Over the Green

Editor’s note: FrontPageGolf correspondent Carolyn McCool filed this story after spending Friday at the most unusual hole in tournament golf, the 16th at TPC Scottsdale.

By CAROLYN MCCOOL

SCOTSDALE, Ariz. – The crowd is restless, cheering on an eventual victor. Thousands peer down at players in the arena below, eagerly waiting what is to come next. Is this golf or “American Gladiators?” This week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open sixteenth hole could be called a place for both.

Walking from the 15th green through a tunnel under grandstands and sky boxes players arrive into the arena, a fan-surrounded, pristinely-kept desert par-3 which is the sixteenth. This is the “Stadium hole” at the Scottsdale Tournament Player’s Club Stadium Course and if you love golf, you must come here at least once.

Never in tournament golf history has there been a hole like this, surrounded by spectators who “boo” a missed green or “sigh” if a shot lands on the green but far from the hole. Where else can you find a cheering section performing the wave each with an informational chart for cheering or taunting players? How many tournaments will you find an announcer with a stand-up microphone asking a noisy crowd to refrain from speaking while a player is teeing up his shot?

Surrounded by skyboxes and grandstands each sporting company signs, logos and Heineken beer ads there is enough room for perhaps 30,000 people. The feeling is like a Kentucky Derby complete to the racetrack-like layout and buzz of event excitement flowing through this space which was completely enclosed three years ago.

There are no truly quiet moments at sixteen. The roar and chatter of the crowd noise is obvious even while players execute their shots; just too many people and too much excitement to obey volunteers wielding “Quiet Please” paddles. Players either love or hate this hole. This is not golf as usual but the unusualness of the golf at TPC Scottsdale’s sixteenth certainly makes it memorable.

Fans call out a player’s name and some even get very friendly with a player to enjoy the celebration of the event. “Go, Ricky,” yells a fan to the fashionably plaid pants dressed Ricky Barnes. Another shouts, “ASU,” either not knowing Barnes hails from the University of Arizona or perhaps challenging his alma mater. He proceeds to finish with a par, as does the rest of his group, exiting to fans’ cheers and chants.

Two years ago at the sixteenth someone yelled out Aaron Baddeley’s dog’s name and the dog’s favorite food. Where do you get information like that? Interested fans find it and share it at the Stadium hole.

The same people come out year after year to see and stay. Can Tiger Woods’ hole-in-one in 1997 be forgotten? Cheers erupted followed by cups and other objects being thrown out of the stands onto the desert floor. Woods does not play in Phoenix any more reportedly because of an incident involving a man carrying a gun but the energy and thrill of sixteen remains. Waste Management, the current tournament sponsor, is even donating $25,000 to charity in the player’s name who wins the four day closest-to–the-pin contest.

After a group’s last player has teed off the crowd’s energy remains, awaiting arrival of the next group and to follow the same spirited routine. Within this enclosed space something is happening which resembles both a show and a fight, entertaining and delighting viewers.

Maybe golf and gladiators do have something in common after all.

Editor’s note: Carolyn McCool is a freelance writer and is currently launching a greeting card line called “Sharing A Word Fitly Spoken.” She and her husband have twin sons and currently reside in Bethlehem, PA.

“Clubs must change. Some will last, but others will not.”
By CAROLYN MCCOOL
Today there are programs for young men and women who wish careers in golf however in even the recent past the pathway to being a golf professional was not always as clear and certainly today’s career seekers have better resources available. Consequently many golf professional’s lives make wonderful stories and the life of Gene Mattare, director of golf at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Penn., is one of them.

Mattare’s professional life serves as encouragement to those starting out as well as producing a smile of satisfaction from others who have traveled similar pathways in a profession they love and would choose again.

Growing up in Northern Virginia, Mattare lettered in golf at George Washington University and graduated in 1974 with a degree in psychology after a switch from pre-med. Four years after graduation having acquired some job experience he decided to make golf his career or at least try it for five years he reasoned. If he did not have a professional’s position by then, he would reevaluate. MORE…

Yesterday’s AP story concerning statements by Proctor & Gamble chief executive officer Bob McDonald to the effect their Gillette division won’t be using Tiger Woods as a spokesman any time soon, if ever again, prompted a question in my mind about some of the other high profile business deals in which Woods has an interest.

At the top of the list are the three residential real estate developments Woods has a contract to design golf courses; one in Dubai, one in North Carolina and one in Mexico.

