Monday, November 8, 2010

Lee Janzen to play in Childrens Miracle Network Classic

4U client Lee Janzen will be teeing it up at this week's Children's Miracle Network Classic right in my own backyard in Orlando, Florida.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010


Ben Crane meeting the Prime Minister before the Pro-Am in today's CIMB Asia Pacific Classic in Kuala Lumpur,

Friday, October 15, 2010

check out Ben Crane's workout video...so funny!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

PGA Championship 2010


I'm with Ben Crane at Whistling Straits during Tuesday practice round

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

PGA Championship 2010


Ben Crane on practice range at Whistling Straits today preparing for the PGA Championship. Great course!

Monday, July 26, 2010

The Open at St. Andrews 2010



I have just returned from Scotland where I spent a week at St. Andrews for the British Open and another week touring Scotland with my wife Marcia. My three favorite golf courses in the world are St Andrews, Augusta National and Pebble Beach. I have been to all 3 this year and it doesn't get any better than that!

4U client Ben Crane played really well. The bad news is he caught the wrong end of the draw. He was on the course Friday during the ferocious wind that caused a suspension in play. He double bogied 11, 12 and 13 prior to the horn sounding. The other 15 holes he shot 2 under that day. That's golf!!!

There is simply no place quite like St Andrews. You feel the history, you feel the ghost of old Tom Morris and young Tom Morris, and you can feel Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus walking across the Swilcan Bridge. I had the privledge of walking inside the ropes with Ben Crane Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday prior to The Open beginning on Thursday. Sunday his practice round was with Tom Watson. What a thrill! Tom talked about how "St. Andrews is a hard course to understand. You have to relearn and relearn and relearn it all the time". He too got caught up in the heavy winds and the bad draw and later said "The old lady doned her boxing gloves." It is amazing to stand on the 17th tee and watch Tom hit six tee shots trying to decide whether to hit a 3 wood or driver over which "O" in "The Old Course Hotel" based on wind conditions.

When I think of the British Open, I think of St. Andrews.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Jason Allred qualifies for US Open

4U client, Jason Allred qualified to play in the US Open at Pebble Beach.

PGA Experts pick Ben Crane

PGA Tour experts pick Ben Crane as a possible winner at this week's St. Jude Classic. "He's hot, T4, T7, T3 in his last three starts."
http://www.pgatour.com/2010/tournaments/r025/06/08/picks-stjude/index.html

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Crane Soars at Colonial

Star Telegram article
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/05/30/2226614/crane-soars-into-colonial-contention.html

Thursday, May 27, 2010

A Day With the Pros - Part 2

Ben and Heather Crane's charity event
http://www.pgatour.com/video/?/video/video/pga-tour/features/2010/05/25/feat_crane_charity_10inside21mov.pgatour

http://www.pgatour.com/video/?/video/video/pga-tour/features/2010/05/25/feat_crane_profile_10inside21.pgatour

A Day With the Pros - Part 1

Ben & Heather Crane's charity event
http://www.pgatour.com/video/?/video/video/pga-tour/features/2010/05/25/feat_crane_profile_10inside21.pgatour

Ben Crane at Home 5/25/10

New video from the PGA Tour ... http://www.pgatour.com/video/?/video/video/pga-tour/features/2010/05/25/feat_crane_home_10inside21.pgatour

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Ben Crane on The Golf Channel tonight

4U client, Ben Crane will be on The Golf Channel's Inside the PGA Tour tonight. Check your local listing for times.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Valero Texas Open

4U client Steve Lowery if tied for 3rd position at 4 under par at this week's Valero Texas Open. Lee Janzen currently sits at T37 at even par.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

A Day With the Pros 5/10/10

After a great week finishing T4 at THE PLAYERS Championship, Ben Crane hosts a charity event A Day With the Pros. The event benefits two charities that are near and dear to the Crane's heart: Love 146 and Hope Farm.

This event boasts an impressive list of PGA golfers to include Lee Janzen, Zach Johnson, Hunter Mahan, Chad Campbell, KJ Choi, Stewart Cink, Pat Perez, Brett Quigley, Tom Pernice and John Rollins.

The schedule consists of lunch, a golf clinic and then a shotgun start at 1:00pm, followed by dinner and an auction.

For more information regarding Ben's charities, click http://together.pgatour.com/players/23541.html

Friday, May 7, 2010

Crane's Ratings a Process

http://www.pgatour.com/2010/tournaments/r011/05/06/crane-limbaugh/index.html

Crane's ratings a process to solid 67 Ben Crane fired a 5-under 67 in the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship. He trails by one.May. 6, 2010

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Ben Crane had in the neighborhood of 20 fives on Thursday during the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship.

Not on his scorecard, though. He certainly wouldn't be one shot off the lead in the PGA TOUR's signature event if that were the case.

Actually, Crane rated every shot he hit in that round of 67 Thursday on a scale of 1 to 5 -- with 5 being the best. As he walked from green to tee, Crane quietly signaled his agent, Tommy Limbaugh, who recorded the numbers on a sheet of paper with his own thoughts, as well.

"I'll get into position where he can find me," Limbaugh said. "He'll give me a hand signal (with the number of fingers signifying the rating), in the order of the shots. ... Our goal each day is to have only 4s and 5s."

On Thursday, Crane, who won the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year, succeeded on all but four shots, which he gave 3s. The ratings aren't made on a whim, either. There is a process to each shot that helps determine how Crane ranks them -- and it has nothing to do with birdies and bogeys.

