Posted: 20 Jun 2010 12:27 PM PDT

Martin Hanaka, CEO of Golfsmith International Holding, holds a new GPS device made for golfers at a Golfsmith shop in Austin, Texas. Source: Golfsmith International via Bloomberg

Golf retailers are offering video cameras, free lessons and contests ahead of Father's Day and the U.S. Open to spur demand as the highest sustained unemployment since 1982 deters shoppers.

Golfsmith International Holdings Inc. is running a promotion to give cash back to some shoppers depending on who wins the U.S. Open this weekend. Callaway Golf Co. is giving Kodak PlaySport cameras to customers who buy new drivers.

The tournament and Father's Day usually make June the biggest sales month for golf companies, topping the Christmas season. The average person in the U.S. may spend 3.8 percent more for the June 20 holiday than last year, according to the National Retail Federation. Fewer Americans plan to splurge on sporting goods and leisure items for dad, opting for clothing instead, according to the Washington-based group.

"After Father's Day, sales taper off," said Kristine Koerber, an analyst who covers Callaway for San Francisco-based JMP Securities LLC. While sales have been recovering, "Callaway was expecting a bigger lift" for the holiday, she said.

Koerber lowered her rating on Callaway to "market perform" from "outperform" this week after the maker of Big Bertha golf clubs forecast second-quarter earnings and sales that fell short of analysts' projections.

Callaway rose 8 cents to $6.50 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange trading. The stock has dropped 14 percent this year, compared with a 78 percent gain for Golfsmith as the Austin, Texas-based company stemmed sales declines. Golfsmith, the largest U.S. retailer of golfing merchandise, advanced 8 cents to $4 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Spending Climbs

The average shopper will spend $94.32 on Father's Day in the U.S., compared with $90.89 last year, according to the National Retail Federation. The group projects total spending will reach $9.8 billion, trailing purchases during the winter holidays, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day and Easter.

Golfsmith's Father's Day sales may exceed last year's levels, Chief Executive Officer Martin Hanaka said in an interview. Tomorrow will be Golfsmith's biggest sales day of the year, amounting to an entire week's worth of revenue during an off-peak month, he said.

"The Callaway results are not reflective of the total industry," said Hanaka, 61.

Callaway, based in Carlsbad, California, said this week that second-quarter revenue will fall to as little as $295 million, trailing analysts' projections for $325 million.

Tim Buckman, a spokesman for Callaway, said the company's Kodak promotion "offers the consumer a value proposition that is free of the heavy discounting prevalent in 2009."

U.S. Open

When Phil Mickelson won the Masters Golf Tournament in April, 15,000 Golfsmith customers got full refunds for their purchases of the Callaway Big Bertha Diablo Edge driver. The promotion allowed consumers to keep the driver and get their money back only if Mickelson finished first in the tournament.

"If we could always get that kind of exposure for what it cost us, I'd do it every single month," Hanaka said.

The company expects that a new campaign with golfers Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia and Sean O'Hair will lead to similar publicity. If customers correctly pick one of those three golfers as the winner of the U.S. Open this weekend, Golfsmith and TaylorMade, the golf-equipment maker owned by Adidas AG, will provide refunds through an insurance policy.

Golfsmith also is giving away gift cards worth up to $100, free rounds of golf and free lessons with various purchases. The retailer expects to sell 2 million golf balls, 4 million tees and 150,000 golf clubs in June, its biggest sales month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Sherman in New York at asherman6@bloomberg.net.

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Golf pro to tee off for a long run

Posted: 20 Jun 2010 03:08 AM PDT

Riverway Golf Course professional Jodi Reimer is preparing to shoot the highest score of her career.

Reimer, the one-and-only female golf pro in Burnaby, will be teaming up with Pastor John Burns of the Relate Church in Surrey for an unthinkable 100 holes of golf in a single day to raise money for a new support home soon to be opened for young women with challenges in life.

The 20-bed newly-renovated house on four acres of land in Surrey is a program of Mercy Ministries Canada and is the first of its kind in the country.

"It's a cause I believe in. It's hope for girls who have lost their way and battling life-controlling issues. It's kind of something quite close to my heart," said Reimer.

"We've just teamed up and put our forces together. I have a different sphere of influence. Golfers get it, when they think of the magnitude of it. At the end of the day, what kept (John) going was knowing it would make a difference in a girl's life."

Reimer, who is a member of Relate Church and a longtime supporter of the home, will play more than five full rounds on the 18-hole, 6,000-plus yards golf course at Peace Portal in Surrey, running and walking well over a marathon in distance, if every shot she makes is a straight one.

