Fast forward a year, the HSBC World Match play moved out of the state and the Shop-Rite became the only game in the Garden State. At this point, The Deep Rough had a year under its belt and a pretty good following. So, I thought I would see about getting some better access to the players/venue/organizers and try to learn a little more about how things ticked on the other side of the ropes. At the time, I really enjoyed watching the LPGA and felt like I could better relate to the lady’s game than what was going on with the men’s game. They used similar clubs, did not hit the ball 350 yards, were not spinning the ball back 20 feet out of the thick stuff, and missed the occasional 10 footer. So, I was all for doing whatever I could have done to help better expose the game to readers of The Deep Rough. I fired up google, dug around for the form to request media credentials, and kicked that process off. Shortly there after, I received a reply letting me know that my request had been denied. D’oh.

Fast forward another couple of years. Carolyn Bivins was given the boot. The LPGA seemed to embrace social media…they have a twitter account, that counts, right? The departure of tournament sponsors has been well documented. The lack of star power has been a problem. So, today, you would think the league would be all over getting whatever positive coverage they could get their hands on, right?

Yeah…not so much. The old HSBC World Match play made its way back to Hamilton Farm as the Sybase Classic. I thought, awesome, it’s down the street, let’s get in there and see how the LPGA has evolved over the past 4 years. So, I sent in my request for media credentials a few months ago. They are more ‘social media’ friendly now, right? They should welcome some local blogger coverage, right?

Dear Sean,

Thank you for your interest in covering the Sybase Match Play Championship. A summary of your organization’s media credential request is listed below:

Sean – Denied

Alrigthy then…seriously, nothing else.

It really just does not make a whole lot of sense to me. On one side, you have a number of LPGA players generating some amazing content through their twitter accounts. And on the other, you have the apparent desire of the league to control its image through traditional media sources. Does the LPGA embrace the opportunity they have to connect with fans through twitter? Or would they rather control what they players say through these new avenues for communication? Feel free to weigh in on this with a comment. (Unless, of course, you are just trying to sell Ugg boots, in which case, please just save your time…my time…and a little bandwidth..)

You do not have to look any further than Christina Kim’s twitter account to see how entertaining some of these ladies can be. I find real content, like she provides, pretty remarkable. A few years ago, you would be lucky to read a half decent interview with a PGA player in Golf Digest. Now, I can get workout advice from Trevor Immelman, get updates from John Daly on his game, and even get recommendations on Hibachi places from Christina Kim. How cool is that? LPGA, you would be wise to embrace this type of access. If I can relate to your product, I will buy your product.

Nike Golf gets it. They have embraced this form of marketing their product. Heck, they have invited me down to The Oven to check it out, meet the guys designing the clubs and then swing on over to Colonial to watch the Crowne Plaza Invitational. I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure I will have nothing but positive things to say about that experience!

So, best of luck to the women of the LPGA at the Hamilton Farm this week. Sorry I will not be there to experience it with you!

Here is the complete press release, with a bunch of detailed information:

DIRECTV, atop the leaderboard in HD and interactive sports coverage among pay TV providers, continues its run of offering golf fans unique, in-depth tournament viewing with its PGA Championship Interactive service, debuting Aug. 7. Supplementing broadcast feeds from TNT and CBS, as well as the online offerings of PGA.com, DIRECTV will provide enhanced and expanded coverage of the 90th PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club in Michigan, during all four days of the tournament.

The service, free to DIRECTV customers, will deliver four channels – all in HD – of Tournament coverage, including three unique channels that will focus on a featured group each day, featured holes and a new offering called “Players In Depth.” These channels will be available, along with live network coverage, throughout each network’s broadcast hours, Thursday and Friday from TNT (1-7 p.m. ET) and on Saturday and Sunday from TNT (11 a.m. – 2 p.m. ET ) and CBS (2-7 p.m. ET). Complimentary online coverage will also be available all four days from PGA.com. The PGA Championship Interactive Mix Channel will display all four channels on a single screen, allowing viewers to select and tune to each as a full-screen channel, each of them available in HD. Each individual channel will also provide access to scores and stats at the push of a button.

