Women's Western Amateur underway at Lancaster Country Club

The Women’s Western Amateur rolled into Lancaster Country Club Monday for the first of a six-day stay with Emily McLennan, a rising junior at the University of Tennessee – Chattanooga and Eunice Yi, a rising sophomore at Georgia Regents University posting dual 1-under par 71s to top the leaderboard on the first of two qualifying days.

     McLennan and Yi were the only two players in the field of 144 to finish under par on the 6,201-yard lauded William Flynn design. That’s surely an indication of what type of test Lancaster CC will provide one year from now when it hosts the U.S. Women’s Open.

     McLennan, the reigning Tennessee Women’s Amateur, Southern Conference champion and a native of Queensland, Australia and Yi, from Evans, Ga. will attempt to secure medalist honors as the top qualifier among 64 who will enter the championship flight of match play, which begins on Wednesday.

     Nineteen players from Pennsylvania are in the field at the Women’s Western, eclipsed only by the U.S. Amateur in status among women’s national amateur events, including Shannon Gramley of Sharon, Pa. and Shady Side Academy, who posted a 1-over 73 Monday.

     Other Pennsylvania residents include Erica Herr, a recent Council Rock High North graduate and New Hope resident bound for Wake Forest University in the fall. Herr opened with a 4-over 74. Herr’s younger sister, Madelein, shot 88. Allison Cooper of Harrisburg also shot 74. Ashley Cassidy (79) of Doylestown, Emily Gimpel (79) of Lafayette Hill, Kate Granahan (80) of Allentown, Amanda Ploener (80) of Chadds Ford and Aurora Kan (83) of Boothwyn will battle for spots in the 64-player championship field Tuesday.

     The Women’s Western Amateur, held continuously since 1901 and featuring former champions Patty Berg, JoAnne Carner, Nancy Lopez, Beth Daniel, Cristie Kerr and Stacy Lewis is free and open to the public. Check out www.wwga.org for complete scoring and more info.

Nate Oxman

Editor

PhillyGolfFiles.com

610-613-0851

Remember…Bobby Jones was a Professional

Masters week is an appropriate time to remember tournament founder Bobby Jones, who dominated his era as no one has ever done and there are a bushel of numbers to illustrate the point. Numbers such as Jones’ winning the four majors in 1930, the Grand Slam of the U.S. Open, British Open, U.S. Amateur and British Amateur.

His record shows from when he won his first U.S. Open title in 1923 through his 1930 U.S. Amateur win he played in 20 major championships and won 13 times.

Let that sink in for a moment…playing as an amateur against professionals of the caliber of Gene Sarazen and Walter Hagen he won 65 percent of the time.

And then he quit. He had climbed his personal Everest and the only direction he could go from there was down.

Besides he was tired, worn out from the strain of playing at such a high level as well as from the travel which in the 1920s was arduous, many days and nights on trains or steamships.

There also was another important factor in his decision, Jones needed money. He was not independently wealthy and while an amateur he couldn’t play for pay. He had to generate an income from his fledgling law practice and other ventures to support his wife and children.

Therefore, a month and a half after winning the U.S. Amateur for the last time he sent a letter to the USGA announcing his retirement from championship golf and renouncing his amateur status.

As a professional Jones most certainly could have commanded huge fees for exhibitions just as Walter Hagen was doing or he could have played for prize money on what passed for a professional tour in the Depression years of the 1930s. But reflecting the times any money he won would have paled in comparison to the potential exhibition income.

So he did neither. Jones sent the letter because he knew the USGA rules strictly defined what constituted being an amateur and he was planning to make money from ventures related to golf so he would have been in violation. This in spite an earlier ruling by the USGA that money Jones received for a column appearing in several hundred newspapers did not somehow violate his amateur status. Inconsistent to be sure but probably more a reflection of the prevalent opinion a journalist was above the common drudgery of earning money from the game in contrast with lowly professionals.

And Jones was not about to sell his endorsement of some product just for the sake of making money. In fact his best known project wasn’t an endorsement deal at all but an immensely popular series of one-reel instructional films shown in movie theaters entitled “How I Play Golf.” Even today these films are worth watching, filled with information about the golf swing though Jones disliked what he called the “corny” story lines transparently centered on him giving lessons to movie stars.

