PowerBilt adds five new sales representatives: Mike Feld, representing PowerBilt in Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana; Rusty Landers, South Texas; Eric Hess, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska; Dexter Heir, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming; and Steve Sakovitz, New England. ...

United Turf Industries, developer of SofTrak Synthetic Golf Greens, announces the establishment of a new SofTrak dealership along Florida's Space Coast, through Greg Oates and his SofTrak of Brevard, Inc. ...

ASGA Tour, Inc., executes an agreement with Picture This Entertainment of Chicago to provide Television Production and Broadcast Distribution of programming for 15 events in 2004. ...

Wites and dates have been scheduled for the ASGA's 2004 Tour Qualifying School for the Pro-Net and Pro-Championship Divisions. For more information on the Tour and Qualifying School, contact the Tour at asgatour@inteliport.com. ...

ASGA Tour, Inc. signs an agreement to acquire all of the assets of the US Pro Golf League, including its trademarks. ...

KemperSports Management hires David Weisser to serve as General Manager at Goose Creek Golf Course located in Leesburg, Va. Weisser will oversee all facility operations as well as implement marketing plans and strategies. ...

Sea Trail Plantation's Maple's Course in Sunset Beach, N.C., officially opened to the public November 11 after undergoing a half million-dollar renovation project, highlighted by a conversion to bentgrass greens. ...

The four amateur golfers who were caught in Buick's Tiger Trap promotion last spring will officially receive their 2004 Buick Rainiers November 21 at The Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes Clubhouse in Longwood, Fla.

Like most golfers, Casual Friday is a traditionalist.

The older he gets the more certain he is that the things he has always believed are true, such as khaki is a great color for pants, particularly if you're color-blind; buy and hold is hard to beat as an investing philosophy; chicken should be fried; forged irons remain the best looking; Frank, Dean and Sammy are still cool.

It took several years before Casual Friday stopping frowning and muttering when he heard the sound of a metal driver striking a golf ball.

So imagine his chagrin a couple of years when Casual Friday heard Davis Love III say that driving accuracy was the most overrated statistic in golf.

Get out of here.

Fairways and greens, keep it on the short grass -- don't they still count for something?

Apparently not if you want to win golf tournaments on the PGA Tour.

Love's reasoning was that he didn't mind being in the first cut of rough if it meant he was 25 or 30 yards farther down the fairway.

If you look at the driving distance and driving accuracy statistics for 2003, you'll find proof of Love's contention.

Players in the top 20 in driving accuracy, and there are 22 of them, with three tied for the 20th spot, won four times this year. Jim Furyk, fourth in accuracy, had two victories and Peter Jacobsen and Kirk Triplett one each.

Among the first 20 in the driving distance stats, seven players won 18 times. Darren Clarke, at No. 4, was the longest driver to record a win. Tiger Woods accounted for five, Vijay Singh and Love four each, Ernie Els two, and Retief Goosen and Adam Scott one apiece.

Of the top 20 money winners in 2003, only one, Furyk, is among the leaders in accuracy. Only seven of the top 20 earners rank inside the top 100 in accuracy, and three of them, Chris DiMarco, Scott Verplank and Nick, failed to win this season.

The remaining four guys, Furyk, Kenny Perry, Chad Campbell and Justin Leonard, had seven victories among them.

The top three money winners, Singh, Woods and Love, ranked No. 132, No. 142 and No. 121, respectively, in accuracy. They combined for 13 wins. Together the 13 players who ranked outside the top 100 in accuracy had 24 titles.

Failing to rank highly in driving accuracy didn't bother the top three on the money list from hitting greens, either. Singh was 12th on tour, Woods 26th and Love 35th.

The first three most accurate players, Fred Funk, Glen Hnatiuk and Hal Sutton, ranked 57th, 71st and 20th, respectively, in hitting greens. Funk, by the way, hit 77.9 percent of his fairways, Hnatiuk 77.7 percent and Sutton 75.8.

Maybe Ben Hogan was way ahead of the curve, as he often was, when he wrote Power Golf back in 1948.

We all say that golf has turned into a power game, but probably don't realize just how dependent players are on length these days, at least until we take a look at the stats.

Casual Friday could take some comfort from those stats the next time he hits a slinging hook except that short and crooked doesn't work. Long and crooked, apparently, is just the ticket.

DOUBLE CLICK
www.pgatour.com/stats/index_r.html

The season's done, the stats are final. Get lost in the stacks of the PGA Tour's statistics. Just drop some bread crumbs to find your way home.