"See The Best Golf In L.A."

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This isn't of interest to most of you, but here in Los Angeles there's a sense that Tiger's tournament at Sherwood has undermined the Northern Trust Open (formerly LA Open) because they fall within 10 or so weeks of each other. 

The Sherwood event certainly has become Tiger's lone stop in the market and there's no reason to think that will change anytime soon given his non-answers on the subject.

The tour put this event on its fall silly season schedule and mans the event with its scoreboards and field staff. This happened at a time Tiger could dictate terms to Tim Finchem even though any commissioner would tell you it's bad business to be in a market twice in such a short timespan, especially this commissioner who is typically sensitive to tournament needs. I'm sure a suit in Ponte Vedra would counter that Thousand Oaks and Los Angeles are different markets and I'm just bitter because the LA stop doesn't figure to see Tiger anytime soon.

Yet I just find this year's Chevron ad campaign, oh, how do I put this nicely...unseemly.

"Golf can deliver new technology as fast as any other business sector."

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In John Paul Newport's column on Callaway and Lamborgini using the same material to sucker more rich guys into overpaying for some privileged cocktail party banter, Taylor Made CEO Mark King reiterates his assertion that there is plenty of room for manufacturers to innovate. Something to remember should the governing bodies decide to enact real regulation and CEO's (or golf writers) start howling about the lack of room to innovate within the current rules.
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GCSAA Cuts: "The economic recession, particularly in the golf industry, has been deep and severe."

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James R. Fitzroy, Golf Course Superintendents Association of America President, writing to his members today after announcing significant staff cuts.

Dear GCSAA Members,

In recent years, my predecessors and I have shared with you the steps we have taken to ensure that GCSAA remains a viable and sustainable organization that delivers value to you, your facility and the golf industry.

The economic recession, particularly in the golf industry, has been deep and severe. Since 2008, GCSAA has reduced expenditures $5.4 million with the objective of having the least amount of impact on members as possible. Earlier this year, the GCSAA Board of Directors conducted an extensive strategic planning session to review our mission and vision, and chart our path for the upcoming years. Our responsibility as leaders is to keep GCSAA strongly positioned for the future by seeking new resources and optimizing the ones we have in order to execute programs and services on the members' behalf.

Therefore, today I am announcing a series of significant actions that will result in reorganization of GCSAA programs and services. Unfortunately, it will also result in reduction of staff. In the last three years, we have reduced staff from 122 to 85, so taking these additional steps places additional responsibility on those that remain. Working with interim CEO Rhett Evans, we will continue to focus on those areas we have deemed to be a priority. There is no denying that we will discontinue some activities and reduce the magnitude of others as we manage the association through this difficult period. But the reductions are also necessary to create the capacity to expand into areas of significant opportunity such as field staff, continued international expansion, advocacy/outreach and professional development, among others.