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Michigan Golf News
June 6, 2003, Vol. 3, No. 23
Sponsored by: We want to welcome the membership of the Michigan State Amateur Golf Association to these weekly musings. Dick Loring, one of the shakers and movers of the association, will be submitting informational items to us from time to time. Once again, we welcome members of the MSAGA to the electronic pages of the MGN. *** MGN ON THE ROAD Clare We stopped by the Doherty Hotel for lunch and to catch up on the news of the major lodging property for golf packages in the area. Mid Michigan golf packages feature the Doherty and SnowSnake, Eagle Glen, The Emerald and Buck's Run to name a few. Sturgis Patrick Hagerty is the Head Professional of Klinger Lake CC. We inadvertently called identified him as Paul in last week's MGN. Thanks and a Tip of the Tam to Peter Allen for catching this bogey. Traverse City Bill Knopp, Director of Sales for the Park Place Hotel http://park-place-hotel.com , spearheaded a Fam Trip for a number of meeting planners in Traverse City last week. While the participants were treated to a visit to the Music House, a tour of Leelanau Sands, breakfast on the Grand Traverse dinner train, the major portion of the tour was to highlight the "Sip and Chip" features of golf and local vineyards. Meeting and planners had the option of playing golf at Leelanau Club at Bahle Farms or visiting one of the Leelanau Peninsula's fine vineyards. http://lpwines.com We wanted to offer the tip to sip and chip and partake of the dip to be hip for your next trip. *** MICHIGAN GOLFER TELEVISION-PREVIEWS OF NEW COURSES The Michigan Golfer TV Show is pleased to bring you some previews of courses that are opening up this year. These clips are meant only to wet the appetite of Michigan golfers who want to try the latest courses. For up to date information, make sure you visit the courses' websites. We caught up with Bob Thompson, owner of Angels Crossing, last week. He is very bullish about the course, so bullish that he convinced the Matthews Design Group to designate it as a signature course. In this clip, we look at the massive 6th green, a par 3 hole that will create sufficient buzz to get people to journey to Vicksburg to try it. The course is still in the grow in stage and will not be ready until late summer. Crimson RidgeBeginning as a dream just over 10 years ago, Crimson Ridge is now Sault Ste. Marie's newest championship, and only public access, 18 hole golf course. Popular head golf professional, Kirk Sherman, gives our camera the latest on Mid Michigan's newest golf attraction, Eagle's Eye. Chris Lutzke, who cut his architectural teeth working for Pete Dye, has sculpted a 7308 yard course that will continue to drive local area sales for Callaway's Big Bertha clubs. The course is located alongside 27 holes of Hawk Hollow. Bob Kleinbrook, the PGA Professional at Diamond Springs, gives us a brief tour of this new Grand Rapids area golf course. Web http://diamondspringsgolf.com Hawk's Eye This is actually a clip we brought to our viewers last year. Tom Rowe, of Hawk's Eye indicated that the course opened some of its holes last year, but will open the remainer this year. The architect was John Robinson. Hawk's Eye combined with The Chief, offers a great one-two golfing punch for the area. They also have some rather amazing real estate offerings on these courses as well. Jerry Balmes, owner of Hawk' Ridge, located at the Skyline Ski Resort in Grayling, indicated that they had a little bit of a set back in their irrigation last year. As a result, the course is a little behind schedule. In this clip, Jerry shows us some of dramatic views that the course will bring to the golfer. Keep tuned to their website for course opening information. Thad Gutowski, of Michigan Golfer Television, interviews Director of Golf, Kevin Muir. of Westwyn. Adjacent to Wyngate Country Club in Rochester, Westwyn is open for public play. The Michigan Golfer Television show dropped by Yarrow last fall and talked with long time employee Frank Boyd. The course has grow in since then and is now open for play. This is another course from Ray Hearns and Paul Albanese. DICK WEBER MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT The Gaylord Golf Mecca will host the 3rd Dick Weber Memorial Tournament this Saturday. Dick was a visionary in tourism and a force in promoting golf in the north. We miss him very much. *** SHELTON TO BECOME VICE CHANCELLOR OF EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY Dr. Willian Shelton, host of the Michigan Golfer Television Show, will be moving to Greenville, North Carolina this week, to assume his position of Vice Chancellor of East Carolina University. Shelton, formerly President of Eastern Michigan University, had been on the Educational Leadership faculty for the past three years. The Michigan Golfer Internet Television show is a real media pioneer. The show was launched on March 9th at the Michigan Golf Show in Novi. Since then, viewership has steadily increased. In May, the show attracted a little over 12,000 viewers. Shelton will continue to be a part of the show, by returning to Michigan periodically and also hosting some shows from the Carolinas. SALES OF SHOES, PUTTERS, WEDGES RISE April was a good month for golf footwear, putters and wedges, with all exhibiting dollar growth for the month, according to Golf Datatech. Footwear dollar sales for April grew 2.7 percent to $22.8 million while the number of pairs purchased in the month increased 6.4 percent to 291,880. Putters showed a 7.6 percent increase in dollar sales to $18.2 million
despite a 2.4 percent decrease in putters sold to 148,830. The average
price paid per putter at retail rose 9.3 percent to $122.06 from $110.66.
