Golf Practice-zine Newsletter for February 2010

Greetings! and thanks for signing up to receive the February 2010 issue (#21) of the Newsletter. So, this month we deal with: Golfers in the News, the Ping Wedge Controversy, new prospects for Golf Journalism, a Better Way to Choose Golf Clubs, and Tiger's Sex Addiction gambit.

Here is the lineup this issue:

Newsletter Contents:

1. Golfers in the News
2. Ping Wedge Controversy
3. The Future of Golf Journalism
4. A Better Way to Choose Clubs
5. The Sex Addiction Defense

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1. Golfers in the News

Besides what is happening to Tiger Woods, other golfers are going through changes in 2010:

• Michael Campbell, former US Open champion at Pinehurst, has lost his game. Cambo has proceeded to fall apart. By his own admission he has been his own worst enemy by working out less, practicing less and now his attitude and confidence have suffered to the point that he has to rebuild his game.

  Progress has been agonizingly slow -- he's currently ranked at 249 in the world. Re-invigorated, he has returned this year, on his last season exemption remaining from the 2005 US Open triumph. In a New Zealand Herald article, Campbell says he actually thought about quitting golf, he was so frustrated. The only thing keeping him at golf was that he had no other career path open. Golf is it.

  Opening his 2010 campaign on the European Tour at Abu Dhabi, he shot 83-77 to miss the cut by a mile. His work ethic is back and you know his skill has never left, he just has to take his practice game to the course. Hopefully he finds his game. If not, Michael may not be back next year.

• John Daly: Losing over 100 pounds Long John literally is not the man he used to be. Lap-band (i.e., laproscopic or gastric) surgery last season has played a big part but John has re-committed to his game and career as a serious golf professional.

  Now, he's destined for stardom. Golfchannel has cast him in a feature "Being John Daly" reality series about his very eventful life and current prospects for getting things under control. The series is due to start on March 2 this year.

• Jim Thorpe: Has just been sentenced to one year in prison for tax evasion. Bloomberg News reported that Thorpe was sentenced to one year in prison for failing to pay federal income taxes for three years. He appealed the decision to serve prison time and was rejected. Thorpe owes more than $2million in back taxes for the years 2002-2004. He pled guilty and has agreed to pay back the money.

• Tiger Woods, who hasn't missed a tabloid news cycle in months surfaced again when Accenture, who had dropped ads featuring Tiger in a world wide print campaign, announced their "replacement ads" January 15. Since 2003, Tiger was featured in their, "Go on. Be a Tiger." campaign to underline their commitment to achieving high performance goals for their customers. To them, Tiger exemplified the traits embodied in that statement. Now, not so much.

  Roxanne Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer was quoted, “The message that we wanted to be delivering was no longer being delivered as effectively as we liked.” The new ad concepts feature posters featuring wildlife (including a surfing elephant)in posters due to replace Tiger's ads by mid-January, 2010.

• Moe Norman: Finally, a movie about Canada's legendary golfer is going to be made. Belltower Entertainment announced in mid-January that Giovani Ribisi (Avatar, Gone in Sixty Seconds) will star as Moe. The picture's working title is Dance the Green. The movie was written by Barry Morrow (Rainman) and will be directed by Ericson Core (Invincible).

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In 2008, the USGA and R& A announced new rules covering the grooves on iron clubfaces. The two organizations (and the RCGA in Canada, by the way) adopted new specifications for the physical width and depth of grooves from five iron through the wedges. Basically, any iron with a loft of 25-degrees or greater would be less deep and V-shaped, rather than the former U-Shape. This meant that grooves under the new rule would be less sharp and impart less spin on the ball, especially when struck from the rough. Implementation of the new spec is to start this year, January 1.

The stated purpose of the new rule was to place a higher premium on hitting the fairway for elite players. The pros were apparently having it too easy since they could achieve high spin rates on balls from the rough, hit and hold greens and make good scores on hard courses. Such a shame, stated the governors, especially when we took such care to make pros look like hacks at our chrished majors.

Amateurs were not to be affected until 2024, which seemed to be pretty arbitrary and extreme to many golfers -- me included. If the "problem" only arises amongst elite players, why mess with amateurs at all? Frank Thomas, former Technical guru for the USGA, seems to agree. Frank, now a commentator on Golfchannel, referred to the issue on his website. I quote:

Based on PGA Tour stats, the average score per round was 71.5 in 1988 and 71.2 in 2008, during which time driving accuracy increased (from 64 percent in '88 to 69.5 percent in '98) and then decreased, leveling off to about 63 percent since 2005. Driving accuracy is a measure of how many times the golfer hits his ball in the fairway per round. Without any assurance that the problem will be solved, should we not test the proposed solution where the problem seems to exist, before requiring that the manufacturers change their entire production process for all clubs marketed after Jan 2011, affecting all of us?

