Over the Green

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.”

The well-chronicled fall from grace of the world’s number one player has had a far reaching impact on Tiger Woods, his family and golf in general. However, in spite of reports of a three quarter of a billion (yes, that’s a B) divorce settlement pending Woods is not going to have to peddle his used Nike clubs on eBay to make ends meet. He still has plenty of off course income from Nike, Electronic Arts and others who evidently were able to hold their collective corporate noses even after being fired from endorsement contracts with Gatorade, AT&T and Accenture.

An article on Forbes.com by Kurt Badenhausen puts numbers to the wages of sin. According to the story Woods lost about $30 million in endorsement deals but retains the estimated $30 million Nike pays him.

Of significance though is the state of Woods course design business and the troubles there are not linked to Woods’ actions as much as the worldwide economic slowdown and real estate collapse.

The high profile Al Ruwaya Golf Course project in Dubai for which Badenhausen reports Woods received $20 million plus a slice of real estate sales, has stopped construction. The Cliffs Communities in North Carolina promotes a Woods design that is has now been delayed for the second time and lack of financing casts doubts it will ever be completed. Finally the Punta Brava development in Mexico is having problems with permitting and an opening for a to-be-built golf course is in the far distant future.

He presumably will also get back to winning at some point so those on course earnings will help.

Jack Nicklaus, the best player ever, golf icon, etc. was quoted this week with the comment Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin needs a “brain scan” should Tiger Woods not be one of the top eight in the points qualifying list for the US team and Pavin does not make him a captain’s choice. Could be, since Woods has the second best all time major record but as golf cognoscenti know he hasn’t performed very well in Ryder Cup competition with a 10-13-2 overall record for five Ryder Cups.

Of course the current leader of the points list, Phil Mickelson, also has a losing record at 10-14-6.

If the Ryder Cup team were chosen as of the May 24 point standings here are the Ryder Cup records of the next nine players, seven of whom would all automatically qualify with Pavin being allowed four picks.

Anthony Kim 2-1-1
Jim Furyk 8-13-3
Lucas Glover-Ryder Cup rookie
Hunter Mahan 2-0-3
Steve Stricker 0-2-1
Dustin Johnson- Ryder Cup rookie
Stewart Cink 4-7-4
Ben Crane- Ryder Cup rookie
Matt Kuchar- Ryder Cup rookie

Woods is number 11 and Nick Watney (Ryder Cup rookie) rounds out the top 12.

Some of my fellow media members are screaming for Pavin to consult with 2008 winning captain Paul Azinger to gain insight how the 2008 winning captain created the team that took the Euros at Valhalla. To date Pavin has not had that conversation, which on the face of it seems to be poor judgment but maybe he read Zinger’s book and doesn’t need a meeting.

That could rate as the worst thinking since…well it would be right along side not making Woods one of his four picks.

And in the for-what-its-worth department Nicklaus’ Ryder Cup record was 17-8-3, Palmer’s 22-8-2 and Watson’s 10-4-1.

The headline could be, “Masters victor overcomes personal problems & wins.”

That winner of course was Phil Mickelson not Tiger Woods. It was Mickelson who posted a convincing triumph over the emotions from watching both his wife and mother battle cancer as well as, almost incidentally, trouncing the field by three shots. Lefty displayed both an inner strength of character plus his world class ability to play this very difficult game under stressful circumstances.

The 2010 Masters should not be looked at as a morality play with the guy in a white hat overcoming the black hats though already the post mortems being written are sounding that way. Plus it was not Woods failure to play winning golf that defined the four days at Augusta National Golf Club (in spite of the pre-tournament odds making him the favorite those who understand tournament golf did not gave him a serious chance – too much baggage).

This year’s rendition of golf’s classic symphony was defined by the incredibly steady play of Mickelson, who has been the poster child for major-losing misjudgments, with three rounds of 67 and a “bad round of 71”…amazing.

There were flashes of the less consistent Phil though. At the time some questioned his choice to hit his second shot on 13 between two trees from a lie in pine straw, over water to mounded green notoriously hard to hold. But Lefty said later the lie was good and the gap between the trees was much wider than it looked on television, in essence a shot only slightly harder than normal…amazing.

His four-foot putt for eagle missed but the birdie had the fat lady singing.

Woods on the other hand did not play up to his standard of the past, venting his anger with profanity both Saturday and Sunday making it obvious more work is required on a lot of things with the golf game not highest on that list. The world’s number one finished T-4, said he was taking time off and doesn’t know when he will play again…amazing

Billy Payne, chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, in his annual pre-Masters press conference voiced strong disapproval of Tiger Woods and his scandal-generating behavior. Though that’s the substance of the story whizzing around the Internet and permeating talk television by some who revel for another chance to rehash the details of Woods’ behavior (the nudge-nudge-giggle-smirk crowd) and some who need to rationalize it (the “boys will be boys” and “it’s all in the past” bunch), it is not the most important story.

