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Hopefully before you got here you read Part 1. If you haven’t please do; there is a reason this is Part 2.

golf ball paulSo, are you shocked to find out that sellers of new balls say that  the characteristics of new balls are better than new ones?  Hah! Paul Lovelace (Golf Ball Paul) has a retail store in Kansas City, KS, and he says that the new generation of balls, covered as they are with “polymers and polybutadeine”,  deteriorate at the same rate whether they are on a store shelf or at the bottom of a pond.

An unnamed top company executive, after asserting that the performance difference between a ball straight from the factory and a ball that had been at the mercy of the elements is big.  He was quoted as saying, “…we don’t think that consumers who want  quality and consistency are well served with re-used balls.”  Ahem.  Oh, sorry, I had to clear my throat.

Steve Ogg, Callaway Golf V.P. of golf ball R&D, said that golfers using any ball that was previously submerged for months will experience less distance than they are used to, and that there will be a loss of spin, too, although to a lesser degrees. And, he says, that the aerodynamics of a repainted ball “may be significantly degraded”.

You, as the consumer, don’t know where these used balls came from.  Even if you find one in the water yourself, do you know how long it has been there?  Hey, if it’s right there, easy to see from where you are, then it couldn’t have been there long, right?  

Can you tell the difference between a recycled and a refinished ball besides the fact that refinished ones are more expensive?  Would it shock you to discover that there are “shady people” that might lie to you about the quality and/or condition of their used golf balls?  

Have you ever thought about how many golf balls are sold each year?  I never had until I started this research, but you can bet Steve Ogg and Golf Ball Paul have.  I had a reaction to discovering that an estimated 500 million balls are purchased in the U.S. every year! I’m still trying to analyze the reaction – is it amusement, surprise or indifference?  

golf ball 1 callaway

Am I consistent enough with my drives that I can tell if I would lose ten, twenty, or thirty yards off the tee?  Can I tell if I would lose backspin on an approach shot that would cause my ball to roll off the green?  Or whether a loss of spin would affect my draw shots or fade shots?  Can I hit a draw shot or a fade shot on purpose anyway?  Is the difference going to show up on my scorecard?

I would have play a lot more golf than I do now to tell the difference.  I would have to make my golf games into laboratory experiments, which I think would diminish my enjoyment of the game.

But, of course, I could be wrong about that, too.

What do you think?

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I wrote a blog called “What kind of golf balls should I buy?” a few weeks ago and I addressed the use of used balls. Since then I have stumbled into a few articles that made me curious enough to do some more research, and here’s what I found.

adam barr 1

Adam Barr of the Golf Channel

Adam Barr of the Golf Channel gives a statement that is totally predictable.  He says that used (or recovered) golf balls sell better during recessions.  Wow!  Who could have seen that coming?  It’s no surprise that the subject gets extra attention at this time, as the Tournament Players Championship is currently taking place at Sawgrass, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, just south of Jacksonville.  The 17th hole there is famous for its green, which is almost totally surrounded by water.

Used golf balls are a big business.  With many premium balls costing in the area of $4.00 apiece, it seems that many golfers, if not the majority, are spending a little more time and effort looking for the ones that go into the brush or woods.  I always hesitate to look in dense brush or the abundant palmettos here in Florida having heard many stories about encounters with snakes.  I hate snakes and in that respect I am by no means unique.  I have seen skin divers in many of the water hazards here in Florida.  One of these days I’ll talk to somebody that does this, because alligators are an issue here. Now, I like alligators just fine – from a distance. At one of my favorite courses gator sightings are, if not commonplace, certainly not unusual.  

Barr recounts a conversation with Jim Best, who says he pulls 120,000 balls per year out of the water at that 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass.  Best says he’s been doing this for 10 years, and it took time to develop a successful technique.  Not something I ever thought about.  The silt at the pond bottom is very fine, and it has a tendency to rise up and destroy visibility.  He’s also had some close encounters of the first kind with gators.  Some start getting aggressive when they reach eight to nine feet in length.  A fourteen footer came with in four feet of him, but that wasn’t at TPC Sawgrass.

golf ball divers 2

I saw an episode of “How It’s Made” about golf ball manufacturing.  It came as a surprise to me that golf balls are painted.  I guess I has always assumed that the color came from the suryln or composite material itself.  The show was pretty interesting, but then I like that show.

