A Review of the U.S. Open Championship

Commonly referred to as the U.S. Open, the United States Open Championships is one of the major championships in golf. The event, which kickstarted in 1895, was organized by the United States Golf Association (USGA) and is the second of the four majors each year and one of the most anticipated sporting events globally. It is open to professional and amateur golfers and has had a variety of venues throughout its history. The competition consists of 72 holes of stroke play, with the winner being the player with the lowest number of strokes.

The inaugural event, played in 1895, consisted of only 11 players on a nine-hole course in Newport, Rhode Island. 21-year-old Briton Horace Rawlings won the tournament and claimed the $150 and $50 gold medal prizes. British settlers in the United States largely dominated the U.S Open Championship in its early years.

It took America 16 years to produce a winner as 19-year-old John J. McDermott finally won the coveted event in 1911, making him the youngest champion in history. American players, however, had a long consecutive winning spell in the tournament as they held the title for four decades between 1925 and 1965. This dominance has reduced since the end of the 20th century following an increase in non-American champions.

Being the second major championship each year, after the Master Championship, the U.S Open holds every June. The fourth and final round takes place every third Sunday of the month, usually Father’s Day. If there is a tie after the 72 holes, the organizers arrange a playoff the next day for an additional 18 holes to determine the winner. The tie-breaker round usually consists of a full round of golf for the players involved. If the tie continues after this round, players then engage in the last possible round — the sudden-death playoff.

Since its inception, the U.S Open has produced some of the most memorable moments in golf and sports in general. In 2000, Tiger Woods, widely regarded as one of the greatest sportsmen in history, left the crowd and golf fans worldwide in disbelief when he produced an extraordinary display when he won the championship that year. Woods led by six shots after 36 holes and then 10 shots with just one round left.

To complete his dominance, he finished the tourney with a final-round 67 in what many have described as one of the most dominant displays in the game’s history. Another key moment in the competition’s history came in 1960 when golf great Arnold Palmer produced one of the greatest comebacks in the game. He was seven shots behind first placed Mike Souchak, and the championship seemed to be over, but on the final day, he produced two birdies in his first two-hole to start his surge. Finally, he shot an unbelievable score of 65 to take home the trophy in the end.

The U.S. Open has produced multiple champions throughout its history, with players such as Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Ben Hogan winning it. The current champion is Spain’s Jon Rahm.

How Tiger Woods Changed the Face of Golf

Regarded by many as the greatest golfer of all time, Tiger Woods’s impact and influence on the game is undeniably profound. From the fitness and athleticism of golfers to larger purses and golf’s global representation, Tiger has played a crucial role in the transformation of golf.

Today, professional golfers are athletes. They spend time not just practicing their game, but are committed to physical fitness training to prepare themselves for tournaments. Tournament courses now have mobile fitness facilities commonly referred to as players’ performance centers, equipped with treadmills and advanced exercise equipment. These facilities keep up with pro golfers who have made sure that workouts are now an essential part of their tournament routine.

However, that wasn’t the case 25 years ago when Woods entered the game. At the time, many professional golfers were in poor physical shape, and some were even overweight. This led to golf being criticized for not being a sport, as most players lacked the physical fitness athletes typically possess. But all that would change as Tiger Woods won his first masters in 1997 and ascended to the peak of the world golf rankings, making it the fastest rise to the No. 1 spot in the game’s history.

Tiger credited his rapid development to regular exercise. He described his daily routine as waking up in the morning for a four-mile run before doing some lifting in the gym, then proceeding to swing practices for two to three hours, playing some holes, returning to practice his short game, running for another four miles, and then playing basketball or tennis if another player was available. Tiger’s strategy for success was clear for all to see, and it was quickly copied by virtually all ambitious pros, both upcoming and those already established.

