LOL: Steiny Lectures Media On Accuracy, "Misplaced Conclusions"

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Ron Sirak has the laugh-out-loud sermonizing from agent Mark Steinberg--who had the audacity to suggest he knew nothing of his client's indiscretions yet somehow managed to negotiate a deal to cover them up--on the topic of Michael Bamberger's story from the Players. You may recall Bamberger quoted marshals who never green-lit Tiger to play, a point disputed by a follow up from Garry Smits of the Florida Times-Union who spoke to different "marshals".

"The comments from the marshals in today's story definitively show that Tiger was telling the truth about being told Sergio had hit," Tiger's agent, Mark Steinberg, told GolfDigest.com. "I hope this demonstrates to some reporters the importance of accuracy and not jumping to misplaced conclusions."

Does Steiny really want the press to ask more questions of the "marshal" exonerating his client, who, according to Smits' story, was part of the Tiger security detail and not a marshal?

Or ask why he was calling Hank Haney a liar because the instructor was revealing things that had to make Steiny's negotiations all but impossible?

Speaking of those negotiations, Steiny suggested to his OB Keeler that blue chip companies were after Tiger. Since then, Steinberg hasn't inked any deals of late, which was highlighted when SI pointed out yesterday that Tiger had lost $20 million in endorsement income last year, dropping him from the top spot in SI's ranking of leading athlete revenue earners.

Dottie Goes To ESPN...

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In Ron Sirak's story on Dottie Pepper there was some indication that we might be hearing Pepper announce again soon and it turns out ESPN is her destination. Nice get for their team.

For Immediate Release:

Dottie Pepper Joins ESPN’s Golf Coverage Team
 
Dottie Pepper, a major championship-winning golfer as well as a respected television commentator and author, has joined ESPN’s golf coverage team and will make her on-air debut at next month’s U.S. Open.
 
Pepper, a 17-time winner on the LPGA Tour during her career, will serve multiple roles on ESPN’s multiplatform golf coverage including analyst, on-course reporter and anchor during live play. She also will be an analyst on ESPN’s signature news and information program SportsCenter and will write for ESPN.com.
 
"Joining the ESPN golf team offers me the chance to cover the greatest golf events in the world,” said Pepper. “It's a team of passionate and proven winners, dedicated to making the events they cover the best in the game."
 
Pepper, who retired from the LPGA in 2004, worked for the past eight years as a golf commentator for NBC Sports and The Golf Channel and also was a contributing columnist for Sports Illustrated. She announced at the end of the 2012 season that she would be joining the PGA of America Board of Directors to work on developing junior golf in the United States.
 
ESPN’s championship golf schedule for 2013 includes the Masters, U.S. Open and The Open Championship; the U.S. Women’s Open and Women’s British Open; and the U.S. Senior Open and Senior Open Championship.
 
“ESPN’s golf schedule is perfect for me,” said Pepper. “I love working in television and this schedule allows me to do that but also gives me time to continue my work with the PGA of America and junior golf. It’s an ideal situation.”
 
A three-time NCAA All-American golfer at Furman University, Pepper turned pro in 1987 and her 17 victories on the LPGA Tour included two of women’s golf’s major championships. She was LPGA Player of the Year in 1992, a six-time Solheim Cup team member and won more than $6.8 million during her career.
 
In addition to her work on television, Pepper also is co-author of the Bogey Tees Off and Bogey Ballton’s Night Before Christmas children’s books. 
 
"We're very pleased to have the opportunity for Dottie to join our team,” said Mike McQuade, ESPN vice president, production. “Her knowledge, experience and professionalism will bring another layer of strength to our golf coverage."

Forbes: Finchem Leaps Tall Buildings In Single A Bound!

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Monte Burke looks at how Tim Finchem--all by himself!--saved the tour from ruin as the markets crashed and a fire hydrant jumped in front of Tiger's Escalade.

Thanks to all who sent what, despite the focus on Finchem with little mention of some of his hard-working lieutenants, lays out the business model for the PGA Tour in often impre$$ive detail. If the PGA Tour was a Jewish Tea Party group, the IRS would have a field day!

A few noteworthy parts in the interest of being able to hyperlink these in the future (the story is in the May 27 Forbes).

Under Finchem the tour has been able to stockpile investment assets that are now almost precisely $1 billion. *(Some $675 million of that money is in player retirement funds, which the tour lists as both an asset and a liability. Another $73 million is in cash.)

So when the perfect storm appeared, Finchem was negotiating from strength. He was able to assure nervous broadcasters that the game would be a risk-free investment. In a worst-case scenario the tour could use that money to fund its tournaments and keep the game on TV. “Even in the worst of the recession, we never missed a beat financially with the guarantees the tour gave us,” says CBS’s McManus.

The model stuff...

Here’s the model that continues to this day: A corporation–say, AT&T–signs up with the tour as a title sponsor of a tournament, usually paying between $8 million and $13 million for the honor (events that are televised only on the Golf Channel and do not have the final two rounds on either CBS or NBC pay a little less; a handful of sponsors pay more). Nearly half of that money goes directly to the event’s broadcaster, in the form of presold ads. The tour guarantees that between 60% and 65% of the broadcaster’s ads will be accounted for and traditionally delivers up to 85%. The remaining ad time is easy enough to fill: Unlike other sports, many viewers of tour events actually play the game, which gives endemic advertisers–like ball, clothing and club manufacturers–strong incentive to buy spots.

The rest of the title sponsorship money goes to a local tournament organizer, which is a nonprofit entity (the tour itself runs 16 events). These local groups use that money to put on the tournament–mainly with volunteers–and pay a share of the purse (the tour chips in as well). Revenues are generated through ticket sales, hospitality and local advertising. Any leftover money, after expenses, is donated to local charities.

Love this from the Shark...who is also quoted wanting to audit the tour in a sidebar for the story.

In 1999 the tour, along with four of the world’s other large professional golf tours, started what’s known as the World Golf Championships, a series of now four tournaments for only the top players in the world, with purses of close to $9 million. It was basically Norman’s idea. “It still irritates me, big time,” says Norman. “He cast me as a guy who was trying to ruin the game of golf, then he does this.”

And it seems Tim will be taking retirement in 2016...

Finchem expects to retire that year, and the Olympic debut provides him with a closing chapter. “My team here is mature and ready,” he says. His retirement challenge, he says, will be hiking to the summit of the 50-plus 14,000-foot mountains in Colorado. “I’ve done 16 so far,” says a man who knows a thing or two about peaks and valleys.

Only On ebay Files: The Unworn Memorial Shirt

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Thanks to reader John for sending this link to an auction ending soon on a shirt with quite the backstory in the seller's mind.

I'll just copy and paste the opening graphs in case they disappear...

This is a NWOT, never been worn Jack Nicklaus "The Memorial Tournament" commemorative golf shirt which was purchased at the PGA Tour 2011 Memorial Tournament gift shop at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin Ohio as a gift from my significant other who of course is a golfer.  Feel free to ask any questions.
 
I never liked golf - frankly if you need to wear a collared shirt to play it, it is not a sport.

Dare you to tell that to a rugby player!

My SO wanted to introduce me to his "classy" gentleman's game for whatever reasons since I've always found it Freudingly peculiar that grown men want nothing more than to stare down and wrap their hands around a shaft for 5 hours a day in a toxic artificially manmade environment they call "nature".

So, so cynical. Clearly this person hasn't heard of the minimalist movement.

Anyway, the buyer goes on to detail a broken foot and ankle. It's quite the yarn!