Has Ernie another steal on his mind?
OPEN champion Ernie Els is causing upset at his former management company, who fear he is trying to recruit some of their best players for his new agency.
Els left Chubby Chandler’s ISM a year ago to join the Florida-based ProsInc and he has kept close links with his South African compatriots at ISM — George Coetzee, Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel — including offering them travel to tournaments in his private jet.
ISM also have conflict- of-interest concerns about Els working for ProsInc in such a way when still a leading player, and Chandler intends to have talks with his former client to clarify his intentions.
Chandler has responded to the threat of losing the South African quartet by devoting more resources to them.
Meanwhile, commission claims made by another American golf agency, Gaylord, against ISM have been resolved. The claims related to ISM’s Oakley sunglasses sponsorship deal for Rory McIlroy set up before he switched to the Horizon agency.
The unhealthy stranglehold event agents IMG enjoy at Wimbledon and The Open was even more evident at Lytham than at SW19. The IMG-run online TV operation @the Open Live featured plenty of footage plugging the R&A’s seven patron partners, whose £1.4million-a-year sponsorship deals were set up in some cases — including Ralph Lauren Polo’s latest — by the omnipresent IMG.
THE
biggest surprise of The Open for Royal Lytham’s lady captain, Wendy Barnsley, was not anything that happened on the course but what confronted her in the women’s toilets in the clubhouse. Wendy walked in during the second day of the championship to find a man in a state of undress using the facility to change clothes. When asked what he was doing there, the intruder said he could change where he liked following the Equalities Act. Neither the club nor the R&A would comment yesterday. SIR NICK FALDO, who has changed wives and management at regular intervals, now has his American partner LeslieAnne Wade represent him through her company Wade Media Management. LeslieAnne is a former communications chief at CBS Sports for whom Faldo (right) works as the lead golf pundit. As well as commentating for the BBC at The Open, Faldo will also be part of the Beeb’s Ryder Cup highlights coverage.
EUROPE’S
Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal famously lost his cool in the press conference after the American victory in 2008 against the Faldo-led Europeans. Olazabal, a vice-captain then, was defending Faldo’s heavily criticised leadership. How Olazabal handles the media will be an issue in Chicago. Faldo, for one, believes he will cope fine, saying the spat with the press four years ago was due to the Spaniard’s comments being ‘lost in translation’. Olazabal speaks perfect English.