Over the Green

New from Cobra Golf (a division of Acushnet) this fall are the Cobra S2 and S2 Forged irons sets, the former offering game improvement features and the latter designed for better players.

What Cobra says about the S2 irons:
*Multi-Material Design stainless steel with polymer topline and toe insert, urethane sole insert and aluminum vibration-dampening back plate
*Cavity Design for Optimized Heel/Toe Weighting
*Mid-Width Stepped Sole
*Premium Lightweight Shafts – Cobra/Aldila DVS-2 graphite, Nippon NS Pro 1030H steel shafts
*Available September 1
*Men’s graphite and steel shafts (4-PW, GW), women’s and senior’s graphite shafts (5-PW, GW, SW)
*MSRP – $744 for steel, $872 for graphite

What Cobra says about the S2 Forged irons:
*Forged 1025 Carbon Steel with CNC Milled Grooves
*Cavity Back With Extreme Perimeter Weighting
*Tour-inspired Shape and Design
*Cobra/Nippon NS Pro 1130 Tour Shaft (3-PW)
*Available September 1
MSRP – Men’s steel shafts $985

The company is also quick to point out grooves on both models conform to the new USGA regulations.

Let’s Call It Like It Is – Part Two

In a column back when U.S. Solheim Team captain Beth Daniel picked Michelle Wie I questioned how Wie deserved the pick given her performance to date as a professional and boy, was I proven wrong. Either Daniel knows a lot more than I do about the players on tour (pretty much a lead pipe cinch!) or Wie more tha rose to the occasion.

It appears to me Wie met the challenge. And she did by herself…mastering the pressure, striking the ball very well, and putting superbly.

Some are heralding the Solheim Cup coming off the wall to wall Golf Channel coverage as a resurgance for the LPGA Tour. Lord knows, they need a resurgance but after all the tough economic news, lost tournaments, missing sponsors and aborted tenure of the previous commissioner the Tour needs two more things.

First is a commisioner. One who knows the professional game (unlike the last one), who has or can build relationships with the players plus mend relations with sponsors. The women have a wonderful entertaining product that needs the right exposure, marketing and support.

Secondly Wie to start winning. Should she step up and capture three plus tournaments a year including a major or two, watch the needle move in American public and media attention. A tall order you say? It is but there is no question Wie has the talent. And it could do nothing but help if the other Solheim Cup Team members also contributed to U.S. golfers returning to dominance with a few wins of their own.

The rubarb between Callaway Golf and Acushnet Company parent of Titleist in their two year old dispute about whether the world’s most popular ball, the Titleist Pro V1, violates Callaway patents enters another round allowing attorneys on either side to show their stuff.

You will recall after a jury trial Callaway got an injunction against Acushnet continuing to sell the Pro V1 and Acushnet appealed but still pulled the purported offending balls off the market substituting a reformulated model. There’s been a lot of other legal maneuvering but the central points are Callaway says the Pro V1 is in violation and Titleist retorts that the Patent Office says the patents in question are invalid and the first trial verdict was really wrong.

On August 14 Callaway sent me this press release:

“Callaway Golf Company (NYSE:ELY) today announced that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has rejected the majority of the arguments raised by the Acushnet Company on its appeal from the trial court’s ruling that the Titleist Pro V1 family of golf balls had infringed valid patents owned by Callaway. In particular, the Court specifically rejected Acushnet’s request to dismiss the entire case. The appellate court instead returned the case to the United States District Court for the District of Delaware for further proceedings on certain issues specifically identified in the opinion. Callaway Golf is confident that it will prevail, and looks forward to presenting its claim for damages.”

Sounds OK, doesn’t it? Callaway seemingly has won another round and is heading back to court to get another ruling but Acushnet is definitely on the run. Then on the 17th I got a release from Acushnet, a part of which is reproduced below.

“Acushnet Company, the golf business of Fortune Brands, Inc. (NYSE: FO), announced that on August 14, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted the company’s request for a new trial and issued other favorable decisions in its patent dispute with Callaway Golf.

In its opinion, the Court of Appeals’ three-judge panel found that the inconsistent jury verdict holding one patent claim invalid and others not invalid was irreconcilable and could not stand. As a result, the Court of Appeals overturned the judgment and injunction entered by the District Court in November 2008 and sent the case back to that court for a new trial. The court also found that the trial court erred in rejecting an important Acushnet defense before the trial and in not allowing certain evidence supporting that defense. Acushnet now will be able to assert that defense and the supporting evidence, in addition to its other significant defenses, in a new trial before the District Court. The ruling also confirms that all Titleist Pro V1 products can be sold, bought and played with confidence and without any threat of disruption in service.”

Wait a minute are we talking about the same case? I’m not an attorney and never have played one on TV but it sure sounds to me Acushnet is in the driver’s seat and maybe even smoked one down the middle 300 yards.

