Yesterday on Ping.com you got an inside look at the 2012 Sales meeting, where they will be tweeted the entire event.

Besides giving consumers inside access during the presentation, they also be took questions and comments. Throughout the presentation they shared photos, video and detailed information regarding the 2012 Ping product offerings.

In case you missed the presentation, you can relive the entire experience on Storify.

www.ping.com

The 2011 Masters kicks off tomorrow and we put together this guide for how to follow the action at Augusta National Golf Club, whether your at home, in the office, or on the road.

Television Coverage

Thursday April 7: First Round Live Coverage
ESPN: 3:00 PM – 7:30 PM*

Additional Air Times
ESPN: 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM (First Round Replay)
CBS: 11:30 PM – 11:45 PM (Highlight Show)

Friday April 8: Second Round Live Coverage
ESPN: 3:00 PM – 7:30 PM

Additional Air Times
ESPN: 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM (Second Round Replay)
CBS: 11:30 PM – 11:45 PM (Highlight Show)

Saturday April 9: Third Round Live Coverage
CBS: 3:30 PM – 7:00 PM

Sunday April 10: Final Round Live Coverage
CBS: 2:00 PM – 7:00 PM

*All times listed are EST

DIRECTV Coverage

DIRECTV will lead into Tournament coverage, which begins April 7 and runs through April 10, with a series of broadcasts of the 2010 Official Masters film (premiering March 31) and the 2011 Masters Preview show (debuting April 3) on its exclusive The 101® Network, along with all video highlights and a course tour on DIRECTV On Demand. DIRECTV will also air 3D coverage of the Tournament on ESPN 3D (Channel 106).

Online

Visit the Masters Tournament Live Coverage Page to watch the action from Amen Corner, holes 15 & 16, featured groups 1 & 2, and players warming up on the driving range before their round.

Masters Radio Online
Tune into a live streaming radio broadcast of the Masters Tournament

Twitter
Get your updates from the Masters by following the official twitter feed @The_Masters

Mobile

Do you own an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad? Download the official Masters iPhone App and follow the action everywhere you go. Best of all it’s free!

The Official Masters Tournament iPhone app includes:

FIVE LIVE STREAMS OF VIDEO CONTENT

• Wednesday’s Par 3 Contest
• Tournament play at Amen Corner (Hole Nos. 11, 12, and 13)
• Tournament play at Hole Nos. 15 and 16
• A Featured Group channel covering play of the second nine
• Player press conferences live from the Press Building
• All video will be viewable with 3G and Wi-Fi connections

(Live video is available to view in the United States only.)

ON-DEMAND VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS AND FEATURES

REAL-TIME SCORING

• Interact with the live Leader Board, which features up-to-the-minute scoring and video highlights of the greatest moments on the course

COURSE OVERVIEW

• Detailed course information with imagery, flyover videos, and par and yardage for each of the Masters Tournament’s prestigious 18 holes

COMPREHENSIVE NEWS COVERAGE

• Pairings, tee times, player information, alerts, and all of the latest news and updates from the Masters Tournament.

Download the Masters iPhone App

We seriously dig our readers — unfortunately, we rarely get the opportunity to talk to you guys. In hopes of addressing this we are going to try a bit of an experiment, every Sunday, #GolfChat will be hosted by Me, David Horne from View from the Fringe,  and David Mackenzie from Golf State of Mind.

What: We are going to talk about what is going on in the golf world. All topics are open. We will surely cover pga tour events, golf news, golf on social, golf equipment, and anything else you want to discuss.

When: Sunday nights 8-9pm EST

Where: Twitter using the hashtag #golfchat

Who: You and all golf fans.

Join me over on Twitter for #golfchat, won’t you?

Sun Mountain Owner, Rick Reimers Apology to the USA Ryder Cup Team

After the debacle of Raingate at the 2010 Ryder Cup, Rick Reimers, Owner of Sun Mountain Sports issued the following apology on the home page of Sunmountain.com yesterday.

