Category: Tap-Ins

While many golf manufacturers are stuck in decline, The Acushnet Company – parent to Titleist, FootJoy, Cobra, and Pinnacle – is going strong. The company started this year with net sales of $342.6 million, an increase of $3.7 milllion from a year ago. The golf divsion reported operating income of $56.7 million, a jump of $6.7 million from last year. The numbers indicate that Acushnet is doing quite well in the slightly downturned golf economy, not only boosting its bottom line but improving its efficiency.

The company’s first quarter is exciting, particularly when the company had trouble getting new Titleist equipment (905 drivers, 904 fairway woods, new putters, new spin-milled wedges, new balls) out the door before the end of the quarter.

Continue reading “Titleist (Acushnet) Going Strong”

If you’re like me, you’ve got to have some food to eat while you’re watching sports. For instance, if I’m watching the Super Bowl, you can be sure there’s a plate of chicken wings in front of me with a tall glass of beer. Same for baseball. I’ll have hot dogs and peanuts with more beer (Mom, if you’re reading this, I’m not an alcoholic).

The Masters is no different for me, except I drink good beer (I mean, c’mon, golf is a game of sophistication!). I always make pimento cheese sandwhiches and Arnold Palmers to drink while I’m watching the final round on Sunday. It helps me get into the tournament a little more. For those who aren’t in the know, Augusta National is infamous for keeping its recipe for pimento cheese sandwiches a secret. In April 2003, Golf Digest ran a small blurb detailing what Gourmet Magazine food editor Ruth Cousineau cooked up for their “own, improved version” of the pimento cheese sandwhich. It’s the recipe I follow and enjoy, so I thought I’d share it with you.

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After a few months of speculation, word is spreading that outdoor apparel company Quiksilver is buying Rossignol, the parent company of Cleveland Golf and Never Compromise. Consolidation is nothing new to the golf business, but what can golfers expect to see out of these two brands once they’re under new ownership?

Continue reading “Cleveland Golf’s Got a New Owner”

The oldest sports museum in the United States is getting a worthy addition in the near future in the form of the “Arnold Palmer Center For Golf History.” Slated for completion in 2008, the center will honor the man who was the first to win a U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open and a U.S. Senior Open.

The purpose of the center is to house an exhibition gallery for USGA championship history, an archival storage space for artifact storage, and a research room for those studying materials housed there. With a price price tag of more than $16 million, the Palmer Center should be beautiful when completed. It will be over twice the size of the present museum.

Continue reading “Arnold Palmer Honored by USGA”

Throughout the Big Break II, David Gunas Jr. was known for two things: his bare feet and clutch putting. Gunas has now combined those two trademarks into the Barefoot Putting Challenge. This is a nationwide putting contest with the proceeds benefiting Brilliant Minds, an organization dedicated to treating and helping children with autism and other developmental disorders.

According to the website, the format of the tournament is an 18-hole putting contest with putts ranging from 5 to 25 feet away. There is a men’s and women’s division along with a junior’s division. Several regional tournaments will be held across the country from April to June. The regional winners will then fly to Angel Park Golf Club in Las Vegas to compete for the grand prize: a 2005 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible. Barefoot Putting Challenge is a fun competition for a very admirable cause, those who watched Gunas on the Big Break II would expect nothing less from him.

Australian born-and-bred Greg Norman has never been one to keep quiet when he believes in something. It’s one of the things we admire about the ol’ two-time (cough, ahem) major winner. Recent topics have caused the Shark to go into a small feeding frenzy. His victim? Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour, and “technology.”

First, Greg Norman tackles the issue of a “tour ball,” an idea that’s been batted around for the past decade or so. Greg, who recently hit a ball 356 yards, asks that restrictions be placed on pros but not amateurs. “Put the restrictions on us. We are the best players… Don’t let us take advantage of technology like we have.” This is the same Norman, recall, that recently switched to the MacTec NVG driver, saying during an interview during the PGA Merchandise Show that he chose MacGregor because “they have great R&D and that results in amazing technologies, like the MacTec NVG.”

Bit your own tail a bit there, didn’t ya Greg?

Continue reading “Norman Bites Finchem, PGA Tour over Technology and Overseas Play”

From the Associated Press comes news that Arnold Palmer, age 75, was married yesterday in what is being described as “an intimate ceremony” in Hawaii. Vows were exchanged in a seaside cottage on a course Palmer designed at the Turtle Bay Resort.

While players like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are very popular, perhaps no golfer – or athlete – has been as popular as Palmer has been over the last half-century since bursting onto the scene to win the 1958 Masters. The swashbuckling Palmer’s fame was further cemented when he charged to victory to win the 1960 U.S. Open, driving the first green, a 346-yard par 4, in the final round. Coming from behind by seven strokes heading into that final round gained Arnie’s Army a great number of recruits. Palmer would go on to win sixty-one times in the PGA Tour.

Congratulations to the new Mr. & Mrs. Palmer.

Photo Credit: © Hear-It.

Details are still pretty sketchy right now, but a quick search on Amazon.com for Phil Mickelson turns up a book titled One Magical Sunday: But Winning Isn’t Everything. Golf fans shouldn’t have to scratch their heads for too long before realizing that the book has something to do with Mickelson’s dramatic win at Augusta National. Phil fans will have to wait a few months though, the book is slated to be released on April 4, 2005. The authors are listed as Phil Mickelson and Donald T. Phillips who is famous for his On Leadership series of books which discuss prominent historical figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln. Phil already has so many titles under his belt: golfer, Ford pitch-man, wanna-be pitcher. Will he be able to add legitimate author to his resume? We shall see.

Eldrick “Tiger” Woods was born on this day, December 30, in 1975. Happy 29th, Tiger! Reportedly, Tiger slept in late today before a Swedish nanny named Elin cooked him breakfast in bed.

After breakfast, Tiger spent much of the day celebrating with his close pal from da hood, Snoop Doggy Dogg. Woods was overheard joking with Dogg, saying “fo’ shizzle ma 2-dizzle wizzle pizzle.” Dogg and Woods visited a local municipal mini golf facility, where Tiger was schooled on the ways of the Doggy Dogg lifestyle.

The Sand Trap .com tried to catch up with Woods as he was leaving the eighteenth green, but was brushed aside by a Woods determined to properly inflect the phrase “drop it while it’s hot, drop it while it’s hot.”

Said Dogg on Tiger’s departure, “Tiger had to get his fizzle swizzled by his Norwegian bizzle, yo.” The Sand Trap .com wishes Tiger Woods the best on his 29th and wishes him a wonderful 2005.

Oh, and we wish for ourselves the chance to meet Elin’s twin sister. Yeah.

Photo Credits: © Unknown