Some patent attorneys think Acushnet has gotten the court to look at the issues and the patents in question and the new trial is going to find the Pro V1 will not be illegal. Or put another way the jury in the first trial really screwed up and the judge maybe didn’t even understand what was going on.

Stay tuned but as I have pointed out previously I am astounded Callaway continues this and even created the added hassle with TaylorMade Golf about inaccurate or purposely misleading test results for the Callaway Diablo driver. Like that column title says, “What’s With Callaway”?

Although Internal Revenue Service regulations are certainly voluminous and for most of us arcane, it’s a well established principle when nonresident golfers (or any nonresident for that matter) earn money in the U.S. they must pay taxes.

Seems straightforward enough but the IRS is now taking a much closer look at money earned in the U.S. from endorsement contracts. So as in the case of Y.E. Yang, the player who out played Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship and whose endorsement value has multiplied, this uncome will be taxed just like tournament winnings, i.e., at earned income rates of up to 35%.

For some time nonresident golfers have been able to report endorsements as royalty income which fails under international tax treaties requiring a tax rate up to 15% but under certain circumstances the income may not be not taxed at all.

According to Lucy Lee, tax attorney at Washington-based Caplin & Drysdale, “This follows on the heels of a broad IRS initiative launched two years ago to closely scrutinize their U.S. tax compliance activities.” The IRS says royalty income is not an accurate depiction of the endorsement money and players in fact become “walking billboards” for the products they wear and use.

In what may be a classic understatement Lee says, “This IRS guidance is aggressive, unwelcome, and should be carefully monitored by the athletes and their professional advisors.”

The Feds at last appear to have found a source of revenue to make up for all that bail out money they’ve been spreading around and conceivably this might even cause some international players to give up their U.S. homes.

November 2 is just around the corner and in the world of golf that’s a significant date being the 2009 World Golf Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

Serious fans of the game have found past induction ceremonies not only interesting but combined with a visit to the Hall of Fame, a treasured life-long memory.

This year’s class of World Golf Hall of Fame inductees is headlined by President Dwight Eisenhower. While in the White House Ike was the avid “nation’s first golfer” who began playing after being graduated from the United States Military Academy. His immense personal popularity combined with the advent of televised tournament coverage and the rise to dominance of close friend Arnold Palmer were key catalysts to the explosive growth of golf, doubling in the number of American golfers in the 1950’s.

Palmer will address the induction ceremony audience about his former playing partner with the entire ceremony being carried on the Golf Channel.

The other members of the class of 2009 are “Himself” Ireland’s Christy O’Connor, twice Masters Champion José María Olazábal from Spain and Lanny Wadkins an eight time member and former captain of the United States Ryder Cup team.

Those wishing to attend the Induction Ceremony are in luck. Special packages are available with the two best deals being the Induction Ceremony Plus Gala package starting at $359 and Golf & Gala package for $753. The first includes two nights at the Renaissance Resort, reserved seating and an invitation to the post-induction party while the second is three nights at the Renaissance and golf at the Slammer and Squire golf course and King and Bear course.

The World Golf Hall of Fame is well worth the effort to visit and the 2009 Induction Ceremony makes the trip very special.

Golf in the Olympics

With the announcement yesterday golf will join the list in 2016 of sports contested in the Olympics (along with rugby sevens) the work of a lot of golf people and organizations has borne fruit. All that remains is for the expected final approval by the International Olympic Committee.

According to Ty Votaw, the spear carrier in the battle to obtain approval and a vice president of the PGA Tour as well as executive director of the International Golf Federation Olympic Committee, “We’re obviously thrilled that the IOC Executive Board has recommended that golf should be added to the 2016 Olympic Program, We believe we have presented a compelling case as to why golf should be added and we look forward to the IOC’s final vote in October.”

The problem is I have yet to see a proposal from the PGA Tour or the USGA as to how another 72-hole tournament will fit into the schedule. If you have read previous columns on this topic you know I’m not real happy nor is everyone in golf with one more high profile “must play” championship especially since tournament sponsors are dropping out left and right from every pro tour.

The people who want Olympic golf say it’s about growing the popularity of the game and as I said in an earlier column, proponents assume “presumably dozens of national governments will start funding golf programs with tax payer money creating millions of new golfers around the world.”

Right.

The presentation to the IOC selection committee was in part predicated on of course Tiger, Lefty, Michelle, Paula and even Natalie competing. Wonderful for those big names and shoo-in members of team USA , but what happened to the idea of amateurs and the Olympics? I guess you can call me old fashioned but after watching the USA basketball team…well, you get my point.

