Nike Inc. will launch new golf clubs this month without the promotional muscle of golfing great Tiger Woods.

That will be a challenge for the sporting-goods giant, which was largely a nonentity in golf before it built a sizable business around the superstar’s image.

Nike says that its Victory Red STR8-FIT Tour fairway woods, which will go on sale Jan. 28 for $299, were designed with input from all 13 U.S. golf stars who promote Nike’s golf products. But the promotional materials make no mention of Mr. Woods, whose tradition of wearing red shirts on the final day of golf tournaments inspired the Victory Red name.

Instead, the materials trumpet that the clubs were tested in tournament play by a respected but lesser-known golf pro, Lucas Glover, who claimed his first major victory last year when he won the U.S. Open Championship.

Nike’s inability to bank on Mr. Woods — who remains a Nike-sponsored athlete but is postponing his career as he deals with the fallout from his alleged extramarital affairs — comes at a problematic time. The Beaverton, Ore., company has faced deteriorating golf sales because of the recession. Annual revenue at the Nike Golf division fell 11% last year to $648 million after peaking at $725 million the year before.

Still, some of Nike’s retail partners said they expect the company’s clubs to sell well in 2010, with or without Mr. Woods to champion them.

“They have certainly established themselves as a very successful golf manufacturer over the past 10-plus years, and we believe we will have a very solid year with them,” said Matt Corey, senior vice president of marketing at Golfsmith International Holdings Inc., the nation’s largest specialty golf retailer.

Nike declined to discuss the effect of Mr. Woods’s problems on its business, where overall revenue grew 3% to $19.2 billion in fiscal 2009. But in a conference call with investors last month, Chief Executive Mark Parker played down the ramifications, even as he acknowledged that larger economic factors were hurting golf sales.

“We feel very good about how we are managing our golf business through this period and our position in the broader golf market,” Mr. Parker said, adding, “We’ll continue to support Tiger and his family as we, of course, look forward to his return.”

Nike’s golf slump mirrors a wider plunge in the market for golf apparel and gear, as consumers put off discretionary purchases. Sales of clubs and other hard equipment fell 11.9% in the first 11 months of 2009 at golf-course shops and specialty stores, according to Golf Datatech LLC, a market research firm. Retail experts estimate that such locations make up roughly three-fourths of total golf sales.

While Mr. Woods’s alleged peccadilloes have forced him out of the limelight for at least part of this year, some golf-industry experts say Nike has a larger set of options because of the recent emergence of other stars.

Like Mr. Glover, Stewart Cink, also a Nike-sponsored athlete, captured his first major title last year when he won the British Open. .

“Nike golfers won two major tournaments last year, and neither guy was named Tiger Woods,” said Tom Stine, co-founder of Golf Datatech. “What Tiger gave Nike is credibility. When you have the top guy out there winning with your stuff, it tells the public that you have top-line equipment. But they have plenty of other golfers doing that now.”

Michelle Wie, also under contract with Nike, won her first professional women’s tournament last year, one of the first signs that the 20-year-old phenom could yet fulfill her potential to become the female version of Mr. Woods.

Nike first dabbled in golf in 1985 with a shoe called the Air Linkster, and pro Curtis Strange donned its gear while winning U.S. Open championships in 1988 and 1989. But it was not until Nike signed a huge endorsement deal with a 20-year-old Mr. Woods in 1996 that the swoosh became an upstart in the business side of the sport.

The golfer draped himself in Nike apparel as he won a dizzying succession of major titles, and the company blanketed the airwaves with emotional ads playing up his historic ascent, notably a landmark spot called “I am Tiger Woods” that showed children of numerous races playing the game.

Mr. Woods started using Nike golf balls rather than the Titleist balls favored by other stars, and later picked up Nike clubs, moves that experts say greatly helped the company win over skeptical golfers raised on such brands as Callaway Golf Co. and TaylorMade Golf Co, a subsidiary of Adidas. Titleist is part of Acushnet Co., a subsidiary of Fortune Brands Inc. that also includes Cobra golf clubs and FootJoy golf shoes and generates annual revenue of more than $1 billion.

