I’ve been busy covering a conference this week, but I’m back at the blog now, catching up on some loose ends and actually thinking of digging my clubs out of hibernation this week. I had been planning on heading to FLA for some warm weather, and perhaps take in the ensuing hysteria should Tiger Woods have decided to play, but that was called off unfortunately, leaving me dreaming of my trip to Wales in a month’s time.

Anyway, I’ve received a lot of comments and emails lately, some of which I’d like to address. Here’s some missives I’ve received about my column on John Daly that ran on Sympatico last week.

First up, reader “Kevin” sets the tone by suggesting I might be able to move back into the world of daily journalism with a job at a tabloid:

Do us all a favour and keep your simply opinions on John Daly (or anyone else for that matter) to yourself. I am and always will be a huge fan of Mr. Daly and do not care to be subjected to your views on how good a golfer or how he should live his life or whatever else you think you are an expert on. To each his own. Think what you will of people just don’t write it down in a sports column. Makes for a very uninteresting read. Like opinions? Here’s mine. Maybe you should start submitting your articles to rags like the Enquirer, where they are more suitable for WOMEN like you. Moron.

When I worked at the National Post and received these sorts of emails I always wrote back thanking the commentator for their “thoughtful and considered insight.” Not sure if they understood my remarks were awash in sarcasm. Anyway, Kevin could avoid my views by simply navigating his browser somewhere else, but instead decided that only a feminine pundit could be critical of Daly. Interesting. Nice use of all-caps as well.

Doug in Kelowna had this to say:

Thanks for your insightful assessment of John Daly and his new reality show. Like you, I was confused by the shows’
purpose – if it was to generate support for his latest comeback it was a dismal failure. I’ve always supported underdogs and have hoped over the years that he could get his act together. It now seems apparent that he is a chronic underacheiver and this is yet another attempt to generate income with the least possible effort. There are a lot a great young players out there who are much more deserving of Sponsor’s exemptions and the Golf Channel’s resources than this guy.

A dismal failure indeed. Anyone see the second episode of “Being JohnDaly?” Nope? Didn’t think so.

But back to reality. Reader “Don” was short and concise:

Keep your thoughts to yourself.
The guy is trying.

Is he? I couldn’t tell.

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Now on to the Sean Foley comments. Basically I let those who read this site to battle it out among themselves and I try to stay out of the fray. But rarely has there been such a polarizing figure as Canadian swing doctor Sean Foley. I’ve written critical comments about Foley, but I’ve also made it clear that he has always been considerate with his time when it comes to answering questions about his students. Last week I wrote that David Leadbetter had some critical remarks about Foley — likely just competitive stuff spilling out of the game’s best-known swing coach. Foley has had a ton of success and Leadbetter is noticing. Nothing wrong with that. Anyway, some still think I have some hate-on for Sean, which isn’t the truth. On the other hand, I’m not about the ignore an interesting remark by someone as high profile as Leadbetter. As those who have read the comments have noticed, there’ s  a real schism when it comes to Foley on this site. Let’s start with reader Geoff:

After reading this article on Foley it just reinforced how a ‘journalist’ approaches a subject rather than a blogger. Thought you would enjoy an actual story arc, start middle and ending. Not just pure negativity and envy.

Funny, Geoff, you’re referecing Steve Elling, a writer who works on the Web (largely) and putting me down for the same thing. Interesting. So let me get this clear — if you drool all over Foley you’re a “journalist.” If you quote David Leadbetter talking about Foley in an interview you conducted, you’re not a journalist? Interesting distinction.

CPGA, who writes under a couple of different names on the site, had this to say about Henry Brunton, the head of the RCGA’s national men’s team:

Brunton is by far the worst teaching pro\coach who currently claims such prowess and fame. He has an award on his website as the U.S. Kids Top 50 teacher. Who gives a shit. I just find it interesting that as long as he has coached(drove busses and booked flights) the national team for, he does not work with any of the players once they stop paying their way. Not a single professional. Henry is fantastic at displaying other people’s findings, but the guy has never had an original thought. They are all a bunch of fakes of who pull the wool over peoples eyes when if you put there resume to the test it is a lot of smoke and mirrors. As a CPGA member I find it emberassing that they champion guys like him. Zokol would have emberassed him.

I could add lots of “sic” in there, but frankly my stomach is churning enough without them. Next…

Onto Jason, who thought Elling’s article was a bit over the top:

Big deal about who Foley can quote. Anyone can google those names, insert the world ‘quote’ after the name and come up with a ton of quotes then commit a few to memory.

