Over the Green

NBC did it again, spent the first 11 minutes of their coverage by my watch with football scores, touting their programming and talking about the tournament. In other words making the assumption we aren’t interested in seeing actual golf shots.

Also unnoticed by Hicks and Miller evidentally in the focused coverage they provided of Tiger’s flat play today was that Lefty’s 65 was two better than the next low round (Furyk and Z. Johnson) and that the course scoring average was over par.

The Peacock Network seems increasingly to be enamoured by the sound of Johnny Miller’s voice and Dan Hicks rambles. Too bad because their camera work and production values are first rate.

Heath Slocum’s win at the Barclay’s, first of the FedEx Cup events last weekend, may have been a surprise to some but to at least one knowledgeable person it wasn’t.

Dr. Gio Valiante, well known sports psychologist has been working with Slocum for some time, improving his mental approach and opening the door for him to win for the third time on Tour.

Slocum is full of praise for Valiante, “Dr. Valiante has helped my transition on to the PGA Tour. My game improved almost immediately after meeting him.”

Valiante is a professor of psychology at Rollins College in Orlando, Fla. and has worked with many of the world’s best professionals. He is well respected among touring pros and with five Fed Ex Cup tournament winners having been trained in the mental conditioning program he calls Fearless Golf.

Slocum, when asked about his mindset when his name showed up on the leaderboard among the best players in the world said, “In all honesty, it’s funny because I’ve worked with Gio Valiante quite a bit on this. I don’t worry about who is ahead of me, who is behind me. I’m focused right on the golf course and the task at hand.”

Combining research from several fields of performance psychology, Valiante’s Fearless Golf has had measurable results with golfers at all levels. Fearless Golf is based on the idea golf is as much a mental game as a skills game.

“My program teaches golfers to get rid of the extra baggage that clutters their minds, which allows them to remain clear and focused on their way to playing fearless golf,” said Valiante. The list of his students who have won on the PGA Tour includes Chad Campbell, Will Mackenzie, Vijay Singh, Justin Leonard, Davis Love III, Bryce Molder, and Matt Kuchar.

There’s even a Fearless Golf Academy DVD specifically produced for amateurs. The 3-disk set sells for $99.95 and is available at fearlessgolf.com.

Let’s Call It Like It Is – Part Two

In a column back when U.S. Solheim Team captain Beth Daniel picked Michelle Wie I questioned how Wie deserved the pick given her performance to date as a professional and boy, was I proven wrong. Either Daniel knows a lot more than I do about the players on tour (pretty much a lead pipe cinch!) or Wie more tha rose to the occasion.

It appears to me Wie met the challenge. And she did by herself…mastering the pressure, striking the ball very well, and putting superbly.

Some are heralding the Solheim Cup coming off the wall to wall Golf Channel coverage as a resurgance for the LPGA Tour. Lord knows, they need a resurgance but after all the tough economic news, lost tournaments, missing sponsors and aborted tenure of the previous commissioner the Tour needs two more things.

First is a commisioner. One who knows the professional game (unlike the last one), who has or can build relationships with the players plus mend relations with sponsors. The women have a wonderful entertaining product that needs the right exposure, marketing and support.

Secondly Wie to start winning. Should she step up and capture three plus tournaments a year including a major or two, watch the needle move in American public and media attention. A tall order you say? It is but there is no question Wie has the talent. And it could do nothing but help if the other Solheim Cup Team members also contributed to U.S. golfers returning to dominance with a few wins of their own.

Although Internal Revenue Service regulations are certainly voluminous and for most of us arcane, it’s a well established principle when nonresident golfers (or any nonresident for that matter) earn money in the U.S. they must pay taxes.

Seems straightforward enough but the IRS is now taking a much closer look at money earned in the U.S. from endorsement contracts. So as in the case of Y.E. Yang, the player who out played Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship and whose endorsement value has multiplied, this uncome will be taxed just like tournament winnings, i.e., at earned income rates of up to 35%.

For some time nonresident golfers have been able to report endorsements as royalty income which fails under international tax treaties requiring a tax rate up to 15% but under certain circumstances the income may not be not taxed at all.

