S.C. State Legislature Revisiting State Sponsorship Of Heritage Classic

Josh McCann reports that the bill from last year to get taxpayer money to fund the Heritage Classic purse is back, with a caveat. State legislature Rep. Bill Herbkersman is the sponsor. Thanks to reader Jonathan for this:

For now, though, the bill offers no specific proposals; it merely summarizes the economic impact of Hilton Head Island's PGA Tour event, Herbkersman said.

The details would be added later if the tournament does not secure a new sponsor, he said.
He said the bill will provide a way to discuss the tournament with colleagues so they can swiftly act if necessary.

"It will give us an opportunity to talk about the ramifications, the financial impact on the state and what would happen if we didn't have" the tournament, Herbkersman said.

iPad And Golf Instruction

I've had little time today to look at the specs on the iPad2, but with the same HD camera as the iPhone, I'm curious if we'll see this device become part of the golf instructor's bag of tricks? So many already use video, but it just seems that if the screen resolution is strong enough in the daylight, that this could become a revolutionary teaching tool due to its simplicity, screen size and portability.

Teachers out there: your thoughts?

USGA To Name Mike Davis New Executive Director**

Even though he said he was not interested and that the job description would have to be changed. So something obviously changed!

Ryan Herrington with the exclusive.

Update on 2011-03-02 22:46 by Geoff

**Here's the official release:

MIKE DAVIS NAMED SEVENTH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION
 
Far Hills, N.J. (March 2, 2011) – The United States Golf Association (USGA) has named Mike Davis as the organization’s new executive director. Davis becomes the seventh executive director in the 116-year history of the Association, after serving as senior director of Rules and Competitions since 2005.

Davis succeeds David Fay, who retired on Dec. 31, 2010, after holding the position for 21 years, concluding a 32-year tenure with the USGA.

"I am humbled and extremely grateful to the United States Golf Association for the trust and confidence it has placed in me as the executive director,” said Davis, who assumes his new responsibilities effective immediately. “I am passionate about the USGA and its mission. The work of the Association is done by thousands of volunteers and hundreds of staff, whose collective efforts truly help better the game that so many of us love.”

Davis, 46, joined the USGA in April 1990 as assistant manager of Championship Relations. He was promoted to manager of Championship Relations in December 1990 and served in that capacity until his promotion to director of Championship Relations in October 1995. In 1997, he was promoted to U.S. Open Championship Director, responsible for managing the day-to-day organizational activities for the U.S. Open. He assumed responsibilities as senior director of Rules and Competitions in 2005.

As senior director of Rules and Competitions, Davis was charged with conducting the 13 individual national championships and four team championships conducted by the USGA, as well as overseeing the Rules of Golf Department. He was also the staff member responsible for the golf course setup and Rules conduct of the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open, and U.S. Amateur Championships. During that time, Davis also supervised the Walker Cup Match when it was contested in the United States. In addition to his championship duties, he has taught Rules of Golf workshops and has officiated annually at non-USGA tournaments, including the Masters, the British Open, The Players Championship and the Presidents Cup.

"Mike Davis is one of the most knowledgeable and experienced administrators in the golf industry today and will be an ideal steward of the game as the USGA’s new executive director," said USGA President Jim Hyler. "In two decades of organizing and managing all our national championships, Mike has demonstrated creativity and impartiality that will serve him and the organization well in his new position. This was a comprehensive and thoughtful search process and Mike’s candidacy stood out. He has long been a respected member of the USGA staff and our Executive Committee stands united in its support of Mike as our executive director."

The Executive Director is the senior staff member of the USGA, responsible for managing all aspects of the Association’s day-to-day operations. In this role, the Executive Director oversees the core functions, essential programs, and human and financial resources of the Association to further its stated mission. The Executive Director reports to the President/CEO of the USGA.

Working together with the President and Executive Committee, the Executive Director provides overall strategic guidance for the Association. With the President, the Executive Director is the lead spokesperson for the Association with internal stakeholders and external constituencies. The Executive Director represents the Association’s interests within the golf community, with courses and clubs, state and regional golf associations, the media and with national and international golf organizations.

Introduced to golf at age 8 by his father, Davis played competitively as a junior and in college. He was the 1982 Pennsylvania State Junior champion and competed on the Georgia Southern University golf team. He has also played in several prominent national amateur tournaments.

Davis holds a business degree (BBA) from Georgia Southern University (1987). A native of Chambersburg, Pa., Davis is married to Cece and they have one son named Grant. They reside in Pittstown, N.J.

USGA Set To Announce New Executive Director Today?

Please plan to join USGA President Jim Hyler for a conference call at 2 p.m. Eastern time today (Wednesday, March 2, 2011).

Place your bets, place your bets!  My morning line odds...

Mike Davis  1-5

Fred Ridley 6-1

Mike Butz 6-1

Pete Bevacqua 7-1

Rand Jerris 7-1

"Beth Allen: living donor. Such an extraordinary descriptor."

Beth Ann Baldry with the story of little known American touring pro Beth Allen's extraordinary donation to her older brother, Dan.

Allen, a relatively unknown American professional who plays in Europe, tries to downplay the gift as “a given.” Allen and her older brother, Dan, haven’t talked much about the kidney she’s scheduled to give him March 1.

“We never had an official conversation or anything,” Allen said. “I told my mom I was going to go and see.”
The process began last summer, and on Feb. 2 Allen received word while playing in the Australian Women’s Open that she’d been approved to donate. Doctors told Allen that nothing is certain until she’s wheeled in for surgery, but the exclamation points that peppered a recent e-mail said it all.

