SB Nation User Blog: Ryan Ballengee

Dubai's Rise and Fall Closely Tied To Its Love for Golf

Ryan Ballengee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:39:21 -0000

The presence of professional golf in the United Arab Emirates' most chic metropolis, Dubai, began in 1989 when the European Tour planted a flag in the middle of the desert. Mark James won that year with a score of 277 and pocketed some €270,000 for the win.

While James was doing that, Dubai was really just beginning its two decade explosion onto the global scene - both as a beacon of tepid acceptance of western culture in the Middle East, but also as a cultural center for the Middle East's wealthy.

The massive real estate development that has transformed Dubai's image, for better and worse, coincided with the presence of professional golf in the region. That's not to say that it was the likes of the Dubai Desert Classic's early champions - Ernie Els in the same year as his first US Open, Fred Couples one year later - shaped the city's transformation, but the growth of the tournament has certainly run parallel to that of its host city.

Aerial photograph of Dubai's desert footprint (Click to enlarge)

Emirates Golf Club, host to the DDC, was constructed one year prior and labeled the "Miracle in the Desert" as it became the first course completely covered with grass in the Middle East. The Majlis course was a clear signal to the globe that the Emirates had serious intentions in transforming Dubai from a sparsely populated, nice trade city into a global secular mecca that could boast the most "mosts" and "biggests" in the world. One need not look further for proof than the skyline view of downtown Dubai from the Majlis course to see how drastically the city changed drastically in the twenty years since the course's construction.

Today, Dubai is home to the world's only supposed 7 star hotel. It will be home to the world's tallest building and tallest hotel. An underwater hotel is near completion. It has an indoor ski park in a city where daytime temperatures average 120 degress. Manmade islands, dredged using the latest technology, have been constructed. All serve as a monument to what enormous sums of money and hubris can achieve.

The same street in Dubai circa 1989 and in 2003

The next indicator of Dubai's aggressive quest to become a global city was intended to be the Race to Dubai and Dubai-owned Lesiurecorp's five year, nearly $200 million investment in the European Tour. Leisurecorp was intending to cultivate so much influence that it could even buy the rights to host the 2018 Ryder Cup despite not having a single participant in the historic matches.

But, then the steady stream of accessible, low rate debt and financing dried up as quickly as a plant in the desert sun. The billions - maybe trillions - in debt that propped up Dubai's infrastructure, global profile, and social profile was gone. With it, the real estate and debt collapse took a large chunk of the reputation and standing that had been created in the last two decades.

On the golf front, Leisurecorp was merged into Nakheel, another Dubai-owned organization. David Spencer, the man who architected the Race to Dubai deal, was shed from the company. All of this has happened while Dubai has negotiated with Abu Dhabi - the Emirate much more solidly built on the world's unquenched thirst for oil - a plan to dig the Arabic Las Vegas out of its deep hole.

Though there are still tons of cranes in Dubai, many have come to a standstill. Many of the immigrants that came from all corners of the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent to help in the construction of the city have since left. A good number of the real estate investors that staked their futures on the growth of paper wealth have abandoned their properties and luxury vehicles. The Dubai airport has become not just a monument to Dubai's massive growth by being the world's largest airport, but its parking lot is simultaneously a memento of this dark time for the city.

Golf in Dubai also has eye-opening indicators of Dubai's drastic fall. The 2009 Dubai Desert Classic was won by Rory McIlroy. For the win, he earned €325,000 Euros for the title - just €55,000 more than what Mark James earned two decades ago. But, an even more shocking footnote is that Tiger Woods, the 2008 champion, earned five times as much for the win.

Both the city and its golf presence, though, soldier on through the trouble. Dubai refuses to withdraw its investment in the European Tour. Though it has scaled back its $20 million commitment to the upcoming Dubai World Championship down to $15 million, it did not remove itself entirely as a show of wounded strength. Jumeriah Estates, a development for the uber-wealthy, has announced that it will only continue with construction of two of its four originally intended courses. But, development has not ceased altogether.

Dubai is aggressively trying to work with Abu Dhabi and private creditors to resolve its quasi-public debt structure. Many of the cranes may have come to a stop, but some progresses along with the aggressive planning for the future of Dubai.

