*Tiger's back
*Other news and notes
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He's back after a 11 week vacation
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Well it's time for him to play again and beat more folks as he will be at his own Target World Challenge this week as the defending champion. Now in looking over the last 11 weeks of golf it's probably been the slowest and most boring time ever. Yes, Mike Weir Justin Leonard and Chad Campbell returned to the winners circle and Phil Mickelson was a winner in China but for most of the last 11 weeks tournament golf hasn't been same without Woods.
It will be interesting to see how Woods plays despite the long layoff. One thing for certain, you know that he will be ready to play at Sherwood in a tournament that he has won three times already . In the field is Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, Steve Stricker, Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald, Rory Sabbatini, K.J. Choi, Henrik Stenson, Niclas Fasth, Paul Casey, Lee Westwood, Mark Calcavecchia, Colin Montgomerie and Fred Couples.
Now everyone loves to read and talk about Woods, but let's face reality we really don't know that much about Woods and what he does and thinks about once he leaves the course. He is very good about giving us a good piece of himself in tournaments, is truthful and gives great comments to the press. Every now and then he has special events like the gathering of press and special VIP's that assembled last week in Port St. Lucie, Florida to introduce some new Nike drivers and a sophisticated club-fitting system. The best gathering he had was one in which a couple of hundred people with American Express cards paid to play Oakmont Golf Club about a month before the U.S. Open. Just playing the course was an adventure for these people but they got a lot more for there money at the luncheon when Tiger was the surprise guest speaker. Not only did they get to hear Woods but they got to watch him play a couple of holes and ask him questions. I met one of the people that was at that event and he said that he had never experience a more friendly and warm personality as Woods was that day.
Still once Woods leaves and becomes a "private" person, we really don't know what happens. A perfect example is what did Woods do over the last 11 weeks? Of course inquiring minds wants to know but Woods makes sure to guard his and family's private life. Now many (including probably this report) try to talk about Woods and give folks something special but in the long run there really isn't anything special that we could provide, we just don't have the access. I did read the kind of piece on Tiger Woods that everyone else would love to write with a a lot of behind the scene's look at his private life during this year and last. Jaime Diaz in the new issue of Golf Digest did a fabulous job as this piece touches on what makes Tiger tick. Of course everyone thinks that winning is what makes Woods tick, yes it does but there are other factors and Diaz explores these and gives us the best look yet that isn't watered down and is very truthful. Now another thing that we don't know about Tiger is after the Target when will he play again. Will he finally return to play in the Mercedes-Benz Championship in Hawaii, the last time he was in Maui was in 2005. We know that Woods will defend his championship at the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines and then fly off to Dubai the next week for the Dubai Desert Classic. I personally think that we won't see Tiger until January and that he is just enjoying family life way too much these days with little Samantha.
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Other news and notes:
- Talking about the Target World Challenge, last month it was reported that teenage sensation Rory McIlroy decided not to play in the Target World Challenge. Now nobody thought a second about that decision because McIlroy wanted to play in the European Tour South African Open. But just afterwards, Target Tournament director said that McIlroy hadn't been issued an invite. In a column by Karl MacGinty in the Independent, he talked with McIlroy's agent Chubby Chandler who said that was true and added some fire saying that the invitation also meant that McIlroy would also have to commit to Tiger's AT&T National event in July, which McIlroy couldn't play because it clashed with the European Open. It's funny some of the deals that seem to go on in golf these days.
- There is no better of a player website than Ernieels.com. Each week that Els plays he previews the event and then gives a recap of his play. Now a lot of other player sites aren't as comprehensive and first person as this one and this week was more of the same. Els blew the Alfred Dunhill Championship, making an eight on the final hole to lose by one. Many players would simply get lost and not reappear for weeks let alone posting a story about a tragedy but that wasn't the case on ErnieEls.Com. Monday morning Els dissected the disaster and was very forth right in giving his assessment on the collapse and telling the reader how happy he is playing the week after in the South African Airways Open. Just wish more players would see this and also have sites like this.
- Has anyone ever heard of Joost Luiten? The 21-year-old from the Netherlands finished 6th on the Challenge Tour in 2007 which got him exempt on the European Tour in 2008. He wasn't very successful in his first two events missing the cut and just barely made it at the Alfred Dunhill Championship. But he got everything rolling in the third round shooting 64 and having the thrill of his life when he holed a 7 iron on the par 3 12th hole for a hole in one and with the shot won a new Audi TT Roadster Convertible. Now if that wasn't enough the next day on the same hole with the same club Luiten hits another beauty that finishes on the lip of the hole, just missing another hole in one on the hole. Luiten went on to shot 67 in the final round and ended up finishing fourth in the event, his second career top-five finish on the European Tour.
- There are a lot of stories of what could of happen if someone won a major championship. A perfect example of this has to be Jean Van de Velde who came oh so close to winning the 1999 British Open. Since then he has struggled with injuries, personal problems and his game. Yes he has won twice on the European Tour but on the other end of the spectrum, Van de Velde finished 107th on the money list and again lost his Tour card. So what is he doing? Trying to play on the Asian Tour. Yes, Van de Velde is in Malaysia this week trying to get one of the 40 spots available which would let him play on the Asian Tour. Many will wonder what a Frenchman with a family would want to play in Asia for, but since his family have relocated to Hong Kong and he feels that the future of golf is in the region, the answer to that question is easy. Still you have to wonder if Jean could of just won eight years ago in Carnoustie how much different his life would be now.
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*Head executive at the Golf Channel leaves
*Don't count the Trump out just yet
*Book Review - "Fifty Years in a Bunker, The creation of a World Top-100 Golf Links at the European Club"
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Head executive at the Golf Channel leaves on the eve of their big three live shows
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Of course this story is being buried by the Golf Channel who are saying that "there has been a separation" but the truth of the matter is that McGuire was fired. In sniffing around, asking sources inside the channel, the consensus is that McGuire was let go because he tried to make shows better and in the process ruffled too many feathers with other production personnel, sales personnel and the higher brass at Comcast, which owns the Golf Channel.
As this story on the "buzz" is being written, in the background on my television is the movie, "All the President's Men." Just like the part in which Jason Robards, who played Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee tells his staff, "God Dammit, will anyone go on the record on this story," the same is true on this report. Nobody wants to talk about this and be "on the record for this story." Of course this isn't on the level of Watergate, but there are a lot of worried folks over at the Golf Channel that are wondering what the future is going to be without McGuire.
As a background to all of this, McGuire was a respected network executive at Raycom, NBC Sports and for a decade at Turner Sports were he was responsible for the very polished NBA coverage. He was hired by the Golf Channel in the fall of last year to help upgrade the production values, after a pretty long search for someone. Even though the Golf Channel has produced golf telecasts for over a decade, their sordid little secret was that they didn't have the home-grown talent to bring their production level to that of network telecasts. Their main golf producer Keith Hirshland was a good producer, but not on same level as a Tommy Roy at NBC or Lance Barrow at CBS. Matter of fact talent wise, the Golf Channel hasn't churned out any producers or directors that have made it to a network level. As for their announcers, Scott Van Pelt to ESPN and Charles Davis at Fox are the only ones that have taken a better job outside of TGC. Unfortunately, two of their best talents, Peter Kessler and Vince Cellini unceremoniously left Golf Channel to the bewilderment of fans.
