ADT "Declines To Extend" LPGA Deal

/

Well, I guess this will prevent anyone from asking if ADT will be back to sponsor next year's LPGA finale...

ADT declines to extend sponsor relationship
 
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Oct. 16, 2008 -- The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), owner and operator of the ADT Championship event in West Palm Beach, Fla., and ADT, title sponsor of the event, jointly release the following statements in response to ADT not renewing its title sponsorship.
 
LPGA statement credited to LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens
The LPGA has enjoyed an excellent relationship with ADT as a title sponsor of our season-ending event since 2001, and we are tremendously grateful for ADT’s strong support and loyalty to the LPGA and our members throughout the years. While we are disappointed that ADT won’t title the event beyond 2008, we look forward to working with them to ensure the 2008 event is the most successful to date.  As it relates to the future title of this event, which features golf's most compelling format, we are having discussions with several groups for title sponsorship.
 
Statement credited to ADT Security Services
ADT Security Services has had a long and productive partnership with the LPGA as title sponsor of the ADT Championship. While ADT is committed to making this year’s ADT Championship the best ever, we have decided not to extend our sponsor relationship.  Over the years we have had the opportunity to work with LPGA in building a great event while hosting it in our local Palm Beach County community.
ADT maintains an excellent relationship with the LPGA and continues to be committed to our other partners including the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida, the Pepsi Center in Denver as well as several Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) properties, the Home Depot Center and LA Live in Southern California and the O2 Dome in London.
ADT’s strategy is to make significant investments in growth areas of our business that are more closely aligned with meeting the needs of our customers.
 

Golf World Readers Choice Awards Confirm That Alabamans Have Internet Access

/

At least based on the posting of the top 50 public courses of readers, I think it's safe to assume someone in Alabama did a lot of clicking at GolfDigest.com, as two Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail charmers top the list of reader favorites.

Here's the intro to the Golf World spread, with the private and resort listings still to come.

"Who in their right mind would invest $50,000 in an organization that changes its CEO every year?"

/

No one every accused me of timeliness, but I finally got around to my October Golf Digest and their special money section. Each story had excellent points and you can access all of them here if you are behind on your reading like me. But considering yesterday's news from Winged Foot and the interesting state of club life in America in light of the financial crisis, each story has relevance, none moreso than this excerpt from Chris Millard's story was most entertaining, particularly this anecdote.

Fred Laughlin, who has long consulted with nonprofit groups on management issues, has recently begun working with the Club Managers Association of America on governance modeling for private clubs. His initial impressions of American private-club management and governance were not good. "Just awful," he says. "Mired barely in the 20th century." (See accompanying story by Davis Sezna.) How did we get here? Many of these clubs started because founders wanted to get together with friends. After a while the founders turned over management to boards, which in turn appointed presidents, who eventually hired GMs. "This happened over decades," says Laughlin. "Now we've got to a point where people are asking, 'Who's in charge?' "

It doesn't take a CFO to realize that there's something unsustainable about a 90,000-square-foot clubhouse in an age of dwindling enrollments. "A club needs to be run like a business," says Laughlin, adding that the top private clubs would rank among the top-10 percent of all businesses in the United States. Business-like thinking should extend, he says, to governance. "Who in their right mind would invest $50,000 in an organization that changes its CEO every year? Yet that's exactly what these members are doing and what these clubs are asking them to do."

Judge Reduces Winged Foot East To 17-Holes

/

You think I'm kidding...Corey Kilgannon reports in the New York Times. But not to worry, The Donald is on the case.

Last week, a State Supreme Court judge in Westchester issued a temporary restraining order against the club, banning play on the sixth hole until further notice. Outings have been disrupted, as has competitive play among members at what has become, in effect, the most famous 17-hole championship golf course in the country.

“Everybody at Winged Foot is very surprised, and people want to fight it,” Mr. Trump said on Tuesday. “I’m very surprised something couldn’t have been worked out. To close a hole, it’s a sad day for the club. I’m thinking maybe I’ll visit the gentleman. I’d love to go and mediate it.”

Mr. Pecora has suffered $14,000 in damage to his home from errant golf balls, including five broken windows this year alone, said Julius Cohn, his lawyer. He said Mr. Pecora, who moved into the house in 2003, began complaining about the errant shots in 2006, when the club cut down several trees between his house and the sixth green.

“Since they cut down the trees in 2006, my client has been getting bombarded with golf balls,” he said, adding that Mr. Pecora fears for the safety of his children, ages 6 and 11, who often play in the backyard. “He has golf balls raining down on his home — his children can’t even walk on the property.”
There's a lot I could say here, but I won't. Hopefully we'll learn more about this in the coming days.
The club spent $70,000 to plant three large trees in September, but Mr. Cohn said the club refused to put up a net protecting Mr. Pecora’s house. He said golfers routinely walk onto Mr. Pecora’s property to hit a ball back onto the course.
“He has pails and pails of golf balls,” he said, adding that Mr. Pecora’s 14-year-old dog ate a golf ball last year and required emergency surgery, costing $3,344.40.
Ouch.