Mr. Woods has also helped Nike craft new clubs, boosting the company’s reputation for cutting-edge sports-gear design. “This is my iron. This is what I created. This is what I’ve been playing,” Mr. Woods said in a promotional video for a Victory Red line of golf irons two years ago. “Now that consumers get to feel and play what I’ve been playing, they’ll understand why I love it so much.”

Rio de Janeiro

String Bikinis in Rio

Little do I know about the International Olympic Committee and how they do what they do. I’m still scratching my head in wonderment over their decision to choose the least prepared of the 4 competing cities.

Rio has the least-prepared infrastructure of any of the four cities that competed for the hosting opportunity.

Nearly half the stadium capacity it needs will have to be built and additional renovations will be necessary to provide another 24 percent of the minimum required seating.

Rio’s metro system does not link the city center and most of its hotels to the outskirts of Barra da Tijuca, where most of the venues are concentrated.

It’s a beautiful setting, but it’s also notorious for violent crime in its shantytowns, or ‘favelas’, ruled largely by warring drug gangs. However, Rio says it will spend heavily on its infrastructure, and hopefully they will find a way to contain the drug lords.

I can’t imagine where the golf events will be played. The courses that I saw there did not appear to me to up to the standards for Olympic competition. But, there’s plenty of time to construct a course that will be a good test.

Me, I think I’ll just hang around the beaches of Ipanema, Copacabana, or  Angra dos Reis and look at the girls in their string bikinis.

Charles Barkley Golf Swing

Although none of the skits on Saturday Night Live were outstanding, Charlies Barkley did a good job last night……mostly at making fun of himself. He’s a funny man and he playfully poked fun at himself about his gambling and being arrested in his opening monologue. Then, he did a skit about his terrible golf swing.

If you’ve never seen how bad his golf swing is, click on this link to see a YouTube video: Video

It’s an old video, done before Hank Haney took on the project of making Charles’ swing better. The swing is better but it’s still bad. It makes you wonder how much he hurts physically the day after he plays 18 holes…..makes me hurt just watching him.

Fred Couples

Corey Pavin

I must be getting really old, ’cause Fred Couples and Corey Pavin are joining the 50 and older Champions Tour! Maybe, if I sent each of them a case of Grecian Formula and a back-brace, they would consider staying on the regular tour. We don’t get to see much of the Champions Tour, so I’ll miss them as I do Arnie, Jack, Gary, Lee, and many others.

They will be joining six others……Ben Crenshaw, Hale Irwin, Bruce Lietzke, Mark O’Meara, Gary Player and Curtis Strange…..all 8 with sponsors exemptions, in the season opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. The tournament is the first of 26 official Champions Tour events for 2010 and will be held for the 14th straight year at the Jack Nicklaus designed Hualalai Golf Course in Ka’upulehu-Kona, Hawaii on January 19-24. The eight will join a field of eligible players who are winners of Champions Tour major championships in the last five years and winners of Champions Tour co-sponsored events which awarded official money in the past two years.

There comes a time when we get weary of being played for a sucker by modern thug professional athletes. They act like we owe them something, or everything, and they owe us nothing. Sure, buy those over-priced stadium tickets, drink and eat those over-priced beverages and hot dogs…..pay outrageous prices for sponsored equipment and clothing…. then listen to them whine and cry about wanting privacy and “I don’t get no respect.” Every time I hear the “respect” card being played by one of the professional thugs, I fear I’ll puke on my shoes. What you earn is what you’ll get, boneheads.

If justice where to be done, Tiger Woods would have to start from square one, again, with nothing. Then, maybe second time around, he would realize the significance of being a genuine human being. He had a lot of help developing his “royal personality” by his father, his counselors and handlers. So, maybe we can’t put all the blame on him. There were a lot of outside influences on what he would eventually become as a person. But, he sure feasted on it and presented a public image that was completely phony.

I won’t hold my breath until he returns, and won’t care if he never does.

Photo by Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune

78 golfers played in the 47th annual Eskimo Open at Cog Hill in Lemont, Illinois, last Sunday. They played special winter rules which included an automatic two-putt when you were within 36-inches of the cup.

