Buzzin Golf

Last month’s emotional press conference did nothing to help the speculation over Tiger Woods so it remains a big doubt whether the world No 1 will be in attendance when The Open Championship returns to St Andrews in July.

Tiger Woods was victorious the last time the tournament was played at the Old Course, with his 14-under finish enough to win by five strokes from Colin Montgomerie, and he would have been a short-priced favourite had he confirmed he would be in attendance this time around.

But it appeared from his interview towards the end of February that his mind was not on golf, solely on rebuilding his home life after the tabloid headlines that all came out of his untimely car crash outside his home last December.

Now all we can do is wait and see if he turns up – hopefully from a golf betting perspective the announcement will come in plenty of time so as not to confuse things even further.

In his absence, it would be almost impossible to name a favourite for Open Championship Betting at the moment but it could well be a couple of Irishmen with differing levels of experience who end up making the market without Woods.

Padraig Harrington was denied a third successive Open title last season at Turnberry, when Stewart Cink secured the Claret Jug, but if he gets to St Andrews without breaking his winless streak it would be nearly two seasons since he last tasted victory.

Right at the other end of the spectrum, in terms of major experience, is Rory McIlroy, but despite consistently excelling he still only has one tournament victory on his resume, just over a year ago in Dubai.

He has started 2010 in positive fashion with a couple of top 10 finishes, but it has to be a slight worry that he has been complaining of back problems at such a tender age, and he admits he might need to make changes to his swing at some point down the line.

Rory McIlroy says he is not worried by the early part of his career, which should be a very successful one, being plagued by near misses but that it appears is not going to stop him visiting a sports psychologist.

But the good thing to read, in stark contrast to some other precocious players in the past, is that Rory McIlroy is keeping grounded and not making his life harder by playing in a long run of tournaments – he won’t play more than two weeks back-to-back at all between now and May.

What a story it would be for a player just turned 20 to lift the sport’s biggest prize in only his second full season.

golf business community

The effects of the global financial crisis have been felt in some form or other by most of us, so it is little surprise that a report from KPMG Golf Advisory Practice suggests that revenue from the golf business across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMA) has dropped dramatically in recent times.

The report measures the impact of the economic downturn on golf through the business performance of golf courses in 2009 and reveals that two-thirds of the golf courses surveyed in the EMA region said the financial crisis had impacted negatively on their operations, with nearly half of all courses reporting reduced revenues and profitability.

Golf courses based within a residential community or tourist resort area are surprisingly the worst hit of all, with 78% saying that they had experienced a down turn in their operations.

Overall 35% golf courses reported lower or stagnant revenues without being able to reduce costs, raising the prospect of unsustainable business operations based on current trends.

Half of the businesses surveyed said that they had been forced to make redundancies or cut staff jobs.

Golf course managers are also relatively optimistic for 2010 with 54% predicting excellent or good performance in the coming year, although managers in Great Britain and Ireland are the most pessimistic with 49% expecting ‘medium performance’ and 11% foreseeing poor or very poor performance.

Andrea Sartori, head of KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice in EMA, concludes;

“While golf course operators, on average, are feeling more positive about their future prospects, two fundamental business factors suggest the way back to the fairway will not be straightforward.

Firstly, 35% of the golf courses surveyed are facing the worrying combination of decreasing revenues and increasing costs. For some golf courses, the narrowing of profitability might come sooner than expected and it would not be a surprise if we saw some golf courses going out of business in 2010. The depressed transaction prices of golf courses are evidence to the fact that the industry is really struggling.

Secondly, nearly half of all the courses surveyed reported a drop in revenues, fuelled in part by one or more of the following: a fall in memberships, green fee revenue, as well as food and beverage spending. While this decline in revenue may not be significant when averaged out (-3% to -5% across the EMA region), it is still worrying that 13% of courses have reported a reduction of more than 20% in the number of rounds played.

Golf courses – particularly those linked to tourist resorts and the ones operating in mature markets like Great Britain and Ireland – will have to work very hard on their relationship marketing, pricing strategies and service levels to attract new customers or lure back the old ones.”

The full KPMG report, Golf and the Economic Downturn, is available to download, free of charge, from the new website: www.golfbusinesscommunity.com

seve ballesteros

Seve Ballesteros is among 32 former champions who have been invited to take part in a four hole tournament as part of the 150th Open anniversary celebrations on the eve of the Championship proper.

Ballesteros who has made a remarkable recovery from the four operations to remove a brain tumor diagnosed in 2008, stated last year that he would love to make a return to the British Open that takes place this year at St Andrews, in July.

Among the other former champions who have been invited to take place in the four hole tournament are Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Nick Faldo.

The tournament will take place on the first, second, 17th and 18th holes on the old course on July 14th. Ballesteros won the second of his three Open Championships on the St Andrews course in 1984.

