Thursday Threads

Shall we get back to our regularly scheduled programming?  Not that there's all that much going on....

Bobby D. Hardest Hit - It made quite the splash initially, but the latest isn't quite up to snuff:

Costco can generally do no wrong in the eyes of its supporters. With one of the most relaxed return policies in the industry, reasonably-priced pizza and jars of mayonnaise the size of a beach ball, there’s very little to quibble about when it comes to the

wholesaler. The lone exception might be their updated four-piece Kirkland Signature golf balls. 

The initial four-piece offering Costco rolled out in 2016 drew rave reviews for its performance, but as quickly as the ball took the industry by storm, it became swept up in a lawsuit with Acushnet Holdings Corp., maker of Titleist’s popular Pro V1 ball, over claims Costco made that the ball “meet[s] or exceed[s] the quality standards of the leading national brands.” Acushnet also asserted the Kirkland ball violated 10 patents. The case was later settled out of court in 2018. 

Costco’s golf ball business went dark briefly before resurfacing with three-piece and four-piece offerings ($29.99 for two dozen) under the same Kirkland Signature name. While few have complained about the quality of the three-piece ball, the cover of the four-piece was brought into question on Reddit’s golf page recently, where user archsplinh posted a photo of two Kirkland Signature balls resting side-by-side on a couch under the headline “After 3 holes, Costco…”

We're all getting older, and who among us wouldn't like to be able to go back to the balata era?

I hadn't heard that the companies had settle the lawsuit, but it never figured that Costco could have an appetite for such a Bataan death March litigation.  

The original product was a Nike ball, built using excess cores after Nike exited the ball business.  But when they came back into the market with K-Sig ball, no details were available as to the construction of the ball.  So, color me unsurprised....  

But while Costco doesn't come off looking great for selling the ball, at least they stepped up and made good:

Perhaps they could give Cablevision a tutorial on customer service?

Today In Branding - Are you Living Under Par™?  Have you discerned what it means?  Because the Euro Tour has rebranded, and it might be just as bad as our home Tour's branding, though at least the Euros didn't abandon the best marketing program evah.

So, hope you're sitting down, because her it is:

They must have burned the midnight oil coming up with that, though I do need to point out Keith Pelley's brilliant matching of frames....  He wrote the book on that narrow skill set.

Shack does a righteous Fisking of the associated press release here, and it's got the full quota of nonsense MBA-speak, such as this:

The European Tour has launched a creative new brand strategy, with the aim of broadening the Tour’s appeal to new and existing fans and commercial partners. 

Golf’s global tour has unveiled its new identity, which includes a modern, fresh logo alongside a new website and App, all underpinned by the Tour’s guiding principles of Innovation, Inclusivity and Globality.

Now Shack drops a Saudi Arabia reference here and that's pretty good, though I'd have been tempted to add something about Sergio being unavailable for comment.  Having never encountered the word "Globality", I consulted the obvious source:

Globality is the consciousness of the world as a single place.

Careful what you wish for, Keith, because if the world were one place, Jay Monahan would have no need for your services...

But here the mask slips and they tell us what really matters:

The European Tour’s new identity was unveiled at the Tour’s recently refurbished, state-of-the-art headquarters during the BMW PGA Championship, the fourth event in the Tour’s Rolex Series – an alliance of its eight premium events. It will be rolled out on October 1, coinciding with the launch of the Tour’s revamped website and App.

Designed to stand out from the rest of the busy golfing category whilst retaining its golf context, the bold, simple aesthetic is modern and flexible, suitable to be used across all platforms. It comprises a suite of assets, with a new logo, avatar and a range of graphic devices.

I'm shocked... Shocked, I tell you, that Pelley is just another CEO with an edifice complex.

Shack also riffs off this news to remind us of the unsuccessful efforts to use Seve's image in the Tour logo after his death:

Or, you know, the image of Sergio spitting into the cup?  Never gets old, does it?

How Many Cameras Died As A Result? -  An interesting bit on what might have been:

That's part of the intrigue behind a great recent story by the Caddie Network on all-time great caddie Tony Navarro. The story, worth a longer read on its own on Navarro, details

how Navarro declined the opportunity to be considered for Tiger's caddie. Navarro was Greg Norman's caddie in 1998, and Tiger had just decided to part ways with Mike "Fluff" Cowan, leaving the most desirable opening in looping circles open. 

