When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
This deer didn’t go all AJ Johnson and straddle the line for Katie Nolff, playing on an early fall day at Indian Springs in New York. But the deer was hungry and only slightly alarmed at the post-made putt celebration.
And I’m telling you what you probably know given she made Sportscenter with Scott Van Pelt, who also got extra footage
Plaintiff Justin Breault claims that NBCUniversal has been selling subscriber information to third parties is troubling given Golf Channel, Golfpass and Golf Now’s business.
The case was filed in a Massachusetts federal court and “accuses NBCUniversal’s Golf Channel of selling viewers’ personal information and viewing history without their permission.”
The information allegedly being rented or sold includes customers’ names and addresses, as well as “detailed transactional information” about the titles and subject matter of the media purchased by subscribers.
Once the data is disclosed, the third-party recipients of the information can add other personal and demographic data for those customers, then re-sell the personal viewing information to other third-parties, the class action lawsuit says.
While not specified, presumably Breault was a Golfpass subscriber, or, before that, a Revolution Golf customer (a service purchased by Golf Channel and later folded).
Breault says he purchased a Golf Channel “subscription-based video good or service” within the past two years, and he was never notified, in writing or otherwise, that his personal or viewing information would be disclosed to third-parties.
However, Breault claims, NBCUniversal disclosed his personal information, “including, inter alia, Plaintiff’s name, postal address, telephone number, gender, age, income, whether he has children, and his homeowner status, as well as the title of the video service/product Plaintiff purchased” to marketing companies, data appenders and aggregators or other third-parties.
I’ve asked Golf Channel for comment and will amend this post to reflect any statement when received.
Back in June, a lawsuit was filed against Golf Channel, NBC and Rory McIlroy over the use of Golfpass, a trademarked service.
GolfClub’s GOLFPASS, which is a United States Golf Association official golf club that partners with local golf courses and allows customers to book tee times through a mobile application, alleges that the group of defendants misappropriated its business name when they launched their own version of Golfpass in February of 2019 in violation of the Lanham Act and monopolized the market for digital tee time booking in violation of the Sherman Act and Clayton Act. Court documents filed by GolfClub and its CEO, Christopher Silano, allege that McIlroy, who is described as a "Founding Partner" of Golfpass, and the defendants knowingly took the name GOLFPASS despite GolfClub first using it and establishing trademark rights.
Court papers further allege that as soon as Rory McIlroy and NBC launched their platform, consumers and potential partners immediately began confusing the two platforms to GolfClub’s detriment, and that Silano regularly started receiving a barrage of emails from customers complaining about the McIlroy/NBC service and app.
In news related to Golf Channel’s Orlando facility where most employees have been laid off and closure is coming this fall, Monivette Cordeiro reports for the Orlando Sentinel on channel employees suing Lockheed Martin over mismanagement of toxins that workers allege contaminated them. There are reports of multiple sclerosis, brain lesions, cancer and other diseases caused by the dumping of toxins into the ground water.
For decades, Lockheed Martin manufactured heavy weaponry at its facilities, generating “dangerous wastes,” including different types of metal sludge, oils and greases, metal cuttings and scraps, cyanide and spent acid solutions, the lawsuit said.
Instead of carefully managing the waste, attorneys alleged Lockheed Martin stored toxins in leaking storage tanks, collected and transported waste in leaking underground piping systems and dumped tons of toxic waste sludge inside trenches dug at the Orlando facility.
“Lockheed Martin’s stunning indifference to environmental protection and human health resulted in staggering levels of contamination at the Orlando [facility],” the lawsuit said.
Regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limit certain chemical contaminants in drinking water to 5 parts per billion (ppb) with a goal of having zero. The lawsuit alleges two contaminants were detected in groundwater underneath the Lockheed Martin facility in concentrations as high as 386,000 ppb and 213,600 ppb.
Eleven Golf Channel employees who worked at the facility from 1994 to 2020 are named in the suit.
Pre-pandemic the explosion of interest and respect for the role of par-3 courses was incredible and there is little reason to think that’ll be changing. Designed properly, pitch and putts are fun for all, a great option for kids or older golfers no longer up for a full round and essential to the facilities that have done it right.
While not the first, Pinehurst’s The Cradle was arguably the most ambitious given the prime real estate devoted to the Hanse Design creation. The numbers are in after three years and they are staggering.
Check out this post for all of them, but from a pure news and business perspective the primary number is the rounds played total: over 115,000 rounds in three years means over 100 players a day, depending on whether replays are counted. That’s with a $50 green fee—kids under 17 are free with a paying adult—and many other golf options in the region. Incredibly eye-opening, one would hope, particularly given how little acreage and cost such a course requires compared to a full course.
