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A Look Back: Aug. 14 1948: Dean Lind beats Ken Venturi, 4 and 2, in the final match of the first U.S. Junior Amateur Championship. 1968: European Tour player Darren Clarke is born in Dungannon, Northern Ireland. 1977: In the PGA Championship's first sudden-death playoff, Lanny Wadkins bests Gene Littler on the third extra hole. 1988: Jeff Sluman wins the PGA Championship, finishing three shots ahead of Paul Azinger. 1994: After winning the British Open earlier in the year, Nick Price wins the PGA Championship for the second time. |
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Courses
Ground is broken for Bull's Bridge Golf Club, a new private championship
golf course in Kent, Conn., designed by Tom Fazio.
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Golf savings program
Golf Card International adds 12 Billy Casper Golf-managed facilities
to the company's nationwide roster that includes more than 3,600 courses.
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Events
In the eighth of 10 regional Pinnacle Distance Challenge events,
challenger D.J. Nelson drives 353 yards and earns a spot in the national
finals of the event.
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Players
Bart Hartsell, an AccuFLEX Golf team member, qualified Aug. 9 for
the 2002 ReMax World Long Drive Championships, which are to be held this
coming October in Mesquite, Nev.
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Equipment
According to the Darrell Survey, at the Weetabix Women's British Open
more golfers wore CHAMP spikes than any other brand. In individual
spikes, more golfers wore CHAMP's ScorpionSpikes than any other spike.
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Over the weekend,
Sonartec gained five new PGA players and had 16 fairway woods and
two driving irons in play at the Buick Open, ranking them in fifth place
for the overall number of fairway woods in play.
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AccuFLEX Golf
shafts were used to earn victories in the Lady and Senior divisions of
the fourth Pinnacle Golf/LDA Long Drive tour event of the season. Sharon
Sullivan won her third title of the series in the women's division and
Pat Dempsey took the Senior title using an AccuFLEX PRO LD shaft.
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Briefly
The Golf Association of Philadelphia holds its final major of the season,
the 100th Joseph H. Patterson Memorial Cup, Thursday at Aronimink
Golf Club and Applebrook Golf Club. ...
Greens Worldwide Incorporated, builders of a 24-hour world-class
putting green park and golf entertainment facility in Las Vegas, engages
The Investor Relations Group, Inc. to serve as its new financial relations,
corporate communications and public relations company. ...
Allina Medical Transportation is part of a public safety team at
the PGA Championship prepared to provide medical care for both players
and spectators. ...
Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute's Golf Tournament for golfers
with physical disabilities will be held on Friday, Aug. 23, at Braemar
Golf Course in Edina, Minn.
Commentary
USGA
Waffling Hurts Golf
Last week, The Wire wrote a commentary commending the U.S. Golf Association for setting the same COR on drivers for all players, rather than allowing amateurs to play with a higher COR club through 2008. This week, we present a commentary critical of the way the USGA arrived at this decision. We think these two points of view give our readers some food for thought.
What golf driver a person decides to buy and hit is really not an issue that requires discussion -- COR, SMORE, who cares what it is or why. Most people could use a frying pan to hit a ball 200 yards on a good day. Unfortunately, the bad days are the problem and the driver has nothing to do with it.
Rather, the problem is a swing thing -- or the lack of one.
Nevertheless, most golfers who have $500 burning a hole in their pockets want to try the latest club that will give them extra distance if the club is hit correctly. Our country was built on that philosophy, the freedom to spend as much as a person wants to try to obtain the ultimate, be it a 300-yard drive or something a bit more tangible. While not necessarily part of the Bill of Rights, the concept is part of every golfer in some way.
What really is the problem is how this whole thing has played out and how by trying to save the game the U.S. Golf Association may have hurt it.
The protection of length has been a laudable goal of the USGA and made sense until it decided to compromise. By issuing a proposed rule change and then asking for feedback, it was clear that the USGA finally understood that the rights of golfers and the goal of controlling length could both be addressed effectively in the proposed rule.
What no one could foresee was that the USGA would completely pull back on the position of its proposed rule, citing, of all things, concerns of the Japanese manufacturers.
The pulling back from the proposed rule created turmoil for some of the biggest companies within the golf industry. Relying on the word of the USGA, most manufacturers created drivers that exceed the current COR measurement to conform to the new proposed number that would, if you believe the marketing hype, allow for longer drives by the weekend golfer.
New high-test clubs entered the distribution chain and the cash register started to ring in a slow economy for an industry that needs all the help it can get.
Then came the slap in the face. The USGA decided not to stick with its proposed rule and reverted back to its original position, dragging a kicking and screaming Royal and Ancient Golf Club with it. Now the clubs that are on retailers' shelves, in the weekender's bag and advertised in every golf magazine for August and September are not legal.
Can the golf industry afford to spend millions in Research and Development, production, marketing and distribution on a product that has no shelf life in the U.S. and is tainted in all the other countries in the world? Does the waste of money and time really help golf or put it on the fast track of the airline and other industries that have wacky rules and even wackier organizations trying to control them, eventually bankrupting them?
Golf did not take a giant step last week, it just fell to one knee.
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Reader's
Forum Should the USGA allow amateurs to use drivers with a higher spring-like effect, or are they right to set one limit for all players? What would you tell the manufacturers who were operating under the earlier proposal and designed high COR clubs for use in the U.S.? Let us know your opinions by sending your responses to info@gpagolf.com with the subject line RE: USGA Ruling. Also include your first initial and last name, along with your email address. |