Not coincidentally, the future of Dubai's growth on the global stage and in the golfing world are pegged to its ability to find a way to sustain itself - much less grow - amidst the new world flow of debt and capital.

Dubai's growth has certainly been both staggering and impressive, but it has been equally rivaled by its implosion. The question remains if its future is one of stagnation or decline, or steady growth. Provided the link between the city and its love for golf, perhaps the best indicator of its future can come from the health of the game in the Emirate.

A Bra That Doubles as a Putting Green? Just the Support that Women('s Golf) Needs

Ryan Ballengee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:37:24 -0000

Japan is at it again. First it was inventing a game show where eating scorpions turned into a competition. Then it was the vending machine that distributed used panties. Now, it's a bra that - when unstrapped - can be a 1.5 meter putting green.

via i.telegraph.co.uk

The Telegraph in the UK has the sexy details:

When the user sinks a putt into one of the cups, a built-in speaker pumps out a congratulatory "Nice shot!".

The bra also features pockets for extra golf balls and tees, and a detachable flag pin that serves as a score pencil.

The bra set comes with a skirt with the words "Be Quiet" printed on the rear, which doubles up as a flag for use on the course.

The company that makes the bra, Triumph, claims to have made it because golf is increasing in popularity among Japanese women.

I'm no scientist, but any woman with a cup size even remotely significant would probably not be able to comfortably take advantage of the putting green feature of the bra. Isn't the whole point of a bra to wear it for support and comfort? I mean, that's true for men's underwear, but at least we can get away with going commando.

Perhaps it's better to come up with zippable men's underwear that can double as a putting green. On second, thought, I don't want to touch that with a ~~six~~ ~~seven~~ twelve inch pole.

But, fellas, be sure to buy this for the female golfer in your life for "Honey, I'm an asshole" day.

All-Male R&A Makes Seve Ballesteros Honorary Member

Ryan Ballengee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:09:06 -0000

The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrew's (aka The R&A) has made Seve Ballesteros an honorary member. Seve, still battling cancer, has said that he hopes to play in the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrew's that will mark the 150th anniversary of the first playing of the championship.

"I am greatly honoured to accept Honorary Membership of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews," Seve said. "I have had, perhaps, the outstanding moment of my career at St Andrews and the town will always retain a very special place close to my heart. I sincerely hope that I will be able to come back next year and be part of the 150th Anniversary of The Open Championship."

Seve joins this list of guys who have become honorary members of the club:

His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh KG, KT.
His Royal Highness The Duke of York KG, KCVO, ADC.
His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent KG, GCMG, GCVO.
The Hon. George Herbert Walker Bush GCB.
Peter Alliss
Tony Jacklin CBE.
John Jacobs OBE.
Kel Nagle
Jack Nicklaus
Arnold Palmer
Gary Player
Peter Thomson CBE, AO.
Lee Trevino
Roberto De Vicenzo
Tom Watson

Note that the R&A doesn't allow women to join its club.

But Peter Dawson thinks that's ok because St. Andrew's is a public course, so women can play the course. They just can't be in the club. So, congrats to Seve on a well-deserved distinction. Still, for those of you who complain about Augusta National's membership policies, the R&A's is worse.

Crybaby Aussie Robert Allenby is Skipping the Aussie Triple Crown

Ryan Ballengee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:44:42 -0000

Everyone knows that Robert Allenby is on quite a hot streak of late at being a dejected, sore loser coming off of back-to-back pastings at the hands of Anthony Kim - both hungover and sober. We also know that Allenby hates being heckled by drunks at tournaments, so he has vowed to never play in Australia again.

Well, Allenby - the only man to have ever won the Australian Triple Crown (Australian PGA, Australian Masters, and Australian Open) in a single year - will play in none of those events this year.

The AP reports:

Allenby has played the last three weeks on the European Tour – Spain, Singapore and Shanghai – and needed a week off before the Dubai World Championship. He also decided to play in the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa, opposite the Australian Open.

As for the Australian PGA the following week? Allenby said he needed to spend time with his ailing mother-in-law.

