Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass at Ponte Vedra Beach

Certainly the date change, which brings with it much dryer weather has had something to do with the fact that the course today has different characteristics.

But calling it a ‘new course’ is perhaps of an exaggeration because the world-famous, original Pete Dye Stadium layout is unchanged.

For instance the beautiful but potentially deadly island hole at the 17th is still there in all its glory.

It’s the actual playing surface of the course that is new.

Starting at the first tee and ending at the 18th, the entire course was torn up shortly after the 2006 tournament, and upgraded with 26,600 tons of sand, 2.6 million square feet of new Bermuda grass, 116,600 feet of pipe for irrigation, and 19 acres of sod for landscaping.

The intention was to upgrade the playing surface and make it firmer, faster and more challenging and bring more into play, new mounds, like those to the right of the 9th green, 200 new trees made up of oaks, pines and palms, new natural waste areas, lower-level bunkers, greenside chipping areas and water hazards.

Previously the wet weather in March meant the course had to be over seeded with rye grass, but this won’t be necessary any more and, according to Dye, will make for a better course year round.

World No 2 Jim Furyk was speaking for the vast majority of his Tour colleagues last year when he said that while THE PLAYERS is not an official ‘major’, the US PGA Tour’s flagship event is easily its most glamorous showcase, and is now in a position to offer turf conditions that better relate to way the course was always intended to play.

Dye never wanted the thick rough guarding the fairways and greens; he wanted hard and firm conditions.

“The thing is, Furyk explained, when the tournament was held in March, the weather was cooler, and coming off winter, there wasn’t enough heat to grow the dominant Bermuda grass.

“It had to be over seeded with rye,” he said. “There was simply no other choice. But when you over seeded, you have to wet it down to keep the over seed. But we don’t want to see a golf course wet.”

The move to May has meant that over seeding in the last couple of years wasn’t necessary.

“In my opinion,” said Furyk, “It (the over seeding) ruined the style and the playability and the way that golf course should be played. It’s a much better golf course played firm and fast.”

You can find more golf course introduction and more wholesale golf clubs at Golfwholesaleseller.com.

Article Source : Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass at Ponte Vedra Beach : ArticleBase

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Golf is an attitude. discount golf clubs

In case you didn’t see today’s “press conference” with Tiger Woods, it was an interesting event to say the least. Tiger came out and definitely spoke from what appeared to be his heart – that is if we can believe him after his lies of the past. Here are some random thoughts that crossed my mind as I listened to and watched him. Please keep in mind my background is marketing which included using public relations to market products so you might need to excuse my cynicism during this article.

Since we cover new athletic apparel, my first thought was to wonder if he would come out in Nike golf clothes. When he came out dressed in a sport coat without a tie, I wondered if it was new golf apparel although I didn’t expect new golf shorts – that would be so inappropriate to wear while apologizing for infidelity. I then looked to see if his clothes would be the first in a line of new golf clothes but I couldn’t find a Nike logo anywhere – I guess we will have to just get along with the paparazzi photos of his wife dressed head to toe in Nike workout clothes taken the day before. And no, Elin also didn’t show up wearing a new workout outfit – she was nowhere to be found. Finally, Tiger hugged and kissed his mom when he finished his words so I look over her clothes and also didn’t find any athletic apparel nor Nike basketball shoes to try and make her seem more stylish or taller.

The next thing I noticed is that Tiger reached out to the PGA Tour (not wearing PGA Clothes) as well as to his former sponsor Accenture to apologize for the timing of his remarks. Tiger spoke about his religion, Buddhism, and it made me wonder why he didn’t say that he would be under counseling of Rick Warren, Billy Graham (being passed away is a problem detail), or another TV Evangelical where he could use his star power to increase ratings and donations of which Tiger would accept as low as 50% of them. Instead, Tiger spoke about returning to counseling for his addiction but again I expected to hear the name of the facility for the naming rights fees that could have been generated.

In summary, I was very disappointed in what I saw and heard from Tiger Woods today. I expected to hear about new athletic apparel, new athletic clothes, new golf apparel, new Nike golf clubs, or some type of endorsement for something because it will be hard to get by on the nearly $1 Billion that he has made in endorsements over the years. While I expected to hear about how finding some type of religion would play a role in his recovery, I thought he would also return to his familiar “religions” of endorsements and making money but they were nowhere to be found. I was left with what appeared to be a sincere apology for today with new athletic apparel and new golf apparel left for another day. If Tiger needs help on developing those lines, I would be happy to help in my own sarcastic way to help him somehow create new golf shirts to capitalize on his misfortunes as we need to turns these lemons to lemonade. Wouldn’t it be great to see Tiger launch a line of athletic apparel from some strip joint or call girl service? We could create a logo for “Tiger Town” with leopard print and tiger stripe lines while directing consumers to an adult website where all of his previous “girlfriends” would pose on a bearskin rug to keep the animal theme alive – I hope the site has a large database to handle all of those photos. If those new tees and adult website didn’t generate a billion dollars in revenue, it would only be due to the economic downturn. Please add your comments for his new golf clothes line and we will pass them along to Tiger – let your imagination run wild and have fun!