His most profitable venture was getting into the club business and he became intimately involved with the design of the club line bearing his name manufactured by A.G. Spaulding Company. Interestingly the fact Jones autograph-model clubs had steel shafts was a major factor in sealing the demise of hickory shafts…”If Bobby says steel is OK, it must be.”

So the bottom line is according to the Rules of Golf Bobby Jones, the greatest amateur golfer of all time, was not allowed to be an amateur any longer.

Images courtesy of the USGA.

Standard bearers for the 1930 U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club.

Arch rivals and great friends Gene Sarazen and Bobby Jones.

Bobby Jones in 1936 after his competitive career was over.

Drawing of Jones in 1929 before the Grand Slam

ED TRAVIS | Golf Opinion & Commentary

Bunkershot.com Golf Magazine

Bunkshot.com Weekly Golf News

It’s Not Just Majors

The other day sitting around after a round of golf discussing our favorite topic and commenting about Adam Scott’s attempt to defend his Masters title. Virtually impossible we concluded but that lead to a question none of us were able to answer with certainty.

Of the currently active players on the PGA Tour who after Tiger and Lefty have the most wins. The usual suspects were named and after taking advantage of smartphone technology my guess (shared with several others) of Davis Love III was confirmed.

This incident however prompted my thinking as to the reasons why the World Golf Hall of Fame recently made such a massive change to the process of selecting those get their names on the wall in St. Augustine.

To illustrate the problem and why it was a good thing to revamp the enshrinement selection process take a look at the list of currently active Tour players. And let’s set aside for a moment the number of major championships since too often that’s the only focus especially by my media colleagues. Plus we should add in their international wins since some such as Colin Montgomerie have spent most of their careers playing in Europe (31 wins) and have never won in the U.S.

The list is headed of course by future Hall of Famer Tiger Woods with 79 PGA Tour victories and 12 internationally followed by Phil Mickelson, inducted into the Hall in 2012, with 42 on Tour and 4 around the world. Then it drops back to Hall member Vijay Singh at 34 and 22.

Here’s the rest:

Davis Love III – 20/2

Ernie Els 19/47

Jim Furyk 16/0

Fred Couples 15/5

Els and Couples are Hall of Fame members already but Couples’ induction at least and certainly Montgomerie’s who has no majors were a big reason why the Hall of Fame’s board decided to make drastic changes in the selection criteria and process.

For me the need was obvious when they made decision under the old method of voting that lowered the standards for admission from 75 percent of the votes to 65 percent to finally the candidate receiving the most votes over 50 percent. I think it’s a classic case of shooting yourself in the foot—trying to solve the problem of current players not measuring up to the records of those who preceded them by making it easier to get elected.

I’m reminded of the sports leagues for kids’ that give everyone a trophy for merely showing up.

What are the chances the current crop of “stars” on Tour will better the records of those in the Hall? Will Adam Scott achieve more majors or how about DJ or Patrick Reed or Rory?

Boy, talk about a guessing game!

The Hall had become a recognition not for play in the Hogan-Nelson-Palmer-Nicklaus-Player-Trevino-Miller-Watson-Mickelson category but for something less and golf fans responded with a collective yawn. Let’s hope the new criteria changes that because the fans, the game and the great players already members of the World Golf Hall of Fame deserve it.

Images courtesy of the World Golf Hall of Fame

SLDR 430 – Building On A Good Thing

To complement its best-selling SLDR drive, TaylorMade Golf has come out with a smaller clubhead version aimed specifically for use by better players. At 430 cc the new SLDR is more compact than the original 460 cc model but uses the same technology to produce distance and control player controlled adjustments.

“We put low forward CG in a smaller head to make a driver that tour pros love,” said Brian Bazzel, TaylorMade’s Senior Director of Product Creation for Metalwoods. “SLDR 430 makes it easier to shape shots without sacrificing distance.”