And, who knew, there are specific differences in used balls.  Recycled or refinished?  (Tastes great or less filling?)  Patrick Daniels of Second Chance Golf Balls says that recycled means that a “lake ball” has been fished out and allowed or encouraged to dry.  Refinished balls, though, are sometimes sold by companies that buy these recovered balls, repaint them and put somebody else’s name on them.  So mavbe you bought a used ball that says Titleist on it, but it actually was originally manufactured as a Pinnacle.  And the ratio for sale is roughly 10 recycled balls to 1 refinished.

Stay tuned for More about Golf Balls Part 2, folks!

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Who makes the rules in golf?
I know I’m still alive because I’m learning new things all the time, and I know I’m getting old because many of the things I’m learning don’t surprise me.  I used to make a living as a database administrator, so I didn’t get to play or follow golf as much as I would have liked.
Like almost every sport, there is a governing body in golf whose job it is to maintain a level playing field for all participants, but I didn’t know there were two, nor did I know what are their areas of responsibility. Case in point, I knew that NASCAR has defined limits on their racing car engines, supposedly to keep the races competitive.  Those same limits are decried by some of the race car drivers as causing the tracks to be too congested at critical places, leading to wrecks.  Thankfully, improvements in saftey gear and practices have allowed most of the drivers involved in the crashes to walk away unhurt.  Even so, it seems that more of them have been getting angry with one another, sometimes leading to skirmishes.
Every football field is the same size, same with basketball courts and hockey rinks. Baseball has a fixed distance between the bases, but the other dimensions differ from ballpark to ballpark. Every golf course has multples of nine holes and every hole is the same diameter, but every course varies in it’s layout, distance and the number and sizes of hazards.
Golf has been played for hundreds of years, and according to Wikipedia, the number of holes was standardized at 18 in the 15th century. There are two governing bodies; R&A Rules Ltd and the USGA.
R&A Rules Ltd, established in 2004 and consisting of a group of companies, was handed governing authority by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, in St. Andrews, Scotland, where the rules of golf were standardized in 1897.  It governs golf everwhere except the United States and Mexico, which are ruled by the United States Golf Association.  R&A Rules Ltd is made up of eight committees, one of which is names the Rule and Equipment Committee.
Since 1952 the R&A and the USGA have collaborated every four years to publish the rules of the game. Local clubs have jurisdiction when it comes to course boundaries, ball drops, and ESAs (environmentally sensitive areas). Rules of etiquette define what is proper player behavior.
Each governing body handles handicapping and course ratings differently: R&A Rules Ltd defers to the specific nations involved since there are so many, USGA does it centrally.
Now, all of this may or may not be interesting to you, but these governing bodies also determine the performance parameters for clubs and balls.
But that’s another blog which you might be interested in.  Of course, I could be wrong.
TAGS:
golf, glof, sport, governing body
participants, NASCAR, defined limits, racing car
competitive, critical places, improvements, safety gear
practices, skirmishes, dimensions, nine holes
hazards, R&A Rules Ltd, USGA, Royal and Ancient Golf Club, 
St. Andrews, local clubs, rules of etiquette, proper player behavior
handicapping, course ratings, performace parameters, 
golf clubs, golf balls

 

I know I’m still alive because I’m learning new things all the time, and I know I’m getting old because many of the things I’m learning don’t surprise me.  I used to make a living as a database administrator, so I didn’t get to play or follow golf as much as I would have liked.

dsc_00904

Like almost every sport, there is a governing body in golf whose job it is to maintain a level playing field for all participants, but I didn’t know there were two, nor did I know what are their areas of responsibility. Case in point, I knew that NASCAR has defined limits on their racing car engines, supposedly to keep the races competitive.  Thosenascar-13same limits are decried by some of the race car drivers as causing the tracks to be too congested at critical places, leading to wrecks.  Thankfully, improvements in saftey gear and practices have allowed most of the drivers involved in the crashes to walk away unhurt.  Even so, it seems that more of them have been getting angry with one another, sometimes leading to skirmishes.

gillette-stadium-12Every football field is the same size, same with basketball courts and hockey rinks. Baseball has a fixed distance between the bases, but the other dimensions differ from ballpark to ballpark. Every golf course has multples of nine holes and every hole is the same diameter, but every course varies in it’s layout, distance and the number and sizes of hazards.