Last year in GolfObserver, I wrote about the problems that Golf Channel would experience doing the two Hawaiian events and the Bob Hope.. At the time of this write-up (December, 2006), Golf Channel had just hired McGuire and since the planning stages of the first Golf Channel telecasts had been finalized, McGuire had to try and tweak something that was already planned. Most of the planning was done by Tony Tortorici, Golf Channel's vice president of production and Dave Manougian, then president of the Golf Channel with some input from Hirshland. Now one of the first decisions that was made was to get Andy Young, who produced golf for years at ESPN to produce and for Steve Beim to direct. This didn't go over very well with Hirshland who threatened to quit and the Golf Channel unwisely changed their plans and decided to spilt producing roles with Hirshland as the main producer and Young as the second.
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McGuire gained the trust of most of the staff over at the Golf Channel and as Tim Rosaforte, who is an announcer over at Golf Channel wrote it was a shock to talent and production personnel when they found out he was leaving.
So how did McGuire get the heave-ho? In talking with some Golf Channel insiders I was very surprised at all of the battles McGuire really had to deal with. Usually when a man of McGuire's talent and reputation is hired, he has a free hand in making a lot of the decisions. In McGuire's case it didn't seem that way, he had to fight and justify a lot of the decisions that he wanted to make. An example of this was the clash over Kelly Tilghman, McGuire was a strong believer in her while folks like Hirshland would tell other production personnel how he didn't feel she was a strong choice. Some have told me that Hirshland thought there were better people for the job, something of a surprise that a main producer would be so liberal with his viewpoints to others. Another big problem that McGuire had was his strong-willed personality, he wanted his ideas and thoughts carried through and over at the Golf Channel there were times that many believed it wasn't the way Golf Channel did it in the past and didn't have to do it in the future. That seems to be a big problem with some of the live golf done, production people that have done it for years think they do it the best and that is a good enough job. They are slow in grasping new techniques, so no improvement is seen.
McGuire also made decisions that were the best for the reputation of the golf shows like extending telecasts but this wasn't a very popular decision with those at Comcast that wanted to see less money spent, not more. Many insiders told me that while McGuire wanted to spend more to make better productions, the old guard felt that the productions were good and also felt that more money didn't have to be spent.
McGuire was also a strong believer of having the Sprint Pre and Post Game reports do the shows on site, especially during the FedEx playoffs. But that only happened in places that paid a site fee from the sponsors. McGuire didn't like this while the powers-to-be at Golf Channel sales and Comcast were insistent on the "appearance fee" method of bringing that show to the site of a tournament instead of doing it out of the Orlando studio.
There were other little problems and battles for him to fight, one insider told me that McGuire tried to fix the problem with the Singapore Open last month, in which he tried to have sales switch the time to the morning and make for a faster edit of the show, but that was going to cut into lucrative info commercial time and McGuire lost that battle with the Singapore stupidly airing 24 hours later to the dismay of a lot of folks.
While we mention this we should talk about shows like the Singapore Open. The only reason that it aired was that someone did a time buy with the Golf Channel. Over the weekend the Nedbank Challenge was aired in Europe with an exciting finish as Trevor Immelman beat Justin Rose by a stroke but over in the United States we weren't able to watch it because the thought is that nobody wanted to pay Golf Channel a time-buy to show it. Instead of that event we got info commercials which has become a lucrative business for the Golf Channel. Next week and the week after the two most important events in Australia will be played with the Australian Open and the Australian PGA Championship but we won't be able to see them on the Golf Channel because again the thought is that nobody was willing to pay the Golf Channel a fee to show them, again their info commercial business making too much money instead of figuring out a way to televise these events.
But let's get back to McGuire, in the long run the main problem that led to his demise was the good old gang that ran Golf Channel before he arrived would go along with cost cutting measures from Comcast while McGuire was still trying to improve upon production at a higher cost.
So what does all of this mean for the future at the Golf Channel? For the casual fan, not much. But for those that will be looking for better production values and editorial decisions, that won't be in the cards. That's because it will be business as usual as the Golf Channel reverts to the before McGuire era, those same folks that ran the shows for Golf Channel for years will be running the shows again next month with smaller budgets than they had last year.
A big question is what the PGA Tour thinks of all this? As of today there wasn't any response, an email sent to Ty Votaw wasn't returned. Still I have to wonder if the Tour really likes what's going on. The question is if they think that the quality of the shows are high enough. One thing that they have to be happy with is the amount of time the Golf Channel spends and showcases their events. Nobody does a better job of making sure that everything is covered from start to finish. The PGA Tour will have no worries if a playoff turns into a marathon that goes into prime-time because the Golf Channel will always cover it. As for the ratings, again it all depends on who you talk with. If you talk with the Golf Channel they paint a rosy picture and after the FedEx Cup playoffs reported its highest rating to date. As for the PGA Tour, in reports from other news sources they say that they are happy with what they are getting rating wise. Still there is no two ways about it, the Golf Channel became a big beneficiary of all this increasing ad rates across the board, including info commercials. As one company that airs spots regularly on the Golf Channel told the "Buzz", "In the last year and a half we have seen info commercial rates double to the fact that we are barely making any money off of our spots."
Now the Golf Channel are saying that they are looking for a replacement for McGuire, but Golf Channel insiders are saying that they aren't looking for a production guru to help fix their live shows but more for a person that will create new programming for the channel to help make more money for Comcast. Programming like the Big Break, For Inventors Only, the 19th hole and The Approach are big money makers because they don't have to pay a rights fee and the cost of producing the shows is low. Still it's unfortunate when you see great programs like the "Wandering Golfer" on the Fine Living Channel instead of the Golf Channel. As one producer of programming told me, "It's too hard to deal with the folks at the Golf Channel, that is the reason why they don't have better programs." There is also some rumors going around that some people are trying to put together a package for another golf related channel, something that is sorely needed since Golf Channel hasn't seen fit to come out with a second golf network. With all the problems associated with putting this together and the fact that it would be very costly with companies like Comcast being against it in protecting their turf, I find such a venture impossible. But you never know, a lot of other projects have gotten off the ground despite long odds.
So it will be interesting to see what shakes out at the Golf Channel in the future months, but there is no two ways about it, when it comes to a decision between money and a better production, the answer in most cases is very easy. It's just too bad in the case of Don McGuire, that he had to waste of year of his life on on company that really didn't want to change.
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Don't count the Trump out just yet
Very interesting turn of events over in Scotland as Donald Trump's dream of building a resort in Scotland was rejected by the local Aderdeenshire Council. The decision was a shock, especially since the Trump had spent millions of dollars and many years trying to get approval. But as one Irish course architect told me, don't ever count the Donald out, the course will be built.
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So look for the same over in Scotland. It's funny, in the inner circle of golf nobody believes that Trump will just sit back and take the news and withdraw. Articles like this by Robert Philip on the same day as the council decision shows that nobody believes that this project will not happen.
