I agonised over this article (for Golf Vacation Magazin 03/2010). And I was not the only one. Marcela likewise as she has been trying to find out what is wrong with me for a week now. There is really nothing wrong. One day it seems to me the permitted 5000 characters is not enough for me to describe everything I have produced and am capable of producing (you will certainly not find anything of this in an ordinary shop), the next day I become lethargic because I the last time I had written something to cover two pages was when… some twenty-five years ago? So I look at the idea of brand new skiing underwear and if it can be effectively used for a winter round (at least a few holes), then Richie calls me asking if I could at least tee-off one (hole) in Poděbrady. I could. But at minus twelve? It looks like global warming is not as critical as predicted.
Winter is good. Sometime in mid-season I caught a nasty virus (my game getting drastically worse for “unknown reasons”), and I got depressed. Tomáš Daul says that it is normal, that this is golf and it could be even worse, and laughs at me, but this cannot be right. And me being so talented. Only putting saved me. After the personal tragedies on the golf course, there was nothing left to do but to relax at work by returning to the jag´ garage. I had not made so many beautiful things as last year in the crisis (from the virus) for a long time. I was really pleased about making the putter for President Klaus. But the most difficult was the custom work for Ondra Trupl. The difference between made-to-measure and custom is several light years. Whereas made-to-measure means that you take a finished shape and take away (or add) what is required, a custom piece is made from scratch and the biggest problem is that the first result need not, understandably, work altogther. If the development of one new model costs me a six-digit sum, this will also apply to any custom shape. Fortunately I managed to grind down the costs into a small ten-piece series which includes special head covers. Last year hundreds of custom head covers appeared just as those with leather grips – mainly those luxury ones (crocodile, lizard and ray). I am happy that I no longer have to order them from Australia and my logo can finally appear on all of them. It was not easy for me to understand the problem with leather, but because I had started to produce belt buckles sometime mid last year (in the virus crisis), I also had to find my way through the leather industry. I even had a piece made in Sweden of stainless damask steel which I used to carve and etch out belt buckles. They are truly remarkable, and there are only eight numbered pieces. They only thing I did not expect was that each one would take more than twenty hours of work. And so what. If I have this virus. I have already gotten used to the fact that virtually all my products – the fact that each piece is different – claim far more time than is desirable in ordinary industrial production. On the other hand, I am very pleased with each individual putter, belt, head cover or shoe bag bearing the jag´ logo.
Marek Najman is getting rid of my virus quickly and altogether painlessly. I am grateful to him. I just felt that he was laughing at the same time. Whether he was laughing with or at me, I care not to know. I am out of it now. In the meantime I had started so many things that the regular “quick” nine-hole rounds with Richie in Poděbrady are out of the question at the moment. A lot of my time is also taken up providing an essential service to my clients and I am proud of this. I am finally playing the last 2 rounds of the season at the Kaskáda golf course during frequent snow showers. Our foursome is going well considering what we still look like at four in the morning. It is probably due to the new swing.
Winter is good. It may be around zero at night during production, but at least I can think about what work I will hurl myself into this year. As you may know, the most important golfing rule is: never consider yourself at fault. The fault is always in the material or in external influences! I would also be far more accurate and reaching with the driver that Richie has. But he does not want to lend it to me. And when the crisis is over there is a crisis looming.