Golf has been played for hundreds of years, and according to Wikipedia, the number of holes was standardized at 18 in the 15th century. There are two governing bodies; R&A Rules Ltd and the USGA.

R&A Rules Ltd, established in 2004 and consisting of a group of companies, was handed governing authority by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, in St. Andrews, Scotland, where the rules of golf were standardized in 1897.  It governs golf everwhere except the United States and Mexico, which are ruled by the United States Golf Association.  R&A Rules Ltd is made up of eight committees, one of which is names the Rule and Equipment Committee.

Since 1952 the R&A and the USGA have collaborated every four years to publish the rules of the game. Local clubs have jurisdiction when it comes to course boundaries, ball drops, and ESAs (environmentally sensitive areas). Rules of etiquette define what is proper player behavior.

Each governing body handles handicapping and course ratings differently: R&A Rules Ltd defers to the specific nations involved since there are so many, USGA does it centrally.

old-golf-clubs-13

Now, all of this may or may not be interesting to you, but these governing bodies also determine the performance parameters for clubs and balls.

But that’s another blog which you might be interested in.  Of course, I could be wrong.

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dsc_0089I was twenty-five years old when I actually started playing golf.  I learned to fear water hazards that day, a condition that plagued me for many years and the only thing I didn’t like about golf.  After many years I learned how to overcome that fear, and I did it at the 18th hole of the Habitat Golf Course in Valkaria, Florida.  This hole is a par five that crosses two big water hazards.  The first hazard needs to be cleared from the tee, the second needs to be cleared on a second shot if  I would have any chance of making par.

I’ll have more to say about this course in another blog, so stay tuned.

My wife and I were living in Richmond, Virginia, and we moved into an apartment building where all the other residents were around our own age.  A couple of the guys invited me to play golf, volunteered to supply me with borrowed clubs and balls and teach me what they could, so I accepted.

About five hundred yards, over two water hazards

About five hundred yards, over two water hazards that make it interesting

We played at the Ethelwood Golf Course which has since been plowed under to build a beltway around the city.  I shot a 109 that day, and I was hooked!  I was so taken with this game that I went out and bought a complete set of brand new Ram clubs, a Gene Littler series.  I have never done worse that that day, and in a couple of weeks I broke 100.  We went every weekend, and the first time the other guys couldn’t go I went by myself and hooked up with whatever twosome or threesome would have me.

The view from what passes as a hill in Central Florida, between the 1st and 18th fairways

The view from what passes as a hill in Central Florida, between the 1st and 18th fairways, looking back toward the 18th tee, off to to the right at the end of the water

Playing the first time with borrowed equipment and golf balls, I was very leery of trying to hit shot over water.  My lack of ball striking ability caused an increase in the population of golf balls at the bottom of the water hazards on that course.  I heard about the “water ball” process of playing golf, so I adopted it.  Still, I was losing water balls at an alarming rate and was too proud, stubborn, or whatever reason (stupid, maybe), to play from the drop areas.

From the tee box.  The white tees are ahead, the first water hazard is between them and the sand ahead.  Tee shot should clear water and sand.

From the tee box. The white tees are ahead, the first water hazard is between them and the sand ahead. Tee shot should clear water and sand.

Many years later I moved to Florida, for economic reasons.  When I had the chance to play golf again, I found that my old fear was still with me.  Water hazards are legion in Florida, so I had to get over it.  Here’s what I did.  

I changed my attitude.  

Too simple to work?  Well, let’s see.

The view from where your ideal tee shot would land. Green is over the water and to the right.

The view from where your ideal tee shot would land. Green is over the water to the right.

Oh, that 18th hole. It’s a beautiful hole, as you can tell from the photos. I used to lose balls in both hazards, so it  seemed the logical place to work to overcome the fear.  Climbing into my golf cart after finishing the 17th, I would begin telling myself, “I love this hole.  I love this hole.  I love this hole,” over and over.  I would keep it up as I decarted (how to you like that word?) at the 18th tee box.  I began to play that hole well.  It no longer intimidated me, and I gained confidence playing it.  That confidence has carried over to other holes and other courses.  I’m not saying I par it all the time, but I have parred it – and now if I hit one in the water I’m not devastated by it.