That brought CPGA/Tim out again:

Nice hating Jason. The guy is the hottest coaching entity on the PGA Tour and he’s only getting started. He is one of those geniuse’s he quotes. His critics would gladly switch spots with him

I think CPGA/Tim meant geniuses… but I still think he missed the point. Jason hit back:

hat·ed, hat·ing, hates
v.tr.
1.
a. To feel hostility or animosity toward.
b. To detest.

Not sure how my comment falls into the hate category and I am secure enough in myself not to be jealous of anyone’s success, I applaud success of any kind. And yes, I have spoken to Foley on several occasions for lengthy and periods and found him to be a great guy and commended him on his success. My comment was more aimed at Elling’s gushing.

Finally, the last word on the subject belongs to noted Ontario golfer Mark Leon, who Googled Foley and found the site:

First off, I have never written on one of these blogs until now, but unfortunately I have nothing better to do on a Friday night. Like Mr. Corbin, I attmepted to google Sean to find out when he was speaking in some Ontario PGA summit, and this article was the first to pop up.
For a guy that teaches at least 8 PGA/LPGA tour pros, along with the best female amateur in Canada (not enough people in the Canadian golf press talk about how incredible Jenny Kirby’s 2009 summer was by the way), he gets quite a bit of negative press. The reality is that he is one of Canada’s best exports to the world of golf. He is a charismatic, caring, one of a kind person and regardless of his CPGA certification, he has an otherwordly ability to get people swing the golf club more effectively. Sean certainly doesn’t need me to defend him, his stable of players, and the millions of dollars they earn against the worlds best are defense enough. For those who think that coaching people who are already world class ballstrikers/players is an easy task (you’re mistaken….they are far more impatient and discerning, and can hire any coach they choose), then youtube Brogan McKinnon or Ryan Corbin’s golf swing. Both examples of what happens when Sean takes a kid from scratch and teaches him/her how to swing. Both swing the club as good as any PGA tour or LPGA pro, and hopefully their games will both prove world class one day.
I agree that he gave a bad answer in an interview, but that should not be the most noteworthy google item concerning the man.

Thanks Mark. Love the guys who make “blogs” sound like a communicative disease. Trust me Mark, posting on a blog won’t cause anything to swell or get infected. At least I don’t think it will. And last time I checked I didn’t run Google. Strikes me that swing doctors need to brand themselves. As soon as Foley has his own web presence, my comments from two years ago won’t be the lead items on Google. Until then…

I wonder how many people are even aware that the PGA Tour has a second event going on this week — one in which Canadian Graham DeLaet is sitting in second after two rounds? That’s right — he’s T7 after two rounds of the rain-soaked tournament in Puerto Rico, which has been delayed a day.  After a good start to the year, DeLaet sits at 125 on the tour’s money list — so a strong finish, even at a lower purse event like the Puerto Rico Open, would go a long way for the big hitter from Saskatchewan.

On the other side, I have to wonder if time isn’t on the side of Vernon, BC’s Chris Baryla, who has made only $11K so far this year. I would have guessed Baryla would have had a good shot at holding onto his card — and he may still do it — but it is tougher to get into events as the year goes on if he doesn’t start to make the occasional cut. In five starts this year Baryla has made one cut.

Interesting Steve Elling piece on Sean Foley — though the only real surprise is that it has taken so long for Foley to get some strong American coverage. Thanks to reader “Geoff” (yep, tongue in cheek there) for the tip.

Steve Elling writes an interesting take on Foley, not that much of the information would surprise Canadian readers. There’s a bit of a different take on how he acquired Ames as a student, but that’s the part that varies most from the storyline. There’s no doubt that Foley has his fans, which is why David Leadbetter is now bringing him up in conversation. Call it competition. Nothing unhealthy about that.

Here’s Elling’s take:

“Around OCN,” PGA Tour veteran Greg Owen said, “we call him the Dalai Lama.”
Sean Foley had an idea he wanted to be involved in golf instruction when he was 13 years old.     
That’s not all he has going for him, which is nice.

Even in the here-today, gone-tomorrow business of swing gurus, the glib Canadian overnight has become perhaps the hottest coaching property around, an analyst to both rising stars and seasoned veterans. A little more than three years ago, he was an outspoken, slightly heretical teacher with no prominent clients who enjoyed questioning the stagnant status quo associated with teaching the golf swing.

Now you should hear some of the ear-catching names he weaves into casual conversation. No, not Hunter Mahan, Sean O’Hair, Stephen Ames or Justin Rose, a few of the tour players he schools.

