By STUART HALL Last summer, as Jordan Spieth turned his attention toward preparation for the Open Championship, the third leg of his Grand Slam pursuit, his approach raised a few eyebrows. Though Spieth had played St. Andrews’ Old Course only once — in 2011 prior to the Walker Cup as an amateur — he chose not to…
Part 1 of 2 part series on the Carolinas PGA By DAVID DROSCHAK Golf has a way of pulling you back in. Ron Schmid, a former golf pro at Duke University Golf Club for more than a decade, believed the game was in his rear view mirror heading into the 1990s. He was sailing along…
By BRAD KING When he was contemplating converting the green complexes at historic Pine Needles resort in Southern Pines from bentgrass to an ultra-dwarf strand of bermudagrass, Kelly Miller didn’t have to look far for a good sampling — just across Midland Road, in fact, to the Mid Pines Inn & Golf Club. Miller, the longtime…
Part 2 of 2 part series on the Carolinas PGA By Kurt Dusterberg Jeff Abbot began his working life in a conventional way. Upon college graduation from Notre Dame, he moved to Cincinnati and went to work for Deloitte & Touche, embracing the life of a CPA. “But I realized I didn’t want to be…
By STUART HALL Scott Verner and Ed Ibarguen first met through mutual friends at the University of North Carolina in the early 1970s, and quickly formed a friendship, each with a passion for playing music. Over a holiday weekend in Ibarguen’s room on the 7th floor of UNC’s Morrison Dorm, the new friends met…
Chang repeats as 4-A state champ; keeps Athens Drive streak alive DAVID DROSCHAK It didn’t take the Cardinal Gibbons Crusaders long to become the cream of the crop of 4-A women’s golf in North Carolina. Cardinal Gibbons, a thriving private Catholic school near PNC Arena in Raleigh, moved up a classification this season and quickly…
By STEVE WILLIAMS Check off a couple more boxes on Gina Kim’s to-do list. Only a couple months into her sophomore year at Chapel Hill High School, Kim had an October to remember. Early in the month, she verbally committed to Duke’s perennially potent women’s golf program and then she capped it Oct. 27 by…
N.C. State Twins Win $100,000 Top Prize in Golf Channel Reality Competition By David Droschak Identical twins Anthony and Nick Capra have taken an unconventional golfing path since their Davie County High School days, so it’s ironic the two were able to navigate their way to the top of Golf Channel’s new reality…
By Kurt Dusterberg A lot can change over the course of 15 years. Just ask Jeff Kleiber, the SAS Championship tournament director. “In 2001, it really was just a golf tournament, with a limited time to get that one off the ground,” Kleiber said. “It was an early-summer commitment for an event that was three…
By KURT DUSTERBERG Every few weeks, Brad Clayton gets his buddies together for a golf weekend. The men play some golf, then settle into an evening of corn hole and a cookout. When the sun sets, it’s time for a little “bucket golf” on a driving range, using glow balls. As the evening winds down,…