Setting the pace in the physical fitness habits among golfers was only the beginning of Tiger’s remarkable efforts that changed the face of golf. His excellence in the game saw him reach an unprecedented level of popularity for any golfer in history. This fame led to a substantial increase in prize money, fans, and TV coverage. For example, Tiger Woods’s take home for winning his first major in 1997 was $486,000 out of total prize money of $2.7 million. Fast forward 25 years later, and the prize money for the winner of the Tour Championship is $15 million out of a total of $46 million. This huge increase is widely attributed to the global superstardom, TV coverage, and massive sponsorship deals brought to the game, due largely to Tiger’s fame and on-course performances.

Tiger was a fan favorite from the outset, and fans always showed up large numbers to watch him play. In his first Masters win in 1997, CBS reported that a record 43 million viewers tuned in to watch. He soon became a global superstar, prompting brands worldwide to try to sign him to sponsorship deals. He signed his first major sponsorship deal in 1996 with Nike in a five-year contract worth $40 million. In the following years, Tiger went on to sign more multi-million dollar sponsorship deals, leading the way to a massive increase in prize money.

Tiger’s presence in the course was so immense that when he played, the world paid attention, not only to him but to other golfers who had become his beneficiaries, and to the game itself.

Different Types of Wine

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Wine is an alcoholic beverage commonly made from fermented grapes. Typically, fermentation occurs when yeast absorbs the sugar in the grapes, transforms it into ethanol and carbon dioxide, and draws out heat in the process.

There are different varieties of wine: red wine, white wine, rose wine, sparkling wine, dessert wine, and fortified wine. Red wines are usually prepared from black-skinned grapes that have colorless juice. The grapes are fermented with their skins and stems, giving the wine its red color. Red wine has higher tannins than any other type of wine. Tannins are the compounds responsible for red wine’s bitter taste and dry mouth after taking a sip. Tannins also serve as preservatives, and as such red wines with higher tannin compounds can be left for longer than other types of wine.

The most popular red wines are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Chianti, and Beaujolais. These pair well with meaty dishes and are best drunk when slightly below room temperature, as chilled wines create higher tannins, enhancing the bitter taste. Most red wines are stored in new oak containers to add flavors and aromas such as sweet baking spice, cocoa, chocolate, and vanilla to the wine.

Ranging from dry to sweet, white wine pairs brilliantly with a vast array of foods like soft cheese, white bread, meat, fish, seafood, curries, tacos, salad, popcorn, and chips. It is best drunk chilled to enjoy its flavors fully.

The flavor personality of white wine is mostly bright and savory, and popular varieties include Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Moscato. White wines are more likely to be stored in stainless steel kegs to maintain their fresh odor. But when oak barrels are used, vanilla, baking spices, coconut, and caramel flavors may blend into the wines.

The flavors and aromas of white wines depending on the climate where the grapes are grown and harvested. In hotter environments, the grapes tend to have tropical fruit odors like guava, passionfruit, pineapple, and melon. In comparison, the grapes from wine provinces with cooler climates tend to have citrus aromas like lemon, lime, and orange.

Rosé wine has a distinctive blush or pink rose color and is made from red or black grape with a brief fermentation period, between 12-36 hours. Rosé wines may taste similar to red wines, but maintain notes of cherry and strawberry. Others may contain more citrus and tropical fruit wine flavors, similar to white wine. Rosé wine always goes well with foods such as fish and poultry. It is a popular choice for summertime parties because of its light, sweet flavor.

Sparkling wines are bubbly, carbonated wines that can be white, pink, or red. Made from fermenting black and white grapes, they usually contain carbon dioxide, a normally occurring byproduct. Popular varieties of sparkling wine are Champagne and Prosecco, named after their production regions. They are usually dry and sweet and often used in celebrations.

Sparkling wines can be paired with foods, such as soft cheeses, bread, salad, fresh fruit, and popcorn and are generally served in tall, slender glasses to retain the temperature and the bubbles of sparkling wine.

