Golf, An Unlikely Victim Of The Economy

For the most part, when you think about how the present state of the economy affects you you focus mostly on gas prices, insurance costs and taxes. You've probably cut back some of your spending, especially with regard to entertainment. However, if you never played golf with any sort of regularity, then you probably wouldn't think that it's a sport really feeling the effects of the current economy.

Greens fees at many courses have increased throughout the years, but at the time the economy was thriving so an extra $5 or $10 wasn't that big of a deal. Now, the economy is in a downslide, and golfers are cutting back on the rounds they play and the equipment they buy.

Golfing buddies Bob Ballard and Ray Koppmann were getting in some morning practice on the putting green at Daytona Beach Golf Club.

Both Port Orange men, who are in their early 80s, leisurely tapped balls across the rolling manicured grass. But neither had plans to play a round of golf on this day.

"I've cut back a bit," said Ballard, blaming the worsening economy. "I used to play three or four times a week. Now, it's once, maybe twice at the most."

And forget about buying new clubs to replace his 20-year-old set.

"That's not happening," he said with a grin.

For many golfers these days, the old political catch phrase holds: "It's the economy, stupid."

And it's not just the older generation that could be living on a fixed income. The National Golf Foundation has reported that "the estimated number of people playing golf nationwide has fallen from 30 million in 2000 to 26 million, with the annual rounds of play plummeting by a third".

That's a huge number of people not hitting the links with the frequency that they used to. The NGF also reports that gated communities are suffering the most because of the real estate crunch. Less people buying homes in those communities means that less golf memberships are being purchased.

For the immediate future, it doesn't appear that there's an answer to golf's problem. It will probably be one of those "ride it out" situations that takes an upturn in the economy to get things back on track. Not even Tiger can help with this unless he unveils an incredible economic stimulus program on the 18th hole of Augusta National.

Magazine Cover Wasn't The First Noose Incident Related To Golf

By now you've probably heard about Kelly Tilghman's use of the word "lynch" in reference to stopping Tiger Woods, and the subsequent Golf Week magazine cover that featured a noose. However, as unfortunate as it may be, that's not the first noose related incident that's impacted golf in Florida over the past year. In June of 2007, an employee of Orlando's Orange County National Golf Club placed a noose in a room at the course that was visibile for all to see.

David Brice, a former African-American employee with Orange County National Golf Club in Winter Garden, filed a formal complaint to the PGA Tour after witnessing the noose in one of the club's offices in June, Brice and the Tour confirmed to the Sentinel.

The Tour held an investigation of OCN before it hosted Q-School, PGA Tour spokesman Ty Votaw said. Votaw said OCN assured the Tour that Q-School would run smoothly after learning the man whom OCN determined had placed the noose was no longer working there. The course also promised diversity training for employees.

Bruce Gerlander, OCN General Manager, confirmed the man who hung the noose was no longer there, but he declined comment about all matters pertaining to the incident. The person, a former supervisor, could not be reached for comment.

Brice said he returned to his job as a golf-services worker on June 4 to see the noose with the sign "1-800-whiners" hanging from the right corner of the outside-services office, which was located underneath the pro shop. The office had a window on the door, Brice said, making the noose visible to the public upon a closer look.

Obviously, putting a noose up anywhere is a disgraceful action that shouldn't be taken lightly. To me, it's an example of some of the racism that I believe still exists within the sport of golf. While the sport as a whole has tried to engage people of differing ethnicities, I think that some involved with the sport have struggled with the newfound diversity. Granted, not every golfer in America is against seeing minorities playing on their course, but it seems to me that golf still has a long way to go before it reaches the level of diverseness that other major sports have reached. Hopefully, both of these incidents just serve as catalysts that keep the sport moving towards a goal of equality for individuals from contrasting heritages.

The PGA Tour, Still Working To Capture The Teen Girl Demographic

The Michelle Wie experiment really hasn't panned out for the PGA Tour. Her failure to achieve any type of success in the PGA events that she's played in hasn't helped draw in many teenage girls. But have no fear, a big star is here to save the PGA's day, and he definitely appeals to that demographic more than anyone else. Or at least he did a few years ago.

That's right, Justin Timberlake is joining forces with the PGA Tour, and he's even getting his very own tournament.

The biggest event of the 2008 PGA Tour season will not be the Masters.

It won't be the U.S. Open. The PGA Championship takes a back seat.

British Schmitish.

All of them aren't sexy enough.

If sexiness equals dollars, then we're talking about the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in October at TPC-Summerlin in Las Vegas.

Yep, the lowly Fall Series is taking off thanks to a pop-culture phenomenon who announced last week he will host the event with a concert. He's also playing in the pro-am.

All that, and a Timberlake concert? Tickets for that event are going to be harder to come by than ones for a Hannah Montana show(right Mr. Aikman?).

Maybe Tiger can find another singing partner, and join JT onstage during "SexyBack". I'm personally nominating John Daly right now.

Golfers Really Are 'Roiding Up?

Will and MJD at Deadspin touched on the topic of golfers using steroids a while back, but Gary Player has stepped into the spotlight of this matter by saying that he's certain that golfers take performance enhancing drugs.