"For the first time in my career I know exactly what to think about," Crane said. "I know exactly what I should be doing before, during and after each shot. It really has nothing to do with results and has everything to do with just sticking to what we set out to do before the year.

"So I'm better equipped than I ever have been."

Each hole is a program; the whole day a process. Every shot begins with the pre-load, a mental checklist of things designed to free Crane up to execute as well as possible. The actual load follows as he uses his left brain to pick a target and a club -- but the thinking should end as he hits the shot.

"Now the left brain really should be retired, and then the right brain you should just relax and try to execute through there,'" Crane explained. "So then it should be very quiet through my brain, just going through my alignment checks, my waggle progression -- hopefully that's not too long -- and then the imprint, which is just rehearsing as if I had done it perfectly."

Crane, who was two tournaments into this process when he won in San Diego this year, has a team of eight, including Limbaugh and his mental coach Lanny Bassham, guiding him this year. Limbaugh was a football coach at Texas Tech, Ole Miss, Alabama, Duke and Kentucky before he became an agent and motivational speaker.

During the Children's Miracle Network Classic, Crane stayed at Limbaugh's house and the two had time to talk about a variety of subjects. Among other things, Limbaugh feels golfers don't practice like most pro athletes. Golfers tend to be repetitive on the range rather than actually hitting the shots required for the round.

So Crane -- who Limbaugh likens to a linebacker in terms of his mental toughness -- asked his agent if he could help him learn to practice better. The team went to San Diego in November and Limbaugh did some old-fashioned coaching, complete with a slide presentation.

"If you watch him warm up tomorrow -- he changes clubs, he changes direction each time instead of just get a 7-iron and banging away at it,'" Limbaugh said. "... It's my opinion it's a good thing to do because you're processing your shots on the practice range that you're carrying on to the course. You're practicing what you're going to be doing in the game itself."

Ben Crane shot 5-under 67 in the first round of The 2010 PLAYERS Championship.
Tuesday at the Masters was a perfect example. Instead of playing nine holes on Augusta National, Crane did it on the club's state-of-the-art practice range that features a variety of greens as targets rather than yardage markers.

As he practiced, Crane tried to replicate the tee shot and second shot he would go out on Thursday and hit on each hole during the actual tournament. When he had "played" all nine holes, he went to the chipping area and attempted the chips on the ones where he didn't hit the green. Then Crane headed to the putting green to duplicate the putts.

"I thought it was important to rest his mind, his body and his spirit and really be mentally ready to go," Limbaugh explained. "... (When we were done,) we'd completed the entire hole that way where every shot was meaning something."

In his last two PLAYERS Championships, Crane has only shot two rounds over par while finishing in ties for sixth and fifth respectively. He knows he can go low on the Stadium Course, too, after opening with a 65 a year ago on a course he calls a "great test.

"If this is not the best golf course we play all year, I don't know what is," Crane said. "... The margins are small, and so I think that everything is amplified a little bit more on this golf course, mistakes, great shots, and certainly the way you think."

That's why the process will be so important to his success this week at TPC Sawgrass. Crane has only two goals for the year: No. 1 to glorify God and No. 2 to "execute the process as if it's primary."

Crane, who made eight birdies and three bogeys in the first round, hasn't been able to recreate the mindset he had at the Farmers Insurance Open. He took a big step in the right direction on Thursday, though, when he hit all but two fairways and 16 of 18 greens while using just 28 putts.

"Last year I had a great first day and then some solid rounds after that but nothing great," Crane said. "I think that I'm equipped now to just go out and do my best more than I've ever been. Just trying to separate myself from the results and living and dying by each shot certainly tends to free me up."

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Players' wives raise awareness in battle against sex-traffic trade

http://www.pgatour.com/2010/r/05/04/pga-wives-in-cambodia/index.html
Within 10 minutes, Heather Crane was physically sick to her stomach.

Her husband, Ben, was back in the United States playing in the World Golf Championships-CA Championship at Doral Resort & Spa. But Heather had left that heady world of pro sports and creature comforts to go to Southeast Asia to help raise awareness about the horrors of child sex trafficking.

She was joined on the trip by Dowd Simpson, the new bride of Webb Simpson, and Pat Perez's wife, Athena. On this singularly disturbing night in March, the three women found themselves in one of Bangkok's three red-light districts.


Together, Anything's Possible
The PGA TOUR's charity website gives users the ability to access information and donate to charities that their favorite players support. Ben Crane, whose wife Heather was one of the three players' wives who visited Cambodia, has a charity page that can be accessed by clicking here. For the main page of the PGA TOUR's charity website, please click here.


Learn more about Love146
Love146 is an organization that seeks to end child sex slavery and exploitation. To find out more about this organization, please click here for the official website.

"The one we went to was surrounded by a night market so you had normal people and children all around," Heather said, shaking her head. "You had open karaoke bars and then you'd have an S&M establishment.

"Then you'd have the kind of place ... where the girls are lined up (behind a glass window) by row according to their beauty and their price. How horrible would that be to have to do that for a living and be on the bottom level because you're one of the ugly ones?"

As they walked through the red-light district, Perez said she felt like she was in some sort of a twisted "Stephen King carnival." Women in bikinis gyrated and danced in glass walkways above the bars and alleys below.

"Every time you walked by any storefront, men walked up to you shoving menus in your face with pictures, descriptions and prices," Athena said. "I felt like I was in a nightmare. It was really creepy."