We’re talking about Carl Jung, Buddha, Albert Einstein, Aristotle, Confucius and Abraham Lincoln. Foley sprinkles his conversations with quotations from iconic deep-thinkers like some of us drop in lines from Caddyshack. Forget the funny deathbed line from the movie — Foley, 35, seems to be working on gaining eternal consciousness right now, which is part of his appeal to his pupils.

It is Foley’s tendency to talk big that made me question him a few years ago.My opinion is changing. Last year one of Foley’s students, Jessica Shepley, told me that “Sean didn’t just change my swing — he changed my life.” Now that’s intriguing and perhaps made me take Foley more seriously. Fits nicely with the Dalai Lama notion. And for every pupil like Immelman, who flirts with Foley and then heads back where he came from, the Canadian swing coach seems to be winning others as converts.

I particularly like Ames’ comments on Foley’s reading habits, though I somehow doubt they are quite as extensive as the Calgary golfer suggests:

Right then, he effectively became the youngest swing apprentice in history. Many coaches are former, and often failed, professionals. Foley honed in on the coaching thing and devoured every piece of information he could get his hands on, sifting through the theories and discarding stuff he thought was pointless. That in itself is hardly unusual, since he possesses one of the most inquisitive minds in the game.

“He must read about 300 or 400 books a year,” Ames said. “And some of it is weird s—.”

Time will tell whether his success in three or four years translates into something greater. I keep awaiting the brand that comes along with most swing coaches. Maybe that doesn’t interest Foley, maybe he doesn’t want to be Butch or Lead or Pelz. Regardless, the success of his students is forcing U.S. media to try to find out more about him, thus this story.

Fascinating to see the news that Titleist has divested itself of Cobra, selling it to Puma:

Acushnet Company, the golf business of Fortune Brands, Inc. (NYSE:  FO), announced today that it has signed an agreement for the sale of Cobra Golf to PUMA AG. The sale includes the Cobra brand, as well as related inventory, intellectual property and endorsement contracts, and is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Wally Uihlein, Acushnet’s CEO, had this to say:

“With the sale of Cobra, we have the opportunity to devote all of our resources to the global growth of our industry-leading Titleist and FootJoy brands,” said Wally Uihlein, chairman and CEO of Acushnet Company. “At the same time, Cobra is a strong brand with a heritage of innovation, and we wish the quality associates guiding the brand future success. Golfers and our valued partners will remain the key focus throughout the impending sale and we are confident that our customers will continue to be serviced to our high standards.”

This sort of makes sense when you think Titleist moved Geoff Ogilvy to its main brand and there has been industry talk that Cobra endorsee Camilo Villegas had apparenrly been told to shop for another deal, according to sources, though that came before his recent stretch of fine play. The parent company of Titleist, Fortune Brands, which also sells, among other things, Jim Beam, said the deal will have little impact on its bottom line:

The company said the deal would reduce its 2010 earnings by 2 cents per share before one-time items. In January, Fortune Brands forecast 2010 earnings of $2.30 to $2.80 per share. It expects the sale to result in a one-time gain of five cents a share.

Always interesting when a company divests itself of a lesser brand. In this case Titleist tried to move down market with the acquisition of Cobra, something that didn’t work out. Callaway, on the other hand, tried to go up market with Hogan, and I don’t think that’s been successful either. In the end, the authentic brand is the founding company, and it seems golfers are reluctant to embrace the companies they acquire. There’s long been talk of Nike acquiring Callaway, for instance, but maybe the failure of Cobra is an example of why that hasn’t happen.

Coach's corner: Swing doctor David Leadbetter talks Wie, Woods and Faldo

I know people often complain that the Toronto Golf Show is nothing more than a travel show. I’ve never really had an issue with that — and I can rarely walk more than 10 feet without running into someone I know, so it makes the show a great networking event for catching up after the winter and finding out what gossip is going on.

This year started a little differently, as I hustled down to the Toronto Convention Centre to spend some time with famed swing doctor David Leadbetter. I’ve interviewed Leadbetter before, but it was for five minutes in a building on Bay Street two years ago when he was in town doing a Callaway promotion. This time I was scheduled for 20 minutes, but that became closer to an hour when another interview canceled.

I’m going to write about the conversation in my Sympatico column later this week. Needless to say, the talk was wide ranging and included everything from discussion of Michelle Wie and whether she really loves the game of golf through to whether Tiger Woods will be the same player when he returns. We also talked about the influx of Korean golfers into the LPGA, and Leadbetter had some strong remarks in that regard as well, saying he thinks they are mechanical, but don’t have the drive and fascination for the game that leads to lengthy careers.