What overshadows it is a simple obvious fact; Payne had the courage to speak out.

Payne stood up saying decent people were offended, angry at the betrayal of someone promoted as a role model for children and that he was hopeful Woods had learned his lesson with the professed reform of his behavior becoming a fact.

Good for Payne and good for Augusta National.

He could have mouthed a few platitudes and let it go at that. Confronting what has transpired was not the easy way to handle the situation.

Meanwhile, Nike released its’ latest broadcast commercial featuring Woods. In the 30-second black and white ad the world’s number one stands mute and unsmiling in front of the camera with a voiceover from his father. The key line from Earl Woods’ monologue has to be, “Did you learn anything?”

You will recall Nike was one of the few companies to not fire Woods after the news of his extramarital affairs became public. Nike stood by him, probably rationalizing this will all blow over and his value as an endorser will return. The wisdom of that decision remains to be seen.

The press conference Tiger Woods held yesterday is now being analyzed for facts, implications and nuances but the most important thing coming from the half hour he spent in front of the media was his obvious determination to move on.

It’s not appropriate to comment on what he and his family are doing or talking about but as far as the public is concerned the only thing that should matter is he confessed, showed contrition, is doing his penance and now can be forgiven. Well, maybe for some, while others will never get over the hurt he caused them, but on the other hand nobody ever said life was without pain or disappointment.

So, for those nursing negative emotions about Tiger and his duplicity now is the time as they used to say back when I was playing pickup baseball as a 12-year old, “Rub some dirt on it and get back in the game.”

Of course there appears to an unanswered or perhaps an inadequately answered question about Dr. Anthony Galea, performance enhancing drugs and why Woods thought a Canadian doctor, (unlicensed in the U.S.) was somehow the medico of choice. Sorry, “All the other guys are doing it,” didn’t work as a kid and doesn’t now.

The other two important things about Woods yesterday was what seemed to be more relaxed manner and one might even venture that he displayed a new found maturity taking on tough questions head on. Secondly was the widely reported fact he smiled, nodded and otherwise acknowledged some of the thousands of fans during his practice round with Freddie Couples. Both are welcomed; let’s hope both behaviors are here to stay.

Golf needs a healthy, engaged Tiger.

Jim Thorpe turned himself in yesterday and began his one-year prison sentence. The three time winner on the PGA Tour was convicted of not paying income tax on $5.2 million he earned in prize money and endorsements from 2002 through 2004.

Thorpe will serve the time in a minimum security prison located on Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base near Montgomery, Ala. Upon release he must pay $1.6 million in taxes plus penalties and interest for a total of over $2 million. In addition he must do 200 hours of community service during two years of supervised release.

Those are the facts as they might appear in your local newspaper but they don’t tell anything close to the whole story.

Thorpe, one of golf’s real characters, made it as a golf hustler until his 1973 marriage and has the dubious distinction after getting his PGA Tour card of being the player Oklahoma State amateur Scott Verplank beat in a playoff for the 1985 Western Open. Thorpe did get his first tour win a month later in Milwaukee but this only served to fuel his lifelong fascination with horse racing and gambling.

He came into his own when he “graduated” to the Champions (nee Senior) Tour where the 61-year old won 13 times. The twirling finish to his swing could be spotted two fairways away and his competitive nature never got in the way of his enthusiastic, some would say profane, personality.

Though he attended Morgan State College on a football scholarship, golf was his love. Thorpe’s early years growing up were spent at Roxboro Country Club in the rolling hills of North Carolina where his father was greens superintendent. There were 12 children in the Thorpe household and Jim was number nine but not the only one to play professionally. Brother Chuck played on both the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour though not with Jim’s success.

Its sad Thorpe ended up in prison. Golf could use more “characters” like Thorpey.

As the world awaits Tiger Woods return to competitive golf at next week’s Masters the media won’t seem to let him alone, publishing and broadcasting all manner of stories.

Two examples.

Vanity Fair magazine, the pub you will remember with the cover story of an “edgier Tiger” that had some less than flattering photos appearing just after the Nov. 27 auto accident, has hit the streets with an accounting by a former member of Team Tiger of how Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley were an early part of the problem. Plus on the VF website it’s reported several of Woods staff not only knew of Woods’ extracurricular activities but helped with the arrangements and cover up.

Yesterday CNBC dug out information from Golfsmith showing Tiger Woods branded Nike items had an increase in sales of eight percent in the five months since the post-Thanksgiving accident that began the public scrutiny. Golfsmith’s CEO said though the TW items had discount pricing, it wasn’t extreme just normal end of the year price concessions.

Both stories are more of a commentary on what seems to be a never ending fascination with the details of Woods screw up. Now that he has committed to coming back into the public eye is there any doubt coverage at the Masters (and maybe even the next several tournaments) will redefine “media circus”?

No, the end is not in sight…unfortunately.