academy4

Checking in...

Greetings everyone.

It's been a while since I've written, but all is well here. I've been working hard in the gym and on the range and I look forward to my first tournament, which is only two weeks away!

Mike and I went on a little road-trip this past weekend and made some fun memories.  On Saturday, we went to the Naples Winter Wine Festival with some friends.  We tasted lots of fabulous wines and watched in amazement as they were able to raise over $14 Million for children's charities in one day.  Then on Sunday night we went to Tampa for Derek Jeter's Charity Pro-Am Draw Party. We met up with Kristin, my assistant and her husband Travis and had a lovely evening.   Then we played the tournament on Monday for his Foundation, which helps the prevention of drug and alcohol abuse amongst teenagers.  Derek is a great person and we had fun meeting the celebrities in attendance.   We even hit the dance floor with them on Monday night!

Today, I spent most of the day at the Academy with our guests. Tomorrow, I am pleased to say that I will grant my first wish for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  I've met with some kids before, but never played an actual round.  Molly Escordi of GrosseIle, Michigan is an avid golfer who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.  She is 14 years old and plays on the high school golf team.  It’s pretty amazing to think that her one wish was to play golf with me. I look forward to an inspiring day.  Hopefully, she will accept our offer to blog about her experience.

Well that’s all for now.

PGA Show Week

Hi again, it's Christian letting you know all of the happenings at the ANNIKA Academy.  This last week was the week of the PGA show which takes place annually at the Orange County Convention Center which is only about 15-20 minutes from the Academy.  It was a very busy week around the Academy as we were entertaining our Championship Package guests as well as many who stopped by to see the Academy.  We had the opportunity to meet a lot of club pro's and professionals from the golf industry which was a lot of fun.

One pro that used our facility to his advantage was Duffy Waldorf.  As everyone knows Duffy is a long time veteran of the PGA Tour and is a great character (as well as a true gentleman).  Duffy is playing this week in San Diego and we wish him well this year.

Also Christian Nilsson, who is a promising young player on the European Tour was out to work with Henri to prepare for his upcoming season.  Christian is one of the longest drivers on the European Tour so it is fun to put him on our Callaway C-PAS system to see his club head speed.  Pretty impressive if I do say so myself!

Of course we have had Annika out here practicing a lot.  She has been in the gym with Kai as well as out hitting  quite a few golf balls.  Her swing is looking great (as always), and I'm sure you will see her in top form this year.  I don't think I have heard a strike of the golf ball that sounds as pure as Annika's. 

I hope that everyone is having a great January and I will talk to you all soon! 

New Season at the Academy

Hello everyone, this is Christian checking in once again.  I hope all of the annikablog.com readers had a great holiday and are enjoying 2008. 

With the fall season over, we have moved into our winter/spring season here at the ANNIKA Academy.  Already this year we have some exciting things happening.  The first is we have a new Director of Sales, Michelle McGee, who started working with us at the beginning of January.  She came to us after working with the Oakland Raiders in their ticket sales department.  We are very happy to have Michelle as part of the Academy team and I'm sure she will be participating on annikablog.com in 2008.

Last weekend we were visited by Troy Tanner of the Back Nine Radio Network.  Troy runs a show that broadcast across the most of western Florida and is available worldwide over the Internet.  Each member of the Academy team was interviewed and it was a great experience for us all.  Of course Troy was very interested in how Kai and Henri were preparing Annika for the upcoming LPGA Season.  Charlotta received questions on the LPGA and her experience with life on the road.  Pam and I fielded questions on Academy packages as well as club fitting and our experience working for Annika.  Thank you Troy for taking the time to visit us at the ANNIKA Academy, we very much enjoyed it.

I wanted to mention one of the most amazing rounds of golf that I've ever seen.  Just before the holiday we had a group in for a Soren-Slam package in which our guests play with Annika.  Well fresh off her win in Dubai on Sunday and 30 hours of traveling, Annika managed to shoot a 61 on the Arnold Palmer course here at Reunion Resort.  I'm sure that Annika would downplay the 61, but I know the guests and I were very impressed.

This is the first Academy post of the year so we want to wish a Happy New Year to everyone.  If your resolution is to improve your golf game this year please give us a call and we will find the ANNIKA Academy package that will help you to reach your goals!

Lake Tahoe

Greetings from Lake Tahoe. As you probably have seen on TV, the Sierras have been hit by a big storm. We have received more than 5 feet of snow in the last week. The powder is amazing and it is like a winter wonderland here.
I love skiing because on the slopes I am able to relax and focus on nothing but my next turn. There are so many great resorts in this area, however, we seem to always return to Northstar. It is a wonderful family resort with a high level of service, which makes it a wonderful vacation destination. All the best and I'll be checking in on my return from vacation.

Annika's Swing