Chips & Putts: TaylorMade Makes Custom PGA Championship Balls

TaylorMade Offering Golf Balls With Double-Digit Markings

Pro golfers using TaylorMade TP balls on the range at this week’s PGA Championship will find a special number stamped on the shell as part of a new product offering. Instead of the customary single digits on the balls, each will have a number 90 to mark the nine decades of the event’s existence. TaylorMade is launching a new site at www.mytpball.com that will allow golfers to order balls with any double-digit combination between 00 and 99, which are the customary numbers played by TaylorMade-adidas Golf endorsers Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose, respectively. The upcharge for the customization is expected to be around $15 for a minimum purchase of three-dozen balls (Jon Show, SportsBusiness Journal).

SPONSORS: Firestone following last weekend's WGC Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, will discuss "whether it wants to continue its involvement" with the WGC. Contracts with Bridgestone as the sponsor and Firestone as the host expire after the 2010 event (AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, 8/3)....In Providence, Paul Kenyon reported sponsors for the PGA Tour Deutsche Bank Championship "continue to be added, the new ones including MasterCard as a Founders Partner." Deutsche Bank Tournament Dir Seth Waugh said that discussions are being held to get golfer Tiger Woods, who will not play in the event as he continues to recover from knee surgery, involved with the tournament (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, 8/3).

AROUND THE LINKS: The PGA Tour Bob Hope Chrysler Classic Friday said that it would eliminate from its four-course rotation the Classic Club in Palm Desert, California, a course owned by the event, effective for the '09 tournament. In San Diego, Tod Leonard noted players "complained about the sometimes high winds" at the course (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 8/2)....The Barclays Exec Dir Peter Mele said that ticket sales for the event, to be played August 21-24, are "higher than they were at this point last year." Mele: "We're almost five times (better) where we were with two weeks to go than last year" (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 8/5)....The Tarheel Tour has partnered with EGolf to rename the circuit the EGolf Tarheel Tour, and organizers "plan to have a 20-tournament schedule along the East Coast in 2009" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 8/6).