Accessories
Sabona of London, Inc. continues its expansion as the One-Stop-Shop source for copper and magnetic bracelets with two new product series, the 360 series and the Titanium series, being introduced this month. The introductions are just in time for the golf retailer to have them in stock for Holiday sales this fall.
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TaylorMade Tour Staff professionals participating in this year's PGA Championship, at Oak Hill Country Club, will each wear a special edition TaylorMade hat and use a special edition TaylorMade staff bag. Both items feature a distinctive icon, inspired by the history of both the PGA Championship and Oak Hill, embroidered onto them.
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Equipment
This week at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., Tiger Woods introduces the TW6, the latest Dri-FIT Tour TW golf shoe from Nike Golf. The company's men's SP-7 and SP-5 golf shoes will also debut on the feet of PGA Championship competitors.
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Beyond the professional tours, where golfers are paid to play equipment, Titleist has been the golf ball of choice at the LPGA Teaching & Club Professional, where 86 percent of competitors teed up the brand, and at the U.S. Women's Amateur where 87 percent of the field used Titleist golf balls.
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At the Wendy's Championship for Children last week, winner Hee-Won Han posted her second victory in the last four weeks wearing CHAMP ScorpionSpikes. All 23 golfers who finished in the top 20 (including ties) wore CHAMP ScorpionSpikes, and CHAMP spikes have won 24 of the last 29 events.
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Players
Hall of Famer Greg Norman officially commits to play in the 2003 John Deere Classic September 11-14 at the Tournament Players Club at Deere Run in Silvis, Ill.
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Former British Open champion Mark Calcavecchia and former U.S. Open champion Scott Simpson will also compete in the 2003 John Deere Classic. In addition, 2001 John Deere Classic champion David Gossett officially committed to play in the tournament earlier this week along with Milwaukee native Skip Kendall and Hoosier Chris Smith.
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Associations
The fourth cycle of 66 PGA Growth of the Game grants totaling almost $540,000 has been awarded from The PGA of America's Growth of the Game Grant program. These funds combine with grants awarded during 2001 and 2002 bring the total donation from The PGA Growth of the Game Grant Program to over $2.3 million for a combined 189 grants.
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People
John Pierandozzi is named president, chief operating officer and a director of GolfGear International, Inc. He succeeds Michael Piraino, who resigned in June.
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Events
More than 140 guests attended the recent launch of the PGA Show Asia - Trade & Industrial 2003 Beijing, including 50 industry officials and 90 media representatives. Guests shared insights on both the present and future outlook of China's and Asia's golf economy.redesign at Forest Oaks Country Club.
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JULIUS MASON: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the PGA State of the Association news conference where we have an opportunity to share some news about our association with you. Sharing that information with you is the PGA of America President, Mr. M.G. Orender, and the CEO of the PGA of America, Mr. Jim Awtrey.

Before we begin, I'd like to introduce a few special guests joining us today: From Kiawah Island, South Carolina, PGA of America Vice President Roger Warren. From Lost Tracks Golf Club in Bend, Oregon, Brian Whitcomb; and from Huntingdon Valley Country Club in Pennsylvania, PGA Honorary President Jack Connelly right next to him.

We are also lucky enough to have some of our board members and past presidents joining, our national officers with us in attendance, and with that said I'd like to go ahead and turn it over right now to Mr. M.G. Orender.

M.G. ORENDER: Thank you, Julius, and welcome to the Championship. It's going to be a memorable week. This is our association's most notable annual event.

The mission of the PGA of America since 1916 is unchanged the primary reason that the PGA of America was formed was for growth of the game. For more than 86 years, the PGA of America has distinguished itself as leaders in growing the game, teaching the game and promoting the game of golf. We have 28,000 men and women, apprentices and members in our association.

One of the ways that we accomplish the growth of the game is by using the financial resources that we have to support the growth of the game.

We started in 2001, we began a $2 million grant program, which I am proud to say as our last wave of grants that we gave out an additional $500,000. We have given out $2.3 million, which is a total of 66 grants through the cycle, so we have exceeded that goal by $300,000.

In addition to that, we have partnered with Jack Nicklaus and began a partnership in 2001 to create a $2 million endowment to provide teaching grants to certified First Tee chapters that had a PGA member on staff or part of the board to provide instruction to the public.

In total, we have given out 108,000 to 28 chapters nationwide and overall the PGA of America First Tee grants of more than $1 million, which brings our total support to the First Tee to over $5 million over the last five years.

Click here for the full transcript of the PGA State of the Association Address.