“DIRECTV Interactive is to viewers what a great caddie is to the touring pro. We’re their eyes and ears and we make sure they have all the information and the tools they need to get the most out of the game,” said Eric Shanks, executive vice president, DIRECTV Entertainment. “Major championships like the PGA and US OPEN golf and US OPEN tennis provide an incredible stage to showcase our HD and interactive technology and the new, exciting dimension they bring to the televised sports viewing experience. This is what content leadership is all about and what our customers have come to expect as we continue to explore innovative ways to engage the viewer.”

The PGA Championship Mix Channel (Channel 701) will feature a leaderboard on the left side of the screen and display the following four views:

• Live CBS/TNT network coverage of the tournament itself.
• Featured Group will follow a single group’s progress around the course, with announcers providing insight on the live play.
• Featured Holes will focus solely on two of the challenging par 3 holes on the Oakland Hills South Course. Viewers receive complete live coverage as players try different clubs, swings and strategies to meet the challenge.
• Players In Depth, a new featured channel, is a fully produced show with interviews, highlights, press conferences, graphics and up-to-the-minute stats. For example, a camera crew and host will visit the driving range or the 18th green and conduct interviews, while another host will provide voice-over highlights and lead-ins to additional content.

On each full-screen HD channel, a menu of features will be displayed on-screen for immediate access via remote. Features include:

• Top 5 Leaders: Displays the top 5 current scores against par.
• Leaderboard: Provides information on all golfers in the field.
• Scorecard: Hole-by-hole stats for each player in the field. The current round and any previous rounds are included. At the top of the page, the player’s current year’s stats are displayed.
• PGA Championship Trivia: A new 10-question quiz on the history of the PGA Championship appears each day.
• Past Champions: A list of the winners and runners-up from previous PGA Championships.

For those of you stuck at work, check out this post, I’ll do my best to find a live stream of the US Open coverage online. We have been able to find these in the past, and I’m sure there will be plenty of them around again this year.

Now, onto the DirecTV Coverage:

As the US Open approaches this week, anticipation is brewing for one of the most talked about first round pairings of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Last week, I found myself telling a buddy “What I wouldn’t give to follow that pairing for the whole day.” I was excited to learn that once again, DIRECTV is offering its customers services above and beyond those of any other provider with US Open Interactive, a free interactive service to significantly enhance the viewing experience for this week’s U.S. Open. The service offers a “featured group” channel that allows viewers to follow the featured group for an entire round. With the PGA creating a “dream” pairing as Tiger and Phil will play together, DIRECTV customers will have the ultimate way to experience this rare and historic group.

In addition to the featured group channel, the service also offers a “featured hole channel” in which viewers can watch each and every group take on Torrey Pines hole 3.

A third channel (Up Close) will offer live and taped interviews with players from the practice range and post-round press conferences, as well as other feature stories to related to the historic American major.

Finally, a real-time leader board can be called up via an on-screen overlay at the push of a button to track the progress of each player as the tournament unfolds. There’s also a host of additional interactive features:

• A quick “Top 5 Leaders” update that appears at lower left of the screen
• Round-by-round scorecards for every golfer in the field
• A list of past US Open winners and runners-up
• U.S. Open Trivia, with 10 new questions each day

In addition, US Open Interactive will feature the NBC broadcast as well. DIRECTV will bring this all together via a US Open “Mix” Channel on which all four channels will be visible on the same screen. Viewers can then navigate between the four screens to hear audio from each, and tune to any of them directly with a push of a button on their interactive remote.

The US Open Interactive service will be available on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Now, if you’re looking for some details about the South Course at Torrey Pines, NBC of San Diego has put together a great coverage site. They have video previews of each of the 18 holes along with a ton of other great video content. For those of us who aren’t about to get out to beautiful San Diego, it doesn’t get much better!