According to Lucy Lee, tax attorney at Washington-based Caplin & Drysdale, “This follows on the heels of a broad IRS initiative launched two years ago to closely scrutinize their U.S. tax compliance activities.” The IRS says royalty income is not an accurate depiction of the endorsement money and players in fact become “walking billboards” for the products they wear and use.

In what may be a classic understatement Lee says, “This IRS guidance is aggressive, unwelcome, and should be carefully monitored by the athletes and their professional advisors.”

The Feds at last appear to have found a source of revenue to make up for all that bail out money they’ve been spreading around and conceivably this might even cause some international players to give up their U.S. homes.

Golf in the Olympics

With the announcement yesterday golf will join the list in 2016 of sports contested in the Olympics (along with rugby sevens) the work of a lot of golf people and organizations has borne fruit. All that remains is for the expected final approval by the International Olympic Committee.

According to Ty Votaw, the spear carrier in the battle to obtain approval and a vice president of the PGA Tour as well as executive director of the International Golf Federation Olympic Committee, “We’re obviously thrilled that the IOC Executive Board has recommended that golf should be added to the 2016 Olympic Program, We believe we have presented a compelling case as to why golf should be added and we look forward to the IOC’s final vote in October.”

The problem is I have yet to see a proposal from the PGA Tour or the USGA as to how another 72-hole tournament will fit into the schedule. If you have read previous columns on this topic you know I’m not real happy nor is everyone in golf with one more high profile “must play” championship especially since tournament sponsors are dropping out left and right from every pro tour.

The people who want Olympic golf say it’s about growing the popularity of the game and as I said in an earlier column, proponents assume “presumably dozens of national governments will start funding golf programs with tax payer money creating millions of new golfers around the world.”

Right.

The presentation to the IOC selection committee was in part predicated on of course Tiger, Lefty, Michelle, Paula and even Natalie competing. Wonderful for those big names and shoo-in members of team USA , but what happened to the idea of amateurs and the Olympics? I guess you can call me old fashioned but after watching the USA basketball team…well, you get my point.

The Olympics is held at the end of July and the beginning of August so the Open Championship, Women’s British Open and the PGA will be effected to say nothing of the other five professional majors (The Masters, men’s and women’s U.S. Opens, The Kraft Nabisco and MacDonald’s Championship). Not that a major can’t be moved but how about the trickle down to regular tour events? (See comments above concerning tournament sponsors.)

Next, do the all those countries supposedly waiting to taxpayer fund new golf programs after the attainment of its exalted Olympic status know the cost of building and maintaining not just one golf course but dozens and maybe hundreds, not to mention the expense of golf equipment for hundreds, thousands or even millions of players? My guess is not.

Finally Olympic engendered grow around the world will be a boon to golf equipment makers and perhaps to tourism though I’m struggling to see plane loads of Albanian hackers flocking to Florida or Arizona for a winter break.

Don’t get me wrong, I would like to see Olympic golf and even Tiger has made positive comments concerning his participation but there are real concerns yet to be addressed. And if they have why have the powers-that-be not been forthcoming with answers?

Cynic that I am, in my experience if it squeaks you pay attention to it, so just call me the squeaky wheel.

Well, Tiger must have been worried what I was going to say in my contemplated column.

In fact my whole point would have been that to play at the top on one’s game, one has to play the game…and Tiger was taking too much time off as proven in his performance at the three majors this year. But now it’s all academic with his teeing it up in the Buick this week and presumably playing in the Bridgestone next week followed by the year’s last major, the PGA.

My experience and that of lots of other competitors is there is no substitute for being in the heat of battle to make you elevate your game. Tiger may be the best, even the best of all time, but he can’t perform at the top of his game if he isn’t playing. We all know he plays to win not just have a good finish.

As an aside I remember years ago, Lanny Wadkins commented about a pro with a series of great play over several weeks. I don’t recall the results exactly but let’s say a win and four or so top tens in a row. The word came out this pro was going to go home and relax. Wadkins opined that taking time off was stupid. Runs like this fellow was on occur infrequently so he should stay in there and take advantage of the situation.

Watson and the Ryder Cup

Here’s an interesting thought.

Tom Watson playing on the 2010 Ryder Cup team.

His second at the British Open puts him number four in the points standings, ahead of Kenny Perry , Chad Campbell, Ricky Barnes, David Duval, Hunter Mahan and oh yes, Tiger Woods.

