Another Brand Moment

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_41078155_kiran270.jpgJeff Shelley reports the latest Carolyn Bivens magical mystery move:

Her most recent questionable action came when she recently denied a request by 17-year-old Kiran Matharu to attend the LPGA’s Q School, which starts on the 19th.   

In her letter of denial, sent to Matharu via email on September 9th, Bivens wrote: “I do not believe your record in professional golf competitions demonstrates you can compete at the highest level of women’s professional golf at this time . . . I recommend you apply to qualify for the Duramed Futures Tour, ‘The Official Developmental Tour of the LPGA.’ “    

What the heck is Duramed anyway? Ah wait, that's branding because I asked what Duramed is! God she's good.

Well, this doesn't make her sound so good: 

Of all the Q School applicants this year, Matharu might actually be among the most qualified. She’s the reigning Ladies English Amateur champion, was a member of Great Britain and Ireland’s Curtis Cup team that competed last month at Bandon Dunes, and placed 15th in her first professional event. In addition, the young Englishwoman is a two-time Faldo Series Girls champion.    

Yorkshire-born Matharu started golf at the age of 11 and has been an outstanding player ever since. She’s the only British Asian female golfer, has an engaging personality and was named twice as Leeds Sports Performer of the Year – in 2003 and 2004. Earlier this year she was named “Female Junior Sports Personality of the Year” at the Sony Entertainment Television Sports Personality of the Year awards for British Asians.    

Of Matharu’s future, Nick Faldo said, “I’ve worked with Kiran for nearly three years now and in that time she has certainly proved that she has the potential to succeed on the big stage. Kiran combines a great game with a steady nerve and I’m confident that, with a little more experience, she will be in a position to challenge for the very highest honors that the ladies game has to offer.”    

After the Curtis Cup, Matharu turned professional with a plus-4 handicap, the lowest of any female golfer in the UK. She made the cut and finished 15th in The Wales Ladies Championship, her first professional tournament.    

"Typically golfers are skeptical that a supplement can effectively improve their golf score..."

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Well, it looks like the golf writers of America can't claim they haven't heard of golf performance enhancing drugs vitamins:

TO:    Golf Writer
FROM: GolfBizNews.com
RE: Tests Show Panovil Supplement Improved Scores For Golfers

Tests Show Panovil Supplement Improved Scores For Golfers

LAS VEGAS, NV -(September 12, 2006)- Recently released tests show a large group of golfers experienced dramatically improved scores after regularly taking Panovil Supplement.  "These were double-blind clinical trials conducted with 18 to 77 year-old golfers over a period of many years.  The results are astounding," says Panovil distributor Gus Skarlis.

More than 86% of those in the study shot lower (better) golf scores. Even more impressive, 78% lowered their scores on the more difficult and important Back Nine.

"Clearly Panovil gives just about any golfer a big advantage, wether they're just playing for fun or involved in competition," Skarlis said.

Panovil is a proprietary blend of natural herbs and plant extracts that encourages Herbal Invitro Cell Cultivation and Extraction Concentration.  These processes in the body are specifically designed to give golfers improved performance.

"Back in the 80s when this science first came out, Panovil tablets would have cost $18,000 and were only used by the ultra-wealthy.  But thanks to recent advancements, this remarkable advantage is available to golfers at everyday affordable prices," Skarlis said.

Panovil currently comes in a 5 round supply, 10 round supply, and 20 round supply and costs as little as $13.99 per round.  Order Panovil from the web site at http://www.Panovil.com.

Typically golfers are skeptical that a supplement can effectivel improve their golf score, but are soon won over after trying the product.  "Most golfers understand how lessons with a pro or a set of better clubs can lower their score.  So the idea of simply taking a tablet to win your next round is a new and exciting concept," Skarlis said.

Panovil is completely natural and safe.  The herbal blend causes none of the side-effects that harsh prescription drugs often create.

Panovil comes with a complete money-back guarantee.  "If you try Panovil and don't see an improvement in your golf score, we'll refund your money no questions asked," Skarlis said.

"Probably on paper the worst Ryder Cup team we've ever fielded"

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Nobody can claim that Johnny Miller hasn't done his part to motivate the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Chadd Cripe writes in the Idaho Statesman:

NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller was in Boise on Monday and he ripped the U.S. team that will try to win back the Ryder Cup from Europe next week in Ireland.

"This is probably on paper the worst Ryder Cup team we've ever fielded," Miller said during the press conference for the Kraft/Nabisco Shoot-Out at Hillcrest Country Club.

Miller also expressed reservations about captain Tom Lehman, who will decide how to use his 12 players. He will create four two-man teams for each of the first four rounds.

