Category: Tap-Ins

According to Sallie Hofmeister and Greg Johnson of the L.A. Times (registration required), Bain Capital Inc., a Boston-based investment firm, and MacGregor Golf last week put a joint, all-cash offer on the table to purchase Callaway Golf, though spokespersons for Bain and MacGregor declined to comment. Callaway spokesman Larry Dorman said that “no substantive discussions currently are underway.”

Continue reading “Callaway Receives Second Buyout Offer”

Big John Daly has had enough! After a character assassination by a sports reporter at the Jacksonville-based Florida Times-Union left Daly stunned, Mr. “Grip-It-And-Rip-It” just had to speak up.

The brouhaha began after an editorial written in March 2005 during the Player’s Championship put down fun-loving Daly and playing partner David Duval who has been stumbing around the golf course for over a year.

Accusing Big John of having “Thug Life qualifications” wasn’t enough to tick off Daly. The final straw that broke the ‘Lion’s’ back was the accusation of “smacking his wife around”. At the Buick Open this past week reporters who questioned Daly got a mouthful. “Accusing me of being a wife beater? I had to do something!”

Continue reading “John Daly Takes a Full Swing at “Thug” Remarks”

Callaway Golf’s year-long search for a new leader ended yesterday when the company named George Fellows as its new president and CEO. Fellows is best known as the former head of Revlon, and is credited with turning that brand around in the late 1990s.

Fellows replaces William Baker, who had been the company’s interim CEO since Ron Drapeau was forced out last year. Fellows is the first person to lead Callaway Golf who never actually worked alongside company namesake Ely Callaway, who died in 2001. Past top executives like Don Dye, Chuck Yash and Drapeau were all groomed to succeed Ely Callaway, while outgoing interim CEO Baker served on the company’s board of directors under the late entrpreneur.

Continue reading “Callaway Calls New CEO To The Tee”

In association with the PGA, Play Golf America is giving away tickets to next week’s 87th PGA Championship. Golfers who pre-qualify at the Play Golf America website and then attend the clinic will be eligible to receive two tickets each to any of three practice rounds at the final major of 2005 to be held Aug. 11-14th at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J.

Make sure you show up for the clinic because if you don’t you will forfeit any chance of scoring those hard-to-get tickets. Register too late and you’ll be placed on the waiting list.

Continue reading “Score Free Tickets to the 2005 PGA Championship”

We received an interesting email today detailing one of the most interesting promotions we’ve ever seen. Anyone who is lucky (and skillful) enough to card a hole-in-one between now (August 1, 2005) and November 30, 2005 wins a free pair of Tifosi Optics sunglasses:

In what is believed to be the first ever national promotion rewarding anyone who hits a hole-in-one, starting Aug. 1, any golfer in America who hits an ace will be entitled to a free pair of Tifosi Optics golf sunglasses. The glasses will help them deflect the attention that comes with scoring an ace, golf’s most glaring achievement. There are no strings attached and no costs, just a valuable reward for the accomplishment of a lifetime.

I’ve posted the full text of the press release in our forum. Tifosi Optics is available online at http://tifosioptics.com/. The hole-in-one redemption form should be available later today.

The Sand Trap will be reviewing a pair of Tifosi Optics’ sunglasses within the next few weeks. Keep your eyes peeled… no pun intended.

Slow play on the PGA Tour has gotten so bad that I read the following and chuckled out loud:

Ben Crane posted an 8-under 62 Thursday to lead the U.S. Bank Championship, though it took him all day to do it…

The quote of course continues:

…as two separate weather delays totaling about five hours turned the day into a miserable marathon that fewer than half the field finished.

Ben Crane, of course, was the recent subject of some inappropriate actions by Rory Sabbatini. That I immediately thought “slow play” and not “weather delay” demonstrates just how big an issue slow play has become on the PGA Tour, even if it still remains somewhat comical.

Expect a longer entry on slow play from us soon. For now, I’ll simply ask this: what are your thoughts on the pace of play on the PGA Tour? Five hour rounds are not uncommon, and that’s for threesomes and twosomes.

Padraig Harrington, two-time winner on the PGA Tour this year, has withdrawn from the British Open at St. Andrews due to the death of his father. More information is available here.

Paddy Harrington, a former policeman and an affable fellow, has been ill since February when throat cancer was found once again. Paddy had a bout with throat cancer three years ago as well. Some say the death is a blessing, as Paddy has been clinging to the last threads of life for quite some time. Those close to Padraig know that he is happy his father hung around long enough to see him win on the PGA Tour, but he’ll be saddened by never yet having won a major.

The Sand Trap would like to wish the Harrington family all the good in the world, and the best of friends and support in these trying times.

Photo Credit: © AP.

The Open Championship is just a few days away. Regarded by many as THE Open, it is one of those events that is worthy of more than just a cursory examination. The staff here at The Sand Trap thought it fitting to wax prophetic about the British Open and, therefore, I humbly submit to you our “2005 British Open Predictions.”

Continue reading “British Open Predictions”