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The "Golf Clap" hasn't been around for a while.  Sure, if someone makes a nice birdie or a well-earned par you might get some light clapping, but nowadays people scream and yell.  They shout nonsensical phrases (YOU DA MAN!) and whistle loud enough to hail taxis from several blocks away.  I think more than any other sport, golf is a sport in which the fans love rooting for the underdog, no matter who it is.  You'll never hear booing or jeering when a player makes a move on Sunday and cuts a 5-shot deficit to 1. 

My inspiration for this post is this week's FRB Open.  I remember watching Tiger Woods get that hole-in-one in the 1997 Phoenix Open (as it was then known) and how crazy, and I mean TOTALLY CRAZY, people went.  All 10,000 or however many people on that hole went into a dizzying frenzy of screaming, shouting, whistling, clapping, cheering and yelling.  We don't need someone acing the hole to get that kind of reaction now...all it takes is a shot close to the pin, no matter who it is, to have everyone go bananas. 

It's clear that golf has become increasingly popular in the last 10 years thanks primarily to Tiger Woods.  Smaller, specialized pro shops have now made way for golf mega stores, where you can find anything from the latest equipment in all colors, styles and flavors, to apparel, gizmos, gadgets and training aids.  Before his emergence, golf was a sport mostly for adults.  If you go to any course now you will find just as many younger kids as you will older folks.  This summer I went to my local course to practice some chipping and putting and there was a group lesson being held by the club's pro.  There couldn't have been anyone older than 10 in that group, boys and girls included, with wide smiles, an eagerness to learn and enthusiasm that you just don't see often in kids anymore.  At the end of the session the instructor wanted everyone to clap and cheer for each other for a job well done.   I have no doubt that they have seen Tiger's energy and passion for the game, and it's infectious...they want to be able to do the things he does.  So does the aspiring high school player, the low handicap middle-aged father, and the early-rising senior.  People may have wanted to be like Mike, but now they want to be like Tiger.  Playing golf is now a cool thing to do.

Go to a tournament this summer if you can.  Keep silent and quiet as the players make their way through each hole, bottling up that energy you have within...and when you see that one amazing shot, throw your hands in the air and cheer loudly along with everyone else, releasing all of that pent-up energy.  Can't get to a tournament?  Wait for Phil to tee it up on 16 this week.  Take your Dolby Digital 5.1 digital surround system and crank it up, and wait...

You'll discover that the golf clap is a thing of the past.

Posted by vaca22 at 05:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Really mad.

On December 14th, 2007, Callaway Golf won a patent infringement suit against Acushnet, the maker of the renowned Titleist Pro V1 line of golf balls. Does this kind of stuff ever happen between two of the largest names in golf? Generally companies of this magnitude go after makers of knock-off clubs and bogus balls and settle quietly out of court. In this case, jurors found Acushnet guilty of infringement on 4 of 5 (I've also heard 8 out of 9) of Callaway's golf ball patents. I thought that was pretty interesting considering how long Titleist has been in the business of making balls. You can read a little more about that in our Golf Equipment forum. At the time I really wasn't sure what this meant for either company...until today.

While randomly surfing some days ago I came across amazing information thanks to Dave Dawsey, otherwise known as "The IP Golf Guy". Callaway golf has filed a motion for a permanent injunction. That's fancy legal-speak for seeking to totally halt the production, sale and distribution of the Pro V1. The motion itself is a challenging read, but the information contained within is incredibly intriguing, and Callaway makes a very compelling case for itself. The link to the redacted brief is here:

http://golf-patents.com/files/22847-21779/20080116_callaway_motion_for_injunction___redacted_version_of_brief_in_support.pdf

In the brief, Callaway states many interesting things. According to the brief, Callaway Golf spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop its own golf ball business from the ground up. The result was the Callaway Rule 35 golf ball, which according to the company was a great success in the market and played by many elite professional golfers. They claim that the success of the ball was undercut by Acushnet with the release of their infringing Pro V1 line of balls. Apparently tour players gave back troubling input regarding Acushnet (Titleist) and threatened to switch from their wound balls to something else. This happened after Acushnet studied the Rule 35 and other similar balls. The response to negative feedback was the release of the Pro V1, and what this did was it enabled Acushnet to retain the huge amount of players signed under contract with Titleist and "dilute the competitive advantages of competitive balls that might have otherwise induced Titleist users to switch." Callaway recognizes that "while an injunction cannot change history…an injunction will give Callaway Golf a meaningful opportunity to secure a share of the market of the sort it would have had, and should have had, absent Acushnet's infringement."

