The Colorado State University bookstores have pulled school logo ball markers from their shelves following accusations they were made with sweatshop labor.

CSU said it pulled the Team Golf products from the bookstore pending an investigation by the Fair Labor Association. CSU refuses to sell any licensed apparel or logo items made in questionable working conditions, said Mark Minor, CSU’s assistant vice president for public affairs.

In a statement, Minor noted that the allegations against Team Golf are just that - allegations - but said CSU immediately pulled any of the company’s items just to be sure.

“We have contacted our FLA representative, who says they have begun an investigation,” Minor said. “Until that investigation runs its course, and/or until the charges against Team Golf are either substantiated or proven false, CSU has suspended business operations with Team Golf including pulling any existing Team Golf inventory from the shelves of the CSU bookstore.”

If making things in questionable labor conditions is a rationale for pulling things from the shelves, then CSU had better remove the better part of its licensed apparel and the various logo trinkets. I haven’t been to CSU’s store recently (my father was a graduate, and we visited several times back in the 70s and 80s), but if it’s anything like UM bookstores, it’s full of stuff made in China. And by definition, that means poor working conditions.

My guess is that they’re picking on a small ball marker maker because Nike has too many lawyers. So instead, these moonbats sweep the stores clear of ball markers and then go home, feeling smug and satisfied that they’ve done their part for global justice ... while wearing their made-in-China t shirts, cargo pants and shoes, listening to their iPods (produced in China by women who make $50 a month) and driving their hybrid vehicles (whose batteries are produced in environmentally disastrous Chinese nickel processing sweatshops). 

A pair of Minnesota entrepreneurs are suing the USGA after that organization rejected their invention, accusing it of a conspiracy to keep their brainchild off the courses and off the market.

The device in question is called the Windage. Designed as a golf ball sized bulb, when pressed it blows a cloud of talc into the air, showing the golfer the direction and speed of the wind.

It’s the gadget equivalent of tossing a few blades of grass in the air—or for smokers, of blowing a puff—and watching the results. And that’s why Brian Trachsel and David Healy thought the USGA would give Windage their seal of approval.

But golf’s self-proclaimed governing body rejected the device, saying that it violates Rule 14-3(b), which prohibits artificial devices to gauge or measure conditions affecting play.

Trachsel and Healy now have taken the case to federal court, suing the USGA and “unnamed co-conspirators”.

I am of course, not a lawyer; nor did I recently sleep at a Holiday Inn Express. But it looks to me as though they have a case. The USGA has, after all, approved such things as laser range finders and GPS units, which absolutely are artificial devices that measure conditions (distance) during play. I’ll bet a jury would have a hard time drawing distinctions.

But if there are few distinctions between a GPS and the Windage, why is the one rejected? The cynic in me says that the laser finders and gps units were approved because those companies have deep pockets and could potentially have caused the USGA legal difficulties. The Windage guys are, on the other hand, relatively small potatoes. A Windage sells for just six bucks.

So now the USGA has a lawsuit on its hands. Again. They have in recent years been sued over several rulings—most recently over the Bionic Glove. That one ended in an out-of-court settlement.

And I’m betting the Windage lawsuit also will be settled out of court. The USGA doesn’t want to go to court over these issues because the potential is that it could lose the power to dictate golf equipment.

I have in the past compared the situation to the War Powers Act passed by Congress back in the 1970s. It’s never been challenged, because neither side wants to find the answer. If the President won a challenge to the Act, he would gain tremendously. And if the Congress won, the President’s power in other areas would be seriously curtailed. Neither side can afford to take a chance on losing. So they sidestep the problem by coming to an agreement every time.

I think that the same tenuous agreement exists between the manufacturers and the USGA. The USGA can’t take a chance on finding out that it doesn’t have the power to dictate equipment. And the manufacturers don’t want to find out that it does.

You can read more about the case here.

The LA Daily News has a short article on the founder ofTartan Golf Grips, a new company which makes --- golf grips in tartan designs, of course.

Nice idea.

The Turnberry Golf Course—which will host the 2009 British Open Championship—is up for sale. It’s expected to fetch 100 million pounds.

I’ll get out my checkbook.

USA Today is reporting that Mattel will offer a “Barbie Golf” set starting in November. The $40 set is manufactured by Cougar Golf—an omnipresent department store brand—and will be offered at Target.

The theory, apparently, is that it will draw all sorts of little girls to the sport.

“We know from our research that a big part of a little girl’s life is about being active, about playing outdoors,” says Juan Gutierrez, senior director of Mattel consumer products. “We believe that offering a golf club set offers a girl another option to play another sport.”

It’ll never work. They may sell a lot to fathers who dream of having their daughters play with them, but my guess is that most of gather cobwebs in garage corners.