I get that they’re excited down in greater Frisco about the forthcoming PGA of America golf complex, but I’m not sure we needed an early look at the 2041 Ryder Cup possibilities given that we’d like to just get 2020’s Ryder Cup under our belt in…2021.
Anyway, Gil Hanse’s design at the PGA complex in Frisco is starting to look like a golf course, and while I wouldn’t let anyone see it looking like this, Art Stricklin gives a Golf.com update on a course slated to host 20 professional and amateur events over the next two decades.
Never before has a U.S. course had more than 20 professional and amateur golf events — including two PGA Championships (the first in 2027) and two Senior PGA Championships (the first in 2023) — destined for its fairways while it’s still under construction. All course work will be done later this fall, giving the site a year and a half to grow in and mature.
The property also will feature a second course, the West Course, designed by Beau Welling; a practice area and a 10-hole short course; an Omni resort; and PGA headquarters buildings.
One event presumed to be headed to PGA Frisco but which has not yet been officially announced is the most anticipated: a future Ryder Cup. It would represent the first-ever Ryder Cup in North Texas and only the second in the Lone Star State. The next available date is 2041, but that hasn’t stopped the planning or dreaming.
Yes 2041, when Rory McIlroy will be too old and out of touch to Captain a second time and Larry Nelson will still be wondering why he was passed over.
Again, let’s just get 2020’s under our belt and talk later but in the meantime, at least see how the Hanse team is turning a cow pasture into something.
In his weekly notes column, AP’s Doug Ferguson features this quote from Rory McIlroy without attribution to the context or location:
“I think we're too far down the road to do anything drastic. It went on too long and too far to bring the game to where it was in the mid-90s.” — Rory McIlroy on what golf should do about distance.
It’s an odd one since (A) no one I’m aware of has mentioned going back to mid-90s distances, (B) it’s a contradiction of his wildly inconsistent array of past comments that have covered the gamut from pro-rollback to you-can’t-stop-the-athletes (here, here, and here for starters), (C) it’s oddly short-sighted for a player of McIlroy’s depth and past statements to say the problem is so far gone that inaction is the remedy.
Anyway, anyone know where this was said and what the context was?
Move over M’s!
The Z’s are here and if the last decade’s millennial pandering is any indication, Generation Z is the sports industry’s new focus.
At least, given the numbers presented by The Morning Consult’s Alex Silverman showing less Gen Z enthusiasm for sports than millennials.
Simply put, those born from 1996 and on do not appear to be serious sports viewing fans.
Gen Z’s relative disinterest in sports is reflected in its viewing habits: While 42 percent of all adults, and 50 percent of millennials, said they watch live sports at least once a week, only 1 in 4 individuals ages 13-23 said the same. In addition, Gen Zers were twice as likely as millennials to say they “never” watch live sports.
They are, apparently, degenerate gamblers in the making…
Zach Leonsis, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at franchise ownership group and media company Monumental Sports & Entertainment, said the keys to growing live viewership among young fans are accessibility and opportunities for engagement.
“Sports properties need to make sure that their games are digestible and available via streaming products,” Leonsis said. “They need to make their games engaging by fostering gamification, daily fantasy, free-to-play games and, ultimately, sports betting.”
Golf did not fare too well in the findings, failing to make the chart above showing avid or casual numbers, landing in the 17% or below group that includes MLS, F1 and the Premier League but below UFC, NASCAR and the WNBA.
The polling was conducted a month ago, thereby not accounting for this summer’s pandemic-related spike in recreational interest. Either way, expect golf organizations to lose their minds over this data and make the millennial pandering pale by comparison.
As for “engagement” of teenagers via gambling, I wonder if that’s data-based or just wishful thinking for an industry looking to expand revenue streams.
I’ll leave it up your judgement to decide how you feel about Bryson DeChambeau’s process to outsmart the Winged Foot rough, as outlined by Jonathan Wall at Golf.com. But you have to admire the dedication of both DeChambeau to give himself added confidence, and of the Bridgestone R&D to spend the last Friday night before Labor Day on a Zoom call talking shot pattern standard deviations.
Nice work by Wall and the folks at Bridgestone to piece together this U.S. Open aftermath piece on DeChambeau’s quest to prepare for the high rough and how his 8, 9 and PW would react.
With one of the fastest club-head speeds on Tour, DeChambeau figured he could generate sufficient spin, and a playable ball flight, from the rough to score around the course — even if he wasn’t finding the fairway with a nuked drive.
“If he normally generates 10,000 RPMs with a pitching wedge from a clean lie and knows a flier will knock the spin down to 7,000 RPMs, he’s able to calculate how much longer he’ll hit it in that situation. A lot of players are just guessing when they get a flier. The testing we conducted was all about helping him build those numbers for the clubs he figured he’d use often on approach shots — 8-iron, 9-iron, pitching wedge.
Again, tip your cap to him. But is this where we begin asking if things are maybe not headed in the right direction?
