Businessweek November 8, 2001

Mark Nelson

What better way to get to know somebody, commune with nature, work a deal, and improve your swing — all at the same time

Calvin Coolidge, who once remarked that “the business of America is business,” didn’t quite get it right. As any CEO will tell you, the business of America is golf.

Golf and business have been inextricably linked for more than a century. From the formation of private country clubs in the late 1800s to today’s ritualistic sales meetings at Doral, Pebble Beach, or Kiawah Island, executives seem to be as comfortable conducting business against the serene backdrop of a rolling emerald fairway as they are within the controlled confines of the office. After all, they’re also working on their swings. The ability to play golf, understand its etiquette, and respect its traditions can boost a career.

Former U.S. Amateur champion Vinny Giles, who now represents nearly two dozen professional golfers, explains the attraction this way: “There’s a camaraderie that can be developed on the golf course,” Giles says. “You spend four hours with a person. You get to know him and see him in a different environment than the boardroom. There is a certain bond in the game, and everyone shares a common purpose and a common enjoyment.”

BETTER THAN TENNIS.  Like business, golf tests an individual’s ability to set goals and achieve them with as few expenditures (strokes) as possible. Adversity lies everywhere, whether it be in the form of a sand trap or a sharp drop in earnings. Both activities seem infinitely perfectible. All you need is intelligence, creativity, focus, total mastery of your emotions, practice, practice, practice — and no small amount of luck.

Today, golf still reigns as Corporate America’s No. 1 pastime. “Not everyone can play tennis, but everyone thinks they can play golf,” says Lynn Roach, an agent who represents PGA Tour mainstays Fred Couples and Jeff Sluman. “If you’re playing tennis and you get beat six-love, I’m not sure how much fun that is.”

Best of all, you don’t have to be a great athlete to be a good golfer. You simply have to be somewhat proficient, knowing how to “negotiate” your shots, “control your pace” and understand “course management.” Golfers talk like that — with good reason. In an age of health and enlightenment, golf has replaced the three-martini lunch as the preferred vehicle for sealing deals.
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Walking Golf Course Affects Swing, Performance

Over time, players less able to transfer weight on shots, so being in shape can improve scores

Businessweek June 6, 2008

Kevin McKeever

FRIDAY, June 6 (HealthDay News) — If you walk rather than ride a cart when you golf, you’ll be adding more exercise to your life — and maybe more strokes to your score, a new report suggests.

When walking 18 holes, a golfer’s swing and mechanics change for the worse, causing the player to hit the ball with less distance and accuracy, according to a study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine annual meeting, May 28-31, in Indianapolis.

Researchers studied seven recreational golfers, who typically average a score between 80 and 95, who walked while carrying a weighted golf bag during a simulated golf game. The one female and six male golfers walked 6 miles in total in 1-mile increments. Before the first mile, and after each subsequent mile, each player hit 20 tee shots, totaling 140 tee shots for the round.

Researchers found that over time, the golfers were less able to properly transfer weight to their front leg on a swing, resulting in less club head velocity that could affect how far the ball would travel. The study also showed that over time, the angles of the front knee and ankle at the top the swing changed, a development that could affect a shot’s accuracy.

“I think many golfers are realizing that their bodies are the most important tool they have in the golf swing, and that improving physical fitness may be more helpful than expensive golf clubs,” researcher Nick R. Higdon said in a prepared statement. “The study suggests that golf mechanics change and performance may decline the longer the golfer walks and swings. Getting in better shape may help golfers combat the effects of fatigue while playing golf.”

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Like bikinis. Like lingerie. Like evening gowns.

“This was perfect, to show the world there are sexy, athletic women who can play,” said Esch, who is using his company and his clout to turn seven female pro players into model citizens.

They are the Wilhelmina 7, a hand-picked group of seven LPGA pros represented by Wilhelmina Artist Management, a division of the New York modeling agency that includes such clients as singers Fergie and Ciara and actress Heather Graham.

Kim Hall was the first player recruited by Esch. The 26-year-old, a three-time All-Pacific 10 Conference player at Stanford, loved the photographs of her in a swimsuit. So did her husband, Casey.

“It was nice to feel glamorous,” said Hall, one of four in the group who is playing in the U.S. Women’s Open this week at Interlachen Country Club. “I’d rather be known for my golf, but it’s a bonus when you’re considered attractive. It’s flattering. It’s kind of nice to be one of the ‘cute’ ones.”

