When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
As part of Golf Digest's "Fun" issue Ron Kapriske has dared to go forward at the expense of his manhood and guess what? He had a blast.I was unable to sit in on Tim Finchem's year-end press conference but all of the questions I would have wanted to ask came up. It's a fascinating, slightly shocking and at times mesmerizing script to wade through. It's also one that I think we'll look back on a year from now and think either,
A) the man really knew his partners, the corporate world and his "product" and its ability to lure the networks into a lucrative new deal
Mike Stachura and E. Michael Johnson consider the possible options for an Acushnet sale or spin off and conclude that private equity or Asian sporting goods will be the likely suitors. There was this on the bottom line...
But more importantly, Titleist has real profits and real dominance in the marketplace. Its EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) is approximately $120 million and historically sporting goods transaction multiples are between six and eight times EBITDA. Acushnet being an industry leader would seem to command the high end of that so let's start the bidding at $1 billion. Or possibly beyond.
Great scoop by Evan Rothman on the members of Engineers getting the chance to vote on becoming part of the Trump National family. Naturally it's tragic news for anyone hoping to see this once epic architectural masterpiece properly restored some day, but given the way the membership has viewed their historic design in the last decade, a match with The Donald seems fitting.
If you are looking for an architecture fix and a fun read, check out Rothman's profile of Devereux Emmet in the Met Golfer. It's also a nice reminder of the Met Golfer's quality and of one of Engineers' architects.
I think this was the most intriguing statement from Brandel Chamblee in his Golf Magazine interview, conducted by Connell Barrett. The topic? The Ryo, Rory, Rickie talk and their future in majors.
Who steps up? One of the three R's?
Maybe. But they all lack one thing: size. I like the bigger guys who don't have to swing at 100 percent. Big guys tend to have what I call "big game" — the sky-high ball flight that wins majors. Bigger guys can do that while swinging at 80 percent. Think Tiger, Vijay, Phil. Ryo, Rory and those guys swing full throttle all the time. But there's one guy in his 20's who has the physical strength, the putting, the monster ball flight to dominate and win six, seven, eight majors in the next 10-12 years. And that's Dustin Johnson. Dustin has everything. He has some weaknesses around the greens, but so did Jack. If he doesn't win a Masters or two, I would be shocked.
The Ryder Cup Captain explains a key move he made to take Celtic Manor's 5-foot (!?) long beds with 6-footers. Take that, you tall Americans!
'I looked at the rooms and thought they weren't big enough, so we all got connecting rooms. Then on the Saturday morning we got a removal company in and they brought six-foot beds and took the five-foot beds out.
'We were on the ninth floor and the Americans were on the eighth floor, but they didn't know about it.'
Corey Pavin and his side arrived two days later.
'We also had six physio beds put up on that floor and there were tailors up there as well to make sure all the outfits fitted. It was all laid on.
'You have one hit at this and I wanted to get it right.'
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
