Over the Green

The well-chronicled fall from grace of the world’s number one player has had a far reaching impact on Tiger Woods, his family and golf in general. However, in spite of reports of a three quarter of a billion (yes, that’s a B) divorce settlement pending Woods is not going to have to peddle his used Nike clubs on eBay to make ends meet. He still has plenty of off course income from Nike, Electronic Arts and others who evidently were able to hold their collective corporate noses even after being fired from endorsement contracts with Gatorade, AT&T and Accenture.

An article on Forbes.com by Kurt Badenhausen puts numbers to the wages of sin. According to the story Woods lost about $30 million in endorsement deals but retains the estimated $30 million Nike pays him.

Of significance though is the state of Woods course design business and the troubles there are not linked to Woods’ actions as much as the worldwide economic slowdown and real estate collapse.

The high profile Al Ruwaya Golf Course project in Dubai for which Badenhausen reports Woods received $20 million plus a slice of real estate sales, has stopped construction. The Cliffs Communities in North Carolina promotes a Woods design that is has now been delayed for the second time and lack of financing casts doubts it will ever be completed. Finally the Punta Brava development in Mexico is having problems with permitting and an opening for a to-be-built golf course is in the far distant future.

He presumably will also get back to winning at some point so those on course earnings will help.

There’s new queen of the hill and as unbelievable as it may seem, it’s an American. Cristie Kerr with a win of epic margin securing her second career major leaps from fifth to first in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings.

“Epic” might not due justice to the way she blew away a field of the best lady players in golf. Twelve strokes over Song-Hee Kim (Korea) and by 14 over Ai Miyazato (Japan) who had held the number one spot in world rankings for one week taking over from Jiyai Shin after her win at the ShopRite LPGA Classic.

More importantly Kerr is the first American ever to be in the number one spot since the rankings were launched in February 2006. Annika Sorenstam and then Lorena Ochoa, now both retired, had dominated the list for four years until Shin took over.

Does this signal resurgence by American women in world golf? Let’s hope so for the sake of the LPGA, their marketing efforts and their ability to attract tournament sponsors.

A few facts though put some dimensions on the situation.

Kerr’s major win is the sixth win for an American this year-her second.
American’s have won only four of the past 14 majors-Kerr has two of those.
Kerr’s win the LPGA Championship is the first by an American in 10 years.
Michelle Wie is the only other American in the top 10 of the Rolex Rankings.
Kerr is second on the 2010 money list-$60,000 behind Miyazato.
Azahara Munoz (Spain) leads U.S.’s Amanda Blumenherst for rookie honors.
Mina Harigae is the only other American (#10) in the rookie top 10.

As has appeared in this column on other occasions, the LPGA Tour is truly the only international golf tour, way ahead of the PGA Tour or any other of the male tours. While this is wonderful and good for the game it is not the business plan which will either cause intense fan involvement in the United States nor corporate sponsorships from U.S. companies.

The answer is simple. The LPGA needs to keep doing what it’s doing around the world, particularly Asia where money/sponsorships have grown but to make the Tour work in the U.S. American players have to win and win often. In short, Cristy or Michelle or Paula or whomever needs to dominant.

And by the way, Mrs. Ray Knight made one of her rare appearances on Tour at the LPGA Championship Presented by Wegmans thrilling the Rochester crowd. Unfortunately Hall of Fame member Nancy Lopez in her first tournament of 2010 missed the cut with rounds of 87 and 86.

It was the opinion of many, this writer included, the United States Golf Association’s changing of the allowable dimensions of grooves on club’s with more than 25 degrees of loft (essentially 5-iron and up) was a bad idea.

Golf’s ruling body provided for a staged implementation – January 2010 for professionals and amateurs in USGA championships – with most golfers given until 2024 to comply…unless of course one were to buy a new set of irons sometime in the next 14 years.

The arguments against this ruling were and are twofold. One of golf’s many charms is no matter how bad or good a player was, he or she played on the same competition ground and with the same equipment as everyone else. Secondly for the majority of golfers, i.e., the less skilled, decreasing the “bite” of grooves on a wedge and other short irons makes it measurably and disproportionately more difficult to stop approach shots near the pin or for that matter on the green when playing from either the rough or fairway.

>>To read the rest of this story click on the title “Groove Effect” in Exclusive Feature Articles above.

Putting coaches, those gurus of the flat stick, will tell you the most common mistake golfers at every skill level make is incorrect aiming of the putter at address. It seems so simple, so basic but the majority of golfers do not have the face of the putter aiming on the line of the putt.

If they are right handers, the tendency is to aim left, so to make any putts they have to compensate for their poor aim by adjusting their stroke which certainly isn’t a good idea. This problem has been recognized for a long time by putter makers and each one has tried to correct it in their putter design.

>>To read the rest of this story click on the title “Rossa Corza Ghost” in Latest First Look Reviews above.

TaylorMade Golf has the habit of putting a club on the market and then shortly after, if it proves successful, introducing a tour version (designated by the initials TP).
This is case the new Burner Superfast TP was preceded by, you guessed it, the Burner Superfast. Drivers in general have gotten larger of course and somewhere along the line someone figured out clubhead speed could be increased by making the head more aerodynamic, the premise of both the Superfast and Superfast TP.

>>To read the rest of this story click on the title “TMaG Burner SuperFast TP driver” in Latest First Look Reviews above.

If you have been following the news Cobra Golf is no more, sold by Acushnet to PUMA AG who have formed a new entity, COBRA-PUMA GOLF but the two brands will for now at least be continued to be developed separately.

In recent years Cobra which remains based in Carlsbad, Calif., had been getting lots of attention for not only its Baffler line of utility clubs/hybrids but for their S2 family of drivers. Puma, primarily shoe makers, will remain in Boston, Mass. Cobra has sponsored on Tour presently Camil Villegas, Ian Poulter and J.B. Holmes with well known announcer David Feherty as a spokesman.

>>Read the rest of this story click on the title “Cobra Baffler Rail Fairways” in Latest First Look Reviews above.

Bobby Jones described Pinehurst as, “the St. Andrews of United States golf,” and the best known venue in this small North Carolina village is Pinehurst Resort, home to Donald Ross’ famous Course No. 2.

No. 2 has been the site for many epic golf battles and for more than 100 years host to the North-South Championship, the second most prestigious amateur event after the U.S. Open. Jones, Nelson, Snead, Hogan, Palmer, Nicklaus and virtually every other member of the Hall of Fame competed over the Ross layout while in modern times there is the memory of Payne Stewart’s emotional 1999 U.S. Open victory four months before his death.

Ross lived in the Village of Pinehurst and considered No. 2 his favorite course continuing to tweak and tinker the design from its opening in 1907 until the end of his life in 1948. MORE…

Adidas Golf’s slogan has always been intriguing. “We make equipment you play” can be taken not only as a fact but a mission statement too, kind of a cocky, pugnacious approach applied not to golf clubs or balls but to shoes, shirts and jackets.

The portion of the golf market for so called soft goods is competitive, intensely competitive but adidas has always stood for quality and performance and innovation. So for 2010 they are breaking new ground by introducing a top of the line shoe and apparel brand named adiPURE that is sure to attract a lot of attention. MORE…