"Gary Player said he knows of at least one golfer who has used steroids, and is urging golf organizations to move quickly toward a random drug-testing plan.

The Hall of Famer estimated 10 players from tours around the world are taking some type of performance-enhancing drug. Asked how he knew golfers were taking steroids, he said a player told him in confidence.

'One guy told me -- and I took an oath prior to him telling me -- but he told me what he did and I could see this massive change in him,' Player said. 'And somebody else told me something I also promised I wouldn't tell, that verified others had done it."

While 10 players total isn't a huge number, it's still affecting the sport, especially if any of them are successful golfers. It also increases the speculation about who the juicers are. I'm guessing they're not on the Champions Tour, and that it's probably either the PGA or Nationwide Tours. For some reason, steroid use doesn't seem to be as prevalent in Europe, though maybe it just doesn't get reported here quite so much.

One thing, exactly what type of oath did Player take? Also, not telling everyone something after just telling them that you know something they would probably like very much to hear is just bad form Gary.

The Story Of Happy Gilmore Comes To Life

Remember Happy Gilmore? The story about a guy who loved playing hockey, but kind of sucked. Instead, he achieves success after being discovered by a handicapped former PGA pro because of his ability to drive the ball a long, long distance. Well, that handicapped pro was named "Chubbs", and he became handicapped when an alligator bit his hand off. To refresh your memory, here's a clip where Chubbs explains that an alligator bit his hand off, but he was able to pluck out one of its eyes during the attack.



Yesterday, an eerily similar situation occured in Venice, Florida.

"A Tennessee man who lost his ball in a golf course pond nearly lost a limb when an 11-foot alligator latched on to his arm and pulled him in, authorities said.

Bruce Burger, 50, was trying to retrieve his ball from a pond on the sixth hole Monday at the Lake Venice Golf Club.

The alligator latched on to Burger's right forearm and pulled him in the pond, said Gary Morse, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. He used his left arm to beat on the reptile until it freed him.

"I saw him reach down to get his ball and he yelled ... 'Help. Help. I've been bitten by a gator,"' said Janet Pallo, who was playing the fifth hole and ran over to drive the man to the clubhouse.

Burger, from Lenoir City, Tenn., was taken to a hospital but was not seriously injured, Morse said Tuesday.

It took seven Fish and Wildlife officers an hour to trap the one-eyed alligator, which measured 10 feet, 11 inches, Morse said."

Damn, I guess that whole thing about life imitating art isn't far off sometimes.

Though, that gator is fortunate he didn't latch onto John Daly, or he might be getting served today with some Jack Daniels and two packs of 'grits.

The Mickelson-Woods Rivalry Is Starting To Heat Up

A little over a month ago, I commented on Phil "FIGJAM" Mickelson hiring Tiger Woods' former hitting coach, Butch Harmon, and subsequently winning The Players Championship. At that time, it seemed like a friendly rivalry was being born, but Harmon's latest comments have added some HGH to this baby. With reference to Mickelson taking the #1 world ranking away from Tiger, Harmon had this to say:

"Tiger's got a big lead as No. 1 in the world so it'll take a couple of years but I think he can and I think he will actually," said Harmon, 63, hired by Mickelson a few months ago to re-do the southpaw's swing.

Not to belittle Mickelson's accomplishments, but Harmon, better than anyone, has to know how much Tiger has dominated the #1 world ranking spot. As of right now, he's been ranked #1 for a total of 446 weeks, and his current streak at #1 started back on June 12, 2005. Since turning pro in 1996, he has finished the year ranked #1 eight times, Greg Norman('96 & '97) and Vijay Singh('04) are the only other golfers to finish ranked #1 turning that span.

While it is nice for Harmon to voice his full support for Mickelson, it does seem rather unlikely that he will be the golfer to overtake the #1 ranking from Tiger. Harmon said that he believes it will take years, but Mickelson is currently 36(5 years older than Tiger) and he's not getting any younger. Eventhough I find it doubtful that Mickelson will be able to move up to #1 and finish the year there, it does add one more element to the Mickelson-Woods rivalry heading into the U.S. Open next weekend.

'Cause I'm A Golf Fan Baby

This past Monday evening, thieves stole golf clubs belonging to the Milan High School girl's golf team from their coach's car. They made off with six sets of clubs. Five belonged to girls on the team, and one belonged to the coach, Claire Neff.

Eventhough it was a sad incident, help arrived two days later in the form of a phone call from a surprising source.

Kid Rock.

I say "surprising" because I had no idea that he was a golf fan. The more surprising aspect of the story is that he called up John Daly for advice on what clubs to order as replacements for the ones that were stolen.

That's right, Kid Rock and John Daly talk about golf clubs. There's a good chance that they might even shoot rounds of golf together, though they probably have to call ahead so that the mobile beer carts are adequately stocked.

Seriously, if you had the chance to play with either Kid Rock & John Daly, or Tiger & MJ, who would you choose? Bawitdaba baby...bawitdaba...

And that picture is pretty much how I envision Kid Rock on the course. Wife-beater, cigar, can of beer, girls and a stylin' hat.