Immediately after it was rejected, according to the Scotsman there was public outcry over the rejection of the project, which will provide a lot of good paying jobs to the Aberdeen area. It will also bring in a strong tax base and help promote the Eastern part of Scotland. Right after the project was rejected, one of the council leaders, Anne Robertson vowed to keep the application alive. Still today in the Scotsman, Martin Ford the chairman of the Aberdeenshire Council who cast the deciding vote on killing the project said that he could see "no possibility" of the decision being overturned and had no regrets about his decision to vote against the project.
Now over at the Aberdeen Press and Journal, they had the same quotes from Ford but sounded more optimistic that the Trump legal team with get the decision overturned.
As some of my friends over in Scotland are saying, just because the Aberdeenshire Council has voted this down, it doesn't mean the project is dead. As one person said to me, "this is just a bit of a inconvenience for Trump." Another said that "Trump will appeal to the Scottish Government but the disadvantage in this is the time element, it could take a couple of years for a decision."
But in the long run don't make any bones about this, Donald Trump usually gets his way on things and since personally this is an important project for him, look for him to make sure that everyone of his resources are used to make sure the resort and courses open one day.
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Book Review - "Fifty Years in a Bunker, The creation of a World Top-100 Golf Links at the European Club"
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Now I am not very bias when it comes to the European Club, I visit it as many times as I can and of all the places in the world, I love going to this course the most. We have heard famous golfers say that if they had just one round to play before their demise, they would play at courses like Pebble, St. Andrews, Cypress Point or Augusta National. If I had my choice of a place for my final round, it would be at the European Club and would be with it's owner and builder Pat Ruddy.
There is no too ways about it, in golfing circles Ruddy is one of the most overlooked characters. Ruddy was a full time golf writer who like Tom Doak, loved to dabble into golf course architecture and made that his full time career. In this book he relates his love of the game and his dream of building a world class links course in Ireland.
In looking at folks that build courses, most of them are very wealthy or have land in which to put the course on. Ruddy had neither. All that he had was a dream and after he became comfortable with his golf writings he made the faithful decision along with his wife Bernardine, three daughters and two sons to make his dream a reality.
Now like most dreams, the first time doesn't work out perfectly and that was the case with Ruddy in the mid-70s when he tried to build a course in Northwest Ireland. That turned into a big failure when a river burst its banks and flooded his course. There was then a second venture in which he couldn't purchase a piece of property that eventually became part of a Nick Faldo project.
Even with these flops, Ruddy never gave up and found another perfect piece of property, this time about 40 miles south of Dublin in Brittas Bay. Ruddy purchased the land and then spent six years mortgaging everything and working the land in crafting the European Club.
Now some may wonder about reading a person's first account story of this, but just like everything that Ruddy does it's a first class project that is very entertaining. In a corporate world in which businesses build these resorts and big money make them happen, it's nice to see a story of how someone along with some teenage kids build a golf course that turn into one of the best links in all the world.
The stories are great on how he made this project a big success, plus how hard that he and his family had to work 24/7 in making the dream happen.
Now for those in the United States you can't go down to your local Barnes and Noble to pick up the book. Matter of fact you won't find the book on any site like Borders.Com or Amazon.Com. The book is not even sold in the United States, the only way to buy it is through The European Club website. The cost of it is about $40 dollars and Ruddy will send it off to you. Trust me when I say it's well worth a read, the photography is special and in looking through the book you will want to book a flight off to Ireland to play this magnificent links course.
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*Greg Norman and his ex wife at it again
*Death of the silly season
*The Future of the Skins Game
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It's hard to believe, but the Greg and Laura saga continues.
Back in September, the marriage between Greg Norman and Laura Andrassy came to an end and as they left the courthouse things looked like they would be civil.
It appears that looks can be deceiving.
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Now common knowledge would tell us that if we were Andrassy, we would try to first figure out how to spend all of that money that she got and second, avoid any people from the media. Apparently that didn't happen.
Days after the settlement, Laura was giving her first interview to Peta Hellard and sure enough this report in the Australian Sunday Telegraph gets printed. In the story, Andrassy is quoted as saying she was devastated that Chris Evert, who she considered a friend, blatantly pursued Greg and was flaunting their love affair.
Now the story goes into detail about how Greg and Laura first met Evert and how she found out about Greg wanting a divorce and then finding out about the affair between Greg and Evert. The story also goes into detail about how Greg and Laura met, how they went through life and how devoted Laura was to Greg and the marriage. The story ends with Laura saying she is looking forward to building a new life and that the new man in her life is her dog, Bacchus.
Now when you read this, the first thing you wonder is what Greg thinks about all of this. The one thing that he made clear and paid a fortune to Laura in the settlement, was to make sure everything like this would be private.
Well it isn't private anymore and Greg isn't very happy, so much that , according to Jose Lambiet in the Palm Beach Post, Norman filed a lawsuit against his former wife last week alleging that she has already breached their two-month-old divorce settlement. He also wants to make sure that a good chunk of the settlement that he still owes her won't have to be paid.
Now the first thing that you may wonder is if Laura has a death wish. If someone was given millions upon millions of dollars in a settlement with the condition that she could not talk about the past to the media or write a book about it, common sense dictates that she would obey those wished and not talk anyone from the media.
But according to Laura she says that the confidentiality agreement is not specific and that she never talked about Greg, it was all about herself and Evert and she has no agreement on not talking about Evert.
In another report by Peta Hellard in a News.Com.Au report Andrassy's lawyer Jack Scarola said Norman was being unfair and had filed the suit as a smokescreen to detract attention from his "own wrongdoing" - not transferring certain assets due his ex-wife.
So I guess this whole saga isn't really over and the truth is somewhere in the middle. You have to wonder if Andrassy got so much money out of this deal that if she could still have Greg scrambling around on this by hashing up some dirt in the papers. Maybe it would be worth millions of dollars just for the satisfaction of slinging Greg Norman dirt through the press. So maybe if it costs her $50, $60 or even $100 million dollars of the $150 to $300 she got, so maybe her figuring on this is you can't take it with you and it is money well spent.
I have to think that in the coming weeks there will be more on this.
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Skins Game and the death of the Silly Season
For anyone that remembers that first Skins Game back in 1983 at Desert Highlands, it was a part of golf history that we all loved. What Don Ohlmeyer, the creator of the Skins did was a stroke of brilliance, getting the four best and most-loved players of the time and put them together for a friendly skins match.
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The Tour season ended at the end of October and other than playing over in Australia or in the mix-team event called the JC Penney Open, there weren't any events to play in so most of the players either went hunting, fishing or took the two months off and watched football on TV.
But all of this changed with the Skins Game because it paved the way for the "Silly Season." Back then everything was run by the PGA Tour and with ESPN still in its infancy and no cable TV to speak of, your choices were limited to the three networks. With Ohlmeyer's connections at NBC he was able to mastermind a five-hour time-buy for his Skins Game, probably the first-ever golf time-buy ever. Along with Barry Frank, who ran the television arm of IMG, they found a brand new development in Arizona called Desert Highlands that was willing to pay a fee to host the event. In return the development got a lot of publicity, which helped them sell out the place in record time. So between Ohlmeyer and Franks, they began a new chapter in the way to start an event and get it covered on a network.
