TED BITS, Ted McIntyre - RCGA Changes Leave Alfred Out

While the new corporate belt-tightening is necessary and even admirable over at the Royal Canadian Golf Association, I was sorry to see former media point man Anthony Alfred squeezed out in the restructuring. Alfred, a slick, kind and classy gentleman, was always very responsive and a pleasure to deal with. His move out opens the door for Dan Pino, who now takes over as director for media and public relations. Dan has worked hard to earn the starting position, and I expect him to flourish in the role, but it’s sad to see Anthony go.

SERGIO, TAKE TWO
In other golf news, Sergio Garcia thinks he’s found a way to help his putting—carry two putters. At the World Match Play Championships last week, Garcia used a short version and a belly version of the TaylorMade Spider putter. I’ve got a better suggestion to improve your poor play, Sergio: Forget two putters and try playing two balls.

TOUR DE FORCE
We’ve already seen lots of success on Tour from affordable Wilson Golf in the past year. Now we saw the same from Tour Edge this past week. Brian Gay chalked up his first PGA Tour win Sunday at the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico with a Tour Edge Exotics CB2 three-wood in his bag. It was Gay’s first tournament of the season as well, giving him the same winning percentage in 2008 as Tiger Woods.

PGA TOUR FURTHER CONFUSES TOP-70 RULE
Remember the enforcement of the new Top-70-and-ties rule that resulted in last-place money but no chance to play on the weekend for a bunch of players at the Sony Open in Hawaii in the PGA Tour’s first full-field event this year?
The PGA Tour has revisited the issue, and confused it even more. The previous rule read that the post-second-round field would be reduced to the low 70 professionals, including ties, unless that resulted in a weekend field of more than 78 players, in which case the field would be reduced to those with scores nearest 70th place.
Under the amended regulation, the starting field will still be reduced to the lowest 70 professionals and ties after 36 holes. However, should the 36-hole cut total more than 78 pros, there will be a second cut to the lowest 70 plus ties at the conclusion of 54 holes of
tournament play. Players not advancing to the final round of play will receive their appropriate share of the official prize money in accordance with their respective positions. The change is effective immediately,beginning with this week’s Honda Classic.

Shanks, Whiffs and One-Irons, Laura Aiken – Keep Booth Babe Gear off the Course.

Ted posted some of the best booth babes from the 2008 merchandise show, and I take no issue with using sex to sell golf. Hey, it sells mostly everything else doesn’t it? I briefly wondered where all the photos of strapping hunks bursting though their polo shirts were, but I take no offense to the imbalance of objectification in today’s media. At the end of the day, there’s a bottom line to be had. Most importantly, there’s a bottom line with the golf dress code: tart-wear is fine in the booth but keep it off the golf course. This trend of hemlines creeping up the thigh and dryer shrunken shirts offends tradition and won’t attract more women to the game because it only serves to increase the environment of intimidation already present in golf. Golf courses have their dress codes but I’ve witnessed them routinely broken, most concerning at last year’s junior Ontario Tour Team Championship where one minor donned a wee ruffle skirt a-la Paris Hilton. Hey, maybe reasonably above the knee is fine, but you shouldn’t be in danger of showing a butt cheek during tournament golf. Nor should your bosom double as a tee and ball holder, no pun intended. Keep it classy ladies, even if clothing manufacturers assure you its fine to be otherwise. Golf is above all else a game of tradition, which need not be translated as prude. Find a happy medium, respect the facility and focus on your golf game. There’s never a shortage of male attention at the course, regardless of the skin on display. That’s just the nature of the game.

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

TED BITS, Ted McIntyre - Tuesday Morning Musings!

The PGA Tour put out an advisory about a conference call at noon today with Commissioner Tim Finchem from the Honda Classic. There is no mention in the email or the attachment of what he intends to speak to us about. How kind of him to come down off the mountain to chat with the commoners. Excuse me if I choose not to take part in chatting with the sporting world’s most arrogant commish.

Another email this morning talks about a new agreement between the Ontario PGA and CMC Golf, which will now be the official custom gift provider for the association. Founded in 1986, CMC is reportedly the number one supplier of custom bag tags and repair tools in the world. What caught by eye in the email, though, was how the company’s logo

reminded me of another prominent golf label
.

Which brings me to Nike Golf Canada. Here’s a company that clearly gets it when it comes to websites. Forget the usual product info; there’s the classic slo-mo Tiger Swing under the website’s “Experience” category, and under “Clubhouse,” you can sign up for free to become a member and get access to regular tips from Stephen Ames and his instructor Sean Foley (the outtakes are hilarious), as well as Ames’ blog. Very cool.

TED BITS, Ted McIntyre - Mats Sundin and the Age of Losers!

