Ed Sherman uses the U.S. Opento file a Poynter.org story on AP golf writer Doug Ferguson and the dwindling number of golf writers covering the sports for local papers.
He notes the concern about the increased presence of PGATour.com covering the sport over independent outlets.
Ferguson can’t help but take note of the PGA Tour going all-in with PGATour.com. During most tournaments, the tour’s digital operation makes up a large chunk of the press room with its writers and social media crew.
Clearly, the PGA Tour has the most resources and the greatest access, but Ferguson contends golf fans don’t get the complete picture from its site. He says the content always comes from a biased and, let’s say, decidedly positive point of view.
“I don’t know a lot of people who go to the site except to look at the leaderboard,” Ferguson said. “You’re only going to see the birdie putt that gets made. You’re not going to see the birdie putt that gets missed.”
You might have seen my Tweet and many others expressing surprise at the haircut and sudden glow Tiger took on when ESPN posted his DUI mugshot in their lefthand sidebar.
When selecting part of an image in Photoshop to move it to a different background, the most popular methods are the "lasso" tool, which allows the user to select the portion he or she wants by simply drawing a freehand line, or the "magnetic freeform pen," which is similar to the lasso but assists the user by having the line "stick" to edges.
One problem with the magnetic pen is that it struggles with areas in which there is not a distinct line. In this GIF, I attempt to select Woods' head with the magnetic pen. If not being careful, the pen will easily skip over the thin areas of hair.
Now, that doesn't quite explain the glow Tiger took on, including some nice face smoothing. Either way, ESPN issued this statement to make clear it's probably not happening again.
“We have utilized a standard template for on-air headshots, which led to the background being dropped for consistency. We will revisit this process to improve it going forward.”
The episode was brought up by Liz Claman of Fox Business Newswhen talking toBrad Faxon about Tiger. Claman seemed to be almost gleeful to have found prime "fake news" but made a fool of herself by interview's end. Seems Claman is covering the U.S. Open in two weeks on site, but still asked Faxon if Tiger would be playing. Faxon's surprise is priceless but because he's a pro's pro, Faxon calmly points out that Tiger's recent back surgery will preclude such an appearance.
With an LPGA tournament holding a Twitterpoll to determine a sponsor's invitation, there is an apparent blessing from Commissioner Mike Whan that seems inconsistent with the outrage his organization directed at Golf Digest two years ago.
"Obviously, we're disappointed and frustrated by the editorial direction (and timing) Golf Digest has chosen with the announcement of its most recent magazine cover," Whan said in a statement released Friday. The tour's first major of the season, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, began on Thursday at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
"If a magazine called Golf Digest is interested in showcasing females in the game, yet consistently steers away from the true superstars who've made history over the last few years, something is clearly wrong. ... 'Growing the game' means a need for more role models and in these exciting times for women's golf, the LPGA is overflowing with them."
At the time, it was surprising that Whan to disrupt his tour's first major championship of the season given the importance of that event and the reduced importance of magazines or their covers. But given his membership's strong feelings about media emphasis of sex appeal over on-course accomplishment, many could understand why he spoke out.
Fast forward three years and the ShopRite LPGA Classicis essentially holding a beauty contest between four non-LPGA Tour members for a field spot. Only one of the four is on the Rolex Rankings (Booth at No. 365).
Golf Digest was trying to sell magazines and generate attention. No professional golfer was harmed by the cover.
But the ShopRite exemption could go to a promising Symetra Tour player in need of starts. Or a recent college golfer looking to "showcase" the start of her career could benefit. Instead, a spot in an LPGA Tour event will go to an attractive but undeserving player in large part to get the tournament attention.
Maybe Whan and the LPGA will think twice about letting this happen again? Because they risk losing credibility the next time a player is passed over because she doesn't fit someone's idea of what sells.
Golf has needed ESPN but since losing or waving goodbye to the many golf properties they once enjoyed rights to, not so much.
ESPN the television network makes clear it needs golf once a year when the Masters rolls around (ESPN.com still shows great interest in and respect for covering the sport with their team of Harig, Sobel, O'Connor, Collins, Maguire, Wojciechowski, etc.). But as we saw with last week's no-golf Sportscenter in between live broadcasts and the round replays, golf seems to be an annoyance these days.