The most important thing that the Skins Game did was create a "Buzz" in golf because they got the world's best players to become very interested in Skins. Between Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, their careers were coming to an end on the PGA Tour and even with an average of 25 years experience in professional golf, they found the excitement of playing for so much money to be a real thrill. That first year Arnold Palmer made a 40-foot putt for birdie that netted him $100,000, which was about what he was making for an average year on the PGA Tour. In the second year of Skins, Jack Nicklaus won $240,000 on a hole to win that title and threw his putter in the air like he had just won a major championship. With Nicklaus and Palmer excited over the Skins it translated all across America and brought in big ratings. This was just the beginning, with all of the success of the Skins other people and organizations went out on a limb to add more tournaments in the November/December time frame and before you knew it the "Silly Season" became a big deal.
The height of it all had to be around 1995. As an example of this, let's look at what was happening. It was the case of topping the other guy and the folks at the Kapalua resort in Maui always seem to do a good job in getting the best players at their event. At the conclusion of the Tour Championship, played that year in Oklahoma, players were given a free charter ride on a DC-10 from Tulsa to Maui. The event was the Lincoln Mercury Kapalua Invitational and it paid out the same $180,000 first place check as most of the other events on the PGA Tour did. But this was a lot different, going to Maui expenses paid, hotel in Maui paid for, parties every night and a chance to earn a minimum of $8,000 for playing in a 50-man field.
Of course things didn't get any better than the Kapalua Invitational, but there were other events with the same theme, limited fields with a nice check, played at a nice place and with a low-key atmosphere.
In some other events that year, two players got an all-expense paid trip to China to play in the World Cup, which for years was a staple on the PGA Tour. Another event was when 20 players got invitations to play in Thousand Oaks in the Franklin Funds Shark Shootout. Again, a low-key, fun event in which the winning team got $150,000 each for three days of golf. Then there was the Diners Club Matches held in Palm Springs in which the players only had to play in a match play format, again for top prizes. The year ended with the Andersen Consulting World Match-Play championship where only four players were involved over the weekend but it was a ongoing event that had qualifying sites in two different places for players to qualify for the weekend event in Arizona. Lastly we can't forget the JC Penney Classic, which had been a staple of the post season for two decades. Again a team event in which one PGA Tour pro played with a LPGA Tour pro. Once again, a lot of fun, low pressure and a good amount of money.
So, what killed the "Silly Season?" In a way what killed it was its success, when players decided to take the first month off of the regular season because they needed to rest up after the "Silly Season." Could you blame some of these players? In 1993 Nick Price led the PGA Tour money list in events from January through October making $1.478 million dollars. In the silly season Fred Couples won $1.2 million. The following year Nick Price again wins the money title with $1.5 million, Ernie Els won $1.6 million in the "Silly Season." In 1995 Corey Pavin won $1.5 million in off season earnings. So you can see, there was a lot of money on the table.
PGA Tour purses started to skyrocket starting in 1998 and the "Silly Season" events were not able to keep up. Three of the biggest - the Kapalua Invitational, JC Penney and the Anderson Match Play - were incorporated into PGA Tour events with Kapalua getting the Mercedes-Benz Championship, the home of the JC Penny, Innisbrook getting the PODS Championship and the Anderson becoming the WGC-Accenture Match Play championship. The World Cup became part of the PGA Tour in 2000, so in a way the PGA Tour helped end it all. As for the Diners Club Matches that were owned by Jack Nicklaus Productions, it became to hard to continue when Nicklaus Productions was bought out by Gaylord Entertainment. So the only two that survived were the Skins Game and the Shark Shootout, which moved to Florida and is now sponsored by Merrill Lynch. Another survivor is the Wendy's 3 Tour Challenge which is taped delayed a month, but rumor has it that the event could possibly be coming to an end real soon.
One last event that we should also talk about that's been a great success is the PGA Grand Slam of Golf. That event has thrived for years but hit its first major roadblock this year when Tiger Woods took a pass. Even though it has a good sponsor in the country of Bermuda, you never know what the future lies if Woods doesn't play in it.
Speaking of Woods, he also owns a "Silly Season" event, the Target World Challenge and that has always been successful.
So what about the Skins game, what does the future look like?
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Now as for this year's Skins Game, on the whole the TV production was very solid, Terry Gannon is a very capable host and Judy Rankin is good as the on-course reporter. Andy North is no Nick Faldo but is tolerable in the role of analyst but good production doesn't cut it if the players aren't interesting. Of course this year's event was even more deadly as the players aren't the Fred Funk-type that strike up a fun chat. Yes ,Fred Couples did a lot of talking but you need others to pipe in and that never happened. I also found myself spinning through the TiVo on what seemed like an eternity of taped pieces from past Skins Games to pieces about Indian Wells to the dreaded sponsor interview. I still to this day will never understand why on the final hole, TV has to interview these sponsors. Is it an ego trip for them to get on TV to say what a wonderful week it was?
Still the future of the Skins Game looks bleak to the average person, but is very solid for the next two years. That is because they have a contract with the City of Indian Wells and LG for the next two years. It seems hard to believe that the city of Indian Wells would pay $1.5 million of taxpayers' money to sponsor this event, but they feel that the show will showcase their resort and help attract tourist in the future.
Sill the owners of the show have to devise some better plans to create interest in the next two years. They are already strapped with the fact that Stephen Ames will be back next year and the odds of getting any real marquee players under these conditions doesn't look promising. So what can they do to make the show any better?
Of course many will say to forget running all of these sponsor pieces on everything from hotels in Indian Wells, to Trackball pieces explaining the technology to pieces on what LG is doing for the community. It will also help not seeing 25 great Skins moments, they gave way too much time on their own history this year.
One important aspect that they have to look into is getting more fan participation. With the internet being so easy now, they need to get viewers to vote on who the best player is, have viewers ask the players what strategy they use during play, have viewers give us their choices of good moments. Also, let viewers give their thoughts on the best players in which they could win prizes from LG like Fred Couples won for making an eagle on the fourth hole on Saturday. With deadly shows like the Skins Game, viewer participation could spell the difference from these shows continuing in the future or being TV road-kills.
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*European Tour fights back with there own season ending rich-feast, will Tiger take part?
*Ochoa ends the season in style
*So will the LPGA Tour be better off in 2008 than in 2007?
*Can GolfSmith survive?
*Book Review - ‘Golf Courses of the U.S. Open’
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European Tour fights back with there own end of season get rich feast
Monday's annoucement that in 2009 the European Tour will end it's season in Dubai, plus change the order of merit created very little "Buzz". In this day and age in which money talks and, well you know the rest, I was very surprised that not many people picked up on what the European Tour did with this new partnership and the Dubai World Championship.
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What will happen in 2009 is that there will be an end of the season event called The Dubai World Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates. It will be the world's richest golf event with $10 million prize fund, with the winner of the event getting $1.6 million which at this moment would make it the richest prize in Golf. But adding to the drama, it will also culminate the order of merit which will be renamed "The Race to Dubai" and that will also have a $10 million dollar bonus pool with the winner receiving $2 million dollars.
If the order of merit or should we say the Race to Dubai gets close, like it was this year with four people having a chance to win, the Dubai World Championship will create a lot of drama and excitement, with the possibility of players in the final round facing shots that could determine the fate of millions of dollars.