Miller says it's imperative that Lehman pair Tiger Woods with Jim Furyk, and Phil Mickelson with Chris DiMarco, because those pairings have worked in the past.

That could leave the team's inexperienced players, including four Ryder Cup rookies, paired together.

"I believe if he divides those up we're going to get creamed," Miller said of the Woods-Furyk and Mickelson-DiMarco teams. "I'm really concerned that Lehman uses the theory that we've got to use a good player with a not-so-experienced player."

 

"Golf has never been exclusively about length, but that seems like the emphasis now"

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Robert Thompson blogs about a story he's written quoting Nick Price about the state of the game and his likely final appearance in the Canadian Open.

Unfortunately, in a professional golf world increasingly dominated by players who hit their tee shots remarkable distances, shot makers like O'Meara and Price have quickly become relics of a bygone era.

"It has been very tough for me to be competitive out here in the last few years," Price said. "I've been very vocal about this. The way the game is going -- especially the USGA and Augusta -- and the way it is focusing on length, they are keeping a lot of players from being able to win major championships."
And Thompson writes that Price is actually looking forward to the Champions Tour:
"I'm tired of playing 7,600 yard golf courses," he said. "I'm sick of that. Golf has never been exclusively about length, but that seems like the emphasis now."

But both golfers have different takes on why the game has changed so much in recent years. O'Meara credits it partially to equipment, but also points out that most players are far more physically fit than they were two decades ago. But Price isn't buying that explanation.

"If you looked at Greg Norman when he was 32-years-old, he was as strong as an Olympic athlete," Price says. "So was Faldo. I think it is a slight on them to say the current guys simply work out and that's why they hit the ball further."

Given his nearly three decades of professional experience, Price says he knows the solution to the distance problem.

"Simply change the equipment," he says. "I don't care what the average Joe plays. In fact, let him play equipment that helps his game. Can you imagine what would happen in baseball if they gave Barry Bonds a titanium baseball bat? The pitchers would go berserk. But that's what we did in golf."

 

It's The Grooves, Vol. 329

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The Bomb and Gouge boys are back and as always, they write about the equipment issue like Nuke LaLoosh pitches.

Bomb (E. Michael Johnson) writes about reading the USGA's 104 page paper laying the groundwork for making everyone's U-grooves illegal so they don't have to regulate the ball. (A strategy that I welcome because it will absolutely enrage golfers to the absurdity of the current USGA way of thinking).

Aggressive grooves have played right into the strategy employed by several tour players of bashing the ball as far off the tee as possible and rough be damned. Take them away, and perhaps they start sacrificing a tad of distance for a few more fairways. Or maybe not. Old habits, after all, die very hard. But there’s little doubt distance is at the heart of the USGA’s research. As Rugge has said repeatedly, “The correlation between accuracy off the tee and success on the PGA Tour is almost non-existent.”

Bomb nails it. The USGA was humiliated by the flogging approach and is determined to stop it, even if it means deeming most grooves on the market today illegal (after having approved them!).

I don’t dispute that contention, but I’m still a big believer that distance is not ruining the game of golf as it currently stands. And I certainly don’t want to be writing for the next few years about motions filed on behalf of the manufacturers by noted legal eagle Leonard Decof, as was the case back in the 1980s and ’90s. But when ShotLink stats reveal that more than 40 percent of all approach shots on the PGA Tour are hit with some kind of wedge, I can at least see why the collective brains at golf’s governing bodies are whirling faster than a ball coming off one of these clubs.

That number is still just staggering to me. 40%! Yep, it's the grooves.

GOUGE: I do not want to agree with you. But there is a reason for the fairway. If the rough is not a hazard, then something must be done to make it one. Grooves might be one way, it might also be the most impractical solution to a problem in recorded history. If we all want to play by the same rules as the USGA wishes (humor me), then a groove change rule would force us all to buy new irons and wedges. That in a nutshell is a definition of a class-action lawsuit.

Actually, rough is a product of the modern game to offset poorly regulated equipment. Old Tom Morris was not out mowing and layering rough. Anyway, the otherwise sane reasoning from Gouge (Mike Stachura) ends there...

The USGA’s Executive Committee clearly is ticked off at how elite players are changing the game. Read the report Jim Vernon, chairman of the Equipment Standards committee, gave to the Executive Committee and it's obvious there is a real fear on their part that the game is out of control. But the truth is all they have to do is look at their own championship to realize they’ve solved the difficulty/skill algorithm quite simply. Layered rough makes crying babies out of all the great pretenders out there. And it’s the only thing that’s beaten Tiger Woods in the last three months.

