Udder Stuff

In which neither Rule 18-2/.or nor 34-2 will be discussed....  Just thought you'd want assurances on that subject.  I am a bit short on time, but have some further U.S. Open observations that will come later, likely tomorrow.

Rio Loco, A Continuing Series - Which shall I lead with, the good or the bad news?  

There is actually good news:

Despite players like Jason Day and Rory McIlroy showing concern for the Zika virus,

and others like Adam Scott and Louis Oosthuizen flat-out withdrawing, Bubba Watson is all in for the Olympics this summer. This, despite the fact Watson faces one of the busier schedules of all golfers during August, including his plan to try to defend his title at the Travelers Championship the week prior to the Summer Games.

"I can't wait," he said. "My wife played professional basketball and she missed out on the Olympics because of a knee injury the one time she had a chance to make the team. 

"So for me, it's an amazing sporting event that I get to be inside the ropes at. I get to see some of the athletes I've always wanted to see. I get to go to some of the events I've always wanted to watch and then I get to play in it."

That's certainly good news for the organizers, as actual enthusiasm has been hard to discern.  But I guess we're done with guys dropping out.... What?  Oh, never mind:

Rickie Fowler has become the latest high-profile golfer to cast doubt on his participation in the Olympic Games. Fowler, speaking immediately after a missed cut at the US Open, cited security and the Zika virus as ongoing concerns.

“I’m definitely excited about the opportunity,” Fowler said. “But I think we want to make sure that we do our homework and make sure that we feel safe about going down there both on the security reasons and the health reasons, and make sure that everything’s taken care of. That’s our main focus right now. 

“I’d love to have the opportunity to go down there but we don’t know for sure yet.”

No reason to panic, as he seems to genuinely want to play.  Of course if he misses a few more cuts, there's that pesky qualifying issue....

So as long as everything comes together I don't see a problem... What?  Really?

The state government of Rio de Janeiro has announced a “state of public calamity” over its financial crisis with less than 50 days until the capital city hosts the Olympics. 

A decree published late on Friday said that a fall in public revenue – mainly a result of the oil crash – could stop the government from “honouring its commitments” to host the Rio 2016 Games with just 49 days until the Opening Ceremony. 

It also warned the crisis could cause a “total collapse in public security, health, education, mobility and environmental management”.

Total collapse?   Nothing to see here folks, kindly move along....

Trump Ferry Point, Working For One Of The Parties - Now we know what he means by winning:

Donald Trump scored a hole-in-one in his first year operating a new public golf course in 

The Bronx, racking up a city-best $8 million in revenues there while taxpayers shelled out $1 million to pay the course’s water and sewage bills, The Post has learned. 

The $237 million Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point hosted 28,291 rounds between its April 2015 opening and the end of March, netting nearly $3.8 million in greens fees for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, city records show.

OK, but he's got big expenses, right?

Trump enjoys another big perk: The city under Bloomberg agreed to pick up his course’s water and sewage fees. 

The mogul was already reimbursed $1.05 million in water and sewage costs for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015, city officials told The Post. And he will be reimbursed another $1.09 million for this fiscal year, which ends June 30, officials estimate.

But he has to build that clubhouse, right?

And although he’s still responsible for spending $10 million of his own money to build an on-site clubhouse, such an addition is projected to significantly drive up his revenues because it would host large catered events.

You really can't blame Trump, as the City spent that $237 million (and many believe that's a lowball number) and couldn't even finish the damn thing.  

I'm still skeptical that Mexico will pay for the border fence, but when you see a deal like this, it's not unreasonable to think that Mike Bloomberg might...

Acushnet, the IPO - The owner of the Titlrist and Foot-Joy brands has filed an S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, indicating its intention to go public:

Acushnet, parent company of golf industry leading brands Titleist and FootJoy, generated more than $1.5 billion in net sales in 2015. Soon, you can own a piece of it. 

But before you do, make sure you wade through the company’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, registering for an initial public offering of common stock. 

That form, which runs for more than 300 pages, outlines Acushnet’s current financial performance and details the company’s position in the marketplace as “the global leader in the design, development, manufacture and distribution of performance-driven golf products, which are widely recognized for their quality and excellence.”

An S-1 has a wealth of detail to pore through, though one has to wade through way too much legalese to get there...  The good news is that gross margins are in the 50% range, but the bad news is more than $600 million of selling, general and administrative expenses.   here's some further analysis of that:

The form also shows how the company spent between $42 million and $46 million annually on research and development from 2013 to 2015, and slightly more than $200 million annually on advertising and promotional expenses, including “product endorsement arrangements with members of the various professional golf tours.”

I was also interested to learn that their golf ball business, surely the single most profitable product line in the industry, is more than a third of their business, though I didn't see a profit number for this business.  I actually thought their golf ball revenues would be higher...

Shack had a weird reaction in his post on the subject:

Long anticipated but still a big deal for fans of the brand. How will the company long opposed to any discussion of dealing with distance behave when it's beholden to the rules and desires of Wall Street?

Geoff, they're selling a minority interest and the business will remain controlled by Fila and the private equity firms, so nothing will change.  

Was Tom Cruise Unavailable? - Do you get that sinking feeling when informed that a cherished book is being made into a movie?  Is that feeling magnified when the book seems ill-suited to theatrical treatment?

Such is my sense of dread that Tommy's Honour, Kevin Cook's wonderful take on the Tommys Old and Young was being filmed:

There are a lot of whiskers and sideburns and plenty of thick tweed on display in Jason

Connery’s Tommy’s Honour, which opened the Edinburgh Film Festival on Wednesday night. This is a golfing movie but not one in the vein of Happy Gilmore or Tin Cup. It is a sturdy, handsomely made Scottish costume drama, set in St Andrews, Fife, in the late 1860s and early 1870s. The film tells the story of Tom Morris Sr and Tom (“Tommy”) Morris Jr, a father and son who transformed golf and won multiple British Opens. 

“Are you daft? You need a mashie,” one character is told in the middle of a game. That’s a reference to a club called the niblick, not to a way of cooking potatoes.

Connery evokes an era in which players strutted the Old Course at St Andrews in heavy jackets and caps, hats and bonnets, using wooden shafted clubs to hit hand-made golf balls off very rough looking fairways onto bumpy greens.

For anyone that has an interest in golf history and the evolution of the game, this (meaning the book) is quite a good start.  Here's the movie's trailer:

Wondering about the header?  Then you must not be a Jack Reacher fan....