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| A Look Back: Jan. 3 1916: Fred Haas, best known for breaking Byron Nelson's 1945 winning streak of 11 straight tournaments, is born in Portland, Ark. 1949: Alice Bauer is the first woman to enter the Los Angeles Open, but misses the cut by eight strokes. 1982: Johnny Miller wins $500,000 in the first Sun City World Challenge in South Africa. |
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Architecture
Lohmann
Golf Designs partners with the Junior Golf Association of Greater Rockford,
Ill., to create an innovative practice facility and short course with an eye on
First Tee affiliation. Lohmann Golf Designs will donate its schematic work and
handle design of a three-phase project at Ingersoll Golf Course.
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People
The
U.S. Golf Association honors Clyde L. Luther of Burke, Va., with the 2002
Joseph C. Dey Award for his more than 25 years as a volunteer, both as a Rules
expert and a leader in the Virginia and Middle Atlantic golf associations.
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Golf
club shaft and grip manufacturer Royal Precision appoints Frank W. Mertes
as its Vice President Finance and Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately.
Royal Precision makes the Rifle shaft, one of the most popular golf club shafts
on the PGA Tour, and Royal Grip golf club grips.
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Business
Trinity
Golf agrees to act as a distributor for Freedom Golf and market inventory
including the Freedom 345 fairway wood. CEOs John Johnson of Freedom Golf and
Greg DeBenon of Trinity Golf said the agreement will eliminate debt and liabilities
from the balance sheet of Freedom Golf before merging the two companies, as was
previously announced.
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Clothing
manufacturer Hartmarx Corporation amends the terms of an exchange offer
for its currently outstanding 10-7/8% Senior Subordinated Notes, extending the
offer through Jan. 15. Hartmarx will exchange the Existing Notes for a combination
of newly issued 12-1/2 % Senior Subordinated Notes due Sept. 15, 2003, cash and
common stock. Hartmarx makes golf clothing under the Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus
brands.
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Five Questions
Tiger Woods
2001
PGA Tour Player of the Year
Tiger Woods, coming off a 2001 PGA Tour season in which he won five times -- including the Masters -- and was the leading money winner, is the favorite at the 2002 season-opening Mercedes Championship at The Plantation Course at Kapalua in Maui, Hawaii. Wednesday, Woods met with the media for the first time in this young year and touched on a number of topics, including what might be expected this week.
Q.:
Tiger, obviously you finished last year on a high note. Talk a little bit about
how you are playing right now, assess your chances here this week at the Mercedes.
A.: Well, I think I'm making some progress on some of the things I've
been working on. I'm really excited about playing. Starting off a whole new year,
really excited and anxious to get going. When I got here yesterday, I was kind
of fired up. Today I'm even more fired up. It's good. It's a good feeling to have
to know that we've all got to start from scratch and start all over again.
Q.: Do you feel more
rested coming in this year than last year?
A.: Without a doubt. Last
year at this time I just came off of playing eight in a row. I was still worn
out. Didn't have enough time off. But this year I've been able to have some breaks,
get some time off. It was nice. Even though I had two weeks off, for some reason
it felt longer than that. Felt like a nice break. It was great to get away from
it and then come back and recharge, ready to go.
Q.:
Is it business as usual this year? Have you done anything radically different
or is it pretty much the same thing?
A.: No, the same thing. Just trying
to make little improvements in my swing, my overall game, fine-tuning. Major reconstruction
of my golf swing has already been done. Did that back in '97, '98. Now it's just
fine-tuning. You're going to get off every now and then, that's part of the playing
the game. Need to just fine-tune it and make sure everything is firing.
Q.: Here this week they
say four days, four different wind directions. Does that help or hurt Tiger Woods?
A.: Well, I've played here under just about every kind of condition. I've
kind of seen it all. You know, that helps because I can recollect and reflect
on some of the shots I played, why I played them, how I played them. Sometimes
that's an advantage. Sometimes that's not an advantage. I've hit some balls in
some places that just aren't good under certain wind conditions. You do think
of that.
The hard thing about this golf course is that the fairways are so
wide, you feel guilty for missing the fairway, you know, because they're so wide.
But then when the wind crops up like this, all of a sudden they narrow up quite
a bit.
Q.:
In five years since you won the Masters, have you noticed, has there been much
done as far as getting minority players into the game? What is the biggest obstacle?
Obviously with your foundation, that's been terrific. What is the biggest obstacle
now in that area?
A.: I definitely see a dramatic improvement, there's
a lot of kids playing. It's going to take time because you need a base to work
from. You need a lot of kids. If you want to have somebody come out here and actually
be part of the PGA Tour, you're going to have to have a big base. Obviously, it's
going to start weeding out the higher you go, level of play.
As I've gone
around the country, done my clinics with my foundation, the kids, their technique
is getting so much better at a younger age. I never had that kind of technique
when I was a kid. They're hitting it further than I ever did. We're now seeing
-- for instance, I was able to hit golf balls next to a kid 17-years-old hitting
it by me because he was a football player. He loves golf more than football. He'd
much rather go out and play golf than football.
I think that's what you're
going to start seeing, guys that are truly athletic, not the kids that don't have
the physical gifts, the kids that have the physical gifts, instead of going to
other sports, playing basketball, being like Michael Jordan, running track like
Carl Lewis, they're going to be out here playing golf. Pretty special.