I certainly hope the bar was open and had an ample supply of whiskey.

Photo credit: Scott Halleran/Getty Images

With the new season on us and memories of the down 2009 season, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem is moving swiftly to make as much out of the 2010 season as possible. He has already visited the Kapalua Resort as the season-opening tour event approaches and welcomed the new sponsor Seoul Broadcasting Corp. The SBS Championship begins Thursday at the Plantation Course with only winners of last year’s tour events eligible for the $5.6 million tournament.

“We’ve had two very challenging couple of years, but I think we’ve turned the corner,” said Finchem. There is no mystery about what has occurred with economic challenges and the media blitz over golf’s icon, Tiger Woods. He did offer one observation: “I’ve never seen such media scrutiny, such a frenzy for coverage. It was bigger than 9-11, bigger than anything else you can think of. It was never ending there for a while. Thankfully, there’s a lull.”

Very important, at least early on, is Finchem’s travel itinerary.  He plans to jet back and forth between his headquarters and west coast golf events for the next two months. Sponsors need to see him and players need to see him. Two tour events, San Diego and Palm Springs,still require sponsors. But at least AT&T, which recently dropped its sponsorship of Woods, remains committed to two PGA Tour stops, the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the AT&T National, the event hosted by Woods which will move from the Washington D.C. area to Aronimink GC outside Philadelphia.

Finchem will not be able to be at the Sony Open in Hawaii, next week’s first full-field event. But he will make an appearance at six or seven of the next eight tournaments. He’ll be required to do some heavy duty traveling early in this new season to try to salvage what some say may be a disastrous season for the PGA.

Stan James Betting News has posted the following odds, Europe 4/5, USA 5/4, The Tie 10/1.

World number one Woods is currently taking a break from golf as he tries to sort out his personal problems after admitting being unfaithful to his wife. And he has not yet revealed if he will participate in the event between October 1-3.

Montgomerie is aware that Woods has a good record for the United States, particularly in the singles, but still feels his team will come out on top.

He told BBC Sport: “A lot depends on whether Tiger plays as he hasn’t lost in the singles.

“But if our 12 play to their potential, with the crowd’s backing, we will win.”

Bill and daughter Renee... AP Photo/Phil Long

Bill Powell, who was the first African-American to build, own and operate a golf course, died Thursday. He was 93.

In August, Powell received the PGA Distinguished Service Award, the association’s highest annual honor. In November, he was inducted into the Northern Ohio PGA Hall of Fame and honored as the Person of the Year by the Ohio Golf Course Owners Association.

Recently, the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce also presented the Powell family with its Community Salute Award.

“Bill Powell will forever be one of golf’s most unforgettable American heroes,” PGA of America president Jim Remy said. “Bill made us appreciate the game and each other that much more by his gentle, yet firm example.

According to Gary Van Sickle, Senior Writer for Sports Illustrated, 2009’s award as the worst golf year ever was sewed up by Tiger Woods’ fall.

Here’s an excerp from his article:
“This year was scary bad. Every golf tour in the world is downsizing, some at alarming rates, along with advertising and sponsorship dollars. More courses are closing than are being built in America. Golf equipment makers have been forced to cut jobs. Golf real estate values, like most real estate values, have plunged. Golf hasn’t seen a dip like this since the Great Depression, not counting Charles Barkley’s swing. In fact, that’s how bad 2009 was — a show featuring Barkley trying to fix his spastic Mr. Roboto swing was one of the year’s guilty pleasures. We could all relate to Sir Charles.

The men’s major championships, while thrilling to watch, were ultimately bastions of buzzkill. If Kenny Perry, Phil Mickelson and Tom Watson had won the first three majors, and if Woods had finished off the PGA Championship, we might be talking about one of golf’s all-time storybook seasons. With no disrespect to the champs — Angel Cabrera, Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink and Y.E. Yang — the winners we had were less compelling than the stories of the nearly men.”

(I don’t want to sound like a pessimist either, but I agree with him. This no-name decade ended with a golf year that left a lot to be desired. This was a banner year for my naps in front of the golf on TV. I’m hoping 2010 will be less restful and provide us some real golf entertainment.)