Like the name suggests, dessert wines are sweet wines drunk during or after dessert. There is no exact or simple description for dessert wine except that it is characterized based on its sweetness and the style of drinking it after meals. However, it is drunk as an appetizer in regions like the United Kingdom.

Dessert wines can be classified into port, tawny, or sherry. Also known as sweet wine, dessert wines are great with smoked meat, soft cheeses, and desserts such as cake, vanilla pudding, biscotti, chocolate, and crème brûlée.

Fortified wines contain distilled spirits like brandy added during the fermentation procedure. The high alcohol level is a crucial defining factor as the wines with lower alcohol content are deemed dessert wines and paired with desserts. Fortified wines comprise Port, Sherry, Madeira, Marsala and are best paired with baked goods, cheese, and nuts.

Tips for Aspiring MBA London Business School Applicants

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Founded in 1964, the London Business School is one of the top business schools globally. The school has proven its motto, “to have a profound impact on how the world does business.” The London Business School welcomes at least 2,200 degree students into its environs each year. As an MBA London Business School applicant, there are certain things you should be aware of, including the connection between the faculties and research.

London Business School’s 100-plus faculty members are leading global economic research and education experts. These expert members share their ideas on business practice and theory with business leaders, policymakers, government officials, media members, and other professionals. In addition, their research often serves as a guide that prepares tomorrow’s leaders in accounting, entrepreneurship economics, finance, business sciences and operations, marketing, and organizational behavior through their doctoral, master’s, and management education programs and courses.

The London Business School faculty members are within the 29 to 73 age bracket, and they come from 30 different countries. London Business School has six research centers, focusing on private equity, entrepreneurship, private equity, wealth management, corporate governance, leadership and innovation, business and development, and research programs such as the Energy Market Group to improve business literacy and research.

Another thing to note is that the school is located at the heart of London, which comes with merits and demerits. London Business School has the special feature of being the best business school globally in the middle of a big city. This has many benefits, such as enjoying student life and weekday/weekend excursions. Furthermore, smooth access to industrial and infrastructure services (especially tubes) will make your business school life much easier. However, there are some minor drawbacks, such as higher living costs than small towns and college towns. Nevertheless, the advantages of studying in the hearts of a global megacity far surpass the perks.

The next is the London Business School curriculum. The London Business School full-time MBA program aims at providing its students with an international business mindset by teaching them global business skills and improving their decision-making skills. The MBA program is intended for students who want to learn about the vertical shift career path, industry and job changes, and how to run a business effectively.

The program can be completed within 15, 18, or 31 months, so it’s highly flexible. In addition to the basic courses, the program includes approximately 70 electives, including integrated project work, corporate projects with companies, internships, and entrepreneurship summer schools. Approximately one-third of MBA students spend their semesters interning at overseas affiliated schools such as NYU Stern, Booth, Haas, Columbia Business School, IESE, Wharton, UCLA Anderson, MIT Sloan, and Kellogg.

The London Business School happens to be in the same city as one of the world’s major historic financial markets. Its well-structured compulsory courses and electives and experienced financial alumni make it attractive to many finance enthusiasts. Of course, that doesn’t imply that non-financial subjects aren’t equally valued. Well-known consulting firms like McKinsey & Company often hire many London Business School students each year.

How to Improve Your Email List

Entrepreneurs can improve their email lists by using these five tips.

Focus on quality
Internet marketers should resist the temptation to spam their email lists. Do not send emails every day of the week. People will unsubscribe because they do not like seeing emails from the same person repeatedly. Business owners should also not just send promotional material. People are hypersensitive to advertisements. They can tell if someone wants their money. Instead, marketers should focus on providing value to their audience. Help people solve their problems and casually recommend products on the side.

Respond to questions
Entrepreneurs should not only send emails but also answer inquiries. Do not make the whole experience a one-sided conversation. Marketers need to show their readers that they are available as a resourceful advisor. By engaging with their audience, marketers will establish feelings of trust and reliability. Readers will then label future emails as important. The email list will become more valuable as a result.

