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Players
Nancy Lopez is named recipient of the 2002 PGA First Lady of Golf award. Lopez will be honored June 5, in a ceremony in Canton, Ohio, in conjunction with the 63rd Senior PGA Championship, June 6-9, at nearby Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.
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Tommy Bolt has been selected for induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame through the Veterans Category, the Board of Directors of the World Golf Foundation announces. Bolt, the 1958 U.S. Open champion at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., will be inducted Nov. 15.
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Colleges
Golf Coaches Association of America members submit 168 nominations for Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar Awards. Recipients, who will be announced at the GCAA National Awards Dinners in May, must maintain minimum grade-point averages and scoring averages.
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Retail
Softspikes introduces the Bulk Cleat Display, a retail display unit that can hold cleats in all four of the company's current insert systems.
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Business
Golf Marketing announces the finalized purchase agreement of Flagstick Guarantee LLC, a regional prize promotion company located in Colorado Springs, Colo.
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Turf care products maker LESCO announces a 3 percent increase in sales for the quarter ended March 31, compared to the previous year.
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Spalding Holdings Corporation, the parent company of Spalding Sports Worldwide, Inc., announces it consummated a transaction with holders of approximately 95 percent of its outstanding 10 3/8 percent senior subordinated notes and its principal stockholders. The result is a recapitalization of its debt and equity structure.
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Shaft maker Aldila announces net sales of $11.4 million and a net loss of $198,000 ($0.01 per share) for the first quarter ended March 31, 2002. In the corresponding 2001 quarter, the company's net sales were $14.6 million and net income was $988,000.
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GolfGear International reports annual net sales of $2,143,371 and a net loss of $962,250, as compared with net sales of $3,194,610 and a net loss of $1,016,981 for the year ended Dec. 31, 2000.
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Sports Entertainment Enterprises plans to spin off its All-American SportPark subsidiary by making a distribution of shares of the latter to its shareholders of record on May 3 on a pro rata basis. The distribution date is set for May 8.
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Equipment
Cristie Kerr used Callaway Golf's CTU 30 golf ball in her first LPGA Tour win at the Longs Drugs Challenge. LPGA Tour players Annika Sorenstam, Liselotte Neumann and Rachel Teske have also had strong seasons while using Callaway golf balls.
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Events
Officials for the Teens On The Green Individual & Team World Championships announce that golfers from Nigeria will participate in the event, joining youngsters from 19 countries. The tournament will be held May 24-27 in Orlando.
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Travel
PerryGolf, which specializes in customized and luxury international golf experiences, combines two of Scotland's favorite pastimes -- golf and salmon fishing -- into one unique program, Birdies & Salmon, for the summer of 2002.
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Grand Bahama Island's Chillingsworth Court condos have been recently renovated and can be booked through major travel agencies electronically. The rooms overlook a new Fazio-designed championship golf course.
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Juniors
GOLF 20/20 announces that JuniorLinks.com has re-launched, with new content for the summer junior golf season, including a searchable database of 550 of the nation's junior golf programs.
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Technology
eGolfScore, provider of Internet-based, real-time wireless score tracking programs for golfers, announces the availability of eGolfScore Wireless to AT&T Wireless mMode customers. eGolfScore Wireless offers golfers a way to score their round and broadcast hole-by-hole scores and statistics to the web for viewing by family and friends.
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Tournaments
Asia will host the first leg of the 2003 European Seniors Tour, Nov. 8-10, at the $500,000 Ballantine's Legends of Golf Tournament. The event will be staged at Laguna National Golf and Country Club.
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Sponsorship
Softspikes, a maker of plastic golf cleats, is named the official cleat of the Stewart & Stewart Tour, a developmental tour that consists of 19 tournaments played from April through October in the southeastern part of the United States. Among those who have played the tour are PGA Tour players Heath Slocum and Boo Weekley.
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Reader's Forum Augusta National has been stretched about as far as it can go. Other historic venues are either maxed out or on the verge of being lengthened to their farthest point. Even then, the courses still may not be long enough to host today's players. There is a slow groundswell of support for putting distance restrictions on golf balls. Is this a step in the right direction? Or are the historic venues just becoming obsolete and it's time to begin identifying longer courses that will host the majors of the 21st century? Let us know your opinions by sending your responses to stuart@gpagolf.com with the subject line RE: Golf Balls. Also include your first initial and last name, along with your email address.

Five Questions
Ron Drapeau, Callaway Golf

Ron Drapeau joined Callaway Golf Company in November 1996 and less than five years later was named President and CEO upon the retirement of company Founder Ely Callaway. In August 2001, the Board of Directors elected Drapeau to serve as Chairman of the Board to fill the vacancy left by the July 5 death of Callaway. The Wire publisher Alex Miceli recently interviewed Drapeau about equipment technology, the U.S. Golf Association and, of course, Callaway Golf in this Five Questions session.