Like the 460, the 430 weight placement moves the center of gravity towards the sole and forward toward theclubface giving a better ball launch with lower spin low. It also makes of the 20-gram sliding weight TMaG introduced on the 460 last August for fade or draw bias. For loft adjustment the 430 has TaylorMade’s “Loft-sleeve Technology,” a 12 position hosel with plus or minus 1.5 degrees of change.  

Pricing, Options and Availability

Available in three lofts – 9.5°, 10.5° and 12°, SLDR 430 is equipped with a Fujikura Speeder 67 graphite shaft andTaylorMade high-traction grip. The Tour Preferred version, SLDR 430 TP, combines the same clubhead with the tour-caliber Fujikura Speeder Tour Spec 7.3 graphite shaft. A variety of custom shafts are also available. SLDR 430 and SLDR 430 TP begins December 20 at a suggested retail price of $399.

ED TRAVIS | Golf Opinion & Commentary

Bunkershot.com

EdTravisGolf.com

Happy Thanksgiving !!!!

Big Box In Golf In A Big Way

By ED TRAVIS  A report from Longitudes Group on the “Sporting Goods Channel” Golf Market was recently released and reveals some interesting data. For those questioning what a Sporting Goods Channel is, it is what everyday people call “big box” stores selling sports equipment from badminton to wake boarding. According to Longitudes sporting goods stores account for 17% of golf industry sales. In addition the 10 largest sporting goods chains in the U.S. have more than 2,100 retail locations, over twice the number of traditional off-course golf retailers. Coraopolis, Penn. based Dick's Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS) sells to 9.8 million golfers or about 40% of all U.S. players. They also own Golf Galaxy outlets and as of last June had 523 stores. Sports Authority with 450 stores serves 43% of the U.S. total golf retail market value with its individual stores covering over $2.2 billion worth of the total golf retail market. Dick's is making up ground though narrowing a $500M gap in golf sales in 2011 to just over $200M this year. The opening of 72 new Dick’s stores in parts of the country with more playable days for golf is a prime factor. Sports Chalet has the highest number of golfers per store at 28,136 presumably due to its strength in densely-populated urban Southwest locations. Academy has the 2nd largest growth in golfers served since 2011 with a 34% increase in stores for a current total of 168 stores. It now has the ability to serve 1.6M golfers within a 15 minute trade area. The product categories with the most dollar value in sales sold in the Sporting Goods channel are golf apparel with $240M in sales followed by woods (drivers, fairways) at $193M. In one way this recitation of research data shows little that is new and merely highlights a continuation of the switch away from green grass and small off course retailers. However in terms of golf course operations it shows the further eroding of an important revenue stream, one that every golf course depends on, in some cases to merely keep the doors open and the bulldozers off the fairways.   ED TRAVIS | Golf News & Opinion Golf Illustrated

Mizuno JPX EZ Forged Irons

By ED TRAVIS Mizuno Golf first announced new iron designs for players with handicaps up to 12 and those with handicaps up to 4 and now is showing their new JPX EZ Forged irons for the rest of us. Designed specifically for 10 and up handicappers, the new JPX are a “game improvement” design made by forging, the process usually thought of as being reserved for pure blade irons used by professionals. "During ideation, development and creation of the JPX EZ Forged iron we knew it would be in a class all by itself, which, in the golf industry, is difficult to claim and something we are extremely proud of," said Dick Lyons, Vice President and General Manager, Mizuno USA, Inc. "The distance and forgiveness screams game-improvement, but we've been able to channel those characteristics in a grain flow forged iron that'll change the way golfers look, think and feel over the golf ball. We're excited to receive consumer feedback as we believe the new EZ Forged appeals to a wide breadth of golfers." Specifically JPX EZ Forged irons offer a face with a higher coefficient of restitution, i.e., more flex and rebound at impact, for added distance. Mizuno also uses their Harmonic Impact Technology (H.I.T.) to make the frame of the back cavity stronger and that, says the company, allows them to make the face thinner and more reactive. An eight iron set (4-GW) with steel shafts carries a suggested retail price of $899.99 and with Fujikura Orochi graphite shafts $1,099.99. Street prices are $700 and $900 respectively.   ED TRAVIS | Golf News & Opinion Golf Illustrated