Still, the ignorance and disrepect shown by Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman takes things that may have the golf world no longer caring what the network thinks of our sport.
Let's get to the comments first as transcribed byJoe DePaolo (do watch the Mediaite embed as the tone is worse than the transcript.) Here is Stephen A lamenting the sportsmanship shown by Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose's:
This notion that we’re really not competing against each other. We’re really just playing golf and it’s really competing against the course. Nonsense. There’s a game to be played. Each of you go out there to do it. You’re trying to compete at a level that eclipses the individuals that are also on the course. Last time I checked, that’s competition.
He added: “I damn near told them to get a room. It was ridiculous, how they were with one another…I want to see you rooting for the other to fail.”
These comments were the most-noticed and they are silly given that Sergio and Rose did not walk arm-and-arm up the playoff hole. Even sillier when you have to know the heartbreak Rose the competitor feels in those moments and yet shows such respect.
Sure, there is a discussion to be had for players helping each other out by leaving balls down as backboards, or a softening of competitive edges due to the immense amount of money in the sport.
However, I feel the comments from Max Kellerman, Stephen A's colleague on First Take, speak to a lack of knowledge within the Worldwide Leader that is perplexing. He questions golf's "status as a sport" and then...
I would define a sport as a competition through which you accurately gauge the athleticism of its participants. And I don’t think that’s the case with golf. Among its many flaws…this ain’t Ali going at Frazier. They’re not throwing punches. They’re not tackling each other. They’re not in each other’s way. Golf is not a zero sum game. It’s more like a standardized test.
Needless to say we know some of the greatest athletes in the world have said they admire golf as a sport and have profound respect for their fellow athletes.
What's troubling is that a network we once relied on for balancing smart with entertaining coverage and for knowing where to draw the line on First Team All-American ignorance, even allows such an uninformed discussion to take place.
Mercifully, golf goes off ESPN's radar now until next year at The Masters. If there is a next year for ESPN.
If Kellerman truly believes that golf is not a sport, I challenge him to head out to the driving range and hit 1,500 golf balls between Monday and Wednesday and then play four rounds from Thursday to Sunday and walk, not ride in a cart, but walk up and down the hills on the course as he chases his ball around. After that, get back to me on whether golf is a sport. Let me know.
Maybe you agree with Kellerman and maybe you agree with me, but what no one can deny is that it takes an unbelievable amount of skill and mental toughness to not only win a major championship, but also to win on the PGA Tour, Web.com Tour, European Tour and so on.
Lorne Rubenstein's much-anticipated collaboration with Tiger Woods on the 1997 Masters book was hopefully going to mean many interviews for Lorne to discuss the story and his co-author.
Unfortunately as Rick Youngnotes at ScoreGolf.com, Rubenstein has made clear this is Tiger's book.
In the early stages of our discussions we watched video of that Masters. One vivid memory led to another, one story to another. I attended that 1997 Masters and followed Tiger as he shot 40 on the front nine. I watched as he walked from the ninth green to the tenth tee, deep in thought. What had gone wrong? How could he turn things around? Was he worried?
I was interested and even surprised when he said he had put the front nine out of his mind by the time he reached the tenth tee, and that he had already focused his attention on what he needed to do. It wasn’t so much that he needed to correct what had gone wrong. He resolved to find the feeling that had allowed him to shoot 59 the week before at the Isleworth Golf & Country Club when he had played with his friend Mark O’Meara.
This was the sort of insight that helped me appreciate Tiger’s golfing mind. I kept this story in mind as we continued to chat during our talks in a conference room in his office in Jupiter, Florida, and many follow-up conversations over the phone.
I stumbled on news of the "reimagined"Golf World via the GolfDigest.com RSS feed. The new Golf World homepage is here under the GolfDigest.com News and Tours page. Editor Jaime Diaz says the now-defunct weekly digital publication will shift to a web-based one offering intelligent takes. At least, that's what I could pick up from the miniscule fonts both on desktop and mobile (the Mobile version screen captured here appears to be in partnership with Taylor Made).
Diaz writes:
As always, Golf World will set the conversational agenda for what is topical and enlightening in the greatest game of all.
