Thursday, March 4, 2010

“Golf roundup (USA Today)” plus 3 more

“Golf roundup (USA Today)” plus 3 more

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Golf roundup (USA Today)

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 06:56 PM PST

Site:Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Schedule: Today-Sunday

Course: PGA National Resort and Spa, Champion Course (7,158 yards, par 70)

Purse: $5.6 million. Winner's share: $1,008,000.

TV (ET): Golf Channel (today-Friday, 3-6 p.m.) and NBC (Saturday-Sunday, 3-6 p.m.)

Last year: South Korea's Y.E. Yang won his first PGA Tour title, finishing with a 2-under-par 68 for a one-stroke victory against John Rollins.

Notes: Yang is in the field along with 2008 winner Ernie Els, Lee Westwood, Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh, Paul Casey, Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas, Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia. Harrington won the 2005 event for his first PGA Tour title.

Best of the rest

Champions Tour: Toshiba Classic; Friday-Sunday; Newport Beach Club (6,584 yards, par 71), Newport Beach, Calif. TV (ET): Golf Channel (Friday, 6:30-8:30 p.m.; Saturday, 6:30-9:30 p.m.; Sunday, 7-9:30 p.m.).

European/Asian tours: Malaysian Open; today-Sunday; Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club (7,000 yards, par 72), Kuala Lumpur. TV (ET): Golf Channel (today-Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.).

Nationwide Tour: Bogota Open; today-Sunday; Country Club de Bogota (7,102 yards, par 70), Bogota.

Fake golf club gang are sentenced (BBC News)

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 06:59 AM PST

Three people have been jailed for their part in a "truly global" multi-million pound fake golf clubs fraud.

The gang sold golf clubs they falsely claimed were made by numerous well-known manufacturers.

Auction website eBay told Snaresbrook Crown Court heard it was the largest counterfeiting scheme it had seen.

Mastermind Gary Bellchambers, 45, of Rainham, east London, was jailed for four years and three months. Two others were jailed for 16 and 12 months.

Three people were given suspended jail terms.

The court heard counterfeit clubs were made in China before being distributed throughout the world by the gang.

They sold tens of thousands of items, with more than $3m (£2m) paid into their PayPal accounts.

But the scheme unravelled after pensioner Christine Manz complained about two fake Acushnet golf clubs she bought on eBay.

If a purchaser complained, the gang would usually offer a refund straight away to avoid attracting attention.

But when Ms Manz complained, Bellchambers was in Thailand so did not receive the letters.

Havering Council in east London began investigating and eventually brought a prosecution.

Judge Jacqueline Beech said: "When a golfer purchases clubs bearing a brand name, they are paying for years of research and development and a golf club that represents the cutting edge of technology.

"The expectation is that the clubs will help them improve their game or certainly not make it worse."

'Serious problem'

She continued: "The production and sale of counterfeit goods has grown by 10,000% in the last 20 years and trade in such goods accounts for approximately 10% of world trade."

Bellchambers' sister Sharron Williams, 49, of West Wickham, Kent, was handed an eight-month sentence, suspended for 18 months.

Right-hand man Keith Thomas, 50, of Martin Drive, Rainham, was sentenced to 16 months in jail.

Chris Moughton, 56, of Hayfield Avenue, Blackpool, got a 19-week sentence, suspended for 12 months, with a three-month tagged curfew to remain at home overnight.

Gang members Roy and Kay Cottee, of Thorn Lane, Rainham, were also convicted of conspiracy to sell or distribute counterfeit Qantas business class cards.

Roy Cottee, 66, received a 12-month sentence while his wife, 46, got a nine-month suspended sentence.

Helen Wilson, 29, of The Knoll, Hertford, got a six-month sentence suspended for 18 months.

After the sentencing, eBay UK managing director Mark Lewis said: "We are fully committed to identifying and eliminating listings posted by a dishonest few.

