Wie Has (Golf) Media Trained

Today is the first day of the LPGA Championship. I’ll bet many of you were not aware that there was an LPGA Major Championship being played this week. All the attention from the golf media for the past seven days has been centered on a Wie wrist and last week’s controversial withdrawal. And that’s just the way MW and her gang want it. She has been unable to gain any attention with her golf skills, but has artfully been able to turn an unfortunate injury into a convenient one. If Michelle doesn’t make headlines on the golf course, she manages to get them off the links drawing attention away from other young players much more accomplished and deserving.

So here’s a quiz. Who won last week’s LPGA tournament? Quick now! No fast Google-ing! A hint? Okay. She beat the number one female player in the world in a playoff. And if you get that one, here’s a little extra credit: Another young LPGA member won her first event earlier this year but defeating the number one female player in the world in a playoff. Name her.

Okay, so the answer to the first one is Nicole Castrale, a determined competitor who has worked her way up through seasons on the LPGA Tour and the Futures Tour. She has earned the little attention that the golf media has given her.

Every golf media outlet is consumed with the MW withdrawal and resulting controversy.

Geoff Shackelford, usually informative although sometimes cynical, has become totally consumed with the scandal. The World Golf Wire led with the story in its Wednesday, June 6th edition. And the list goes on and on and on.

MW has the entire golf media collared and is leading them (us) around on a leash.

88 Good Reasons to Withdraw from an Event

For an excellent analysis of Michelle Wie’s first day back in LPGA competition, I recommend that you read Beth Ann Baldry’s commentary on Golfweek.com.

Then consider these questions and comments.

Did MW have the magic 88 in mind? I think she did. She’s a recent high school grad on her way to a prestigious college. Certainly she can add.

Has she been studying the rule book during her layoff? If she has, she had plenty of opportunity for practical application during her round.

How much communication should a player’s entourage have with that player during a round?

And any other questions that might arise during your reading.

Book Review: Gigantic Book of Golf Quotations

There is always a literary gratification when a book lives up to its title. It is even more of a treat when that satisfaction is both literal and figurative. Enter the Gigantic Book of Golf Quotations edited by Jim Apfelbaum. Literally it is gigantic. It weighs in at 3 ½ lbs (I actually did weigh it); contains a massive 777 pages (fortunately the pages are numbered); and, boasts a stout 2 3/8 inches thickness (I did measure it). It is not a volume you’ll want to carry around for light reading when you have a pause in the action of your day or to have wherever you go as a ready reference. I have no hard statistics to back this up, but this may be the thickest golf book ever written. And it needs to be.

Apfelbaum has collected golf quotations from every corner of the golf world and a considerable amount from the non-golf world and citations on an infinite number of golf subjects which he has neatly and appropriately categorized into twenty-one chapters. But, it appears that he was not alone in this golf-related marathon. There is an acknowledgement praising the research efforts of Jared Lafer. (We would like to hear more about his role in this project.) There are, I would estimate, over 1,000 individuals quoted. Delightfully and thankfully there is an index cataloguing each and every person quoted from Aaron (Hank, not Tommy) to Zokol. Curiously, you’ll get to read thirteen quotes from Michelle Wie but only eight from Kathy Whitworth. (We assume this was done for marketing purposes.) Nevertheless the volume is thorough and you can read as much or as little as you prefer.

I will admit that I did not sit down and read every quote on every page, a monumental task, but I did read about half of every chapter. If you are a golf fanatic, it is, in a word, “fascinating.” This volume will be a handy reference tool for many in the golf business especially the media. Whether you are suddenly asked to be the keynote speaker at the annual Masters Champions Dinner or the post-round pundit at O’Malley’s Pub, you will enjoy extracting a few one-liners from this volume. It’s definitely worth having in your golf library on the Golf Reference shelf.

Book Review: Auchterlonie “Hand-Made Clubs”

One of the fascinating and appealing aspects of the game of golf is its diversity in areas ready for examination and analysis. Take the history of the game for example. From the center of this hub extend many spokes worthy of study and examination: development of the game, players, tournaments, golf courses, golf clubs, etc. The list is plentiful; the subject matter abundant. Virtually every historical golf book written and published falls into one these categories. Some just zero in on the subject matter a little more precisely than others.

Auchterlonie “Hand-Made Clubs” does just that. It concentrates on the club making business from the late 1800’s through most of the twentieth century and focuses specifically on one particular family – the Auchterlonie’s of St. Andrews. Thus, most evidently, follows the title of the book. Written by Peter Georgiady, one of the foremost club making historians in the world, and published by Airlie Hall Press, Auchterlonie takes us through approximately one hundred years of club making in St. Andrews as experienced by the Auchterlonie’s. But is it more than just idle historical facts and data. Auchterlonie presents us with a bit of a soap opera as it chronicles the Auchterlonie family feud that developed through the club making business. We get to see first hand how a talented and gifted family can be torn apart in the pursuit of success and wealth.

But the story is not the only treasure in this book. Scores of pictures are included. Hickory shafted clubs designed and built by the Auchterlonie family make up the majority, but there are also family portraits that do not totally divulge the turmoil among siblings. There are also pictures of locations, letters and patents that take us back to when golf and life existed in simpler times. The images make for intriguing examination.

You may have to stumble around a few long, drawn-out sentences and a little irregularity in the organization of the book, but it is definitely worth adding to your golf library especially if you are an addicted club maker.