Starting in Dubai, the course is reportedly fully designed and engineered but only construction of the first nine has been completed. The world wide real estate meltdown has postponed the Dubai Properties Group development although an interview on Bloomberg.com with the CEO indicates there are no immediate plans to finish either the course or the development.

The High Carolina development, which is part of the Cliffs Communities company and the site of another Woods design, is looking for funding along with the other Cliffs properties. The search is centering on residents and propertiy owners says the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times. “Cliffs Communities is trying to raise $60 to $100 million, and it has sent letters to its members (an estimated 2,400 at six different developments in North and South Carolina, including High Carolina, where Tiger Woods is building a golf course) to see if they would like to contribute.”

The newest Woods contracted course is an hour south of San Diego and named Punta Brava. The San Diego Union-Tribune says ground breaking will be in 2010 with a 2012 opening, two years later than originally projected with a long permitting process blamed.

So Woods may be out of sight but the courses he is contracted to design are not looking especially healthy either.

Finally, Accenture Plc, who was among the first to fire Woods after the revelations of his misconduct has emphatically stated they will not rehire him, now or in the future. Of course, it’s only a coincidence this came to light after Woods chose to use last Friday, day three of the Accenture March Play Championship, to make his televised appearance thus upstaging all the tournament news for the day and the week.

OK, it has been a few hours since Tiger Woods did his thing in front of some friends, employees, PGA Tour execs and his mother. Plenty of time for us media types to make profound judgments filled with pithy terminology.

We don’t know if Woods’ words were a bunch of self-serving hot air and won’t for a long time. Certainly not until this has all played out which will probably take years.

Being someone who was critical of him and his handlers for almost every aspect of the situation that reflected his selfish ‘control at any cost’ view of the world this today did seem to be slightly different.

It would have been better if he had made this first appearance in a less micromanaged setting but very importantly it seemed for the very first time the statement he was reading was not written by PR weenies – maybe the words were even his own. Good. No, great, a wonderful first step on the road to being a great husband and father, which as those of us in the real world know, is all important and has nothing to do with being a great golfer.

In part he said, “I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn’t have to go far to find them.” So maybe he has matured some and found out just because you can do something doesn’’ mean you should.

When will he be back? Let the speculation begin. There is a measurable probability he won’t, i.e., he will take his millions and hopefully his lovely wife and cute children and say, “To heck with it. My privacy is more important.”

But, golf needs Tiger Woods. Not just the PGA Tour but golf in general so let’s hope he is away only a short time, comes back and lives the exempleary life we all thought he was living.

I’m pulling for him.

By Carolyn McCool

The first rule of golf is, “play it as it lies.” This rule is true in the golf business as well as the game, especially today. Change is a constant in life, but roller coaster changes appear to be the norm for the golf industry, at least for a while. The economy and the golfer’s time are the factors determining if or will he or she tee it up.

“The demographics of golf are changing, especially age wise and use wise,” cites Gene Mattare, Director of Golf at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Penn., site of last year’s U.S. Women’s Open. “The economy is driving much of it. The consumer is rethinking how he or she will spend money and if golf membership will be something to be included in that money.” MORE…

The announcement this afternoon Tiger Woods will meet with “a small group of friends, colleagues and close associates” with no questions allowed and only a few media people in the room is not…repeat not…the way to start building back the image, trust and relationship with the public he caused to end with his behavior.

Tempest in a teapot you say? Could be, but for the next day and one-half the tempest will be all the speculation by us media types about when he will return and indeed, if he will return.

Just another example, as if more were needed, how not to work through this kind of devastating situation. Woods handlers and managers, particularly those at IMG that allowed him, not dissuaded him, should be shown the door and if you think that’s overboard read the text below of Woods’ statement, it’s unbelievable.

Tiger Woods will be speaking to a small group of friends, colleagues and close associates at 11 a.m. (EST) Friday at the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL. Tiger plans to discuss his past and his future and he intends to apologize for his behavior.
This will not be an open media event. However, it is understood that there are many media who are interested in what he has to say. In order to accommodate as best we can, we are working to arrange pool coverage of Tiger’s remarks.
There will be a network pool camera providing coverage of his talk. The feed will be available live to any network or station that wishes to air it. A limited number of print and wire service reporters will be in attendance and will share their notes, color and background on a pooled basis. We are working with the Golf Writers Association of America to arrange for pool coverage.