On the course, it has been sort of a challenge. Hall’s best result this season was a tie for 10th at the MasterCard Classic and she has missed eight cuts in 13 events, but she’s in the top 20 in driving accuracy and fully exempt this year.

However, statistics don’t tell you everything. If Hall appears totally at ease in a swimsuit, it’s because she is Red Cross certified as a water safety instructor.

When she is on the road, Hall said Casey likes to look at her pictures on the Internet, and has found it best to be talking on the phone with her at the same time.

“He has a whole new perspective of his wife,” Esch said.

The game plan for the Wilhelmina 7 is not complicated.

The agency will seek sponsorship and endorsement deals for the women as a group and as individuals.

Wilhelmina has launched a campaign to get them work, and, well, exposure.

SAN DIEGO (TICKER) —Tiger Woods once again came up with a big birdie at the 18th, and went on to win his third U.S. Open title on the first hole of sudden death on Monday.

It was the 14th major championship for Woods, who parred the sudden-death seventh at Torrey Pines to edge Rocco Mediate.

Mediate held a one-shot lead heading into the 18th, but Woods came up with a birdie to keep alive his chance for a championship. On Sunday, Woods birdied No. 18 to force the 18-hole playoff.

It was just the third sudden death at the major since it was instituted in 1954. The last sudden death at the U.S. Open took place in 1994, when Ernie Els defeated Loren Roberts and Colin Montgomerie for the title.

http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/news?slug=txusopen&prov=st&type=lgns

(June 4, 200 – New York, NY – Wilhelmina Artist Management, a division of Wilhelmina Models, announced today the formation of a new division aptly titled W⁷ – Wilhelmina 7. Last month, Wilhelmina Artist Management signed David Leadbetter, the legendary teaching professional, to a long-term contract. Seven of the top members of the LPGA Tour have signed exclusive representation agreements with Wilhelmina to seek out sponsorship and endorsement opportunities for the women as a whole package and individually.

This exciting opportunity was immediately accepted on the LPGA Tour.  As such, the Wilhelmina 7 include:  Minea Blomqvist, Sandra Gal, Anna Grzebien, Kim Hall, Johanna Head, Mikaela Parmlid, and Stacy Prammanasudh.

The concept:  “W⁷” truly embodies the mission of Wilhelmina to provide exceptional service to its talent, while encompassing the company’s goal and vision of bold and dramatic marketing, advertising and sponsorship prospects for Wilhelmina’s corporate clients.

“We created this initiative to complete a void in the marketplace for beautiful and athletically talented female golfers, states Wilhelmina Chairman Dieter Esch. “With only initial conversations to the corporate world, the reception is already tremendous for potential partnerships.”

The W⁷ includes only those women with the game, the beauty and the personality to create a major presence in women’s sports, both on and off the course. The ladies chosen range from newcomers such as Sandra Gal and Anna Grzebien to 8-year professional Johanna Head, as well as Stacy Prammanasudh who has amassed two career victories and was selected to represent the USA at the most recent Solheim Cup.  Minea Blomqvist who competes on both the LPGA Tour as well as the Ladies European Tour (LET), was awarded the 2003 Rookie of the Year Award and has finished in the top 10 on the Order of Merit List twice as a member of the LET Tour. Other members of the Wilhelmina 7 team, Mikaela Parmlid and Kim Hall, started strong this season and are fully exempt status on the LPGA Tour for the 2008 season.

About Wilhelmina Artist Management

In 1998, as an innovator in the industry, Wilhelmina Models became the first fashion company to develop a specific division to exclusively represent premier talent in the worlds of music, sports and entertainment. Today, that division called Wilhelmina Artist Management is one of the industry’s finest, with a roster that includes Fergie, Natasha Bedingfield, Ciara, Heather Graham, Amy Smart and Justin Chambers, among others.

Wilhelmina Artist Management creates, develops and manages celebrity-powered campaigns, product lines, private brand licensing, endorsements, sponsorships, talent appearances and corporate entertainment strategies.

MAUMEE, OHIO—AboutGolf, a 20-year-old golf company that is the world leader in indoor golf simulator technology, is playing a “major” role for the second consecutive year in Royal Bank of Scotland’s RBS Jack Nicklaus Majors Challenge.