Check out these two portions of Callaway's proposed order:

"Acushnet’s professional golfers currently under contract are permitted to play ProV1 products through the end of the 2008 calendar year. However, in addition to the notice required below in paragraph 4, Acushnet shall notify in writing all professional golfers affiliated with Acushnet that ProV1 products will no longer be available after December 31, 2008."

"Distributors and retailers of Acushnet’s products, and Acushnet customers may dispose of remaining ProV1 product inventory in their physical possession by sale or otherwise, but Acushnet shall not further supply any distributors, retailers and/or customers with ProV1 products as of the date of this Order."

Oh boy.

Callaway then systematically begins to outline and highlight how Acushnet's use of Callaway's patents-in-suit have caused the company damage by using Acushnet's own graphs, charts, and statements made in the previous patent suit that was decided on December 14th. In a press release issued shortly after the suit was filed, Callaway states that Acushnet tried to "create the impression that it had developed the Pro V1 before the filing of the patents in suit." The statement issued by Acushnet says, "Acushnet received it's first patent covering this technology on March 3, 1999. The oldest of the Callaway patents being asserted was not filed until December 12, 1999 and issued on March 15, 2001." Continuing on with the brief, Callaway states, "This statement (Acushnet's) creates the impression that the Pro V1 and the first Acushnet patent covering it came before the Sullivan (Callaway) inventions protected by the patents-in-suit - an assertion that Acushnet knows to be false. Acushnet never disputed that the patents-in-suit had effective filing dates no later than 1995 and, both in the pretrial order and during trial, conceded that the effective filing date for Callaway Golf's patent applications was 1995 - long before the 1997 filing date for the first Acushnet patent relating to the Pro V1."

The brief states that Acushnet continued to publicize this misleading statement in other public statements made after the trial. Reading the table of contents alone will give you an idea as to how solid of an argument Callaway makes:

• The infringing Pro V1 continues to Callaway Golf of marketing opportunities, intangible benefits, and sales of golf-related products
• Acushnet's other tactics irreparably harm Callaway Golf's image and reputation.
• The patented technology substantially encompasses the Pro V1, rather than being merely a minor component of the infringing product.

As if all of this weren't enough, Callaway even goes on to explain how the public interest will not be harmed by a permanent injunction by saying that the removal of the Pro V1 "will in no way deprive the public…of the convenience of a ready supply of high performance golf balls, or even three-piece urethane-over-ionomer golf balls. Once the Pro V1 is enjoined, there is nothing to suggest that the standard market forces along with the collective efforts of Callaway Golf and other manufacturers of premium polyurethane-covered multi-layered golf balls such as Bridgestone, Srixon, TaylorMade and Nike would be unable to fulfill the demand previously met by the infringing Titlist balls."

Yes, you read that correctly…Callaway just mentioned the names of competitors that could gain more market share than they currently have if the Pro V1 didn't exist. If you think Bridgestone, Srixon, TaylorMade and Nike don't or wouldn't agree, you may just be nuts.  This is just the beginning of some very interesting things in the world of golf.

Posted by vaca22 at 01:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

If you weren't paying much attention to the Sony Open, you probably didn't hear about John Daly's incident after finishing his 2nd round.  After fighting to shoot even par to stay in the tournament, Daly was told that he might not be playing the final two rounds due to a new rule that the PGA Tour Policy Board established in November.  Now in addition to MC (Missed Cut), DQ (Disqualified) and DNF (Did Not Finish), the PGA has created another acronym - MDF.

MDF can stand for many things; Made Daly Furious, May Disappoint Fans, and Medium-Density Fiberboard just to name a few.  But in this case, MDF stands for Made Cut, Did Not Finish.  So wait a minute...that's just like DNF, right?  Well, yes and no.

You may qualify for a DNF in any round.  If a player pulls a muscle or something midway through the first round, he may receive a DNF.  Most likely he'll get a "Withdrew From Tournament" though.  If he gets this injury in the 3rd round, he might also be a candidate for DNF.  Where MFD differs is that if you qualify for MDF, you still get paid.  So wait a minute...that's good, right?  Well, not really.  At all.