The view from where your ideal second shot would land. Green is to the right of the bunker in the center of the photo

The view from where your ideal second shot would land. Green is to the right of the bunker in the center.

Now, I’m not saying this will work for you.  But it did work from me, and you’ve got nothing to lose if you try it.

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jan11_annika4_400x6001Annika Sorenstam will be a mother soon!  Annika, who retired from competitive golf after last season, got married to Mike McGee shortly after her retirement.  Mr. McGee’s father Jerry was a PGA Tour golfer.  The baby is due in the fall. 

Annika was recognized as a superior athlete when she was a child, ranked nationally in Sweden in tennis and soccer, and skiing.  She took up golf at the age of 12. A shy child, she would deliberately miss putts to avoid winning tournaments, since the winner was expected to give a victory speech.  That practice stopped when coaches noticed the trend and expanded the speeches to include the runner-up. 

She joined the LPGA in 1994 and began winning everything in sight. Over the next fourteen years she won more than 22 million dollars.  Much of her success came early, and she achieved most of her stated goals by the year 2000.  This caused her to have to refocus and set new goals.  She also became recognized as one of the few athletes in the world to be recognized by their first name only, joining Tiger, Michael, Kobe, and Shaq among others.  She got married in 1997 to David Esch, whom she met when she was a rookie on the tour and he was working for Ping. 

250px-2008_lpga_championship_-_annika_sorenstam_tee_shotDuring the second half of her career, as she looked ahead to life after the Tour, she developed interests that have allowed her to meld the things she loves doing.  She’s into golf, of course, and this has led her to open her own golf academy, but she’s also into fitness, cooking and charitable work.  It would not be hard to speculate that the interest in fitness came as a result of spine problems in her neck, being treated for bulging and ruptured discs. She established the ANNIKA Foundation, which among other things, set up, with American Junior Golf Association, the ANNIKA Invitational.  This tournament is used to bring 60 of the top internationally ranked female golfers together to compete against each other.  During the event these young golfers are introduced into the possibility of playing professional or collegiate golf and the external facets of those choices.  Enrolling in a cooking school has interested her, and she took part in cooking demos at LPGA events.  She has even worked some eight hour shifts in the kitchen the Lake Nona Country Club, in the Orlando area. 

She got divorced in 2005 from David Esch. 

At the conclusion of her tour career Sorenstam had won 90 international tournaments, surpassing Kathy Whitworth’s record of 88 tour victories.  72 of the wins came on the LPGA Tour. She was named Player of the Year eight times and won the Vare Trophy six times.  The Vare Trophy is an LPGA award for the lowest average score for a season. 

She has challenged Tiger Woods to a one-on-one showdown.  She put down some conditions, but speculated that the televised event would be good for golf and would be for a charitable cause. Tiger’s answer is still awaited.  

She recently announced the introduction of a new perfume, ANNIKA by Annika Sorenstam.  Odd choice, don’t you think? 

Annika, congratulations on your marriage and pending motherhood.  Fans of golf will miss watching you play.

 References: Wikipedia, Golf Magazine, GolfWeek, Golf Digest

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images002I’m reluctant to mention politics here, but if you’re paying attention to life, you know we’re facing some interesting times these days. I’ve been thinking about the reportedly growing interest in things “green”. Green this, green that, green cars?  Car companies orchestrating marketing plans based upon their perception that the public wants smaller cars that will provide a smaller “carbon footprint”?  

What about the economic effects of golf?  Is golf too expensive for the average person?  Couldn’t all that land be put to more productive use?  If company sponsors were not putting up all that prize money, wouldn’t their products cost less thereby benefiting all? 

How have all these views affected government?  Are these environmentalists and/or economists actually pursuing these things to benefit mankind?  Could some of them be like the killjoy at the party, determined not to have a good time and that no one else, including golfers,  should either?  Who actually benefits by golf courses going out of business? 

I think that maybe the golf world has been ahead of the rest of the world.  I have experienced more electric golf carts than propane ones.  Where can you find greener surroundings than on a golf course?  Golf course maintenance requires lots of water, which we’re being pressured to conserve.  It requires fertilizer, good for the grass but undoubtedly detrimental to birds, the water table, etc.  

