TED BITS, Ted McIntyre - TIGER WOODS COMEBACK TO BE ANNOUNCED TODAY?

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has called a press conference today for 2:30 p.m. Since no topic has been indicated, I’ve gotta think this will be announcing the comeback of Tiger Woods, and his first couple of events. If Woods is back in time for the Masters, then I’ve lost all respect for him, since it will indicate that his time off has never been about contrition or repairing his errant ways—it’s been about damage control, and the only thing he really cares anything about is overtaking Nicklaus on the Major championship front.

It will also suggest that Elin wants him to rack up some dough before they officially divorce at year’s end. Or maybe she just can’t stand him around the house any longer.

There’s a chance, however, that Finchem will announce more of the same—that Woods is not returning by the Masters and that he has no word yet on the plans of the World No. 1. That might explain the lack of a topic in the press conference announcement, and Finchem is notorious for talking a lot without saying anything whatsoever. He’s pretty much made a career of it.

TED BITS, Ted McIntyre - GAR HAMILTON TO PLAY IN US SENIOR OPEN

Mississaugua G&CC’s Gar Hamilton has qualified to compete in this year’s U.S. Senior Open at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Indiana. The 59-year-old shot even par at his qualifying site in Buffalo.
“I played pretty efficiently,” said Hamilton when referring to his qualifying round at Lockport Town and Country Club just outside of Buffalo. “The greens were running about 13 and the pins were located on knobs so it made it really tough.”
Hamilton, who was playing in the final group, was delayed by a weather system that swept in while he was standing on the 18th hole.
“I knew that even par or one under would be good,” said Hamilton, who was sitting at even par on the 18th tee. “When I saw that I only needed to make par on the 18th hole, which was a par-3, I tensed up a bit.”
Not that it showed, considering he hit his utility club to 15 feet and two-putted for par to get into his first Major Championship.
Hamilton will actually have a bit of a home-field advantage at Crooked Stick, which is where the Indiana University graduate played regularly in his college days.

Shanks, Whiffs and One-Irons, Laura Aiken – TAXMAN PAYS GOLF A VISIT

Golfers will be part of the group paying off the provincial government’s red ink through its controversial harmonized tax plan that will blend GST and PST. Green fees, previously subject to the five per cent GST rate, will be taxed at 13 per cent as of July 1, 2010, as reported by The Toronto Star.

Players will pay eight per cent more at every golf course next year. This could make it challenging for golf courses to adjust their green fees for inflation in the coming few years as patrons will already have a bit of sticker shock to contend with. Facilities that chose to maintain their rates this season in the prickly economy will face an even bigger challenge when planning feasible price increases in the future, which are an ugly but necessary fact of life. The cost of maintaining a golf course and paying staff isn’t going down. Minimum wage went up in March, and a bevy of other critical items, such as gasoline, are going to be subject to the harmonized tax as well.

Considering the government has been saying it supports healthy lifestyle choices, sports be exempt from tax hikes, period. Perhaps that’s idealistic, but it would still be ideal.

Laura Aiken is the editor of Bay Area Golfing magazine. She has been a golf journalist for six years. Laura can be reached at laura@bags.on.ca.

Shanks, Whiffs and One-Irons, Laura Aiken – Where are the boys of Orlando?

I was checking out Ted’s annual ranking of booth babes at the PGA show and couldn’t help but wonder where all the booth boys were at. I fully agree, sex sells like nothing else on the planet, and despite all the headway made in women’s golf, we are still selling to men. To be fair, the industry is still male dominated and largely the target market, but to make a point, women are a growing demographic of players that hold undisputed household buying power.

At a trade show full of men, companies are going to cater to them, but at consumer shows women and their families are looking for representation in the booths. The Toronto Golf & Travel show is coming up and I am looking forward to finding out whether Hooters girls will be as abundantly present, if at all, as last year. There were complaints last year, mostly questioning whether it was in good taste, and I’m sure the show took it heart in planning this year’s event. If we want to heat golf right up, we should tell Mom and Dad to leave the kids at home and hire some half-naked hunks to balance out the scenery. I know at least a few women who would agree. I’d be interested in hearing how women want golf sold to them, as their participation is going to make a difference to future of the game. Maybe it’s not Brad Pitt look-alikes in boxer shorts, but maybe it is.