The Olympics is held at the end of July and the beginning of August so the Open Championship, Women’s British Open and the PGA will be effected to say nothing of the other five professional majors (The Masters, men’s and women’s U.S. Opens, The Kraft Nabisco and MacDonald’s Championship). Not that a major can’t be moved but how about the trickle down to regular tour events? (See comments above concerning tournament sponsors.)

Next, do the all those countries supposedly waiting to taxpayer fund new golf programs after the attainment of its exalted Olympic status know the cost of building and maintaining not just one golf course but dozens and maybe hundreds, not to mention the expense of golf equipment for hundreds, thousands or even millions of players? My guess is not.

Finally Olympic engendered grow around the world will be a boon to golf equipment makers and perhaps to tourism though I’m struggling to see plane loads of Albanian hackers flocking to Florida or Arizona for a winter break.

Don’t get me wrong, I would like to see Olympic golf and even Tiger has made positive comments concerning his participation but there are real concerns yet to be addressed. And if they have why have the powers-that-be not been forthcoming with answers?

Cynic that I am, in my experience if it squeaks you pay attention to it, so just call me the squeaky wheel.

It’s certainly no secret -TaylorMade Golf’s new ball to challenge the Titleist Pro V1 is the Penta TP, a five piece, urethane cover offering to be announced this fall and in shops in December, though it has been seen on tour for some weeks.

Mark King, TaylorMade Golf president, told this writer in January they were going to have increased emphasis on the ball market in 09 and a reevaluation of how best to gain additional market share in an already crowded field. TMaG dumped Maxfli and have watched as Bridgestone Golf made real gains primarily against the Callaway Golf line of balls while their own TP brand has hardly moved the popularity needle.

TMaG wants more of the ball market and is attacking the problem with a super hi-tech ball that will sell at the uppper end of the ball price range.

Orange County National outside Orlando has two high quality courses and an executive nine. It has been the site for the finals of the PGA Tour school three times and again with host the event next year.

They also have an eye (or is it a nose?) for promotion. See the T-Pod promotion described below from OCN’s email program. It sure is nice to see someone doing something unique in this down time.

Check out their website: http://www.ocngolf.com/

Adams Golf has rolled out the latest extension of the Idea line with the Idea a7OS hybrid set specifically meant as a game improvement club for use by recreational players. Each set consists of 3-, 4- and 5- hybrids, 6- and 7- mid-hybrids and 8-iron to PW irons.

“The patented gapping technology that we applied to Idea a7OS truly optimizes each club in the hybrid iron set to outperform traditional irons,” said Michael Vrska, Director of Product Development. “The result is a set of hybrid irons that is truly the most forgiving and easiest-to-hit that we have ever designed.”

What Adams Golf Says About the Idea a7OS:
-Designed for aspiring and recreational golfers
-Idea a7OS may be purchased individually
-Hybrids have 44-grams of rear weighting for increased launch angle
-Mid-hybrids feature a four way cambered sole and H-back vibration dampening
-Irons have quad-cavity backs and perimeter weighting
-Available in women’s and seniors models
-MSRP $699.99 with steel shafts and $799.99 graphite shafts
-Individual hybrids (2-6) MSRP is $199.99

In addition Adams is offering the a7OS Max all hybrid set for high handicap players consisting of four wood-like hybrids and four iron-like hybrids which will be at retail in September for a MSRP of $849.99 in graphite and $749.99 steel.

First it was Callaway Golf’s suit against Acushnet for alleged patent infringement by Titleist Pro V1 balls which resulted in an injunction against Acushnet and which Acushnet is appealing. The short term result however was forcing Titleist to reformulate the Pro V1 and pulling the offending models from store shelves.

Acushnet contends the original injunction coming out of a jury trial should never have been issued since the U.S. Patent Office ruled the four patents in question invalid. Callaway continues to push the issue seemly being of the mind since they can’t beat Acushnet in the marketplace the courtroom is the next best place.

Now Callaway is being stood up against the wall by Taylormade for advertisements run for the Diablo driver claiming it to be nine yards longer than the Taylormade Burner driver. I won’t get into the particulars but according to Taylormade, Callaway set up conditions in the comparison test insuring the Diablo would win by using launch angles and spin rates real life golfers can’t achieve.

Taylormade has produced a video detailing what it says are Callaway’s numerous misleading statements in the subject advertisements and pointing out a simple fact; as with Acushnet in ball business, Taylormade is the number one driver brand by a long margin. They have more driver sales worldwide than Callaway, Nike and Titleist combined.

Further Taylormade commissioned an independent lab test of the two drivers under swing and launch conditions reflecting those of real world golfers and showed the Burner was longer than the Diablo.

Which of course is not the point of this column.

The point is, what’s with Callaway?

They make good products, have achieved respect as a company and especially as a marketer of clubs but in these two instances Callaway gives the impression of desperation. Saying or doing anything to win.