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About the AuthorDave Lobeck
Dave Lobeck has been President & COO of Fuzzy Zoeller Productions since 1996, when he and Fuzzy decided that a fresh approach could be taken to marketing and tournament promotion and execution within the world of golf. Dave Lobeck graduated from Indiana State University with a B.S. in Business Administration, acquiring concentrations in Economics, Finance and Insurance. However, as his business life has progressed, he has found his true passion to be marketing. Following college, Lobeck joined the investment firm of Edward Jones Investments, and established three branch offices in the midwest over a ten year period for the conservative NYSE member firm. He personally made over 3,000 face-to-face "cold calls," and in the process developed valuable insights into direct sales methods and communication techniques by earning the trust of business owners and retired prospects sometimes three times his age. "When people you have just met trust you enough to discuss their savings and investments, and ultimately empower you with the management of those assets, you have accomplished something," said Lobeck. During his ten year career with Edward Jones, Lobeck also personally trained numerous investment representatives and raised as well as managed over $100,000,000 on behalf of his clients.
Lobeck had concluded that the events that had been held at Covered Bridge, especially the charity events, could be substantially improved. As a summary, he created a document that detailed the changes he felt needed to be made to take these events to a level that Fuzzy could be proud of. He sent the document to Fuzzy and went back to focusing on his investment business. A week later, he received a call from Zoeller offering him the opportunity to launch a company that would create, manage and sell a charity golf tournament on his behalf. With the support of his wife (Liz), Lobeck accepted and walked away from his investment business.
Since creating Fuzzy Zoeller Productions in 1996, Lobeck has worked hard to develop creative marketing programs within sports that stand out in the crowded marketplace. He quickly established and trademarked their new golf event, "The Wolf Challenge." This event and its unique format is now in its 11th year and is viewed as one of the most unique events in all of professional golf. In addition, over $1,300,000 has been raised for local children's charities through this event.
Lobeck experienced the ultimate fantasy of any golfer at the 2004 version of The Wolf Challenge when a player dropped out at the last minute. Lobeck decided to fill in to gather "inside the ropes" observations to continue improving the event. As luck would have it, Lobeck aced the par 3 eighth hole and won a car while a gallery of hundreds was there to watch. That night, Lobeck donated the car and auctioned it off, raising an additional $22,000 for charity. CLICK HERE to view the pictures. The next goal for Zoeller and Lobeck is to take the "wolf" format to a national television audience. In the past ten years, Lobeck has personally hired and worked with hundreds of golf professionals from The PGA TOUR, The Champions Tour and the LPGA. The list includes Arnold Plamer, Fred Couples, Greg Norman, Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk, Hal Sutton, David Toms, Ben Crenshaw, Hale Irwin and Chi Chi Rogriguez. In 2006, Lobeck was able to secure big screen legends Bill Murray and Kevin Costner for the Wolf event. Lobeck has developed an expertise in knowing which professionals do a good job and which professionals don't. He is also an occasional consultant to The Champions Tour. In 1998, Zoeller and Lobeck determined that the management and marketing of all aspects of Zoeller's professional career should now be brought "in house," making Lobeck responsible for the marketing and management of Zoeller's corporate outings, personal appearances, endorsement negotiations, and golf course design opportunities. Besides the standard "player manager" responsibilities detailed above, Lobeck and Zoeller invented a revolutionary putting aid called "The Putting Peg" that is distributed worldwide. In 2003, these aids were named top training aid of The PGA Show. A second generation of these aids is now being designed. Lobeck is also working on the launch of GreatShot.com, an online golf tournament that he conceptualized and has been designing and tweaking for over four years. He also developed the "golf earnings inflation index," a way to measure the earnings of players of past eras (dating back to 1938) against the players of today. Lobeck was also the first person in the marketing world to include actual sponsorship signage within a computer game, when in 1999 he negotiated a deal with Links LS to place Papa John's Pizza and Fuzzy's BBQ and Steak Sauce sponsor signage within the Links LS 2000 golf game. This had never been done before, and now this advertising method is being embraced by more and more Fortune 500 companies as a way to create customer interaction and brand loyalty.
Louisville's Business First recently described a number of the projects Lobeck has created and successfully executed. "I love to create and come up with ideas and concepts that have never been done before, things that really stand out," said Lobeck. A voracious reader, Lobeck continues to research, study, tweak and implement successful marketing and business strategies authored by leading business executives and entrepreneurs of the past and present. He and Liz have three children, Emily, Andrew and Madeline. "Fuzzy has given me a wonderful opportunity to create a business around creativity," said Lobeck. "I am proud of the things we have accomplished, but I don't think we've scratched the surface yet."
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As fate would have it, in 1995 Lobeck helped recruit volunteers for a charity event at 
In 2006, Lobeck once again conceptualized and executed something that had never been attempted in the world of sports. He created a 
