Dear Media Member...

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This landed in my email box...name, email and phone number deleted to protect the innocent.

Dear media member,
 
We appreciate your consideration to join us on an upcoming media trip to experience first-hand two heralded destinations in Florida's Great Northwest.

This trip ­taking place February 28-March 4, 2006 will showcase the varied offerings of SouthWood in the state capital of Tallahassee, and the WaterColor Inn & Spa, a Small Luxury Hotel of the World member located on the Gulf of Mexico in Seagrove Beach.

Our itinerary includes 36 holes of golf at both SouthWood Golf Club and Camp Creek Golf Club, luxury lodgings, spa treatments, fine dining and VIP box tickets to the Florida State Seminoles vs. Duke Blue Devils basketball game on March 1.

Space for this trip is limited, so please contact us as soon as possible if you are interested.
 
Thank you and best regards,
 
xxxxx xxxxx
XXXXXXX Communications

St. Joe Towns & Resorts
Winter 2006 LUXURY GOLF FAM TRIP, February 28 – March 4
 
SouthWood Golf Club, Tallahassee, FL
www.southwoodflorida.com
Camp Creek Golf Club, Seagrove Beach, FL
www.campcreekflorida.com
The WaterColor Inn & Resort, Seagrove Beach, FL
www.watercolorinn.com
 
About the Courses
 
SouthWood Golf Club -- Opened in Nov. 2002 and located at the heart of the SouthWood development in historic Tallahassee, the Fred Couples/Gene Bates designed SouthWood Golf Club was named one of “America’s Best New Courses” by Golf Digest Magazine. Chosen from more than 500 courses, SouthWood was the only course in Florida to be named in the “Best New Upscale Public” category. Framed by towering live oaks draped in Spanish moss, the course was also named to GOLF Magazine’s prestigious “Top Ten You Can Play” list in 2003.
 
Camp Creek Golf Club/Water Color Inn -- The Tom Fazio-designed Camp Creek Golf Club offers a link-style, “dunescape” experience where rolling fairways, plenty of water and abundant bunkering make for challenging-yet-fun rounds. A member of the elite “Small Luxury Hotels of the World, the luxurious St. Joe’s WaterColor Inn & Spa includes the renowned Fish Out of Water restaurant, a private beach club, extensive exercise facilities, dune walkovers and boardwalks, a lakefront park and the recently opened WaterColor Spa. Camp Creek is rated the no. 8 course you can play in all of Florida by Golfweek and was named the “No. 1 Florida course of the new millennium by T+L Golf.
 

Defending Roy

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A very minor quibble. Adam Barr writes in a New Year's rules resolution column:

DRIVER ENVY. A player shall do his best to strike a decent tee ball without delay occasioned by bragging about the new war stick he or she received for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Boxing Day. Enforcement of this rule may be waived by the committee, unless the offender uses terms such as “Linda Ronstadt (Blew By You)” or announces loudly that his drive is a monster, even as it lands in ankle-high Kikuyu.

Recently Butch Harmon evoked the eye-roll inducing "Linda Ronstadt (Blew By You)" on the Natalie Gulbis Show (yes, yes I watched the show).

Besides the fact that it's not funny (as Barr is kindly trying to point out without offending his readership), the citation is not accurate.

But if you must use it, that's Blue Bayou, and Roy Orbison wrote the song along with Joe Melson in 1963, and also recorded it to major acclaim. Linda Ronstadt covered it in 1977.

I believe Tim McCarver started this "Blue Bayou" nonsense a few years ago during a baseball telecast.  And I know your day wouldn't be complete without this kind of important insight and clarification.

How Many Credit Cards Do You Have and What Color Are They?

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"The Golf Digest Interview" is typically full of fresh stories and revealing insights. Then there was January's sitdown with Paula Creamer that would have been better suited for pages of Miss Teen. Maybe.

And no, I'm not making this up:

GD: When you turned pro, was your press conference televised?
PC: Um . . . no. I think I had something later on The Golf Channel, but it was nothing like she had.

Do you have any idea how much you're worth?
I have no idea.

No idea?
I don't care about that kind of stuff. I care about my quality of life and money, but I don't know an exact number.

Definitely not $10 million?
No, not $10 million.

Maybe $5 million?
In that area.

Who handles your money?
IMG [International Management Group]. My parents are also involved, but I have a person who handles all of my money.

So if you go to an ATM right now and get cash, what's your available balance?
I've never gotten cash out of a machine. I use my credit cards, so I don't need to do that.

