"The best thing we can all do to make our golf game better is to at least practice with (and hopefully play with also) older smaller heavier golf clubs such as blade irons and persimmon woods."

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Yep, we have another treasonous threat to capitalism and his name is Bradley Hughes! The former PGA Tour player and Australian dares to out himself as no fan of what modern technology has done for the game. And while he has some excellent thoughts on how we should sticking up for our classic courses, I urge you to take a few minutes to read his thoughts on what modern clubs and lie angles have done to the average golfer's game. Hughes is teaching now and has lots to say.

Welcome Bradley to the vocal minority!

Shoplifters Have Spoken: We Love Adjustable Drivers!

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Barry Leibowitz explains that "decaptitated" drivers are turning up in suburban Pittsburgh's finer Dick's Sporting Goods outlets.

Investigators believe the couple is re-using the stolen driver heads to make custom clubs - or selling the stolen heads to someone who is doing that. The clubs are marked for retail, but the security code is on the shafts so the couple can leave the stores with the stolen heads without triggering anti-theft alarms.
The heads on the TaylorMade and Callaway clubs are worth $300 to $400 each.

Someone else is getting the shaft.

 

"Such heightened sensitivity naturally shows up in the elite player’s toolbox."

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For all of the talk about the average golfer aspirational golfer wanting to play the same equipment as the professional, we always assume the pros are getting stuff that's fine tuned compared to what's on the shelves of Roger Dunn. As Michael Bamberger demonstrates in this look at feel players, with a focus on Bubba Watson, it's not just the manufacturers who can refine equipment to the tightest specs. Elite players demand differently than most of us. 
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Flogton And Saving Golf Through Non-Conforming Equipment

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t's a Friday, there's little news and I'm headed to the USGA Annual Meeting to hear how the bluecoats are progressing on year eight of the ball study. Since I couldn't find any interesting news to post, my time was spent giving the Flogton website a look. These are the Northern California dudes who have enlisted former Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy to promote their concept to make golf more accessible, more fun and younger.
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Taylor CEO Calls For Bifurcating Pro And Amateur Rules

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Friday we learned that Taylor Made's Mark King, who just eight years ago couldn't see the makings of trouble down the road now wants a re-write of the rules because the game is not growing.

Now in an online video interview posted Saturday at Golfweek.com he goes further, calling for all-out bifurcation that manufacturers have steadfastly refused to even consider as an alternative best suiting the game (skip to the two minute mark unless you want to hear him hump the new white driver).

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"It’s more difficult today, Weiskopf believes, for Woods or any skilled player to separate himself."

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Randall Mell talks to Tom Weiskopf about "mystique" and the likelihood that Tiger has lost his after the last year's worth of news. But he also makes an interesting point about technology that in some ways speaks to just how dominant Tiger has been and, as some of us believe, how modern equipment has made his competition better.
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Taylor Made's Dustin Johnson Ad...

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I'm not exactly a connoisseur of golf equipment company ads and I certainly am not counting the seconds until the January 4 Hot List release or salivating over the new Taylor Made white driver splashed on golf.com's homepage all day--finally a club designed to remind me of all my worst sky jobs and other embarrassing misshits--but you have to admire the simplicity of their latest ad featuring Dustin Johnson. Thanks to reader Sean for the link:
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"Why are we changing thousands of courses - or at least dozens - for the sake of the golf ball? Why not just change the ball?"

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One last item from John Huggan's profile of Bill Coore. On the distance chase:

"Why are we changing thousands of courses - or at least dozens - for the sake of the golf ball? Why not just change the ball? There is no doubt it has had a negative effect on architecture generally. Guys just hit past stuff so much these days. To which people say we can move tees back - but sometimes you can't - or move bunkers - but sometimes that isn't practical or advisable. I hate to see bunkers that have been there for decades suddenly moved. For one thing, rebuilding a bunker exactly as it was isn't that easy.

"Having said that, the ball has less influence on our work than for some other designers. We don't do courses for tournament play. Mostly, our courses are for membership play. Yes, they have been used for events - the PGA Seniors was at Colorado Golf Club this year and the PGA Tour's season-opener has been at Kapalua for a while now. But we didn't do those courses with events in mind, they arrived later.

"We tend to work from the greens backward to a certain point. Beyond that, distance is not a priority. Our biggest interest is in making a hole fun to play."

"So a golf company purchase is a long shot -- at best."

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Mike Stachura and E. Michael Johnson consider the possible options for an Acushnet sale or spin off and conclude that private equity or Asian sporting goods will be the likely suitors. There was this on the bottom line...

But more importantly, Titleist has real profits and real dominance in the marketplace. Its EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) is approximately $120 million and historically sporting goods transaction multiples are between six and eight times EBITDA. Acushnet being an industry leader would seem to command the high end of that so let's start the bidding at $1 billion. Or possibly beyond.