Welcome back to the start of the new golf season. Time to dust off those clubs and start hitting the range for the first time out. A lot has happened since the fall of 2009. Tiger woods won the 2009 Fed Ex Cup and then out of nowhere his world came crashing down during Thanksgiving, November 2009. His scandal ripped through the media and all of a sudden Tiger was on the front of newspapers everywhere, not for his golf skill or winning a big tournament, but for an adulterous lifestyle with numerous mistresses. He was living two worlds: the Tiger Woods persona and his own secret life that few knew about. When his wife Elin found out, things got crazy and in two hot minutes, Tigger was fodder for all the late night shows, TMZ.com and radaronline.com. He was the next huge celebrity to come crashing down for all of the world to see. The great thing about Tiger up until now, has been his ability to mold his persona and stay out of the limelight for everything except his golf playing ability. Even his yacht is named “Privacy”. It shows that he wants nothing more than to be left a lone and only come out to play with media only for golf purposes. However, Tiger makes his living off pushing and endorsing products to his fans. And when that’s the case, he often sits in our living room with his whole world exposed. Given that the truth has come out, he will now be hounded by paparzzi and tmz for the rest of his life. Such a large mistake has caused him to lose the privilege of staying out of the limelight except when on the golf course.
Tiger Woods has recently announced his comeback to golf after a 4 month hiatus. He will start at the Masters in a tightly controlled media event. Was there ever any doubt that he would be back for the Masters? He was always going to play at the Masters. His so called break was a publicity stunt. If you think about it, his normal schedule would have been to start playing at Bay Hill. So in reality he has only missed 1 or 2 tournaments from his normal schedule had the scandal not been released. Tiger is still a legend in the making, what he does in his private life is his business. What I think really hurts his fans and his relationship with the media is his arrogance and standoffish attitude where he thinks he can control everything. From dictating what questions to answer to allowing only a 5 min interview on his terms. What he really needs to do is open up to everyone admit his faults in an honest fashion that his fans can relate to and show his human side. Not stage a reading of a fake insincere letter. No one will believe it. He must give a sincere apology, speak the truth and move on. But if he continues to put up a shield and lie to everyone, no one will respect him and give him the privacy that he wants and seeks. Having said all that, this will all blow over. Soon enough Tiger will be back winning majors and this will be a faint memory. No one will care about his scandal in year or so. He will continue to achieve great things and break all the golfing records that are out there.
What Tiger should learn from this experience is that he is not invincible. He is human. He will make mistakes. Tiger must learn that the media and his fans will no longer trust his words. He is going to have to re-earn his reputation and regain his fans. And when they do, which is going to happen, it will appear as nothing ever happened. It may seem like his world ended late 2009. But for him it will have been just a small bump in the road in an otherwise illustrious golfing career. As for his wife, Elin, it’s up to her whether she can forgive him. And for what its worth, I don’t think she will be able to overcome her hatred for his actions over the span of their marriage. Good Luck Tiger. Here’s to hoping you play well at the Masters.
Last night was great. We took some time off from Caddyshank to go see U2 last night at the Rogers Centre. It was a last minute decision to go and almost looked like we wouldn’t make it. I secured tickets the night before through craigslist. When we checked the day of the concert the prices had gone up. There were more people looking for tickets than selling tickets. Talk about the opportunity for revenue management. Word must have spread that U2 put on an amazing performance the night before so obviously demand goes up, plus all the people that attended and wanted to go again. So the perfect opportunity for scalpers to charge prices based on demand. We ran into quite a large problem as we when we went to the agreed meeting spot at no one showed up to exchange our tickets for money. We waited for 30 mins but were stood up. So we were all a bit disappointed and it was looking like we would just go have a nice dinner as we didn’t want to pay the high scalper prices. In a last ditch effort we searched craigslist and made a call to a guy who had 4 general admission tickets. Amazing, luck was on our side. We met him at 5pm, got our tickets and made our way to Rogers Centre. We got in relatively early and found a good spot facing the middle of the stage.
Caddyshank at u2
Warming the crowd was the band Snowpatrol. They put on a good show and the lead singer even joked around that he was hungover from experiencing our wonderful Toronto nightlife the previous night.
Then there was about a 45min wait where the stage was being setup for U2. The crowd started to get bigger and bigger, eventually filing the entire Rogers Centre. I estimate that almost 99% of the seats were filled, so probably 50,000 people in the stands and another 8,000 in general admission standing room only. When U2 came out, everyone cheered. They started with songs from their most recent album and then moved on to the classics. The atmosphere was electrifying. Bono even brought a kid on stage for a song. The played a 23 song set. Wow, can’t believe the band does so many songs. Great value and awesome experience. No one wanted to leave. But finally the performance had to end. We were all impressed with how great Bono sounded in the Rogers Centre. The music sounded amazing even better than the prerecorded songs that are done in the studio. The whole time we were there, the crowd was cheering, dancing and singing along. The 360 stage was fantastic, as we could see many camera views of the band on the moving screen above the band. It almost felt like we were part of a U2 music video or more recently the U2 BlackBerry commercials. If you have a chance to see U2, you should do it. Highly recommended. One of the best live bands today and an awesome experience.
