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| A Look Back: Nov. 15 1894: Bobby Cruickshank, runner-up to Bobby Jones in a playoff at the 1923 U.S. Open, is born in Grantown-on-Spey, Scotland in 1894. Cruickshank died in 1975. 1940: Fred Marti, who played on the PGA Tour, is born in Houston, Texas. 1945: The PGA of America announces that it will limit its open events to 100 players, plus exemptions. The 100 will be decided through an 18-hole qualifying round. 1959: Billy Casper captures the Lafayette Classic. 1987: Dave Hill wins the Senior PGA Tour's Fairfield Barnett Classic. |
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Business
For the quarter
ended Sept. 30, National Golf Properties increases funds from operations
by almost 6.7 percent. But over a nine-month period, the company has seen a 5.6
percent decline in revenue from courses, attributed to poor weather, general economic
conditions and increased competition.
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more...
Sports
Entertainment Enterprises shows a 4.7 percent increase in revenues for the
third quarter of 2001, as well as increased revenues of 10.4 percent from retail
operations. The company and its subsidiaries own and operate the Callaway Golf
Center and a a golf and tennis retail store, both located in Las Vegas.
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more...
All-American
SportPark, two-thirds owned by Sports Entertainment Enterprises, reports an
operating loss of $65,262 for the third quarter of 2001, a 70 percent increase
over the operating loss reported in the third quarter of 2000 due mainly to higher
utility costs this year. The company, which owns and operates the Callaway Golf
Center in Las Vegas, shows increased revenue for the nine-month period.
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more...
LESCO,
provider of products for the professional turf care market, announces sales of
$144.1 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, an increase of 3.2 percent over
last year. Net income dipped slightly, which company officials say was caused
by the rising cost of raw materials, principally urea; a competitive price environment
which impacted margins; and the attacks of September 11, which caused customers
to reduce purchases.
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more...
Golf apparel
maker Sport-Haley reports a loss of $143,000 for the fiscal quarter ended
Sept. 30, or $(0.04) per share, as compared with net income of $53,000, or $0.02
per share, in the first quarter of the last fiscal year. Net sales also decreased
by almost a third, and company officials pointed to the severely impacted travel
and leisure sectors of the economy as the cause.
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more...
Courses
Chateau Elan
Winery & Resort offers women the opportunity to play its courses free Sunday
through Thursday, from November 15 through March 15, but cart fees of $15.50 will
still apply. Women golfers will also receive certificates good for two grounds
badges for the LPGA Chick-Fil-A Charity Championship in April 2002.
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more...
Sponsorships
Light beer
Amstel Light becomes the official beer of the PGA of America in
a three-year sponsorship deal. Amstel will be served at PGA of America events
and will be an exclusive sponsor of the PGA of America Club Professional Championships.
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Equipment
Cleat
maker Softspikes promotes the need to change plastic spikes often for good
performance with new marketing materials for golf professionals and retailers.
The materials include two wall clocks which urge golfers to change their cleats
every 10 rounds, and tent cards that can be placed on golf shop countertops.
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more...
LPGA
Tour player Annika Sorenstam wore CHAMP ScorpionSpikes en route to posting
her eighth victory in 2001 at the Mizuno Classic in Japan. The top women's player
is close to $2 million in earnings for the season.
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more...
Media
Highlights from
the second U.S. Kids Golf World Championship, which showcased the talents of over
500 youth golfers, including Tiger Woods' niece, Cheyenne Woods, will be shown
on Fox Sports Net on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22, at 1 p.m. (local time).
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Publications
If you
haven't been able to break the cycle of golf addiction, "How to Quit Golf:
A 12-Step Program" (Dutton; $19.95) is your bible. Author Craig Brass takes
a humorous approach to golf addiction in this new book, endorsed by PGA Senior
Tour player Gary McCord.
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more...
Five Questions
David Joy, Author
St. Andrews, Scotland, native David Joy first wrote about the Old Course in St. Andrews Open & Championship: The Official History. Now Joy has written about one of the game's great figures, Old Tom Morris in Scrapbook of Old Tom Morris (Sleeping Bear Press), the inspiration of which came from Joy's one-man show on Morris in 1990. In the show, Joy uses a scrapbook as a prop. Joy recently spoke with The Wire regarding Morris, St. Andrews and years' worth of magical memories.
Q: In the books St. Andrews Open & Championship: The Official History and The Scrapbook of Old Tom Morris there is so much material to be dealt with. How do you even begin to rein in the scope of writing?
A: There is indeed a great wealth of material relating to golf in the town, which is fairly well cataloged. The main sources are the (Royal and Ancient Golf Club), the British Golf Museum, the University of St. Andrews and the Preservation Trust. It helps being a born and bred St. Andrean that I know my way around those collections. Over the last 20 years I seem to have accumulated a mass of material relating to the popularization of the game from 1850 -- a time when trains had begun to link up the links land of Scotland and the gutta ball had bounded onto the scene. Quite suddenly the courses were accessible and the ball affordable.
In the scrapbook, Tom Morris is first mentioned in print in 1842. It was a relatively simple but time-consuming job to follow his career through all the dramatic transitions in the game during his lifetime. Morris became a legend in his own time and much was written about him up until and after his death in 1908.
As far as recording the St. Andrews and the Open Championship book, it obviously helped enormously being based here. The Open's progress was covered by local newspapers until it hosted its sixth Open in 1891, when the first golf magazine or journal started to record more detailed reports of the event.
Key collections of photographs are housed here in St. Andrews -- "The Cowie Collection," an extensive collection of glass plates related to the life and times of the town from 1849, is preserved within the university library and, at this moment in time, is being cataloged and digitized.
Q: Where did the idea come from to develop such a book? It is a unique idea.
A: The idea for the scrapbook came about in 1990, when I portrayed the grand old man (Old Tom Morris) on stage in a one-man show during the week of the Open here in St. Andrews. As a prop, I made up a fake scrapbook that Old Tom would refer to during the performances. It was an unscripted show, so you were never sure what he would talk about.
Age 86, he would say of the scrapbook, "It's like a bible to me this book, full of cuttings of all the early spring and autumn meetings -- the grand tournaments and the grand matches -- memories just flood back. It's the one thing I have left for my future... time to be thinking about my past."
I was 40 years old at the time, so hasten to add that it was a two-hour makeup job to get him ready. His life was such a dramatic period to have lived through in the evolution of the game (1821 to 1908). Tom Morris was involved in every aspect of the game, starting his career as a feather ball-maker, playing and winning early Opens at Prestwick, running a club-making business, laying some of the major courses and being responsible for all the major changes and upkeep of The Old Course for nearly 40 years.
Click here for the complete interview with author David Joy.