Sigh. Oh yes, it was the rough at Winged Foot that did Tiger in. Couldn't have been that his father had just died weeks before and he was not ready to return. No, it was the rough.

"The Tiger Effect" ** ***

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Thanks to SteveG for this IMG err HSBC press release on the "THE TIGER EFFECT" that will be boosting the UK and Ireland economies. Note that several publications, including the Scotsman, picked up this press release and reported it as news.

Woods, who flies into London tomorrow (Tuesday) to play in the HSBC World Match Play at Wentworth before competing in the Ryder Cup and World Golf Championship, all taking place in September, will increase the golf economy in the UK & Ireland by as much as 5%.

Research carried out for HSBC by Professor Tom Cannon, Dean of Business at the University of Buckingham suggests Tiger's mere presence results in tens of thousands extra spectators, boosts radio and television coverage by at least 25 per cent, generates millions through tourism, hospitality and sponsorship, and drives people to try golf for themselves and join clubs.

Professor Tom Cannon, Dean of Business at the University of Buckingham and leading expert in sports business and finance commented: “The size and reach of the Tiger economy is remarkable.  We estimate the total value on the core golf economy to be as high as £170 million. Drawing these figures together gives an astonishing picture not only of the impact of a single, outstanding sportsman but of the growing power and influence of sport and sporting celebrity.”

With the tournament scheduled for a week before the Ryder Cup and the appearance of World Number One Tiger Woods for the first time since 1998, there has already been a 60% increase in advance ticket sales this year.

Giles Morgan, HSBC’s Head of Sports Sponsorship and Marketing commented:

“The HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth is set to break its 42-year attendance record after selling an unprecedented number of advance tickets.

“Tiger Wood’s participation in the HSBC World Match Play is obviously great news for our event, but our approach to golf is as much about developing the grassroots of the sport as it is about supporting the elite game. This report indicates that Tiger's appeal goes far beyond what happens on the course and has positive economic and social impacts in the countries where he plays."

The three tournaments in three weeks could take the "Tiger Effect" to new heights as he reaches out to millions beyond the sport. HSBC’s ‘Tiger Economy’ study suggests: 

Ø      Tiger’s participation is expected to encourage an additional 60,000 spectators to attend the three major Golf tournaments generating an extra £4.2 million in ticket sales and related visitor costs such as car parking

Ø      Sponsorship and hospitality could generate an additional £3.6 million, including £500,000 in advertising spend as companies take advantage of Wood’s participation, and £500,000 in travel and accommodation generated through additional spectators

Ø      Conservative estimates suggest Tiger could inspire 700,000 golfers (club members and occasional players) to play an extra round of golf bolstering green fees by £14 million

Ø      The ‘Tiger Effect’ could see sales of Golf equipment and clothing increase by an additional £27.5 million

Ø      Media coverage of the tournaments (TV and radio) is likely to be worth £52.3 million as Tiger’s appearance continue to generate record audiences

Ø      The anticipated value of press coverage is be valued at £36 million

 

Where Does The Game Go From Here?

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Having had a few days to digest Walter Driver's ESPN.com remarks and to read your comments, it seems a bit of a assessment is necessary.

First, the key lines from the Statement of Principles are important to remember:

Golf balls used by the vast majority of highly skilled players today have largely reached the performance limits for initial velocity and overall distance which have been part of the Rules since 1976. The governing bodies believe that golf balls, when hit by highly skilled golfers, should not of themselves fly significantly further than they do today.
Today being May, 2002 when the PGA Tour Driving Distance average was 279.4 (the end of 2001 number)
...any further significant increases in hitting distances at the highest level are undesirable. Whether these increases in distance emanate from advancing equipment technology, greater athleticism of players, improved player coaching, golf course conditioning or a combination of these or other factors, they will have the impact of seriously reducing the challenge of the game. The consequential lengthening or toughening of courses would be costly or impossible and would have a negative effect on increasingly important environmental and ecological issues. Pace of play would be slowed and playing costs would increase.

Should such a situation of meaningful increases in distances arise, the R&A and the USGA would feel it immediately necessary to seek ways of protecting the game.

So instead of the anticipated debate over the meaning of "significant" or "meaningful" increases, Driver's remarks make it clear that such a discussion will not take place when the USGA is unwilling to acknowledge the driving distance average around May 2002 (and remember, the PGA Tour average is the key number for them). Driver on ESPN.com:

The facts are that the tour distances are nearly flat the last 3 years. It went down somewhat a few years ago and then leveled off. So the facts show that there hasn't been much increase to show us that we need to act from when we made those statements.