So, what problem? This is all one big tempest in a teapot as far as I'm concerned

Just to complicate things, another wrinkle emerged at the Sony Open when John Daly and Dean Wilson played Ping Eye 2 irons -- eligible because they were manufactured before March 31, 1990 which complies with a rule exemption (Decision USGA/4-1/100). The exception was made as a result of a lawsuit Ping filed against the USGA over square grooves that was settled in 1990. Under the settlement, any Ping Eye2 made before April 1, 1990, remains approved under the Rules of Golf.

Ping is not allowed to re-manufacture any Eye2s that have the old design, but if players can find some, they can play them. Check you attics, everyone!

Daly used pitching, sand and lob wedges that were Ping Eye2s. Good club management, I say.

Oh, and by the way, Daly has tucked away about nine sets of old Eye2s. Just in case the grooves on the old clubs wear out, he has backups -- probably enough for the next few seasons anyway. Thank heavens for ebay.

And Another Thing....

Just when we thought we'd had enough of the Ping Thing, up steps Scott McCarron. At Torrey Pines, he said Phil Mickelson was, "..cheating" by using Ping vintage wedges and (furthermore) he found such conduct "appalling". As a member of the 16-person Tour Players Advisory Council, Scott may have been stretching his pipes in reaction to questions from the press.

Not one to take such pronouncements lightly, Phil Mickelson shot back that he objected to being "publicly slandered" and that if the Tour didn't take such steps to correct this situation, he would seek his own means of resolution (whatever that meant). It sounds like a "sue you - sue me" phenomenon is about to happen if the PGA Tour doesn't calm this tempest soon.

The PGA Tour was sent scrambling and published a statement during the Farmers Insurance Open that Ping Eye 2 irons are permitted for play. Nevertheless, Scott McCarron declared, "..he would not be silenced" on this issue and would continue to work to resolve the matter.

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Ryan Ballengee has written an insightful article iPad and the Future of Golf Journalism. Since Apple's iPad Tablet was only released five days prior to his article, it must have left a pretty powerful impression.

Since I'm the owner of four iPods, I can certainly understand someone being enthusiastic about Apple technology. Like most people, I have heard and understand the impact that the internet has had on the publishing industry. From every perspective -- print, music, video and audio -- traditional content publishers are reeling from having to respond to the changes digital distribution has meant to their industries. So, from the title, my interest was immediately piqued.

Apple iPad = Game-Changer Features:

1. ultralight (1.5lbs) form-factor with high-resolution screen. Excellent multimedia consumption device.
2. multitouch technology that, with effortless movement of the hands/fingers makes the device feature-set very intuitive to use.
3. viewing video or print content will be very immersive for the large potential audience of tech-literate consumers.
4. an inexpensive, wireless, networked device that a consumer can easily handle and tranport. The consumer and their iPad will be inseparable.
5. iTunes as the central market hub of the network. This is the "jewel in the crown". Publishers get paid for their content from within a proven ecosystem of willing, qualified buyers at an equitable price.
6. iPad offers a digital medium that enhances the means by which content providers can enhance their product, improve the experience of their customers and reap their revenue rewards at minimal distribution costs.

It is no accident that one of the on-stage demonstrators at Apple's iPad release event was the New York Times. The NYT absolutely believes in the iPad device as a pivotal tool in its goal to save the paper through digital innovation. The NY Times has a successful distribution model on the internet now -- it is one of the few successful newspapers in this regard.

This situation offers nothing but good for golf publishers. As Ballengee points out:

"..for golf - arguably the most visually stunning and dependent of all sports - is great for publications like Golf Digest that are struggling to make the profitable transition from being dependent on print to thriving digitially.

The iPad's elegant interface makes possible a digital version of the magazine that could equal or surpass the original in visual appeal for the reader. Video swing tips, tournament highlights, even video programming can be rendered through a photo-realistic screen in the viewer's lap. The high degree of user interaction would be a dream for advertisers.

Content creation becomes less expensive, enabling publishers to translate from newspaper and magazine to the tablet via the iTunes Appstore. Small to mid-size businesses will be able to make and distribute content to the iPad audience which will broaden the market and potentially increase the audience reached by golf content providers.

As I think we've seen through Tiger's scandal, the timeline from event-to-story-to-publication will get much shorter. With more and more richly featured mobile devices, publishers may find their swimming in a much deeper and richer pool for their work. Being able to shape and tailor the content for their audience will be the hallmark of their success or failure.

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As new clubs and components are produced annually, the technical staff at The Golfworks calculate their MPF formulas and update their MPF listings. This process takes awhile (field testing, labwork, etc.) but the 2009 factor updates for irons have just been released. I show a sample in the above table. For a more detailed look you can download the latest updates from my website.

