The Villages   by Dan Boever, Pinnacle Long Drive Team Elite Member

The Villages

“The Villages” is an active adult community (55 and older) about an hour north of Orlando and it is truly one of my favorite places to do a golf show. With 400 plus holes of golf and every sport known to man you can imagine this is not a place people go to retire. At demo days these people come out in droves and aren’t afraid to have a good time. Because of their incredible enthusiasm it is always a treat taking part in the Cobra/Pinnacle Demo Days at this location.

This year my site contact Chris Plummer came to me with the idea of hitting a ball over Lake Sumter. He said it should be a lot of fun and asked if I thought it would be possible. Chris said they would have it in the paper, on TV and on their local radio so we should have a big crowd. Upon finding out the carry distance was 320 yards or so I said, “of course, it should be a breeze.”  It was a breeze alright, and that breeze was right in my face at 20 mph. Hitting it over the lake at 8 O’clock in the morning with frozen body parts was not as simple a task as I had envisioned. 

Luckily I had the new Pinnacle Gold FX Long golf ball (how’s that plug?) and no amount of wind could keep me from landing it safely on the other side to the delight of the two thousand people in attendance. OK, it was really only 250 people, but with temperatures at 35 degree’s the crowd should have been 5!  I’m telling you these people are nuts. Finally, after getting loose and a bit more serious I hit it over the water to everyone’s delight. Three minutes later everyone was either back in bed or at the coffee shop. I am sure many of them were glad they didn’t have to pay to get in.  This was a perfect case of, what have you done for me lately.  No, we really had a good time yucking it up and doing what adult male golfers do best; hit it in the water. The joke of the morning of course was that no one could actually confirm whether I hit it over the lake or not since most in attendance could not see past 200 yards.  

We also did a couple shows for the entire community and as always the turnout was tremendous. My favorite line of the two days had to do with how people at The Villages read putts. If they are stumbling it’s a downhill putt and if they are out of breath it’s an uphill putt!  If laughter is the best medicine then health is pretty good at The Villages. 

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