We are uniquely positioned to do so. Golf World, in conjunction with the staff of Golf Digest, has the most collective knowledge of any golf publication. Our writers and editors are intimately familiar with all aspects of the game—its players, people, history, institutions and issues. Some of the respected names that will regularly contribute to our content include Tim Rosaforte (the game’s leading insider), Guy Yocom (longtime producer of Golf Digest’s celebrated “My Shot” series), Dave Kindred (the 1991 Red Smith Award winner), John Feinstein (best-selling author of books including A Good Walk Spoiled) and expert reporters John Huggan and Dave Shedloski.
I wish my former colleagues the best of luck carrying on such a storied brand. Hopefully they will get larger fonts and some social media coverage of the launch.
Meanwhile, check out former Golf Digest contributor Cliff Schrock's new site where fans of "This Day in History" items will love his golf insights. He's also posted other pieces as well and the site looks sharp.
Kudos to MyGolfSpy for reporting the likely demise of Costco's Kirkland ball sold for so little and performing so admirably. I've been trying to track down details on the Kirkland story and my reporting mirrors that of MyGolfSpy in all but one key area. This we agree on: it's unlikely we'll see Costco replicate such a ball at the same price.
Our source inside Costco has not responded to our calls, however, a source familiar with the situation has told us that Costco has suspended production of the Kirkland Signature until further notice. Whether you want to call it a shortage or a total outage, the lack of Kirkland golf balls available to the consumer is being blamed on supply chain issues.
We're told that, internally, Coscto is saying that production will resume at a later date (and that an email will be sent to customers when stock is available), but we have good reason to believe that is an unlikely scenario.
Essentially Costco was the recipient of a one-time bargain-buy on golf ball cores that allowed them to produce the ball inexpensively. Any Trader Joes shopper knows that vineyards with extra stock but not wanting to taint their brand selling their wine at a lower price will sell otherwise nice product to the chain. Trader Joes then slaps their label on what amounts to limited editions, tells us where the grapes were grown and teases us about its heritage without ever outing the vineyard. Some of the wines are better than others, but they are almost always an excellent value.
So which vineyard dumped these cores on Costco at a low, unlikely-to-be-replicated price? Covey writes:
A representative of Nassau Golf (originally listed as the manufacturer of the Kirkland Signature Ball on the USGA conforming list) has told MyGolfSpy that Costco purchased overruns of Nassau's European-market-exclusive Quattro ball. There is some indication the sale was made through a third party, and that Nassau may not have been directly involved in the deal. The same source confirms that while the Costco balls have a different core color, the material composition and layer thickness are absolutely identical to the Quattro.
With the initial supply of overruns exhausted, Costco effectively has nothing left to sell.
Multiple sources I contacted felt that cores were from an overrun of Taylor Mades that needed to be disposed of when Adidas demanded that their subsidiary squeeze cash out of anything they could. The intent was not to disrupt the industry, but instead to cash in however they could on unused inventory. When GolfWRX noted the initial frenzy and MyGolfSpy's review hit, the ball became a disruptor.
Covey does note that the Kirkland ball's manufacturing location is now back to its mission of making Taylor Made golf balls and that a similar situation to the 2016 "K-Sig" is unlikely anytime soon, if at all.
I mention TaylorMade in particular because the company's tour balls are produced at the same factory as the Costco/Nassau balls, and there are some indications that production of new TP5 has pushed smaller companies to the back of the production line. Even if Costco otherwise had the capability to produce balls immediately, which it appears it doesn’t, the K-Sig wouldn’t be given priority over larger brands and long-term customers.
So what have we learned from this brief disruption of the ball market?
--MyGolfSpy'sreview was incredibly powerful, GolfWRX once again fueled interest in a product and the tide may have turned for golf equipment reviews. As other sluggish traditional publications sat on the sidelines, perhaps for fear of upsetting major manufacturers or simply because Costco is not a potential advertiser, independent internet reviews fueled the frenzy. (GolfWRX first posted about a "frenzy" on October 28th and while Mark Crossfieldonly posted a review three days ago, internet influencers established even greater power thanks to the Kirkland ball.)