Seriously? Allenby is showing an awful lot of dedication to the European Tour, but nothing for his country? I mean, Aussies are more critical of their athletes than anyone when they don't support their own events. So, now this means that Allenby opens himself to more criticism. Not a smart move.

Tiger Woods Works for Globex Corporation

Ryan Ballengee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:27:45 -0000

The word has gotten out that Tiger Woods is in the middle of having some $45 million dollar home built on Jupiter Island in Florida. See, he bought up four adjacent properties on the Island, bulldozed them all to free up 12 acres, and is constructing a 9700 square foot palace that looks a little something like this.

Page2Live.com has the exclusive pics.

It has multiple wings, including a living quarters, glass covered walkway, and a gym. But, I think he's missing a wing with an indoor, Olympic-size swimming pool. You know what would help him construct that? The $3 million appearance fee that he's receiving for playing at the Australian Masters this weekend - marking his first appearance Down Under in a decade. Apparently, the Australians have really taken a liking to this young chap.

But, to get that kind of bribe might keep Tiger working hard in these relatively meaningless tournaments. Kinda reminded me of Hank Scorpio and how great of a manager he was to Homer Simpson and of Globex Corporation on The Simpsons.

Scorpio: Homer! Stop that man! He's supposed to die!
::Homer turns, shrugs, and knocks down the escapee. Armed guards surround the man and kill him::
Scorpio: When you go home tonight, there's gonna be another story on your house!

At least when Tiger gets done playing golf, he gets to go home to Elin (and the kids) instead of owning the Denver Broncos.

(H/T Bacon)

I'm Calling BS on This Loch Ness Golf Balls Stuff

Ryan Ballengee — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:33:03 -0000

Last week, everyone got their panties in a bunch about the video from the folks at SeaTrepid.com showing exactly three golf balls that they found while scouring underneath the surface of Loch Ness for the hoax of a monster rumored to be in the lake.

The CNN article reporting the story claimed that "thousands" of balls were at the bottom of Loch Ness. The follow up story then magnified the initial report of thousands of balls into "hundreds of thousands."

Clearly, over the five hundred years that people have been playing golf, some of the locals probably took the opportunity to work on their games at Loch Ness Driving Range and Swimming Hole and Excrement Sanctuary. In other words, people have been doing a whole lot of polluting in Loch Ness. Tires, sunken boats, dead bodies. They're all in Loch Ness in some varying state of decomposition.

Still, the Danish Golf Union - which I didn't even know existed because Denmark has absolutely zero standing in the golf world - went ahead and put on the tin foil cap to complain that golf balls may "takes between 100 to 1,000 years for a golf ball to decompose naturally." That led to the revelation that some 300 million golf balls are lost in the USA each year alone. It's a proverbial party in the USA! (They're playing my song.)

Then, somehow the British got wind of this international ironic conspiracy hatched by golfers to slowly destroy our planet playing a game that takes too long and is played on the earth's most beautiful soil. And so that led Scot lawmaker Patrick Harvie to proclaim, "From the moon to the bottom of Loch Ness, golf balls are humanity's signature litter in the most inaccessible locations."

Looking for a practical and meaningful solution, I honestly was considering incinerating all of our forests to clean up the golf ball problem, in addition to burning our lakes and estuaries with motor oil. It would solve our kudzu, algae bloom, and golf ball decomposition problem all at once! Then I decided to put the gas can, chainsaw, and bottle of moonshine down and think this through.

Loch Ness is 23 miles long and about a mile wide, according to about.com. Effectively, that's 23 square miles of lake. (Duh.) But, the article says that they found the balls mostly 100 to 300 yards out on the lake. All told, that gives us 5.22 square miles of lake that could have golf balls in it.

Being generous to the hippies, let's say there are 500,000 golf balls in Loch Ness. That's about 100,000 golf balls per square mile. If they're Pro V1s, then that is about $400,000 in decomposing golf gold per square mile.

Supposedly, there are 100,000 balls lost alone in the much smaller space surrounding the 17th green at Sawgrass. Not only has that been around much less time than Loch Ness - created by a glacier instead of a Caterpillar earthmover - but the density is much higher. Think about that. The 17th at Sawgrass the supposedly accounts for 0.03% of all lost balls in the USA EACH YEAR. One hole.