Sales of wedges rose significantly, 11.5 percent, to $6.7 million.
Units sold showed a 7.0 percent increase to 75,980. The average price paid per
wedge in April was $88.00, up 4.1 percent from $84.40 in April 2002. AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR...NEVER MIND Augusta National GC announced Tuesday the 2004 Masters will again feature no television sponsors nor commercial interruptions. "There were many aspects of last year's broadcast that were favorable," said Hootie Johnson, Augusta National chairman, in a press release. "The response from our TV viewers about the ability to watch strictly golf was very positive." CBS Sports' final-round coverage this year featured 4.5 hours of commercial-free golf and resulted in 34.5 million viewers, the third-highest total ever for a Masters Sunday. Taken and edited from http://www.golfworldbusiness.com ***BATTLE OF THE SEXES NBC Sports and the Associated Press agree the LPGA is a big winner from the Colonial - The trick is getting it to last. "The Battle of the Sexes is a real phenomenon and it will last," said James Mallamo, Founder of Matrix Golf, a sports consulting and marketing firm in North Palm Beach, Florida. "Starting with the U.S. Open, Sunday, June 15, 2003, we will launch Matrix Golf's BATTLE OF THE SEXES - The PGA Tour vs. the LPGA Tour." Matrix Golf's BATTLE OF THE SEXES is a weekly series of golf competitions starting with the U.S. Open on Sunday, June 15, 2003. Matrix Golf's revolutionary golf scoring methodology, U.S. Patent # 6,571,143, enables tournament officials to normalize and compare the scores of the winner on the PGA Tour and the winner on the LPGA Tour on an equitable basis to determine the "winner", i.e. the golfer projected to be the winner, presuming the golfers were competing against each other in the same golf tournament. Matrix Golf's patented golf scoring methodology analyzes golf course ratings, the degree of difficulty of a golf course, total yardage, pin placements and 'current' weather conditions to ensure a fair and honest comparison of players' scores. Matrix Golf will then announce the "winner" of Matrix Golf's BATTLE OF THE SEXES on the Internet at http://www.MatrixGolf.com. Taken and edited from a press release from Julia Anne Nicole, V. P. Communications of Matrix Golf at (561) 324 - 6600.*** WOMEN'S HEALTHCARE CLASSIC SET DATE The eleventh annual Women's Healthcare Classic, one of Michigan's largest all-women's golf events, will be presented this year by Masco. It will be held June 30 at the Grosse Ile Golf & Country Club and will feature 18 holes of golf with 8 A.M. and 1:30 P.M.. shotgun starts. ***100 BEST GOLF RESORTS IN THE WORLD-MICHIGAN HAS ONE, GTR We just received a copy of Karen Misuraca's latest book, "100 Best Golf Resorts of the World". Of the 100 resorts, 38 were located in other countries. The top states were California with 11, Florida 10 and Hawaii 9. Michigan had just one of the world's great resorts and that was Grand Traverse Resort and Spa. The book also mentions Shanty Creek, Boyne and Treetops as other top quality resorts. The book is from The Globe Pequot Press, Guliford, CT http://globe-pequot.com paperback price is $19.95 ***WENDY'S CHARITY GOLF CLASSIC SETS DATE Wendy's Charity Golf Classic, will take place at the Country Club of Jackson on August 17-18. For further information contact Stanton and Associates, Inc. 517-784-4094 x145 mobile: 517-819-9045 http://www.stantonassociates.net ***BAY MILLS OPEN PLANS ARE UNDERWAY Judy Mason, Director of Golf for Wild Bluff GC at Bay Mills Resort and Casino indicated that the plans for the Bay Mills Open are on schedule. Judy and co-director Mike Husby, are out and about gathering up sponsors for this very successful tournament. She also indicated that Wild Bluff GC is up a couple of hundred rounds over last year, which should make everybody happy. IRWIN AND FLOYD TO PLAY AT FARMERS CHARITY CLASSIC Raymond Floyd Hale Irwin will be playing the Farmers Charity Classic for the first time in their career. The tournament, which is organized and produced by the Grand Rapids