Golf Magazine, Golf.com To Be Purchased By Howard Milstein, Emigrant Capital

Golf Magazine and its coveted web URL, Golf.com, have been purchased by investor Howard Milstein and Emigrant Capital, according to sources briefed on the sale.

The 58-year-old publication has been part of the Time Inc. family since 2000 and was put up for sale in October, 2017. The golf publication and its digital site never were expected to be part of any sales talks with Meredith, the new owner of Time Inc. 

A sale price has not been disclosed, but the transaction is expected to close on January 19th, 2018.

Some staffers at Golf were notified Monday of the transaction and have been told that the Milstein group expects to invest in content and production. Plans call for a more luxurious print product and enhanced online resources. Still unknown is the status of contributors Alan Shipnuck, Michael Bamberger and other Sports Illustrated writers who worked mostly on the Golf side in recent years.

Milstein reportedly beat out multiple suitors, including Golf Channel and tee time services eager for the user-friendly URL. Several parties signed non-disclosure agreements to inspect Golf’s books, including Golf Digest.

Milstein is no stranger to golf, having invested in Miura Golf, True Spec and in the Jack Nicklaus empire. That partnership began in 2007.

Insiders say the Chairman, President and CEO of New York Private Bank & Trust—the nation's largest privately owned, family-run bank, is purchasing Golf through its operating bank, Emigrant Capital.  Milstein is believed to be bullish on making Golf work as a media company with the obvious synergistic benefits to his other investments in the sport.

Responding to a reply for comment, Time Inc spokesperson Jill Davison said, "The sales process for Golf is proceeding well and as soon as there are further developments we will share them."

Efforts are ongoing to obtain comment from representatives of Mr. Milstein and Golf.

Five Families To Rules Geeks: Stop Calling, We've Got This

It took emergency meetings atThe Masters, all sorts of embarrassment and even more meetings, but apparently the Five Families have agreed to no longer take rules infraction calls. Whether this means a replay center will be created or merely a lot of golf watching will take place between a rotating set of officials, the USGA, PGA Tour, PGA of America and R&A say stop calling them!

Martin Kaufmann,writing for Golfweek.com with the details:

The governing bodies – in conjunction with the PGA Tour, LPGA, PGA European Tour, Ladies European Tour and PGA of America – agreed to assign at least one rules official to monitor all tournament telecasts and resolve any rules issues.

“The message is, have confidence in those conducting the event that if you’ve seen it, they’ve seen it, and there’s no need for anyone to call in what they think they have seen,” said Thomas Pagel, the USGA’s senior director of the Rules of Golf and amateur status.

From what I'm hearing on Morning Drive appearance by the USGA's Thomas Pagel and the R&A's David Rickman, the video reviews will largely be off of the telecast and will vary week to week depending on the tour's in question.

They also stated replay inquiries can occur within the tournament for any round, meaning they might come back the next day and review something with a player. However, this would seem to mean the video replay official missed something, prompting a review. That's not going to be pretty since most will assume a review a day or two after a round was prompted by social media or a viewer tip.

Not accepting fan video is the right move, but what if a Golf Channel crew shooting for highlights shows captures an HD view and angle that exonerates a player?

Also unclear: is The Masters on board?

Beth Ann Nicholsconsiders what this means forLexi Thompson and the redemption for her with this change, plus her reaction when informed yesterday.

The full press release:

Video Review Protocols Introduced for

Broadcasted Golf Events

USGA and The R&A to adopt Local Rule to eliminate scorecard penalty

FAR HILLS, N.J. USA and ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND (December 11, 2017) -  A working group led by the USGA and The R&A has unanimously agreed to adopt a new set of protocols for video review when applying the Rules of Golf.

The group, consisting of the PGA TOUR, LPGA, PGA European Tour, Ladies European Tour and The PGA of America, as well as the governing bodies, will implement the following measures from January 1, 2018:

• Assign one or more officials to monitor the video broadcast of a competition to help identify and resolve Rules issues as they arise
• Discontinue any steps to facilitate or consider viewer call-ins as part of the Rules decision process

In addition, the USGA and The R&A have approved the adoption of a Local Rule, available from January 1, to eliminate the additional two-stroke penalty for failing to include a penalty on the score card when the player was unaware of the penalty. All of the organizations represented on the working group will introduce the Local Rule for 2018, and this score card penalty will be permanently removed when the modernized Rules of Golf take effect on January 1, 2019.