We live in the age of Tiger Woods, arguably as pure a warrior as there has been in our lifetime of sports watching—the Terminator of athletes—relentless, unsatisfied and with an insatiable appetite to win (or just as important, a supreme distaste for losing.) Tiger, however, is surrounded by apathy. Only a few players are similarly driven, but none possesses the killer instinct or the arrogance required to put away a superior opponent. God! Nicklaus would never have lost a tournament in guys like Trevino, Player and Palmer were as complacent as Els, Mickelson and the like. I refuse to believe that Tiger is THAT much better than everyone else in golf. He doesn’t shoot 58 for four rounds in a row. In fact, he’s never even broken 61 in an official tournament. And I know enough to turn the TV off once he has TIED his match-play opponent or drawn even with whoever’s in second place in stroke play. I now know who’s going to win–for sure. Time to flip to another channel and another sport where at least one of the opponents haven’t already resigned themselves to losing.
Speaking of complacency, allow me to depart the realm of golf to beat on Mats Sundin for a while. Who are these apologists for Mats in the media and on radio talk shows? “It’s not Mats’ fault he has a no-trade contract.” “He’s earned the right to say no.” “He’s a devoted veteran captain and deserves to do whatever he wants.”
OH PLEASE. No wonder this town hasn’t had a hockey team even MAKE IT to the Stanley Cup in more than 30 years. It’s part of the franchise’s (and evidently its fans’) pervasive attitude of apathy. Nobody was asking Sundin to be shipped off to some Russian gulag where he’d get his fingernails yanked out until he gave up the secrets to the Leafs’ power play system. They were basically saying, “Mats, PLEASE go to a better, happier hockey team for the next 12 weeks and try to win a Stanley Cup. If you go, we can obtain a bare minimum of one good draft pick and another young prospect, and then sign you to a two-year deal in the off-season with a team that now has a much rosier future. Apparently, however, the concept of leaving Toronto for the spring was so abhorrent that Sundin could not conceive of subjecting himself to this insidious “rent-a-player” deal. He’d rather just retire at the end of the year with his longtime team getting nothing in return, or sign with someone else, or go on playing with a franchise that has no future.
Yep–that sounds like prime Toronto Maples Leafs captain material to me.

TED BITS, Ted McIntyre - Sierra Duplantis Tourney Remembers Her Father

The stories keep coming in about Steve Duplantis, the PGA Tour caddie and former Ontario Golf columnist who passed away last month. So do the tributes.
The latest will honour Steve while raising funds for his daughter, Sierra. The first of two memorial events will run March 10 at Walden Lake G&CC in Plant City, Florida, a short drive from both Orlando and Tampa.
The second event will be staged the Monday of Canadian Open week–July 21–at North Halton G&CC in Georgetown.
The Florida tournament will give the people Steve met during his 14 years on the PGA Tour a chance to join in on the celebration, while the Canadian Open tribute will accommodate family and a long list of friends and others who would like to donate to the cause in this neck of the woods. Word is, however, that the odd PGA Tour player may also make an appearance at the North Halton event, which has received the endorsement of the PGA Tour and the RCGA.
Those interested in teeing it up at Walden Lake should contact Brennan Webb at (813) 758-4100 or email bkwtour@aol.com. Entry fee for the four-person scramble is $100 apiece, which includes lunch and prizes, with an auction afterward.
One hundred percent of the proceeds will be donated to the Sierra Duplantis Trust Fund that has been established by the PGA Tour.
I’ll keep you posted as details become available for the July 21 event in Georgetown.

TED BITS, Ted McIntyre - Booth Babes 2008

There is no end to the PGA Merchandise Show. Well, it certainly seems that way anyway with respect to the annual Mother of All Golf Trade Shows that is staged at the mammoth Orange Country Convention Center in Orlando each January.

Well over half of the 1.1 million square foot edifice is devoted to 1,250 golf or golf-related companies, from equipment to soft goods, and from training aids to bizarre equipment on which many would-be inventors have spent their lifesavings but which haven’t a snowball’s chance in Miami of ever succeeding (more on that in a future blog.)
The trick, of course, is getting some of the tens of thousands of would-be buyers and media to stop in and look around at your humble booth and new products when there are 1,200 more booths and 10 miles of exhibitor aisles to navigate in three days.
In the age-old tradition of “sex sells,” however, many savvy entrepreneurs rent every hot babe and skimpy outfit they can get their golf gloves on in the attempt to stop traffic. If the Orange Country Convention Center roof ever collapsed during the golf show, Hooters and half the strip clubs in Central Florida would go out of business.
A few of the resident booth babes from this year’s edition follows.

The one girl, however, that got the most attention was LPGA Tour starlet Paula Creamer (below), who attracted a paparazzi of amateur and professional photographers and no shortage of autograph seekers when she stopped by the Sundog Eyewear booth.

TED BITS, Ted McIntyre - The PGA Tour’s Killer B’s

While “Vijay” is clearly of Indian or Asian descent (technically, it’s Fijian), certain names on the PGA Tour are unquestionably “Made in America.” Under the heading of “lazy Americans,” I offer into evidence the short forms of D.J., J.B., J.J., J.L. and J.P. But the names that seem singularly of Yankee origin are Bo, Boo, Billy Ray, Briny and Bubba.
Do parents have to lose a bet to name their offspring like this?

TED BITS, Ted McIntyre - The Future of Golf Cars

During the recent PGA Merchandise Show at Orange Country Convention Center in Orlando, visitors got to take a sneak peek at what the future may hold for golf car design. One product showcased featured an array of solar cells atop the canopy, which would capture the sun’s energy, which can in turn be used to power the car’s battery.
Another vehicle looked like something straight out of Back to the Future, employing ultracapacitors (Can you say “Flux Capacitor”?) and hydrogen fuel cell technology. The concept is that hydrogen will replace gasoline, and a fuel cell will replace an internal combustion engine. Ultracapacitors are low maintenance and more durable than traditional lead-acid batteries.