Jaycees, will be played June 16-22, 2003 at Egypt Valley Country Club. The Farmers Charity Classic now has commitments from 14 of the Top 15 Money Leaders on the Champions Tour in 2003. http://farmerscharityclassic.com ***MGCOA 10th ANNUAL GOLF OUTING AT GULL LAKE VIEW GC Kate Moore is putting out the word to all the members of the Michigan Golf Courses Owners Association that this year's bash or I should say educational opportunity, will be held on August 14th at Gull Lake View Golf Club. For those vendors that would like to tap into this cash flow stream, they need to get with Kate to see what advertising inventory she has left. kmoore-mgcoa@acd.net http://mgcoa.org ***QUOTES OF THE WEEK "Swing hard in case you hit it." Dan Marino "It took me seventeen years to get 3,000 hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course." Hank Aaron "Have you ever noticed what golf spells backwards?" Al Boliska "My favorite shots are the practice swing and the conceded putt. The rest can never be mastered." Lord Robertson Taken from http://www.pasturegolf.com *** GOLF CALENDAR June 06/07 Dick Weber Memorial Tournament-Michaywe GC, Gaylord 06/10-11 Club Car Michigan Senior Open- Bedford Valley 06/16-22 Farmers Charity Classic, Egypt Valley GC, Ada 06/17-21 Michigan Amateur Championship, Belvedere GC, Charlevoix 06/20-22 Bank of Ann Arbor FUTURES Golf Classic, Lake Forest GC- Ann Arbor, MI 06/20 "The Haig", Vintage Club Golf Classic-Elmbrook GC, Traverse City 06/23-26 Detroit Newspapers Michigan Open-The Bear at Grand Traverse Resort 06/24 8th Annual Jeff Daniels Comedy Golf Jam, Polo Fields, Ann Arbor 06/23 J.P. McCarthy Memorial PAL Invitational, Tournament Players Club (TPC) of Michigan, Dearborn 06/27-28 Hickory Open at the Kingsley Club 06/30 Womens Health Care Classic, Grosse Ile Golf & Country Club 06/30-07/02 Michigan Girls Championship 06/30-07/01 ESPN Tylenol Par 3 Shootout-Treetops Resort 06/30-07/03 Great Lakes Junior Masters Golf Championship, Stonebridge, Ann Arbor July 07/07-08 22nd Annual Shanty Creek PGA Classic Presented by EZGO, Bellaire 07/07 Father and Son Championship, Paint Creek, Lake Orion 07/07-11 87th Annual Michigan Women's Amateur Championship, Black Lake GC, Onaway 07/07-11 2nd Annual Michigan Women's Senior Amateur Championship, Black Lake GC,Onaway 07/07-13 Take Your Daughter to the Course Week 07/13-14 2003 Independent Insurance Agent Junior Classic, Fortress GC, Frankenmuth, MI 07/14 Dick Purtan Annual Golf Outing, Oakland Universtiy, Rochester 07/14-16 Fifth Third Bank Michigan Women's Open Tournament presented by Detroit Newspapers-Crystal Mountain Resort 07/14-15 GAM Women's Mid Amateur Championship, Glacier Club, Washington 07/08-14 Ford Senior Players Championship, TPC of Michigan, Dearborn 07/21/23 Detroit Newspapers Tournament of Champions-Boyne Mountain Resort 07/28-31 Michigan Junior Boys Championship, Battle Creek CC, Battle Creek 07/28-29 Michigan Senior PGA Championship,The Loon, Gaylord 07/28-08/03 Buick Open, Warwick Hills GC-Flint 07/30-08/03 Western Amateur, Point O'Woods, St. Joseph August 08/11-13 GAM Championship, Grand Haven GC, Grand Haven 08/14 MGCOA Golf Outing, Gull Lake View GC, Augusta 08/16-17 Michigan Women's Publinx State Championship, Forest Akers West GC, East Lansing 08/17-18 Wendy's Charity Golf Classic LPGA Pro-Am, Country Club of Jackson 08/18-20 Michigan PGA Championship-Shanty Creek Resort, Bellaire 08/18-19 GAM Women's Championship, Clio CC, Clio 08/18-24 Bay Mills Open, Brimley-Wild Bluff GC 08/25-26 GAM Women's Senior Amateur Championship, Crystal Mountain,Thompsonville 08/28-29 GAM Men's Mid-Amateur Championship, Treetops, Gaylord September 09/08-11 Lincoln Mercury Classic-Pine Lake CC 09/03-04 GAM Men's Senior Amateur Championship, Lakewood Shores Resort, Oscoda 09/13-14 Michigan Net Amateur Championship, Pilgrim's Run 09/20-21 Atlas Matches, The Loon, Gaylord 09/30 Tournament of Club Champions (Men and Women) Egypt Valley, Ada October 10/19-21 The GOLF 20/20 Conference, World Golf Village, Florida http://golf2020.com
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