Crane, Simpson and Perez traveled with Rob Morris and Lamont Hiebert, who co-founded Love146, an international group dedicated to eradicating the sexploitation of children. The organization takes its name from a defiant little girl, identified only by the number 146 on her red dress, seen being sold at one of those brothels during an undercover operation.

The group spent a week in Cambodia, The Philippines and Thailand, three countries where this scourge of inhumanity is most prevalent. They saw safe homes as well as the searing poverty that makes families and children susceptible to these predators' promises in the first place. They learned from experts in the field but more importantly from those who lived it first-hand.

"The trip was just a constant combination of hope and despair," Heather said softly about 12 hours after she landed in Miami and was reunited with her family.

"You have a bunch of mixed emotions," Dowd agreed. "In the first place, you are repulsed at the whole thing. At the same time, this is not much different than what is happening in our own backyards."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heather first went to Southeast Asia in 2005 with her husband. She and Ben met Hiebert, a Canadian singer and songwriter whose Christian rock band is known as Ten Shekel Shirt, at an outreach in southern California that year.

His cause soon became the devoutly religious Cranes' cause. They have hosted a pro-am for the last four years and have raised more than $1 million to help build sanctuaries like the Round House the group visited outside Manila.

Like Heather, Dowd and Athena are active in the PGA TOUR Wives Association. Dowd had been on mission trips when she was in high school and has friends who worked domestically to help stamp out sex trafficking. This trip, however, took all three out of their comfort zones.

Courtesy of Love146In Cambodia, it's the simple pleasure of eating watermelon that can bring a little joy to children.For Dowd, the opportunity couldn't have been more well-timed. She and her husband Webb, who is in his second year on TOUR, had been talking about finding a way to serve.

"We prayed about it one night and the next day we saw Heather and she said that she was going on this trip," Dowd said. "It was like a complete open door. It was like a prayer was answered."

Athena heard about the trip 10 days before Heather and Dowd were scheduled to leave. She ran into Heather at a baby shower and asked if she could come along. Athena doubted her friend thought she was serious at the time.

"It was a scary thing, thinking about going to a third-world country," Athena acknowledged. "In your mind you're going to ghettos, slums, you're leaving the comforts of home. It's something I had to overcome.

"I had to convince Pat. He was worried about me ... but he saw how much I really, really wanted to go. ... I bought the ticket the week before we left. I said if I can make it there and get back, it's fate. So I went online and found a ticket. I was like, OK, that's it, I have to go."

And now that they're back, their lives have been changed forever.

"I went in not really knowing what to expect," Dowd said. "I came out feeling well-educated and on fire and wanting to do something. It was more of a culture shock coming home. We went from such poverty and depravity to a life of such prosperity. I can wear what I want and eat what I want. I have everything I need at my fingertips."

"I am making it a point not to forget this," Athena agreed. "... It's definitely changed how I feel about other people. Cheesy as it seems, there is not enough caring and compassion in the world."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The women first saw hope at the Round Home, which is located in a secure location about two hours outside of Manila. When they got out of the car, the group was greeted by 16 girls, all dressed in pink, who had been rescued from brothels.

Each room in the colorful round building opens up to a circular garden in the center. There are three beds and stuffed animals in each room, as well as a library and a tree house where the girls assemble for therapy sessions.

Heather CraneDowd SimpsonAthena PerezSeeing a nearby volleyball court, Perez suggested a game and it turned out to be the "best icebreaker," Crane said. "(There was) instant laughter." The teenagers cheered when someone scored a point and then laughed at their own mistakes.

"We're playing this game for like an hour and all we can think of is we can't believe these girls have been through what they've been through,'" Crane said. "I know there's deep-rooted things there, but they're truly getting help and being restored. ... It was just a sweet, sweet interaction."

After the game, Perez, Simpson and Crane toured the Round Home and then sat in the library to listen to the girls sing and play guitar. Among the favorites was the hymn "Coming Back to the Heart for Worship." A shy 15-year-old named Fe sat down next to Crane and talked about her dreams of a new life.

"My eyes welled up with tears as the reality sunk in that these trafficked girls are real people -- full of hopes and dreams, all just wanting to be loved," Heather said.

"To be in a life like that -- to have your name stripped from you -- and to be able to overcome that is amazing," Dowd added.

Later, Dr. Gundelina Velazco, the resident therapist, told the women more about Fe, who had recently been rescued by the IJM, the International Justice Mission. Drugged and sold as a virgin, Fe had been repeatedly trafficked -- and even raped by a doctor who was examining her. The scars on her wrist were from an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

The youngest girl, who had arrived at the Round Home the previous Thursday, was just 13. When her parents died, her uncle had taken her into his family. He later passed away and his girlfriend sold her to an abuser. She once dug a hole deep into the ground in a desperate attempt to either "hide or die," Heather said.

The rescued children could see there was hope, though. A young girl named Diana had come in so suicidal the previous year that she tried to jump in front of a car. She went through therapy and later returned to her village on the island of Sabu where she fell in love with a childhood friend.

"Not only does he know about her past, but his whole family came by boat with him as he proposed to her," Heather said. "That is such a story of redemption in itself and she can now work with the girls -- not only do they trust her, they can see that a dream can truly happen. That a man can still really love and want you. That's one of the most beautiful stories."

Dowd remembers Diana picking an old brown leaf off the ground.