--A lot of people don't like Titleist. There was much behind-the-scenes joy at Titleist facing a scary competitive hit around the time of their IPO. Some of the hostility could be chalked up to their longtime spot atop golf ball sales. Some of the glee was over the incredible brand loyalty Titleist inspires. Some of it related to their hostile position toward distance rollback advocates. But most hostility centered around about the price of a dozen ProV's compared to others and was aired on forums. However...
--A lot of people don't know what goes into the cost of a golf ball. The anger ignored how much Titleist and other major manufacturers spend on R&D and manufacturing in the USA. That's right, unlike the Costco ball, we are talking about an American made product. I was amazed how many golfers were not aware that ProV's and Callaway Chrome Softs are made in Massachusetts by American workers. If you like to buy "Made in the USA" products, this episode was an eye-opener.
--Costco now looms as a potential market disruptor under the right conditions. Yes, it took some luck and timing, but they do have the ability to inflict temporary damage on major manufacturers. On the other hand, the episode may have legitimized them as a seller of golf equipment of any kind.
--Golfers and their brand loyalties were tested. Many pushed back on Twitter at my intial skepticism over the long term success potential of the ball. I questioned whether golfers could announce they were playing "a Kirkland 3 on the first tee." While I'm all for anything that lowers prices and increases competition, common sense says most golfers are attracted to their favorite brands for reasons both sane and insane.
The bad news first: another print publication has contracted. Golfweek, the trusted weekly serving the game over 40 years, will now be published 12 times a year.
The good news: Golfweek's new monthly issue, available as a print and/or digital edition for just over $20 a year, successfully targets golfers who eat, sleep and love golf. Plus, they will continue with a weekly digital issue that keeps the "week" in Golfweek as relevant as ever.
Serious golfers, Golfweek is your magazine. We aim to be bigger, better and more compelling than ever. You can help us get there. Share your thoughts on the new look and feel of the print magazine, the digital magazine, the email newsletters and the website. How can we serve you better? Send your ideas, comments and suggestions to gahern@golfweek.com.
While I've gone through just some of the stories in the 82-page issue, I'm looking forward to reading this in print even more. The January issue appears to have a good blend of the traditional Golfweek franchises, only with some meatier features that might have been shorter in the weekly format. There is a sense of discovery with each page your turn and a feeling that Golfweek is aggressively trying to serve smart, core golfers who enjoy reading about the business of golf.
The table of contents:
A Donald Trump feature by Martin Kaufmann and Bradley Klein gets plenty of space, a list of the top 40 influencers in the game is sure to generate some discussion (and probably some hurt feelings). Other welcome editions include mental game coverage from Dr. Bob Winters, guest columnist Brad Faxon, a short profile of caddie John Wood, a review of Tiger's Bluejack National, an instruction piece from Ariya Jutanugarn and player profiles on junior golfer Noah Goodwin and LSU’s Sam Burns.
The design does not drift far from the current Golfweek look, but printed on higher quality paper, should provide something you can put on a coffee table. That is, if you don't mind looking at illustrated versions of Donald Trump and Tiger Woods this month.
Carpenter befriended a caddie at Cruden Bay in 2000 that began a long friendship.
When former Golfweek senior writer Jeff Rude and I visited Scotland years later, it was Chris’ late dad who picked us up. Chris wrote Monday about Ken’s last trip to Cruden Bay, in 2000; he wanted so badly to break 80 that day, and was 3 over with two holes to play. But he’d finish 9-6 and shoot 80, managing to chuckle about it later, as only he would.
This morning, halfway across the world in Scotland, the flag flies at half-staff at Cruden Bay, an honor the venerable club usually reserves only for members. That’s how Ken Carpenter touched people.
Also warming are the many stories flowing in from his former students at Valencia College, where Ken was a journalism professor for 12 years. It was one thing to spend many years at newspapers and magazines pounding in agate, editing copy and writing catchy headlines. But as a professor, he truly was able to impact lives and steer kids toward a passion, his passion, bringing refreshing life to an industry most view as fading to black in a hurry.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning Drive, is co-host of The Ringer's ShackHouse is the author of eleven books.
He notes the concern about the increased presence of PGATour.com covering the sport over independent outlets.