The Scotsman’s Moira Kerr had the backstory on the Australian millionaire Greg Coffey buying the Ardfin Estate ten years ago on the remote Hebridean Island famous as George Orwell’s happy place to write 1984.
And now the £50m renovating later, the Jura House and farm buildings is an upscale “accommodation” with another £20m spent on Bob Harrison’s 18-hole golf course that opened to just a few people in 2015.
The UK Golf Guy’s full review can be read here, but a snippet:
However, in early 2020 it was announced that the course would be open to visitors – but only for those willing to pay stay on the property. I cover the logistics, accommodation and overall package in the Tour Tips section below.
But if you strip away the myths, strip away the cost and strip away the exclusivity, what is the course itself actually like?
Oh why give a more, check out the link and here’s the hole-by-hole flyover.
Jim Walsh in the Cherry Hill Courier-Post paints quite the bizarre picture of a ballot initiative facing the eleven constituents of the borough of Pine Valley. Yes, that Pine Valley.
The club’s George Crump and H.S. Colt course is typically ranked first in most rankings of top American courses despite losing some aesthetic and architectural edge in recent years. The “borough” of Pine Valley now appears to be adhering to Governor Phil Murphy’s push for shared services between boroughs with lower property taxes as the end goal.
So this November 3rd, you Pine Valley borougherers—all eleven of the thirteen registered to vote—you must decide whether to form a citizens’ commission to decide shared services in the region!
“This is a preliminary step, but an important one that the borough believes is prudent to consider,” Pine Valley Mayor Mike Kennedy said in a statement provided to the Courier-Post.
The ballot question – to be decided by the borough’s 11 registered voters — is “consistent with these goals,” Kennedy said.
The Camden County borough, which was incorporated in 1929, keeps a low profile in a forested area behind a rail line along East Atlantic Avenue.
There’s an understatement. I wonder if there are lawn signs with the lucky few Pine Valley residents announcing their position?
Anyway, Walsh paints a picture of Pine Valley from just outside the gates and tries to describe the exclusive club—errr, borough—that might like some help from neighboring areas despite its all-male membership, claims that the borough has “no say” in the club operation and the famous once-a-year open door policy.
One cabin-like building serves as the borough hall. The six-officer police department, which has reported no major crimes for the past two years, occupies a smaller structure next door.
That opportunity comes on the final day of the Crump Cup, a four-day competition for “mid-amateur” and senior golfers. The event is named for George Crump, a Philadelphia hotelier who began designing the course in 1913.
Mid-amateur senior golfers. That had to sting. Here’s a weird one:
This year’s competition, initially scheduled for Sept. 24-27, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the one-day opening drew almost 800 spectators in 2018, including four who were “evicted for tossing things onto the course,” according to minutes of a borough commission meeting from that time.
Tossing things? A divot back to a golfer? A green reading book? A pine cone? Details!
Anyway, it’s all bizarre and I recommend reading it from Walsh.
In Joe Beditz’s National Golf Foundation analysis of August’s 20.6% year-over-year increase, this was interesting:
But nothing about the past few months seems structurally different for golf, whether with the product itself, the service that supports it, or the overall user experience … unless you count extended tee time intervals, which for a time seemed to produce faster, smoother and more enjoyable rounds. Either way, we weren’t suddenly marketing ourselves differently, onboarding new players differently, or managing customer relationships differently. (In fact, remote check-in procedures may have made it more impersonal.)
Time, time, time, safe, time and safe.
And more on the huge summer for retail, already noted here with regard to evening golf becoming popular. Beditz writes:
Total sales of golf equipment on- and off-course were $331 million in August, extending a record-setting summer for the retail side of the business.
Golf retail sales in August were up 32% over the same period in 2019 ($251 million) and readily surpassed the previous record for the month of $287 million in 2006. Golf Datatech has been tracking golf retail sales since 1997.
Five equipment categories set all-time sales records for August: balls, irons, wedges, bags and gloves. Bags were the best-performing equipment category for the month, up 55% over last year.
Wait, but not drivers after golfers were inspired by Bryson DeChambeau? That must be an oversight!
It would have been a somber, fan or partially fan-free Ryder Cup last weekend played under ideal weather conditions. But with Wisconsin reporting 2000 new cases four days in a row and a huge positivity rate as well, combined with the lack of fan access, and it looks like the 2020-In-2021 Ryder Cup looks like a wise postponement to 2021.
While I still think toning down the fan element and other theatrics would have been a good thing, a date the week after the rescheduled U.S. Open was, in hindsight, less than ideal and might have led to a severely diminished event.
The Golf.com Confidential crew addressed and noted things lost, all of which might not have had their usual luster set against the 2020 backdrop.