Q.: Let us start this interview by addressing the technology issues that are out there. You obviously have a strong opinion or feeling on technology and its application to the game today. Talk about Callaway's position?

RON DRAPEAU: Well, our position is very clear. We believe the amateurs, in particular, need all the help they can to enjoy this game; that most of us that are avid golfers do not have the time to practice, and many of us don't have the natural abilities to be very good at the game. And so, to the extent that we can bring some technology that helps players hit that occasional pleasurable shot, that's what we are all about.

And we think there's a big difference between players of the caliber of the PGA Tour, the so-called elite players, than the average golfers. And if you look at the USGA statistics, it bears that out. Of the 25 million golfers in the United States, there are only four million who have handicaps. Of the four million who have handicaps, there's less than 2 percent that have single-digit handicaps. So the vast majority of players are casual golfers or high-handicap golfers, and we just believe that they could use the help of technology and we might actually help grow the game or keep people in the game if they could enjoy it more.

Q.: Over the last 10 years, I think technology has played a pretty significant part in golf, yet golf has not grown considerably in that same 10-year period. So do you really believe that technology is going to be -- maybe not the be all and end all -- but one of the stakes that is going to grow golf?

RON DRAPEAU: Well, in particular, let's talk about the high COR drivers. Golf has not had a problem attracting new players. They get three million people a year, four million people a year try the game, but also that many drop out. I think the high COR drivers, in particular, would help some of the people that are not as strong as they once were stay in the game longer because they could get to par-4s, they could get to par-3s. I think that's where there could be a benefit to growing the game, by keeping people in it. So as the newcomers come in, golf could actually grow.

Q.: There is an argument made that by creating these type of clubs or these type of balls -- equipment in general -- you are making a separation in the game. If you keep creating equipment that the USGA does not approve or the R&A doesn't approve, then you are making a separation between the amateur golfer and the professional golfer and that, in fact, is probably not good for the game because this game is on a par of, everyone plays the same equipment. But I'm sure you would say that's not true, even today?

RON DRAPEAU: Well, there are a number of differences. First of all, the R&A has a focus of the average golfer, and that's why they have not made high COR drivers nonconforming. Their view is that driving off the tee is not a threat to the game, and they have statistics to prove it. They have five years of data they collected at member/guest tournaments, where they actually took amateur driving stats, and the driving stats went from 200 to 210 yards, so it's not a threat to golf. And I think that's a pretty reflective representative of what most of us amateurs, how we play the game.

The USGA is concerned about the elite players and they are very, very direct about that, and they are also very direct that it ought to be one game, and that's where the challenge comes in. The only point I would make is, if I can draw a parallel, 10 years ago in the NFL, there were 30 players that were over 300 pounds. Today there's over 300 players that are 300 pounds. The athletes have gotten a lot bigger and stronger, and they are better trained for their games, and that's true in golf.

So, there's a real distinction between the individuals playing the game at the pro level and the amateur level, and in golf, as there is in other sports. In other sports, we have accommodations for the elite players. The NBA plays a 24-second clock and the 3-point line is longer than it is at the collegiate or high school level. And I think the same could happen for golf, that we could have one set of rules as we do today. In golf, there are, for example, conditions of tournament play. And under conditions of tournament play for elite players, you can only play -- you must play -- the same ball throughout a round of golf. That's not true for everybody else. It's only in elite competitions. And you can't use range finders in elite competitions. Well, we could have a golf ball specified for elite competitions that were not as hot as the current golf ball technology and we could still be playing the same game.

Q.: Would you really want to do that? In the past, when I would see Jack Nicklaus using a particular putter winning the Masters in '86 or I would hear about somebody using a particular ball, maybe I would want to try that club or ball. Now what we are saying is, if he's using that ball, none of us as amateurs would want to use it because it's not going to go as far as he can hit it generally -- even if he was using my swing -- because it's not the same ball anymore. I'm going to be using some kind of other ball.

RON DRAPEAU: I disagree with you. I think if we had a set of specifications for a golf ball, all of the manufacturers could be held to those specifications, as we are today. But we still compete with branding based on aerodynamics and on materials and construction. If we had a tournament ball, we could sell the current line of balls for the elite players who want to, on occasion, measure themselves against Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods. They could buy a sleeve of those balls when they want to test themselves against Tiger Woods. The rest of the time they could play the other ball for enjoyment.

Click here to read the complete interview with Callaway Golf's Ron Drapeau.