By STUART HALL The claims by equipment manufacturers are as enticing as those of a carnival barker. Their product will produce more distance, reduce spin rate, improve ball control and help shape shots. In general, your game can only improve, so just step right up. The claims are mixed with technical terms like launch angle,…
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 Kurt Dusterberg For more than a decade, Dona Lerner made her name as a golf instructor at The Preserve at Jordan Lake Golf Club outside of Pittsboro. That was her comfort zone, until she asked herself a question. “There’s a time when you say: ‘Am I complacent? Am I making the effort to touch…
Former Holly Springs baseball player turns to collegiate golf By Kurt Dusterberg Wes Conover grew up with athletic genes on both sides of his family. His father played small-college basketball and his grandfather starred at Syracuse. So Wes followed suit on the court at Holly Springs High School. On his mother’s side, he had four…
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…
By Stuart Hall Whether Duke’s men’s golf team is playing a tournament round or practicing on the range in mid-March, each day is an integral part of a process leading to a larger goal. A few miles away, North Carolina calls that same progression “Play for May,” a simple reminder that the end game is…
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…