You've never gotten cash out of a machine?
Never. I've watched people, but I've never done it.

Come on! How do you get cash?
My dad, I guess.

How many credit cards do you have?
Three.

What color are they?
I have platinum. I have a new green one, which is pretty cool.

Golf Digest people probably don't get the new green ones.
[Laughs.] I do go to the bank and make withdrawals, but not from those machines.

Do you have a PIN number?
I might have one, but I don't know it. I have a debit card, I think, but I've never used it.

Do you get an allowance?
From who, my parents? No, but I'm trying to learn how much I'll allow myself to spend each month: $4,000, maybe $2,000. I haven't figured out the number yet. It depends on where we play. New York was terrible. That was the week I won for the first time, so I went crazy.

How much a month do you spend on clothes?
Too much. It depends. I can go from $1,000 in a week to $1,000 in a month. It's a lot.


Verdi: Can't Legislate Progress, Next Question

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Bob Verdi asks and answers questions.

Did technology affect golf in 2005?

A tired theme, in our opinion. You can't legislate against progress. The big story in bowling, besides Asbaty, is the new scented ball. You can now collect the 7-10 split with an amaretto ball. In tennis, it was the introduction of a magnetic racket, which instantly returns to its original shape after you hit the ball and which doesn't smell like amaretto. Yet.

So, you're really not worried about emerging technology? 

I worry about technology when I call my bank two blocks away to find out whether a check has cleared and the person who picks up the phone is in New Delhi.

Here was Verdi last year writing about the issue.

Meanwhile, the piece inspired me to to offer a similar question and answer session to myself.

Did technology really impact golf in 2005, or is everyone from Jack Nicklaus to Arnold Palmer to Greg Norman to Tiger Woods suggesting this just to get attention?

A tired theme, in our opinion. You can't ask golf writers to do anything but cover stars on the PGA Tour. I mean, who wants to write about something that requires thought, historical perspective, curiousity, a grasp of science and a concern for ramifications beyond the PGA Tour?

So you're not worried about emerging technology?

Why, I'm a blogger? I'm not the one whose publication arrives in the mail three weeks after the publication date...during the non-holiday season. Or the one who calls customer service to get some Canadian telling me that postal works must be reading my issues.

 

Golf Magazine Sets Multimedia Push

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Thanks to reader Kevin for the heads up on this WSJ story (subscription req.) about Golf Magazine's attempts to diversify.

Basically, they've generated $163.9 million in ad revenue for the first 11 months of the year according to Publishers Information Bureau, but ad pages are off 11.7% while the rest of the industry is down 0.4%. So they are coming up with a $250,000 contest culminating in in two one-hour shows where advertisers will get to push their stuff on TV too. You know, a reverse cross-pollination of synchronized multi-pushbacked brand repurposing initiative.

But here's the interesting part, courtesy of TNS Media Intelligence:

Golf Magazine's top five advertisers of 2005, in millions

Callaway Golf: $8.62

Fortune Brands: $6.11

Honda Motor: $4.0

Nissan Motor: $3.93

Adidas-Salomen: $3.85 
 

Must Cringe TV

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Uh yes, I've watched the first two episodes of Natalie Gulbis's "reality" show after someone suggested I inflict this form of self-torture to help heal my acid reflux. Shoot, I even  TiVo'd it. That's how sick I am.

But won't you be watching Tuesday night when after reading about last week's episode:

Natalie plays a practice round at the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill with Danielle, the winner of The Golf Channel's Big Break 3. [Hey, she's resurfaced!] Natalie & Se Ri Pak shoot the LPGA's new print campaign, "These Girls Rock!" [As captivating as it sounds.] Natalie & fellow LPGA beauty Cristie Kerr spend a day at the spa. [Uh, not as captivating as it sounds.] Natalie, Kelli Kuehne, and Paula Creamer spend the rain delay at Kingsmill playing poker. [Apocalyptic.] Natalie finishes the Michelob Ultra Open T-3, her best finish ever, which still isn't good enough for her father. [A real peach.]

I wonder what Ozzy, err, dad is going to do? 

Do watch the Gulbis show at least once just to see what kind of intense dialogue and layered plots you're missing. Natalie does look amazing in a bathing suit, unfortunately we barely saw her in it during episode two. The cold Malibu wind required her to parade around in robe. If she had done the calendar shoot today, it was 71 and clear, with a light breeze...oh sorry. Remember you East Coasters, you get to enjoy the seasons.