But what hasn't been picked up is the real ramifications of all this. First of all the European Tour has really gotten beat up over the years playing second fiddle to the PGA Tour. With the advent of the FedEx Cup it played a deadly role in sticking another dagger into the heart of the European Tour, as the FedEx Cup created a drain on having Europeans best play in July, August and September. Now however, with this Dubai event and the new order of merit, it's giving many players from the PGA Tour a chance to have memberships on both tours and should help lure some PGA Tour players over to the European Tour to gain a chance to play in this very lucrative event.
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In the case of Tiger, he has played in the HSBC Champions, Dubai Desert Classic the last couple of years. Lets say if he decided to join the tour in 2009, puts those two on his schedule plus another one, he will play in his 11th event in the Dubai World Championship and have a shot at winning what will be a very important event, plus a boat load of money. Now don't think this is too far fetched, Woods likes Dubai, is not only building a golf course over there but will have a vacation home there. He likes playing around the world in events that makes sense and frankly, I think that all of this would make sense for him to have a European Tour membership.
The same with Phil Mickelson, just a couple of weeks ago he played in Singapore and China, so his stance on playing outside the United States has changed. In 2008 he has already played in one event, he likes to play in the Barclays Scottish Open so again he just has to add one more for a tenth and the 11th would come in Dubai.
Now on the surface this seems tame, yes I don't ever see the European Tour being more viable for players than the PGA Tour. But with the Schedule over in America being January through September, I can see many players deciding to possibly play a few more European Tour events and spending Thanksgiving week in Dubai and playing for a whole lot of cash. Stay tune, I think it will be very interesting.
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Ochoa ends the season in style
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Lorena Ochoa put an exclamation point on an outstanding year by claiming the $1 million first prize at the ADT Championship. And she put an exclamation point on the one-day shootout for that prize by hitting what she called the best shot of her career, a 6-iron from the rough to within three feet to make a birdie on 18 and win by two strokes over Natalie Gulbis.
Ochoa shot a four-under 68 to a 70 for Gulbis in the format in which the field is reduced to eight players who all start even in the battle for the top-loaded purse (second prize is $100,000, third is $20,000). Ochoa threatened to run away with it, shooting a five-under 31 on the front nine on a day when most of the players were struggling (four of the eight players shot 78 or worse). She had a five-stroke lead at that point, but it got interesting at 17 when Ochoa three-putted for a double bogey while Gulbis birdied to cut a four-stroke lead to one.
Gulbis hit her approach to 15 feet on the final hole and Ocher faced a terrible lie in the rough and a shot over water. Her 6-iron landed on the front of the green and rolled all the way back to within three feet of the flag.
Ochoa finished the season with eight wins, five runner-up finishes, and 21 top-10s in 25 starts. She’s the only player other than Nancy Lopez (twice) and Annika Sorenstam (four times) to score at least eight wins in a year since 1969. Ochoa now has a total of 14 wins in the last two years as she has firmly supplanted Sorenstam as No. 1. Ochoa had already set the single-season money record, and the seven-figure prize boosted her total to $4,364,994.
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What I find really amazing about Ochoa's year is the fact that the $4.3 million that she won in 2007 would of put her in 28th place on the all-time LPGA money list, just above Brandie Burton. Presently Ochoa is 4th on the all-time LPGA Tour money list with $10.4 million, behind Juli Inkster, Karrie Webb and Annika Sorenstam who is at $20.8 million.
In other money news, Ochoa not only became the first $4 million dollar earner on the LPGA Tour, she also is the only $3 million dollar earner on tour. Ochoa also won eight times in 2007, the last time a player earned more than eight wins in a year was Annika Sorenstam with 10 in 2005.
Statistically, Ochoa had a vice grip in nearly every category: She led the Tour in Rolex Player of the Year; Vare Trophy (scoring average); rounds under par; greens in regulation, top-10 finishes; birdies; and putts per round (co-leader with Catriona Matthew). She was the third-ranked player in eagles and driving distance (with Brittany Lincicome) statistics.
Now a lot of comparisons are going to be made with Tiger's season, he won just seven times and won a major just like Ochoa. But money wise Tiger won $10.8 million, about the same as Ochoa has won in her career. One thing that Ochoa is now very close to is getting into the Hall of Fame. She now has 22 points and with just five left to get the needed 27 could find herself in the Hall by 2013 right around her 32nd birthday making her the second youngest behind Se Ri Pak who just got in at 30.
Lastly we have to look at how popular the ADT Championship has gotten. This was the last item that former LPGA Commissioner Ty Votaw put together and it's turned into a real jewel. It's interesting all four days with it's playoff format in which 16 players are eliminated on Friday, followed by 8 more on Saturday and then a final round shootout. It's really surprising that a tournament on the PGA Tour hasn't stepped up and said, hey we would like to do this format because when it happens, and you know that it will, it will bring a lot of excitement and drama to that event.
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So will the LPGA Tour be better off in 2008 than in 2007?
After listening to LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens addressing the media about what to expect in 2008 we have to wonder that old political saying, were you better off in the last year with me in office or not?
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Bivens has been in office close to 2 and a half years now and frankly after a great rebound from having some problems in her first year with media and some sponsors, the answer is yes, but just barely. In looking at the schedule for 2008 it looks like some new tournaments have been added, as 32 events will be played while 30 were played in 2007. Now the biggest casualties for the upcoming year has to be no match play event in New York and the Tournament of Championships, played the past decade in Alabama won't be back. But on the bright side the sponsors of the match play, HSBC has shifted that event to Singapore the site of the Mitchell Tournament of Champions, Magnolia Grove will get a full field event in 2008. Now some other events added will be an event in South Florida in April, which Randall Mell of the Sun-Sentinel thinks will be at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort in Palm Beach. Finally a full field event is being added at Kapalua, Maui, which was quietly named in July. Kapalua is the site of the Mercedes-Benz Championship played on the Plantation Course but the Bay Course will be used for this event. The Bay Course previously held the PGA Tour's second season Kapalua Invitational in the 80s and early 90s.
For the 32 official events and the two unofficial tournament prize money will be just over $58 million dollars, an increase over this year but more importantly there will be two more additional full field events on the schedule. Unfortunately two more foreign events have been added to the schedule with 8 events now played outside of American soil if you count the Women's World Cup of Golf.
So in reality Bivens' gets high marks for keeping the tour in the same shape that it was in when Ty Votaw left three years ago under better economic conditions. In looking at some of the things that she will be responsible for in 2008, the biggest is probably that she was behind the first universal drug testing program in golf that will go into effect next year. Now in reading her speech, the most important aspect that will come out of 2008 is how she does the prep work for new television contracts that will go through 2009. Quietly she has been very critical of these contracts and feels that some dramatic changes will be worked out under her direction. The way they are set up is most of them, including the packages with ESPN and Golf Channel are all time buys. That means the LPGA buys time on the network and pays the cost of having that network produce them. The LPGA then sells the commercial time to get back their investment but at the end of the day, they don't get the kind of rights fee that the PGA Tour commands which helps bring the purses up.
