Fantasy or reality? The glass is half full.
Psychologists tell us that February is the most depressing month of the year. Enough winter, enough gray days, enough shovelling. “Just let me get my hands on that groundhog’s scrawny little neck!”
To make matters worse, every day newspapers and TV stations are full of economic doom and gloom. Tales of bankruptcy, bailouts and despair. If you still have a job, you’re going to lose it. If you still have a business, it’s not for long. If you’re not depressed, there’s something wrong with you. The end is near so don’t be buying any green bananas!
What’s the point of even getting out of bed in the morning? Everything sucks and there’s nothing you can do about it. Even Dr. Phil looks unhappy.
Except someone forgot to tell the golf industry how bad things are. These guys just don’t get it. They act like the sun’s actually going to come up tomorrow. In fact, they act like it might get warm again too.
Perhaps someone should launch an investigation to see what these guys have been smoking. Why aren’t they depressed?
Maybe it’s in the DNA. Golfers seem to be imbued with an irrepressable optimism that non-golfers don’t have. How else to explain the absolute faith that you can launch a high soft 2-iron to a tight pin when your normal score is well into three digits.
Listen to the general manager or head pro at any course. “Despite evidence to the contrary, there is green grass under all that white stuff. People are going to come here in a few months to play golf, drink beer and have fun. Things are good but they’re getting better.”
Crazy talk!
Listen to the membership director at any private club. “Yeah we have a few openings but the phone hasn’t stopped ringing since Christmas. We expect to be full come spring, maybe even have a bit of a waiting list.”
That’s nuts! Don’t they read the papers?
Retailers are even worse. “Sure we have lots of inventory but there’s a lot of exciting new products out there and we’re in a selling mood. Maybe people aren’t buying new cars but they sure like our new drivers!”
What’s happening here? Are they drinking the Kool Aid?
I’ll tell you what’s happening here. Business! Maybe not business exactly like usual but business none the less. The golf industry is definitely a glass half full crowd. Maybe even three quarters full. Just listen to some of them:
Unemployment is up to 7%! “Yeah but 93% are still employed.”
Companies will be laying off even more people. “Unfortunate, but maybe now they’ll have more time to play golf.”
The stock market has lost half its value! “Sounds like a good buying opportunity.”
The world is going to hell in a hand basket! “Have you seen this new line of hand baskets we just brought in?”
Whether it’s fantasy or reality, people in the golf industry are really hyped for spring. It’s infectious.
“Buy now! Join now! Book now!”
Shout it ten times quickly. The sun really is going to come up tomorrow.
PGA Tour cancels most fun we’ll have all year
If you happened to tune into CBS on Sunday afternoon hoping to catch the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Invitational, you would have seen highlights of the 3-hole exhibition match staged by announcers Gary McCord and Ian Baker-Finch. Since the PGA Tour had delayed the start of play for the day due to high winds, CBS decided that in addition to re-airing some past Pebble Beach tournament, a little original content might prove entertaining as well.
It was suggested that the weather conditions on the Monterey Peninsula on Sunday were dangerous with winds gusting to 40 mph and at least one tree having been blown over on the third hole. There was intermittent rain but no standing water and no lightning in the vicinity. Perhaps the conditions were unplayable but one wonders if the R&A would have postponed the round if it were the Open Championship. Nonetheless, the Tour made the decision to halt play and let the players stay warm and cuddly in the Pebble Beach Lodge.
Meanwhile the CBS crew, tired of waiting for something to happen, decided to take matters into their own hands. “If those over-pampered sissies won’t play, we’ll show them how it was done in the old days!” thundered McCord. He and Finchie bundled themselves up like they were headed to the ski hill, then proceeded to the high ground along the Pacific coast where the winds were most fierce and the holes would be the toughest.
On the 140-yard, downhill par-3 seventh Finchie hit a driver just over the back of the green. Now, admittedly, it was dead into the wind and Baker-Finch hasn’t broken 80 since the early nineties when David Leadbetter started working with him but come on, it’s 140 freakin’ yeards – downhill! Anyway, he got up and down for par. McCord hit some long iron short (if that makes any sense) but couldn’t save par. Advantage Finchie.
Just after the two veterans hit their tee shots on the 8th hole, someone at CBS realized how much money they were paying Nick Faldo not to work that day and made the decision to cut coverage of the grudge match and go instead to the post-round press conference with Jim Nantz and Faldo. Nickie, who can’t stand not to be the centre of attention even tried to steal the limelight from his two announcing partners by dumping french fries in McCord’s lap. Actually pretty funny, if a bit slapstickish. However it was all great entertainment.