RBS’ use of AboutGolf simulators gives RBS Jack Nicklaus Majors Challenge participants a realistic opportunity to celebrate this year’s majors. Each challenge includes a closest-to-the-pin contest using specially designed AboutGolf software featuring a par-3 hole from each major’s course—Torrey Pines G.C. (U.S. Open), Oakland Hills C.C. (PGA Championship) and Royal Birkdale G.C. (British Open). Golfers over 18 years of age receive three swings, with each location’s winner earning a trip for 2 to Valhalla, the site of the Ryder Cup and a meeting with Jack Nicklaus.  

“AboutGolf, through the wonders of technology, brings the majors experience inside the city and helps RBS create a memorable experience, “ says Trevor Faust, AboutGolf’s representative. “Until now, many people have been unable to play many of the PGA TOUR golf courses. AboutGolf’s incredible simulator technology brings the tournaments and courses to the people first hand. The RBS Jack Nicklaus Majors Challenge participants have been wowed with the chance to win many amazing prizes and experience the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship first hand.”

The two remaining live RBS Jack Nicklaus Majors Challenge competitions will take place in the financial districts of Boston for a U.S. Open experience June 9 and Detroit for a PGA Championship experience the first week of August. On-site PGA Professionals also will give clinics and lessons on the AboutGolf Simulator—the ultimate teaching tool—and there will be PGA TOUR leaderboards with updates, Jumbotrons showcasing tournament coverage, and updates and links on RBS Sport.  For more information visit rbs.com/jackschallenge.

The British Open RBS Jack Nicklaus Majors Challenge was held May 13 with Nicklaus and fellow RBS spokesman Luke Donald in attendance. The first U.S. event—the Play Golf Experience—was held in Philadelphia April 17 at Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies.

 “Thanks to the RBS Jack Nicklaus Majors Challenge, many more avid golfers now know what AboutGolf’s simulators and technology can do, and that obviously will only help us going forward,” says AboutGolf’s CEO Bill Bales, whose company values its association with RBS, the major championships and Nicklaus—RBS’ most visible spokesman and the all-time leader in professional major-championship victories (18).

 The Royal Bank of Scotland, founded in 1727, is headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group consists of a number of brands worldwide, including Corporate Markets, Citizens Financial Group, RBS Insurance, Retail Banking, Retail-Direct Channels, Ulster Bank Group and Wealth Management.

AboutGolf is a 20-year-old Maumee, Ohio based company that has been dedicated to golf for its entire history. AboutGolf has produced Microsoft Golf, Greg Norman Ultimate Challenge Golf and World Tours, which is the world’s most-widely-distributed golf simulation, and now is the world leader in indoor golf simulator technology. AboutGolf® is a registered trademark of AboutGolf Limited, Maumee, Ohio.

Three years ago our cover story showcased the phenomenon. A lot has changed since then

by Stephen Baker and Heather Green

Businessweek, May 22, 2008

www.businessweek.com

In the frantic news biz, where stories go stale overnight, one of our old articles is behaving very strangely. Year after year it continues to draw swarms of online readers, more than holding its own against up-to-date fare. Oddly, while technology races ahead, our story remains frozen in time. It describes a world in which YouTube (GOOG) has yet to emerge from the garage and Twittering, today’s microblogging rage, is left to the birds.

The year was 2005, and the story was “Blogs Will Change Your Business.” It marked our plunge into the world of bottom-up media, of news as a “conversation.” Many people at the time—including a good number at this magazine and throughout the business world—considered blogs to be a publishing tool for trivia, banality, venom, and baseless attacks. This was all true, the article conceded.

But in the helter-skelter of the blogosphere, we wrote, something important was taking place: In the 10 minutes it took to set up a blogging account, anyone with an Internet connection could become a global publisher. Some could become stars and gain power. That was already happening. In this new world, any business that hoped to “control” information—and that included just about everybody—was in for a wild ride. This promised a seismic shock in our own media world. No mystery there. But it also posed challenges for businesses in practically every realm. Every e-mail or memo could be blogged. Every employee, no matter what rank, could become a voice for the company, either publicly or cloaked, some gaining more power than the entire public relations department. “Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out,” we warned, adding: “Catch up…or catch you later.”

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PLANO, TEXAS—Barney Adams—who had three very different careers before transforming his tiny, floundering golf-equipment company into a 12-year “overnight” success story—has written his own book, “The Wow Factor: How I turned one great idea and my unbridled enthusiasm into a golf revolution.” New York City-based Skyhorse Publishing is publishing the book, which goes on sale June 1, 2008.

