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| A Look Back: Nov. 29 1947: Joe Inman, a member of the Senior PGA Tour, is born in Indianapolis, Ind. 1959: Arnold Palmer wins the West Palm Beach Open for his third victory of the season. 1962: Santiago Luna, a European PGA Tour member, is born in Madrid, Spain. 1970: Bob Goalby wins the Heritage Classic by four strokes over Lanny Wadkins at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, S.C. 1987: With an ace worth $175,000 at the 17th hole, Lee Trevino wins the Skins Game with $310,000. |
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Tours
PGA Tour commissioner
Tim Finchem announces new initiatives for the Senior PGA Tour, including
more live television coverage on CNBC, an expansion of the field from 78 to 84
players, and a reduction from 38-39 events to 33 or 34. The Senior Tour will also
focus on providing more interviews and question-answer sessions with players,
more instruction and more fan interactivity.
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Courses
The
National Golf Foundation's latest tracking statistics on golf course construction
activity across the U.S. shows that 19 new golf courses were opened during the
month of October. In 2001, 350 golf course construction projects have been completed.
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Equipment
Ogio
introduces the Tracer, a 5-pound walking bag outfitted with a redesigned stand
and sling systems. Also, there is a 9-inch, five-compartment molded top featuring
three-way full-length dividers, plus five pockets, one equipped to hold foul-weather
gear and another fleece-lined pocket for valuables.
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Publications
Learning
Golf Inc. recently released Michael Hebron's newest book "Golf Swing Secrets
and Lies." The book is available in both a standard edition and a special
edition, which is available through Hebron's Web site.
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Business
Turf maintenance
equipment maker Toro decides to close its Evansville, Ind., plant and shift
manufacturing to sites in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The move, expected to provide
annual savings of about $2.0 to $2.3 million beginning in 2003, will affect 94
employees.
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Golf instruction
company PROform golf will add golf course management to its list of services.
PROform partner New Golf Properties will be responsible for acquisition of golf
course properties, which PROform will then manage.
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Retail
SRIXON Sports
USA announces the winners of its 2001 SRIXON Challenge, a retail incentive
program and consumer promotion that awarded four VIP trips for two to a 2002 PGA
Major. The retail incentive program, which rewarded the highest sales volume of
SRIXON balls per store, produced three winners: Todd Dross; Tom Murphy; and David
Puetz; while the consumer promotion winner was William Henderson.
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Events
The
7th Annual E-Z-GO Boys & Girls Club Golf Classic nets $70,000 for the Augusta,
Ga., Boys & Girls Clubs. More than 300 golfers competed in this year's tournament,
which was held Oct. 8 at Woodside Plantation Country Club in Augusta.
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"Uniting
For Golf's Future" is the theme for the 12th International Network of Golf
Spring Conference, scheduled for May 12-16, 2002, at the MidPines Inn and
Golf Club and Pine Needles Resort & Lodge in Southern Pines, N.C. More than 300
are expected at this annual gathering of media and golf industry leaders.
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Peter
Schory's pitch-off win over defending champion Jim Ryan at the 2001 U.X. Open
Championship will be aired on The Golf Channel from 10-10:30 p.m. (ET) Dec.
5. The U.X. Open is golf played up, down, and across a 10-hole mountain course,
with 10 simplified rules catering to the rocky terrain.
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more...
Public Relations
GolfOrlando,
a co-op marketing group comprised of 30 Orlando-area golf courses, retains Jamison
Golf Group to oversee its public relations and help coordinate media efforts.
GolfOrlando's mission is to position the Orlando area as one of the country's
premier golf destinations.
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Collectibles
Upper
Deck teams up with the Tiger Woods Foundation to provide a special commemorative
Tiger Woods Williams World Challenge trading card to the first 5,000 fans
at that event Dec. 14. This is the second Woods card that Upper Deck has designed
for specifically for the Tiger Woods Foundation.
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more...
In response to Nov. 28 commentary on the silly season: I couldn't agree with you more on the people in the Skins Game, but it can be fun to watch with the right people. I think John Daly should have been involved in more post-season events. He has made a tremendous comeback and has not been given credit for it -- an example is the PGA Tour's Comeback Player of the Year ballot, on which he is not listed. He is the No. 2 draw in golf, period. Let's give him some credit. I like his style, his speed of play and his "go for it" Arnie style of golf. I personally think a Freddie, Tiger, John and David Duval, Scotty McCarron or Phil Mickelson -- or anyone with some personality, like Peter Jacobsen even, to keep things light-hearted -- would make a great Skins Game, and it would be watched. Also, the TV folks need to realize who and what the viewers really want to see. Like the Masters par-3 tournament on Wednesday at Augusta. Great golf and it's fun. I could go on with the Senior Skins Game, get Hale out and Gary McCord in the game -- or think out of the box a little. Make it fun for the viewers and the participants. Adding Fuzzy was a great idea. S.