Laura Aiken is the editor of Bay Area Golfing magazine. She has been a golf journalist for six years, and a mediocre player trying to lower her handicap for 10 years. Laura can be reached at laura@bags.on.ca.

Shanks, Whiffs and One-Irons, Laura Aiken – Golf course real estate on trial.

Some golf and real estate developments have been holding hands in a dicey game of Red Rover, beckoning the bankruptcy dog to come on over and play in their perpetual bath of red ink. Others have sold fast and sustained the golf and housing marriage well. However, this could be a sellout year for red pens.

New home sales in the GTA were down 77 per cent in December compared to the same month in 2007, according to the Building Industry & Land Development Association (BILD). That’s pretty bad. And if new home sales are down that much in an area of primary residences in urban areas, how are second homes on golf courses in the country going to fare?

Some builders are going for the business aggressively. I was told Sierra has pushed the town of Collingwood to fast track the approval of its 15,000 square foot community clubhouse at its Tanglewood development, which backs onto the Atoka golf course, in hopes of gaining a competitive edge over other projects that may be slowing down.

Developers can only hope the release of the federal budget will restore consumer confidence, which the Conference Board of Canada reported as slightly higher but still dismal in January, according to CBC.

This could be the tipping point for projects in precarious places. It will be interesting to see if any courses are dragged under by the real estate slump.

Laura Aiken is the editor of Bay Area Golfing magazine as well as Canadian Pizza magazine, a business-to-business publication. She has been a golf journalist for six years, and a mediocre player trying to lower her handicap for 10 years. Laura can be reached at laura@bags.on.ca.

Shanks, Whiffs and One-Irons, Laura Aiken – Upsides to the downswing.

The economy’s in the toilet and we’re all waiting for the big flush, says final quarter stats for 2008. However, there are some upsides to this financial downswing.

It’s a perfect time to travel. I spoke with one travel agent who says the deals for 2009 will be absolutely unreal. One story relayed to me was of a recent all-inclusive trip to the Dominican Republic for $600. In the same vein, gas is finally a reasonable price. It will be significantly cheaper to drive to the golf course at this rate.

A slowing economy forces the free hand of capitalism to produce more intense competition, which is a great thing for the consumer. While the layoffs have been devastating and many businesses are feeling the pinch of industry wallets snapping shut like mousetraps, the crunch is a buyer’s market. Buy stocks, buy houses, buy cars and for goodness sakes buy plenty of rounds of golf. The deals won’t get much better.

I wish I could add a really positive note and say “AND the Leafs are doing fantastic”, but really the only plus is they’re ahead of the Sens.

Laura Aiken is the editor of Bay Area Golfing magazine and communications director for the BAGS Junior Golf Tour. She has been a golf writer for six years, and a mediocre player and fashion activist for 10 years. Laura can be reached at laura@bags.on.ca.

Shanks, Whiffs and One-Irons, Laura Aiken – Olympic Update.

The International Golf Federation’s Olympic Committee pressed its case for golf at the World Amateur Team Championships last week in Australia. The event was a prime opportunity for Ty Votaw, executive director of the committee, to raise support for the movement to include golf in the 2016 games. The International Olympic Committee is slated to determine golf’s fate in October of 2009, when it will choose two of seven sports on the docket. Golf is competing against baseball, karate, roller sports, rugby, sevens, softball and squash.

The push for golf’s inclusion on the Olympic world stage has been in and out of the news for years. Some have argued that securing the biggest names (Tiger Woods et. al) will be the key to winning the bid. I think securing golf’s image globally will be the key, and the fact that the golf industry is a growing and significant contributor to Europe, Middle East and African economies will only help its case. So will the stats that give 20 countries representation in the 2008 top 100 world rankings. Clearly, it is a global sport. The four finalist cities for the 2016 games are Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. There is potential for good golf.

Golf’s biggest struggle will be its weakness as a spectator sport when compared to some its competitors that allow people to see the whole game and all its players from one convenient seat. Rugby and karate are tough contenders for riveting action, which is what defines much of the imagination concerning the Olympics, where glory is won and lost in split seconds and split fractions. Missed putts haven’t been around since the Olympics of 1904.

Laura Aiken is the editor of Bay Area Golfing magazine and communications director for the BAGS Junior Golf Tour. She has been a golf writer for six years, and a mediocre player and fashion activist for 10. Laura can be reached at laura@bags.on.ca.

Shanks, Whiffs and One-Irons, Laura Aiken – 10 Reasons to Get to Quebec.