"She said, 'That's how I used to be when I first came here -- dead, I had no life,'" Dowd said. "Then she pointed to a tree and said, 'That's me now. No matter how many branches fall, I'll be strong."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Wednesday, the group flew from Manila to Bangkok where they met with Dr. Glenn Miles, who is the director of Asia Prevention for Love146. For more than two decades he has been an advocate for the rights of abused children in Southeast Asia.

"A lot of people blame it on those parents, those wicked parents who must sell their children," Heather said. "But so often, it's coercion and manipulation and fear. They really don't know what's going on. So they've come up with videos and a curriculum for schools, to teach -- so you know when a guy approaches you and says he'll give you money so you can get a job or go to school and send payment back to your family to support them, that's not legitimate.

"But these people fall for those things so easily because they are so desperate and so poor."

Courtesy of Love146In spite of her environment, there is hope in the face of this Cambodian child.Heather had what she called a "total a-ha moment" when the group met two Americans who are working with the MST Project in Bangkok. They go into the red light districts at night and approach the men -- who are overwhelmingly tourists -- and ask them to participate in a survey, which in turn leads to a discussion of why they are there in the first place.

"Their findings are that these men are hurting and they're lonely and they are trying to go to these brothels to fill some void that is not really going to be filled there," Heather said. "And so, to me, I get so caught up in the bad-guy thing. What's he doing here and a sicko and that sort of thing, the whole mentality, but a total light bulb went off with me, that they're hurting just as bad.

"So these guys think that men are part of the solution. If you can change their ways, ultimately decreasing the demand, saving souls might make a difference."

Dowd said the men that the MST Project confronts in the red-light districts often are there because they confuse intimacy with sex. "They tell the men that they know an intimacy far greater than the physical," she said. "And some of the men are finding Jesus right there in the red-light district."

Athena remembered one burly man who told them that he wasn't scared of sexually transmitted diseases. He'd been having unprotected sex for 30 years. He also told them he thought the young girls liked what they were doing -- that they liked having sex with white men.

"A lot of men, some women, too, think it's their choice," Athena said. "That's what people don't really understand. So many of these girls start as teenagers -- they're tricked into the sex trade, kidnapped, brainwashed.

"Then when they get into their 30s, that's all they know. Their pimp, their handler, has convinced them that's all they are good for."

Heather said the issue of child sex trafficking is second only to the sale of illegal drugs and hardly confined to Southeast Asia. Sri Lanka is known for young boys sold into prostitution, Cambodia for children. Young girls in Eastern Europe are lured to the United States with promises of modeling careers.

"I read a quote last night and it might have even been written by Martin Luther King but it was, one person can change the world and millions of people can create a movement," Heather said. "And that's really what we're trying to do, is create a movement of social awareness that this does happen and it's unacceptable to exploit children for sex."

That said, she knows there is a long way to go. Heather was talking with an upper class Thai man and his wife on the plane. He owned a paint shop and his wife was the proprietor of a clothing store. They employ five live-in maids at their home.

"I was telling him about what we were doing and he said, you mean, like pedophiles?" Heather recalled. "He went, what? He didn't even know it happened and his country is known for being one of the worst.

"So I think perhaps, maybe it's a coping mechanism, to just turn your ear and close your eyes and not even engage and I think that's kind of the worst thing that we can do is to pretend it doesn't even exist."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the five years since her first trip, Heather sees increased awareness of this disturbing issue -- particularly on college campuses where "they have more of a heart for social justice," she said.

"This trip was definitely harder than my first because I wasn't a mom," Heather said. "Seeing 2-year-olds, my daughter's age, begging for food, it's heartbreaking."

That searing poverty was strikingly evident when the group went to Poipet, a Cambodian border town known for trafficking where they visited two schools committed to helping at-risk children. At one, called Safe Haven, the kids can learn to make furniture and repair motor bikes.

Courtesy of Love146The players' wives found plenty of inspiration to raise awareness of the problems in Cambodia.The other school, an after-school facility, was located at the end of a long dirt road lined by ramshackle huts with rice paddies in the back.

"It's amazing the resilience and surviving day to day," Heather said. "We saw one old woman with a wired thing where she'd been barbequing bats. Six bats. She offered us a taste."

"She was so proud of that meal she had cooked," Dowd said.

The Crane's pro-am -- which also benefits HOPE Farm, a Christian community in Fort Worth, Texas, that disciples fatherless boys -- will be held Monday, May 10 at the Vaquero Club in Westlake, Texas. The pro-am is during the week of the Valero Texas Open.

"Ben has an incredible platform because of what he does," Heather said. "People might pay attention a little bit more and it might grow to the movement we're hoping and it will continue to take off."

One of Heather's favorite quotes comes from Gary Haugen, who is the founder of the International Justice Mission.

"He said it's not about where is God, it's where are God's people," Crane said. "Sometimes it can be overwhelming, but then you think, wow, can anything really happen here. ... It's just sharing what you're learned and connecting with other people who care."

Heather Crane and Dowd Simpson and Athena Perez made that connection when they took a step outside the glamorous world of the PGA TOUR.

What they saw during that week in Southeast Asia was ugly. It was repulsive. It made them sick.

But they want to make a difference. And now they have a story to share.