But imagine how much better it could have been if it was the Tour players instead of the announcers who were on the course in those conditions, battling the elements and grinding out bogeys! It’s not so long ago that Gil Morgan took the lead into the final round of the 1992 US Open at Pebble Beach and managed to shoot 81 on Sunday and fall all the way to a tie for 13th, paving the way for Tom Kite to win his only major. The conditions on that Sunday were even worse than this past weekend. Not only did the players have to battle ferocious winds and driving rain, fog blanketed the course for much of the round making visibility unbelievably difficult.
So, on two different Sundays, seventeen years apart, one organization cancels play while the other let’s them have at it. Perhaps that’s the difference between the USGA and the PGA Tour. Or maybe it’s the importance of a US Open Championship versus the hit-and-giggle Crosby Clambake. Whatever. In the tightly controlled world of Tim Finchem, nothing is left to chance and the fans are less for it.
As it turned out, postponing the final round of this year’s AT&T until Monday didn’t work either, as the rains moved in and rendered the course unplayable. So Dustin Johnson wins and Mike Weir finishes second without hitting a shot in the fourth round. There were probably a lot of pros happy to sit that final round out, take their cheque and mosey on down to LA. However, for those within hailing distance of the lead, one suspects they would have played in any conditions for the chance to notch another victory.
Too bad the PGA Tour wouldn’t let them play. It would have been great theatre.
Weir gets Hall of Fame nod 10 years too soon
Last week the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame announced that its 2009 inductee would be Mike Weir. There can’t be much argument regarding Weir’s credentials but it seems strange to put any athlete into any Hall of Fame until their serious playing days are over. The Champions Tour keeps pro golfers active well into their sixties so one might be forgiven for wondering when their “serious” playing days are done. In the case of a PGA Tour golfer an argument can be made that the serious competition is done when they stop playing against the best in the world. For most that means age 50 or perhaps sooner if the body fails or the desire wanes.
Weir, by his own admission has a lot of golf left at a very high level. Induction to the Canadian Hall of Fame at age 39 is a huge honour but not something that couldn’t be deferred for a decade or so. Hopefully Weir can add to his accomplishments, maybe even put himself into consideration for the World Golf Hall of Fame. He currently has 8 PGA Tour victories. Two more wins, if one of them is a major, would practically guarantee him a spot in St. Augustine.
I’ve never liked the idea of enshrining a player while they’re still active. The LPGA has done it for years with a pre-set number of wins and majors as the qualifying criteria. Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb and others easily hit the mark but curiously had to wait out a 10 year membership rule before they could go into the Hall. For the men, the rules are less well defined but generally speaking 10 wins including 2 majors; or 15 wins and 1 major; or 20 wins is pretty much a lock for the World Golf Hall of Fame. Unless your name is Lanny Wadkins who has 21 wins and 1 professional major. (2 majors if you count them the same way Jack Nicklaus does.) Regardless of who’s counting what, Lanny is stiil on the outside looking in. But that’s another story for another day.
It used to be that it took an entire career to amass those kinds of numbers. These days players like Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods easily passed the 20 win mark in mid career. (Tiger may have passed it while he was still a teenager but like all things Tiger there’s a different benchmark involved). The World Golf Hall of Fame decided to induct Vijay before his playing days are over and will likely do the same for Tiger and Phil. Like Mike Weir in the Canadian Hall of Fame, there can be no doubt they are qualified, but what’s the rush?
I think baseball has the best Hall of Fame process. A player doesn’t get on the ballot until he’s been retired five years. Hockey had a similar rule but bent it when Wayne Gretzky retired, then broke it for Mario Lemieux. Unfortunately Mario didn’t have the good grace to stay retired so you probably won’t see the Hockey Hall of Fame do that again. Anyway, it seems that most of the team sports wait at least until a player is retired, then they usher him or her into the Hall of Fame as the crowning achievement on an exceptional career. Kind of like the last word, the final accolade, the finishing touch.
The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame needs to re-think their process. When considering players, there seems to be a bias towards PGA Tour and LPGA pros right now, even while they’re still playing. There are several amateurs and club pros that should be considered for induction before the Hall needs to consider active touring pros. First among them would be Graham Cooke whose ten national titles plus countless provincial wins and an unprecendented 27 Willingdon Cup appearances place him among the best amateur golfers this country has ever produced. Ben Kern was never much of a self promoter but his contributions to Canadian golf, particularly the CPGA are huge. Likewise Jack McLaughlin.
