When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
(Click on image to enlarge)Wow, these girls rock!
I dare say I qualify under these guidelines, but then again maybe not since this site is primarily a "repository for unoriginal content."
I'm just glad I'm not a suppository for unoriginal content.More importantly, when they say unoriginal content, is that an LPGA statement about the quality of golf writing today?
There's an enjoyable Q&A between Tom Cunneff of Links and Amy Alcott, who talks about the unusual tradition she started at the Dinah Shore and her enjoyable new book of conversations with a variety of golfers.
She posts the news on her website...for those of you who bet "under" the 2010 Nabisco for her comeback, pay up.
Thanks to reader Scott for catching Dave Andrews' nice bit of reporting on some Duramed Futures Tour players having almost no LPGA Tour status, despite tour press releases to the contrary.
Not a huge shock here, but it looks like Stanford Financial has few assets to pay off investors or "Eagles for St. Jude."
Speaking of that program, it appears that primary sponsor Stanford has been erased from the program website already, even though it had been announced at one time. At least, I can't find their logo anywhere. Not counting Vijay's shirt (left).
Tom Kirkendall offers a couple of interesting blog posts sharing the Houston perspective on Stanford Financial and on IMG's bad week.
Alex Miceli shares all sorts of fun tidbits about the Stanford situation, the PGA Tour and IMG. First, regarding the state of the Memphis stop:
The Tour could attempt to find another sponsor or draw upon its sizable financial reserves – about $200 million, sources said – to underwrite the event on its own.
There is a precedent for such intervention: In 2000, the first year of the Tampa Bay Classic, the Tour contributed a part of the $2.4 million purse.
It was unclear whether the Tour or the event has received any monies from Stanford for the 2009 sponsorship. Finchem would not discuss payment details, but sources familiar with sponsorship deals say such agreements typically are handled in one of two ways: a large, usually 50 percent payment up front, and the balance paid before the event week – or nearly a complete payment just weeks before the event.
“Payment schedules are a function of a lot of different things with companies,” Finchem said. “A lot of companies account differently; they want to pay differently. There is no rhyme or reason to it.”
And on IMG:
The firm manages the Stanford St. Jude Championship; and sponsorship contracts to IMG clients Villegas, Pressel and Singh. Stanford also is affiliated with IMG’s prized client, Tiger Woods, with a three-year founding sponsorship of AT&T National, a Tiger Woods Foundation event.
IMG is so deeply involved with Stanford that it has a one-man office in Memphis to assist with the local Tour stop.
A reader took exception to IMG's Mark Steinberg and insistence that IMG does not provide financial advice to its clients and therefore, could not have been intertwined with Stanford Financial, as the New York Post is claiming. I'm really not sure how the reader drew this conclusion because...wait, what was it that tennis great Virginia Wade said in a 2005 Telegraph story?
Since 1974, Ms Wade has benefited from financial advice from her management company, International Management Group "We are in touch regularly, maybe once a month. If you are interfering all the time it gets hard for them."
Hilariously, the article details how she owned a building with the late Mark McCormack, invested in a Cleveland based insurance company where IMG hapens to be located, and well, there's that quote.
Thanks to reader Andrew for this Darren Rovell story quoting Mark Steinberg on IMG's relationship with the troubled Stanford Financial.
"The suggestion conveniently made by "unnamed sources" about IMG's business affairs involving our clients in today's New York Post is complete fiction, designed to benefit the people making the claims, and is completely irresponsible.
"IMG's 50-year history of success is built upon staunchly protecting the professional interests of our clients. IMG does not give investment advice to our clients...period. Our agreement with Stanford is only to provide consulting services in the area of sponsorships and activation in golf. We do not now, nor have we ever had, a 'quid pro quo' agreement with Stanford or anyone else where IMG would be compensated in exchange for directing our clients to invest with them. We could not have maintained our near half century lead in the industry if we had done anything else. For 'unnamed sources" to imply otherwise is simply reprehensible."
Thanks to reader Tuco for Peter Lauria and Kaja Whitehouse's New York Post story claiming that IMG directed its clients to Stanford Financial. IMG is vehemently denying...
According to three sources with knowledge of the situation, IMG and Stanford have a quid-pro-quo agreement under which Stanford Financial pays IMG a low- to mid-seven-figure consulting fee in exchange for IMG advising its clients - which include golfers Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, David Toms, Sergio Garcia and others - to have their money managed by Stanford.
The backroom bargaining has exposed IMG to charges of double-dealing, and is raising questions about where the firm's allegiances lay: with Stanford Financial or its athlete clients.
"It's certainly a conflict of interest," said one source. "IMG is trading on its athletes' names to make money for themselves and then turning around and telling them to invest money with Stanford."
Steve Elling labels the Stanford Financial charges a disaster and Bob Harig manages to wrangle a quote out of the LPGA spokesman who says they are monitoring the situation.
Geoff Caulkins talks to a FedEx briefcase and it sure sounds like the air freight giant is already in talks to rescue the Memphis stop they once sponsored.
Martha Graybow of Reuters says the case raises new questions about the SEC. But I found some of the timing mentioned interesting considering the LPGA just recently signed up (Nov. 19) Stanford for its Tour Championship despite this:
A complaint filed last year against Stanford's firm by two former employees contended they were aware of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into the firm's sales practices while they worked there.
The employees, Mark Tidwell and Charles Rawl, said in their Texas state court lawsuit that they left rather than participate in unlawful business practices. They departed in late 2007.
A Guardian blog post by Andy Bull examines the likelihood of poor due diligence performed by the England and Wales Cricket Board before taking Stanford's sponsorship money. So will questions will be raised about the due dilligence carried out by the PGA and LPGA Tours who are so visibly leaning on Stanford?
More immediately, the Stanford Financial "Eagles for St. Jude" spots should prove to be uncomfortable for the Golf Channel anchor who has to note the program. As should future airings of these ads:
Alright, behave yourselves please, my mother reads this site!.
Here is an email query going around wondering what kind of club shaft that Natalie Gulbis, current Celebrity Apprentice star, is holding? Here's the email:
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
