The economy has already hit golf tournaments around the country.  Now its affecting equipment manufacturers.

Titleist announced plans today to reduce their work force by 169 jobs.  The lay-offs come due to shrinking world-wide demand for golf balls.  The employees were given the news during their Wednesday shift and will be limited to the plants in New Bedford and Dartmouth.  This round of cut backs come on January’s reduction in work-force that affected about 12% of the companies employees.

European captain Colin Montgomerie has hinted that he will request a change in Europe’s qualification system for the Ryder Cup.  Europe currently opts for 10 qualifiers and 2 wild cards which is the system that has been in place since the match in 1995.  Montgomerie has always wanted to have more control of the selection of team members.  He has even gone so far as to suggest that he be allowed to pick all 12 members.

Montgomerie has declined to say exactly what changes he will lobby for, only that he will seek a change to the rules.

The Nationwide Tour has postponed the Mexico Open golf tournament scheduled for May 21-24, due to the swine flu outbreak.  Tour president, Bill Calfee, has stated that the event will be made-up later in the year.  The tournament was supposed to be played at El Bosque Golf Club in Leon, about 200 miles northwest of Mexico City.

The Nationwide Tour was not the only tour to change a scheduled event in Mexico.  The Canadian Tour canceled the San Luis Potosi Open indefinitely.  It was scheduled to begin this Thursday.

That’s right, fresh off a 6 month PGA Tour suspension, John Daly is ready to get back to playing golf.  Daly will be coming back as a changed golfer.  He’s stomach has shrunk (thanks to surgery) and his gambling, drinking and divorce have left him near bankruptcy.  Daly says he’s looking forward to “hitting the European Tour” this week.

Daly’s first action will be the Spanish Open.  This will be Daly’s first tournament since being thrown in jail to sober up almost 6 months ago.  After this, he is scheduled at the Italian Open in Turin, the Irish Open in Baltray and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to have this guy back in my life:

Tickets to the 2010 Ryder Cup are scheduled to be sold via lottery in 2 separate offerings.  The first will be this August and another offering will be made available in April, 2010.  The initial ticket offering is now open on the Ryder Cup ticket site here.

The HSBC Champions in China has been added as a World Golf Championship this year, with a new qualifying criteria and a $7 million purse.  This will be the largest purse ever for a golf tournament in Asia.

The HSBC Champions began in 2005 and has been sanctioned by every major golf tour with the exception of the PGA Tour.  That now changes with its status as the 4th World Golf Championship and the only one not staged in America.

Tiger Woods and defending champion Sergio Garcia have both committed to playing in this years tournament.  It will not be know exactly how many American players will play until the fall.  The event is played after their official season is over and any money earned will not count towards the PGA Tour money list.

The format for this years Solheim Cup will be changing slightly on the firs two days.  The opening session both days will now feature fourballs, where each team member plays her own ball.  This will be followed by alternate-shot foursomes in the afternoon.  Both Beth Daniel (US captain) and Alison Nicholas (European captain) agreed to the changes.

The 11th Solheim Cup will take place August 21-23 at Rich Harvest Farms.  Europe looks for its first win on US soil in the biennial competition.  The Americans lead the series 7-3.

Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning will be teaming up in this weeks pro-am at Quail Hollow.  Manning and Woods tee off at 7:30 AM Wednesday.  Woods is making his first PGA Tour start since finishing 6th at this years Masters.  Manning teamed up with Kenny Perry in last weeks Zurich Classic pro-am.

Other notable celebrities participating are NASCAR drivers Jimmie Johnson and Michael Waltrip, former NBA great Julius Irving and ESPN’s Chris Berman.

Stewart Cink urged pro golfers to show more support for the sponsors of tournaments by participating in them, especially in these tough economic times.  Cink made his comments from Connecticut on Monday as he was there to promote June’s Travelers Championship at the TPC River Highlands.  The insurance company recently committed to sponsoring the tournament through 2014.

Cink, who is a member of the PGA’s Policy Board thinks not all players understand the importance of participating in tournaments like the Travelers.  Without participation from the top players in the world, tournaments like the Travelers could face being dropped from the schedule (like the Corning Classic).  When top players don’t participate, the tournaments lose revenue in the form of lost ticket and merchandise sales.

This years Travelers tournament wil be played the week after the U.S. Open and already has commitments from Sergio Garcia, Vijay Singh, Anthony Kim, Stuart Appleby and defending champion Stewart Cink.

Cable channel WGN America and the organizers of an amateur golf tournament have agreed to a deal that will allow the tournament to be televised in mid-May over 13-episodes.

So what’s the big deal about a golf tournament getting a cable deal?

The rules of this tournament are loosely based on the rules of poker.  The players will bet on each hole using chips, with the player with the fewest strokes on the hole as the winner (basically forcing your opponent to “fold” the hole).  The entry fee for the tournament is $10,000, with an expected first prize at $300,000.  The tournament will be held at the Las Vegas Paiute Resort.

The tournament was aired on CBS last year, but tournament organizers opted out of the contract, thinking that cable would bring more flexibility to the scheduling and playing of the tournament.