On the role of swing coaches:“In some cases we get too much credit. I got a lot of credit when Faldo broke through. The fact that we worked hard for two years… that was a different case. That was a solid two years of work. These days you don’t do that with players. These days it is on the job work. They can’t afford to take two years to make a change.”

On Tiger:  “You had this image of Tiger as being Mr. Perfect. The way he dressed, the way he played, the family, the way he worked out. Everything was perfect. And that image has been shattered. I don’t think the level of his play will decrease in any way. In some ways he might be even more determined to prove himself. But I think the other players will see him in a different light I think he intimidated so many players for so long that basically playing with Tiger was a transformation … he would find an extra gear and they couldn’t. Now you have the players like Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler and they are going to go in with an attitude that this guy isn’t perfect, he’s human after all and they have a chance. And really believing it, which is a big difference.”

On Wie:“She has the ability, whether she wants it or not that badly… life is a choice. I know she definitely wouldn’t enjoy playing golf 24 by 7 like some of these other girls. She has other things in her life, other interests. It is healthy to some extent. But within certain limitations to what she wants to achieve, she could be very dominant. She and Suzann Pettersen are the best going. Nothing against these Koren girls out there, who are very good players, but there is no dominant player among them.”

On Stack and Tilt: “There’s no point in the game where a method has ever worked. And stack and tilt is a method. Those commercials they have on TV — do any of them work with them any more?”

We also talked about swing coaches and what leads to a lengthy career. Canadian Sean Foley’sname came up several times, including a conversation about former Masters winner Trevor Immelman, who moved to Foley last year, only to head back to Leadbetter soon afterwards:

“He went to Sean and they tried to everything different from what they did with me. But Trevor was hurt and it didn’t really work out. Eventually it was, ‘Well what was Lead doing with you?’ And Trevor was like, ‘If I’m going to do what Lead was suggesting, why not work with him?”

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Oak Bay's opening hole -- the Georgian Bay course will open late this year or in 2011

I attended two golf course launches, something that will become more rare in coming years. The first was for Oak Bay, a course in the Georgian Bay region, that is part of a housing development with designer Shawn Watters creating the course. Nine holes are complete and seeded, and nine more are nearly finished and should be seeded when the weather warms. The course won’t likely open until next year. I spoke with Watters about the course, which he says “has the flavor of a Muskoka golf course.”

He also pointed out the course will have plenty of great views: “Many [Muskoka courses] don’t have the vistas of the water,” he said. “We have five holes with those vistas.”

Interestingly, the course is only 6,700 from the tips, a smart move in the era of resort golf being 7,400 yards. Many don’t know Watters as a designer — he’s largely done smaller projects — so it’ll be interesting to see whether that changes with this course.  The routing has a couple of drivable par-4s, which is cool, and the front nine looks walkable. The back nine, on the other hand, is really spread out, and I’m worried the course might feel disjointed.

The other course launch was for the badly named “The Lakes” in Cape Breton. Considering it resides in a place called Ben Eoin (pronounced Ben Yawn), it is hard to determine how someone came up with such a generic name, one that sounds like a gated community in Florida.  That already looks to be changing and there was lots of discussion about calling it “The Lakes at Ben Eoin.” That’s a step. The course is part of a ski facility, has a bunch of government cash in it, and some crazy number of partners involved in the ownership group. The design was created by Graham Cooke (with associate Yannick Pilon working on it as well), and is on the side of a hill. Cooke, who was inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame last week, was his typical gracious self, and after his presentation told me the course wasn’t that difficult to route considering its location. Once again he talked about the views, adding the course wasn’t going to be exceptionally hard: “When you play this golf course there are about five areas that transfix you,” he said. The Lakes opens in May.

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Finally a comment on the show itself. While there were the typical groups of golfers looking for freebies, the private clubs that are looking for members are now staying away, as are a lot of out-of-town courses. Gone are the likes of Firerock in London, and all the private clubs that flocked to the show a few years back in hope of scoring members. I suspect most of the private courses simply found attendees were more interested in a 4-for-2 or a free round than potentially paying $6,500 per year to play golf. I guess the market just isn’t quite right.

I also participated in a panel discussion with some other notables — golfer/announcer Jim Nelford, CanTour commissioner Rick Janes, golf teacher Henry Brunton and course builder Dick Kirkpatrick — that was interesting for me, but not well attended. Richard Zokol had a public discussion about Sagebrush with Score’s Jason Logan that was also pretty quiet. That’s too bad — it was a neat concept. But I think if given the choice about filling their bags with coupons versus listening to pundits talk golf, the coupons always win out. Which is fine with me…