Global Golf Post - March 1, 2010

Rosie Jones, a 13-time winner LPGA win-
ner and a veteran of seven Solheim Cup teams,
has been named to captain the U.S. team in the
2011 matches at Killeen Castle in County Meath,
Ireland, Sept. 23-25. “I am absolutely ecstatic,”
said Jones, a playing member of the first U.S.
Solheim Cup team in 1990.
The 2011 Solheim Cup will be the 12th stag-
ing of the biennial, trans-Atlantic team match-
play competition. The U.S. leads the series 8-3.
Alison Nicholas will serve as Jones’ European
Tour counterpart.
“It’s a wonderful appointment,” Cristie Kerr
said. “Rosie was my first partner in the Solheim
Cup and she knew precisely how to deal with
someone like myself. ‘Calm down, rookie,’ is what
she said – and it worked. Rosie has got more
guts, heart and soul than anyone out here.”
So maybe we media types are making a big-
ger deal out of this Tiger Woods mess than what
it really is. At least that’s what the numbers say,
according to market research firm NPD Group.
In a nutshell, the company says Tiger’s personal
life traumas have had little affect on his ability
to sell consumers products. In a recent online
poll of 44,000 consumers, NPD found that while
about one-third of consumers said their opinion
of Woods has significantly declined since the
revelations about his conduct, most said they
plan no change in their purchase behavior based
on the recent news. And only five percent said
they plan to “cut back or eliminate” any pur-
chases of products Woods endorses.

PETA, the animal rights group that rarely
shows a fun side, plans to unveil within the next
few weeks a “cheeky spay-and-neuter” billboard
featuring Tiger Woods – without the golfer’s
blessing. It is searching for a local advertiser to
put up a billboard in Tiger’s hometown of Winder-
mere, Fla., which will include an image of Woods
and text: “Too Much Sex Can Be a Bad Thing ...
For Little Tigers, Too. Help Keep Your Cats (and
Dogs) Out of Trouble: Always Spay or Neuter!”
John Daly – broke, four divorces, a suspension
or two – somehow keeps churning. Not only does
he have an eight-week reality series debuting
Tuesday on Golf Channel – in which the network
likens Daly to Mickey Rourke’s character in “The
Wrestler” – the now lap-band-surgery-svelte
200-pounder is hawking underwear to wear un-
der his Loudmouth pants. Slix, an on-line com-
pany, signed Daly to endorse its boxer briefs, and,
yes, he’s modeling them. For those into self-flag-
ellation, you can view him at getyourslixon.com.

The LPGA plans to announce Monday that it
will hold a title-sponsored event in Malaysia to
replace a previously scheduled event in China,
according to the New York Times. The Tour said
the new event, the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia,
will be played Oct. 22-24 at Kuala Lumpur Golf
and Country Club. l