The Tour Policy Board passed this rule to keep the sizes of the field manageable.  Manageable...what's to manage??  Well apparently there were a few instances last year in which the field of players that made the cut was over 80.  Before this rule, the cut was always the top 70 players plus ties.  If the cut exceeds 78 players, then the number nearest to 70 continue in the tournament. The logic behind this new rule is that the field size is kept under control in the event of poor weather or the need for two-tee starting times because of daylight concerns or television obligations.  At the Sony Open, 87 players made the cut.  With the new rule in place, the nearest number to 70 was 69, which means that 18 players made the cut, but did not finish.  They each received a check for $9,699 and FedEx Cup points.  John Daly was one of those players. 

You can put a positive spin on this new rule by saying that now those players that MDF'd can still collect a paycheck AND have two extra days off to travel or practice or whatever.  But the reality is that the new rule is terrible.  Here's why - any one of those 18 players could have played lights-out golf in the final two rounds and collected a much larger paycheck AND more FedEx Cup points.  For that reason alone the rule is bunk.  In addition to that, you're also eliminating players from the field that people might want to see during the weekend.  I can tell you from experience that if a popular player just makes the cut and has to play early on Saturday morning, people are going to come out and see them play.  If Phil Mickelson just makes the cut at our local PGA Tour stop (the Travelers Championship), you can rest assured that there will be throngs of people out on the course bright and early to see him play.  That's additional revenue from ticket sales, consession stands, the pro shop and gift stores, parking, etc..  It seems as if everyone loses when this rule comes into play.  Now, while we won't be seeing MDF at every tournament, there will probably be about 10 events throughout the year that will trigger the use of the new rule. 

That's 10 events too many for this guy.

Posted by vaca22 at 02:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The first installment of my Hot List review featured mostly drivers and irons.  Just as important as the clubs that get you off the tee are the clubs that get you closer to the hole...hybrids, wedges and putters.  Here are a few more tools to keep your game sharp this year...

Hybrids -  If you don't already have one of these clubs in your bag, you're throwing away strokes.  Hybrids are easy to hit and come in such a huge variety of lofts you  can replace anything between a 3-wood to a 5-iron.  They're reasonably priced as well, for the most part.   Ping's new G10 comes in 6 different lofts and have a couple of great shafts as standard choices (Graffaloy's ProLaunch Red and UST V2 High Launch).  Nickent's 4DX Ironwood replaces the tried but true 3DX, a wildly popular choice of club on all tours.  The Nickent has a dizzying choice of lofts (11) and a very traditional look that's hard to dislike with a sharp metalic sound off the face.

Ping's new G10 hybrid and Nickent's 4DX Ironwood.

Wedges -  I've already mentioned one of the standards of wedges in my previous entry, the Cleveland CG12/CG14, but now it's time to mention the other standard - the Titleist Vokey Design Spin Milled.  With two different finishes to choose from (Tour Chrome or Oil Can) and plenty of loft and bounce options, the Vokey Spin Milled wedges are also butter soft thanks to a 8620 mild carbon steel head.  The milled grooves are no joke - the club has 30% more groove volume than previous wedges for more spin out of the rough or wet lies.  As if the deeper grooves weren't enough, the entire face is also milled and grooved.  A hard hack with this club and you'll easily scuff a softer tour-level ball.

Titleist's Vokey Design Spin Milled wedges, in Tour Chrome and Oil Can finishes.

Putters - You may think a putter is just a putter, but that is no longer true.  There are essentially two types of putters - blade putters and mallet putters.  I remember being the first kid I knew to play a mallet putter, the Ram Zebra.  I also remember being made fun of because it looked so goofy, but I loved the way it set up and rolled the ball.  Because their designs are so unique now, I'll opt out of discussing blade putters and stick with the mallets because a lot of different technology is now being incorporated into these. 

When Odyssey's 2-Ball came out, it was seen as a radical departure from normal putter design.  People grew to love it, and the 2-Ball subsequently became one of the best selling putters of all time.  The 2-Ball then evolved and incorporated different inserts (milled steel and elastomer), and then the 2-Ball SRT was born.  That's a big mallet putter; it's Saturn Ring Technology increased the MOI for stability through the swing by using high density alloy rings that connected the front heel and toe sides to the back of the putter.  But topping the 2-Ball SRT was the Tri-Ball SRT, a huge mallet putter that extended even further out from the back. 

