Over the Green

Meet Jack Nicklaus. Visit St. Andrews and play the Old Course. And earn a business degree from the only four-year golf management program in North America. These are few of the opportunities offered by Georgian College, located in Barrie, Ontario just north of Toronto, in their golf management degree program focusing on high-level positions in the golf industry.
The Bachelor of Business (Golf Management) program fills a void in golf post-secondary education by preparing graduates with financial, management and business skills to be successful as senior managers and executives in the golf industry.

“With the increasing sophistication of the golf business, post-secondary education was not keeping up with the demand for graduates who are capable of executive level decision-making and management capabilities, particularly around finance, human resources, and retail management,” said Brad Doey, program coordinator for Georgian’s golf management degree and two-year diploma programs. MORE…

According to the folks at Tour Edge Golf, shots from the fairway, even from tight lies in the fairway or from the rough, just got easier with the introduction of the Exotics Trilogy Rail fairway wood. The Exotics line from Tour Edge is known for the latest technical innovations and very high quality but particularly for outstanding fairways and hybrids.

How outstanding? Players using Exotics fairways and hybrids have racked up 17 top ten finishes on the PGA Tour so far this year including significantly, Matt Kuchar last weekend at The Barclay’s using a Tour Edge Exotics CB2 4-wood. MORE…

Elin Woods and Tiger Woods are finally divorced roughly nine months after Tiger’s extramarital escapades with prostitutes and other women came to light. It’s the end of a life changing tragedy for the Woods family.

As one woman put it after hearing the final papers had been filed in a Panama City, Fla. court, “Good. She dropped him like a bad habit,” which of course he was.

It remains to be seen if he continues his destructive behavior.

Another tragedy has already begun, two more children being raised without their father living with them.

In light of this, another point seems inconsequential but it would be best if Tiger finds the character to return to his former dominate position as the best player in the world. Golf needs him.

TV rules
There nothing good about a disqualification and LPGA veteran and Hall of Famer Julie Inkster certainly wasn’t happy after being seen using a training weight on her club while waiting to hit after a very long delay during her second round at the Safeway Classic. Her use of the weight was inadvertent but no official called her on it until a TV viewer sent an email asking if that wasn’t against the rules.

It’s ironic that for the second week in a row television played a major role in a tournament outcome after Dustin Johnson was confirmed to have grounded his club in a bunker on the final hole at the PGA Championship through the use of television replay.

Attendance up
The PGA of America says the number of golf apparel and equipment buyers (many of them club professionals) attending the 2010 PGA Fall Expo two days last week in Las Vegas was up 16% from last year. Attendees were from 46 states and 19 foreign countries.

The Fall show in recent years has become more orientated towards apparel with this years exhibitors including Cutter& Buck, Greg Norman Collection, AHEAD, Fila, Peter Millar, LIJA, Pukka, Sport Haley-Ben Hogan, PUMA, Cleveland Classics, Imperial, Fairway & Greene and PIMA Direct though most of the major golf equipment companies also had exhibitions. Notably absent were apparel giant adidas and their equipment company TaylorMade Golf.

No attendance figures are available but the Fall Show is a pale comparison to the annual PGA Merchandise Show held in January each year in Orlando, Fla. when attendance is in the range of 40,000 with over half the cavernous Orange County Convention Center devoted to golf equipment booths.

Changing show dates to mid-August from Sept. and a move to the Venetian Resort have been cited as causes for more buyers showing up many in the industry believe business may be on an upswing so the expense of the trip to Las Vegas can be justified.

Maruman Majesty
Maruman Golf has announced a new line the Majesty Vanquish VR clubs which includes drivers, fairways, hybrids and irons. Featuring Maurman’s Fullerene Titanium using nanotechnology the driver has an MSRP of $1,399, the fairways $1,099, hybrids $749 and an 8-iron set (five iron through sand wedge) is $4,299.

Nicklaus goes into travel business
NicklausTravel.com is the latest aid for golfers wanting to play one of 130 selected Jack Nicklaus designed courses around the world. Not only may one reserve tee times but also hotel accommodations.

Etonic’s new Stabilizer shoe
Etonic has brought out their new Stabilizer golf shoe which is both lighter and more comfortable than previous versions according to the company. Using Outlast®, a NASA-engineered material, in the liner reduces heat and moisture by over 40 percent says Etonic.

USAToday paints a dismal picture
Jon Swartz writing in USAToday August 3, says golf is in sad shape and getting worse. He cites dropping participation and of course the recession as primary causes. Less money, fewer players is not a pretty picture. The article has several statistics pointing to a downward spiral in both high-end public access courses and private clubs. Residential real estate on golf courses has taken a massive hit and Swartz tells of course closings, bankruptcies or private clubs going public. Here’s link to the complete story.

Tour Edge Backdraft GT
Tour Edge Golf brings a new entry into the high contrast putter category with the Backdraft GT+ putter featuring a white club head and jumbo-sized grip. The new white putter head increases visual contrast helping the player to focus more on alignment. The Backdraft GT+ comes at a very attractive price of $49.99.