He's right, the numbers are "nearly" flat the last three years, but not the last four. And we'd be giving the USGA the benefit of the doubt by using the 2002 PGA Tour Driving Distance average (279.8), when the 2001 number (279.4) would seem closer to the Statement of Principles issuing. But since the numbers are so close, either works, right? Well, not for Driver.

His statement about the number going down at any point in recent years is pure fiction and he should be embarrassed to peddle such nonsense, especially when preaching like this:

We have a great deal of facts at the USGA upon which we make our rule making. Many of the people that talk about the game are passionate about the game, but they don't have the facts that we have.

There will be no discussion about the meaning of significant from 2002 to 2006, just a shift to discussion about grooves so the USGA doesn't have to take a tough stance and can keep harvesting rough to mask the problem.

So where does the game go from here? How can the USGA be taken seriously when they post such strong statements and then turn their back on those words?

Your thoughts? 

Win Canadian, Must Come Back

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This doesn't say much about the Canadian Open's 2007 spot on the schedule when this year's winner says he's only coming back because, well, it would be rude not to.

Canadian Open champion Jim Furyk guaranteed the national championship will have at least one top non-Canadian player next year despite being crammed between the last two majors and another top event.

"I'll be honest, I probably wouldn't play if I hadn't won. I feel it's a point of honor," Furyk said Sunday after his comeback victory on the Hamilton Golf and Country Club course. "I feel I should be here and I'll come back to play."

"I've never won a tournament and not shown up to defend," Furyk said. "I'll be here. I'm going to play the Canadian Open next year. I'll figure it out."

 

PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch, Week 36

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pgatour.jpgThe PGA Tour driving distance average remained steady at 289.6 yards after the Canadian Open, which aired on ESPN on ESPN.

On another note, reader JT pointed out this story on 16-year-old Gipper Finau qualifying for and making the cut at the Nationwide event in Utah. Finau led the field in driving distance, averaging 339.6 for the week. Just imagine what'll happen when he starts working out.

Huggan On Woosie/Bjorn Spat

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John Huggan digs a little deeper and exposes the European Tour's hypocrisy in fining Thomas Bjorn:
Things are never that straightforward, however. Not when European Tour officials are guilty of blatant hypocrisy in their dealings with a man who deserved better treatment than he got from a captain who already looks to be out of his diminutive depth.

The Sexed-Up, Dumbed Down Relaunch

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background_index.jpgThanks to reader Chris for this Jeremy Watson story from last week's Scotland On Sunday about Golf Course News International sexing up their publication.
GCNI decided to sex itself up in a - literally - naked bid to attract a new generation of young readers. But the heady mix of female flesh and double entendres has seriously backfired, forcing a rethink after just two issues.

Some golf clubs and organisations - such as the St Andrews Links Trust, which runs the world-famous Old Course - will no longer display the magazine in their clubhouses or practice ranges.

Readers have bombarded the magazine with protest letters, while some of the industry's leading advertisers have withdrawn their business. Among those leading the protests is the European Institute of Golf Course Architects, whose past-president David Williams said: "As golf course architects we used to look forward to the receipt of GCNI. The magazine was always a good read and very informative.

"But the sexed-up, dumbed-down relaunch is totally inappropriate for a serious professional magazine."

GCNI was launched 10 years ago by US company United Publications, but the changes emerged after the title was bought by new owners Seoul Nassau, a golf products firm.
Wouldn't you just loved to have been present for the meeting when they brainstormed these brand-building beauties:
The first new issue set the tone with a front cover depicting a blonde model in a black bikini top with a flaming golf ball disappearing down her cleavage. The justifying headline was: Women And Golf, The Burning Issue.

The edition also had a "world exclusive" on doctors prescribing more sex as an aid for playing better golf. But its most eye-catching feature was The Hunt For The Birdie Bucks. This was a piece on the female golfers most likely to be courted by marketing men - for their looks as much as their ability.

Italian professional Sophie Sandolo - known in her native country as "La Bod Bella" - was captured posing on a green in a revealing string dress while Australian Carlie Butler was photographed in a tight, red glittery top.

Issue two opened with an article on "shaft king" Jim Davey, who runs a custom golf club fitting company, and an advert for a ball-washing machine, illustrated by a naked model squeezing a bar of soap. A spot-the-difference competition asked readers to identify 10 changes in a picture of a bikini-clad model against the background of a golf course.
The revamped magazine has not gone down well in traditional golfing circles, with the St Andrews Links Trust saying it was unlikely to display it at its practice ground any longer.
However, regarding GCNI's placement as toilet reading in the R&A clubhouse, Peter Dawson could not be reached for comment.