Global Golf Post - January 24, 2011

Jim Thorpe, jailed in 2010 on two misdemean-
ors for failing to pay $1.6 million in income taxes
from 2002 to 2004,
was released from
prison on Jan.
17, several news
agencies reported.
The 61-year-old
Champions Tour
player served just
over nine months
of a 12-month
sentence at the
minimum-security
Federal Prison
Camp at Maxwell
Air Force Base in
Montgomery, Ala.
As part of his
sentence, Thorpe must serve two years of super-
vised release and complete 200 hours of com-
munity service. He is also expected to enter a
halfway house and pay $2 million to the Internal
Revenue Service, plus interest and penalties.
Cybergolf.com reported that Thorpe intends to
return to the Champions Tour, but he will be un-
able to play until March 31, when his sentencing
and suspension end. That would make his first
eligible tournament the Mississippi Gulf Resort
Classic in Biloxi, April 1-3.

52, the 1999 Kentucky PGA Match Play champi-
on, were found dead in an apartment on Jan. 15.
Police found no signs of trauma or foul play, and
homicide detectives are calling it a “death inves-
tigation.” Autopsy and toxicology results had yet
to be returned from the medical examiner.
Adams Golf acquired Denver-based Progear
Holdings that include Yes! Golf and its related
assets for $1.65 million at a U.S. Bankruptcy
Court auction on Wednesday. The purchase
includes all of Yes! Golf’s putter technology
designs, registered trademarks and all existing
inventory and capital equipment. Yes! Golf will
be integrated into the Adams Golf operations in
Plano, Tex. Financial records show that Yes! Golf
revenues were approximately $10.2 million in
2007 and $2.4 million in 2010.
The National Golf Foundation reported that
golf course closures in the U.S. in 2010 out-
paced openings for a fifth consecutive year. The
NGF tracked 46 18-hole equivalent golf course
openings in 2010 vs. 107 closures, for a net
negative of 61. The total net loss of 220 18-hole
courses from 2006-2010 represent roughly 1. 5
percent of the total supply. The 2010 net loss of
61 courses in 2010 represents less than one half
of one percent of total supply.
here to read the full story.
Two former club professionals were found
dead in Louisville, Ky., with the cause of death
unknown, according to WLKY-TV of Louisville.
Casey Combs, 48, the 2006 Kentucky State
Amateur champion, and Kenneth Postlewait,
Golf Digest chairman and editor-in-chief
Jerry Tarde, 54, has been named the recipient
of the 2011 PGA Lifetime Achievement Award
in Journalism. The Golf Writers Association of
America will honor him on April 6. l