Bivens hasn't been happy with these contracts feeling that she will be able to get some sort of "fee" from these same networks and channels for the right to telecast these events and the LPGA won't have to do any time buys in future years. Now if you hear from the side of the TV networks, both Golf Channel and ESPN make a profit off the events and will probably want to make sure that continues, under Bivens vision that may not be possible for not only them, but the main networks like NBC and CBS that carry LPGA events on the weekend.
Realistically some in the inner circles of the networks feel that Bivens doesn't have much of a chance of accomplishing that and at the end of the day in 2010 will either have the same time buys that she has now or possibly have to do what the Champions Tour did in 2000 and go with a lesser network like Hallmark, Living Network or Oxygen which are geared towards women programming and could possibly carry LPGA events. But again this grab for cash on Bivens part could produce the same whiplash event that happened to the Champions Tour when they went to CNBC for more money but two years later had to abandon this plan because the ratings were so bad that it proved harmful for the Champions Tour.
Now Biven's didn't get off to the right start with NBC in describing to reporters how the LPGA was producing the ADT Championship. Again this event was a time buy in which the LPGA Tour paid NBC to produce the four days and between them and the Golf Channel televised the event. But that wasn't what she told reporters in the Wednesday press conference, she told them "We've worked with the Golf Channel, with NBC to get our production crew, accepted as the ones who would be producing and calling the shots." It didn't take long for NBC to take offense to this as the next day Jon Miller, executive vice president of NBC sports told Palm Beach Post writer Craig Dolch, "I believe the commissioner mis-spoke." As he explained the LPGA was producing some of the vignette pieces on the players but the real people calling the shots were NBC producers Tommy Roy and Tom Randolph. And as Miller ended he said that "no golf ever goes on air of our 29 golf telecasts without our executive producers doing the producing."
So as you can see, Bivens needs a bit more work on figuring out this TV game. She better get it right because a lot of what happens to the future of the LPGA will be the way these contracts are handled. In some ways getting a time buy and getting exposure on the networks, Golf Channel and ESPN will help the LPGA more than getting paid a fee from some network that won't give them much exposure and having the LPGA relive the nightmare that the Champions Tour went through.
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Can GolfSmith survive?
Golfsmith on Monday closed at $3.92 its lowest level in past 52 weeks.
Speculation on Wall Street centers on the Austin-based company’s survival in the ultra competitive retail environment for golf equipment and goods. Well capitalized competition in the form of PGA SuperStore (with two recently opened locations in the Phoenix area bringing their store count to 9) and with Golf Galaxy seeking shelter under the Dick’s Sporting Goods umbrella GolfSmith is facing rivals with deep pockets and the staying power to last the economic recession on the horizon not to mention the ever changing golf retailing landscape.
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As Trading Markets.Com said in this piece, the landscape is a Pandora box where golf shops have just as much space allocated to soft goods as to golf equipment. Specialized custom fitting is generally very low level in its application and non performance oriented which the public often sees through (read: accelerated sales) and pressure from the major manufacturers to allocate more floor space to fitting carts which emphasize interchangeable heads (has anyone thought about the need for many new sales when a shaft change might be all a player might need or worse, want, from a retailers perspective) put pressure on the retailer to offer more services which generally do not come cheaply. The large “Big Box” retail chains survive more on their non brick and mortar operations (and oddly for those with International traffic the weaker dollar) such as mail order and on-line services. Golfsmith has been and continues to be a solid player in that area no doubt extremely helpful in this time period. The universally accepted Ebay world of golf equipment sales have taken the easy money off the table and the pressure to perform in this area grows so creative and well thought out marketing in this area requires expertise and capital, yet another challenge.
Golfsmith’s troubles also stem from its IPO which was a result of its mezzanine financing being called rather than a natural outgrowth strong sales and earnings traditional reasons for going public. Add the added burden of regulatory and other shareholder requirements and overall operating costs become that much higher. Third Quarter earnings were better, thanks in part to some new stores, but with fourth quarter reporting due in late January/early February traditionally the industry’s weakest could spell some bad news if sales aren't brisk during the holiday season. Given the current stock price and the old Wall Street adage that the market looks ahead 6 months the stock price at these levels might be just telling a Golf Observer just how business is really going at the company.
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Book Review - "Golf Courses of the U.S. Open"
With Christmas on the way are you looking for a book that not only looks great on your coffee table, but is also a great read? Check out "Golf Courses of the U.S. Open", by David Barrett, a former senior editor at Golf Magazine and current contributor to GolfObserver.com.
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While Open stalwarts like Oakmont, Winged Foot, and Pebble Beach get the most ink, there are also some fascinating facts about some lesser-known layouts that have been consigned to the Open graveyard. For example, did you know that there’s a former U.S. Open course that you can walk on and play for $14? That would be Grover Cleveland Park, the original site of the Country Club of Buffalo, which moved to a new site in 1926 fourteen years after hosting the Open.
Then there’s the club that hosted the Open in 1909, became a Mafia hangout in the 1950s, and went into a decline and eventually closed for good after a highway was routed through it (Englewood Golf Club in New Jersey).
There are plenty of tournament anecdotes, including one about the Hinkle Tree incident in 1979 at Inverness, when USGA officials planted a tree overnight in an attempt to close a shortcut first used by Lon Hinkle in the opening round. While Hinkle and playing companion Chi Chi Rodriguez both took the short route in the first two rounds, the third member of the group, a little-known Australian, played the hole conventionally. That was Greg Norman, playing in his first U.S. Open. Then there was the Open at Medinah in 1975, undoubtedly the smelliest in the history of the championship after straw from a nearby horse track was brought in to make the muddy grounds walkable for spectators.
You’ll read about how legends Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods won their Opens, how club founder H.C. Fownes turned Oakmont into the most penal course in the land, and why Pebble Beach and Pinehurst had to wait upwards of 50 years to host their first Opens before becoming ideal championship sites.
The book is also a feast for the eyes, with stunning images by the top golf course photographers, and includes a comprehensive statistical section.
"Golf Courses of the U.S. Open" is published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. and lists for $50.
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*A team to root for at the World Cup
*Srixon and Cleveland - A match made on Wall Street
*Phil wins in China, takes 2½ months off and won't be back until???
*Sabbatini not very popular with Australian pros
*Book Review - ‘Golf Unplugged’ is like its author – very different
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A team to root for at the Omega World Cup
In two weeks the Omega World Cup will take place in China and if your looking for a team to really root for I have one. The Irish team of Michael Hoey and Gareth Maybin, will be one to root for after beating incredible odds just to tee it up in the World Cup.
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Now both of these players knew the risks, they had to bank roll a trip to the Caribbean and compete with 19 other teams for five spots. The first challenge was to get themselves to Aruba, they had been playing in a European Challenge Tour event in Kazakhstan which is a nation just below Russia on the Caspian Sea about 7,500 miles and ten time zones away from Aruba. The two made the trip and even though they were tired and exhausted from the journey the two jelled together, finishing second to a team from Puerto Rico, but good enough to make the final field in China.