Get rid of low-quality emails
Having a huge email list is not always good. Some people might not be opening the messages. They might even mark the emails as spam. This will hurt the overall engagement metrics of the email marketing campaign. Sophisticated algorithms might notice and send future emails straight to the spam folder. Emails are not effective if they do not show up in people’s inboxes. To prevent this dilemma from happening, marketers should use software that tracks email open rates. Delete invalid emails from the list to improve marketing percentages.

Ask for suggestions
Business owners do not have to think of ideas by themselves when creating content. They can ask their readers for advice. This enhances the brainstorming process and makes writing new emails more effective. Business owners can then create content that will resonate well with customers.

Use white space
Mobile users may feel intimidated if they see a huge block of text. They might then decide not to read the email. Therefore, marketers should break up paragraphs into manageable sections. They can improve the user experience by skipping lines every few sentences.

By following these five tips, entrepreneurs will be able to launch successful email marketing campaigns.

Originally published to vinunatarajan.com.

What is a Project Charter and How is it Used

In project management, a project charter denotes a short formal document, usually one page, that describes the main objectives of a project, the people involved, the budget, how it will be carried out, potential risks, potential benefits, milestones as well as the success factors for attaining the goals of the project. As a matter of fact, a project charter is a very essential tool in project management that is used in planning a project out and keeping the team members focused during the project’s lifecycle. On that note, the following article presents what goes inside a project charter and how it is utilized.

The main categories of a project charter
When creating a project charter, companies and organizations should certainly know what their overall goal is, which means the opportunity and the problem that should be addressed as well as what is expected to be delivered from the project. They should also include the stakeholders, which means the people and the departments in the company that will be involved in the project. These people can be project managers, team members as well as project sponsors, just to mention a few.

The benefits that the project will bring to the company, other stakeholders and customers as well as what metrics should be used to guarantee achieving these benefits should be mentioned in a project charter. In addition to that, the charter should include the resources, such as materials, time and funding as well as the major milestones or phases of the project. Last, but not least, the obstacles that might hinder success as well as the factors that can ensure success should also be mentioned in the project charter.

Once all these categories have been mentioned in the project charter, the project sponsor or the project manager should sign and date the document in the approvals section, which is the final section of the project charter.

It is important to note that companies can certainly modify or replace the categories mentioned above as the project proceeds. That being said, a charter will certainly help big companies and organizations be focused, know what they are doing and how, without getting lost in the process and losing sight of their strategy and purpose.

Originally published to vinunatarajan.com.

Why Emotional Intelligence is Crucial for Entrepreneurship

When it comes to business, lots of people assume that the smartest entrepreneurs are the ones who win. Intelligence, it is assumed, is the key factor in determining success. But while general smarts are certainly important, they’re far from the only thing setting successful entrepreneurs apart. When it comes to starting your own business, it seems that emotional intelligence is actually more important than general IQ. Here are a few reasons why.

Social Skills Make Networking Easier

Starting a new business requires lots of contacts in a number of fields. A typical entrepreneur will have contacts within their own industry, as well as people involved in marketing, shipping, logistics, and a number of other areas. In order to find so many trustworthy contacts, you need to have decent social skills. Understanding how you can help others so that they’ll help you is a key skill for an entrepreneur. You have to accept the basic premise that everyone could be a useful contact if you understand their goals and motivations. This comes a lot easier to someone with high emotional intelligence.

Empathy Makes You A Better Leader

When you run a company, your biggest asset is the people working under you. Successful entrepreneurs know how to harness the energy, knowledge, and abilities of the people they hire. One way they get the best out of their workers is by remaining empathetic. People respond best to bosses who acknowledge their problems and respect their humanity. For an entrepreneur with high emotional intelligence, treating employees with respect and looking out for their interests is all second nature.