Never happen, right? And there’s a long way to go until September 2010 but Watson does have an outstanding Ryder Cup record and if he finishes well in a couple more regular Tour events plus the next Master’s (which most likely he will play) and maybe the British Open, it could happen.

And he won’t be a captain’s pick. Next comes the speculation on David Duval’s chances.

Lost in all the reporting of the “Daytona Beach palace coup” pulled off during the past few days culminating with the ouster of Carolyn Bivens as LPGA Commissioner, is the some very good news.

No, not the appointment of Rear Admiral (Retired) Marsha Evans into the slot as an interim, though you can be sure she is more than competent. There’s no way anyone gets to be an admiral without having the requisite skills to handle almost any situation. I’m referring to a paragraph buried at the end of most stories and no even mentioned in some…Annika Sorenstam has been appointed as an Advisor to the LPGA Board of Directors.

I can only imagine a Board meeting conversation, “What are we going to do about the fact our tournament sponsors hate us?”

“I dunno. We need to get somebody in here to talk to them …Smooze ‘em.”

“Um, let’s see. Natalie – nope, she’s too young. Nancy Lopez would be great but she’s been gone too many years.”

“How about Annika? She’s just retired at the end of last year and isn’t doing anything except running her business, designing courses and having a baby. Sponsors know her and love her, she’s perfect.”

The LPGA Board should be congratulated for bringing Annika back to close involvement with the tour. She should do a great job rebuilding management’s tattered image with sponsors.

Bivens Says Bye-Bye

As inevitable as death and taxes, the term of LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens came to a contentious end after a “no-confidence vote,” or at least what passed for one from some fifteen of the leading players. Aside from the obvious such as decisions by the former commissioner Bivens which seemed tailor-made to anger one or more constituent groups she did bring a hard, let’s get this done attitude to the tour administration.

But from the first I had opined she was doomed, not because of her gaffs (her first major one being the precipitous charging of tournament photo rights) but because it was clear when she started four years ago the future would be decided by star power…something over which Bivens had no control.

Everyone would acknowledge the LPGA needs its own Tiger Woods to, as the expression goes, “move the needle” but the only possibilities among players who might be able to fill that role in ‘06 were an immature Michelle Wie and the sexy Natalie Gulbis. Sorry, but I don’t make up the rules, that’s just the way it is.

Wie spent her time seemly trying to squander her potential, only this year finally consenting to get her tour card, and Gulbis, as pleasant she is to look at, has only won once thus limiting her marketability for the tour.

This was unfortunate for Bivens plans and management style which needed that star power to wield with television, sponsors and the media especially in light of the economy’s present problems.

Yesterday was the final presentation by the International Golf Federation to the International Olympic Committee to have golf included in the Olympics beginning in 2016. The IGF presenting group besides Ty Votaw (of the PGA Tour) and Peter Dawson (from the R&A) was comprised of Colin Montgomerie, Annika Sorenstam and Chako Higuchi plus PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem.

It’s obviously a “full court press” effort by the leaders of the game though not everyone is thrilled about adding another “must play” event to an already crowded professional schedule particularly in light of the problems maintaining current tournament sponsors not to mention finding new sponsors who will pay the money needed for even a regular event on any of the world tours.

However, the powers that be say it’s all about growing the game since once Olympic inclusion is assured presumably dozens of national governments will start funding golf programs with tax payer money creating millions of new golfers around the world. Maybe. I’m a skeptic to say the least.

One of the more interesting points though is the IGF has said none of the major golf championships will have a scheduling problem and of course Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Michael Wie etc. all will tee it up.

Again, maybe, at least considering the present schedule.

The timing of the eight professional majors (Masters, men’s and women’s U.S. and British Opens, the PGA, The Kraft Nabisco and MacDonald’s Championship) runs from early April to the middle of August. The Olympics is usually the end of July through mid-August and therefore has the potential of being coincident with the PGA Championship and the Women’s British Open.

Not that either of these two can’t be moved to accommodate the Olympic event but we’ll have to wait and see what’s decided.

Yes, I’m assuming it’s a given golf will become an Olympic sport. The final IOC decision is due in August.