It's A Good Time To Be Peter Millar, Whoever That Man Is!

/

John Strege on the sale of upscale golf clothier Peter Millar to Richemont, parent of brands like Alfred Dunhill, Cartier and Montblanc.

Couple that with a Brandt Snedeker Tour Championship win and it sounds like at least one golf company had a good week!

Even better, Strege answers one of the great mysteries in golf: who the heck is Peter Millar? And you say this blog doesn't lead you to life changing information?

Anchoring Ban Could Cause "Chaos" For Manufacturers, Says Manufacturer You've Probably Never Heard Of

/

Jim Achenbach and the likely mass hysteria and financial ruin that will come to makers of long putters who will not sell as many if the governing bodies eliminate anchoring. Stephen Boccieri of Boccieri Golf:

“Chaos,” Boccieri said. “I can see some golfers revolting against this. I can see them playing (in non-tournament rounds) by their own rules.”

Because that never happens now...

The folks at Odyssey see the ban as a chance to innovate.

Odyssey’s Koske was more optimistic.

“If they go and ban anchoring,” he said, “it opens up a whole new avenue of putting. There are so many different ways to do it. The opportunities are endless. There are a handful of things we are testing, and we expect to be ready for whatever happens down the road.”

Callaway CEO On Cuts: "If this surprised anybody, they weren't paying attention"

/

Frank but accurate comment from Callaway CEO Chip Brewer in an exclusive interview with GolfDigest.com's Stachura and Johnson to explain staff cuts of 250 and other business restructuring.

"The golf club and golf ball business is what gets our excitement levels up. Clearly, we're very grounded in reality and we're going to come out with more aggressive, authentic and relevant programs, and that's going to extend from sales to marketing to product. In the past, they've claimed to be authentic and they haven't always been authentic, in my opinion. They've been high quality but they haven't always driven innovation and been as responsive as they could.  We're changing all that and the team is excited as hell about that.

After spending two days walking backwards to new tees on classic courses, I'd be more than happy to suggest for the 8941st time that Callaway would be wise to establish itself as the friend of classic courses by developing a slightly rolled back ball for use at the museum pieces of the game. Now that's innovation!

Good Times In Cleveland: IMG Taking Former Agents To Court, Tracking Them With Private Investigators

/

Alex Miceli with a wildly entertaining story of ten-percenter sharks feasting on each other, with a legal battle breaking out between IMG and two former agents, Jon Wagner and Jon Heaston.

A pre-trial conference is scheduled for July 10 in Cleveland regarding a contempt-of-court allegation by IMG against Wagner, possibly stemming from what IMG contends was inappropriate contact between Wagner and Immelman. During a sponsor day at CordeValle resort in San Martin, Calif., on the Monday after the U.S. Open, Wagner, Immelman and David Fry attended and were videotaped together by a private investigator whom sources say was hired by IMG.

Still pictures from the video were submitted to the court as evidence of Wagner’s violation of the temporary restraining order.

Wagner would not comment about the pre-trial conference, but Immelman was not pleased by the allegation and what he sees as a violation of his privacy.

“I was caught totally off guard when I heard about the pictures,” Immelman said via phone. “I’m trying to do my best efforts for one of my long-standing partners, Old Mutual and its guests, and pictures were being taken. I understand there are legal issues outstanding, but I felt like it was crossing the line.”

 All for a measly ten percent!

Steiny's DWI: "Medical issue that I was dealing with."

/

Michael Buteau with the news of agent Mark Steinberg's Ardley Ardsley, New York checkpoint arrest for "aggravated" driving while intoxicated at 10:30 p.m. Saturday night.

“He did inform us who he was,” Fisher said in a telephone interview. “It is what it is. He was intoxicated.”

Steinberg, in an e-mail, said “it’s a medical issue that I was dealing with. It’s not what you think.”
Fisher said Steinberg gave no indication of a medical issue.

“It was alcohol related,” Fisher said. “He submitted to a chemical test to determine alcohol-blood content and he failed that test.”