Who Invited Golf Digest?

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From the New York Post...

Christmas came early this year.

No, not the lighting of the Rockefeller Center tree but the elite luncheon of the top editors, publishers and executives who work for billionaire S.I. Newhouse Jr. inside the glitzy Condé Nast publishing empire.

This year's extravaganza at the posh Four Seasons restaurant was the first to stretch beyond Condé Nast's traditional top-bracket titles such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Glamour and The New Yorker, to include the less prestigious titles of its Fairchild group, home to Jane and W, and the more pedestrian Golf Digest Companies.
 

McDonald on Golf Digest/Tour Deal

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Tim McDonald at Travelgolf.com writes about the new media partnership between Golf Digest and the PGA Tour, and wonders if this will water down Golf Digest's coverage.

...to sum up, we know what the corporate partners, the PGA Tour and the magazine (not to mention its sister publications in the Conde Nast family: GolfWorld, Golf For Women, GolfWorld Business, etc.) get out of this new marketing agreement. What do we readers get out of it? Well, I can tell you what we probably will not get out of it: any negative coverage of the PGA Tour, and maybe not even the whole story. That isn't what partners do.

Thanks to reader Stu for passing along the Travelgolf newsletter where managing editor Mark Nessmith slams me and other bloggers (including his own Travelgolf blogs) for not looking harder at this deal and questioning Golf Digest's integrity (guess he didn't see my recent Golfobserver column).

Nessmith suggests that I'm a "contributor" to the publication, which theoretically explains why the story was not posted here (actually, I didn't think it was news...these relationships are standard in golf):

A few reported the deal when it went down, some even dutifully posting the press release. But none - not one - thought to expound on the ramifications of such a cozy "partnership." Not engolfed, not Brent Kelley, not Geoff Shackelford (go figure, since Shack  is a contributor to Golf Digest  among others), not Golf Fore Golfers, not Going For The Green (go figure, since Robert Thompson is a contributor to PGATour.com and a course rater for Golf Digest), not Just-For-Golf  ... and none of the TravelGolf.com bloggers either. I couldn't find anyone who thought to stick up his or her hand and ask: Hey, aren't journalists supposed to offer critical coverage of what's going on, not just sanitized pap that their "partner" has vetted!? Not even the Rebel Blogger could be roused from his (welcome) silence of late to take on the Big Boys.

I'd email Nessmith to find out where my contributor's check has been going all these years, since it was six years ago that I last appeared in the pages of Golf Digest. But for some curious reason all of the Travelgolf people don't want to be contacted (it does help cut down on the emails when you can't get your facts straight).

Huggan on Schofield, Hewitt

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John Huggan looks at Ken Schofield's post European Tour work and includes this anecdote:

...there is little doubt that Schofield is enjoying his new roles in life. Already, there is a more relaxed aura about him, a less guarded and less intense outlook. Even his legendary propensity for talking in politician-like circles when answering the awkward questions is less pronounced.

The edge is still there, though. Sitting with his notoriously jingoistic and often xenophobic Golf Channel colleague, Brian Hewitt, during an on-air conversation at last month's USPGA Championship, Schofield was quick to stick up for those he represented so zealously for so long. More than once the horrible Hewitt found himself politely chastised.

I think it's safe to say that if there's ever a Golf Writer's Association of America four-ball, there will not be a Huggan-Hewitt team! 

AP Els Story

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There's an AP story appearing all over the place announcing that Ernie Els "will skip the first two PGA Tour events in the United States next year to rest his knee and stay fresher for the majors."

He had to have won a tournament to be eligible for the first of the two that he's chosen to skip. I know, quibbling again. Anyway...

"The South African will not play in the United States until the Nissan Open in California in mid-February, and he will only be there for 10 weeks until after the Masters in April."

Hey, at least someone knows the 2006 PGA Tour schedule! So we can pencil the Nissan in for mid-February?

Anyway, the main point here is that this is all from John Huggan's reporting in The Guardian (Sept. 17), which was posted here a few days ago. The AP story does not mention Huggan or The Guardian.

Now I know he wasn't reporting the content of the Pentagon Papers or the names Hugh Sloan mentioned to the grand jury investigating Watergate, but Huggan did have an exclusive that should have been acknowledged by AP. Maybe this looser standard is part of AP's attempts to pander to a new audience, though I thought such shenanigans would be left to its forthcoming asap service (which you can bet the 18-34 year old obsessed PGA Tour will be pandering to in no time).