Sunday, April 28, 2013

Minigolfer Jon Drexler Appears on a New Trading Card!

Geek A Week Superfan and Minigolf Pro Jon Drexler Features on a Brand New Trading Card.

International Minigolfer Jon 'The Black Knight' Drexler has been immortalised in a Trading Card as part of the 'Geek A Week' set by artist Len Peralta!

Jon, the BMGA National Open champion in 2002 and my Midlands Minigolf Club team-mate, is a well travelled player having competed internationally since 1999 when he made his debut at the for the United States National Team at the WMF World Minigolf Championships in Papendal, Netherlands.

As something of a geek myself and an avid collector of a number of things, including trading cards, I was really impressed by the Geek A Week cards and was obviously particular happy to see a Minigolf competitor on one.

Recently I've actually been sorting through a lot of my old wrestling, sports, sci-fi and comic book trading cards and the Geek a Week set is my new favourite.

Jon Drexler's Geek A Week Trading Card!

In addition to his 2002 visit to England 'The Black Knight' contested two World titles in the UK last year. In the 2012 WMF World Adventure Golf Masters tournament he finished in 11th place and was 12th in the 2012 Castle Golf World Crazy Golf Championship. Domestically Drexler plays in both United States Pro Minigolf Association (USPMGA) and Pro Putters Association (PPA) tournaments.

He has achieved one Pro victory on the PPA tour, winning the 2008 Virginia PPA Tour Martinsville Pro Tournament. In 2000 Jon won the Amateur Southwest Tour Player of the Year Awards, having won the Texas State Amateur Championship that year, and most recently received the 2012 Southern Tour Sportsmanship Award.

The Geek A Week project started as a one-year art challenge by US artist Len Peralta that saw him interview 52 of the world’s biggest and most influential geeks and then create a trading card for each of them.

Amongst the geeks in Geek A Week version 4.0 are Ernie Cline  (Author - Ready, Player One), Jenny Lawson AKA The Bloggess (Author, Let's Pretend This Never Happened.), Alison Haislip (Actress/Host), Joseph Scrimshaw (Writer/Comedian), Parry Gripp (Viral Musician, formerly of Nerf Herder), Jen Yates AKA Cakewrecks (Author/Blogger), Richard Garfield (Creator, Magic The Gathering), Roy Thomas (Legendary Comic Book Writer) and Peter Sagal (Host, NPR's Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me!).

They join such luminaries as Kevin Smith (Film Director), Steve Jackson (RPG Designer), Edgar Wright (Film Director), Steve "Woz" Wozniak (Apple Co-Founder), “Weird Al” Yankovic (Comedy Singer-Songwriter), Mark Mothersbaugh (Musician), Felicia Day (New Media Actress), Guillermo Del Toro (Film Director), Stan Lee (Legendary Comic Book Creator), Seth Green (Actor), Jeri Ryan (Actress) and Wil Wheaton (Actor) amongst others that featured in Geek A Week version 2.0.

You can buy the Geek A Week: Version 4.0 Trading Cards (and others) at Len Peralta's Merch site.

The Jon Drexler Trading Card is a definite future exhibit at The Crazy Golf Museum!

Photo of USA Minigolfer Jon Drexler playing Crazy Golf in Hastings, England
Jon 'The Black Knight' Drexler (in red) enjoys a practice round with me and former World Crazy Golf Champion Keith 'Doc' Kellard in Hastings

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1 comment:

Richard Gottfried said...

When Emily and I competed as part of the Great Britain team at the 2008 EMF Nations Cup Minigolf Tournament in Tampere, Finland the organisers at the European Minigolf Sport Federation and the Manse Ratagolf Club put together photo 'cards' of all the competitors, teams and coaches.

Images:
- Richard Gottfried, GB International

- Emily Gottfried, GB International

- Great Britain Minigolf Sport Team

These looked great though they were not physically printed and were without cardback profiles.

It would be great to see a Minigolf-specific Trading Card / Sticker set created...