Shipnuck: Being right. I have no doubt the young, talented Americans who have been dominating the golf world were going to win to touch off a decade of dominance. Now, who knows how much momentum will be lost over the next year. Alas, Europe even wins the pandemics.
Dethier: The crowds. The frenzied Midwestern crowds waking up on a crisp Wisconsin morning, getting out in some hideous star-spangled garb and rooting on their beloved Yanks in a too-close Ryder Cup on a super-fun golf course. Oh, and figuring out if Tiger Woods should be on the team — that would have been a blast of a debate too, no doubt.
Bamberger: The parades of the WAGs. The parade of self-importance, pre, post and during.
Piastowski: The fans. They made the right call to not go on without them. It’s the event that needs a crowd the most. The one event where you can cheer for your team – and get after the other one.
The Deseret News’ Mike Sorenson reports that PGA Tour winner Tony Finau and his team have been sued by Molonai Hola for more than $16 million. The story says he’s known the Finau family since 1997 and as part of his Icon Sports, “began financing expenses for Tony and his younger brother Gipper”, the suit says.
Also named in the lawsuit are Finau’s brother, Gipper, his father, Gary, his agent Christopher Armstrong and the Wasserman Media Group.
When reached for comment on the lawsuit, Armstrong said in a statement, “We are aware of the matter and have the utmost faith in the legal process. We will not be making further comment at this time.”
I’m not clear what role Finau’s agent plays from the story. The timing of the assistance Hola gave suggests it might have crossed over into Finau’s amateur and NCAA career.
The suit claims Hola paid for the Finau family’s mortgage payments, medical insurance, a new car as well as golf-related travel expenses for Tony and Gipper, including living expenses for the Finau family to reside in Florida for approximately a year while they received lessons from renowned golf instructor David Leadbetter.
Later, Hola helped form the Finau Corporation to help promote the young golfers and was designated as the corporation’s registered agent.
The expenses, according to the suit, added up to $592,371.37 over several years.
The New York Times’ Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig and Mike McIntire report on two decades of President Donald Trump’s income tax returns showing he’s paid no income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years.
Trump’s investment in golf plays a central role in revealing “struggling properties, vast write-offs, an audit battle and hundreds of millions in debt coming due.”
When “The Apprentice” premiered, Mr. Trump had opened only two golf courses and was renovating two more. By the end of 2015, he had 15 courses and was transforming the Old Post Office building in Washington into a Trump International Hotel. But rather than making him wealthier, the tax records reveal as never before, each new acquisition only fed the downward draft on his bottom line.
Consider the results at his largest golf resort, Trump National Doral, near Miami. Mr. Trump bought the resort for $150 million in 2012; through 2018, his losses have totaled $162.3 million. He has pumped $213 million of fresh cash into Doral, tax records show, and has a $125 million mortgage balance coming due in three years.
Overseas, the losses at Doonbeg, Aberdeen and Turnberry have been reported in annual corporate filings required-by-law.
His three courses in Europe — two in Scotland and one in Ireland — have reported a combined $63.6 million in losses.
This could explain the urgency to see Turnberry return to the Open rota. A near-term prospect that seems more in question than ever given the financials.
And the grand total?
Over all, since 2000, Mr. Trump has reported losses of $315. 6 million at the golf courses that are his prized possessions.
There was also this conflict of interest situation noted in the Times reporting.
At the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., a flood of new members starting in 2015 allowed him to pocket an additional $5 million a year from the business. At his Doral golf resort near Miami, the roofing materials manufacturer GAF spent at least $1.5 million in 2018 even as its industry was lobbying the Trump administration to roll back “egregious” federal regulations.
Great stuff from the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open today—if you look past he lack of distancing and facial covering apparently just off the 14th hole at Galgorm Resort and Spa. Aaron Rai leads heading into the final round.
But the scenes just off the course got most of the broadcasters and social media attention Saturday, and why not:
Farming can wait when there's live golf on! 🤣 #DDFIrishOpen pic.twitter.com/KZo5CnTGvq
— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) September 26, 2020
Watch golf. Farm later 😂#DDFIrishOpen pic.twitter.com/FnDz1kjarP
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) September 26, 2020
Update: pic.twitter.com/Oz4V7PrFMJ
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) September 26, 2020
ESPN.com’s Bob Harig talked to 13-time PGA Tour winner Mark Calcaveccia about his COVID-19 bout and efforts to get back to normal.
"It's the worst I ever felt," he said. "Every bone in my body hurt."
Calcavecchia can't pinpoint where he picked up the virus. And he said the fact that neither his wife, Brenda, nor any of the people he played with on a weeklong golf vacation in Nebraska (including two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen and tour pro Scott Dunlap), contracted COVID-19 is "a minor miracle."
He goes on to describe a harrowing cross-country journey with worsening conditions each day until heading to the hospital for testing and treatment.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
