When I watched Ernie Els win the Honda Classic last year, I was extremely happy for my friend. When he revealed during a post-tournament interview that his son, Ben, who was five at the time, was autistic, I was touched.
Since I have a nephew who has a form of autism, I knew exactly what he was now sharing with the world. It was a most courageous act.
I thought about what Ernie said for a while, and decided I needed to help. I came up with the idea of a pro-am charity golf tournament, and the name “Els For Autism” clicked in my mind.
I went to Ernie and his wife, Liezl, with my idea. Ernie’s eyes lit up—and he said, “Let’s do it.”
We then took a few months to decide on when to hold the tournament, where it would be played, and how it would be arranged. Last fall we agreed it would take place at PGA National, the home of the Honda Classic. After all, it was where Ernie and I had played in a pro-am the year before, where Ernie had won his trophy and where he told the world about Ben. We decided the Els for Autism pro-am would take place on Monday, March 23. The rest, as they say, is history.
We split the responsibilities. Ernie would get the PGA pros, and I would set up the teams. We agreed to keep the event small the first year, and use it as a learning experience to build our future plans for pro-ams to come.
Ernie assembled a stunning group of some of the biggest names in golf: Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Greg Norman, Raymond Floyd, Tim Clark, Luke Donald, Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby, and Justin Rose.
I was able to get 21 teams, basically comprised of my good golfing buddies. You can view pictures from the day here on this site, and you’ll read all about the details of the tournament in the June Cigar Aficionado.
Everyone had great fun and the weather was fantastic (but playing in a three-club wind is very challenging. Read more
This is a very serious and most rewarding time of year. I’m sitting down with my Cigar Aficionado team to select the best cigar of 2007.
Yesterday I lit up with executive editor Gordon Mott, European editor James Suckling and senior editor David Savona. We had already smoked dozens of cigars, rating each on our 100-point quality scale, but now we had to choose a winner.
After reviewing the top scores of the year from Cigar Aficionado and Cigar Insider, we selected the best of the bunch, coming up with about 45 cigars. Each had scored 90 points or higher. Our tasting coordinator, Greg Mottola, then went shopping, and bought all 45 at retail—we want the cigars we rate to be as close to what you can buy as possible—and he re-banded them to disguise their identities, then passed them out to six members of our tasting panel, including myself, for another round of analysis. At the conclusion of that blind test, we selected the very best of that bunch, they were re-banded yet again with a new code, and Mott, Suckling, Savona and myself sat down together to figure out which one was the very best.
Let me tell you, it was an amazing group of cigars, and there were some very strong contenders. We all enjoyed our work thoroughly. I brought along my new video flip phone, to give you an inside look at the process. Take a peek:
We’ve chosen a winner, but we’re not ready to tell you yet. Cigar Aficionado’s No. 1 Cigar of the Year will be unveiled in January—and for the first time ever you’ll be able to follow the countdown online. Stay tuned for more details.
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