Ben Crane's Interview after Round 1

http://www.pgatour.com/video/?/video/video/pga-tour/highlights/2010/05/06/qt_10players_rnd1_crane_xm.pgatour

The Golfer and The Slugger


The Golfer and the Slugger, New York Times 5/5/10

Ben Crane and Mark Teixeira, a first baseman for the Yankees, met in 2006 at the home of the golfer Justin Leonard. “Eighty percent of our conversations are about our faith and our relationship with God,” Teixeira said.
By KAREN CROUSE
Published: May 5, 2010

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Heather Crane recently scrolled through the text messages on the phone of her husband, the golfer Ben Crane, and stumbled upon a few that raised her eyebrows. Sent to the same number, they were like echoes: “God before results. God before results. God before results.”

Crane, who tees off Thursday afternoon at the Players Championship, composed those words of encouragement for his close friend Mark Teixeira during the Yankees’ World Series run last fall, leading his wife to ask playfully, “Why don’t you take a piece of your own advice?”

Teixeira, the Yankees’ first baseman, said he has kept the messages on his phone because, honestly, with spirituality like that, who needs swing thoughts?

“Ben is kind of a mentor to me,” Teixeira said by telephone Wednesday before the Yankees’ 7-5 victory over the Orioles. “Whenever I get too wrapped up in my baseball world, Ben makes it very easy to get back to what’s important, which is living in the moment.”

The slugger and the golfer are kindred spirits, gregarious and generous men who bond over the blessed trinity of faith, family and fine wine. Talking to them, one gets the impression that sports, far from being the tie that binds them, is perhaps their weakest link.

“When we talk, we steer our conversation around material things,” Crane said. “It’s always God, family, work.”

They have been friends since meeting at a backyard barbecue in 2006 at the home of the golfer Justin Leonard in the Dallas development where they all lived.

Teixeira, 30, and Crane, 34, have remained close even as Teixeira, drafted by the Rangers in 2001, has moved from Texas to Atlanta to Anaheim to New York. Their families vacation together and were at Great Guana Cay in the Bahamas in late 2008 when Teixeira was mulling free-agent offers from the Angels, the Red Sox, the Orioles and the Yankees.

To get his mind off baseball, Crane arranged snorkeling and spear-fishing excursions and lobster dives. “He said, ‘The only thing I can’t do, Ben, is get hurt,’ ” Crane recalled, laughing.

When they returned to Texas, Teixeira agreed to an eight-year, $180 million contract with the Yankees that included a $5 million signing bonus.

Crane, a three-time PGA Tour winner who has earned more than $12 million since turning professional in 1999, said, “It’s so fun for Mark and I to have this relationship where we hold each other accountable.” He added, “We just connect on so many levels.”

They both have two children under the age of 5, though Crane quipped that Teixeira, whose wife, Leigh, is pregnant, “is about to pull ahead of us.”

One can finish the other’s reading of Scripture. In a recent conversation, they held to the light Romans 12:2, a passage that has been interpreted as being about offering the body as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God.

“Eighty percent of our conversations are about our faith and our relationship with God,” Teixeira said. “It’s very refreshing to pick up the phone and if you went 0 for 4 or hit two home runs, it doesn’t matter. The conversation’s going to be: How’s your relationship with God? How’s your family?”

Each brings to his job a focus that no ringing cellphone can rattle. Teixeira’s game-day routine includes turning off his cellphone as soon as he walks through the clubhouse door.

Crane carries two cellphones, and as soon as a tournament starts, he turns one off. Only those closest to him can reach him on the other phone, which he monitors after each round.

Both men are process oriented. Although golfers consider themselves independent contractors, Crane has borrowed a page from team sports and hired a support staff that, in addition to the caddie Joel Stock, includes a swing coach, a short-game coach, a manager, a sports psychologist and three physical therapists.

His team started a meticulous practice routine, with Crane thinking his way around the golf course on Tuesday and Wednesday so he can play without fear or reservation once the tournament starts. “My practice rounds used to be a lot more casual,” Crane said. “Now they are a lot more intense.”

Teixeira spends hours studying the game before he takes the field. “We both spend a lot of practice hours on the process, so when it comes time to play, our natural talents shine through and we let all the hard work pay off.”

Both are known for laboring. Teixeira is a notoriously slow starter, as evidenced by his .178 batting average. And Crane was voted the slowest player on the PGA Tour in a recent Sports Illustrated poll of his peers — and not for the first time.

“If that’s the worst thing someone can say about Ben, I think he’s doing all right in the big picture,” Teixeira said. He added: “I’ve never seen Ben upset. I’ve never heard him say a cross word to anybody. It’s very rare to find somebody in professional sports like him.”

In January, Crane won the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego. “I watched every stroke of that final round,” said Teixeira, who texted him afterward and said the win was well deserved.

On weeks when Crane is in contention, the Yankees’ clubhouse is Crane’s auxiliary gallery. “We’ll put golf on in the clubhouse,” Teixeira said, “and we’ll all root for him.”

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Tommy at THE PLAYERS Championship


Tommy and Ben Crane on #17 during today's practice round of THE PLAYERS Championship

Monday, April 26, 2010

Radio interview with Lee Janzen

Lee Janzen interview from "Fairways of Life" 3/20/10
Matt Adams from "Fairways of Life" on the PGA TOUR Network (SIRIUS 209, XM 146 and PGATOUR.COM) visits with Lee Janzen, two-time U.S. Open champion and eight-time PGA TOUR winner, to discuss his work with the "Feed the Children" charity outreach.


http://www.pgatour.com/video/?/video/audio/interviews/2010/03/20/xm_leej.xm

Lee Janzen takes 4th place at Zurich Classic of New Orleans

4U Management client, Lee Janzen finished his Sunday round with a 69 after landing an eagle on the 13th hole. Janzen finished in 4th place and earning $307,200 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. watch the video clip here:

http://www.pgatour.com/video/?/video/video/pga-tour/highlights/2010/04/25/mine_10zurich_rnd4_13_2nd_janzen.pgatour

Monday, April 12, 2010

Golf.com writer says Tiger should hire 4U Management

http://blogs.golf.com/flyers/2010/04/stevie-youre-fired.html

04/05/2010
'Stevie, You're Fired!'
Posted at 7:59 AM by Connell Barrett | Categories: Tiger Woods
And hit the road, Sir Charles. If Tiger's serious about changing his ways, he should start with his inner circle. Here's how.

