By JOHN BRASIER No more than a decade ago, replacing healthy bentgrass greens with bermudagrass putting surfaces would have been unpopular and bad for business for elite golf courses along Myrtle Beach’s Grand Strand. “Everybody wanted to play bentgrass greens,” said Max Morgan, vice president of agronomy for National Golf Management’s 22 Myrtle Beach-area courses.…
By DAVID DROSCHAK Putting and short-game instructor David Orr had a nice list of clientele from his humble and somewhat secluded home base in small town Buies Creek that included PGA Tour players Charlie Wi, Roberto Castro, Troy Matteson and North Carolina’s Neal Lancaster. So it was exciting last June when he received a call…
Ben Hynson sits in Lochmere Golf Club’s grill room on a Thursday morning, relaxed and looking refreshed. Around him golfers pass en route to tee times; a staff member wonders aloud if mats should be used on the practice range; and a nearby table of men debates whatever comes to mind. For more than 25…
By DAVID DROSCHAK Few golf courses stir up emotions for Webb Simpson like Pinehurst No. 2. His family owns a home in the area, he’s a huge fan of Donald Ross layouts and as a youngster was a standard barrier for Tom Watson’s group during the 1999 U.S. Open. Simpson was dejected when he failed…
Lonnie Poole Golf Course has become a certified Audubon International Signature Golf Sanctuary and member of the organization’s Signature Program. Charles Peacock, a professor in North Carolina State’s crop science department, emphasizes that the Signature Program is an elite Audubon International category. Peacock, who has worked for the past 15 years with close to 200…