Callaway CEO On Cuts: "If this surprised anybody, they weren't paying attention"

Frank but accurate comment from Callaway CEO Chip Brewer in an exclusive interview with GolfDigest.com's Stachura and Johnson to explain staff cuts of 250 and other business restructuring.

"The golf club and golf ball business is what gets our excitement levels up. Clearly, we're very grounded in reality and we're going to come out with more aggressive, authentic and relevant programs, and that's going to extend from sales to marketing to product. In the past, they've claimed to be authentic and they haven't always been authentic, in my opinion. They've been high quality but they haven't always driven innovation and been as responsive as they could.  We're changing all that and the team is excited as hell about that.

After spending two days walking backwards to new tees on classic courses, I'd be more than happy to suggest for the 8941st time that Callaway would be wise to establish itself as the friend of classic courses by developing a slightly rolled back ball for use at the museum pieces of the game. Now that's innovation!

State Of The Game Podcast 10: "The Open won't be going to Portrush..."

That's the sunny take of John Huggan, who also wrote in Golf World about the dynamics of trying to return the Open Championship to Royal Portrush.

That sticky subject is one of many topics we cover, including the U.S. Open at Olympic Club, this week's Scottish Open and the Open Championship at Lytham.

You can access the show, hosted by Rod Morri and including Huggan and myself this week, via a direct link, via iTunes, via iTunes subscription, or the player below:

"Golf's been very good to me. It's the least I could do. There was karma for me in this."

Mark Magnier of the Los Angeles Times files a wonderful A1 story on golf instructor Indrajit Bhalotia's efforts to improve fortunes for select youth in India, with an assist from local benefactors along with members of the Royal Calcutta Golf Club. I'm not sure if this one is behind the Times paywall, because it's a pretty special story and a nice reminder that there are people doing great stuff without teaching the ten core values.

Magnier opens and closes with the story of fourteen-year-old Mohan Sardar who lives with his sister and parents in a one-room shanty but is an emerging talent who got into golf via caddying.

One day Mohan befriended a golfer, asking whether he needed a caddy. He earned $1.50 the first day, gave most of it to his mother, and they ate fish that night. "It was brilliant," he said.

The golfer's coach started giving Mohan pointers and he was soon playing the occasional round of a sport that enjoys a particularly elite status in India, especially among nouveau riche Indians clamoring to mark their arrival.

Today, Mohan, a lanky boy with short hair and deep-set eyes, has a golf handicap of three and is among India's top five junior players.

David Graham Wants Equipment Rules Revisited...

...but not a word about distance issues from the former U.S. Open champion and member of the Masters Cup and Tee Marker Placement Committee.

Jim Achenbach says Graham believes amateurs should be able to carry as many clubs as they want, with as much loft as they'd like to allow them to hit flops like Tiger and Phil (even though that takes special skill) and he's for the long putter too.

“If we examine long putters, it’s easy to see they have allowed a lot of people across the board to get more enjoyment from the game,” Graham says. “Absolutely the long putter has helped the game. It’s a good thing.

“Besides, even with a certain amount of opposition to the long putter, it may be too late to change it. Many golfers thoroughly depend on these putters. With this kind of passion, I think the game itself becomes the benefactor.”

As for the real issue at hand? Mum's the word!

Now Presenting The Non-Minority Collegiate Minority Golf Champs!

The Daily's John Walters takes a look at the winners of the PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship and finds a lot of fine golfers resembling non-minorities.

How does Bethune-Cookman, a school that is 94.3 percent African-American and 1.5 percent white, draw such talented female golfers from Austria, Denmark and Great Britain? Coach Loritz “Scooter” Clark declined comment for this story, but the Daytona Beach-based school’s home course is the LPGA International Legends Course, which is located within driving distance, as it were, from the LPGA headquarters.

Renee Powell was the second black female to play on the LPGA Tour. Powell, 66, recalled twisting the arm of a sponsor in order to send golf equipment to three HBCUs. When she arrived at a tournament in which they were playing, Powell had a startling discovery.

“All of your golfers are white,” Powell told the coach.

“My school president wants to win,” the coach replied.

“If I had known that I would have given the equipment to another college where minority kids were struggling,” Powell said.