John Deere Donates $1 Million to The First Tee

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A nice donation but I thought this component was even more interesting:

The $1 million donation will be used to enhance the experience of The First Tee participants in a variety of ways. Besides supporting The First Tee network, funds will be used to create and launch a golf maintenance career- oriented youth development program, in conjunction with the PGA TOUR. Local chapters of The First Tee will partner with the TOUR’s Tournament Player Courses (TPC) to provide the opportunity for high school-aged participants to learn about topics in agronomy and golf course maintenance careers. As a planned extension, participants will also have the chance to experience what it’s like to maintain a TPC golf course during a tournament week.

Zoysia Fairways For The 2016 Olympic Golf Course

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The primary portion of the grassing for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games course was announced at the Golf Industry Show.

For Immediate Release...

SAN DIEGO, CA, February 7, 2013: After more than a century’s absence, when golf returns as an Olympic sport at the 2016 Games in Rio, the grass in the fairways, roughs and tees of the new golf course built especially for the Games will be Zeon Zoysia, it was confirmed today at the Golf Industry Show in San Diego by Dr. Frank Rossi, associate professor in the Department of Horticulture at Cornell University who is a consulting agronomist on the project.

“Everything approaching the greens, 88 percent of the grassed area, will be Zeon Zoysia,” Rossi says.The greens grass selection has been delayed, Rossi says, because the salinity and quality of the water to be used for irrigation is still unknown.

“The decision on the greens and green surrounds hinges on the quality of the water,” Rossi says. “If the water is good, the greens will be an ultradwarf bermudagrass. The surrounds will be another type of bermudagrass. If the water is not good, the greens and surrounds will be some type of paspalum because the bermudagrass may not hold up to poor quality water.”

“As it marks the return of golf to the Olympic Games after over a century of absence, this course represents the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the sport. It will enable Rio to host important events in the international calendar and it will be an example of sustainability and preservation of an environmentally protected area,” said the President of Rio 2016, Carlos Arthur Nuzman.

The choice of Zeon Zoysia as the grass for the majority of the acreage on the golf course, approximately 88 acres of fairways and roughs, reinforces the organizing committee’s desire to create a sustainable golf course. Zeon Zoysia has very low requirements for maintenance and inputs, according to David Doguet, president of Bladerunner Farms, the company that bred Zeon Zoysia.

 “Zeon Zoysia is very environmentally friendly. The grass needs very little water, and very low amounts of nitrogen fertilizer, while still looking and playing great. The grass will create a world-class playing surface for the Olympics, and for many years to come,” Doguet said.

Zeon Zoysia was developed in Texas by Bladerunner Farms, the largest privately held zoysiagrass breeding facility in the world. Zeon is licensed by The Turfgrass Group and Doguet Ventures. The grass will be grown in Rio for use on the golf course by Green Grass Brazil, a licensed sod producer of Zeon Zoysia.

Annual AT&T National Pro-Am Viewer Discretion Alert

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Some people live for seeing A-listers like Kenny G and Andy Garcia or top (cranky) coaches like Jim Harbaugh, or Bill Belichick, QB's like Aaron Rodgers and Tony Romo, or maybe elite flamethrowers like Matt Cain and Justin Verlander.

For me, the AT&T National Pro-Am is always a chance to imbibe some liquid upon seeing shots, plugs, paybacks or other totally predictable moments. This year my support will be in the form of Dayquil to help get through the annual awkwardness that is watching famous people play golf while stepping way close to the hole in mud-filled Softspikes.

I plan to take a swig of my beloved cold and flu remedy for the traditions unlike any other: Jim Nantz referring to a CEO as "Mr." because anyone with a C-level pass is just that much more important, CBS director Lance Barrow showing his favorite Monterey restaurant or the CEO that he mysteriously can't seem to get enough, and most of all, any time Chris Berman comes on the screen.

Brendan Moehler previews the celebrities to look for and is there any question who will be the most watched team?

Speaking of hot girlfriends, Dustin Johnson is playing alongside his new squeeze's father, also known as "The Great One." Wayne's daughter, Paulina Gretzky, is a fashion model and Instagram star, and has been posting a lot of photos of her and Dustin's off-the-course escapades. Dustin won at Pebble in '09 and '10, but didn't have the distraction of playing with his girlfriend's father.

Golf Channel airtimes for the first two rounds are as follows:

Thursday 3-6 p.m. (Live) / 6:30-9:30 p.m. / 9:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. (Replay)
Friday 3-6 p.m. (Live) / 8:30-11:30 p.m. (Replay)

First Tee Alternative: "Can Golf Be Saved By Capitalism?"

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Larry Olmsted looks at an alternative to the First Tee called the TGA that works on a franchise model and has already been picked up by the USTA to create a version for tennis.

“Having worked for Rick Smith at Treetops [a perennial candidate for one of the best teachers in the world and his home resort in Michigan] and having been a teaching pro, I’ve seen every ‘growing the game’ initiative in the past 20 years, and none of them have worked. This one immediately caught my eye because it makes so much sense,” said former PGA professional Kevin Frisch, now a spokesman for the program he describes, TGA Premier Junior Golf, a fast growing franchise.

The TGA stands for Teach, Grow, Achieve, the grow part being the game of golf. The concept was launched by Joshua Jacobs in 2003, when he had the bright idea to cross the declining notion of teaching golf to kids with the fast growing and red hot trend of after school enrichment programs. These have been booming across the country as a way to productively fill time between the end of the school day and the end of the parents’ work day, while teaching the kids something beyond the classroom. To date, the main areas of focus have been academic or cultural, such as performing arts. So why not golf?