The USGA and The R&A established the video review working group in April to initiate a collaborative discussion on the role video footage can play when applying the Rules, including the challenges and benefits of its use and also the issues that arise from viewer call-ins. 

“The level of collaboration with our partners has been both vital and gratifying as we look to the future,” said Thomas Pagel, USGA senior director of the Rules of Golf and Amateur Status. “As technology has continued to evolve, it has allowed us to evolve how we operate, as well.” [To watch an interview on usga.org with Pagel on Video Review, plus a copy of the protocols and full Local Rule, click here]

David Rickman, Executive Director – Governance at The R&A, said, “This has clearly become an important issue in the sport that we felt we should address at this stage ahead of the implementation of the updated Rules of Golf in 2019.

“We have concluded that whilst players should continue to be penalized for all breaches of the Rules during a competition, including any that come to light after the score card is returned, an additional penalty for the score card error is not required.”

The new protocols also recognize the importance of limiting video review to material obtained from the committee’s broadcast partner. Other video, such as from an individual’s smartphone or camera, will not be used under these protocols.

The new protocols and Local Rule are the latest measures announced by the USGA and The R&A to address concerns related to video evidence. In April, Decision 34-3/10 was issued to limit the use of video through the introduction of a “reasonable judgement” standard and a “naked eye” standard.

Update

on 2017-12-11 21:01 by Geoff

**Our conversation on Morning Drivecentered around the scorecard and statute of limitations on a review, which is still an issue.

Video: Butch On Morning Drive, "Never Say Never" About Tiger

Famed golf instructor Butch Harmon's comments about Tiger's return revealed a few interesting tidbits as he spoke to Damon Hack on Morning Drive last week.

Matt Ginella and I spoke to Harmon about the new par-3 course he designed for Jim Crane at The Floridian:

More Design Week Talk: How To Become A Golf Architect

Hopefully you enjoy this chat hosted by Gary Williams featuring David McLay Kidd and yours truly talking about getting into design and unique skill sets required to be a golf architect. This is part of Morning Drive's Design Week, in case you haven't noticed from this week's posts!

Golf, Golf Digest Present Peculiar "Best New Course" Awards

As the golf industry no longer churns out courses or even sees consistency in the renovation market, Golf and Golf Digest struggle to present their annual year-end "Best New" awards with any consistency. Or logic.

Golf's is an odd list given the international courses few in its U.S.-based readership will play. Then there is the blessing of Streamsong Black as the year's "best new course of the year" and Sand Valley as the year's "best new course you can play." Even though Streamsong is a resort you very much can play, with the Black opening in September.

The Golf categories:

BEST NEW COURSE YOU CAN PLAY

BEST NEW COURSE OF THE YEAR

BEST NEW PRIVATE COURSE/INTERNATIONAL COURSE

RENOVATION OF THE YEAR

BEST NEW COURSE YOU CAN PLAY (HONORABLE MENTION)

SPECIAL CITATION: Spectacular New Short Courses

Congratulations to all who won, even though we don't know why or who picked you under what criteria.

Golf Digest's categories appear to make a little more sense, though what is presented ultimately is pretty confusing.

In 2014Gamble Sands was deemed the best new course in America.

In 2015, Golf Digest acknowledged 10 best new courses, 10 best remodels that somehow couldn’t find space for Winged Foot East, where the restoration work re-opened in 2015 has been lauded for sensitively recapturing an American classic. Given that Golf Digest pays dues for two of its editorial members to be Winged Foot members, a not-enough-votes excuse seems a stretch.

2016 saw three each of a Best New Private, Public and Remodeled categories. Still no luck for Winged Foot East. But the awards featured extensive panelist comments that added some fun reading.

