Golf World - February 18, 2013

EQUIPMEN T // BY E. MICHAEL JOHNSON

That seems pretty clear. If you’ve got serious game or a reputation for having serious game, steer clear of promotional deals if you want to stay an amateur. That said, most celebrities who play in pro-ams have games that are far from being deemed “skilled.” Michael Phelps, who recently entered into an agreement with Ping, John O’Hurley (now a pitchman for Cobra Puma, as is Golf Channel’s Holly Sonders), Ken Griffey Jr. (Nike) and Justin Timberlake (who has had an affiliation with Callaway for several years) are just a few high-profile examples. So for Rule 6-2, virtually all celebrities with ties to equipment companies seem safe.

Another part amateur status

As usual, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am had its share of celebrities among the 156 amateur participants. However, given that some of those celebs have formal agreements with equipment companies, a logical question is: Are those amateurs actually professionals under the USGA’s Rules of Amateur Status?

The USGA won’t comment on the potential status of a specific person. “Amateur-status issues can be very complex, and the rules are subject to interpretation,” said Joe Goode, the USGA’s managing director of communications.

Complex indeed. The Rules of Amateur Status have nuances that are not as simple as whether or not a golfer is teeing it up for prize money. And when celebrities enter into agreements with equipment companies, the situation can get murky.

Rule 6-2 of the Rules of Amateur Status covers the issue of an amateur golfer with golf skill or reputation using his or her name or likeness as a golfer for promotional purposes. There are two key issues here. First the golfer has to have skill or reputation, which the USGA decides on a case-by-case basis. If the player does have skill or reputation, he or she may not promote anything.

Rules of engagement

MICHAEL PHELPS’ PING DEAL RAISES AN OLD QUESTION: WHEN IS AN AMATEUR AN AMATEUR?

Michael Phelps

regulations, however, provides pause. According to the USGA, if an amateur golfer does not have golf skill or reputation, he or she could promote something provided they have not entered into any type of oral or written contract or agreement. If he or she has entered into an oral or written

How often do we see everyday golfers look down at an iron and say, “I just can’t look at that amount of offset— it looks like a club for a high handicapper.” Well, try telling that to Pat Perez, a professional who has earned more than $13 million in his career. Perez has always favored a significant amount of offset in his irons, but when he switched from TaylorMade’s Tour Preferred MC model to the new RocketBladez Tour, the bending process required a little more care.

“The RocketBladez Tour are made from harder steels than the Tour Preferred MC, which is why we designed a notch in the hosel area to help make them easier to bend for adjustments such as this,” said Brian Bazzell, product creation manager for TaylorMade. “For Pat we added 1.5mm of offset to make it about 3mm overall. That’s a lot of offset in a small blade. He feels that helps him turn the ball over with a baby draw as well as keep the flight down.”