The second annual 100-hole Golf-A-Thon for Mercy Ministries will take place on Monday, June 21.

"We're doing it on the longest day of the season for a reason," she said.

The pair will tee off at 4:30 in the morning and run the first 36 holes to ensure they cram in the entire 100 holes while it is still daylight.

In preparation for the event, both golfers have been running the hilly Peace Portal links in the morning hours. Reimer has also been known to shoulder her bag of clubs and take a turn around Riverway to be ready for the unthinkable quest.

"I'm getting quite nervous to be honest," Reimer admitted. But it hasn't changed her resolve one bit.

"I had some issues growing up as a young girl. I can personally emphasize with where young girls are at these days," she said.

And that makes the task seem less daunting.

Last year, Burns raised $35,000 on his own. The pair are hoping to bring in $50,000, which will be matched by an anonymous donor this year.

In preparation, Reimer will throw her pre-practice routine out the window. In fact, the 33-year-old pro will cut out practice swings altogether to lessen the fatique factor in the hopes of scoring under 450 strokes, approximately 200-over-par.

"I'll be trying to adapt my game to stand-up-and-hit-it kind of gold," she said.

Controlling her heart rate, much like that of a biathlete, is crucial to success on the fairways and greens. Etiquette too, will take a back seat in this ultimate of golf challenges.

Both golfers will tee off in tandem and putting usually completed with the golf bag still slung on their back.

Mercy Ministries staff will be at the first hole to warn golfers of the marathoners possibly playing through.

For Reimer, it will likely not be the last time, either.

"I think I'm in it for the long haul," she said.

For more information on the 100-hole Golf-A-Thon, go to www.relatechurch.ca or www.mercymini stries.ca.

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Golf clubs are hot for Tiger Woods; storms back with 3rd round 66

Posted: 20 Jun 2010 06:58 AM PDT

Pebble Beach, California

Tiger Woods shot a 5-under 31 on the back nine to post a 5-under 66 for the day in a remarkable round of U.S. Open golf that vaulted him from also-ran to contender at Pebble Beach on Saturday.

He was at 1-under 212 for the tournament, alone in third place, five shots behind leader Dustin Johnson with only one player, Graeme McDowell, in between.

"He's the best player in the world," Johnson said. "It's not a shock to see he's right there."

The 66 was Woods' best score since returning to tournament golf following his uncomfortable winter on the sideline. The putts, on greens he ridiculed as "awful" on Thursday, finally started falling, and he started converting on a swing that suddenly rounded into form.

"It's a process," Woods said. "You have to just build. All the Opens I've won, I've had one stretch of nine holes where I put it together."

It's a testament to his game that he did it on the back nine at Pebble — the tougher nine, and the nine the leaders were playing with bright sunshine and brisk winds drying out the course and making the greens bumpy.

The highlight of Woods' round will go down as his second shot on No. 18. Squirreled behind one of the two huge trees on the right side of the fairway, his caddie, Steve Williams, told him he was 260 yards away — the perfect distance to go for it. He crushed a 3-wood, hustled to his left, yelled at the ball, 'C'mon, C,mon,' then watched it land 15 feet from the pin.

A two-putt for a birdie and a round of 66 — only one stroke off the 65 he shot on opening day at Pebble in 2000, when he was a different player and he went on to win by a record 15 shots.

On this day, though, memories of Torrey Pines — where he won his last major — were more apropos. Two years ago at the U.S. Open, he was injured, trying to turn a good Saturday into something better when he hit a chip shot from the side of the 17th green that came out of the rough hot, bounced once and somehow went in. He took his hat off, covered his face, laughed sheepishly. Didn't mean that to happen. But sometimes it does.

Sort of like his putt on No. 17 at Pebble. Above the hole, 15 feet away, Woods said the only goal there was "don't throw away a great round now."

"The putt on 17 was a joke," he said. "I'm just trying to get it close and walk out of there. And it happened to go in."

It's putts like those that can turn players into believers, though Woods never stopped believing, even when others might have.

His spiel after Friday's round, when he was seven strokes out of the lead, buried in 25th, sounded more canned than condensed soup: He was close, just needed to make a birdie or two, get to par and anything could happen at a U.S. Open. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

He looked like nothing more than a dreamer after the second and third holes of Saturday's round. A pair of bogeys. The worse one came on No. 3, when he drove the ball to 40 yards in front of the green, then tried to get a flop shot to lock up on the top right corner of the green — one of the many at Pebble that Tom Watson said made players feel like they were "putting over a herd of turtles."