The WGC – Accenture Match Play Championship begins tomorrow without Tiger Woods, a three-time winner, who is still on the self-imposed hiatus from tournament golf and according to his last public statement, repairing his marriage. Golf’s other major star Phil Mickelson is not playing in order to take his family on vacation during his children’s school break.

The Match Play is a lot of fun for most players and fans even though there is the risk (terrifying to advertisers and television executives) the favorites will lose in the early rounds leaving them with key matches such as number 22 in the world playing number 56. Presumably this is the reason the PGA Tour does not have more match play events or at least events different than the usual four rounds medal play.

With an $8 million purse ($1.35 million to the winner) there are a lot of reasons to show up in Tucson if you have qualified and challenge 2009 winner Geoff Ogilvy. Forecasting a winner though is very hard since, say #56 can have a hot week and blow away his opponents – its happened before – and then never be heard of again (think of Kevin Sutherland in 2002 and Jeff Maggert in 1999).

This year has not caused a lot of early fan interest either with the top four seeds being Steve Stricker, Lee Westwood, Jim Furyk and Martin Kaymer. All have proven to be wonderful players but only one major championship among them, Furyk’s win at the U.S. Open in 2003.

Without both Woods (world ranked #1) and Mickelson (#3) there’s no doubt television ratings will suffer not to mention tournament attendance. Tucson is known for its’ enthusiastic golf fans but the Winter Olympics is strong competition for viewers’ attention.

Mickelson said he is not in the field because of the cancer treatments for both his wife and mother which have caused his playing schedule to be pushed to a lower priority. He did say publicly however he would have liked to be at the Match Play Championship but felt he needed to spend time with his wife and children.

There are no signs from the Woods camp of him returning to the Tour and contrary to what some commentators have said, Woods does owe a debt to golf; the game which provided him the stage to become famous and make his hundreds of millions of dollars. In addition if and when he does return he will have to deal with the many fans that feel betrayed by his spectacular fall from grace plus don’t forget the charities, businesses, stockholders and employees hurt economically as a result of his being caught in his deception.

So the bottom line is a new champion will be feted Sunday night and it won’t be either of the Tour’s biggest names.

In the battle for golf ball market share against the segment dominating position of Acushnet Golf, other ball makers have come up with some pretty strange ideas – remember yellow balls? One recent idea though which was definitely not strange is Bridgestone Golf’s ball-fitting program. In three years the company has sponsored 50,000 plus fittings giving golfers get hi-tech help to determine which golf ball is best for their individual swing and game.

The ball-fitting idea produced two significant results. Bridgestone doubled their market share and the popular B330-RX ball was conceived. MORE…

The Titleist NXT three-piece ball is a worthy Titleist Pro V1 substitute

The three-piece NXT Tour has a faster dual core than the previous model and a Titleist-proprietary Fusablend cover rather than Surlyn as with some other competitors’ balls in the category. The dimple pattern has also been improved all of which make the NXT Tour a worthy substitute for Titleist’s market leading Pro V1 at about a 35% lower cost.

“The New NXT Tour and New NXT deliver even higher performance and longer distance, further establishing each model as benchmarks in their respective categories,” said George Sine, Vice President, Golf Ball Marketing and Strategic Planning for Titleist’s parent Acushnet Company. “Based upon comprehensive machine testing, as well as positive feedback captured during player testing with current NXT family loyalists and competitive golf ball users, we have delivered two exciting new ways for golfers to lower their scores.”

The NXT is a two-piece model similar to the old NXT Exreme. MSRP for the NXT Tour is $40 and for the NXT $34 but street prices are $29.99 and $25.99 respectively.

To golfers Florida is a wonderful place to live or visit or watch their favorite professionals tee it up and with more than 1,200 golf facilities the state has the largest golf economy in the country. It is instructive to look at the numbers of this $7.5 billion Florida golf economy as much for what they tell us as what they do not. The numbers and a couple of related points are particularly important for those who love golf to understand in light of the disingenuous image of the game as a “rich man’s sport’ being pushed by politicians with other agendas.

During the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla. last month two items on the agenda has particular significance. First the Florida Golf Impact Task Force showed the golf industry as a major employer which generates in the Sunshine State a significant amount of revenue for hotels, restaurants and other tourist related businesses. Second, with truly long range national significance was the announcement of WE ARE GOLF by four golf organizations to improve golf’s image in the eyes of national leaders. MORE…