John Deere Donates $1 Million to The First Tee

A nice donation but I thought this component was even more interesting:

The $1 million donation will be used to enhance the experience of The First Tee participants in a variety of ways. Besides supporting The First Tee network, funds will be used to create and launch a golf maintenance career- oriented youth development program, in conjunction with the PGA TOUR. Local chapters of The First Tee will partner with the TOUR’s Tournament Player Courses (TPC) to provide the opportunity for high school-aged participants to learn about topics in agronomy and golf course maintenance careers. As a planned extension, participants will also have the chance to experience what it’s like to maintain a TPC golf course during a tournament week.

PGA Of America Pros Against Bifurcation, Barely

Alex Miceli reports on the poll taken in light of recent events in golf:

Of 3,155 respondents sampled, 53 percent support one set of rules for all golfers. The PGA claims that the sampling has a margin of error of 1.6 percentage points.

First Tee Alternative: "Can Golf Be Saved By Capitalism?"

Larry Olmsted looks at an alternative to the First Tee called the TGA that works on a franchise model and has already been picked up by the USTA to create a version for tennis.

“Having worked for Rick Smith at Treetops [a perennial candidate for one of the best teachers in the world and his home resort in Michigan] and having been a teaching pro, I’ve seen every ‘growing the game’ initiative in the past 20 years, and none of them have worked. This one immediately caught my eye because it makes so much sense,” said former PGA professional Kevin Frisch, now a spokesman for the program he describes, TGA Premier Junior Golf, a fast growing franchise.

The TGA stands for Teach, Grow, Achieve, the grow part being the game of golf. The concept was launched by Joshua Jacobs in 2003, when he had the bright idea to cross the declining notion of teaching golf to kids with the fast growing and red hot trend of after school enrichment programs. These have been booming across the country as a way to productively fill time between the end of the school day and the end of the parents’ work day, while teaching the kids something beyond the classroom. To date, the main areas of focus have been academic or cultural, such as performing arts. So why not golf?

State Of The Game Podcast 16: Bifurcation Madness

Rod Morri, Michael Clayton and I discuss the recent events related to the state of the game and Clayts also fills us in on Gil Hanse's visit to the sandbelt. Vijay, slow play and all of the bifurcation talk make appearances.

Have a listen below or as always, subscribe on itunes.

PGA State Of The Game Round-Up, 2013

Jason Sobel reports on the PGA of America's "State of the Game" panel discussion and it sounds like the topics were relevant. That is, if bifurcation is your thing.

Tim Finchem continues to make some intriguing comments suggesting he and the PGA Tour see no problem with situational rules for the pro game and amateur play.

"As I said the other day in San Diego, generally it's nice to think that the Rules of Golf can be the same for everybody," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said. "You like to think that the participants in the sport can appreciate when they look at the elite players, because they are playing by the same rules; they have an affinity to the elite players. But I don't think that gets eroded from time to time if you were to bifurcate in certain situations.

"College football is the same. Even though you only have to have one foot in, it's still the same game."

Taylor Made CEO Mark King reiterated his belief that we already have bifurcation, so why not expand it in the name of growing the game, but as several prominent voices are quoted as saying in this week's Golf World, there is no data suggesting technology has grown the game.

"It's not coming; it's here," TaylorMade CEO Mark King reiterated. "We already live in bifurcation. We already do. Nobody plays by the exact Rules of Golf on Friday afternoon with their buddies. So I think it's about time that we realize what we have, we have elite players that need a set of rules and we need to create an environment where people want to come in and enjoy this great game, whether it's one foot in the end zone or two feet, we need to create that environment for people."

Dottie Pepper wins the prize for bringing up the topic that gets most people thinking about certain equipment restrictions for professionals.

" I think one of the saddest things I've seen in the time that I've been at this level," said newly appointed PGA of America board member Dottie Pepper, "is that we are seeing places like Merion become really in the rearview mirror of championship golf and places where the game has been born and where American golf and golf worldwide have such great tradition and such great history really become that history."

USGA Gets Into The Branded Stimpmeter Business

Knowing how Executive Director Mike Davis feels about the negative influence of faster green speeds on cost, pace of play and even in driving people to anchor putters, today's announcement of a USGA-logoed. $110 Stimpmeter won't go down as one of the best days in the organization's history. While they advocate the Stimpmeter for consistency, superintendents will tell you that the Stimp ends up encouraging faster greens.

Especially when they say this:

While different layouts present distinct challenges, each course needs to offer competitors consistent conditions in order to provide a fair test. And one of the most important aspects of course maintenance is uniform putting surfaces.

Not only do variations in speed from green to green negate a player’s skill, they also greatly decrease enjoyment of a round.

Remember when it was a skill to scout out a course and note the slight variations in speed?

Even for golfers playing a recreational round, a course with greens of varying speeds can be a bewildering, frustrating experience.

Millions of golfers, from U.S. Open contestants to beginners, have benefited from the Stimpmeter, a simple tool offered by the United States Golf Association that allows superintendents, agronomists and course officials to accurately measure the speed of greens and provide consistent playing conditions.

You can order it for $110 according to this link, but get this slab of plastic for just $75 if you trade in your old Stimpmeter. While supplies last! And let's hope for the sake of the superintendents of the world, they last and last and last.

Update on 2013-01-26 07:38 by Geoff

**John Paul Newport reports on the new Stimpmeter and the history of the device. He says they are not for sale to anyone who wants one. I'm still looking for that fine print here:

As exciting as this new Stimpmeter is, you and I won't be able to get our hands on one, even if we come up with the USGA's $110 asking price. That's because the rules-making body won't sell Stimpmeters to ordinary golfers, only to clubs, golf-course superintendents and tournament setup officials.

I'm not seeing that restriction here:

PGA Prez: Maybe We Should Consider Bifurcation

Rex Hoggard, talking to PGA of America president Ted Bishop about Tim Finchem's bifurcation comments regarding the golf ball on Wednesday at Torrey Pines.

“(Finchem’s comments) are pretty interesting and powerful words from somebody of his stature,” Bishop said.

“Maybe we are at a point where we need to consider what impact bifurcation would have and if that's an answer or a potential answer to this situation, so that we can avoid some sticky issues like we are currently involved in with banning a long putter and anchoring or even some of the issues that possibly come up in the future.”

I spoke to Bishop for my bifurcation story in Golf World and at the time he was a bit more on the fence.

Finchem and Bishop are on a "state of the game" panel Friday at the PGA Show.

The USGA's Big Move & The Bifurcation Conversation

Two big features appear in this week's Golf World: Jaime Diaz's look at the state of the USGA and my story on the delicate topic of bifurcation.

Here they are from the Golf World digital edition: Diaz/USGA  Shackelford/bifurcation