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Health
As part of the third annual National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, members of the PGA Tour have joined with the James E. Olson Foundation to promote regular screenings for the disease. This month many players will wear a blue and pink pin that symbolizes the devastating effects the cancer can have on both men and women.
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Business
Fortune Brands, parent company of Acushnet and its golf brands Titleist, Footjoy and Cobra, announces that its March 19 presentation to the Merrill Lynch Annual Global Branded Consumer Products Conference will be available live over the Internet.
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NIKE will report financial results for its third quarter ended February 28 on Thursday, March 21, after the market closes. Beginning at 5:00 p.m. EST, the company will host a conference call, which will also be webcast live, to discuss these results.
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Apparel maker Cutter and Buck announces that for the third quarter, net sales increased 0.8 percent to $32.6 million from $32.4 million in the third quarter of last year. Net loss for the period was $8.4 million or $0.79 per share, compared to a net loss of $963,000 or $0.09 per share in the same period last year.
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The board of directors of The Toro Company announce it has declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of 12 cents per share payable April 12 to stockholders of record March 25.
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Media
Veteran golf commentator Mark Rolfing will make his debut as a Golf Channel host Monday, as he interviews Johnny Miller on Golf Talk Live at 8 p.m. ET.
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Colleges
The 14th-ranked Wake Forest women's golf team travels to the Lady Gamecock Classic in Columbia, S.C. March 15-17. The Deacons are coming off a five-week break in action from their ninth place finish at the TRW Regional Challenge Feb. 11-13.
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Equipment
Callaway Golf announces the retail launch of its new HX Blue and HX Red golf balls. The HX golf balls were introduced to the golf industry last October and have quickly been embraced by golfers on the world's professional tours. The LPGA's Annika Sorenstam already has used the new HX ball in two consecutive 2002 tournament wins.
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Events
This spring, the National Football League Coaches Association will host the second Ravens-Redskins Coaches Golf Classic, the inaugural Jets-Giants Coaches Golf Classic and the Inaugural Eagles Coaches Golf Classic in order to raise funds for the NFLCA.
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Advertising
GreatGolfValues.com announces the rolling out of its new advertising and marketing program for companies wishing to reach the desired golfer demographics.
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People
The Symphony Group, a consortium of professional companies involved in clubhouse design and construction, announces that Matthew Jester has been retained as the Director of Business Development.
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Architecture
Ault, Clark & Associates announces that work is ongoing on four Montgomery County (Md.) Revenue Authority courses, including Laytonsville Golf Course, Falls Road Golf Course, Poolesville Golf Course and Rattlewood Golf Course.
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Instruction
Top instructor Jim McLean assists PGA Tour players playing the Florida Swing and getting ready for the upcoming Masters tournament, but also works with up-and-coming professionals and offers golf schools at the Doral Resort and Spa for all levels of golfers.
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Casual Friday
Wearing the Green

With Sunday being St. Patrick's Day, Casual Friday thought it timely to salute the contributions of the Irish to the game of golf.

The many connections are more than we have space to explore, from the green of Erin and the green of golf courses all the way to Bing Crosby, the crooner of Irish ancestry who founded one of the most successful events on the PGA Tour. Then there's the Irish trinity of Jameson, Murphy's and Bushmills, Irish whiskeys that either assuage the hurt of a bad round or help celebrate a great one.

Perhaps the most familiar Irishman in golf, at least for American fans, is CBS announcer David Feherty. Once a successful player on the European Tour, Feherty now entertains millions on Saturday and Sundays with his pithy comments, not to mention his pitches for Las Vegas vacations. He's also a regular columnist for Golf magazine, where his sometimes hyperbolic writings reveal that he must have kissed the Blarney Stone on multiple occasions.

Arguably, the three most prominent Irish golfers currently are Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley.

Clarke is certainly the most recognizable, with his burly physique and fragrant Havana cigars. While his most important victory was two years ago in the World Match Championships when he defeated Tiger Woods 4 and 3, on St. Patrick's Day it's impossible to overlook Clarke's win last season in the Smurfit European Open at Dublin's K Club. Clarke's win was the first by an Irishman on home soil on the European Tour since John O'Leary won the Irish Open at Portmarnock in 1982.

Casual Friday might say Irish eyes were smiling that day, but that would be too easy.

Harrington and McGinley each had victories on the European Tour last season. In fact, Harrington's win in the season-ending Volvo Masters came at McGinley's expense, when he clipped his countryman by one shot to win after recording seven second-place finishes in 2001.

But perhaps Harrington's most memorable tournament was the 2000 Benson and Hedges International when he disqualified after 54 holes with a five-shot lead for having failed to sign his first-round scorecard. Of course, Clarke and Harrington and McGinley aren't the only Irishmen earning a living at golf. Among others, there's Des Smyth, David Higgins, Eamonn Darcy, Philip Walton and Christy O'Connor Jr., who's playing the U.S. Senior Tour again after a motorcycle he was polishing last year fell on him and broke two bones in his leg.

In addition to outstandings golfers, Ireland has some of the greatest golf courses in the world. Ballybunion, Lahinch, Portmarnock, Royal Portrush, Royal County Down ... it's not a short list. Five-time Open champion Tom Watson once said of Ballybunion: "A man would think the game of golf originated here."

And the great Henry Longhurst opined on the Irish links: "They are the greatest courses in the world, not only in layout but in scenery and "atmosphere and that indefinable something which makes you relive again and again the day you played there."

So isn't it time the Open Championship returned to Ireland? The Open has been there only once, and that was in 1951 at Royal Portrush when Englishman Max Faulkner won.

FIRST CUT

There's another reason to celebrate on St. Patrick's Day. It's the 100th birthday of Bobby Jones -- gentleman, scholar and greatest golfer of his time, perhaps of all time.

According to Grantland Rice, Jones, the winner of 13 major titles, had the "face of an angel and the temper of a timber wolf."

Jones retired from competitive golf at age 28, which means Tiger Woods, the only other man to hold all four major titles concurrently, has about 21 months to win six majors and tie Jones' mark at the same age. Is it possible? Woods won four straight, so the answer would seem to be yes. Will he do it? Who knows? It would appear unlikely, but it will fun watching. ...

In the mood for some Irish reading? Sleeping Bear Press offers this trio -- The Life of O'Reilly by John O'Reilly with Ivan Morris, Only Golf Spoken Here by Ivan Morris, and Lazy Days at Lahinch by G.A. Finn. ...

Two of the four winners of the Qatar Masters have been Scots, Paul Lawrie in 1999 and Andrew Coltart in '98. Maybe that's a good omen for Colin Mongomerie, who had a 79 in last week's Dubai Desert Classic and is teeing it this week at the Doha Golf Club. ...

Here's one issue the LPGA Tour could have done with out. Carin Koch recently won a poll conducted by Playboy magazine as to which LPGA player would make the best subject for a photo shoot. When Koch, who garnered 24 percent of the votes, declined the offer of a pictorial shoot, editors turned to runner-up Jill McGill, who is taking time to weight the pros and cons.

DOUBLE CLICK
www.bobbyjones.com

There's no such thing as too much Bobby Jones. The more you learn about him, the greater his accomplishments seem. Especially for a guy who earned two college degrees, practiced law and played only about 80 rounds a year.