Former RCGA Executive Director Stephen Ross isn’t the flavour of the day around Golf House right now but his contirbutions and accomplishments for both the Canadian Open and amateur golf are certainly worthy of Hall of Fame consideration. There are some in the media and many in the golf industry who crossed swords with Ross but it’s hard to argue with the achievements made during his tenure at the RCGA.
I expect that sooner rather than later Stephen Ames will also be nominated. His continuing contributions to junior golf and his playing record make him a worthwhile candidate but Stephen’s not finished his PGA Tour career yet so all in good time.
I’m not sure why Lorie Kane’s name hasn’t come up before now either. Maybe she hasn’t been nominated yet. Her playing credentials are at least on par with contemporaries already in the Hall of Fame. And none of them can hold a candle to her in the effort she puts into promoting the Women’s Open in particular and Canadian golf in general.
Lorie hasn’t decided her career is over yet so let’s put the Hall of Fame stuff on hold. She’ll know when it’s time to hang them up and when she tells us, that will be when it’s time to party.
Orlando Show Short on New Ideas and Attendees
The 2009 PGA Merchandise Show did little to brighten the hopes of golf pros and retailers throughout North America. With an ailing economy and the golf industry on the downswing, manufacturers couldn’t come up with anything innovative to spark the interest of those who made the trek to Orlando. Cosmetic changes, minor tweaks and a fresh coat of paint are about all that golfers will have to look forward to this year.
Perhaps the innovation envelope has already been pushed to the limit and the USGA lines in the sand are starting to have some effect. Without anything to grab our fancy, several companies (Nike, Nickent, TaylorMade and Callaway) are pushing the adjustability factor in the hopes that gear heads will jump on the do-it-yourself bandwagon. TaylorMade’s new R9 driver has about 875 combinations of lie angle, face angle, tilt, swivel, weighting and graphic presentation with a new adjustable connector. While the new driver features a fairly traditional look, for those of us that can barely handle one driver fitted correctly, this is overkill in the worst way.
Titleist came back to the Show this year but didn’t have anything new to demonstrate that we hadn’t already seen at the fall Shows except the latest iteration of the Pro V1 that presumably gets around all those nasty little patent infringement issues that caused such a fuss before Christmas. Ping had a neat display with lots of historical presentations to showcase their 50th anniversary but nothing startling in terms of new clubs.
While the attendance numbers aren’t available yet it’s safe to say that more folks stayed home this year than last. Cost cutting in the current economic climate can be blamed for much of that although maybe people just knew there wasn’t going to be much to see. The 2009 Show featured acres of empty coloured carpet representing last minute cancellations by exhibitors. MacGregor was one of those and rumours abound that Norman and company have already pulled the plug or are close to shutting the doors.
Nike and TaylorMade had no presence at the Show at all this year while Adams, Mizuno, Nicklaus and Wilson once again chose rooms off the Show floor for small displays and presumably cheaper rent. That left a lot of space to fill in the Equipment Hall. Both Nicklaus Golf and Bobby Jones Golf were rumoured to be on the brink of collapse which just goes to show that even a famous name doesn’t guarantee success as a club company.
Over in the Apparel Hall it looked like everything had been spread out to fill the available space rather than organizing exhibitors as in year’s past. Several clothing companies reported that they were offered much larger booth space for no additional cost if they could just fill it up.
The brightly coloured exhibits always look great in the Apparel Hall although after a while one cotton shirt is hard to distinguish from another. The eye candy is the real attraction at that end of the building and once again didn’t disappoint.
After two days of traipsing up and down the aisles, jawing with PR people and sales reps, examining more chrome, graphite, stainless steel, pima cotton, mercerized cotton, polyester and leather than I thought existed, one product finally stopped me in my tracks and caused me to laugh out loud. Stuck at the end of an aisle in the Trinkets and Trash section of the Show was an exhibit for Anti Monkey Butt Powder – something for golfers who sweat profusely in their derriere.
Every year there are inventors who pin everything on a breakthrough at the Merchandise Show. Most don’t come back the following year. I suspect we may add Anti Monkey Butt Powder to that list.
Peter Mumford is the Editor and Publisher of Fairways Magazine in Toronto. Fairways is intended for avid golfers and this blog site is an extension of that same philosophy - we don't dumb it down for the uninformed!