Emotional Intelligence Makes For Better Relationships

Success in business is built upon strong relationships. A good entrepreneur will forge lasting connections with colleagues, partners, customers, and employees. They use their emotional intelligence to really understand the people around them. They’ll recognize that their contacts are people first and businesspeople second. This understanding will take them much farther in the business world than general IQ ever could.

If you’re looking to run your own business, then being able to read charts, graphs, and earnings statements isn’t nearly as important as the ability to read the human soul. That’s why emotional intelligence is so important.

Originally published to vinunatarajan.com

What Does a Music Producer Do?

Music production is an exciting industry providing the force behind the music we know and love. While there is some overlap with DJing, what exactly does a music producer do? A music producer contributes to the production of music in a number of ways: organization, performance, tracking, mixing and processing, or even coaching and inspiration. 

Music production has changed a lot over the years, and while the term “music producer” used to be much more specific, it has grown to encompass a large range of responsibilities. It was a managerial role: the producer would be in charge of hiring musicians and engineers, rent the studio, and put all of the necessary pieces together to help create a record. Leveraging their connections in the industry, the producer would bring together their key players, like artists and engineers, schedule studio time, and keep financial records. The work was pragmatic and centered on the logistics of completing an album. 

Over time, however, the music producer came to do more than just manage the logistics of a record. Using their ear for music and their knowledge of how to combine the talents of all the right players, music producers began to alter the sound of records and influence music production. Using new recording techniques, they changed the face of modern music. Trailblazers in the industry like Phil Spector set new precedents for music production. Producers began to take a more proactive approach, calling the shots when it came to instrumentation, how it was performed, and the composition behind it. This allowed them more control over the recording process than before and shifted the role of the producer from a general organizer to an active composer. 

In modernity, it’s a little bit more difficult to differentiate a recording engineer from a music producer. An audio engineer today does more than just operate soundboards: they learned music theory, developed a keen ear for good tones and progressions, and used these to become a key part of the music creation process. With the popularity of electronic music, many times producers can be artists, too, by their own right. 

Ultimately, the role of producer varies from person to person. Throughout history, the profession has changed greatly. The diversity of responsibilities means that you can tailor it to suit you. 

Originally published on VinuNatarajan.net

The Importance of Hiring an Efficient Product Manager

In many tech companies, a product manager is an essential part of the team. A product-based company relies on the item that it puts out, and in some instances, companies feel the pressure to develop new products before customers see the need for it. In order to keep up with innovation and increasingly complex transactional sales models, there is an increased demand for capable product managers. Product-based organizations have seen a significant transformation due to the current software as a service (SaaS) model. 

A product-based company seeks to come up with an item that not only meets but exceeds customer expectations in addition to helping them meet their business goals. Innovation seldom happens in a vacuum, so it’s incredibly important that different teams within the organization, such as research and development, engineering, and sales, collaborate on the product. A good manager is responsible for making sure that everyone in the team sticks to their deadlines and that the work is carried out without a hitch. Though they will be working mostly with the product, a product manager still needs a developed set of people skills. Past leadership experience can be a great asset to the team; look for someone with excellent communication skills and passion for their job. 

That being said, an efficient product manager should be sound in their technical skills as well. The product manager serves a very important role acting as the point of contact between the various teams and the customer. Their technical background enables them to talk about the multiple aspects of a product and do so with credibility. Depending on the product in question and its users, the technical expectations of the manager will vary. Someone less versed in the realm of technical knowledge may not be able to hold the respect of the engineer or R&D teams, which can lead to conflicts within your organization. Industry experience in the field can be a determining factor when you’re hiring your next product manager, as this person will play a crucial role in the success of a product. 

When hiring a product manager, it’s a matter of finding someone who has the right personality traits and proper skillset to make a mark in your industry. Not only that, but it’s also important to find someone who is a fit for your organization. 

Originally published on VinuNatarajan.com

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