CADDIE

You're fired! Steve Williams You're hired! Bob "Mr. Clean" Chaney

Tiger needs more negative press like he needs a Perkins gift certificate, and the camera-flinging, Phil-bashing Steve Williams is a magnet for controversy. Meet Bob "Mr. Clean" Chaney, so nicknamed for his resemblance to the face on the popular household cleaner. A 65-year-old veteran who has looped for Tour winner Bart Bryant, Chaney has experience, a low-key temperament to soothe Tiger's seething temper, and a hulking frame to part the seas of fans and foes. And who better to keep Tiger honest than a guy called "Mr Clean?"

PGA TOUR MENTOR

You're fired! Mark O'Meara You're hired! David Toms

O'Meara, who now plays the Champions Tour, and Woods are reportedly not as close as they used to be. All around good guy David Toms, 43, is still tapped in to the Big Show, has major-winning cred, and knows about rebuilding after disaster: The Louisiana native's many philanthropic works include relief efforts in New Orleans after Katrina. Bonus: They can bond over having bikini-babe wives.

SWING COACH

You're fired! Hank Haney You're hired! Butch Harmon

If Tiger wants to find the straight and narrow—on the fairway, that is—he should reunite with Harmon, who shaped Woods's swing through 2004, including 2000, when Tiger won three majors, including the U.S. Open by 15 strokes. As Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee told me, "Back in 2000, Tiger hit it farther than everyone by a mile, and was straighter, too." 'Nuff said.

A-LIST PALS

You're fired! Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan You're hired! Tim Tebow and Tim Duncan

Let's do the math. Tiger + Barkley & Jordan x Vegas = Uh oh. The trio's reported booze-and-babe-fueled nights at the MGM Grand's VIP tables created a "culture of adultery," in the words of one sports shrink. The antidote? Team Tim! Squeaky-clean Duncan is married, and his four NBA titles command respect. Tebow, the Heisman-winning stud, has publicly pledged to remain a virgin until marriage. The Tims are more likely to be spotted playing Boggle than blackjack.

AGENCY

You're fired! IMG You're hired! 4U Management

IMG is like IBM: massive, global, corporate. Tiger needs a mom-and-pop shop that feels like a home. Tommy Limbaugh heads Orlando-based 4U Management, which represents Ben Crane and Lee Janzen. He's known as a golf agent who cares. Before the 2010 season, the former college football coach gave an inspiring speech to Team Crane, getting everyone psyched about the coming year. ("Tommy, I will run through a brick wall for you!" one trainer said at the powwow.) After winning the Farmers Insurance Open in January, Crane credited Limbaugh's rah-rah meeting. By many accounts, Tiger's personal life spiraled out of control in part because he became isolated. If IMG has perfected the art of the deal, Limbaugh has perfected the art of the team.

(Bob Chaney, right, with Bart Bryant in 2005. Credit: Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

PGA Tour Reports Janzen Joins with Feed The Children

Janzen Joins Forces with Feed The Children

Mar 22, 2010
By PGA TOUR Staff

ORLANDO, Fla.—Take a semi tractor-trailer full of food, add in a two-time U.S. Open
champion and make a stop at the First Baptist Church of Orlando and a lot of good is
going to happen.
Janzen, an Orlando-area resident, will see to that as he assists in the distribution
of food and personal-care items on March 24 that will help 400 families.
This activity is the latest stop on Feed The Children’s Americans Feeding Americans
Emergency Caravan, which has helped more than 40,000 families across the country
in cities affected by the nation’s economic downturn. Feed The Children is planning
similar distributions in more than 20 major American cities this year.
Feed The Children partner agency, First Baptist Church of Orlando, pre-identified the
400 recipient families, and they will be on hand with volunteers to distribute the
supplies. Each family will receive a 25-pound box of food and a 10-pound box of
personal-care items, along with Avon products. The boxes are designed to help a
family for up to one week.
“There are many families struggling in Orlando and throughout Florida during this time
of economic hardship,” said Feed The Children’s Tony Sellars. “We are extremely
grateful for Lee Janzen for partnering with Feed The Children to help serve the
community.”
Florida has the seventh-highest rate of unemployment in the country—more than twice
the rate for the same time in January 2008. Unemployment in Florida has been in the
double-digits since May of 2009. Nearly one in eight Florida citizens lives in poverty,
including 18.3 percent of all children. Children make up nearly one-third of all Floridians
who live in poverty.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Lee Janzen to Play Tavistock Cup

Tavistock rosters released; Els and O'Meara return as captainstext size Mar. 17, 2010

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Marquee golfers Mark O'Meara and Ernie Els return to captain the annual Tavistock Cup, a unique interclub competition pitting the golf professional members of Isleworth Golf & Country Club against their counterparts at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club.

The seventh edition of the two-day team event will be contested at Isleworth Golf & Country Club on March 22-23.


