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A Look Back: Oct. 26 1969: Steve Spray wins the San Francisco Open. 1986: Native Texan Ben Crenshaw edges Payne Stewart by one stroke to win the Texas Open. 1991: Fulton Allem wins the Shell Houston Open by one stroke over Billy Ray Brown, Mike Hulbert and Tom Kite. 1997: Bill Glasson wins the Las Vegas Invitational by one shot over David Edwards and Billy Mayfair. 1997: On the Senior PGA Tour, Bob Eastwood wins the Raley's Gold Rush Classic. |
Equipment
Five models of putters comprise the new Classics line from Cleveland
Golf. Built from 304 soft stainless steel, heat treated and featuring
a milled face, the putters are offered in a plumbers neck, mid-slant neck,
mallet, high heel/high toe and a blade style flange. Every putter is available
in either the 34" or 35" version for right-handers -- lefty clubs join
the line in January -- and will retail for $80.
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Golfers who use Maxfli's
A10 golf ball can submit their stories about the ball by mail or to maxfli.com
for a chance to win a trip for two to Orlando, tickets to the PGA Merchandise
Show, Maxfli products and golf. Entries will be accepted through Nov.
26 and PGA Tour professional Robert Allenby will judge the select the
best story.
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Professionals wearing
Softspikes' Black Widow cleats have won all four of the major championships
on the Senior PGA Tour in 2001, and at the season-ending Tour Championship
a majority of players are using the spikes.
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Legal
Inland Marketing sues golfing manufacturer Taylor Made for breach
of contract, breach of good faith and price discrimination. Inland's lawsuit,
filed in U.S. District Court in Southern Florida, alleges Taylor Made
initiated a series of actions designed to force Inland out of business.
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Courses
Cranbury Golf Club in New Jersey, owned and operated by Billy Casper
Golf, schedules a fundraising event on Nov. 3 that is expected to generate
a $6,000 donation to a Sept. 11 relief fund. Club members and their guests
at Cranbury's 11th Annual Fall Finale are donating $25 each to the fundraising
effort, which is being matched by Billy Casper Golf.
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A formal rededication
of Jeffersonville Golf Club in Pennsylvania Wednesday honored original
architect Donald Ross while praising the new renovation by Ron Prichard.
Construction on the $2.6 million project will be completed by the end
of 2001 and the course will re-open next spring.
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Technology
Tee time reservation network Book4golf.com offers a new co-branded
tee time engine for its affiliate Web sites. Book4golf.com has more than
1,000 courses in its network, which can be accessed online, by phone and
by wireless devices any time.
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more...
Caledonia Golf
and Fish Club and True Blue Golf Club launch an online pro
shop on their Web sites www.fishclub.com and www.truebluegolf1.com. The
shop features clothing and accessories from both South Carolina golf courses.
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more...
Events
The fourth annual Willie Gary Celebrity Golf Classic, set for Dec.
15 in Florida, will raise money for the Gary Foundation, which grants
college scholarships to low-income children. Samuel L. Jackson, Matt Lauer
and Bryant Gumbel are among the invited guests.
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more...
Casual Friday
The Yardage Game
There's no doubt golf courses are getting longer. Architects are planning new courses that, just a few years ago, would have been considered monsters, while old classics are being reworked to add length. When Augusta National packs on some yardage, as when the site of The Masters announced it was completing renovations that would add some 300-odd yards to its length, you know that 7,000-plus yard courses are more than just a trend.
After its 2001 meeting, the American Society of Golf Course Architects called for reining in the technology that makes even once average hitters long off the tee. While the group has asked the United States Golf Association and the Royal & Ancient to "develop reasonable parameters" for both clubs and balls, members have suggested putting limitations on the golf ball would keep golf from becoming a different game.
This week, in a statement making a case for these equipment limitations, the ASGCA made reference to a talk given by famed English golf designer Donald Steel at the sixth International Golf Conference at St. Andrews. As early as 1997, Steel called for tightening restrictions on clubs and golf balls.
"Yet, in those four years, the advance in the realms of the manufacture of clubs and balls has perhaps been more dramatic than in any other four year period in the entire history of the game -- Haskell ball and steel shafts included," Steel told an International Golf Conference audience. "There is no wish to be over dramatic, but there is a definite fear that the situation is riding out of control."
While there's little danger of your average 18-handicapper making the great courses of the world obsolete, professionals play a much different game in the 21st century than they did even a decade ago.
Tom Kite is one example. The 51-year-old U.S. Open winner drove an average 283.3 yards and recorded a 69.72 scoring average when competing on the Senior PGA Tour this year. In 1989, when Kite was a good 12 years younger and first on the PGA Tour money list, his drives averaged just 255.9 yards and his scoring average was comparable at 69.57. And Kite's gains are not unusual -- not to mention how much farther the young and well-conditioned PGA Tour stars hit it today.
"If a course could be created that demanded that Tiger Woods had to hit long irons for his second shots to the par 4s, mid-irons to the par 3s and the par 5s were all three-shotters," Steel explained, "you would need a course of at least 8,200 yards, and even then I doubt you would contain him. Last year on a new course where the opening hole measured 660 yards, he was home in two with a drive and 2-iron."
So much for Tiger-proofing.
TAP-INS
James Dodson, who wrote the highly-acclaimed "Final Rounds" in 1996, has written "The Dewsweepers: Seasons of Golf and Friendship" (Penguin). Dodson spent a year following the players of an upstate New York club who are the first players off the tee each weekend, and examines the interwoven friendships created through the game....
The Oct. 29 issue of Sports Illustrated presents another installment of Sport? Not a Sport? with the topic being Long-drive competitions and the answers coming from athletes from other sports. One of the more astute observations comes from Chicago Bulls center Brad Miller: "It's amazing and it's tough. Let's see you try to hit that son of a bitch 500 yards." Uh, OK, Brad.