I could give you a hundred reasons to golf in Quebec after traveling to the Charlevoix region and Quebec City this September, where I had the pleasure of playing the St. Laurent and Tadoussac courses at Fairmont Le Manor Richelieu, Le Grand Vallon at Mont-Saint-Anne and La Tempête outside Quebec City. Essentially this meant playing on the edge of a cliff alongside the St. Lawrence, then at the base of the Appalachians, and finally in an Ontario park-like setting. While the golf experiences are uniquely Quebecois, the dramatically changing scenery sometimes feels like the Caribbean and British Columbia wrapped in one wonderfully eclectic gift.

Here are 10 top reasons to brush up on your French:

1. You don’t have to wait until 11:00 am to drink alcohol on the golf course.
2. Crème Brulée Fois Gras
3. No one was rude to me because my French sounded suspiciously like English
4. One must experience how the stimp of a green can double in speed when heading towards water on the edge of a cliff
5. Tartare galore: beef, venison, tuna, duck…
6. Boutique shopping in old Quebec City. Priceless.
7. When you’re in Charlevoix, you’re also standing in a really big meteor crater, one of the only inhabited ones on Earth.
8. See Free Willy and all his friends on whale-watching cruises
9. The multitude of art galleries in Baie-Saint-Paul will inspire even the most rudimentary talent
10. Casino de Charlevoix a pristine, modern gambling experience that’s adjacent to Fairmont Le Manor Richelieu

Laura Aiken is the editor of Bay Area Golfing magazine and communications director for the BAGS Junior Golf Tour. She has been a golf writer for six years, and a mediocre player and fashion activist for 10. Laura can be reached at laura@bags.on.ca.

Shanks, Whiffs and One-Irons, Laura Aiken – A well-planned walk.

I recently played The Links at Piper’s Heath in Milton. The course was in great shape and a challenge to play, but the thing that really stuck with me was how well the layout had been designed for walkers. Too many new courses have long gaps in between holes that either strongly encourages a cart when we as a society have never needed to walk more, or slows down play as walkers can’t keep up with the riders zipping from green to the next tee. Piper’s Heath has done a great job of creating a well-planned walk. Next tees are very close to last greens with the only long gap occurring at the turn. All different designs of course can be appreciated but one must give extra credit to the new course built without the mandatory cart revenue in mind.

Laura Aiken is the editor of Bay Area Golfing magazine and communications director for the BAGS Junior Golf Tour. She has been a golf writer for six years, and a mediocre player and fashion activist for 10. Laura can be reached at laura@gallowstudios.com.

Shanks, Whiffs and One-Irons, Laura Aiken – The New and The Old.

I had the privilege of playing a brand new golf course last week and a very old one this week. The juxtaposition of the new Dragon’s Fire GC in Carlisle and the old Cutten Club in Guelph reminds one of all the things to take into account when you are treading on young or ancient territory.

Dragon’s Fire is a solid layout. It’s not riddled with visual “wow” but green fees ranging from $55-$74 do not call for cliffhanger holes anyway. Reasonable fees call for a pleasing to the eye round that makes good use of the natural topography, and Dragon’s Fire does just that. However, it’s an infant, and there a few things to keep in mind about newbies or you may become very frustrated with your round. The greens are hard and don’t hold. This is common of new greens. Put the fancy stick away and plan to execute some bump n’ runs. Don’t beat yourself up about score. New greens can be incredibly unjust and they don’t serve as an example of how the course will play when it matures. The fairways are generous at Dragon’s Fire but it seemed impossible to find your ball when you missed them. It will take time and player feedback for ownership to determine where or if they need to grub areas of the forest.

On the other hand, the private Cutten Club was showcasing its restoration of their historical Stanley Thompson design. The Cutten Club has had since 1931 to get it right and they certainly have done just that. The 18th hole was renovated to reflect how far modern technology sends the ball, bunkers were added and trees were removed around the course amongst other finishing touches. The greens were magnificent and the golf course played as I imagine Thompson envisioned. It was as it was expected to be.

The Cutten Club and Dragon’s Fire were treats to play, and further fostered my appreciation of how long it takes to raise a golf course.

Laura Aiken is the editor of Bay Area Golfing magazine and communications director for the BAGS Junior Golf Tour. She has been a golf writer for six years, and a mediocre player and fashion activist for 10. Laura can be reached at laura@gallowstudios.com.