Tavistock rosters
LAKE NONA ISLEWORTH
Els (cpt.) O'Meara (cpt.)
Curtis Allenby
Fisher Appleby
Goosen Atwal
P.Hanson Cook
Immelman Davis
McDowell Holmes
Poulter Howell
Rose Janzen
Stenson O'Hern

Isleworth and Lake Nona have been doing battle since 2004, the year the officially sanctioned PGA TOUR event debuted at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club. Since the tournament began, O'Meara and Els have led the rival teams each year in their quest to become World Golf and Country Club Champion.

Team Lake Nona has celebrated two Tavistock Cup victories under the leadership of Els, whose resume includes more than 60 worldwide victories, three major championships and last week's World Golf Championships-CA Championship.

Two-time major champion O'Meara has guided Team Isleworth to victory three times, and they lead the Tavistock Cup series 3-2-1.

Team Lake Nona's 10-man lineup includes Els, Ben Curtis, Ross Fisher, Retief Goosen, Peter Hanson, Trevor Immelman, Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson. The caliber of talent includes five of the top 25 players in the world.

Team Isleworth's 10-member squad features O'Meara, Robert Allenby, Stuart Appleby, Arjun Atwal, John Cook, Brian Davis, J.B. Holmes, Charles Howell III, Lee Janzen and Nick O'Hern.

Team Isleworth has never lost on its home turf.

Through 2009, Tavistock Cup participants have won a combined 54 major championships and more than 725 worldwide victories. Tavistock Cup team members are determined by world rankings and committee selection and are members of either Isleworth Golf & Country Club or Lake Nona Golf & Country Club.

The Tavistock Cup is known for its charitable giving as much as it is for its spirited competition. Since the tournament's inception, Tavistock Cup has donated millions of dollars to organizations around the globe.

In the spirit of Tavistock Cup competition, spectators wear the official team colors of Isleworth Red or Lake Nona Blue to show their support for Team Isleworth or Team Lake Nona.

"This invitation-only event for members, residents, sponsors and invited guests is truly unlike anything in the game of golf," said Andy Odenbach, vice president of sports ventures for Tavistock Group. "We try to create the most relaxed environment possible for both spectators and players alike, but more importantly, we are helping worthy organizations through our charitable initiatives."

Isleworth Golf & Country Club and Lake Nona Golf & Country Club are located within 25 miles of one another and are both owned by Tavistock Group, a privately held investment company.

The Tavistock Cup will be televised live on the GOLF Channel in the U.S., Canada and Japan and to more than 40 countries around the world through international affiliates.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Janzen to Assist Feed The Children

FEED THE CHILDREN EMERGENCY CARAVAN TO HELP 400 FAMILIES IN ORLANDO
U.S. Champion Lee Janzen to Host Event

Orlando, FL (March 15, 2010) – Feed The Children and two-time U.S. Open Golf Champion Lee Janzen will distribute a semi tractor-trailer full of food and personal care items to help 400 Orlando families First Baptist Church of Orlando (3000 S. John Young Parkway) beginning at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24.

The distribution is the latest stop on Feed The Children’s Americans Feeding Americans Emergency Caravan, which has helped more than 40,000 families across the country in cities that have been affected by the nation’s economic downturn. Feed The Children is planning similar distributions in more than 20 major American cities this year.

Feed The Children partner agency, First Baptist Church of Orlando, pre-identified the 400 recipient families and they will be on hand with volunteers to distribute the supplies. Each family will receive a 25-pound box of food and a 10-pound box of personal care items, along with Avon products. The boxes are designed to help a family for up to one week.

“There are many families struggling in Orlando and throughout Florida during this time of economic hardship,” said Feed The Children Spokesperson Tony Sellars. “We are extremely grateful for Lee Janzen for partnering with Feed The Children to help serve the community.”

Florida families are struggling during these tough economic times. Currently, Florida has the seventh-highest rate of unemployment in the country – more than twice the rate for January 2008, just two years prior. In fact, unemployment in Florida has been in the double-digits since May of 2009. Nearly one in every eight persons in the state lives in poverty, including 18.3 percent of all children. Shockingly, children make up nearly one-third of all Floridians who live in poverty.

Janzen has won eight times on the PGA Tour, most notably the 1993 and 1998 U.S. Open. In 1993, Janzen defeated Payne Stewart at the Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey, en route to tying the 72-hole U.S. Open scoring record of 8-under par. Five years later, Janzen again bested Stewart to win his second U.S. Open, this time at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.

About Feed The Children
Founded in 1979, Feed The Children is consistently ranked as one of the 10 largest international charities in the U.S., based on private, non-government support. Feed The Children is a Christian, international, nonprofit relief organization with headquarters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that delivers food, medicine, clothing and other necessities to individuals, children and families who lack these essentials due to famine, war, poverty or natural disasters. In FY 2008, Feed The Children distributed more than 133 million pounds of food and other essentials to children and their families in all 50 states and internationally, supplementing more than 760,000 meals each day. Since its founding, the organization has reached out to help those in need in 119 countries around the globe. For more information, please visit www.feedthechildren.org.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Calm Crane Ends Skid with First Win Since '05


By Tim Rosaforte
Photo by J.D. Cuban
February 8, 2010
Butch Harmon once called Ben Crane the biggest overachiever he has ever coached, but that's not why one of the game's most famous swing instructors jumped on a private jet and flew across the country from the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. Harmon was on the back end of the range early Sunday morning at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif., for an emergency session with Phil Mickelson, whose errant tee balls were sidetracking his 2010 debut.