The refreshingly candid Adams tells it like it was in the humorous, self-effacing fashion that turned him into one of the most respected, well-liked executives in the golf business during the late 1990s. The upstate New York native provides readers with an in-depth, often light-hearted, look at the drive that enabled him to overcome countless hard lessons along the often-rocky road to his golf-equipment company’s ultimate success thanks to his revolutionary design and subsequent marketing of Adams Golf’s Tight Lies fairway wood.

This unique behind-the-scenes book is much more than just a 254-page biography of a fascinating, down-to-earth man and an insider’s look into the golf industry. “The Wow Factor” is, as Adams writes in the introduction, for people “looking to pick up an idea or two that would apply to a start-up or entrepreneurial environment, someone with some curiosity about golf and the equipment side of the industry or someone looking for a true ‘rags to some degree of success’ story with no punches pulled in the telling.

“First and foremost,” Adams adds, “this is a story of how one obsessed person started from nothing and built a successful company.”

Even someone with Barney “Barnyard” Adams’ insight and passion to succeed couldn’t have foreseen that his success in the business world would come as a golf-industry executive. The retired Adams Golf founder and chairman was a Corning Glass engineer for 10 years, a supermarket-industry commission equipment salesman for another decade and worked in the high tech sector of the Silicon Valley before landing in the golf industry. However, the golf biz, at least for a while, was a bed of thorns, not roses, for Adams.

Adams recounts his numerous continuous attempts to break into the golf industry, beginning in the early 1960s during his early days at Corning Glass, but none of the leading golf-equipment companies of the day would hire someone with no golf-industry experience. In the early 1970s, Adams met golf-equipment guru Dave Pelz, who, in 1982, offered Adams a job running Pelz Golf, whose new Featherlite golf clubs were predicted to change the game of golf.

Unfortunately, Pelz Golf went bankrupt after three years, and Adams felt like a failure. And even after he founded Adams Golf in 1987, the small business floundered in obscurity as a custom-club company until early 1995. That’s when Adams pulled out a yellow pad one day and sketched his design of the Tight Lies fairway wood. Wow. By 1998, Adams Golf’s sales skyrocketed to $85 million thanks to the Tight Lies, Adams Golf’s hugely successful infomercials and the company’s subsequent initial public offering. A dream finally became reality for Adams—who reveals he was broke or nearly broke most of his time in the golf business until the Tight Lies turned his and his company’s fortunes around. Adams handed over the company’s reins in 2002, but continues to seek challenges, including the writing of “The Wow Factor.” He has become involved in adventure fishing in exotic locales and last year lost 72 pounds, improving his health and his ability to enjoy life after golf.

“The reason I achieved success in the golf industry was passion,” Adams says today. “I have tremendous passion for everything I do. I’m average smart, but I have a lot of drive, probably to the point of being dumb because I don’t know when I’m beat.”

How did Adams ultimately achieve success in the golf industry?

“I was a complete failure when Pelz Golf went bankrupt,” Adams admits today. “I had invested money in the company, and I was virtually broke. The next step was the most illogical thing in the world. I stayed in the golf business and went out on my own, with no product and no money. But I loved the golf business and the passion kept me going. Until the Tight Lies, I couldn’t give our clubs away. We were an overnight success—after 12 years. In business, you have to learn from your failures because you fail so much.”

Adams borrowed $25,000 and, after taking whatever assets of Pelz Golf he couldn’t sell in bankruptcy (such as old tables, desks, fixtures, work benches, etc.), he founded Adams Golf in 1987. For nearly the first decade of Adams Golf’s existence, the company was essentially defunct and Adams himself was broke. To stay alive during that period, Adams designed a custom-fitting system and had a small Texas manufacturing shop in Richardson (a Dallas suburb), where the company had moved from Abilene, Texas.

Adams himself made the clubs, and, at 2 p.m. each day, would drive to Hank Haney’s Golf Ranch to perform fittings and work until 10 p.m. He finally hired someone to take his place so Adams could hit the road to perform custom-fitting sessions and demos. He couldn’t give the clubs away until he finally realized he wasn’t selling golf clubs or custom-fit golf clubs, he was selling better ball flight. That’s what prompted Adams’ revolutionary Tight Lies design, which gave golfers better ball flight.

The rest is history, and Adams, in his typical light-hearted style, says one of the nicest byproducts of his success was the ability to finally be able to afford to eat regularly while looking for new challenges.

