By Gary Sheppard
SST Director of Business Development October 1, 2007

MONTREAL - As a member of the SST team, I had the privilege of attending some of the President’s Cup in my native hometown of Montreal last week. Even before leaving the baggage claim area, I bumped into Brennan Little, Mike Weir’s long-time caddy. He was looking forward to a week that would have Weir in the forefront of attention as the sole Canadian on the International Team.

I got out to Royal Montreal on Monday for my first look and I was astounded at the quality of the greens and fairways. They had heavily rolled all the greens a few days before and were playing at 11.2 on the stimpmeter. They were firm, but not too hard and Johnny Miller was right when he described them as playing “very pure.”

Zach Johnson, who SST PUREs his clubs, told me that he thought the course was in great shape and said that the rough was cut low enough to be able to get a decent shot out of it with little difficulty. Woody Austin, another SST player, mentioned that he thought the set-up was quite different from when he had last played it at the Canadian Open in 2001. The big difference was how generous the fairways were set up for the President’s Cup. He said that it’s going to be a birdie derby and that would make for great entertainment for the fans. Asked if he had seen much of Montreal, he said that the organizers have the players on such a tight schedule with dinner engagements and such that he doubted he would see much, but added that his wife had already been shopping and loved the city. Rory Sabbatini’s caddy, Kevin, was soaking up the city and he and some other caddies took in a Montreal Canadiens hockey game. Rory showed me his driver shaft with the PURE label on it and stated he was really striking it well. Rory PUREs everything in his bag.

On the 15th and 16th holes, I accompanied Stuart Appleby on a golf cart tour and he remarked that the conditions of the fairways and greens looked more like mid-summer than late fall. Insider Scoop: Appleby plays with a Bridgestone Tour B330-S that is like no other ball out there - his is emblazoned with his trademark red apple logo.

Charles Howell III said that he felt great and was pleased with the work SST had done on his golf shafts this season. He was crushing his drives on the practice range. Mike Weir, whom I had visited inside our SST Tour Van at the Byron Nelson, said he was well rested and ready to play. I saw him hit a great bunker shot out for birdie on the difficult par-3 17th. I spoke again with him late Wednesday afternoon and I said that if he was playing against Tiger on Sunday, he needed to “smoke him”. Without hesitating, he turned and looked me in the eye and said, “I will.”

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