The shot ran off the green, into the rough. The bogey ballooned Woods to 6-over par, nine shots behind a leader who hadn't even hit the course yet.

Eight birdies (and one more bogey) later, it was a different story. Woods had moved 22 spots up the leaderboard. Passed over Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and many others on the way. He looked like a genius. What's new?

And for all the drama and trauma he got himself into over the past few months, he showed his game hasn't gone too far away. True, he still has never come from behind on the last day of a major to win. And, as Johnson reminded, "We're all human. He's human too, though."

Very human, as we all know now. But the thought of him winning major No. 15 this week certainly doesn't seem like such a stretch anymore, either.

"Well, I've got a long way to go before that happens," Woods said. "It would feel good. I've won U.S. Opens before and it certainly didn't feel bad."

Golf carts take to small-town streets

Posted: 19 Jun 2010 07:20 PM PDT

FREDERIKA --- Golf carts are making their way from the fairways to public roadways, with a little push from government and a lot from the motoring public's nascent attraction to battery-powered vehicles.

Local governments now are making it easier for residents to putt around in golf carts with new ordinances in place that open their streets to buggies that are powered either by battery packs or small gasoline engines.

That certainly works for Orville Duecker, a retired pharmacist and World War II veteran who uses a golf cart to run his errands around Frederika.

"I've been doing it for a couple of years," I guess, said Duecker, who has relied on a cart for health reasons. "I'd rather be able to walk."

It's becoming clear that many people wouldn't rather walk. And, they'd rather not drive their cars, either.

"It's everywhere around us," Craig Dunlap, owner of Dysart-based Young's Golf Cars Inc. said of the new trend in local transportation. "There's a lot of towns where you can now drive golf carts all over inside the city limits."

Indeed, small towns around the Cedar Valley are moving in that direction.

Dunlap said a visitor to Dysart can get a feel for the popularity of golf carts by dropping by the local cafe early most mornings or during the lunch hour.

"You'll see as many golf carts around as cars," Dunlap said.

The city of Reinbeck passed an ordinance last year allowing use of golf carts inside the city limits.

"We didn't have much usage last summer, but this year I think I have eight signed up," said Quentin Mayberry, city administrator in Reinbeck.

A permit is required, as are proof of insurance and a valid drivers license, Mayberry said, adding that carts have to carry a "Slow Moving Vehicle" warning sign and bright-orange warning flag. Drivers can't take carts on highways, which, in Reinbeck's case, precludes driving one to the local golf club.

Mayberry said Reinbeck's ordinance is inspired by Ely, near Cedar Rapids. But he also said Reinbeck was following the lead of other small towns whose residents see the practicality of running to the post office, the local grocery store or cafe without having to burn gasoline in the family car or truck.

"It's always brought up because of conservation," Mayberry said.

Dunlap, who has been selling golf carts for 25 years, said Tuesday he had sold 160 carts so far this year. Full-year total sales at his dealership have been in the 250-270 range the last six or seven years, he said. He sells both electric and gas-powered carts, but the overwhelming majority are electric.

"I sell 4 to 1, electric to gas, for golf.

A cart can be had for as little as $1,000, although options --- some have DVD players, custom wheels and even heaters --- can push the price up to $8,000 or $9,000.

Tax credits for the electric-powered vehicles have been credited for having fueled sales, as buyers can earn a credit of 10 percent of the purchase price. Last year, the credit was 50 percent.

The surge that the small, electric-powered carts have enjoyed has led to the evolution of carts that are built primarily for transportation outside golf courses.

Rudy Busch, who has been selling carts at Denver-based Rudy's Sales & Service for 49 years, said he now sells "Neighborhood Electric Vehicles," in addition to standard golf carts.

"About 50 percent of what we sell were designed for golf but now are made for other uses," he said. "They use them for everything; they're made to run wherever you want to go. They're used to go to the store, the post office, on the farm and for transportation."

Visitors at the Two Cylinder Expo at the National Cattle Congress, which began Thursday were apt to see plenty of the little runabouts.

"They'll rent some for transportation there because people come in and are older and can't get around very well," Busch said. "It's not like a four-wheeler, which are made for one person and are dangerous. You can put a rear seat in the back and haul four to six people."

Of course, there's always an age-old use: golf.

"In Vinton, the course is in town, so a lot of people there drive their carts to the course," Dunlap said. "Dike is another place where a lot of people drive straight from garage to the course."

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Golf Zone

Sunday, June 20, 2010

“Golf Retailers Use Freebies to Spur Sputtering Sales” plus 3 more

“Golf Retailers Use Freebies to Spur Sputtering Sales” plus 3 more

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