Unfortunately, this statement just doesn't fly anymore...at least in the eyes of the courts. Yet another reason why the technology issue has been on the minds of architects.
William O’Shaughnessy, who owns a pair of radio stations in New Rochelle, and is a member at Winged Foot, said, “If you buy a house on a golf course, you have to assume there may be a couple of errant shots that are going to land in your yard.”
“It’s part of the charm of living on one of the most famous golf courses in the world,” he said.

"The restrictions on square grooves will bring back the old days"

/

Ron Whitten covers a lot of ground in his "Shape of Courses to Come" feature in the November, 2008 Golf Digest.

I think this passage speaks to the rude awakening some of the folks at the USGA are in for:

Steve Smyers, a veteran architect and member of the Executive Committee of the USGA, believes new restrictions on square grooves in golf clubs, set to go into effect at pro tour events in 2010 and apply to all by 2024, will affect course architecture in positive ways, particularly for those designing courses intended to host championships. (And because most owners dream of owning a contender, that means most new courses.)
"The restrictions on square grooves will bring back the old days," Smyers says. "Elite players will be gearing back on their swings, and going back to golf balls that spin a little more, which will reduce their distance. I've always been an advocate of big, wide fairways, but I think fairways will get narrower. Light rough will again become an integral part of the game. Hitting the fairway will again become absolutely critical. It'll be position golf as opposed to power golf."
See, here's my question. How can you position yourself on a narrow fairway? Just a question!

And if someone can name one noted player who has said he will be gearing back his swing because of the new grooves, I'm offering a first edition, signed copy of Masters of the Links.

“I just like to keep going forward.”

/

Doug Ferguson talks to some of Seve's greatest American rivals and ends the piece with this anecdote:

Mark Garrod, the golf correspondent for PA Sports the last three decades, remembers Ballesteros hitting one shot so far right during the '93 European Masters that he was 3 feet away from a wall with a swimming pool on the other side. The situation looked hopeless until Ballesteros saw enough of a gap in the trees that he hit pitching wedge to the fringe, then chipped in for birdie.

Garrod later asked Ballesteros about the shot, and the response is worth remembering now.

“I just like to keep going forward.”

Titleist Returning To PGA Show; Large Men In White Teaching Shoes Will Once Again Roam The Floor!

/

Doug Ferguson reports the wonderful news, which frees me to end my PGA Show boycott as well...oh wait, you said it's still going to be in Orlando? Scratch that...

Titleist is returning to the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla., for the first time in seven years. Titleist executive vice president Jerry Bellis said the return is due to the PGA shifting the show's emphasis to a more educational platform.

No manufacturer left behind!

"That means, on the apparel front, adidas will be working for Callaway in a licensee-licensor relationship."

/

The only reaction I had to the Taylor Made-buys-Ashworth news was that it probably made a John Ashworth-led revival of the company he started less likely, but as Robert Lohrer explains on the Styled-To-A-Tee blog, it adds to the bizarre world of Carlsbad corporate antics:

While both adidas and Ashworth are co-habitants of Carlsbad, Calif., it seemed that another giant golf company and Carlsbad mainstay, Callaway Golf, would be an ideal suitor for Ashworth. Callaway's apparel, said to be about a $60 million business at wholesale, has been successfully licensed for several seasons to Ashworth.

That means, on the apparel front, adidas will be working for Callaway in a licensee-licensor relationship.  Monday's deal, however, will likely mean that Callaway will have the right to review its contract.

"You'd think a middle-class kid who grew up on scruffy public courses might want to give something back to the game that has given him so much."

/

Had he asked, I could have warned Tiger that this would be the type of reaction he would get to his latest design venture. Then again, with an 8-figure design fee and seven oceanfront holes to play with, he might not care what anyone thinks!

From Alan Shipnuck's Hot List, which also gives Phil a nod for his Entourage appearance over Tiger's "cringe inducing" Today Show interview:

1. Tiger. He announced his third golf course design project, and once again it's an exclusive development for the mega-rich. You'd think a middle-class kid who grew up on scruffy public courses might want to give something back to the game that has given him so much.

You know, come to think of it, everything Tiger's doing now seems like the calculated image-enhancing stuff Phil used to do and the stuff Phil is doing now reminds me more of humorous image stuff Tiger did a few years ago.

Timberlake And The Tour

/

I continue to hear a lot of grumbling about the PGA Tour joining forces with Justin Timberlake to host to save this week's Las Vegas event and after everything we know about him I'm not really quite sure what the fuss is all about. He's one of the biggest stars in the world and a potentially huge aid in improving the game's image with people under the age of 30. Of course there will always be letters like this one Bob Carney posted at GolfDigest.com about putting "JT" on the cover (the reader probably thinking Bing and Glen were nightly churchgoers).

If you read Craig Bestrom's Digest interview with Timberlake, you'll find that's he very much in touch with what's going on in the game, he's passionate about playing and he really, really hates slow play. How can you not respect that?