On top of that, our environmentally-friendly President - an admitted duffer - is contributing to the problem at a much higher clip of the former administration. George W. Bush's party rallied in '08 on the slogan "Drill, baby, drill!," which is a whole lot more destructive than shanking golf balls into the woods. So, if golf balls are so horrible for the environment, should we dig up all of our golf courses and try to find oil underneath them?

I think the people at Loch Ness should stop complaining and start fishing the bottom of the lake for golf balls instead of trying to sell us on Nessie. Besides, the Chesapeake Bay here in Maryland has a much better fake monster. Meet Chessie.

Mallory Code Has Passed Away

Ryan Ballengee — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:30:21 -0000

Mallory Code Has Passed Away

Our Old Man Par has a nice post in remembrance of Mallory Code, a 25 year old former University of Florida golf standout. She died of complications related to Cystic Fibrosis. We here at Waggle Room express our condolences to the Code family and her many, many friends among the golf world.

The Official, Running 19th Hole Golf Show Interview List

Ryan Ballengee — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:57:39 -0000

Our podcast, The 19th Hole Golf Show, does a lot of interviews during the year with big names in golf. Often times, though, I just post the link to the episode or the interview once and never bring it back. So, I've decided to keep a running list of interviews to afford everyone a chance to download the interview to their computer and listen to it at their own leisure.

Some of the interviews in particular are even more telling after the fact!

We also have some regulars on the program, including Jay Busbee from Yahoo! Devil Ball Golf, Jon Show from Sports Business Journal, and more!

Anyway, here's the list from the last six months or so, and it'll be updated into 2010 and beyond.

LPGA 2010 Schedule, Here We Come!

Ryan Ballengee — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:21:44 -0000

With two events to go on the 2009 LPGA Tour schedule and a new commissioner set to take charge in January, the Tour is nearing completion of its 2009 schedule. The schedule will be formally announced in two weeks at the LPGA Tour Championship in Houston - an event that some thought might never even be played.

During Marty Evans' reign as interim commissioner, she has secured a few tournaments for next year - ones that were crucial to maintaining any semblance of a 2010 schedule after the Shermanesque torching that Carolyn Bivens took to it. Evans got Wegmans, State Farm, the recently announced HSBC Champions, Toledo for another year, and a new event in Acapulco. She has one of the southern swing events returning. The LPGA lost the Michelob Ultra event, but that was expected. The LPGA Championship is expected to announce a new host course and presenting sponsor in Houston.

Even with all of that good news, Beth Ann Baldry reported last week that she had seen a preliminary schedule with 27 "on" weeks, but only 13 named specifically. I could probably take a crack at which ones are on there, but what comprises the 14 that are not? Are they just not coming back, or are the final contracts yet to be signed so the players cannot yet expect to be able to play that event?

Well - for what it's worth - based on the '09 schedule, here are the 13 that I would think are mentioned by name:

Honda LPGA Thailand, HSBC Women's Champions, the new J Golf event at La Costa, Kraft Nabsico Championship, Sybase Classic, LPGA State Farm Classic, Wegmans, Jamie Farr, US Women's Open, Evian Masters, Women's British Open, Canadian Women's Open, LPGA Tour Championship

Here are a few that I'm pretty sure will be back:

LPGA Championship (but has no announced venue or presenting sponsor), Bell Micro LPGA Classic, Mizuno Classic, Hana Bank KOLON event, Safeway Classic

That gives us 18 based on hunches. Throw in the Acapulco event and we have 19. Maybe three more and we get 22?

The Tiger Woods Golf Tournament Flow Chart

Ryan Ballengee — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:20:13 -0000

In light of Tiger Woods' defeat in the WGC HSBC Champions at the hands of a resurgent (for the fifth time) Phil Mickelson, I decided to save people a lot of time in the future by creating a flow chart that pretty much summarizes how every tournament in which Tiger plays winds up being covered.

This will save everyone a whole lot of time in the future, regardless of the outcome of the tournament. View it in full by clicking on it, download it or make it a favorite or commit it to memory, and then you'll understand exactly how you should see Tiger Woods' career.

Enjoy!

Click to view in full!