While Mickelson was trying to work it out with Harmon, Crane was going to Bible study, preparing for the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open. After the service Crane uncharacteristically interrupted his normal pre-round regimen of quiet to phone his agent, Tommy Limbaugh, in Orlando. "I don't think I've ever walked out of church and taken a call before," Limbaugh said Sunday night. "We talked about how he was going to execute his process. He was pretty calm going in."

He was so calm during the final round that you never would have guessed Crane was staring down pressure, as one by one, the long putts dropped and his opponents fell off the pace. He admitted afterward that he didn't know where he stood, which helps in part to explain how he made the closing 30-inch putt for the win after an inexplicable miss from close to that distance on the 17th hole. The final-hole par helped Crane finish at 13-under 275, one stroke better than Marc Leishman, Michael Sim and Brandt Snedeker.

The stage for the victory was set two months earlier, in a meeting the week after Thanksgiving held, coincidentally, at DelMar CC, 10 minutes from Torrey Pines in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. Orchestrated by Limbaugh and attended by everyone in Crane's camp, including his caddie, his swing coach and his strength and conditioning guys, the sessions included both prayer and power-point presentations. The first page Limbaugh flashed on a screen: Ben Crane, taking it to the next level.

"We were motivated and united," says Limbaugh, who organized the session to spur the 33-year-old Crane to end a four-year winless drought. "Everybody had the same heartbeat when we came out of there, and it has been that way ever since."

What Limbaugh refers to as "staying in the process" comes not only from his coaching background -- he was an assistant football coach for 21 years at Texas Tech, Ole Miss, Duke, Alabama and Kentucky -- but also from Olympic marksman turned sport psychologist Lanny Bassham. Crane worked hard this offseason at The Madison Club in La Quinta, ­Calif., where the old football coach put him through "two-a-days." Bassham flew in for those, and was with Crane at the Bob Hope Classic, where he finished T-52 in his season debut.

The outcome of the Farmers Insurance Open was in doubt until the 72nd hole. By then the tournament's star attractions -- Mickelson (19th) and Ernie Els (T-5) -- had fallen off the pace, leaving Crane to be chased by some of the best young talent on tour. Sim, 25, the 2009 Nationwide Tour ­player of the year, disappointed many by laying up from 246 yards at the 72nd hole and failing to make birdie. Snedeker, third in the 2007 Buick Invitational, and Leishman, the 2009 PGA Tour rookie of the year, both grazed the edge at 18 to tie Sim for second. Rickie Fowler, 21, also made a run after opening his rookie season with two missed cuts and looked comfortable in the hunt playing with Mickelson until a double bogey at 17.

Crane kept applying the pressure by hitting greens in regulation, missing only one in his last 22 holes­ -- although he had no idea he was the front-runner. Crane refuses to look at leader boards. "I did not know that I had won when it was over," he said. "I didn't know who was playing well. I didn't know what was going on in front of me. Certainly the cameras followed us most of the day. But I did not know if someone ahead of me had posted a better score."

What went on was Crane's third career victory -- and maybe not his last. His work with Dr. Greg Rose of the Titleist Performance Institute, both on fitness and simplifying his golf swing, have Crane relatively pain free both in body and mind (a back injury limited him to seven starts in 2007). Not even being falsely quoted about Tiger Woods in a supermarket gossip magazine in December could push Crane, as Bassham would say, off his mark.

Crane may have not known he was winning the tournament, but he knows now he is in the Masters and on to better things. Once considered one of the slowest golfers on tour, his pace of play is improving, and he saves time by converting long putts -- he made two from more than 45 feet Sunday, offsetting the miss at 17 that cut his lead to one stroke with one hole to play. This was by far his biggest victory, and while Crane was thanking God for "a sense of peace that surpassed all understanding," he has a less humble competitive side driven by Harmon's description of him as an overachiever.

"He would beat his great grandmother at dominoes if he could," Limbaugh said. "He would have no mercy. He would be nice about it, though. He would love her to death after he beat her."

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Ben Crane Wins Headed to The Masters

4U client Ben Crane won the 3rd PGA Tour event of his career today. He fired a final round 2 under par at The Farmer's Insurance Open on the Torrey Pines South Course in Lajolla, California. Ben defeated Michael Sim, Brandt Snedeker and Marc Leishman by one shot for the biggest victory of his career. This ended a 5 year drought without a win. His 2 previous wins were in Atlanta and Milwaukee. Ben made 2 birdie putts over 40 feet in route to this victory. Torrey Pines is one of the toughest courses on tour and was host to the U.S. Open in 2008 when Tiger Woods defeated Rocco Mediate in a Monday play-off.

This win changes Crane's outlook on the season. He will now be going back to Augusta National and The Masters. His victory should also put him inside the top 60 and qualify him for the Match Play. He is also now qualified to open the season next year in Maui at the SBS Championship.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Steve Lowery New Client for 4U Management

Last night, January 26th, Steve Lowery became the newest 4U Management client. Lowery is a 3-time winner on the PGA Tour and in the top 50 on the career money list. His last victory was the 2008 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

"I met with Heather and Steve Lowery in Palm Springs last week" said 4U management Founder and President Tommy Limbaugh. "He informed me last night in San Diego that they wanted to be represented by 4U."

"This is an exciting day at 4U Management," said Limbaugh, "we look forward to being a part of what has already been a very succesful career."