"Today's sentencing of Bellchambers and his accomplices serves as a warning to anyone attempting to sell illegal goods on our site that they will not get away with it."

Bill Adams, Havering Council's principal trading standards officer, said: "I've been an investigator for 35 years and never heard of such a massive counterfeiting operation - it was of a scale that has never been seen before."



Print Sponsor

Prestwick club to host Avon golf tourney (The Indianapolis Star)

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 12:04 PM PST

AVON -- Prestwick Country Club will host the first Avon Amateur golf tournament this summer.

Set for June 26, the 18-hole, stroke-play competition is the only amateur event in Hendricks County and will have several divisions covering both gross and net categories. Net categories factor in a golfer's handicap.

The entry fee is $75 per golfer, which includes the greens fees, cart fee and driving range. Each participant will receive a Nike event shirt and glove.

Prizes will be awarded to the top 25 percent of each division. There is also a guaranteed minimum gift certificate total purse of $3,500.

Divisions include three men's divisions: for ages 16 and under, ages 17-49 and ages 50 and older. The event also will feature a women's youth division for those 16 and under and another women's division for those 17 and over.

The registration deadline is June 17.

For more information or to register, visit www.avonchamber.org or contact (317) 272-4333 or Info@avonchamber.org

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

United Kingdom golf world spitting mad about American golfers' expectoration habits (The Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 11:01 AM PST

By Starting Blocks

March 04, 2010, 1:51PM

golf-umbrellas.jpgJoshua Gunter, The Plain Dealer To hear United Kingdom golf observers tell it, these American fans need umbrellas to shield themselves from more than rain.

Golf is a game of etiquette, and nowhere is that more devoutly practiced than in the United Kingdom.

Little wonder that proper western European golfers, television viewers and commentators would be dismayed by the expectoration habits of linksters from England's upstart former colonies.

 

Casual American golfers think those stodgy whiners are all wet.

Dave Tindall writes about the controversy for Golf365.

A golfer is shown stood by the tee or green waiting to play his next shot but just before the coverage cuts back to the studio he lets go a venemous discharge of spit.

What happens next appears to depend on where you live.

In the UK, there will be an appalled reaction from the anchor, even an apology to viewers. In the US, discussion will simply focus on the shot ahead or current state of the leaderboard.

So what's going on here? Does the UK have more prudish presenters?

Probably not but that isn't the point away. The general feeling on these shores is that spitting looks terrible when done by a golfer who is hardly generating loads of the stuff simply by walking.

Now we know why baseball has never caught on in the U.K., especially since sunflower seeds became popular.

Tindall goes after the U.S. where it's most vulnerable, writing.

Tiger Woods is a serial spitter too, prompting well-known cricket commentator Jack Bannister to tell Talksport viewers last week: "Tiger's speech lasted 13 minutes and I think it's the longest time I've seen him go without spitting."

In short, it's become an issue. In fact, the Sky Sports Golf team have been inundated with so many e-mails on the subject that it led the show's presenter Robert Lee to declare: "Let's start a campaign to stamp it out."

Says Lee: "If enough letters were written to the PGA Tour maybe it would bring enough attention to it and something could get done because it's vile. But the Americans just don't seem bothered about it. It doesn't seem to register."

Lee's Sky Sports colleague Mark Roe - also a former European Tour winner - is particularly outspoken on the matter.

"It's an absolutely disgraceful habit," says Roe. "I saw Dustin Johnson spit on the first tee at Riviera before he hit his tee shot and it was disgusting.

"The problem is they keep sticking chewing tobacco into the side of their mouths, I guess it's a country thing over there. It's something the Swedes used to do on the European Tour but to the credit of the Swedes they weren't very often seen spitting on camera.

"It's got to be stamped out. It needs to become a fineable offence on both the PGA Tour and the European Tour. It should start with a $1,500 fine and then it should be doubled every time they are seen spitting."

 

 

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