Why do we call out Tiger having a bad season when he wins 5 tournaments and has a season that many pros would consider a fine career. Because Tiger is one of the greats. We are witnessing a new era for golf. A legend in the making. I’m happy that my generation has witnessed so many greats. There’s MJ in basketball, Larry Bird before him, Gretzky in hockey, Jerry Rice in Football, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer in Tennis. The list goes on and on and then you stop and realize there will always be the next great legend. It’s evolution, efficient markets and competition. Whatever you want to call it, it’s inevitable that someone will come along and break all the records. A few weeks ago we witnessed the unthinkable. Usain Bolt demolishing the world record in the 100 and 200M. He makes it look it easy. There will always be another legend.
When Jack Nicklaus was winning major after major, no one could comprehend a better champion. Someone who will win more than 18 majors. No one will ever be able to do it again. And here we are, only 23 years later after Jack won his last Major the 1986 masters, watching the unthinkable, Tiger chasing the record of 18 majors. Tiger is at 14. He almost had 15 at the PGA Championship a few weeks ago. He will eventually surpass Jack, it’s only a matter of time. What is Tiger’s final major wins number? No one knows for sure, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say he finishes his career with 20-25 majors. And when Tiger’s career is all said and done, another generation will watch in awe as a new legend chases down Tigers record and ultimately does the unthinkable.
His second place finish to YE Yang shows the world he isn’t invicible. He can still lose a major when leading after 54 holes. A chink in his armour for sure. But I think it’s probably a good thing for Tiger and a scary moment for the PGA pros. Yes, it gives all the pros hope that they too can have a shot at beating Tiger. But what I predict will happen is Tiger will refocus and train even harder, to never let it happen again. Yes, he’s going to lose some more in his career. But now that he knows the feeling of losing a major on Sunday. He won’t want that feeling again. Did you see the look onhis face when YE Yang sunk his put on 18. It was completely unemotional. Inside he must have been feeling regret. Like I made way too many mistakes and let this guy win. Yes YE Yang played great, but it also took a 75 from Tiger to make it happen. One thing is for certain though, Tiger’s a legend in the making and we are witnessing one of the greatest golfers to ever grace this planet…. so far.
Woo Hoo! We just got word from Apple that our iPhone application was approved. Thanks to all our beta testers who gave valuable feedback and helped us improve the app to where it is today. We are focused on bringing the best and latest technology to golfers to make life easier and play more golf. This is our first iPhone application and complements the launch of our website. Below is what CourseCaddy is about and how it works:
-ONE click GPS to search for courses near you
-SEARCH for courses by city, course name or both
-CREATE a favorites list
-ACCESS course information
-CALL courses to book tee-times
-RETRIEVE 4 day weather forecast
-GET directions to golf courses
And best of all it’s FREE! We hope you enjoy using our iPhone golf app as much as we enjoyed making it. We would like to hear from you about what other features you would like to see in the next release. We are hoping to add tee-time booking through the app for the 2010 golf season. Look out for caddyshank, this is just the beginning.
Here’s the link to our app on iTunes (Note if you do not have iTunes you will be taken to the iTunes download page first):
Over the next few weeks Team caddyshank will bring you a series of articles describing some of the great public golf courses in North America. We will feature four different courses from each state and province based on our experiences, our friends and your feed back. We like courses that are well manicured, designed to incorporate the natural beauty of land while at the same time providing a challenge for all types of golfers in a friendly, fun environment. We want to highlight the courses that take your breath away as you stand at the tee box waiting to hit your drive down the middle. You know what I’m talking about. The courses that make you say “I don’t want to be anywhere else but here playing golf, having a beer and going for the green!” Our goal to is to promote the game of golf and encourage golfers to try as many different courses as they can. The courses we pick are not the definitive list, just our list. And we hope this wll help provoke discussion, give you a new course to play and promote the game we all love. Some of these courses will be well-known famous courses, while others will be hidden gems. We love finding hidden gems and telling people about them. Please feel free to comment and suggest courses that we may have missed. We just might feature your favorite course in a future article.
Let’s start off by describing who we are and what we are trying to do. We are 3 MBA’s that have a passion for technology and a love for golf. We would like to bring the new e-commerce and internet technologies that surround us, to the golf industry. By creating an online golf portal, we want golfers to have access to all things related to golf. Searching for golf courses, booking tee-times, and interacting within our community are just some of the features that we are looking to provide. Our goal is to create a place on the internet where golfers can come to get their golfing fix. Our first product is an iPhone app, CourseCaddy. We are awaiting Apple’s approval,so it should be on iTunes any day now.
Why have we decided to do this?
Well we see a market out there for golfers. Everywhere you look consumers are using the internet to purchase anything and everything these days. From flights, to vacations, to books, to electronics, to movie tickets. Everything that you can think of is purchased on the internet. So we asked ourselves, why not golf? As golfers, we want to see more transperancy of tee-times and eliminate the task of calling 4-5 golf courses everytime we want to play. I want to be able go to a website, look for a golf course and tee-time that fits my availability and my budget and book. Easy, simple and hassle free. And we at caddyshank are looking to provide that service. I would also like golfers to be able to search and find great deals on caddyshank.com. The goal is to make it easier for people to play more golf. For golf courses, we would like to provide an amazing marketplace to show the world your golf course. We are working very hard to bring you our vision. If you have any thoughts, comments or features that you would like to see give us a shout.