Letter From Saugerties, Bifurcation Edition

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The latest letter from Frank Hannigan, former USGA Executive Director, responding to the recent talk of bifurcating the rules.

Dear Geoff,

From During a recent exposure to the press tour commissioner Tim Finchem mused about the occasional benefits of bifurcation-, that awful word-, citing instances when the Tour went off on its own, presumably to its benefit.  Specifically, he cited grooves and adoption of what is generally called the "one ball rule."
 
U-grooves were introduced into the Rules of Golf by the USGA in 1984. Finchem's predecessor Deane Beman was obsessed with grooves. He felt the U-grooves changed the essence of the game. The USGA did not agree.     
 
The Tour announced it would ban U grooves. Ping, the first manufacturer to adopt U grooves, sought and received an injunction restraining the Tour. Ping first sued the Tour and a little later the USGA which had ruled that the Ping version of U-grooves alone did not conform to the Rules of Golf.
 
Ping charged the Tour with 9 violations of the law. The case was heard by a federal judge in Phoenix, Ping's home. The judge ruled from the bench that the Tour had acted so outrageously that it was guilty per se of  one of the 9 charges. As a consequence, if the case came to trial the jury's only role on that count would be to determine a dollar amount representing damage done to Ping.
Since it was an anti trust case that amount would be automatically trebled.
 
The jury would consist of 6  local citizens trying to stay awake during a lengthy trial on an arcane matter.   They would have surely have been aware of one factor:  Ping, with about 1500 employees, was good for the economy of Phoenix.Might they have been influenced on the remaining 8 counts by the judge already having labeled the Tour as bad guys?  I think so.
 
Karsten Solheim, the owner of Ping, opted to settle.  The key point in the settlement was that the Tour would not ban U grooves.  Quite simply, the Tour lost. I can think of no other instance  in which a professional sports entity is legally prohibited from determining what its equipment will be.  It's as if major league baseball could not ban metal bats.

The other settlement terms were not announced I have always assumed the Tour had to compensate Solheim for his considerable legal fees. As for Beman, the late Leonard Decof,  Solheim's lawyer, once boasted to a group of anti trust lawyers at a Chicago meeting "He'll be gone soon."      

Ping's suit against the USGA was also settled. No money changed hands, I know that because I was named with others in the USGA hierarchy as an individual defendant and therefore had to sign the settlement. The USGA relented on an important point. All Ping clubs made up to a specified date  would be grandfathered eternally under the Rules of Golf. Solheim, however, changed his grooves on  the same day  so as to conform with USGA rules,  which he had vowed never to do,

The Tour, to this day, flinches when it hears a threat of anti trust behavior.  

As for the one ball rule,  it was enacted with the concurrence of the USGA. It was directed at the use of balls performing differently in different conditions. The 2 piece balls of the 1970s had a distance  advantage depending on the angle of launch.  This advantage peaked at about 19 degrees, 5 ironish. (Incidentally, the two piece ball also putted longer.  A stroke producing a roll of l0 feet with the 2 piece ball would roll 9 feet with the softer balata ball).  
 
It was also a time when Acushnet was producing a different version of its Titleist balls.  Seve Ballesteros used the one with larger dimples driving downwind as he won his first British Open at Lytham. He reverted to a  traditional ball on the other holes..  
 
I once had a conversation with Tom Watson when he expressed outrage about ball changing. He had ripped a 3 iron, using a balata ball, to the green of a hard par 3 hole.  Watson said he then watched in dismay as  fellow competitor Rik Massengale unzipped  his ball pouch,  pulled  out a Molitor, and used  a 5 iron successfully.

The USGA felt that the choice of different brands of balls during a round should play no part in the outcome. But it wanted to know what the players felt. So we sent a letter to every member of both the PGA Tour and the LPGA (having obtained the mail addresses from both organizations). The players were asked if they would favor or oppose a local rule which would limit them to use of but one brand of ball during a round,   

Remember, this happened during the days of snail mail. Tour players were not famous for being correspondents.  But they reacted in large numbers.  Overwhelmingly, including those who had taken to switching brands during rounds, the players favored adoption of the one ball rule.
 
During this episode the USGA said not one word to ball manufacturers. The USGA didn't give a damn what manufacturers felt. They are involved in golf for the purpose of making money. The USGA exists in an attempt to preserve a game.
 
Those who favor bifurcation never explain what it is they want to happen. They are in the business of golf, and the golf business is bad.  So they blame the USGA, defining it as a totalitarian entity that does whatever it feels like doing without any concern for or interest in what the rest of golf thinks.   The head of the Taylor Made outfit recently predicted the absolute demise of the USGA, a death which would presumably cause golf to glow again.  I took that to mean that Addidas, the sports equipment colossus that owns Taylor Made, is not thrilled with its subsidiary's performance.
 
In point of fact,  the rules-making process is remarkably democratic.   There are 5 members of the committee proper  drawn from the USGA executive committee. They have no axes to grind.  They are influenced and to some extent educated by the USGA staff. Additionally, there are 4 advisory members representing the PGA Tour, the LPGA, the PGA of America and the country's regional golf associations.  They matter.  I can't conceive of the 5 regular members shoving a rules change down the throats of the advisory people.
 
The Tour representative, named by Finchem, especially matters. For better or worse, the Tour has come to have something close to veto power,particularly when it comes to equipment. If there is a discussion about a rules change and should the Tour's man says "We will not play that rule," the discussion is over.

Frank Hannigan
Saugergties, New York