Over the Green

UBS Joins Stanford Financial
Talk about a rough week. UBS Bank is added to the list of PGA Tour sponsors in trouble with the law with the admission it created a scheme to avoid taxes for clients. The Swiss bank will step up to the plate with $780 million to settle the complaint. Meanwhile Stanford Finanacial’s Allen Stanford still isn’t talking about the fraud which he and his company have been accused. The SEC says serious money is involved – $8 billion or so. I must be having a brain cramp but wasn’t just the other day the biggest concern on the business side of the Tour was whether the Wednesday night pro-am buffet would have lobster, shrimp, steamship round or all three?

MacGregor Spirals Down
Faithful readers will remember questions being raised as to the status of Greg Norman’s club company MacGregor Golf. Now speculation is retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods will buy MacGregor and add it to the well know in-house brand stable of Walter Hagen, Maxfli and Slazenger. Maybe MacGregor should start a bank, at least then a bail out might be possible for the clubs some great players used, among them Jack Nicklaus in his prime.

Per usual the annual PGA Merchandise Show was a venue for every club company with putters in their lineup to introduce the newest flat sticks to the world. From my experience most are good with a few being really good but let’s face it as with the multitude of drivers, just about every variation of style, construction and materials has been done.

Having said that I had the chance to spend some time at the Show with Blair Phillip, Director of Research and Development at YES! Golf a company which has gained a reputation of high quality and innovative putter design. Philip ran through the 2009 line and then pulled out a putter with a truly unique feature. More…

Tavistock Cup
I like you have been waiting with tense anticipation for the announcement of the teams for the made-for-real-estate-selling competition, the Tavistock Cup played for the past five years between the touring pros living at Orlando’s ultra exclusive country clubs, Isleworth G&CC and Lake Nona G&CC. Well the rosters won’t be revealed for another couple of weeks but the captains are the same as last year. Ernie Els for the Lake Nona toursters and Mark O’Meara for Isleworth. Tiger Woods of Isleworth is unlikely to play in the March 16-17 event which benefits Central Florida Charities.

Stanford Endorsements in Doubt
With the charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that Allen Stanford and his firm, the Stanford Group, ran an $8 billion fraud operation using certificate of deposits some professional players have to rethink endorsement deals plus the PGA Tour’s Stanford St. Jude Championship is in jeopardy. Among the players with Stanford agreements are Vijay Singh, Henrik Stenson, Morgan Pressel and Camilo Villegas. The LPGA also probably with take a hit since Stanford signed on to sponsor the Stanford Financial Tour Championship in Houston next November.

Olympic Golf
The International Golf Federation continues to push the inclusion of golf for the 2016 Olympics with the biggest question being whether top draws such as Phil Mickelson and of course Tiger Woods will play. The competition for the new Olympic sport slot is rugby (sevens), karate, softball, baseball and squash plus, I almost forgot, some type of roller skating competition. The International Olympic Committee makes it decision in June.

Tiger Redux?
According to media reports there hasn’t been anything like it since Tiger Woods joined the pro ranks. Seventeen year old Ryo Ishikawa from Japan is playing this week’s Northern Trust Open on a sponsor’s exemption and has a Masters invite as well as. The attention though is mostly from Japanese print and television media with more than 100 of whom credentialed for the L.A. event.

Indoor putting …a poor substitute for the real thing whether seriously working on your stroke or simply as a weather induced housebound diversion.

Chair legs, water glasses and Berber-woven flowers have been used as targets and there are those plastic devices that trap an on-line putt or even ball returning target cups. But let’s face it; indoors putting isn’t much fun, maybe suitable as a few minutes entertainment for a five year-old but not much more. More…

MacGregor
As noted previously MacGregor Golf pulled out of the 2009 PGA Merchandise Show, that and some other related happenings might mean possible changes at the venerable club manufacturer owned by Greg Norman.

A friend pointed out the MacGregor web site is not up-to-date with year old products, no notice of this year’s latest and greatest (if indeed there are any for 2009) plus there’s no presence on any of the world professional tours, meaning of course all this errata only boils down to more fuel for speculation.

LPGA on the Tube
Flying in the face of most business news the LPGA had a good week signing deals with JoongAng Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) and the Golf Channel. How much money is involved was not announced but the JBC deal for Korean broadcast rights includes the company sponsoring a tournament in Southern California 2010-2014.

The Golf Channel agreement runs for ten years and also starts in 2010 for exclusive cable rights with three- and four-round coverage of domestic events including one major championship and international feeds. TGC will also get coverage of the first two rounds having weekend coverage on other networks and will continue Solheim Cup coverage.

“Uneven Lies”
I had the chance to preview the movie prompted by Pete McDaniel’s book, “Uneven Lies: The Heroic Story of African-Americans in Golf” and in case you haven’t seen it yet on the Golf Channel you should, as they say, consult your local listings to find a rerun.

Titleist feels so strongly the story of pioneers like Ted Rhodes, Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder needs to be seen by everyone they are giving away copies of the book while supply lasts to anyone who asks.

The link is http://www.titleist.com/UnevenLies.asp and as in the case of the movie definitely worthwhile.

Be ready but I have a feeling we will see an announcement soon about MacGregor Golf.

Not only did owner Greg Norman go through a costly divorce last year but MacGregor was a last minute no-show at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando the end of January. His foray into cart-mounted GPS systems, GPS Industries, has undergone several management changes plus a change in headquarters recently and its stock is down 90%+. Now comes word Norman’s clothing company has been sold.

The Greg Norman Collection as of last week is part of Tharanco Group’s stable of apparel lines but in case it slipped your mind this is the third owner in three years for GNC starting back when adidas bought Reebok in 2006.

Sure sounds like the next shoe to drop will be closing of the venerable brand name of MacGregor as a club manufacturer.

But not to worry, the Great White Shark still has his turf grass, luxury boat, course design, wine business and others to fall back on.

Adjustable clubs are all the rage.

TaylorMade Golf was in the forefront when they introduced Moveable Weight Technology (MWT) in the r7 Quad five years ago and for 2009 the Carlsbad, Calif. company has raised the bar for its competition with something named Flight Control Technology (FCT) in the new R9 line. More…