Now, I'm not naive; the MPF is not going to be your sole basis for choosing a particular iron. I listed the sample in alphbetic order, deliberately placing Maltby's own clubhead last. I think the table is a good illustration. I'm familiar with most of these clubs. I've been looking at these for a while now -- I try not to drool. My personal preferences over the last few years have been Callaway, TaylorMade and Ping -- pretty much in that order.

But my choice methodology is probably no different than yours. I look, I touch and I try to test them at demo days before I buy. I never buy new clubs (i.e., in the year they are released) they just cost too much. As a clubmaker, I often build my own, of course. It's always nice to try the commercial clubs, just so I stay current with what's out there. But now, looking at the table, I would have picked the lowest ranked club on the list. Big mistake. Now I'm familiar with the Ping (V2) and Callaway (X-22) irons on the list and would be very happy playing either of those. I just have to time the right sale day at the golf store or even ebay. You see, I go by looks as much as anything else. Swing it a few times and that does speak to me when I develop a preference. The MPF arms me with science to temper my final assessment. What the higher factor value for Ping V2s tells me is that, the higher the number, the more easily I will get the ball airborne, and the more forgiving the clubface will be toward my misshits. Larger MPF value equals easier to hit and more forgiving clubface. Simple and clear as that.

Now my choice is between Ping and Callaway, a difference between 899 and 854 (45 points) may not be a deal-breaker. Ping is 5.25% more playable than Callaway, statistically speaking; but am I that much more confident playing Ping over Callaway? Callaway has nicer headcovers. The MPF may not be a deal-maker but at the very least it should be a tie-breaker.

The MPF is the best vendor-independent guide you have for club selection decisions related to your game improvement. For more details, visit Ralph Maltby's site. Highly recommended.

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In a recent article, Times Online author, Raymond Tallis gives a wonderfully witty and lucid take on Tiger Woods' latest Sex Scandal redemption strategy. The press has him checked-in to a Sex Addiction Clinic in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

In Tallis' eyes, concern over Tiger's sexual rampage misses the point; in historical terms:

Apparently this extraordinarily handsome, fabulously rich, wonderfully talented man has been having sex with a number of beautiful women, only one of whom is his wife. This has caused shock and amazement to those who seem to be entirely unacquainted with the history of the world.

As evidence, there is the case of King Solomon (300 wives, 700 concubines), Warren Beatty (12,775 lovers) and Wilt Chamberlain who claims to have bedded 20,000 women from the age of 15. So Woods, who barely broke the dirty dozen barrier depending on who counts, barely earns membership to this club.

But to claim this situation arose from sex addiction is an excessive stretch. Really, as Tallis says, this is more about "..maximum temptation is combined with maximum opportunity." Although Woods has made strained attempts at contrition and has admitted responsibility for his actions, this is mere posturing within a bigger picture for Tiger.

First of all, if Tiger is some sex addict, so are we all. Irresponsible, immoral, unethical, scandalous and reprehensible though his actions may be, his main problems were: (a) he was married, and (b) he got caught. Oops, now he's done it. Now what? All right, smart people at IMG -- who take large percentages of his gross as agents, advisors and partners -- this is why I pay you the big bucks. And, my sponsors are leaving like flies -- big bucks gone. My image is in the toilet along with my marriage. What say you? Wither my recovery?

Well, let's see. Tiger, as your worthy agents we strongly suggest:

• Shut up
• Disappear
• Hand over your cell phones and car keys
• Take the night train to Hattiesburg
• Check into a Sex Addiction centre
• We'll be in touch

The idea that Tiger needs to be treated for Sex Addiction implies he has some treatable syndrome; that he is a victim of some medically unfortunate event due to circumstances beyond his control. As fans we are encouraged to show empathy. This strategy diverts attention, affords Tiger time to let the scandal die down and focus his efforts to recover his marriage and his sponsors. Really, it dilutes his claim that he accepts full responsibility for his action -- a claim to addiction induces sympathy for his "suffering". Bugwash. Tiger sought his liaisons out, they just didn't happen to him; his actions caused this scandal. He got caught.

There are vested interests within Tiger's entourage at work here. The Tallis article is right on, in my opinion:

..novel syndromes are coined every day by doctors -- and by lawyers wanting to uphold the claim of diminished responsibility on behalf of their clients. Computer addiction syndrome, parental alienation syndrom, self-victimisation syndrome, and UFO survivor syndrome are recent American examples that would make "sexual addiction syndrome" as robust a diagnosis as bronchitis.

I have sympathy for Elin. She is the real victim here. Tiger, for him I remain skeptical. I hope he can save his marriage.

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