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| A Look Back: Nov. 28 1907: Henry Picard, winner of the 1938 Masters and 1939 PGA Championship, is born in Plymouth, Mass. 1929: The Royal & Ancient Golf Club sanctions the use of steel-shafted clubs within its jurisdiction. 1965: Babe Hiskey wins the Cajun Classic. 1965: Dave Marr is named PGA Player of the Year, while Jack Nicklaus finishes as the PGA Tour's leader in money won ($140,752) and wins (five), including The Masters. 1971: Hale Irwin wins his first PGA Tour title, the Heritage Classic by one stroke over Bob Lunn at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, S.C. |
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Apparel
More than 300
golf apparel manufacturers will exhibit clothing and accessories at the 2002
PGA Merchandise Show, Jan. 24-27, at the Orange County Convention Center in
Orlando, Fla. Two dozen of the apparel companies will show men's and women's golf
clothing at the Fashion Showcase, a three-times-daily fashion show.
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Events
Golf
stars Hale Irwin, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Fuzzy Zoeller will play in
the $600,000 Senior Skins Game at Wailea Resort's championship Gold Course
Jan. 26. Zoeller recently turned 50 and the event will mark his PGA Senior Tour
debut.
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Top-five
LPGA Tour money winners Se Ri Pak, Karrie Webb and Lorie Kane, along with Grace
Park, Wendy Ward and Kelly Robbins are the final entries into the 2001 Hyundai
Team Matches, set for Dec. 7-9 at Monarch Beach Golf Links in Dana Point,
Calif. The event feature top players from the LPGA, PGA and Senior PGA competing
in a team format.
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Equipment
Greg Norman
wins the Skins Game and $1 million on Sunday using Graphite Design International's
(GDI) YS golf-club shaft in his Titleist driver. Norman is the 20th PGA Tour player
in the past 21 months to win using GDI's YS shaft.
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Argentinian
Angel Cabrera uses a PING TiSI Tec Driver to set a new European Tour driving
distance record, with a season average of more than 300 yards. Cabrera hit an
older PING TiSI driver before the new model became available mid-year.
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Associations
Golf
Course Builders Association of America grants Charter Member status to Quality
Grassing & Services, Inc., a Florida-based contractor specializing in golf course
construction, irrigation and renovation. Companies that demonstrate an interest
in the continuing success and growth of GCBAA and contribute $5,000 plus annual
membership dues are eligible for Charter Member status.
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Business
Combining decades
of experience in the golf and hospitality industries, four owners of established
firms have formed a joint venture called the Golf Marketing Team to provide
services for owners and operators of golf-related businesses. The new company
offers marketing communications, research, design, photography, public relations
and strategic branding, including assessment, development and management.
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Turf
Specialist
in wireless data transmission and irrigation management Adcon introduces
Aquaflex, a wireless soil moisture sensor that monitors greens and provides specific
data for optimal water management. Adcon's solutions also allow golf course managers
to communicate accurate, real time weather information from all eighteen holes
to potential players via the Internet.
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Courses
D.A. Weibring-designed
Gentle Creek Golf Club, set to open next spring in Dallas, Texas, will
feature a full-service upscale clubhouse and extensive practice facilities. The
course is situated in a tranquil setting of wooded, gently rolling countryside
featuring creeks, ponds and a 20-acre lake.
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more...
Retail
Cleat
maker Softspikes announces it has sold more than 6,660 point-of-purchase
displays to golf retailers in the past two years. The displays feature Softspikes'
color-coded Cleat Replacement Guides that educates golfers on the right cleat
for their shoes and urges players to change spikes frequently for best performance.
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Commentary
Sometimes Less is
Better
Few traditions are more aptly named then the silly season, that time between the final PGA Tour event of one season and the first official tournament of the next year. Golf is played, not in official events, but to entertain fans and allow those starving millionaires of the PGA Tour to play for lots of money.
Some may think the silly season starts the day after the PGA Championship, but that is wrong -- it officially starts the day after the Tour Championship. Don't be too hard on yourself; it is easy to make that mistake.
The silly season once consisted of two months of occasional golf events where we could watch usually focused PGA Tour players let their hair down. Fans got the opportunity to get to know golf stars when the pressure was off and, of course, those players could make some money for their troubles.
But now silly season is two solid months of boring, non-stop, highly un-entertaining, stuff-money-in-your-pockets golf and I think it is time we revolt. There is no fan appeal in watching Greg Norman beat up on Tiger Woods, Jesper Parnevik and Colin Montgomerie, as he did in last weekend's Skins Game. And as Woods showed in his lackluster play at that same event, even the golfers are having a hard time staying enthusiastic.
Fans could grant Woods some leeway since he had been trooping all over the globe during the last four weeks -- to Houston, China, Japan, Hawaii and finally Indian Wells in his private jet, logging more miles than on the PGA Tour since the year's final major.
LPGA Tour Commissioner Ty Votaw had it right. Scale back the season. It's time for a moratorium on golf during November and December -- with some exceptions.
The first exception is the tours in Australia, Asia and South Africa. Golf season is in full swing in the Southern Hemisphere and quite honestly those events are pretty good. Well worth a watch if you need golf during November and December.
The second exception is Qualifying School. Nothing in golf is more dramatic than a grown man shaking over a 2-foot putt because his perceived future is riding on it. We have little of that going on in golf today with all this money out on the tour. As a fan, it's easier to relate to that 2-footer than anything that is happening at the Skins Game or the Hyundai Team Matches. Q-School is golf in perhaps its purest form.
Let's rally around a new slogan: "Less is Better." Let's agree that golf fans can stand to watch the NFL instead of pseudo-golf for November and December. For those who just can't deal with not seeing a little white ball fall into a cup, turn to those exceptions that exist on The Golf Channel.
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The 19th Hole We welcome your opinions and comments. E-mail them to info@gpagolf.com with the subject line Re: The 19th Hole. Include your first initial and last name, along with your e-mail address. The Golf Press Association reserves the right to edit all letters. |