Information, in general, has been growing exponentially over the last 50 years or so.  Discoveries are being made every day that find that practices and products of years past may have had, or in some cases definitely have had, negative impact on the environment.  I had a buddy that died of leukemia in 1984, at age twenty-nine, who was born and raised in Woburn, Massachusetts Woburn used to be known for its tanneries, where animal hides were treated with chemicals and turned into leather.  In the old days the spent chemicals were put into storage drums and buried around town which affected the water in the city’s water supply.  That story was told in the book “A Civil Action” by Jonathan Harr and later made into a movie with John Travolta.  Surely there have been other such instances around the country and the world, but what has happened since? Doesn’t society learn from and adapt to things like this? 

John Barton’s article in the May 2008 issue Golf Digest was about a three-day meeting at  Pebble Beach that explored the possible ways to make golf more eco-friendly.  He did not mention who initiated the meeting, but he did discuss the reluctance of golf community representatives to attend. Paul Parker, who at the time was executive vice president of the Center for Resource Management based in Denver, indicated that the golf community felt it was going to be attacked, and that the environmentalists, known for their criticism of golf, didn’t understand golf. (Ain’t that always the way?)  

Ron Kasprike wrote an article for Golf Digest back in 2003 in which he talked about the effects that the “sluggish economy” were having on country club membership and finances.  This before the bottom fell out in November 2008!  His research uncovered that many clubs were drastically reducing joining fees and offering incentives.  He quotes Jim Koppenhaver, whose company keeps track of the private clubs and their members, as saying that fourteen percent of U.S. golfers belong to private clubs, but that number is dwindling. 

Bradley Klein of GolfWeek has written an article that looks at golf and the economy from all sides.  He says that it is a hard thing to get a handle on, since many of the people he talked to put their own favorable slant on things. 

What does it all mean?  Well, until the course I play the most closes or becomes patchy, weedy and dried out it probably won’t affect me.  I’m already a discount golfer, unlikely to join a private club anytime soon.  I’ll just go enjoy myself and try to improve every time out.  As I suspect you will too. 

Keep’em in the well watered and fertilized fairway!

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In August 2008, the LPGA issued a policy that would require all players participating in LPGA events for two years to demonstrate the ability to hold conversations in English. According to the policy, the inability to demonstrate proficiency would result in suspension from the tour. 

This policy is a little hard to understand. Certainly the LPGA wants and needs publicity, and one of the ways they get it is by having the winners and contenders at events interviewed by members of the media.  The inability to hold a conversation in English would then require a translator, which has been happening for years.  Are translators so expensive that the LPGA cannot afford to have them available?  Perhaps they are.  Perhaps it is thought that the personality of a golfer is lost coming through a translator.  Are golfers incapable of learning English over a two-year period?  Are English lessons so prohibitively expensive that the would-be participants would find them out-of-reach?  Would it help if the LPGA paid for English lessons? 

At any rate, the announcement was met with a storm of negative criticism from fans, media and sponsors. (Of course, if Mizuno sponsored a Japanese woman that was prohibited from playing in a televised event, then the Mizuno name would not be seen plastered across her golf bag, her hat if she wears one, and her golf shirt.)  The LPGA dropped the policy after two weeks of such onslaught, and announced that it may reissue the policy after eliminating the suspension penalty. 

 

Leland Yee

Leland Yee

So, eight months later, the AP reported that the California Senate passed a bill that would make it illegal to require event participants to speak English unless it is a “business necessity”.  Leland Yee (D), State Senator from San Francisco, says the LPGA’s proposal is discriminatory and insulting to women, minorities and immigrants.  It could also prevent the best golfers from playing, and though this was among the reasons listed by Leland Yee, it was unlikely that it was among the top reasons. 

 

And the policy has not been reissued as far as I know. 

References: Wikipedia, AP, Golf.com

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april12_cabrera_299x199Angel Cabrera, the first Argentine winner of the Masters Tournament last week, returned to his home to a crowd that welcomed him and cheered as he displayed his new green jacket. 

According to Golf.com, his background in golf started at age 10 as a caddy at the Cordoba Golf Club, leading to his first round with borrowed clubs when he was fifteen.  Eduardo Romero, a successful professional himself, mentored Angel and sponsored him as he learned to play, until he turned pro at age 20.

Mr. Cabrera qualified to be a professional at the European Tour Qualifying School on his fourth attempt in 1996, and he has amassed 39 wins as a professional.  Before the Masters he was ranked 69th on the tour, making him the lowest ranked golfer ever to win the event at the Augusta National Golf Club.

Angel previous major win was in 2007, his first year on the PGA Tour, the U.S. Open at Oakmont, near Pittsburgh, where he beat Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk by one stroke.  At that event he was the atop the leaderboard after two rounds, but he had trouble on that day; he shot six over par and finished four strokes behind the leader. It would be easy to imagine that he would be discouraged, but evidently he did not let it overwhelm him and finished the final round at one under par.  He is the first Argentine to win the U.S, Open. Only one other Argentine has ever won a major, that being Roberto de Vincenzo, who took the British Open in 1967, two years before Angel was born, and then in 1968 was disqualified for a playoff to win the Masters when he signed an incorrect scorecard.

Mr. Cabrera’s Masters win was consistent with his Oakmont win, in that he demonstrated his positive attitude and refused to let his circumstances get the better of him.  Tied for the lead with Kenny Perry when he teed off Sunday, he fell two strokes behind while Phil Mickelson and Tiger scrambled to overtake the leaders.  He kept his concentration and interacted with the gallery, which made the CBS commentators describe him as “popular”. Still two shots back as he finished the sixteenth hole, he showed what a clutch golfer he can be.  Then he pulled into a tie at the eighteenth, finished one under for the day, and was part of a dramatic three way playoff  with Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell.  On the first extra hole he survived a disastrous tee shot into the woods. His second shot bounced off two trees, the second bounce a fortunate one, as his golf ball ended up in the middle of the fairway with a clear path to the green. Chad Campbell did not survive the first extra hole when he missed a makeable six foot putt for par.  Angel made par on the next hole and sank his putt as Perry looked on, unable to win.

So this was Mr. Cabrera’s second major win.  He is only the second non-American ever to have won both the Masters and the U.S. Open; Gary Player was the other.  He has won three times on the European Tour and has vowed to win at least three more majors.

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200px-tiger_woods_2007Tiger Woods is always sure to grab the attention of the public, even the non-golfing public.  Last week he was at the Amway Arena in Orlando for a pro basketball game between the Orlando Magic and the Cleveland Cavaliers.  It was refreshing for those of us that only see him surrounded by the boundaries of our TV screens to see him in a relaxed, enjoyable situation. We’re used to seeing him surrounded by beautiful green countryside, walking briskly to his next shot, or conferring in hushed tones with Steve Williams, his caddy since 1999, or swinging a golf club and gazing after the flight of his Nike golf ball. Unless he signs on do star in a  reality TV show, most of us will never see him sit down to breakfast in his (silk?) boxers, and that’s probably a good thing. Wouldn’t that pop the bubble of our illusions about him?

I was in a waiting room this morning looking at a copy of Sports Illustrated, and I came across an article that was photographically comparing Tiger’s swing this season with last season and 1997. It was describing the differences from early in his career until last year, when the pain forced him to alter his swing, and how the surgery has alleviated the pain that was causing him to rely almost exclusively on using his fade shot. The pain he experienced eliminated the draw shot from his repertoire. Now that the pain is gone he has been working on restoring the draw, and just in time, too. The Augusta National Golf Club course supposedly is played most successfully by those who use the draw effectively, as the spin imparted to the ball on tee shots causes them to roll farther.

Tiger played in his fifteenth Masters Tournament this year. He has already won it four times: only Jack Nicklaus has won it more than that. The oldest winner in history was forty-eight, so Tiger has fifteen more attempts to win in order to top the list of all time winners.

There are probably several reasons that account for Tiger’s huge popularity with the public, especially the sporting public. I have been a golfer since I was in my mid-twenties, and I have had periods when I played a lot (before becoming a homeowner and father) to periods when I haven’t played much. When I played a lot, I would watch golf on TV and follow it in the sports news; conversely when I didn’t play, I didn’t watch. The popularity of golf on TV has much to do with Tiger. It seems that when he plays, the TV ratings go up, and when he doesn’t, they drop. At the Masters this year, the gallery that followed Tiger (and by default, Phil Mickelson on Sunday) was huge, appearing to deeply line the full length of the fairways.

So the connection is there. When Tiger plays, the PGA wins, the network covering the event wins, the world of golf gets more exposure, so all the other golfers win too.

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