And now in 2017 the marketplace forced another new approach, with this explanation from Golf Digest:

Still not enough new courses to warrant New Public and New Private categories, so the 15 new courses nominated for consideration competed in a single Best New Courses race. But with 85 remodeled courses nominated, we decided to split our Best New Remodel survey into three categories to reflect the wide range of projects in today’s design industry. Major Remodel involves a total redesign with little regard to the original architecture. Renovation improves a design but sticks to the original routing. Restoration strives to honor the original architecture. What about “blow-up” jobs, where an existing course is so drastically altered (“blown up”) that it hardly resembles the original? That was up to each architect and individual club to decide whether to compete as a Best New candidate or Best Major Remodel.

The list produced some pretty strange results, most notably with the once-loved Quail Hollow, now loathed by some tour players who just a few years ago were declaring it one of the PGA Tour's best venues. After last year's PGA Championship, most expect the club to remedy the gruesome 4th hole addition, an absurd mess of a hole. That did not stop the panel for giving high marks and placing Quail Hollow as their second best remodel behind Jackson and Kahn'sFazio's MPCC Dunes remodel.

Even though the project was largely envisioned and carried out by Fazio's former shapers, Golf Digest gave all the credit to Fazio. The club's own first placque acknowledges all of the aforementioned names.

Most inexplicably, Torrey Pines North, which stuck to its original routing except for flipping the nines, finished third in major remodel when it was pretty clearly just an insipid renovation. Did switching nines really become grounds for a major remodel label? 

The TPC Sawgrass won for best renovation with its new turf and one redesigned hole. On that basis, it may be eligible annually given its turbulent renovation history.

The Old White TPC won its second best new award, having won the best new remodel in 2007. And even though it won this time under the restoration label, Keith Foster made significant changes to the award winner. He restored around the remodel. Got that?

Something tells me after looking at the Golf Digest selections, the panel would not care for the things Matt Ginella and I presented as our ways of evaluating golf courses. From Morning Drive's Design Week:

Video: One Architect Whose Work You'd Want To Play

On Morning Drive Design Week, Matt Ginella, Gary Williams and I pick the one architect we would play for the rest of their lives. Who is your choice?

Videos: Our Ultimate 18's, What's Yours?

For this week's Design Week on Morning Drive, Matt Ginella and I revealed our Ultimate 18’s in golf. I went the route of selecting a course I'd want to play everyday, which meant picking some "stretches" of holes I love (North Berwick and Essex County) at the expense perhaps of a few great holes. And I had great fun putting them in order, ultimately going with all links going out and inland American holes coming in (sorry Australia).

Ginella kept true to holes where they land in the rankings and to courses open to the public.

The segments are below and I hope they'd inspire you to pick your ultimate 18's. I found the process great fun both in reflecting on holes I'd never grow tired of playing, but also in the creative act of placing them in the sequence I'd want to encounter their challenges.

Besides getting to rekindle fond memories and appreciation for the architecture you've experienced, the placing of the puzzle pieces into a routing is quite fun. And if you feel compelled, list your courses below. There are no wrong answers, it's your Ultimate 18!

Our front nine favortes from the Ultimate 18 lists.


Our back nine favorites of the Ultimate 18 lists.

Golf On TV: Is It Time For More Second Screen Analysis?

Martin Kaufmann at Golfweek poses a fair question following last week's Hero World Challenge, where Morning Drive and Golf Central pre-game coverage followed Tiger Woods from the range through his first few shots.

As Kaufmann notes, the more analytical, observational coverage reminded him that most golf broadcasting is forced to state the obvious--Frank Chirkinian's worst nightmare--depriving viewers of more meaningful insights. On "eavesdropping" on Brandel Chamblee, Frank Nobilo and Trevor Immelman's discussions, Kaufmann writes...

From time to time, I’ve broached the idea of testing anchor-less coverage – just smart golf guys talking golf. There wouldn’t be any play-by-play because we can see what’s happening, but there might be a need for enhanced graphics.

There’s some precedent for this. Three months ago I pointed to an MLB Network experiment called a SABRcast – a play on sabermetrics – in which four analysts “called” a game in San Francisco from a studio in New Jersey. They didn’t do play-by-play; instead, their conversation was topical, based heavily on analytics. The conversation was smart and insightful, just as it was last week as Chamblee, Nobilo and Immelman watched Woods.

Kaufmann goes on to suggest it's time for a second screen alternative that let's golf fans stream or choose the feed analysis they want. Thoughts?