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…
By DAVID DROSCHAK Kyle Franz has worked as an understudy for some of the top architects in the business – Tom Doak, Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw and Gil Hanse – and on some of the best projects – the Pinehurst No. 2 restoration and currently the 2016 Olympic course in Rio de Janeiro – prior…
By Stuart Hall For all of Augusta National Golf Club’s abounding azaleas, magnolias and acres of immaculate grass, one of this year’s more popular spots among the patrons was a wooded area of pine straw needles roughly 35 yards right of the par-4 10th hole’s fairway landing area. It’s where a year earlier, left-hander Bubba…
BY JOHN DELL After owning the ACC Women’s Golf Championships for more than a decade, the Duke Blue Devils had a three-year lull. That all changed last spring when the Blue Devils won their 17th ACC title and 16th under coach Dan Brooks at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro. Brooks wouldn’t say that it was…
May is prime golfing season in Pinehurst as emerald green fairways emerge and temperatures creep into the 80s. But for the first time in its rich history “tires meets turf” as Pinehurst Resort will host the inaugural Pinehurst Concours d’Elegance. More than 100 of the world’s most beautiful vehicles from some of the most celebrated…
Cardinal Gibbons posted another third-place finish in the 3-A state high school girls’ golf tournament, this time at Longleaf Golf and Country Club in Southern Pines. The Crusaders, led by Caroline O’Neil’s ninth-place effort, shot 270 and 269 on two cold, windy days on the par-71 course and ended 33 shots off the pace of…
By EDDIE SOUTHARDS Sarah Bae walked off the 18th green at Pinehurst No. 6 in tears for the second straight year. Only this time, they were tears of joy. The Raleigh Athens Drive senior won the girls’ 4-A state high school golf championship in dramatic fashion. Bae sank a 20-foot birdie putt on the…