Uncovering Golf Counterfeiters on the Next Episode of In Play with Jimmy Roberts

Also a Retrospective Glance at how Jean van de Velde uses his Monumental 1999 Open Championship Collapse as Inspiration For Young French Golf Professionals

(ORLANDO, Fla.) – Identifying an evolving and growing trend in counterfeit golf equipment, the Emmy Award-nominated series In Play with Jimmy Roberts will examine the thriving multi-million dollar industry that plagues legitimate golf manufacturers, as well as unsuspecting golfers around the world on Monday’s new episode at 9 p.m. ET on Golf Channel.Roberts visits with several top club manufacturers to learn how the leading voices in the golf equipment space are working to combat the counterfeit movement. The two-part feature also includes an equipment test to compare the swing results of legitimate golf clubs versus suspected counterfeit clubs.

Additional stories scheduled for Monday’s episode are:
* Jean van de Velde: What has become the go-to punchline for meltdowns in golf, Jean van de Velde’s catastrophic collapse at the 1999 Open Championship 15-years ago is featured during Monday’s new episode. Golf Channel’s Rich Lerner visits with Van de Velde in Paris to discuss how the Frenchman has taken his moment of public humiliation and turned it into a ‘c’est la vie’ (That’s Life) approach to life’s challenges, using it as powerful inspiration to share with young and successful French golfers like Victor Dubuisson.

* Then and Now – Bob May: Southern California golf prodigy Bob May set a number of junior golf records that Tiger Woods – seven years May’s junior – taped to his wall as motivation. The two would later square off in a memorable playoff at the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla, which Woods eventually won en route to claiming all four major championship trophies in succession. In Play visits with May to reflect on the career of the man so closely intersected with the game’s most focal figure.
Mysterious Montague: One of the most talked about golfers of the 1930s, John Montague was palling around with Hollywood icons and trying to make a name for himself in golf all the while maintaining obscurity from the media. The rationale behind his secrecy eventually surfaced, revealing a criminal past and a new identity.

* Golf Detective: In Play’s slightly defective “Golf Detective” Matty Blake delves into the origin of the term ‘mulligan’.

Host and managing editor Roberts, a 13-time Emmy Award-winner, has drawn critical praise for telling some of sports’ greatest stories during his distinguished career at NBC Sports, ESPN, ABC News and ABC Sports, which includes covering 15 Olympics.  Described as “an enterprising new original series” by Sports Illustrated and a “gorgeously shot magazine show” by CableFAX Daily, the Emmy Award-nominated In Play with Jimmy Roberts chronicles stories ranging from celebrities to everyday people who are all unified by golf.