Yardbarker: Aaron Baddeley

Preview: Verizon Heritage

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:18:31 -0500

Boo Weekley returns to Harbour Town Golf Links at Hilton Head Island as the two-time defending champion.

The Masters, Aussie Style

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:52:26 -0500

Greg Norman tees off as fellow Australian Aaron Baddeley looks on.(Richard Carter/Flickr)

The Davis Love III Masters Qualification Process Has Become Complicated

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:20:49 -0500

Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press points out something rather interesting about the Davis Love III Masters saga. If DLIII would have skipped the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he would have qualified for the first major of the year. Now? He missed out by seven-thousandths of a point! Whaaa?!The latest world ranking is out, and qualifying for the Masters effectively is closed. Love needed to be in the top 50, and he missed out by just over four-hundredths of a point. If he had not played Bay ...

Arizona connections in the Accenture Match Play Championships

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:16:45 -0500

Tiger Woods has captured most of the media attention (like he always does) in the early going at the World Golf Championship-Accenture Match Play Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Marana. Woods won his first match, defeating Australian Brendan Jones, 3 and Aside from the ...

Tiger's Return: The Open Thread

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:21:22 -0500

One of my favorite open threads was the Tiger Woods-Rocco Mediate open thread during the 2008 U.S. Open last year. I spent a day chronicling the playoff between the two, and had a blast doing so. I'm going to try and do a little of that today during Tiger's round, and if you want to follow along, you're more than welcome to do so. Woods is teeing off in about twenty, and I'll give you a hole-by-hole recap, as well as some video when it's warranted. It's Tiger, It'...

Round Up: Buick Invitational

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:47:56 -0500

Congratulations Nick Watney!? What a great comeback win. Tough day for John Rollins and Camilo Villegas, who both played well all week.? Lucas Glover and Matt Jones finished strong for their first top 10s of the season.? Other strong final rounds came from Bubba Watson and Hunter Mahan, who finished 7th and 11th respectively.? Rookie Webb [...]

Woods Rolls to Win No. 63!

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:51:56 -0500

Tiger Woods has now accomplished what only three other golfers in history have done, win at least 63 events on the PGA tour. This weekends victory in the Accenture Match Play Championship moved him past Arnold Palmer into fourth on the all time win list. His opponent on Sunday, Stewart Cink, could only watch and laugh as Woods made 14 birdies in 29 holes to dispose of him 8 and 7. Woods could have easily been beaten in the first round by J.B. Holmes, but a stretch of three birdies and an eagle on the last five holes gave Woods the come from behind win. He was also pushed by Aaron Baddeley and Henrik Stenson on previous days, but just like his first round, Woods made the shots when it counted. This is what Makes Tiger Woods the best player of all time, beating contenders and adjusting to the conditions. This give Woods his fourth straight win on the year and makes the possibility of winning the grand slam that much more attainable. This is the third time Woods has won at least four straight PGA Tour events. He also won in Dubai three weeks ago on the European tour by coming back from a four-shot deficit. He has now won six of his last seven PGA Tour events, 16 of his last 30 over the last two years. Woods' next win will tie him with Ben Hogan for third all time in career wins, leaving him eight wins away from his idol, Jack Nicklaus. That's amazing considering Woods is only 32 years old...an age that most describe as a golfers prime. If this is Woods' prime, then every other golfer should be scared.

The Primary Cut

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:35:43 -0500

Fourteenth installment of The Primary Cut

The Primary Cut

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:01:05 -0500

Second installment of The Primary Cut??"weekly insights from the world of golf player management and other golf-related industry and player news. The Shark The Shark Bites Back According to Golfweek's John Steinbreder, Greg Norman will be appointed the new chairman of MacGregor Golf, the culmination of "a leadership change that began in July when Norman and other board members relieved MacGregor CEO and majority shareholder Barry Schneider of his operational duties and began a strategic review of the Albany, Ga.-based clubmaking enterprise." During that time, "The Shark" and two other investors have helped lead a recapitalization effort of MacGregor "designed to strengthen the company's balance sheet and give MacGregor greater financial flexibility and provide resources for continued growth." Norman actually joined the board of MacGregor last fall after acquiring a minority stake in the company. The McGregor entity includes MacGregor clubs and outerwear, as well as the Greg Norman Collection apparel business. Norman's first order of business as chairman? Finding a new CEO. Read between the lines and you'll notice that Norman has grand plans for MacGregor. He also seems fluent in business lingo and speaks in terms of motivation and accountability??"kind of a cross between Gordon Gekko and Knute Rockne: "We have to get back to the basics of what the company is all about," he told Golfweek. "Also, we need to make things far more integrated from an operational standpoint. I believe we have to empower middle management more and have them be the ones who make and implement the decisions as we make them more accountable. I also want to make sure our employees understand the direction of the company and the places we want to take it. I am a huge proponent of that, and the idea that you have to lead from the top down, that you have to lead by example and make the people who work with you understand where you want to take the business. Do that, and they work with much more enthusiasm." Norman was explicit in stating that he envisions MacGregor providing "products that can be described as 'modern classics' and likely would compete against brands such as Mizuno." In other words, "players clubs" that may help the company garner more usage on Tour. Now whether or not the company will be able to produce a worthwhile product that will cause even the ficklest of players to contemplate a brand change is another matter. Regardless, one thing is for certain: following a bitter and costly divorce in 2006 that took a healthy bite out of Norman's previously estimated $500 million net worth, it seems that Norman, always the business connoisseur and a man who seemed to get more enjoyment and personal satisfaction out of his plethora of business pursuits, than he did actually playing professional golf, is back in the game. Polo, anyone? Looking to dress your client in fashionable yet practical golfing apparel? Ralph Lauren hopes that you consider its new RLX Golf line, which according to Golfweek "reflects the company's push to reach hip, athletic-minded players who have been fueling the performance apparel craze??"and making the techno-wares of Adidas Golf and Nike Golf such hot commodities." The primary spokesman for RLX Golf is Luke Donald, the rather cosmopolitan Englishman whose classic style meshes well with other Polo golfing clients like Davis Love III, senior player Tom Watson, Jonathan Byrd and Morgan Pressel. Donald has been Polo sponsored since 2002. Jamie Lovemark likes Polo Industry experts claim that the move is an "effort to bolster Polo Golf, which has lost business to upstart competitors such as Fairway & Greene and Peter Millar." However, some question the move of dropping the "Polo" brand name altogether from the new RLX line. Other prominent golf fitters such as Izod and Ashworth, for example, "have found that consumers don't always catch up with a company that creates alternate brands with different names." Generally, unless making a fashion statement per se is the primary want (see Camilo Villegas, Hank Kuehne, Aaron Baddeley, Jesper Parnevik and company in J. Lindeberg's collections, which look like they ought to be on display at the Tate Modern rather than Augusta National), the fit of the garment and the nature of the fabric are the two most essential elements of desirable golf wear. Therefore, some retail analysts argue, "it is a gamble to think Ralph Lauren, best known as a fashion brand, has the cache to persuade cutting-edge consumers that it can create better technical fabrics than Nike and Adidas, which have long histories in performance wear. Furthermore

