Pebble Beach, Calif. — Charles Howell III never thought he would get his first lawsuit before his first PGA Tour victory.
The rookie of the year was sued last week by agent Rocky Hambric, who cited wrongful termination and breach of contract for Howell leaving him to sign with IMG. Howell had four years left on a 512-year contract with Hambric.
"It's pretty disappointing, but I'm not going to let that distract me," Howell said.
The lawsuit claims that Howell defaulted on a $195,000 promissory note to Hambric, who used the money to arrange a leased jet for Howell. The suit seeks repayment, plus commissions for the final two years of the Callaway Golf contract Hambric negotiated.
Hambric's lawyer, Bret Madole of Dallas, told Golfweek magazine the agent sued because of the considerable time and money he spent developing Howell.
"When Rocky started seeing a return from his investment, Charles started looking for ways out of the deal," Madole said. "He knew Rocky couldn't begin making money on the deal for the first couple of years because he had to spend too much of his own money."
Howell said one reason for the split was that Hambric negotiated a deal for him to be playing editor for Golf Magazine, even though Howell said he never gave him consent or signed a contract.
"Signed a contract?" Howell said. "I never saw a contract."
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WHAT POSSE?: Such was the hype over Ty Tryon's rookie debut that some made it sound as though his yoga instructor sat with him on the practice range at the Phoenix Open.
Yes, the 17-year-old has quite a posse around him two swing coaches, two massage therapists, a trainer, sports psychologist, caddie, tutor, image consultant, agent and the yoga instructor.
But it's not a traveling circus.
David Leadbetter was in Phoenix early in the week to help Tryon and his other clients, like Charles Howell III. Tryon's other swing coach, Kevin Smeltz, stayed for the two rounds.
The rest stayed home, tending to other clients.
"They don't follow me around everywhere," Tryon said. "People think I have a tour bus going around, following me, like I have my car and a bus full of people behind me."
Noting that he stayed in the luxurious Princess hotel, Tryon added, "I couldn't afford to put them up where I was staying."
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NOMINATED: Marlene Hagge could be the next member of the LPGA Hall of Fame.
A veteran's committee unanimously approved Hagge as a candidate, and it now goes to a vote of the LPGA membership to determine if she gets elected.
Hagge, a founder of the LPGA in 1950, won 26 times. Her best season was in 1956 when her eight victories included the LPGA Championship.
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BAD HABITS: John Daly no longer drinks as much as he once did and has tried to cut back on sweets. Part of his turnaround was getting off anti-depressant medication.
But he still smokes a cigarette per hole, and that's something that won't change.
"Hell, I've quit too much other (stuff) to worry about quitting smoking," Daly said. "There's probably two things I'm not going to quit sex and smoking."
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SWITCH TO SWOOSH: The change did not bring as much attention as when Tiger Woods made the switch, but it was quite traumatic for Steve Flesch when he left Titleist to play the Nike Tour Accuracy DD.
Flesch said the Ping TiSI driver and Titleist Professional ball were a perfect match, but for whatever reason, he wasn't getting the same results with Ping and the Titleist Pro V1.
He said he got out of his Titleist contract about 15 minutes before he teed off Thursday in the Phoenix Open then shot 64 for the first-round lead. He wound up 10 shots back.
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