The economy’s slowdown, family considerations, work and other time and monetary
constraints are cited for the falling numbers of participants.

There has been no surge of players taking up golf and sticking with it as was forecast by some pundits a few years ago. MORE…

Acushnet along with its former subsidiary Cobra Golf (sold in May to Puma AG) are seeking an injunction and monetary damages against both TaylorMade Golf and PGA Tour star Camillo Villegas for the August 3rd announcement by TMaG that Villegas had signed an endorsement contract for 2011.

Villegas presently endorses Acushnet brands Titleist and Foot-Joy plus is under contract with Cobra Golf endorsing their clubs.

The legal filings by Acushnet and Cobra ask for an injunction to stop further public announcements by TMaG or Villegas concerning the 2011 deal plus unspecified damages as compensation for loss of Villegas as a product endorser for the next five months.

The world’s largest golf equipment company Acushnet, however evidentially did not feel constrained from repeated broadcasting of a spot for Titlist golf balls with Villegas in the cast during television coverage of the PGA Championship nor has Villegas been removed from the Cobra Golf web site.

Both companies said the basis for their respective law suits was with the TMaG press release destroyed the publicity value of Villegas.

Camillo Villegas and his new equipment company sponsor TaylorMade Golf have been sued by Cobra Golf Inc., part of Puma AG. Cobra is the second company to seek an injunction and monetary compensation for the announcement last week by TMaG that in 2011 Villegas would be joining the list of PGA Tour players endorsing TMaG equipment, clothing, shoes and balls.

Villegas is under contract to Cobra golf clubs through the end of 2010.

Both Acushnet (Villegas endorsed Acushnet brands Titleist and Foot-Joy) and Cobra said in their filings in a Massachusetts court the announcement by TMaG ended Villegas’ value as a spokesman, asked for an injunction to stop further public announcements and asked for damages as compensation for the loss of Villegas as an endorser the next five months.

TaylorMade has as yet made no comment

Has anyone noticed? The past couple of weeks in the world of golf have been very unusual if not down right weird.

An Oklahoma amateur shoots a score of 56 in a local member-guest tournament, an Alabama teen records a 57 in his state’s Boys Junior Championship plus of course Stuart Appleby humbles the field with a 59 at the Greenbrier Classic for a classic come-from-behind win. Kind of makes David Frost’s 61 yesterday up in Minnesota to take his first Champions Tour event almost irrelevant…except presumably to Frost.

In the race for number one ranking in the world Tiger Woods played the four days at Firestone like his was trying to give away his top spot to Phil Mickelson and Mickelson played like he didn’t want to take it. If it’s of any significance or what may be a preview of the coming PGA Championship, Tiger won the two man battle of the fourth round Sunday with a 77 to Lefty’s 78. One could compare these two efforts to winner Hunter Mahan’s 64, but that would be labeled cruel and unusual punishment.

And by the way, Woods personal problems have not fallen out of the media but then again gawkers drive slowly past a car wreck too.

Not to be out done in the unusual department, the LPGA’s triple A league Future’s Tour saw a rules official disqualify Sarah Brown during her round from the International at Concord for carrying a nonconforming Ping wedge, which the world now knows was conforming to the Rules of Golf. Tour management tried to compensate Brown with the laughable sum of $2,000 which Brown refused. However Brown and the Tour did eventually reach an undisclosed settlement. No one is blaming Ping or Brown and everyone is beating up on the Future’s Tour and the two officials who acted with world class stupidity. The USGA so far has escaped public outrage as the cause of this fiasco due to the “groove rule” they instituted last year.

And then as if to provide icing on the cake, Acushnet is suing TaylorMade Golf for trumpeting TMaG’s signing of Camilo Villegas. The young superstar is presently under contract with Acushnet’s Footjoy and Titleist brands and used in advertising for those products. TMaG inked a deal with Villegas starting in the 2011 season and put out a press release telling the world.

This is not normally done as it does lessen the endorsement value of any golfer to the company he is currently accepting a paycheck from and who knows when the shoe may be on the other foot.

Acushnet is asking for an injunction to stop TMaG from any further mention of Villegas until the end of the year and will ask for money to compensate for the loss of his endorsement for five months. Of course Villegas probably isn’t too happy either since he’s included in the law suit.

It’s hard to imagine what PGA Championship week will bring.

Stuart Appleby and Paul Goydos managed 59s at PGA Tour events and there was a 58 by Ryo Ishikawa on the Japanese Tour plus amateur Bobby Wyatt’s 57 in the Alabama State Boys Junior Championship; all in the past few weeks. However Jerry Callison of Claremore, Okla. beats them all with the best round, a 56, 16-under par, over the Broken Arrow Golf & Athletic Club course (par 72 6,023-yards) July 25 during a member guest event.

A great round for sure but sadly it won’t go in the record books. Callison was competing in a shamble format and lift-clean-place was being played since the course had not yet recovered from severe winter-kill. He did however putt everything out and did not use a single shot from his partner, a Tulsa police officer.

Write it down. A 56 is 10 birdies, three eagles and five pars…amazing what ever the circumstances and from now on, regardless of the caveats, Callison can still be called “Mr. 56.”