Beth, 29, treks the world playing a game that’s the very fabric of the entire Allen family. Yet the independence she enjoys is lost on Dan, 38, who has a rigid 7 p.m. daily curfew in San Diego. “I’m like Cinderella,” he says, laughing. That’s when he must begin the daily 10-hour dialysis treatment that sustains his life. Dan has been married to a machine for the past five years.

"The gloves are well and truly off when it comes to Tiger Woods’ current travails."

That's the perspective Brian Keogh delivers and which I was unable to put into words on the earlier post about Rory's SI piece jabbing at Tiger, who is on the receiving end of criticism from the golf community like never before.

In this sense, McIlroy has been like the child from the Hans Christian Andersen tale The Emperor’s New Clothes . Where others fear to voice what is obvious, McIlroy does not mince his words or hide the fact the man who was once a role model has now been laid bare as a tarnished anti-hero with a balky golf swing.

Frank Deford likens Tiger and interest in watching him play to the Broadway disaster that is Spider-Man.

You know what he reminds me of? The Broadway musical Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark. It sells out to the curious, even though the critics hate it and it's always a tease, always a work in progress. And there's a dark side that draws us in. Maybe Spidey will find itself. But maybe it'll only be always not quite there.

We watch Tiger Woods with the same almost morbid fascination, afraid to look away because if we do, we'll miss it if he miraculously returns to greatness, as if age doesn't matter with majesty, and what changed his life was all just a bump in the road.

Match Play Ratings Soar: It's The Synergistic Cross-Channel Prioritization!

For Immediate Release...

NEW YORK – March 1, 2011 – NBC Sports and Golf Channel generated significant viewership increases for the combined 28 hours of live coverage (55 hours total coverage) of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship Wednesday through Sunday.  With Tiger Woods eliminated on Wednesday and Phil Mickelson eliminated on Thursday,

...hint, hint, that used to spell doom...

and with England’s Luke Donald defeating Germany’s Martin Kaymer in Sunday’s final,

...two really nice but boring guys...

Golf Channel’s three-day average viewership was up 84 percent from last year while viewership for “Golf Channel on NBC” coverage rose 71 percent.

Golf Channel’s strong viewership for the WGC-Accenture helped propel the network to its second most-watched February ever (15.3 million unique viewers). Through the first eight weeks of the 2011 season, viewership of the PGA TOUR on Golf Channel is up 59 percent over last year.

Get ready, it must be the horrible winter rebranding!

“GOLF CHANNEL ON NBC” VIEWERSHIP:  The weekend coverage on NBC (2-6 p.m. Saturday, 2-7 p.m. Sunday), which has been rebranded as “Golf Channel on NBC,” averaged 2.5 million viewers, a gain of 71 percent from last year’s 1.5 million viewers on CBS, and the most-watched since 2008 when Tiger Woods won the event, defeating Stewart Cink.
 
GOLF CHANNEL VIEWERSHIP: Golf Channel’s early round coverage of the WGC-Accenture started Wednesday with its best day overall since 2009’s President’s Cup coverage and continued on Friday with its most-watched early round without Tiger Woods since THE PLAYERS in May 2008.

Whoa, let's try that again. Most watched since '09 Presidents Cup and most watched minus-Tiger round since '08 Players.

Highlights include:
 
·        Three-day average viewership up 84 percent over 2010 (771,000 vs. 419,000)
·        Wednesday’s Day 1 up 86 percent over 2010 (712,000 vs. 318,000).

Now that's impressive! Thank God we only have match play once a year.

·        Thursday’s Day 2 up 95 percent over 2010 (768,000 vs. 393,000).

That's even more impressive considering you-know-who was eliminated.

·        Friday’s Day 3 up 83 percent over 2010 (890,000 vs. 486,000).

Now this is getting silly. So glad we have put the kibosh on more match play. It's so unfair...and so ratings friendly!

·        Saturday’s earlier-than-scheduled, five-hour coverage of the quarterfinal match that concluded on NBC was up 71% over 2010 (562,000 vs. 328,000).
 
State of the Game Live, a Golf Central special that featured a panel of golf’s most-respected voices from NBC Sports and Golf Channel, including Johnny Miller and Nick Faldo discussing the most pressing issues in the sport, doubled Golf Channel’s year-to-date prime-time average for non-PGA TOUR programming.

Okay so it wasn't entirely an across-the-board ratings slam dunk.

CROSS-CHANNEL PRIORITY: The WGC-Accenture on Golf Channel and NBC was identified by NBCUniversal’s Marketing Council as a cross-channel priority.

So is that when they make sure you show the highlights on the local news and in general, place promotion over actual news as the priority? You know, like when my local NBC station opens with a story about Charlie Sheen's interview on Today...tomorrow?

It received extensive promotion across NBC Universal’s 20 channels and more than 40 websites. The WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship marked the first shared coverage for NBC Sports and Golf Channel since both organizations became members of the NBC Sports Group on Jan. 28 when the Comcast-NBC Universal transaction was completed.

It's not match play, it's the co-branding!

GOLF CHANNEL AND NBC SPORTS CO-BRANDING: All golf coverage on NBC has been re-branded as “Golf Channel on NBC.”

Yes, we noticed. Over and over again.

Be careful Golf Channel On NBC Powered By Jack Donaghy, you keep up these ratings home runs and the Commish is going to be asking you to write a big fat check this fall!