I understand that John Daley has gone through some tough times but what the hell is going on while this athletic apparel? Caddyshack is about 30 years old and I now feel like Judge Smails or Spaulding has been reborn watching Daley’s recent new golf apparel at the British and the PGA. Did he suffer a blow to the head recently or is he paying tribute to the 40th anniversary of Woodstock? I’d understand torn jeans and a sleeveless tee but not whatever paisley print he was wearing.

I’ve got to admit that I’m a big John Daley fan – what golf fan doesn’t want to smash a drive 350 yards and have the incredible touch he had? I’m also an optimist and have hoped that he would be able to pull his life out of the nose dive it was taking for the past decade because he would be the ultimate foe for Tiger. It would be corporate Tiger vs beer chugging John. The differences can’t get more pronounced than that and the tv ratings would go through the roof which would mean golf apparel companies would be able to show their newest golf clothes to a much larger audience. However, with the recent golf apparel John is wearing, I don’t know if that would be good or bad for all golf clothes companies.

It has often been said that all publicity is good publicity and the fact that I’m posting this article means that both the PGA and John Daley are getting publicity. In my mind, this is “My Life on the D List” type publicity which has a shorter attention period than actually winning a tournament, any tournament! Maybe this is a situation of “crazy like a fox” and Daley is launching these new men’s golf clothes to the general public (doubt this will become women’s golf clothes anytime soon). I do see college kids wearing this type of clothes so maybe I’m too old to understand this is on fashion. I guess time will tell but I’d love to hear what company is selling the new golf apparel that John Daley is now wearing. Please send a twitter note to @athleticapparel or post a comment here so that we can share this news with all of our readers. This will be very useful information so that people know what company to search to buy those clothes or to know what company to organize a protest against.

In my mind, I hope Peta organizes a protest against John so that we can go back to the good old boy Daley look and normal men’s golf clothes, if there is such a thing. However, that is only my opinion – what is yours? Please comment and thank you for visiting my blog.

I LOVE GOLF and play it as frequently as I can, at least when we live in a warm climate where you can play all year round. Instead to taking my son sledding today, I would have rather taken him to the driving range or out for a round of father/son seeing nature by looking for golf balls in the trees. So it was a complete surprise to me that the season actually started this weekend with the Mercedes-Benz Championship played on The Plantation Course in Kapalua on the Island of Maui. This is a tournament that truly lives up to the name “championship” since you have to be a winner during the previous PGA season to be invited and the facilities are nothing short of golf nirvana! If you have never played a round of golf there, it is a must play for anyone that loves the game. It starts with the one of the most impressive clubhouses you will ever enter; complete with every amenity one can think of and is stocked full of the latest golf apparel that we love at www.athleticapparelreview.com – golf apparel that hangs in my closet. Once you leave the clubhouse, you will find a physically challenging golf course full of “land texture” that creates countless blind shots and the need to constantly analyze club selection depending on whether the shot is uphill vs. down and how the trade winds will affect the shot – they are always strong and always a factor. The breath-taking ocean views only add to the total golf experience. While I personally prefer to play at the Wailea Golf Club where the Senior Skins Event has frequently been held, The Plantation is a must play course for the golf lover; even though it will set you back about $300 a round.

So how do I get more than half way through an article about the PGA Tour and not even talk about the opening event of the season? If the Mercedes-Benz Championship were The Sopranos, it would be in the witness protection program since it has been held in virtual media seclusion. Why? NFL Playoffs? College Basketball? Nope, they are always competitors during the opening weekend. It is the lack of Tiger Woods playing early this season as he recovers from his knee surgery that has created a total lack of interest for so many fans. A normal season would start with a blitz of media coverage on how many majors Tiger has, will win, and who will be his primary competitors. Golf fans love to love him and love to hate him – either way they follow him and that drives golf. Normally, we would have at least one player pop off that the PGA Tour is more than just Tiger to create a little controversy that results in additional coverage on channels other than ESPN and the Golf Channel, places where average people realize that golf has started again.

So what does this all mean to the athletic apparel industry and our website www.athleticapparelreview.com in terms of golf interest? It means that fewer people will be tuning into golf which will lead to few golf shirts, golf shorts, hats, clubs, and all things golf will have lower sales. Besides golf apparel, it means fewer rounds of golf will be played since the sport will be out of sight, out of mind. It means that the sport will suffer even more than it otherwise wood, spelling error intended, in our soft economy. The only recent golf headlines were generated by Tiger and his efforts to save the US car industry from economic failure by letting Buick out of the endorsement contract it had with him. The sound without Tiger is deafening – deafening silence from the fans not at events, not watching on TV, and not ringing cash registers that are not selling golf apparel. Without Tiger and to quote Simon & Garfunkel, “it is the sounds of silence.”

Rob is available for media interviews and can be reached at 602-774-0768.