By David Droschak To use baseball vernacular, Pinehurst Resort “hit one out of the park” with its restoration of the famed No. 2 course. Play on the world-renowned Donald Ross design increased by 10 percent last year after it re-opened in March as the architectural team of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore created a reverse…
By Kurt Dusterberg When Fran Wilkerson says Wil-Mar Golf Club is a family business, it’s a bit of an understatement. Most of her family tree has played a role in operating one of the oldest-run golf courses in Raleigh. Wilkerson is the woman who runs the golf operation and gives the lessons, but she…
By David Droschak Staying on top of the competitive golf business in the North Carolina Sandhills takes time, commitment and money. Fall behind ever so slightly and another golf course – figuratively a driver and chip shot away – is ready to steal your golfers. With that in mind, the closing of Legacy Golf…
By David Droschak The confident words emanating from 90-year-old Peggy Kirk Bell ring just as true as they have for decades of legendary instruction of what we all consider one of the more complex tasks in sports – perfecting the golf swing. “Keep it simple,” Mrs. Bell says. “I don’t think it’s hard to teach…
Expands Portfolio to 16 Courses with 3 in Raleigh-Durham Market Durham, NC – October 19, 2011 – Traditional Golf Properties and a team of investors acquired Falls Village Golf Club in Durham, NC yesterday, expanding their cluster in the Raleigh-Durham market to three golf courses. Traditional Golf Management, based in Williamsburg, VA will be…
By David Droschak Here’s a quiz. Who is the greatest golfer to come out of the Pinehurst area? Or has there ever been one? Harvie Ward doesn’t count. He was born in Tarboro. If you guessed Billy Joe Patton, well, that would be wrong, too. Patton, who finished third in the 1954 Masters, was from…
By Kurt Dusterberg The University of North Carolina’s Finley Golf Course has had its makeover. Now it’s time for the clubhouse to receive a facelift. “It’s certainly showing its age at this time,” said Johnny Cake, the director of golf at UNC. The original clubhouse was built along with the course in 1949 by Raleigh…
By KURT DUSTERBERG Andrew Sapp could count on one repetitive question from recruits and their parents as golf coach at the University of Michigan. “What do you guys do in the winter?” Sapp recites. “I can’t tell you how many players I’ve lost out on at Michigan who wanted to go farther south.” Problem solved.…
By Kurt Dusterberg For Angela Stewart, golf was a last-resort sport. “I got too old to play softball,” she said with a laugh. Year after year, Stewart was a regular on the rec league ball fields of Greenville, N.C. When she tore her ACL at 38, it was time to leave the diamond life behind.…
By KURT DUSTERBERG For many of us, working on our golf game means a trip to the driving range. You pull out the BIG STICK, rip a few to the other end of the range, and feel like you’re in good form. David Orr is here to tell you what you probably already know, deep…