By Kurt Dusterberg When Jason Widener was a teenager, golf came easily. He won the USGA’s Junior Amateur championship in 1988, and followed it up by signing with Duke University, where he won medalist honors at the ACC Championship as a freshman in 1990. Then everything changed. “Three quarters of the way through my freshman…
By STUART HALL On a winter night in December 2008, Tim Kreger was conducting a fundraiser to benefit the golf team at his alma mater, Clemson University. At night’s end there was a tee time to play Prestwick Country Club in Myrtle Beach, S.C., still available. Kreger did not want to see a free round…
By Stuart Hall Chesson Hadley was born into this world at Rex Hospital. He grew up playing golf in Raleigh. So when he won the Web.com Tour’s Rex Hospital Open last spring the victory represented a win-win proposition for both parties. For Hadley, the win helped launch him to this year’s rookie season on the…
By DAVID DROSCHAK Renowned amateur golfer Paul Simson of Raleigh has won more than 400 tournaments, from casual member-guest events to the grandest of stages. The 62-year-old Simson will get to enjoy another career highlight the first week of May as part of the United States team competing in the inaugural Concession Cup, the newly…
By DAVID DROSCHAK Certain victors and venues in sports are forever connected. There is Babe Ruth and The House That Ruth Built, Bobby Jones and Augusta National, and a legendary University of North Carolina hoops coach and the Dean Dome. As the U.S. Open Championship approaches this June – for the third time in the…
By Stuart Hall Dan Brooks arrived at Duke University in 1984 as a young coach taking over a 10-year-old program and knowing only one way to recruit. While the women’s golf landscape has evolved over the last 30 years, Brooks’ recruiting philosophy has not. Considering he is collegiate women’s golf’s winningest coach and has led…
Akshay Bhatia, Jack Massei only North Carolina qualifiers By DAVID DROSCHAK Sonny Bhatia made some recent promises to his son as incentive. One was a round with a caddie at Pinehurst No. 2. The other was a trip to The Masters. “I made him this stupid promise that I would get him to The Masters,…
The 105-year-old association was started in Charleston, S.C.; has been relatively nomadic: Pinehurst, N.C.; Clemmons, N.C.; Seven Lakes, N.C.; and, now, on the Pine Needles property in Southern Pines, N.C. The CGA purchased an existing building in the Seven Lakers village in 1991 and quickly outgrew out, expanding from a four-person staff to 14 in…
By DAVID DROSCHAK Golf course communities hit the accelerator button in the 1990s as North Carolina became a focal point for the booming retirement and second-home market. Couples flocked to these communities, lured by over-the-top promises of lavish amenities and lifestyles. When the economic crash came in 2008, however, many of these developer promises had…
By CHRISTIAN WORSTELL With nine holes to play in the 4-A state golf championship, Emilia Migliaccio found herself at a crossroads. She could’ve hung her head and just gone through the motions. Or she could’ve done what she did next. Proving that the moment was not too big for the 14-year-old freshman from Athens Drive,…