Spanish Golf Federation president Gonzaga Escauriaza said that Ballesteros is doing well , he started playing again last summer but radiotherapy and chemotherapy had weakened him. Now he his getting better and better and would love to be on the first tee for the four hole tournament, adding “He will probably be there.”

In amongst all the promises, the apologies and the admissions, the sporting world learned absolutely nothing about Tiger Woods after he revealed he had no idea when he would be returning to the PGA Tour.

Rumours had him returning next week, next month, in time for the Masters, not at all this season or never depending on the source you read, and Friday’s ‘press conference’ did absolutely nothing to stop any speculation about the world No 1’s future.

While Tiger Woods is under no obligation to tell everyone when he might be ready to return, the style of the speech he made showed that he is in no frame of mind to be taking his eye off family matters for now, and just a brief mention of the sport that has made him a worldwide superstar showed that he clearly has plenty of other things on his mind.

For now, golf betting has Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy as the front runners for most tournaments and it is up to them to try and keep Woods out of the headlines. The way his return to the public eye was designed was widely criticised though, most vocally by Ernie Els.

You can understand the South African’s disappointment as well, given that the speech took plenty of gloss away from the WGC-Accenture World Matchplay, ironically sponsored by one of the companies that used to sponsor Woods.

So what now? Well, the PGA Tour has to move on without Woods and based on the first six weeks of the season it might not be easy. Attendances are down (although next week’s Phoenix event is traditionally a big draw), interest is down and the names of the winners so far have hardly set the Online Betting world alight.

No doubt PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, while publicly backing Woods, is desperate for him to return sooner rather than later but, for now, he will have to hope that some fireworks come soon or even big events on the schedule like Bay Hill and the Masters could prove to be damp squibs as well.

But for now there is nothing golf fans, golf punters and the golfing press can do but speculate, and that’s never really good for anybody. We all went into Friday hoping for something concrete, but despite the candidness of the admissions and apologies, all that happened was a scripted piece of theatre which told most people nothing.

Rent-A-Club - the UK’s first online golf equipment rental service

Rentaclub.co.uk, the UK’s first online golf equipment rental service, is giving golfers the opportunity to hit their best shots with top brand equipment, whenever and wherever they want.

The exclusive new service will enable golfers to test drive new products from Callaway, TaylorMade, Nike, Cleveland, Srixon and Mizuno, among others, just 24-hours after ordering the clubs online.

The new website goes live on Wednesday 17th February and features a simple, five-step process with a virtual assistant helping golfers select clubs beneficial to their game.

The clubs are then delivered securely next day by UPS to the golfer’s home, or a location of their choice, ready to be put into play.

Matthew Fagan, Managing Director of Rentaclub.co.uk, said:

“Golfers love talking about new equipment, including the latest drivers, and how it will improve their game. However, new clubs can be expensive, so this is an ideal way to test drive clubs thoroughly on your own course before making a purchase.”

He continued:

“Having returned the club, if the golfer then decides they want to buy the product, Rentaclub.co.uk will refer them to an experienced local PGA professional within the TGI Golf network for a free custom fitting to ensure the clubs are perfectly set up for their game, guaranteeing optimum performance. They will also benefit from a £25 discount off the manufacturer’s suggested retail price.”

The service, which has the backing of leading brands, will offer drivers only initially, with models including the new Callaway FT-iZ, Nike Victory Red Tour STR8-Fit, TaylorMade R9 Super Tri (available March) and Cleveland Launcher DST (available late February).

Driver rentals start from £25 for five days, including free delivery, pick-up and return.

Graham Martin, Callaway’s Regional Sales Director UK and Ireland, said:

“Callaway invests heavily in research and development to create equipment that give golfers an advantage. The best way for consumers to experience this is by enjoying playing and testing the clubs themselves, so we are fully supportive of Rentaclub.co.uk.”

TGI Golf, the UK’s leading network of green grass golf professionals and retailers, is also supporting Rentaclub.co.uk, with its 400 members offering free custom fitting services to the website’s customers.

Matthew Fagan added:

“Although renting clubs is a new concept in the UK, it is a well established practice in the USA. From our own market research, we know that golfers here are keen to try new products in this way and that they will appreciate the value, convenience and fun of turning up at their home course with the best new products – and hitting their best shots.”

Rentaclub.co.uk customers receive their clubs in pre-paid packaging, making it easy to return products. On the fourth day of their rental they will be sent an SMS text message reminding them to call UPS to arrange a pick-up the next day from a location of their choosing, including home or work.

Rental prices for fairway woods, hybrids, sets of irons, wedges, putters and full sets of clubs will be announced as the clubs are added to the rental list.

For more information visit www.rentaclub.co.uk