In America, the words “hot import” would probably be most closely identified with cars bearing the names Honda, Toyota, or Lexus. The tables are turned, however, when it comes to golf clubs. The hot imports in the Japanese golf markets come from U.S. companies like Callaway and TaylorMade.
If you’ve seen the movie “Lost in Translation,” then you’ll likely remember the brief but beautiful scene in which Bill Murray’s character tees off toward the towering visage of Mt. Fuji. What kind of driver do you think the American visitor was using to put the ball in play? While it might have been something from a top Japanese golf company, like Mizuno or Bridgestone, it was quite possibly a product made for the Japanese market by a U.S. club company.
Tiger Woods made a Sunday charge and made up a three-stroke deficit on 54-hole co-leader Jim Furyk at the (cough, ahem, Cialis) Western Open today at Chicago’s beautiful Cog Hill Golf and Country Club. The downside? Woods started the day five strokes back, and Furyk’s two-stroke victory – the tenth of his career and his first in two years – was all but assured when Tiger faltered at 13 and 14 as Furyk poured in three straight birdies to retake a four-stroke lead after Tiger caught him with an eagle at the 11th.
In 2004 Marisa Baena was contemplating quitting the LPGA Tour. With non-exempt status and having to Monday-qualify for several events this year Baena said she would give herself two more years before changing careers. What a mistake that would have been as she finally broke through to victory today at the 2005 HSBC Women’s Match Play Championship. Playing as Marisa stated “the best golf I’ve played all season” the 60th-seed golfed confidently today finishing with a 1-up victory against LPGA Tour rookie Meena Lee.
This week, we’re going to take a look at something near and dear to The Sand Trap’s heart: the best pressure-packed bunker shots in golf’s history.
TaylorMade’s recent “every iron is a long iron” advertising campaign has done well for the Carlsbad fraternity. Marching to the same beat as their “own the teebox” campaign, the “long iron” campaign has drawn a good amount of attention to TaylorMade’s irons. Look inside the bags of players at your local course and you’re unlikely to find too many playing TaylorMade irons – you’ll see plenty of Titleist, Ping, and Callaway. You may even see more MacGregor (if you count the hand-me-downs), Wilson, and Nike. Despite the fact that TaylorMade ranks highly in sales numbers, their irons just don’t seem to hang around in the bags of better players very long.