NIKE GOLF LAUNCHES ITS NEW, GROUND-BREAKING BALL

NEWS RELEASE
Nike Golf is unveiling its new 20XI (pronounced: twenty-X-I) premium golf ball franchise, featuring innovative golf ball technology that will dramatically enhance the performance of golfers around the world and, at the same time, propel golf ball manufacturing into an entirely new level of innovation.
The new Nike 20XI ball features a combination of proprietary technology never before seen in the golf industry, and is the result of four years of collaborative research and development between Nike Golf's golf ball engineers and a team of material and science experts at DuPont.
The game-changing technology replaces conventional rubber cores with a radical new resin material. Resin is a highly neutralised polymer that’s faster and lighter material engineered to produce longer distance and more controlled shots.
“I have never been more excited about a new golf ball innovation than I am now,” said Rock Ishii, Nike Golf’s Product Development Director for golf balls. “For many years, golf ball development has primarily been focused on the number of layers with a solid rubber core. We believe that there wasn’t really anywhere else to go as far as technology advancement in these areas, and felt that the next window of opportunity was in the exploration of various materials for the core.”
Ishii and his team of engineers discovered that using resin core technology accomplishes three critical performance components that golfers dream to have in a golf ball: +More distance off the tee.
+Straight ball flight.
+Increased control around the greens.

Faster Ball Speed Equals More Distance
Advancement in proprietary resin core chemistry delivers faster ball speed.
Internal tests with Nike Golf tour athletes have shown an average of 2-3 mph increase in ball speed.
Every 1 mph increase equates to 2-3 yards carry distance.

Highest Levels of MOI Provides Longer, Straighter Ball Flight
Lighter core and heavier outer layers result in perimeter weighting.
High MOI assists in reducing driver spin and maintains spin beyond apex to maintain carry and control.
After apex, the higher MOI assists in maintaining spin an average of 100-200 RPM.
20XI has the highest levels of MOI in a golf ball to date.

BRAEMAR GOLF SIGN AGREEMENT WITH BAHRAIN INTERNATIONAL

The Royal Golf Club, Bahrain golf course.

NEWS RELEASE

Braemar Golf has signed a strategic consultancy agreement with Bahrain International Golf Course Company (BIGCC), the owners of The Royal Golf Club, the recent venue for the Volvo Golf Champions European Tour event. This continues Braemar Golf’s relationship with BIGCC which began back in 1996.
“We are delighted to continue our relationship with BIGCC who we have worked with over many years now,” said Michael Braidwood, Operations Director of Braemar Golf, who was formerly BIGCC’s General Manager from 1998 – 2010.
“Having formerly been involved in managing the golf club in Bahrain I am very proud that the golf club is now owner-operated and so established that it no longer needs a full-time external management operator” he added.
“The team on the ground, led by general manager Susan Stevenson, are doing an excellent job in the continued business growth of the club and golf in general in the Kingdom and we are delighted to support them on certain strategic projects” he added.
BIGCC’s general manager Susan Stevenson added “We are very pleased to have the continued support of Braemar Golf to help us with our ongoing strategy. Our number one focus is our customers and growing the golf club’s business, so it is great to have a strategic relationship that helps us look into the future.”

BIGCC is the owner of the Royal Golf Club, Bahrain and also has an investment interest in the Riffa Views Development, a boutique Landscaping Business and Cart Fleet Business.

Braemar Golf is an international golf services company headquartered at the home of golf in St Andrews. They construct, support and manage high quality golf developments in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

US TOUR SAYS IT'S OK FOR SPECTATORS TO TAKE CELL PHONES

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida -- Golf fans in the United States can now take their cell phones with them to US Tour events.
The tour has allowed mobile devices at five tournaments in the past six months. The tour wanted to see if players would be disturbed, and it was found not to be a problem.
Starting with the Honda Classic, fans will have select areas to use phones, which must be kept on silent.

At the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, designated areas were set up to make calls. Some could step away from the ropes to check e-mail and text messages. Spectators cannot take photos of players with their cell phones. Some fans at Torrey Pines had phones taken away and were given claim checks.

The policy affects only US PGA Tour events -- not the Masters, US Open, (British) Open or US PGA Championship.
It is most unlikely that the European Tour will follow the US Tour's example.

PALM AND MAW LEAD IN Hi5 PRO TOUR'S LATEST EVENT

FROM THE SPANISH Hi5 PRO TOUR WEBSITE
David Palm from Sweden and England's James Maw both fired 68s today and share the lead after round 1 of the 2011 Peraleja Open at Sucina, Spain. Cooler temperatures and a few rain showers, which softened up the very demanding greens of the Seve Ballesteros design, gave the players some good scoring chances but only 21 players were able to break par.The international field of 102 players, representing more than 18 countries, will continue tomorrow morning at 8:10, after which the top 40 players will move onto the final round of the 54 hole event.

NO SCOREBOARD AVAILABLE YET ON THE Hi5 PRO TOUR WEBSITE BUT WE WILL KEEP CHECKING.