The search for Internet TV feels like the hunt for the Loch Ness monster: Plenty of people claim to have seen the beast, and many will sell you expensive trinkets. Each month, there’s more content out there on the Web that you might enjoy on a big screen. The long-elusive Internet TV device should let you grab what you want and watch it on the TV set of your choice.

The Archos 605 Wi-Fi video player, on sale Sept. 1, is one of the first Internet TV systems to hit most of the points on my wish list. People tend to associate Archos with portable media players, but the fetching silver-and-white model I tested ($399, with 160 gigabytes) also surfs the Web, downloads content, and docks with a TV.

Even novices should find it relatively easy to operate, thanks to intuitive icons on a high-quality 4.3-inch touch screen. The Archos Content Portal, represented by one of those icons, lets you download movies and TV shows from CinemaNow. There’s also a music download service called BurnLounge and a link to YouTube (GOOG ), and Archos may announce several other content partnerships before the November launch of a new unit with a 7-inch screen. On all models there’s a built-in Web browser with Adobe (ADBE ) Flash Player support, which improves the hunt for Web content. Videos, Web-based games, animation, and other offerings I downloaded all looked as good as they do on my laptop.

THE PART OF THIS PROCESS that has flummoxed other consumer companies is getting Net-based content to the TV. Archos gives you two ways to do it. Using Wi-Fi, the player establishes a fast link to your home network and lets you stream any Windows-compatible content from your PC to the Archos 605. A $100 add-on dock, called the Archos DVR Station, takes over from there. You connect it to your TV set via high-definition or standard-definition cables. Then simply plop the Archos into its dock, pick up the palm-size remote control, and begin browsing the Web or viewing content stored on the Archos hard drive. Want to take some recorded TV shows with you on a plane? You can connect this same dock to your cable or satellite set-top box and record programming in standard definition on the Archos player. To make the experience more TiVo (TIVO )-like, the company includes a programming guide that’s free for the first year and $20 a year after that. In my test, almost everything worked as it should. To record ABC News (DIS ), all I had to do was tap that entry on the program guide. I also used the schedule function, which let me record while away from home, like TiVo.

Setting up the Archos 605 did require separate online registration for the unit, the dock, and partner sites such as CinemaNow. And some key icons such as settings and menu are crammed onto the bottom-right of the screen, making it difficult for people with big fingers to tap accurately. I also found the manual controls lining the right side of the player a little confusing. There’s an unusual rocker switch on each of these side keys that serves a different function depending on whether you press the left edge or the right. Users must also figure out the infrared code for changing channels on the set-top box—a process that took several service calls.

And of course, downloading large files via Wi-Fi can take a long time; I had to restart a CinemaNow download of Wild Hogs several times because the unit, when it’s not docked, turns off the Wi-Fi automatically to save battery life.

Archos, in other words, isn’t nirvana. (And last I checked, there’s still no Nessie.) But despite the occasional hassle, this device offers one of the best experiences available in the still-troubled arena of Internet TV.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_37/b4049027.htm?chan=search

Amid recent reports that golf is losing players, facilities, and equipment sales, we commissioned some fresh research. The prognosis is not all bad, but there’s still work to be done

By Matthew Rudy

Businessweek May 15, 2008

Hank Haney is most famous for his prominent role as Tiger Woods’ teacher, but long before he started working with the world’s No. 1 player—and charging $500 for an hour lesson—Haney was a shrewd golf businessman.

Starting with a ranch he bought from World War II hero and movie star Audie Murphy in 1991, Haney expanded that McKinney (Tex.) range into seven practice facilities and three golf courses across the state.

Seventeen years later, despite a struggling economy, the most famous athlete in the world is a professional golfer (and a $100million Nike Golf endorsee), PGA Tour purses are at all-time highs, the largest equipment manufacturers are reporting record sales, and industry groups are noting that the overall golf “economy”—including equipment sales, golf tourism, and golf course real estate development—has never been larger.

But many people affiliated with the golf industry aren’t celebrating. A series of studies shows that rounds played are flat or declining. Television ratings for PGA Tour events have plateaued. Traditional hot spots for vacation golf activity such as Myrtle Beach and northern Michigan have seen a raft of course closures—either from a lack of play or because of the tough business credit climate. Even Haney’s flagship golf ranch became a more enticing business proposition as a real estate play than it was as a driving range, and he sold to developers.

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