Wie’s Impact on Business Not Wee

Nike now has the two hottest players and newsmakers in golf on staff. How will the Swoosh handle adding Michelle Wie to Tiger Woods atop its professional team?

Bag DropAs expected, Michelle Wie celebrated her 16th birthday last week by turning pro and becoming part of Nike’s stable of staff professionals. This is the most celebrated signing of a teenager with no official playing status on any of the world’s tours since Ty Tryon inked a deal with Callaway Golf in 2001.

Wie’s potential – and solid results in LPGA and PGA Tour events – suggests she won’t be ending up on the mini-tours like Tryon. But what does the near future hold for Wie, and what is the ripple effect that is being felt throughout the equipment industry?

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Volume Thirty

This week’s links are brought to you by Carl Spackler. Enjoy.

Hittin' the LinksWell, it’s almost upon us. The pinnacle of my golf season will arrive on Saturday. It’s the point in my year where I must summon the golf gods and hope that they cast good fortunes my way. That’s right, it’s almost time for the Newport Cup. It should be a ton of fun. Hopefully all the rust and dust that has gathered will be forgotten when I take my first swing.

I’m sure there will be updates, but for now, here’s the links. Oh, and don’t forget to root for the red team!

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Woods Shows Wie the Way to Winning

Tiger Woods wins in the worst way – with a John Daly three-putt – for his 10th of 19 WGC events.

Tiger Woods at Harding ParkFive days after Michelle Wie turns pro, Tiger Woods shows her the way to true fame, admiration, and status: by winning golf tournaments. The youngster has won but one major competition – the 2003 U.S. Women’s Public Links Championship – to go along with several disappointing finishes in LPGA events and missed cuts on the PGA Tour.

Tiger, who with this win has taken more than half of the WGC events (10 of 19) and four WGC-AmEx championships, seizes career victory number 46 and puts himself in a place where he can record the all-time season high in earnings with a win at the Tour Championship. If he wins, his $11.13M will top Vijay Singh’s $10.9M 2004 season.

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Perrot Perseveres at Longs Drugs Challenge

Nicole Perrot is yet another first-time winner on the LPGA Tour this year taking home the trophy at the Longs Drugs Challenge.

A one-stroke victory over South Korean Hee-Won Han was all Nicole Perrot needed yesterday to secure her first win on the LPGA Tour. Nerves were rattling as the three-stroke lead Perrot had heading into the final round swiftly faded with multiple bogeys on the front nine of the 6,204-yard Ridge Golf Course.

As Perrot’s lead was slipping Han threw out birdies on holes five, six and seven showing the 21-year-old Chilean that she was ready for a good challenge. But golf is an unusual game. You can’t tell who the winner will be until the final putt rolls into the 18th hole. So goes the story of Perrot and Han. After her early back-to-back birdies Han recorded pars on her final eleven holes. Perrot battled back with three final birdies, enough to stop last week’s Office Depot winner from claiming a victory just one week after securing the trophy at the Office Depot Champioonship.

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Gordon Seliga, Golf Course Superintendent

Golf is a game of chance; the golf course shouldn’t be perfect lies all the time, that’s boring. I think the element of chance and variety offers a lot to the game.

Throwing Darts TitleProfessional golfers get all the glory. They are the ones written about and watched weekly on television. We know their names, their stats, their ups and downs. But what about the people who operate behind the scenes? It’s not often that we get a peek into the daily lives of those who have chosen a career in the golf industry.

This interview column is dedicated to the people who grind it out daily but not necessarily out of a sand trap. Whether it be a course superintendent of a local country club or the head of a major corporation I hope to be able to delve into the lives of those who make a difference but are rarely in the public eye.

This week’s interview is with Gordon Seliga, Golf Course Superintendent of Lake View Country Club. Enjoy!

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Speeding Up Play, Part 2 of 2

Slow play drives everyone nuts, but everyone is responsible for slow play. Odds are, there are ways you too could speed up your play. This is part two of a two-part series.

Trap Five LogoLast week, we examined five ways to speed up play. This week, we’re continuing the series with the second of two parts on picking up the pace.

As we said last week, a round of golf should not take five hours to complete, despite what you may tell your significant others. This week’s top five list: five more ways to speed up play.

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TourEdge Bazooka JMax 460cc Carbon Driver Review

The TourEdge Bazooka JMax 460cc Carbon Driver may be the best driver you’ve never heard of. But now you don’t have that excuse anymore, do you?

Touredge Jmax DrawThis review comes to us via our partners at GolfWRX.com. Specifically, we’d like to thank Sam Torrez (aka “Sam-Tee-Time”), who plays out of Dallas, TX, for this review.

TourEdge is a company that I’ve been aware of for their Bazooka JMax drivers, but I’ve never had the opportunity to test their clubs until recently, when I got my hands on the TourEdge Bazooka JMax 460cc Carbon driver. I was pleasantly surprised. Reading other Internet reviews of the previous model Bazooka drivers indicates that these are very solid, well engineered clubs that should be up for consideration for players of any ability level. As the limits to driver size has increased, TourEdge has responded likewise, with larger and larger clubheads that are now at the 460cc size limitations.

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Michael Campbell

Who could have known that Michael Campbell would take center stage this year?

ProFilesEmerging from relative obscurity, New Zealander Michael Campbell has asserted himself as one of the finest players of 2005. His solid performance at the U.S. Open certainly put him on the map for many who didn’t know he existed. Time will tell if he can secure a long stay as one of golf’s elite.

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Skill Ratings, Part Two

Power, Accuracy, Short Game and Putting skills can be measured. While it may not be an exact science, formulas can be developed to track these and rank players. Can we trust them though?

The Numbers GameThe PGA Tour gave it a first pass, and now I’m going to give it my best shot. Last week we looked at the PGA Tour’s “Skill Ratings” for the members of the Presidents Cup team, and suffice to say I had some issues with how the numbers shook out. This week I’ll put in my two cents on how to rate thes four skills: Accuracy, Power, Short Game, and Putting.

Nothing is going to be perfect. All I’m hoping is that these might evolve over time to become reliable or at the least, believable. Oh, and also you should be able to understand exactly what they mean. Nothing vague. This should be a step up from last week.

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