A very interesting story from the AFP:

US President George W. Bush said in an interview out Tuesday that he quit playing golf in 2003 out of respect for the families of US soldiers killed in the conflict in Iraq, now in its sixth year.

“I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal,” he said in an interview for Internet hub Yahoo! and Politico magazine.

“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them.”

The US president traced his decision to the August 19, 2003 bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad, which killed the world body’s top official in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.

“I remember when de Mello, who was at the UN, got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man’s life. And I was playing golf—I think I was in central Texas—and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, it’s just not worth it anymore to do,” said Bush.

Bush’s last round of golf as president dates back to October 13, 2003, according to meticulous records kept by CBS news.

On the day of the bombing two months earlier, he had cut short his golf game at the 12th hole and returned to his ranch in tiny Crawford, Texas.

Pete Dye, designer of the TPC Sawgrass, has been selected for the World Golf Hall of Fame. Dye was selected in the Lifetime Achievement Category, and joins architects Donald Ross, Alister Mackenzie and Robert Trent Jones, Sr.

“This is really a surprise,” Dye said. “With all the great people that are in the Hall of Fame, it’s an honor to be part of them because they’ve all given back to the game of golf, and I’m certainly proud to be here as one of them.”

We have a great Pete Dye course near GolfBlogger World Headquarters in Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan’s Radrick Farms. There’s a photo at left, and you can see more photos of this hidden gem here.

Champ Spikes sent me this email about their Breast Cancer Research Foundation fundraiser:

CHAMP Spikes has expanded its highly successful Pink on the Links program for 2008 by adding an eBay charity auction and increasing player participation across all tours. Pros will be asked to wear CHAMP’s commemorative pink and white spikes during Mother’s Day weekend tournaments across the globe and CHAMP will make a donation to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) on their behalf.

The Pink on the Links program also includes a charity eBay auction which is new for 2008 where items up for bid include:

- Autographed shoes from Tiger Woods
- Autographed shoes from Lorena Ochoa
- Autographed shoes from Padraig Harrington
- An autographed golf bag from Paul Casey
- Autographed shoes from Se Ri Pak
- Golf foursome with winner’s choice of FUTURES Tour player (conditions apply)

In addition to CHAMP’s donation on behalf of Tour players wearing the pink and white spikes, 100% of proceeds from the Pink on the Links auction
items will benefit the BCRF. Please visit the auction through the CHAMP website, http://www.champspikes.com or directly at http://www.stores.ebay.com/pinkonthelinks, starting May 10th. The auction runs until May 20th.

Maybe Champs will send me some pink spikes for my Eccos. Then I can tell my wife that I absolutely HAVE to go to the course on Mother’s day to show my support for the cause.

Frank Thomas, former USGA Technical Director isn’t going to make any friends among the equipment manufacturers.

“Golf equipment makers are in the business of selling things,” Thomas writes. “But just as the word new on your toothpaste tube doesn’t mean that your previous brand will make your teeth decay, the presence of a new model club or ball doesn’t mean that the stuff you already own is holding you back.”

Still, amateurs see players going for the green on what were once par-4s of a decent length and think the equipment pros use will help them. Yet, as Thomas points out, amateurs drive the ball an average of 192 yards. Most golfers routinely overestimate how far they drive the ball. Their egos — well, the male ego anyway — keeps many from using cheaper balls and sticking with older equipment that’s good enough.

“I hope I get people thinking a little bit more,” Thomas said in an interview at the Bay Hill Club in Orlando last week. “Guys, let’s be real about ourselves. We drive the ball 192 yards. Don’t tell me you drive it 250.”

In an article in the Globe and Mail, Thomas, an expert on golf equipment, says that equipment is “maxed out.” He also says that the pros’ game has deluded the average golfer into thinking that with top line equipment they can hit the ball much further than they actually can. That in turn leads amateurs to play from the wrong tees, hurting their scores and slowing down the rounds.

Frank’s latest book is Just Hit It, in which he writes about the way the equipment has changed the game.

A great quote: “Standard clubs will do fine until you shoot consistently in the mid to low 70s. Until then, work on improving you instead of your clubs.”

The Sports Economist links to a bit of research that reveals that:

Since 1947, English football teams wearing red shirts have been champions more often than expected on the basis of the proportion of clubs playing in red. To investigate whether this indicates an enhancement of long-term performance in red-wearing teams, we analysed the relative league positions of teams wearing different hues. Across all league divisions, red teams had the best home record, with significant differences in both percentage of maximum points achieved and mean position in the home league table. The effects were not due simply to a difference between teams playing in a colour and those playing in a predominantly white uniform, as the latter performed better than teams in yellow hues. No significant differences were found for performance in matches away from home, when teams commonly do not wear their “home” colours.

Hmmm. Red shirts result in more wins.

Tiger has known that for years.