Waters |
Five Questions
Tim Finchem, PGA Tour
Commissioner
Wednesday, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem discussed changes planned for the Senior PGA Tour over the next two years. Following are excerpted questions from his press conference. To read the entire transcript, click here.
Q: One issue I hear from fans is that the more marquee players come out of the Tour these days when they are 50, they are concerned about how much these guys are actually going to play. They see a Tom Watson playing maybe 12 or 13 times. Is there anything that could be done to encourage more of those players to compete more?
A: One of the spin-off advantages of having a somewhat shorter schedule, for our sponsors and our fans is they are going to see a higher percentage of those events. Now, of course, they are going to have a higher percentage of the players they want to see.
Second, I think that all of the players are different in terms of their scheduling. You know, the bad news is that some players come over to the Senior Tour and they don't play quite as much. On the other hand, we look at a player like Bruce Lietzke, and he is going to play more in the next five years than he averaged, by a fairly significant amount than he averaged on the PGA Tour ever.
Some players are fairly consistent. Jack Nicklaus never played that many events on the PGA Tour. Tom Watson the last 10 years I don't think has ever played anything approaching 20. We would like for those players to play a few more, yes, but I do think that that has more to do with the personal inclinations of the player competitively than it does with the financial rewards on the PGA Tour.
We have had players on the Senior Tour for a long time that frankly, don't need to play for financial reasons and they are still playing 15 years later because this is the only place that you can receive that kind of quality of competition.
I think we are going to be fine in that regard. But, we absolutely would like to see all of our players play a little more, yes.
Q: What do the players think about these changes?
A: At this point in time, every single player we have talked to over the last several weeks and leading into a conclusion on the strategy has been 100 percent supportive. A lot of responsibility for the execution of what we are talking about here will fall on the players.
We didn't even get into some of the things that we did with the sponsors, but the players are being asked to make themselves available a lot more for things like chat room discussions, Q&A on instructional matters, shots that they have, how they practice, on-site studio visits, after-play clinics, as well as sponsor activities that relate to the drawing parties, Pro-Am parties, the award parties, the lunches.
So we are going to spread the load among all of our players. We have submitted to our players a list of 12 items that we will be coming to them with and asking them -- and each of those 12 items takes time. Now, it is up to us to effectively schedule it and implement it, so it is not too difficult for a player. But the reason I tell you all this is to conclude by saying that 100 percent of the players I've talked to say, "I'm in, I'm there and I'm going to help."
Q: If you did nothing, just left the Senior Tour the way it was, was there any danger of it dying out? Did you feel that you had to do something?
A: No. I think the fundamentals of the Senior Tour are too strong. What's happened is that in the last five years, in particular, the Senior Tour is increasingly compared to the PGA Tour, and that's not a fair comparison. The basic structure of the Senior Tour is intact. Again, we have record prize money this year; we'll have record prize money again next year. It's intact.
The question is: Can we grow the Senior Tour and can we make it a meaningful experience for fans, so it continues to maintain a reasonable share of the fan base interest, and I think this direction will get us there.
Q: I'm fascinated by the interaction part of fan questions during a round of play. You mentioned fans also ask questions of players during a round and players will answer them and there will be interviews with what happens with the shot. Can you explain how that is going to work?
A: We have to test the concept in '02. We have to implement it in '03. And we are not going to stop the players and sit them down on the couch and do a round table discussion.
Actually we have experimented with this year some ability to ask some questions of players during a round. It seemed to us not unreasonable that those questions should necessarily have to come from one of the announcers of the broadcast team.
Now, who knows, maybe we'll have a contest to see whose question gets picked that week. I don't know how we will do it. Let me just stress that again, as I gave examples in each medium, I am giving you for purposes of time two or three examples off of a list of 20 things in each area that probably will be employed in some fashion or another.
The reason for the examples is to give you a sense of what we are trying to achieve, which is fans -- regardless of how they interface with this Tour -- feel up close and personal with it and inside the ropes, and walk away with some information on how to improve their games. Those are the two pillars of the vision and there are lots of different applications.
Q: Is part of the motivation or the initiative to have more effective outreach to sponsors, as opposed to just efforts with the fans?
A: Obviously, we want to do two basic things here. The vision and the structural changes were created to do two basic things. One is to excite the fan. The other is to create more value to the sponsor.
What does value mean? Value means that the overall enterprise has more impact. Value means that we are reaching more people. But value also means that sponsors' customers who are on the property are also feel up close and personal, inside the ropes and they are learning something. One of our sponsors brings customers to the golf Tournament, whether it is to the Pro-Am or in the hospitality suites. 90 percent of these people play the game. So the efforts to teach are also going to create more value for the sponsors and their guests.
It is not just a communication advertising, brand-building exercise. It is also very much a client entertainment and now educational exercise. So we are doing both. We are exciting the fans, connecting with the fan in ways we have not before, in a very direct way, and also creating more value for the sponsor.