in my life.
A little more than a month ago, I was contacted about an opportunity to work for a rising golf company called Hot Stix Golf. The CEO is a Saint John's Alumni. I was kind of skeptical at first about leaving the Carolinas and a full playing schedule. After some phone interviews, a one day trip to Scottsdale, AZ, and some serious thought, I decided to take the job. My good friend, Clinton Dammann, also took a job with Hot Stix.
Hot Stix Golf is a custom club fitting company. They specialize in being able to provide people with superior fittings due to the top technology in the business. Also, they have no bias towards any certain club company so they have that advantage over the individual club companies. They do not sell retail, your clubs don't get ordered until they have all your specs. They then order the clubs and once they come in, they take them apart and build them to the individuals specs. If you ever see the golf club ratings in Golf Magazine, Hot Stix performs all those tests, so they have quite the reputation in the golf world.
They are looking to expand their locations and in doing so, they need to hire on more fitters. What my job will include is fitting people for the absolute best clubs for that individual. A full fitting takes around 4 hours, so as you can imagine, it is pretty detailed.
I met the CEO, Mark Flynn, my senior year at SJU. We talked for a long time at senior night. He is a very successful businessman and just bought the company about a year ago. He is a golf enthusiast and saw great opportunity for this company.
So, Clint and I packed up our cars and drove from Charlotte, NC to Scottsdale, AZ. After 31 hours of driving, my car getting broken into, and a couple minor car issues, we finally made it here last Monday. We will be here for a couple months to do some training before they relocate us to one of their new locations.
Since I will be working on a driving range somewhere, I will still be allowed to practice and play quite a bit. I just could not afford to keep playing a full schedule on a caddy's income. When I broke it down, I realized how great of an opportunity this was and could not pass it up. Now, this does not mean that I am giving up on playing professional by any means. I am still going to try and play in a few tournaments a year for right now and save up as much money as I can. I will be getting paid pretty well and have very good benefits.
We have been out here training for a week so far and I absolutely love it! It is very fun and challenging at the same time. I am not sure yet where I will end up but there is a chance I will end up in Minnesota for at least 6 months of the year!
I want to thank everyone who has supported me so far, especially my family! There is no way I could have done what I have so far without all your support. Like I said, I am not giving up yet, but this was the best decision for me at this time and I hope everyone understands.
I won't be continuing to blog through all of this, but if I do start playing full time again, I will make sure everyone is updated.

Thanks again!

Joe