Here’s a great story about a young woman in Japan who is inspiring others to become interested in the game of golf. To quote from the article:

TOKYO, March 30 (Reuters) - With commentators calling her a new Tiger Woods, teenager Ai Miyazato is starting to have a similar revolutionary effect on golf’s image in Japan.

After turning professional and earning more than a million dollars last year, 19-year-old Miyazato led her teammate Rui Kitada to victory in the inaugural Women’s World Cup of Golf in South Africa in February.

The 154 cm (five foot) golfer from Japan’s southernmost island of Okinawa is not short on talent, but her popularity is not based on the speed of her swing.

Miyazato has succeeded in making golf look like fun again.

“I think the best part of my game is that I am really enjoying my golf,” she told journalists in Tokyo on Wednesday, when asked about her strengths. “That’s very important and I don’t want to forget it.”

Though she finished last year as number two in Japan, the teen sensation already outflanks the much-loved Woods in terms of popularity on her home turf and pulls in higher ratings for her televised games.

Miyazato comes from a golfing family — her two brothers are also golfers — and she pays tribute to her coach father for years of advice on positive thinking as well as to Japan’s number one player, Yuri Fudo, for showing her the value of practice.

Read More: Reuters.co.uk

I caught an announcement about a new golf-centric search engine. It’s rather wordy, almost an overdose of jargon, but the concept is not so bad, and given time could be a really cool resource. Mind you, I’m not sure I believe what they generalize about search engines. Personally I still find google does the job when I need to find something. Anyhow, to quote from the press release:

EDMONDS, Wash., March 29 /PRNewswire/ — Cybergolf, the golf industry leader in online marketing tools, has launched Cybergolf Search (http://www.cybergolfsearch.com). This new search engine has been designed and developed to fill the missing need for relevant web search results for the golf industry and consumer.

Cybergolf Search is built using Vertical Search Technology (VST), developed by Cybergolf. VST enables refined searching coupled with embedded e-commerce tools. The creation of Cybergolf Search was prompted by golf courses’ growing frustration of not being found in mainstream search engines and golfers inability to quickly find relevant results such as golf courses.

The challenge with mainstream search engines is the broad application of search criteria. An example of this is when searching for “Seattle golf courses,” a mainstream search engine comes up with over 400,000 results. The first page includes an assortment of news stories, real estate brokers, and third-party tee-time sites but lacks the information requested - not one official website for a Seattle-area golf course appears.

For more info: CybergolfSearch.com: Golf Search Engine

With the coming of spring, GolfTravelBags.com has launched five new brands to its site in anticipation of a great season of golfing. With new additions to the lineup such as Callaway, Cargo Golf, Mizuno, and more, GolfTravelBags.com now offers golfers everywhere the finest selection of golf travel bags on the net.

Detroit, MI (PRWEB) March 28, 2005 — Callaway, a name synonymous with golfing innovation, brings along their line of Big Bertha and Great Big Bertha Bag Carriers (http://www.golftravelbags.com/callaway.htm). With a range of four sizes to accommodate Stand Bags up to full-sized Staff Bags, features such as Callaway’s Steelhead Club Protection system and spring-activated Power Pull handle provide unmatched protection and ease of use. Despite their focused concentration on protecting golf clubs, Callaway also understands that much as golfers would like to, it is not always possible to travel with clubs alone. Their full line of luggage, from Cargo Duffel to Shoe Carrier, is also available.

Furthering the evolution of the hybrid golf travel case, Cargo Golf introduces the ProSeries 900 (http://www.golftravelbags.com/cargo-golf-proseries-900.htm). Solving the problems of external wear and tear in transit, the ProSeries 900 showcases a removable skin and shoulder strap—during travel, the outer fabric is rolled into its own duffel, exposing a streamlined, top-to-bottom hard case. Beyond durable, the ProSeries 900 is backed by Cargo Golf’s lifetime warranty. . The ProSeries 700 and 500 models round out the Cargo Golf lineup, along with the Golf Guard and Deluxe Golf Guard hard cases.

(more…)

Tempo and timing in golf has such a substantial impact on the swing. Certainly it can be a saving grace when so much else is out of synch. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Robert D Grober, Yale professor of Applied Physics and Physics, has combined his passion for golf and his professional expertise to produce a unique and effective real-time audio biofeedback device for teaching and training golf.

Grober developed a golf club that has motion-detecting sensors, similar to those used for safety air-bag deployment in cars, embedded in the shaft. Sonic Golf’s unique feature is the use of real-time audio feedback. “We were able to identify a signal from the sensors related to the speed of the club,” Grober said. “We convert this signal into an audio soundscape that is universally intuitive to golfers and instantly interpretable, providing real-time audio feedback on the tempo, timing and rhythm of the golf swing.”

A patent was filed through the Yale Office of Cooperative Research and the technology is licensed to his company, Sonic Golf, LLC. He has successfully tested his clubs with leading PGA teaching professionals in Pinehurst, Southern California, Maui, and Florida.

Yale technology translates to sonic golf training tool

Here’s some news regarding Arnie and the upcoming Masters Tournament:

Four-times champion Arnold Palmer, who played at the Masters tournament for 50 successive years, said Wednesday he would attend but not play this year’s event that begins on April 7.

“I have no intentions of going on the golf course,” said Palmer, during a news conference at the Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando, Florida. “I’m just going to socialize.

“I may change that in the years to come but at the moment, I just feel like I want to get a feel for not playing in Augusta.

“For 50 straight years I played and I loved it. I enjoyed it tremendously and I would still enjoy it, but I just want to get the feel for not doing anything.”

Arnold Palmer will be playing in September at the Weston Golf and Country Club to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his first PGA victory at the 1955 Canadian Open held that year at Weston.

Source: Reuters.com

Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest videogame publishers, has signed an exclusive license with Vijay Singh to produce a video golf game titled after him.

Vijay Singh, Fiji-born of Indian descent and considered one of the most consistent and focused golfers on the tour, will now lend his name to one of the titles inspired by his powerful and aggressive style, the company said.

True to the significance of his first name (”Vijay” means “victory” in Hindi), the title published by Ubisoft will enable players to truly compete and challenge themselves the way Singh has done, the company said.

Source: HindustanTimes.com

Found an interesting article aboug golf in Afghanistan. The Kabul Golf Club has been re-established, and while it may not be as lush as most, it certainly has its fair share of hazards. However when in Kabul, the options for playing golf are little. So the Kabul Golf Club is an oasis of sorts for golfers in the region. To quote from the story:

“Several Afghans persuaded the new government to allow the club’s reopening and have leased the grounds for 20 years, although so far they appear to have invested relatively little. A U.N. employee donated several sets of clubs, and a de-mining agency agreed to check the course for old land mines.

Landscapers have dragged away most of the weapons and shrapnel that littered the grounds, though a rusted Russian tank still stands sentry atop one of several hills ringing the course. A large metal shipping container has been brought in to replace the old clubhouse, now a bombed-out shell.

Despite the challenges posed by the nine-hole course, about 100 diplomats, aid workers and other foreigners paid a small fee to golf here last year. With the club’s second season about to begin.”

Source: Birmingham News