Midweek Musings

Just a few items for you nice folks...  Need to ensure that you have time to compete that shopping for the favorite blogger in your life....

Pelley, Unplugged - Meet the new boss, nothing like the old boss....

One tournament on the European Tour’s 2017 European Tour schedule stands out. The Rocco Forte Open in Sicily from May 18-21 is conspicuous for one reason: it is the

European Tour’s first new sponsor since Keith Pelley took over as chief executive in August 2015. 

Pelley stood up at the European Tour’s annual Golfer of the Year lunch in central London on Tuesday and told journalists, Tour officials and stakeholders the European Tour was going to be “ambitious and aggressive in 2017.” 

If he brings in new sponsors, especially big money sponsors, then he’ll live up to that statement.

Pelley has done well in his assigned role of the scrappy underdog, for sure.  I think his best move, lining up a three-week linksapolooza in July (that is, staging the Irish and Scottish Opens the two weeks before The Open Championship) is underappreciated.  

I also have no issue with most of this:

The Canadian has shown a penchant for trying to bring the staid old game of golf into the 21st century with new ideas, such as allowing players to wear shorts, night golf, six-hole golf, enhancing the Tour’s social media department to reach out to younger golf fans, and taking an aggressive line in trying to form a strategic partnership with the Asian Tour.

Most of it is not of great cosmic significance, but they have carved out a niche as a place where the guys can have some fun....  Not noted is that he held his own against our Commissioner Ratched in the Scheduling Wars of 2016....

Tiger Tidbits -  As expected, Tiger has committed to playing in LA for the first time in ten years:

Tiger Woods's comeback tour will resume at the Genesis Open. 

Woods has officially committed to the event held Feb. 16-19, as announced on his foundation's website Tuesday. Formerly known as the Northern Trust Open, the Genesis Open will continue to take place at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. 

"I’m very excited to come back to Riviera and compete in the Genesis Open," Woods said. "This is where it all started for me. It was my first PGA Tour event. I was 16 years old, I weighed about 105 pounds. It was a life-changing moment for me."

Tiger has well-documented issues with the "C-word", but if healthy he really has no choice but to show.  But his longstanding distaste for Riviera will be on display...

But this is the mor einteresting news from Tigerworld, and, I must say, it sounds pretty cool:

Tiger Woods is showing off some creativity in his latest course-design project.

Woods took to social media this week to show off The Oasis, a short course at the Diamante Cabo San Lucas Resort, a site where Tiger has also designed a championship course. 

So what makes the Oasis special? It can be played as both a 12 hole par-3 course OR a three-hole course featuring a par 3, 4 and 5. Pretty cool, right? In the tweets Tiger sent to announce the new short course, he shared that the 12-hole course could be played in an hour and the three-hole course in just over an hour. He also added,“I want to design fun, playable courses that bring people together and bring golfers back to the game.”

Wouldn't you kill to have something like this at your club?  I wonder how much land it requires, but one could amuse oneself for hours on end, and the implications for kids and newbie golfers are quite obvious....An after lunch game of H-O-R-S-E, anyone?

Lady Legends - This is a nice thing and done in a clever manner:

The LPGA announced the creation of the LPGA Senior Championship on Tuesday for

the 2017 season. The event will be hosted at the Pete Dye Course at the French Lick Resort in Indiana, and comes off the heels of the USGA establishing the first U.S. Senior Women's Open, to be conducted in 2018. 

According to the LPGA, the field will consist of 81 players over the age of 45. The 54-hole event -- which will run July 10-12 -- will feature a total purse of $600,000. There will be no cut.

Let's see....French Lick for a women's event....  Don't go there, Scott!  You're better than that....

I'll let Ron Sirak explain why it's well-conceived:

But I was hoping to finally catch Tin Cup....

Nothing to do with the distaff set, but since somebody mentioned Golf Channel, if you have some time over the holidays...

Well, there's always down time this time of year and all.....  But then he ruins the mood with this clarification:

Just shoot me now!

The Equipment Beat - We're not gearheads here, but a couple of amusing notes....

First, a follow-up on the Wilson Triton driver:

The U.S. Golf Association had concerns about the conformity of Wilson Golf’s Triton drivers from the moment the product was submitted, the organization’s equipment chief told Golfweek Dec. 13. 

“When we saw the product, there were certain features of it that immediately caused

conformance concerns,” said John Spitzer, the USGA’s managing director of equipment standards.

In a Dec. 12 letter viewed by Golfweek, Tim Clarke, president of Wilson Golf, informed retailers that the Triton was ruled nonconforming for two reasons: The soleplate violated the “plain in shape” standard in the Rules of Golf; and an optional 12-gram weight in the accessory kit caused the Triton, when set to a specific configuration of weights and sole plate, to exceed allowable limits for characteristic time (CT), a measure of springlike effect. 

Clarke said the company would submit samples with new soleplates this week and remove the 12-gram weight from Triton accessory kit. Clarke added that the company is “confident” the Triton “will be placed on the December 19th conforming list.” The USGA issues a list of new conforming clubs each Monday.

But I assume that those drivers currently on the shelf at Dick's will not be conforming.... 

Spitzer said the USGA did not receive Triton test samples until Nov. 21, just four days before the product went on sale. He said the turnaround time for testing products is “about 14 days.” 

Spitzer described the modified Tritons it received this week as “a separate submission.”

It seems they went into production on a club that the USGA immediately knew would not conform....Interesting business model.

Dis you score any of those Kirkland Signature golf balls to use as stocking stuffers?  Oops, it might be too late:

The volume wholesaler is now in the $1.5 billion golf ball market too and its signature Kirkland ball has been flying off the shelves. 

The price point was right from the start. The Kirkland Four-Piece Urethane Cover Golf

Ball sells for $29.99 for two dozen, an average of about $1.25 per ball. By comparison, the best-selling ball in golf -- the Titleist Pro-V1 -- retails for $48 a dozen, almost $3 more per ball. What caught a lot of people by surprise, though, was the quality of the Costco balls, which are made in South Korea. 

The Kirkland ball is listed as "Out of Stock" on the Costco website, with an estimated re-stocking date set for Dec. 20. Once replenished, that inventory will be limited to two 24-ball packs per member. Getting these as a stocking stuffer might be difficult this holiday season; it's actually why I didn't include them in my recent "Best Gifts for Golfers" guide.

If you'll recall, the balls have been surprisingly well reviewed, so we've all been over-paying for our ammo all these years.  But here's the funny part:

The balls, not surprisingly, have popped up on auction sites like eBay, with listings of $48.99 for a dozen, $90 for two dozen or $189.99 for 48 balls. Those aren't wholesale club prices there, folks. Costco has declined to say how many of the Kirkland balls have been sold since the launch or generally give any detailed information about the balls at all. It's actually not a bad approach; the company is letting (positive) word of mouth speak for the ball, the same as it has for, say, its high-quality wines.

Yeah, more than Pro-V1's....  that's just perfect.

'Tis The Season - A gallery of X-mas Cards from Tour Pro's didn't seem all that promising but, credit where credit is due, they made me smile....  This wasn't bad:

Or these:

And cute is cute: