Showing posts with label golf. Show all posts
Showing posts with label golf. Show all posts

History of Golf & Golf Equipment

Posted on 8:42 AM No Comments Labels: ,
Golf originated during the 15th century.

Golf originated from a game played on the coast of Scotland during the 15th century. Golfers would hit a pebble instead of a ball around the sand dunes using a stick or club. After 1750, golf evolved into the sport as we recognize it today. In 1774, Edinburgh golfers wrote the first standardized rules for the game of golf.

Golf Balls
Golfers soon tired of hitting pebbles and tried other things. The earliest man-made golf balls included thin leather bags stuffed with feathers (they did not fly very far).

The gutta-percha ball was invented in 1848 by Reverend Adam Paterson. Made from the sap of the Gutta tree, this ball could be hit a maximum distance of 225 yards and was very similar to its modern counterpart.

In 1898, Coburn Haskell introduced the first one-piece rubber cored, when professionally hit these balls reached distances approaching 430 yards.

According to "The Dimpled Golf Ball" by Vincent Mallette during the early days of golf the balls were smooth. Players noticed that as balls became old and scarred, they traveled farther. After a while players would take new balls and intentionally pit them.

In 1905, golf ball manufacturer William Taylor was the first to add the dimple pattern using the Coburn Haskell ball. Golf balls had now taken on their modern form.

Golf Clubs
Golf clubs have evolved from wooden shaft clubs to today's sets of woods and irons with durability, weight distribution and graduation utility. The evolution of clubs went hand in hand with the evolution of golf balls that were able to withstand harder whacks.

Carrying & Caddies
During the 1880s, golf bags first came into use. "The beast of burden" is an old nickname for the caddie who carried golfers' equipment for them. The first powered golf car appeared around 1962 and was invented by Merlin L. Halvorson.

Golf Tees
The word "tee" as it relates to the game of golf originated as the name for the area where a golfer played. In 1889, the first documented portable golf tee was patented by Scottish golfers William Bloxsom and Arthur Douglas. This golf tee was made from rubber and had three vertical rubber prongs that held the ball in place. However, it lay on the ground and did not piece (or pegged) the ground like modern golf tees.

In 1892, a British patent was granted to Percy Ellis for his "Perfectum" tee that did piece (pegged) the ground. It was a rubber tee with a metal spike. The 1897 "Victor" tee was similar and included a cup-shaped top to better hold the golf ball. The Vicktor was patented by Scotsmen PM Matthews.

American patents for golf tees include: the first American patent issued to Scotsmen David Dalziel in 1895, the 1895 patent issued to American Prosper Senat, and the 1899 patent for an improved golf tee issued to George Grant.

In 1774, the first standardized rules of golf were written and used for the first golf championship, which was won by Doctor John Rattray on 2nd April 1744 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1. You must tee your ball within one club's length of the hole.

2. Your tee must be on the ground.

3. You are not to change the ball which you strike off the tee.

4. You are not to remove stones, bones or any break club for the sake of playing your ball, except on the fair green, and that only within a club's length of your ball.

5. If your ball comes among water, or any watery filth, you are at liberty to take out your ball and bringing it behind the hazard and teeing it, you may play it with any club and allow your adversary a stroke for so getting out your ball.

6. If your balls be found anywhere touching one another you are to lift the first ball till you play the last.

7. At holeing you are to play your ball honestly for the hole, and not to play upon your adversary's ball, not lying in your way to the hole.

8. If you should lose your ball, by its being taken up, or any other way, you are to go back to the spot where you struck last and drop another ball and allow your adversary a stroke for the misfortune.

9. No man at holeing his ball is to be allowed to mark his way to the hold with his club or anything else.

10. If a ball be stopp'd by any person, horse or dog, or anything else, the ball so stopp'd must be played where it lyes.

11. If you draw your club in order to strike and proceed so far in the stroke as to be bringing down your club; if then your club shall break in any way, it is to be accounted a stroke.

12. He who whose ball lyes farthest from the hole is obliged to play first.

13. Neither trench, ditch or dyke made for the preservation of the links, nor the Scholar's Holes or the soldier's lines shall be accounted a hazard but the ball is to be taken out, teed and play'd with any iron club. Read More......

Woods takes golf into a year of uncertainty

Posted on 2:35 AM No Comments Labels: ,
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP)—Practically every new twist in the shocking tale of Tiger Woods includes an aerial view of his Florida home where his troubles began, when he pulled his SUV out of the driveway and drove it into a tree.

More questions arise when one surveys the expanse of grass across the street — the practice range at Isleworth.

Perhaps the most pressing: When will Woods slip into his spikes, step out of his house and hit golf balls again?

There is no telling when the world’s No. 1 player will choose to return to the PGA Tour and the massive galleries that, most certainly, will not gaze upon him quite the way they did at his previous 253 tour events.

Woods has been out of the public eye since the car crash and subsequent allegations of extramarital affairs took Tigermania into startling new territory during Thanksgiving weekend. He went 13 years without a hint of scandal, the first $1 billion athlete with barely a blemish, guarded with the media even in good times. That’s not likely to change now.

“I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family,” Woods said while confessing to “transgressions” on his Web site last week. “Those feelings should be shared by us alone.”

The greater mystery is his future.

“I think he’s held at a different standard than everybody else out there,” Kenny Perry said Friday at the Chevron World Challenge. “This will be interesting to see how he handles this, though. This is a totally different knock on him when he gets out there and plays next year.”

Until the crash in the wee hours of Nov. 27, anticipation about 2010 in golf was geared toward Woods’ pursuit of Jack Nicklaus’ record in the majors, especially a year with Pebble Beach (U.S. Open) and St. Andrews (British Open) in the rotation.

That has been replaced by uncertainty and uneasiness.

A sport that promoted its wholesome image as its biggest asset now has a tawdry mess on its hands because of its star player, who happens to be among the most famous athletes in the world.

“What’s interesting to me about this situation is that while its bad in the short term, for golf, on a global basis, it has moved from being a sport to having iconic, celebrity status, and a whole host of other people are now interested,” said John Rowady, president of rEvolution, a Chicago-based sports marketing and media agency.

“And it may be a sport that is not prepared for that kind of publicity.”

The timing was not the greatest. The PGA Tour is struggling to find title sponsors at four tournaments and renew deals with at least a half dozen others. It also will start negotiations on a network TV deal that ends in 2012.

“I think one of our biggest selling points for the corporate world is that we are relatively controversy-free,” Geoff Ogilvy said at the start of the year. “We don’t generally have too many golfers getting into trouble like some other athletes in other sports do. We’re pretty squeaky-clean like that. It’s been like that for a long time. It doesn’t really seem like it’s going to change.”

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has been silent during all this. He hasn’t made himself available for comment except for a statement in support of Woods’ family and the player’s request for privacy.

Asked if Finchem would take questions about concerns for golf’s image or whether it would affect business, spokesman Ty Votaw said the tour does not comment on “hypothetical situations, conjecture and guesswork.”

At the start of the decade, Finchem was at Pebble Beach talking about how golf was in good hands. He cited the new arrivals of Adam Scott, Charles Howell III, David Gossett, young players who represented the values inherent in golf.

No need to mention Woods.

No one ever imagined his name would be splashed across anything but the sports pages, except for being on the cover of Time magazine in 2000 during one of the greatest summers of golf.

Padraig Harrington was quick to distinguish between Woods as a player and a person.

“It’s very much a private matter there,” Harrington said. “He wasn’t … speeding or had a DUI and hurt somebody. It really is a family matter. Hopefully, that’s the worst that golf could ever do. But how it reflects on golf? I suppose things like this have happened before at times, and we move on.

“I would still say golf—I know this may be saying it from inside the sport—is constantly the No. 1 sport with the moral ethics and things like that. So I think we’re in a very strong position going forward.”

Woods’ corporate sponsors said they are standing by him. Most sports marketing consultants believe the scandal involving his personal life will have little bearing on TV ratings or contract negotiations. No one can be sure, however, just as no can predict where or when he will return to golf.

“There’s no impact on the sport itself other than the fact its best asset is a little damaged right now,” said Michael Gordon, CEO of Group Gordon Strategic Communications, a crisis PR firm in New York.

“But it starts with Tiger. He’s at the top of the pyramid,” Gordon said. “When Tiger is hurt, other assets could get hurt, too—potentially the PGA Tour, sponsors, his family. It’s a little bit of a domino affect, and he’s the first domino.”

His peers at the Chevron World Challenge—the tournament Woods hosts but did not attend—have largely been supportive without passing judgment, perhaps because they realize that Woods is their meal ticket. They are playing for $5.75 million this week, a snapshot of life on the PGA Tour made possible by Woods and his enormous appeal.

Total prize money was $65 million the year Woods turned pro in 1996. They played for $275 million this year.

Stewart Cink is among those who have jokingly suggested Woods is not human, having won 82 times around the world and 14 majors. After losing to him by a record margin at the Match Play Championship last year, Cink said, “I think maybe we ought to slice him open to see what’s inside. Maybe nuts and bolts.”

Woods twice mentioned in statements during the last week that he was, indeed, “human.” Will that make him seem more vulnerable as a player?

“I don’t think that whatever comes out of this will affect his golf because he’s a professional, and part of being a professional is to separate your personal life from what you do on the course,” Cink said. “I’ve had plenty of times when I came to the golf course in a tournament, and I was just a wreck off the course. … And you have no choice but to just leave that. It’s not always real easy, but he’ll find a way, and he’ll be fine.”

Greg Norman, who preceded Woods as golf’s biggest draw, understands scrutiny into one’s personal life, having disclosed in October that his 15-month marriage to tennis star Chris Evert was ending.

He believes golf is bigger than any one player and will be fine. And while he can empathize with Woods’ public life on display, Norman doesn’t feel sorry for him.

“Hey, he’s the No. 1 player in the world,” Norman said Saturday at the Australian Open. “Publicity is going to follow you no matter what you do, whether you win tournaments, lose tournaments and whatever happens.”

Woods has started at Torrey Pines every year since 2006 when healthy. Tournament director Tom Wilson said he recently met with PGA Tour security consultants about what needs to be done, if Woods chooses this event to mark his return.

“We might need to add a few chairs in the media center,” Wilson said.

If keeping together his family—wife Elin and two children—is a priority, Woods might wait longer.

“Is this going to make him stronger? We’ll find out,” Perry said. “Is this really going to get inside his head a little bit and really going to mess with him? I don’t know how the crowd is … going to attack him. Are they going to verbally abuse him out there? We don’t know.

“I don’t think it’s going to change our tour next year at all,” he said. “Only time will tell.”

Woods has tried to quell minor issues in the past with one sentence in a news conference or one posting on his Web site. Though three statements have been posted on his Web site since the accident, they’ve done little to answer lingering questions. As a result, media outlets have shown no signs of scaling back in their hot pursuit of information.

“When you get nonsporting media spending money on stories, whether they’re true or false, it’s just fanning the flames,” Rowady said.

Either way, he said the next few months will go a long way, starting with Woods returning to golf. He said Woods will need to raise his game not only on the course, but for the tour and its sponsors, his own sponsors and TV partners.

“If it’s true that golf is a gentleman’s game, it benefits by the way he finishes this process,” Rowady said. “How he comes out and eventually speaks and plays could be an asset, and then it heightens the awareness. What’s surprising to me is how quickly people are willing to tear him down. I don’t know that anyone benefits by making Tiger Woods into a villain.”

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Police chief: Woods' wife helped after accident

Posted on 11:22 AM comments (1) Labels: ,


Tiger Woods was injured early Friday when he lost control of his SUV outside his Florida mansion, and a local police chief said Woods' wife used a golf club to smash out the back window to help get him out.

The world's No. 1 golfer was treated and released from a hospital in good condition, his spokesman said. The Florida Highway Patrol said Woods' vehicle hit a fire hydrant and a tree in his neighbor's yard after he pulled out of his driveway at 2:25 a.m.

Windermere police chief Daniel Saylor told The Associated Press that officers found the 33-year-old PGA star lying in the street with his wife, Elin, hovering over him.

"She was frantic, upset," Saylor said in a briefing Friday night. "It was her husband laying on the ground."

She told officers she was in the house when she heard the accident and "came out and broke the back window with a golf club," he said, adding that the front-door windows were not broken and that "the door was probably locked."

"She supposedly got him out and laid him on the ground," he said. "He was in and out of consciousness when my guys got there."

Saylor said Woods had lacerations to his upper and lower lips, and blood in his mouth; officers treated Woods for about 10 minutes until an ambulance arrived. Woods was conscious enough to speak, he said.

"He was mumbling, but didn't say anything coherent," Saylor said.

The Florida Highway Patrol said alcohol was not involved, although the accident remains under investigation and charges could be filed.

Woods was alone in his 2009 Cadillac when he pulled out of his driveway from his mansion at Isleworth, a gated waterfront community just outside Orlando, the patrol said.

Woods' injuries were described as serious in the patrol's report, though his spokesman, Glenn Greenspan, issued a statement that Woods was treated and released.

Left unanswered was where Woods was going at that hour. Greenspan and agent Mark Steinberg said there would be no comment beyond the short statement of the accident posted on Woods' Web site.

Asked at an evening news conference if the couple could have been arguing, Saylor said he had no knowledge of that. The couple, married five years, have two children.

The accident came two days after the National Enquirer published a story alleging that Woods had been seeing a New York night club hostess, and that they recently were together in Melbourne, where Woods competed in the Australian Masters.

The woman, Rachel Uchitel, denied having an affair with Woods when contacted by the AP.

"I resent my reputation is getting completely blasted in the media," she said during a telephone interview late Friday. "Everyone is assuming I came out and said this. This is not a story I have anything to do with."

Uchitel said she was in Melbourne two weeks ago with clients and never saw Woods the entire time she was there.

A representative of the National Enquirer declined comment.

Patrol spokeswoman Sgt. Kim Montes said the accident was being investigated as a "traffic crash."

"We don't believe it is a domestic issue," she said.

Woods, coming off a two-week trip to China and Australia earlier this month, is host of the Chevron World Challenge in Thousand Oaks, Calif., which starts Thursday. He is scheduled to have his press conference Tuesday afternoon at Sherwood Country Club. Steinberg said he did not know if Woods planned to play next week.

The Florida Highway Patrol said tapes of the 911 call won't be released until they can be reviewed, probably Monday at the earliest.

The accident report was not released until nearly 12 hours after Woods was injured. Montes said the accident did not meet the criteria of a serious crash, and the FHP only put out a press release because of inquiries from local media.

Montes said the patrol reports injuries as serious if they require more than minor medical attention. Air bags in the SUV did not deploy.

Two troopers tried to talk to Woods on Friday evening, but his wife said he was sleeping and they agreed to come back Saturday, Montes said.

She said charges could be filed if there was a clear traffic violation, although troopers still do not know what caused Woods' SUV to hit the hydrant and the tree.

Damage to the front of Woods' SUV was described as "medium" by Saylor.

"Not real extensive, but not real light," he said.

Woods rarely faces such private scrutiny, even as perhaps the most famous active athlete in the world.

He usually makes news only because of what he can do with a golf club. Few other athletes have managed to keep their private lives so guarded, or have a circle of friends so airtight when it comes to life off the course.

His wife was awarded a $183,250 settlement and an apology from an Irish magazine that published a fake nude photo of her, and Woods received a $1.6 million settlement in a lawsuit against the builder of his yacht — named Privacy — for using his name and photos of the boat as promotional material.

Woods is approaching $100 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour, and Forbes magazine reported that combined with endorsements, appearance fees and golf course design, he has become the first athlete to top $1 billion.

Woods' $2.4 million home is part of an exclusive subdivision near Orlando, a community set on an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course and a chain of small lakes. The neighborhood, which is fortified with high brick walls and has its own security force, is home to CEOs and other sports stars such as the NBA's Shaquille O'Neal.

Woods has won 82 times around the world and 14 majors, becoming the first player of black heritage to win a major at the 1997 Masters when he was 21. He attended the Stanford-Cal football game last Saturday, where he tossed the coin at the start of the game and was inducted into Stanford's sports Hall of Fame at halftime.

He won six times this year after missing eight months recovering from reconstructive surgery on his left knee. Even though he failed to win a major, Woods said he considered this a successful year because he did not know how his knee would respond.

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Tiger Woods

Posted on 2:41 PM No Comments Labels: ,

Tiger Woods Biography

Name : Tiger Woods
Birth Date : Dec 30, 1975
Birth Place : Cypress, California
Height : 6' 2
Weight : 180 lbs.
Full name : Eldrick 'Tiger' Woods
Profession : Professional Golfer
Best Known As : Dominating pro golfer and Nike celebrity
Wife : Elin Nordegren, aformer Swedish nanny

Tiger Woods Trivia
* Woods collected his first strokeplay title of a difficult year when he stormed to an 8-shot victory at the Dunlop Phoenix tournament. His triumph signalled a welcome return to form, after his 5 years reign as world no. 1 was ended by Fiji's Vijai Singh.

Tiger Woods Detailed Biography

Record breaking pro golfer Eldrick 'Tiger' Woods was born on the 30th of December, 1975, the only child to parents Earl, retired lieutenant, and Kultida, of Thai descent. Earl Woods gave his son Eldrick the nickname 'Tiger', after a soldier and friend of his father who was also nicknamed Tiger in his days as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. Tiger grew up in Cypress, California, where his future passion and talent was foreshadowed while he was only a baby. Tiger would watch his father hit golf balls and would mimic his father's swing while still in his crib. Even before becoming a graduate from Western High School in Anaheim, California, Tiger was appearing on television and winning golf tournaments. At the mere age of 2, Tiger played with comedian and golfer Bob Hope on a national televisor, the Mike Douglas Show. He was featured in Golf Digest at age 5, after having already succeeded in shooting 48 for nine holes while the same children his age were still playing with building blocks.

A six-time winner at the Optimist International Junior Tournament, Tiger won at the ages of 8 and 9, and consecutively from ages 12 to 15. While a student at Stanford University, Tiger won 10 collegiate events and held the NCAA title. Before his years at Stanford, Tiger had already played in a professional tournament when he was 16 years old, the Nissan Los Angeles Open in 1992. One year later, he participated in three PGA Tour events and in 1994, Tiger placed 34th in the 1994 Johnnie Walker Asian Classic in Thailand and appeared in three more PGA Tours that same year. After having won the 1994 Western Amateur and representing the United States in the 1994 World Amateur Team Championships in France and the 1995 Walker Cup Match in Wales, Tiger was ready for his first major championships in 1995 -- the Masters and The British Open. Tiger couldn't play in the US Open that year because he injured his wrist.

Even as an amateur in 1995 and 1996, Tiger was making and breaking records and it was for this reason (among many others) that he was named Sports Illustrated's 1996 Sportsman of the Year. In 1997, Tiger won the first Mercedes Championships of the season, the Masters and four PGA events. Tiger became the leading money winner, winning $2,440,831. Among the records Tiger has broken are:

* In 1997, the youngest ever No.1 golfer at age 21, 24 weeks.
* In 1999 alone, Tiger won 81.7 percent more than the runner up during the PGA Tour.
* In 1999, he had as many as 8 victories in one year.
* In 1999, he achieved the highest point average (20.61) in the history of the World Ranking.
* In 1999, earned a record setting 750 points.
* In 1999, achieved the lowest ever adjusted scoring average of 68.43 strokes.
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