So it's off to China but there could of been one obstacle in their way. If they had made it to the final qualifying tournament in Spain next week, it wasn't suppose to finish until Tuesday. They would of had to make it to Paris that night for a flight to Hong Kong, which wouldn't of made it until 6pm on Wednesday night. So any problems that arose would of spelled disqualification since they wouldn't of been able to tee it up on Thursday morning.
So with that out of the way they can leisurely make it to China, get accustomed to the area, the course and play. For both competitors, who together have only made around $80,000 on the Challenge Tour in 2007, they will be looking for there biggest prize of the year as last place pays $20,000 each and if they could possibly win, first place gives each player $800,000.
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Srixon and Cleveland - A match made on Wall Street
According to sources and this GolfWeek business report, Cleveland Golf has been bought by Japan’s SRI Sports Limited, Srixon Golf. Now many industry and Wall Street analysts are surprise by both the terms of the acquirer and the price of $132 million dollars.
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The betting line was TaylorMade-Adidas, or either a management led buyout by Cleveland President Greg Hopkins would be the buyers. Also rumored was Puma, which seemed a stretch given no prior golf equipment involvement and rumors that it had passed earlier this year on Spanish company Makser. Srixon, known in the US more for its balls and less about its line of clubs, seems an unusual buyer for any number of reasons but singularly focusing on the core product, Srixon equipment which is considered by many to be high quality has never been given much of a marketing push in the US.
Moreover, did the buyer pay too much?
Street thinking was in the 60-80 million dollar range so when Quicksilver (owner of Cleveland) announced on October 30th the deal, its stock shot up 65 cents the next day or 5%, arguably the best thing to happen to the Huntington Beach, California based company since they acquired Cleveland along with ski equipment maker Rossignol in 2005. Kudos to JP Morgan the seller’s banker in the deal for fetching 1.5x sales with arguably no profitability.
Ok, so now what does Srixon do? Keep the Cleveland line of equipment with the ever shrinking market share of its wedge line in the public view primarily in the US and Europe while not expanding Srixon’s XXO line from Japan? Take the wedge line and Hi-Bore Driver’s to Asia?
Moreover, what to do about tour star presence. Vijay Singh comes with Cleveland or does he? That’s probably the largest question. Most likely in an attempt to draw bidders and given the state of flux Cleveland was in prior to the sale the world’s number 4 player was seen playing an array of lesser known brands essentially telegraphing his desire to hear from anyone large enough to command his attention. With Jim Furyk and Karrie Webb as Srixon’s current poster players, Vijay certainly complements the group and the brand but which one will SRI management want to ultimately flog?
Again the industry thinking is that it all stays the same for now with Cleveland equipment, Srixon balls, respective outer and headwear trumpeting the brands. Moreover, employees have been heard to say, better a golf company than a consumer outerwear parent. That might be so but at that hefty price in a market that is showing zero growth and given the grey clouds of the overall economy in the US one wonders about this business arrangement and how long (even given Japanese long term horizon thinking) this scenario will play out.
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Phil finally wins abroad, taking next 2½ months off
It's about time that Phil Mickelson wins an official event outside of American soil. Now Mickelson hasn't been much of a candidate to accomplish that feat because he never seemed willing to play overseas, plus after his debacle in the Barclay's Scottish Open in which he had a nice lead and showed shades of Winged Foot, then lost a playoff to Gregory Havret, then the 320th ranked golfer in the world, we wondered if Phil could win overseas.
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Mickelson didn't have his "A" game on Sunday, yes he was the winner but he did it with a 76 in the final round and some help when young Ross Fisher imploded on the final hole. As for Mickelson, who at one point had a three shot lead with just seven holes left he himself imploded, making bogey at 12, double at 13, bogey at 15, birdie at 16. Going into the final hole he was one back of Fisher, and Mickelson hit a poor tee shot in the rough. Thinking that he had to make birdie, he went for the par 5 in two and found the water which pretty much gave the event to Fisher. Just off the green in two, Fisher needed to just get it on and two putt for par. But Fisher chipped his third shot poorly and it rolled through the green and into the water. He went on to make a double bogey setting up a playoff that Mickelson won with birdie on the second overtime hole.
For Mickelson it was an ugly victory as he had six penalty shots in the final round. Still he was able to overcome that and still win but as he said in the victory speech afterwards, "It was one of the more unusual back nines that I have ever been a part of." But Phil may of said a few things that in hindsight he shouldn't of said. The first was the comment that "It is nice to win a tournament that Tiger has tried to win the last couple of years unsuccessfully." Whoops. Wonder if Tiger is thinking how many events that he won that Phil tried to win.
But the next comment is something that will give us a lot to write about for at least the next 2½ months. Mickelson in an interview with Richard Boxall of Sky Sports said that he was looking forward to getting home and enjoying the next 2½ months off. So this being November 11th, that means that Phil doesn't plan on playing again until around January 23rd or so. Since the Mercedes-Benz Championship is between January 3rd and 6th that just about rules that out. Frankly many thought that Mickelson wouldn't be playing at Kapalua since it's an event that he hasn't been to since 2001. He doesn't like the high winds and the course doesn't suit his game, so bypassing this event, even though it's a winners only and a big deal on the PGA Tour was expected.
But we have to wonder, and this is pure speculation on the "Buzz's" part if when Mickelson says 2½ months off that means he won't be back until the 22nd or 23rd which would mean his first event will be the Buick Invitational followed by the FBR Open. If that is the case it would mean that he would also be bypassing the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, an event he has won twice in and finished in the top-ten four times in the last six years.
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Now the answer for Mickelson bypassing the Hope is easy, the last two years it's been played at the Classic Club which is great for the tournament since they own the course and don't have to pay a site fee, but players haven't been very happy with it, especially last year. The final round was played in 30 MPH winds and since the course is not protected and is in the windiest parts of the Palm Springs area it played havoc on their games. On the Sunday the scoring average was 74.76, making it the hardest round ever played at the Hope in it's 48 year history. Six players shot in the 80s and Phil Mickelson shot 78. After his round Mickelson told Larry Bohannan of the Desert Sun, "Are they going to play this course again next year?" When told yes Mickelson wasn't very happy.
Now with the course being played in windy conditions which Mickelson really doesn't like, another strike against the Hope is the schedule. After the Hope is the Buick Invitational, FBR Open, AT&T National, the Nissan Open and the WGC Accenture Match Play. Mickelson likes playing in all of these events, matter of fact he played in the Nissan Open for the first time since 2001 and enjoyed it so much that I wouldn't be surprise to see Mickelson play it again. So the question will be, will Mickelson play in six straight? The "buzz" doesn't think so and feels that he will not play in the Hope. This will be another blow to a tournament that has steadily decreased over the years, last year Mickelson was the only top-30 ranked player in the field.
Yes, George Lopez was a great host last year but the move to The Classic Club hasn't made many professionals happy and since you can't do anything about it's location in the middle of a wind tunnel, look for more marque names to bypass this event.
As for Mickelson, he will have the next 2½ months off and you know whenever he comes back will be ready to go.
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Sabbatini not very popular with Australian pros
If there ever was a list of disliked players on the PGA Tour, the "Buzz" would venture to say that Rory Sabbatini would probably be in the top-ten. Just his general attitude is hard for some to stomach and many players, including Tiger Woods just smile and come up with some clever politically correct answer on why Sabbatini says some of the things that he thinks.
