Testing Balls for Distance Hasn’t Gotten Off Ground

Remember the controversy in April when the USGA sent letters to 35 golf ball manufacturers asking them to submit prototype balls for testing that could lead to new limits on how far they could go?

Here’s an update: Nothing.

That’s right. Nothing has happened. Nearly five months later, not one ball from a single company has shown up at the doorstep of Dick Rugge, senior technical director of the U.S. Golf Assn.

Rugge, who said “eight or nine” of the companies said they would honor the USGA’s request and that he expected the rest to do the same, isn’t shocked that the needle has failed to move even an inch.

“It takes a while,” he said of the process. “It doesn’t surprise me. They said they would [submit prototypes], so I believe they will.”

On April 11, the day after the Masters ended, the USGA sent letters to the manufacturers and asked them to design two prototype balls -- one that would fly 15 yards shorter and the other 25 yards shorter when hit under current testing procedures.

Of course, the stakes are high in this game. The golf equipment industry is a $3.2-billion business worldwide and the golf ball’s share is $1.1 billion.

Maybe looking at numbers like that will be enough to finally get the ball rolling.

Rugge expects to be testing by the end of the year.

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The Tiger Effect (Again): Overnight Nielsen ratings on ABC’s final-round coverage of the Deutsche Bank Championship were down 51.2% from last year, when Tiger Woods was nosed out by Vijay Singh. This year, with Woods out of contention, Singh not playing and journeyman Olin Browne winning, the numbers showed it.

Woods couldn’t do much about his tie for 40th at the Deutsche Bank, for two main reasons: “I hit it bad on the range and bad on the course.”

It was the first time Woods wound up out of the top four since he missed the cut at the Byron Nelson in mid-May. But Woods doesn’t have to worry about that for a while. His next tournament is the Presidents Cup in two weeks, but he won’t play another PGA Tour event until the $7.5-million American Express Championship, Oct. 6-9, at Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco.

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It was hard to figure out the most important Sergio Garcia news over the weekend -- the fact that he won the European Masters in Switzerland, that it was the first tournament that counts toward European Ryder Cup points or that he was fined an undisclosed amount for getting mad and kicking an advertising board during the third round after a three-putt double bogey.

That incident set researchers off to find previous fits of pique by Garcia.

* In the World Match Play at Wentworth in 1999, Garcia was reprimanded after he slipped on a tee, took off his shoe and kicked it, almost hitting a referee.

* In the British Open at St. Andrews in 2000, Garcia was reprimanded for smashing his club into the ground after discovering his ball had rolled into a divot.

* In the 2001 Greg Norman Invitational at Sydney, Garcia was penalized for an incorrect drop when he was leading the tournament, so he hit a golf cart and a tree with his sand wedge.

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It has been a long and winding road for Browne, 46, who made $990,000 for winning the Deutsche Bank and thus secured his playing status on the PGA Tour for the next two years.

That sort of security has been rare for Browne, whose first tournament victory at the 1998 Greater Hartford Open came 14 years after he turned pro. But just last December, Browne was at qualifying school at PGA West because he had finished out of the top 125 on the PGA Tour money list for the second consecutive year.

He didn’t earn his card at Q-school, and his lack of status to enter tournaments held him back, but Browne’s perseverance paid off in his first victory in six years and third in his career.

Browne has missed seven cuts this year, but after shooting a 59 in U.S. Open qualifying, he found himself with a shot at winning the Open at Pinehurst. Tied for second going into the final round, he shot 80 and tied for 23rd.

Thanks to a long and involved process of rebuilding his swing, overseen by Jim Hardy, Browne’s victory at the Deutsche Bank was his first in 193 tournaments, and things are certainly looking up for him. Browne was 119th on the money list last week and 39th now. He was ranked 241st in the world last week and he moved up 138 places to 103rd.

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On the Champions Tour, there’s a lot of talk about the window of opportunity closing once you turn 55. Hale Irwin, 60, who won the First Tee Open at Pebble Beach last week, has won 17 times since turning 55.

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From Dave Perkins of the Toronto Star, about how the Canadian Open, which starts today, has the unfortunate circumstance of following the Deutsche Bank and how the PGA Tour may move the Canadian tournament next year to either the week before or the week after the British Open, causing further damage: “Once again we’re dealing with Americans looking after their own interests and not giving a hoot about ours.”

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The Solheim Cup starts Friday at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., and the U.S. will try to keep its record intact of never losing at home.

But the European team won two years ago in a rout and both sides have keys for them to be successful.

For Europe, they are 34-year-old Annika Sorenstam and 41-year-old Laura Davies, who have won 32 matches between them. For the U.S., it’s how well the three first-time Solheim Cup players fare -- Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis and Christina Kim -- and how Cristie Kerr, the No. 1 player in Solheim Cup points, performs in her new role as team leader. Kerr’s record is 4-4 in the Solheim Cup.

Julie Inkster, Meg Mallon, Rosie Jones and Beth Daniel should provide veteran stability for the U.S.