If you are a golf fan, then Masters week is your Super Bowl. Sure, the 90-man field is by far the weakest of the four majors, boasting aged “past champions” who would have no business at any Club Championship, let alone with the world’s best at Augusta. But the hallowed venue’s storied history, pristine conditions, bright azaleas and green jacket make the year’s first major arguably the game’s most prized.
ESPN (sans Chris Berman, by design?) provides this year’s coverage of the first two days of action per its deal with the tournament (Augusta is hoping ESPN can help its ‘international reach’) which wrestled rights away from the USA network, and weekend play will be televised as usual by the Gary McCord-less CBS crew (but will feature David “training wheels” Feherty, who thankfully is said to be recovering nicely from his attempt to take on a semi truck with only a bicycle). But you can supplement your highly-censored Masters coverage (announcers live in fear of a verbal faux-pas, and thus for instance must awkwardly refer to the “fans” in attendance as “patrons,” per the club’s commandments) with a slew of Masters blogs, the best of which include Geoff Shackelford; Jason Sobel; and the various Golf Digest wonks.
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Speaking of making a recovery, Sterling Sports Management announced that the 21 year old, Aree Song will play a very limited schedule in 2008 as she tries to focus on her health. Song was diagnosed in late-2007 with severe Irritable Bowel Syndrome and adrenal insufficiency, and doctors recommended a prolonged break from competition and extended travel in order to monitor her treatment. Song’s agent, J.S. Kang, stated that as Song begins to regain her strength, she will consider playing in some LPGA Tour events later this year.
Song turned professional in August 2003 at the age of 17 and 3 months. She was granted an exemption from the LPGA’s minimum age rule to allow her to enter the 2003 LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament, and she came fifth in it to earn exemption for the LPGA Tour in 2004. In her rookie season she finished second at the Kraft Nabisco Championship and ended the year 28th on the money list. But Song has struggled since, and is currently ranked 164th in the world according to the latest Rolex World Rankings. But it’s nice to see her management team at Sterling sticking by her through these tough times. Kang, for instance, remarked that “watching Aree go through this has made us admire her that much more. She stays so positive even though we know that inside she is incredibly frustrated that her body won’t let her play the game she loves. It doesn’t seem right that someone who does all the right things – eats right, exercises diligently and practices hard – and lives her life in such an exemplary way, should have to go through this.”
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Phil Mickelson has never been one to shy away from breaking in relatively new equipment for a momentous occasion. Remember when he debuted new Callaway irons (instead of his then-normal Titleist clubs) at the 2004 Ryder Cup? Now, in his attempt to add a third green jacket to his collection, Phil is using Callaway Golf’s new I-MIX interchangeable driver system, which he tinkered with in practice rounds last week at the Shell Houston Open (and was said to be very pleased with the results). According to the Carlsbad-based equipment manufacturer, the new I-MIX Technology “pairs interchangeable heads and shafts to provide professional and every day golfers the ultimate in driver customization and personalization. The new technology, which capitalizes on the U.S. Golf Association and Royal & Ancient’s rule change on club adjustability, allows golfers to reconfigure drivers to face the unique challenges and conditions of their scheduled rounds.”
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Speaking of Mickelson, take the following linked anecdote relating his supposed recent run-in with Augusta members with a healthy dose of skepticism (Golfweek distanced themselves from the story, which first appeared on the GolfWRX.com forums only to be pulled days later by the site’s administrators, in the meantime receiving a flurry of attention as it spread across the internet). That said, consider that’s it far from the first time that Lefty has been linked to on or even off-the-course betting. Mickelson’s “camp” (by which I’m guessing his team of managers and agents at Gaylord Sports Management) call the story “baseless” and “erroneous.” That said, it arguably seems too oddly detailed of an account to have just maliciously surfaced out of nowhere. Stay tuned?
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Apparently, if you need a kick in the pants, then Butch Harmon (and not the more laid-back David Leadbetter) is your man. At this point, it seems Ernie Els will try anything to regain his mojo. He’s already switched clubs. Now swing teachers. Should agent Andrew “Chubby” Chandler over at ISM be worried too?
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What was your favorite “Comprehensive Drug Testing” memory? The company won a bidding process last October to be the LPGA’s drug testing agency, but quickly ran into problems while collecting samples at the Fields Open in February and has been dismissed by the Tour. The National Center for Drug Free Sport, which helped the Tour develop its program in the first place, will administer tests through the end of 2009 according to Jill Pilgrim, LPGA general counsel and drug-testing program administrator. The Tour received some pretty embarrassing press when players had to wait nearly three hours to be tested at the Fields because only one collector was on hand at the start of testing. According to Golfweek, “the LPGA announced after the tournament that it was a trial run, leading some players to speculate that something else had gone awry in the process.”
All I can say is, thank you Gary Player.
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Another deal in the bag for Mark Steinberg at IMG. Doug Ferguson reports that Tiger Woods “landed a new title sponsor (replacing Target) for his holiday tournament in southern California, signing a five-year deal Thursday with Chevron with designs of raising money and developing programs to support Woods’ education-based foundation. The Chevron World Challenge will be held Dec. 18-21 at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., featuring 16 players competing for a $5.75 million purse, the largest of the ‘silly season’. The San Ramon-based energy company also will become one of five founding partners of the AT&T National, a regular-season PGA Tour event that Woods started last year at Congressional Country Club outside Washington.” The deal, writes Ferguson, “comes at a time when the economy is struggling and the PGA Tour is searching for title sponsors for regular-season events in Tampa, Fla., and Atlanta. Given the size of the purse, Chevron’s investment is believed to be similar to what companies pay to be a title sponsor of a regular PGA Tour event.”
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Despite an advertising budget that is one-fortieth of Nike Inc.’s $2 billion, Under Armour dominates the overall sports performance apparel category with a nearly 75 percent share, according to Morningstar’s analysts. Now, the sportswear company is set on becoming “the number one performance apparel in golf,” and has already expanded into stores such as Golf Galaxy and Golfsmith.
Scott Hamilton’s piece also mentions that: “although Under Armour has ‘no specific golf marketing initiatives in the works,’ the company states that ‘any effort [to do so] is expected to fall in line with its ‘umbrella strategy,’ which deifies a breed of athletes the company calls the ‘new prototype’ – those willing to work harder than the rest to be the very best. That means keeping the same edgy ads such as the commercial that aired during Super Bowl XLII in February. The spot – which featured nearly 30 Under Armour endorsers, including PGA Tour golfer Hunter Mahan, NFL’s Ray Lewis and Nascar driver Carl Edwards – showed an Under Armour-clad man rallying ‘prototype’ athletes, fiercely yelling their mantra ‘the future is ours.'”
With regards to the “new” type of PGA pro, the company’s edgy mantra may actually translate quite well to golf. Once dominated by middle-aged men in gaudy pants, the PGA Tour is now chalked full of young pros who resemble chiseled rock stars, and advertisers continue to yearn to capture some trickle down market share from the extra attention of even the most casual of observers whom Tiger has brought to the game.
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Sticking with clothing, nice article by Adam Schupak about Bubba Watson and his ‘Bubbagolf’ line of apparel manufactured by Steve & Barry’s, a privately owned entity, “one of the fastest-growing retail businesses in the U.S. which made headlines for selling $14.98 sneakers endorsed by NBA player Stephon Marbury, and now set on using its low-cost appeal to make inroads in golf apparel, another category that’s known for eye-popping prices.”