If you have DirecTV, they have expanded their detailed Masters coverage, offering live leader boards, camera angles from around the course and driving range.

If you have an iPhone, goto the app store on the phone and search for Masters, they have put together an AWESOME little iPhone app that will give you hole fly-overs and actually have streaming video!

Here’s the information from 2008 and some links to 2007 too! Hope you all enjoy watching the Masters at Augusta!

Last year I thought there was a tremendous amount of live coverage of The Masters available…but looks like we’re going to be blown away with even more this year! If you were a little slow to start the 2008 golf season…get your clubs ready…here we go!

The Masters at the Augusta National is back and AT&T is providing live footage and on demand content from across all three screens, including the AT&T blue room. Don’t miss any of the action from the first shot off the tee to the green jacket ceremony.

AT&T wireless is giving customers access to live action and on demand footage from the 2008 Masters, the toughest ticket in all of sports without the wait list – where and when they want it, on their wireless device.

In addition to previews and daily highlights, live tournament action and player interviews from 2007, this year features live feeds from the Par 3 Contest, Amen Corner and the 15th and 16th holes.

Additional information including live video of Masters Extra and Amen Corner Live and real-time scoring will also be available on the Masters official Web site. Fans can also text GOLF to 4884 to receive Masters Trivia and Alerts on your AT&T phone.

Also check out these Masters Moments clips from 2000 and 1975.

For those of you with DirecTV service at home, you’ll be treated to up to 4 channels of live video from Augusta throughout the day: DIRECTV To Offer First Interactive, Multi-Screen Coverage of Masters Tournament.

Here is the schedule of coverage, times are in ET:

TH/FRI/SAT 12:45 – 5:45 p.m.
SUNDAY 12:30 – 5 p.m.

There is a preview feed up on the site now. Would be neat if they had a little ‘practice round’ coverage as well.

7th Hole at Pebble Beach

A few months ago I had a close look at the Sumo Irons. They will be releasing a new version of that set of irons which replaces the long irons with the new square Sumo hybrids.

I am sure plenty of these will start showing up on eBay soon as well:

• Nike SQ Sumo 5000 Driver
• Nike SQ Sumo 5900 Driver
• Nike SQ Sumo Squared Fairway Woods
• Nike SQ Sumo Squared Hybrids
• Nike Sumo Irons

And here is a little introduction by the Nike Man himself, Tiger Woods, explaining some of the new equipment. The Golf Channel ran some 30 minute infomercial featuring Tiger, that went into some more depth.

Here is the link to the video feed for the FBR Open.

The feed will be live:
THURS/FRI 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
SAT/SUN 12:30 – 5 p.m.

Once the feed is up and live, I’ll see if I can get a direct link to the video itself.

With the coupon code, I noticed the TM r7 460 TP Driver was down to $339 from $399. Apparently the Golfsmith brand merchandise is highly discounted.

This coupon code is set to expire December 2nd, so if you want something, act fast!

Hole #2
Name: Clubhead/Ball Speed/Smash Factor
Wetterich: 119/177/1.49
Johnson: 106/157/1.48
Couples: 118/174/1.47
Ames: 113/167/1.48

Hole #6
Name: Clubhead/Ball Speed: Carry (Smash Factor)
Wetterich 120/178: 302 (1.48)
Johnson 107/159: 261 (1.49)
Couples 116/171: 291 (1.47)
Ames 111/162: 259 (1.46)

Hole #8
Name: Clubhead/Ball/Carry (Smash)
Wetterich: ???/180/258 – low pull hook
Johnson: 108/159/258 (1.47)
Couples: 118/175/301 (1.48)
Ames: 113/167/272 (1.48)

So next time you’re upset with your 250 yard drive…or think you swing the club 120mph…keep this in mind