LPGA a Non-Event

My travelgolf.com colleague Bruce Stasch recently penned an artful column entitled Michelle Wie's Return to the LPGA is a Non-Event. In it Bruce commented on Wie’s imminent return to the LPGA Tour. His points are excellent and right on the number. Good swing, Bruce.

But, perhaps we should look at the bigger picture: the fact that the LPGA is endanger of becoming a non-event this season (more so than any other season). Examine the evidence:

Exhibit A: There has been a change in the number one female player in the world. Did anyone notice?

Exhibit B: There have been a handful of first time winners, two of them winning in a showdown with the number one female player in the world at that time. Did anyone notice?

Exhibit C: The youngest female major champion was crowned just about a month ago. Did anyone notice? And where is Morgan now?

Let’s be honest, it is hard to get noticed when Bivens & Co. has set the schedule so that the ladies play essentially every other week for the first three months of their season. It is virtually impossible to maintain marketing momentum when you have an exciting event one week and nothing the next. When the ladies do play they get a little television coverage from the Golf Channel and then limit the rest of their much needed media coverage to only those whom the LPGA feels comfortable with, usually a bunch of local newspapers and television stations that place ladies golf just below local girls high school tennis. No bloggers or unconventional media need apply. Thank you very much. We certainly wouldn’t want local bloggers to spread the excitement of the LPGA all over the world via the internet.

It's Not the Game, It's the Money

Once again it’s time for the readers of Eye On Golf to provide a little feedback. Within the past week a couple of the ruling (albeit self-appointed) bodies of golf have demonstrated exactly where their priorities are concerning the game. I am grateful to Geoff Shackelford for providing these two tidbits although he did not make the connection.

Exhibit A: The USGA convinced 82 people, apparently all Amex card members, to pony up $900 each for the privilege of enjoying a 2007 U.S. Open Preview Day. The day was supposed to include lunch with a seminar on how to prepare for a U.S. Open and a round of golf at this year’s U.S. Open site, Oakmont C.C. But being the marketing wizards that they are from the county of Oz in northern NJ, the Blue Coats produced Tiger Woods and Mike Tirico to conduct the festivities. Tiger just happened to be at Oakmont for two or three practice rounds and I’m sure Tirico was hanging around ABC Sports with nothing to do this time of year.

Exhibit B: The PGA Tour is set to introduce a new scoreboard featuring the latest in high-tech “stuff.” And you can make a safe wager that there is definite coincidence that the initial run will be at the The Players Championship beginning May 7. Perfect timing for those golf fans headed to the TPC. However, when talking about the new scoreboards and the fan base that the PGA Tour attracts, Tom Wade, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for the PGA Tour, expertly summed up the whole situation. NY Times reporter Michel Marriott got the whole thing…

“Technology is moving down the road and we’re moving with it,” he (Wade) said. “If you don’t move with it, you(‘re) not going to be around. You’ve got to serve the fan.”

Call it part of the Tiger Effect, the significant migration of a younger and more racially and ethnically diverse group to golf since Tiger Woods turned professional in 1996. Although much of the PGA Tour’s fan base remains mature and affluent, Wade said, significant numbers in that group are “heavy technology adaptors.”

“As we say: We don’t reach everyone. Just the people with all the money,” Wade said.

Ah, well said, Mr. Wade. It's all about the money, not the game.

We will now allow our perceptive and discriminating readers to produce their own insightful conclusions to the above incidents.

2007 Masters Observations

These next few days are always filled with comments, analysis and observations from the great scribes of the game. To get a little taste of the twaddle that is being produced check out my friend RonMon. He’ll get you started.

But then there are the valid observations – mine. These are the one produced by concentrated analysis and a sharp eye for the game.

The cost of a Dave Pelz Short Game School has been greatly reduced following PhillyMick’s bunker adventures on the very first hole on Sunday. Phil took seven (7) shots on the hole, three of them from bunkers. If you hurry you can probably get a greatly reduced rate at the newly opened Dave Pelz Short Game Clinic in Las Vegas at Paiute Golf Resort.

On the other hand the cost of a visit to someone in Zach Johnson’s entourage just about doubled by Sunday evening. Personally I would like to spend some time with his drive-the-ball-straight coach. If a few others in the field had found as many fairways as Johnson when it really counted, the outcome may have been different. He was second is driving accuracy among those who completed four rounds. Johnson gave new meaning to the observation that it’s easier to play the game when you have a full swing at the ball.

Vern Lundquist has got to go. I know he’s just been inducted into some Sportscasters’ Hall of Fame, as Jim Nantz was so quick to inform us, but after listening to him bumble and stumble his way through the Kraft-Nabisco as the host, the Masters was too much to take.

There was something wrong with Tiger. There was no “eye of the tiger” there. Have the Wizards of Augusta finally got the course Tiger-proofed? And his usually precise decision making was questionable. Tiger possesses one of the best short games in golf. So why not layup with the second shot on 15? There was not much of a reward for the risk he took. And the hole locations on 16-18 were also quite vulnerable.

In several ways this Masters had the feel of a U.S. Open. High scores, rock-hard and lightening-fast green, errant tee shots and cotton-mouth-leaving-you-spitless pressure all contributed to that feel. Yes, I know there was no super high, ultra thick rough, but this Masters just proves that you don’t need that to get the greatest players in the world frustrated. Just trick up the greens.

And last but not least, for an interesting perspective, although often cynical, go to Geoff Shackelford’s website.