While the apology is sincere, it doesn’t address the issue of why the RainFlex rain gear failed, with exception that it couldn’t’ handle the rain at Celtic Manor. The damage has been done in my opinion to the Sun Mountain RainFlex brand, and this could have been avoided if they were transparent and constantly updating the public and the media on the issue.

What Sun Mountain should have done
The minute that word got out about the rain suits failing, Sun Mountain should have begun its crisis communication plan and responded immediately, and kept the media, and public informed of the situation. In today’s media landscape, immediacy is key. The media outlets and customers were talking about the rain suits non-stop on twitter, yet Sun Mountain failed to communicate via that channel.

Say Your Sorry
The apology should have come on Friday, not Tuesday afternoon. Rick Reimers could have leveraged tools like YouTube or twitter, to issue an apology to the players, and his customers. A written statement would have worked several years ago, but you need to do more than that in the age of new media. A great example is when JetBlue CEO David Neeleman issued an apology on YouTube to his customers and issuing JetBlue’s Customer Bill of Rights and Tarmac Contingency Plan.

Be Transparent
Transparency is key in this day and age when it comes to dealing with a crisis. Sun Mountain said its investigating what happened with the RainFlex rain suits, what does that mean? Why not shed light on what this process involves, the steps they are taking, instead of issuing vague statements. The public and the media would have greater respect for the company if they did that.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com did an excellent job of being transparent with his customers and employees. When Zappos.com had to layoff employees, instead of just saying its a part of growing the business, Tony blogged about why his company had to layoff the employees and what it means for the future of the company, etc. I understand it takes a certain type of individual and culture to pull this off, but being transparent is valuable currency in this day and age.

What’s Next for Sun Mountain
I think the damage has been done to the SunMountain and the RainFlex brand, and they have a long road ahead of them to regain the trust of the public and the media. If I were Rick Reimers, I would create a campaign around the RainFlex rain suits, and call it the RainFlex Challenge.

How it will work is Sun Mountain will send you a RainFlex rain suit to try for 30 days, and if it doesn’t hold up to the rain, they will buy you a rain suit from a competitor. Another option would be to do a series of YouTube videos on how they test and manufacturer the RainFlex rain suits. The point of all of this is to regain trust with its customers and the media.

What do you think? Was the Sun Mountain Apology enough?

Stewart Cink 2010 RYDER Cup reading a putt- Turner Sports Images

Like we reported earlier, the U.S. Ryder Cup rain suits failed to keep the players dry, resulting in the PGA of America buying new rain gear from the merchandise tent. Here’s the official statement from issued by Sun Mountain:

Sun Mountain has been designing and selling outerwear for more than two decades. We have provided rainwear to 3,000 plus PGA of America Professionals and over 150 tour players, and supplied outerwear to numerous U.S. teams, including the Walker Cup and the 2000 and 2009 Presidents Cup teams. Sun Mountain has staff on the ground at the Ryder Cup working in conjunction with the PGA of America on this issue.

I wonder what issues they are working on in conjunction with the PGA of America?  The irony of all of this is that Sun Mountain’s last tweet from yesterday say’s “Outerwear is out in force with rain during Wednesday’s practice round at the Ryder Cup.”

Perhaps Sun Mountain will play the force majeure card and blame the rain suit failure on the weather. My guess it’s probably a manufacturing defect in the RainFlex fabric. At least I hope so. I’d be curious to know what kind of testing was done with the RainFlex fabric prior to the Ryder Cup?

What do you think? Has Sun Mountain handled this situation properly?

The Ryder Cup is set to begin this Friday at Celtic Manor in Newport, Wales. With the timezone difference, following the coverage can be a bit of challenge. No need to worry, because we’ve put together the best ways to follow the 37th Ryder Cup.

2010 Ryder Cup iPhone App

2010 Ryder Cup iPhone App

Watch live on your iPhone/iPod Touch as golf’s biggest rivalry writes another chapter at the 38th Ryder Cup matches at Celtic Manor in Wales. Wherever you are, you can follow Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and the U.S. try to defend their title and defeat the Europeans on European soil for the first time since 1993.