TIGER WOODS APOLOGISES FOR SPITTING AFTER EURO TOUR FINE

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE
By KEVIN GARSIDE
Tiger Woods issued an immediate apology on Monday night after being fined for spitting at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic. Woods provoked outrage by propelling the contents of his throat across the 12th green as he lined up a putt on the final day.
The issue was considered sufficiently grave to be referred to the tournament director, Mike Stewart, who dispensed justice on his return to the European Tour headquarters.
A statement read: “The tournament director, Mike Stewart, has reviewed the incident and feels there has been a breach of the tour code of conduct and consequently Tiger Woods will be fined.”
The undisclosed sanction was communicated via Woods's representatives in the United States.
Woods responded using his Twitter account. “The Euro Tour is right – it was inconsiderate to spit like that and I know better. I just wasn’t thinking and want to say I’m sorry.”
Woods is not scheduled to appear again - as a golfer - until next week’s Accenture World Matchplay Championship in Tuscon, Arizona.
The amount is less significant than the public rebuke, which threatens the credibility of Woods’s pious crusade to make himself a better person.
Though ultimately defenceless, some sympathy must accrue to Woods. An inveterate spitter he might be, but he is not the only offender on tour, just the most visible.
The code of contact is a catch-all stick with which to beat offenders over behaviour unbecoming on the golf course. It states that a Tour member “voluntarily submits himself to standards of behaviour and ethical conduct beyond those required of ordinary golfers and members of the public”.
Woods is engaged in the most trumpeted ethical rehab in the history of sport. This episode will do little to convince the cynics who believe he is incapable of change.
The spitting, the blaspheming, the humourless game face are features that pre-date his moral epiphany. And they were all in evidence in Dubai.
Equally, Woods is demonstrably easier company around the periphery than he used to be. He met his media obligations with a smile and was relaxed in his post-round commentary.
Though the apology is welcome, it will not protect him if his commitment to change is seen to be inauthentic.
It is not only his on-course deportment that needs to improve. Woods, who started the final round in Dubai just one off the lead, finished 20th, seven shots behind winner Alvaro Quiros.
Elliot Saltman informed the European Tour on Monday that he would not appeal against his three-month suspension for cheating.
Saltman was banned last month at a hearing in Abu Dhabi after being disqualified from a second-tier Challenge Tour event in Russia last year for incorrectly marking his ball.
Saltman maintains his innocence and was critical of golf’s judicial process.
“I will now almost certainly have to carry [stigma] for the rest of my life. I wish to emphasise again I do not cheat, have never cheated, and do not believe I have done anything wrong.
“I want to get back to playing as quickly as I can because playing is the best way to show people I am not a cheat. To have people who don’t know me and who know nothing about me, go out in the media and question my honesty is really hurtful.”
Saltman’s case was heard by the tournament committee, which is made up of fellow professionals. His lawyers raised concerns about the validity of a process in which the fate of a player is decided by his competitors.
Some members of the committee also expressed their disquiet about sitting in judgment on a fellow player.
The European Tour is understood to be reviewing how disciplinary issues are heard and settled.

Weekley, Garcia, Singh, Daly - They're all among the spitters

FROM THE GOLF.COM WEBSITE
By Michael Bamberger, Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated
in the interest of being able to walk across saliva-free greens, golfers everywhere should applaud this long overdue move by the European Tour. If U.S. Tour officials had any true sense of golfing decorum, they would be doing exactly the same thing, handing out citations like meter maids in Beverly Hills.
The essence of golf has two parts: getting the ball into distant holes in the fewest strokes possible, which Tiger Woods in his prime did better than anybody ever, and showing respect for your playing partners and your playing field while doing it. The two are linked. 
Woods has been raked over the coals for years for being a surly, club-throwing, spittin'-and-cussin' playing partner. Much of that has been ridiculously overblown. 
 But the fact is, when it comes to on-course comportment, he has not remotely followed in the steps of his trailblazer, Jack Nicklaus. Jack didn't spit on the course. Arnold Palmer didn't spit on the course. Snead and Hogan and Nelson didn't spit on the course. Mickey Wright? Nancy Lopez? Annika Sorenstam? Absolutely no chance.
In the '80s, I caddied some on Tour. Back then, many more players than today chewed tobacco or smoked cigarettes while playing (There was more drinking on the course, too).
If guys were going to spit, they did it discreetly, underneath a tree or in a water cup. No fan should ever see spit coming out of a player's mouth. It's uncouth, and it's unsanitary.
Tiger is by no means the only spitter out there. It's open season these days. Have at it, boys — fill the pool! Boo Weekley, I love him, but get a spittoon, brother. Garcia, Singh and Daly is not an international law firm; it's a collection of world-class international golf-course spitters.
Rory Sabbatini and Scott Verplank, get a hankie or something. Jhonattan Vegas? Not a spitter. Another thing to like about the guy.
I'm not sure why there's so much more spitting today than there used to be. There's more golf on TV, so you see more. That's probably part of it. But I'm guessing Tiger made it legit for others. Tiger has suffered from allergies for years and has used that as an excuse to explain his spitting. That doesn't fly. He could still spit discreetly if that's what he wanted to do. His spitting increases with his frustration; he spits in disgust when he's playing poorly. Would he spit in his mother's garden? He would not. He should take that same view when he plays Augusta National or anywhere else. These courses are somebody's garden.






Read more: http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,2049113,00.html#ixzz1E0v4XD9D

SALTMAN DECIDES NOT TO APPEAL DESPITE LIE DECTECTOR TEST

FROM THE SPORT.SCOTSMAN.COM WEBSITE
http://sport.scotsman.com/golf/
By Martin Dempster
Elliot Saltman will not be appealing against a three-month ban from the European Tour despite taking a "lie-detector" test that proved strong backing for his assertion that he is not a cheat.
The 28-year-old, who was handed the punishment after being found guilty of incorrectly marking his ball during a Challenge Tour event, is still adamant that he has been wrongly convicted, hence the reason he decided off his own back to commission a polygraph test.
Saltman said: "I wish to emphasise again that I do not cheat, have never cheated, and do not believe I have done anything wrong. I want to get back to playing as quickly as I can, because playing is the best way to show people that I am not a cheat."

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