In the story, the Caddie Network details how Butch Harmon, then Tiger's swing coach, was asked about potential replacements for Fluff, and Butch recommended just two names: Stevie and Navarro. But Navarro's candidacy for Tiger's caddie ended immediately after Butch first talked to Navarro. 

As Butch told the Caddie Network's Craig Dolch: 

“I told Tiger there were two guys he should hire – Tony Navarro and Steve Williams. I spoke with Tony first. But he said, ‘No, I’m still working for Greg.’ 

“That’s the kind of guy Tony is.

Of course, that was back in a more innocent time, when Norman would at least keep his shirt on.

Heads, Exploding -  I'm not convinced that this will be built, but I am surprised that with all the bad publicity it was even approved:

A new Donald Trump golf course in Scotland has been approved, the first major project that has been given the green light since he’s taken office. 

Plans for the 18-hole MacLeod Course, named after the president of the United States’ Scottish mother Mary, were unveiled back in 2013 but ground has never been broken.

According to reports on BBC and Bunkered, committee councilors in Aberdeenshire, 

Scotland, approved plans for the second course on Tuesday. The Trump Organization have also submitted plans for more than 500 luxury homes to be built on the site, with a vote to come on Thursday. 

The second course will be right next to Trump International Golf Links, Scotland, which opened seven years ago in 2012.

My skepticism is because of how little play the first track is getting.  Plus, from our 2015 visit, the land for the second course didn't seem nearly as interesting as that for the first.

Perhaps of greater import, they've been using Trump as a cudgel against Mike Keiser's application to build the Coul links up near Dornoch.   What doe sit say about those efforts if Aberdeenshire allows Trump to build his second course.

Predictions Are Hard... - Especially about the future, but Shane Ryan takes his best shot at predicting Ryder Cup 2020.  Good luck with this, Shane:

1. The United States squad will place a huge emphasis on team unity … or at least it should. 

Two of the last three Ryder Cups have ended in humiliation for the Americans, and I’m

not just talking about the lopsided losses on the course. It’s been worse than mere defeat; in 2014 it was a team-wide rebellion against captain Tom Watson. In a vacuum it would be easy to dismiss that as one hard-headed leader failing to gel with his team. But for four years, the American narrative was that this was a good thing, in the sense that it spurred change in the form of the infamous task force and woke them up to some truths about organization and continuity that the Europeans had learned decades earlier. Then, in Paris 2018, under a very steady and well-liked captain armed with the best-laid plans, humiliation struck again, with an alleged fight between Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, a mini-rebellion from Patrick Reed and general discord leading to another blowout.

I'm thinking that Shane misinterprets just about everything.  First, it wasn't a team rebellion in 2014, it was one a******e.  Second, were those that sowed controversy, such as Phil and Patrick, punished or rewarded?   As the old saying goes, that which gets rewarded gets repeated....

4. There will be controversy about the fans at Whistling Straits. 

More than 250,000 people attended the last American Ryder Cup in Minnesota, and

when you have that many people in a tense venue where alcohol is flowing all day, there are going to be some ugly incidents. And it’s not any kind of commentary on the nature of American fans, or anything like that—it’s just math. The rotten 1 percent, or one-tenth of 1 percent, or whatever, are going to make their presence felt. Rory’s war with the crowd at Hazeltine National provides a blueprint for what we’ll see at Whistling Straits, except I suspect it might be worse four years later.

I'm truly worried about Bethpage in 2024 in this regard.  What people forget about this event, is how little actual golf there is to be seen.   For Friday and Saturday there are only four groups on the course at any time, so much alcohol will be consumed.  

Like Shane, I assume that the home team will win, because a loss is the kind of thing that could bring Tom Watson back for another encore.  

Cheap Shots - Just a couple of snarky items and I'll let you get on with your day:

7 big-name PGA Tour pros who are making their belated season-debuts at the Safeway Open - Belated?  More like three months early, or am I off-base to suggest that a year should start in January?

Phil Mickelson gives glowing review of Steph Curry's golf game - Pity Steph can't respond in kind.

You’re probably breaking this little-known airline rule about golf shoes - They're justifiably picky about that which they'll lose.

Catch you tomorrow.