2010 Ryder Cup iPhone App Live Video

Live Video & Radio
Watch live video and follow along with live radio coverage provided by SiriusXM from Celtic Manor’s holes 2, 6, 12 & 17 Friday through Sunday with the premium content in-app upgrade ($1.99)

Personal Live Alerts
Get alerts for hole-by-hole scoring, session scores, match results and news from around the course.

Live Scoring
Search for your favorite players or follow your home team.

Daily Video Highlights
Miss some of the action? Catch up quickly with exclusive highlights from the Ryder Cup.

Chat
Use FaceBook Connect to chat with Team USA and Team Europe supporters.

Other features include Player/Team profiles, News and a Course Overview. The PGA.com iPhone/iPod Touch/ iPad App gets you closer to the action at one of golf’s premier events like never before.

Download the free iPhone Ryder Cup app!

Watch Online with Ryder Cup Live

Ryder Cup Live

Starting Friday October 1st, 2010 you can get live video, leaderboard, chat, scorecards, and live updates from your computer all day long. Coverage schedule is 2:45 AM – 1PM EST Friday & Saturday, and Sunday from 6:30 AM – 12 PM EST.

The players may not be able to tweet this week, but you can get updates from @rydercup .

On Television

The time zone difference is a major downer for U.S. viewers, but night owls can opt to watch live coverage on ESPN for the first day of competition.
Friday, October 1
2:30 a.m. – 1 p.m EST (ESPN, live)

Saturday, October 2
ESPN/Live 2:30 a.m- 8 a.m. EST;  NBC/Live 8 a.m. – 6 p.m EST

Sunday, October 3
NBC/Live 4 a.m. – conclusion EST

How will you be following the Ryder Cup?

Stewart Cink has been banned from Tweeting during the Ryder Cup

The 2010 Ryder Cup  is set to begin and players from both teams are banned from using Twitter and other social media this week at the request of U.S. and European Ryder Cup Captain’s Corey Pavin and Colin Montgomerie.

Main reason for the social media ban: keep the players focused on the three-day competition, which starts Friday, October 1, 2010 at Celtic Manor.

AccelGolf: GPS Rangefinder App for iPhone

Do you have a copy of AccelGolf’s GPS Rangefinder for the iPhone, Blackberry, or Android? If so, one lucky user who posts the most golf rounds using their app via Twitter starting 12:00AM EST Saturday, July 31 thru 11:59PM EST on Friday, August 6, will win a $50 gift certificate to the golf retailer, driving range, or instructor of their choice.

AccelGolf: GPS Rangefinder is a mobile app for the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, that provides statistical analysis of your golf game, calculates yardage, keeps score, and more! The best part is there is no annual fee to use the app or download courses.

What have you got to lose, except maybe some pride and a few dollars?

www.accelgolf.com

Product launches are usually very low key in the golf industry, with some type of press release or media event-nothing like the well orchestrated hype of an Apple event. In an effort to build a more interactive relationship with it’s online community, Ping Golf will be tweeting it’s National Sales meeting from its corporate offices in Phoenix, AZ  on Monday July, 26th, 2010, beginning at 8 AM PST/ 11 AM EST.

All you have to do is follow PING_Man on twitter to get the latest facts, pictures, and quotes about the 2011 lineup from Ping Golf.

It’s nice to see a traditional golf company like Ping use twitter to unveil its new product lineup, and I look forward following the meeting.

www.ping.com

The 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews is set to begin in July, and Nike Golf has a great contest for you to show your love for the defending Open Champion Stewart Cink. One lucky person will have their message  appear on Stewart Cink’s Nike Staff Bag!

Send Stewart Cink a Personal Message Contest

Here’s how to enter:

The Contest runs from 12:00 pm (PST) on June 24, 2010 to 11:00 pm (PST) on July 1, 2010 .

1. Open your Twitter account and tweet a supporting message for Stewart Cink at the OPEN using “your message..#GoCink @NikeGolf”.
2. Follow @nikegolf and @stewartcink on Twitter.
3. Check back on July 12, 2010 to see if your message was chosen to appear on his Nike Staff Bag.

You can enter as many times as you like.

For more information visit Nike Golf’s Facebook page.