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Now frankly some of his comments directed toward Tiger Woods during the year may of, shall we say, "ticked off" the great man and when Tiger gets "ticked off" your not going to get a tongue lashing but he is going to beat you big time with his game. On one occasion that was never truer than at this year's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. Sabbatini had a one shot lead over Woods going into the final round, the two played together and Tiger put on one brilliant performance in front of Sabbatini shooting 65 to Rory's 74 and winning the tournament by eight shots. Still it seems that everywhere Sabbatini goes, trouble is on his right shoulder, even at times when its not his own making. One of these is what is happening in Australia, were several players aren't very happy that Sabbatini is getting a 'reported" $200,000 appearance fee to play in the Australian PGA Championship.
One of those players not happy is Stuart Appleby, who has withdrawn from the tournament even though he has won it three times in the last seven years. But this week Appleby changed his mind and is back in the event. In a interview with the Australian Daily Telegraph, Appleby isn't happy at some of the details of the Sabbatini deal. "To me the question is: How much is Rory getting paid and how much is he worth?," Appleby told The Daily Telegraph. "Thats what I want to ask the Australian PGA."
As for other players, Robert Allenby told the Australian Daily Telegraph that he shouldn't be implicated in a boycott over Sabbatini and even though he isn't playing in the Australian PGA it's not his fight and puts the blame on Australian Paul Gow for the boycott.
Still many feel that all of the irate Australians shouldn't be getting upset over this because according to Max Garske, CEO of the PGA of Australia, the sponsors have said that Sabbatini is only getting travel expenses and accommodations on this trip.
No matter what, for Sabbatini this is just another day at the office.
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Book Review - ‘Golf Unplugged’ is like its author – very different
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Did you know that chewing gum is likely to help your golf game? Ever wonder what it’s like to hit a recovery shot from a hot dog stand, how to pick up a golf ball with a wedge, or what the 10 commandments of golf are?
Doubtful on all counts, but if those thoughts or any other weird queries have ever dashed across you brain (probably after the 10th round was completed at the 19th hole) we have the book for you.
‘Golf Unplugged’ by Jim Apfelbaum is a treasure trove of information that other golf historians may have unearthed, but nobody else thought to put together in one volume.
But that is what makes Apfelbaum, author of seven other books (one on banking for God’s sake), so unique. Time and time again he has demonstrated the ability to go where no other golf writer has ever gone before, broadening our horizons to the point where we are very likely to have a headache.
Down a couple of aspirins and quit complaining. This kind of knowledge is worth some discomfort.
It was Apfelbaum who penned the popular ‘Golf On $30 A Day (or less)’ a must read guide for those of us who are not financially equipped to fly or play at the First Class level.
Host of the longest-running sports talk show on KVET radio in Austin, Texas and one of the preeminent golf travel writers in the world, Apfelbaum often operates in his own universe where others may visit, but thus far nobody else has been able to take up permanent residence.
His writing, like his swing, is smooth; his thinking, like his putting, often bizarre, but they combine in a way that forces you to keep turning the pages.
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While others might choose to do their research off the internet or at least at the local library, Apfelbaum has spent a goodly amount of his life talking (and more importantly, listening) to other people in the game. Folks as lofty as the late Harvey Penick, or as common as the leather-faced superintendent at a local municipal course who has more stories than liver spots on his hands.
It was Apfelbaum, who while sitting at a table during a Golf Writers of America dinner in Myrtle Beach, suggested that a soon-to-be constructed John Daly course in the area be named ‘Swizzle Stick’, a combination of Crooked Stick in Indiana where Daly first burst on the scene, winning the PGA championship and his well-earned reputation for downing a libation or 20.
‘Golf Unplugged’ is truly a fascinating read for anyone who really loves the history of the game. It’s not about who won the U.S. Open in 1943 or the British Open in 1908. This is about things you don’t know; the funny antic dotes, the yarns that players or those close to the game have spun. This is the kind of knowledge that makes you scratch your head and chuckle. It is a behind-the-scenes look at golf through the ages and it is as fascinating as it is well-written and researched.
Apfelbaum has traveled the golfing world for many years putting aside these trinkets and now, finally, he has assembled them into one, very readable and enjoyable work.
If you love golf pick up a copy. ‘Golf Unplugged’ is available through Tatra Press. You can contact them at tatrapress@hotmail. com.
- T.F. Geary
E-mail us at: Golfersal@aol.com
*So what is really up on the Natalie Gulbis story?
*Turnberry up for sale
*New course in Northern Virginia would be a gem for the AT&T National
*Mickelson has the Olympics on his mind
*Sorenstam to get into the ADT, defender Granada probably won't
*Harrington never lets the Jug out of his sight
Click here to post your thoughts and to tell us your "Golf Buzz"
So what is really up on the Natalie Gulbis story?
In Monday's "Buzz" we told you about an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, that said changes were coming in the 2008 Natalie Gulbis calendar. Now the story was done by Jeffrey Kelley, who is a credible writer and the Richmond Times-Dispatch isn't like shall we say the New York Post which has it's page six that glorifies any kind of celebrity news.
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Who knows what bells and whistles went off over in the Natalie Gulbis camp over this report but all of a sudden two stories from two more very credible journalists came out, painting a different picture by trying to spin things differently but at the end of the day, the truth is still that there will be no swimsuit pictures in the 2008 calendar.
The first story I saw was by Brian Hewitt over at the Golf Channel. I have known Hewitt for a decade and know for a fact that he is a person that always gets things right. If I would need to hire a top-notch reporter for a very important piece, Hewitt would be on top of my list. In his article he says that according to a Gulbis spokesman telling the Golf Channel, quotes were "incorrect". First off did he mean the quotes in the article or the quotes by Hogg were wrong? No matter, knowing Hewitt and the fact that he is very careful in tracking down the story and getting it right I have to think that he is right and either the Richmond Times-Dispatch is wrong or Hogg is wrong.
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While I was trying to understand more about the way this report was done a third story on all of this by Craig Dolch at the Palm Beach Post help shed some light on things. He paints a totally different side to all of this as he quotes Natalie Gulbis as saying that a PR person for the Circle S Studios overstepped her boundaries when she said Gulbis was trying to downplay her sexy image. With that it made things a lot easier to understand.
Geez, as my father use to tell me "the truth is somewhere in the middle on all of this". Who knows what is right or what is wrong on this, who misquoted who or if the Golf Channel could be spinning this for one of their stars but there is no two ways about it, the Gulbis camp doesn't want us to think that they are changing anything or downplaying her sexy image.
What I find even funnier over all of this is that at the end of the day, no matter what Susan Hogg, Natalie Gulbis or her spokesman say, the one certainty that all three reports have given us is there will be no Natalie Gulbis swimsuit pictures in the 2008 calendar and it will be interesting to see if this approach will be as popular as the previous calendars and if the "Buzz" on this calendar will be like the "Buzz" on the previous ones.
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A "For Sale" sign goes up at Turnberry
Hard to believe that in 20 months the 2009 British Open will be held at Turnberry, but a 'for sale' sign has been hoisted over the Scottish golf resort.