Odyssey is again testing the boundaries of putter design with the new Sabertooth, a futuristic-looking mallet that looks more like Middle Age melee weapon.  Odyssey claims the putter has the highest MOI in their line of putters and "fangs" that place about 37% of the putter's weight in the outermost perimiter, a design that is created to resist any kind of twisting at impact.   TaylorMade offers the Tourismo putter, another mallet putter that has a smaller look than most new mallets and adjustable weights that you can configure to your preferences.  The Tourismo also features polymer-filled grooves in the face that improve roll; many people that have tried this putter love the way the ball comes off the face, claiming a true and smooth roll.  Perhaps the most outrageous mallet putter out on the market now is TaylorMade's Spider.   I won't even say anything about this one, you can just look at the picture and decide for yourself.

Odyssey's new White Hot XG Sabertooth. 

TaylorMade's Tourismo (top) and Spider mallet putters (Spider picture courtesty of GolfDigest.com)

Posted by vaca22 at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Nice!  For some reason I wasn't expecting the Golf Digest's 2008 Hot List to be out so soon, but it's out NOW, and that's a great thing.  I've been reading equipment review lists and articles since day 1 and I can't believe how much keeps changing.  Unless you're just a beginner and you're playing around with your dad's ancient set of clubs, or if you just never play often at all, you should really take advantage of all the technology and custom fitting that is available.  At the very least, have your irons bent to the correct lie angle of your swing.  It's very inexpensive and doesn't take long at all at the golf shop.  Having your lie angles adjusted will make a huge difference in your game. 

That being said, let's check out what's cool...

After quickly flipping through, I've noticed that not only have the clubs gotten more technologically advanced, but they even look fantastic.  A lot of irons look good to the point that you'd be kind of hesitant to get them dirty if you had bought them brand-new.  Companies such as Cleveland and Nike have started to incorporate soft inserts that dampen feel and improve weighting, as illustrated below.  The result are clubs that not only look great but feel great too.

 Nike's new SQ Sumo2 and Cleveland's new CG Red irons.

There is so much new stuff that if I write about it all this blog entry would be 5 pages long, so I'll sum up what I think are some of the best new/revised pieces of equipment that will make a splash in '08.

Callaway Golf - Callaway keeps it's FT-5 and FT-i model drivers but replaces the successful X460 driver with the Hyper X driver.  The Hyper X has the largest hitting area of any of Callaway's all-titanium drivers an incorporates a face thickness section in the shape of an "X" to improve the spring-like effect across the larger hitting area.  Also new for '08 are the FT Fairway woods, and the popular X-Fairway gets a redesign with a modified X sole for better leading edge contact.  Although it wasn't in the Hot List, Callaway is also unleasing the FT-i Squareway Wood for spring.  It is the same concept as Callaway's square FT-i driver...but for FAIRWAYS!  Not sure how a square fairway wood wouldn't look totally bizzare on the fairway.  The Big Bertha irons are also new and feature wide sole, hybrid-like irons for the 3-, 4- and 5-irons before making the transition to a more conventional shape and constant-width soles.

Callaway's new Hyper X driver and Big Bertha irons. 

Nike Golf - Nike has revamped its infamous SQ Sumo2 and created the SQ Sumo2 5900.  The difference between old and new versions is that the new 5900 has an updated and lighter multithickness face, and they've taken that saved weight and distributed it to the very corners of the club, creating extreme stability on heel-and-toe hits.  The club is said to have a more muted sound that it's predecessor.  If you've never heard the original SQ Sumo2 being hit, it sounded like hitting a marble with a plank of oak...plus it was LOUD.  The SQ Sumo2 hybrid-irons (first pictured) incorporated Nike's Powerbow technology to increase perimiter weighting for more forgiveness.  The Nike Slingshot 4D are essentially the replacement to the Slingshot OSS irons that feature a progressively positioned "slingback" and variable sole widths.

Nike's Slingshot 4D irons.

Cleveland Golf -  Cleveland's model cycles seem to come a bit earlier in the year than most other manufacturers', as their CG line of irons has already been on the market for a few months, but brand new for the company (which was recently acquired by the parent company of Srixon) is the release of CG14 wedges, which feature a visco-elastic-polymer insert to dampen vibration and a slight offset that accommodates a forceful swing through turf.  For a boatload of loft/bounce options, check out the CG12 wedges which are essentially the same except for the absence of the dampener. Cleveland's Zip Grooves are featured on both models, which create extra spin from any lie.

 Cleveland's CG14 wedge (shown with Black Pearl finish).

There is so much more to mention that I might have to do a second installment to include everything else.  Pick up the latest issue to get the lowdown on all the new gear (I would say that EVERY manufacturer has something new to offer).  Once you see something you like, head on down to your local store and spend some quality time with the new gear.  There's bound to be something for everyone, for any budget.

Posted by vaca22 at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)