The Primary Cut

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 22:13:45 -0500

Enjoy this first installment of The Primary Cut

Doing It The Forstmann Way

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 22:34:48 -0500

In all walks of business, one creed remains constant. If you want to know where a company may be headed, if you want to know the underlying philosophy behind its otherwise sleekly polished mission statement, and most importantly, if you want to know where a company may or may not be vulnerable, look upwards. Way up. At IMG, the sports, entertainment, media superpower, look up and you'll meet the steely glance of financier Teddy Forstmann, a founding partner of Forstmann Little & Company, a private equity firm that acquired IMG for $750 million in late 2004. Forstmann's vision for the mega-firm can be gleaned while reading New York Time writer Richard Sandomir's January 12, 2007 in-depth (registration required) look at the 66 year old, lifelong bachelor, whose heart belongs simultaneously to both leveraged buyouts (RJR Nabisco) and Hollywood glamour (Elizabeth Hurley). Say and feel what you want about IMG, but Forstmann's bottom-line mantra took the firm from over $200 million in debt to over $100 million in the black. And it will be interesting to see how Forstmann's relatively impersonal reorganization of the company both affects and influences the long-term landscape of the company, as well as the entire sports and event management industry per se. In the spirit of IMG (the overall leading talent management agency for both golf and tennis), and also the final leg of the PGA Tour's first-ever "playoffs," which culminates this weekend with The Tour Championship and (for the time being) the unusually choppy greens of the famed East Lake Country Club outside of Atlanta, the following is a list of the primary agents (and their respective companies), representing the 30-man field competing for the $35 pot of deferred FedEx Cup money. It is interesting to note that while IMG (and specifically agent Clarke Jones) dominates the list, there are plenty of other management and marketing entities representing the world's elite golfers. (Note: I'm still in the process of obtaining information for Robert Allenby, Aaron Baddeley, Stewart Cink, Tim Clark, Hunter Mahan, John Rollins and Heath Slocum. Moreover, while I am fairly certain of the names that follow, there may be some errors, reflected by inter-agency changes and other factors. So if any of our readers know of any omissions or corrections that should be made, please do not hesitate to email me!) Woody Austin - Kevin Canning - Goal Marketing Jonathan Byrd - Mac Barnhardt - Crown Sports Management Mark Calcavecchia - David Yates - Gaylord Sports Management K.J. Choi - Michael Yim - IMG Ernie Els - Andrew "Chubby" Chandler - ISM Jim Furyk - Andrew Witlieb - Goal Marketing Sergio Garcia - Clarke Jones - IMG Padraig Harrington - Clarke Jones - IMG Charles Howell III - Clarke Jones - IMG Zach Johnson - Brad Buffoni - SFX Phil Mickelson - Steve Loy - Gaylord Sports Management Geoff Ogilvy - Jens Beck - no company affiliation Justin Rose - Marcus Day - 4 Sports & Entertainment Rory Sabbatini - Bud Martin - SFX Adam Scott - Perry Rogers - Prism Sports Marketing Vijay Singh - Clarke Jones - IMG Brandt Snedeker - Mac Barnhardt - Crown Sports Management Steve Stricker - Mark Steinberg - IMG Scott Verplank - Bud Martin - SFX Camilo Villegas - Clarke Jones - IMG Boo Weekley - David Hill - no company affiliation Brett Wetterich - John Mascatello - SFX Tiger Woods - Mark Steinberg - IMG - Jason G. Wulterkens

Baddeley's Collapse

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 02:22:06 -0500

After winning the Australian Open as an 18-year-old amateur, Aaron Baddeley spoke confidently of someday taking on Tiger Woods for major championships. Eight years later, someday arrived Sunday at the U.S. Open. Unfortunately for Baddeley, his game didn't. His day started badly and only got worse during a 10-over 80 that represented the worst final-round letdown by a contender since Jason Gore went from second place to 49th with an 84 at Pinehurst No. 2 in 2005.