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Michigan Golf News
July 18, 2003, Vol. 3, No. 29 Sponsored by: Bay Mills Resort and Casino/Wild Bluff-BrimleyWeb: http://www.4baymills.com Video: http://michigangolfer.tv/2003shows/show11/index.html Crusecom Technology Consultants, LLC - Your Strategic Internet Solutions Partner! http://www.crusecom.com The Club Card-Value Golf:Gaylord/Cadillac/Mt. Pleasant/Livingston Web http://www.golfclubcard.com Video: http://michigangolfer.tv/2003shows/packages/golfclubcard/ Upper Peninsula-Michigan's Other Golf Mecca Premium Courses at Reasonable Rates http://upga.org Edited by Art McCafferty-Publisher-Michigan Golfer Magazine __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/__/__/ __/ MGN ON THE ROAD
Mackinac Island *** Frankfort- Frankfort Golf Course Frankfort is a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of summertime TC. This Lake Michigan port city, offers visitors a nice downtown filled with superb restaurants and terrific shops. We stayed at historic Frankfort Hotel and thoroughtly enjoyed ourselves. Just outside of town, is the nine hole Frankfort Golf Course, a tract that was built in the 20's. The course offers some killer views of Crystal Lake, a double green and old fashioned charm. For those that want a little more of a challenge, you can golf the nearby Champion Hill and Pinecroft in Beulah. Mackinac Island-Mission Point Resort We were on Mackinac Island to cover the Chicago to Mackinac Race, but could not help notice the jammed putting course at Mission Point Resort. This has been a hit since it started. There are a couple of other such courses in Michigan; Buck's Run and Hawk Hollow, to name a few, that also have great putting courses on property. Thompsonville-Crystal Mountain Resort
There were smiles around for the crew at CMR as they took a bow for
putting on their first major. For Chris McInnes, Brad Dean, Elaine Crosby,
Joan O'Neil, Rodger Jabara and everybody else who hosted the 60 professional
and amateur women golfers that played in the Fifth Third Bank Women's
Michigan Open, it brought fulfillment to their dream to host a first class major
tournament.
The winner, Breanne Hall, a senior from the University of Toledo,
brought sufficient drama to the tournament, by vaulting into the lead on
Tuesday and then holding onto that lead until her final shot for a double bogey
on18 on Wednesday. It was then out to the 18th tee for the first and only
playoff hole. She hit it down the fairway, while her opponent, Allison
Fouch, hit it into the woods. She ended up with a birdie on the hole,
which was good for the win, as Fouch scrambled out of trouble with a
deft sand shot to put her within six feet of an up and down par.
The Fifth Third Bank Michigan Women's Open Tournament presented by
Detroit Newspapers seemed to please just about everybody this year. Moved from the Ann Arbor area, where it had seemed to plateau, to CMR opened up some new enthusiasium. All of the major media were there, with Greg Johnson of
the Grand Rapids Press and Booth chain, Larry Adderley of the Michigan Golf
Network, Mike Shiels for the Detroit News, Doug VanHouen for the Free
Press, Jeff Peek of Traverse City Record Eagle, Phyllis Barone of
Golfer's Guide, Jennie McCafferty of Michigan Golfer Television as well as the
two television stations in the area. Kudos to all at CMR, it was well done.
Traverse City locals accounted for themselves as Cherie Robinson, finished10th amateur overall, however, the wheels came off from Christy Jonkhoff, as she shot an 85-82-89. Traverse City-Sip and Chip
This year the chipping will be fine, but there might be a dearth of
wine, as the TC area wineries are trying to recover from a brutal freeze in
mid March. Bob Begin of Chateau Chantal, indicated that they lost 90% of
their crop this year. In mid March it was 39 degrees and then in a matter of
a few days, it went to 17 degrees below zero. The vines never recovered.
The TC area has been putting together Sip and Chip golf packages with the
Park Place Hotel and area golf courses. *** THE DETROIT NEWSPAPERS MICHIGAN OPEN Grand Traverse Resort and Spa recently hosted, yet another excellent Detroit Newspaper Michigan Open. The final playoff hole wasn't pretty, as Bob Ackerman won out over Bryan Snyder with a bogey versus double bogey finish. This was after Ackerman bogeyed the 18th hole to bring about the playoff. However, it was still sweet for Ackerman and the end of a long journey, as he had won this tournament before in 1975, as an amateur. He is now the first person to hold both the Michigan Open and the Michigan Senior Open in the same year. He won the Senior Open at Bedford Valley earlier last month. Tim Hygh, reports on the tournament and Ken Devine, Michigan PGA, CEO, hosts the post tournament awards presentation. TRUMBULL COUNTY- WARREN/NILES OHIO
We visited the golf community of Trumbull County recently and had a
ball. While there we visited Yankee Run , Candywood GC, Pine Lakes, Avalon Lakes and Sqaw Valley CC, where the Giant Eagle is contested. While there we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, rated the No.1 Holiday Inn Express in the nation for the past 16 months and then Julia's, an unique upscale B & B, located on the property of Pine Lakes.
Bottom line, there is terrific golf in Trumbull County and we certainly
recommend that you consider it for a golfing getaway. The best ways to
find out about Trumbull County is to visit their website at
http://trumbullcountycvb.org/ or tune in this week's Michigan Golfer Show at http://michigangolfer.tvThad Gutowski reports on the LPGA
tournament and also visits these terrific golf properties.
http://michigangolfer.tv The Natural at Beaver Creek Resort and Marsh Ridge Resort will host the 1st Annual Otsego County Amateur this coming August 30-31.
***
Longtime Egypt Valley Country Club golf professional Lynn Janson has
added another chapter to his illustrious career by being elected to the Grand
Rapids Sports Hall of Fame. The former Michigan State All-America
golfer will officially gain induction to the hall at a ceremony later this
year.
In doing so, he will join a select group of west Michigan golf figures
whohave also been inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
"It's one of the great honors I've had in sport to be named to Grand
Rapids Sports Hall of Fame," says Janson. "Not only have I known and enjoyed
my association with the other golfers there, but I'm humbled to be
affiliated with great athletes from professional football, baseball, basketball
and other sports here in the town where I've lived the last thirty years."
A five-time winner of the Michigan PGA "Player of the Year" Award (and
a multiple winner of both the Michigan Open and the Michigan PGA
Championship), Janson recently competed at his club in the Farmers
Charity Classic on the Champions Tour. He became the first club professional in
the history of senior golf to win a qualifying event at his home club,
shooting a five-under par round of 67 before the Tour stop (which was won by
Doug Tewell in a playoff over Eamonn Darcy). It was the second Champions
Tour appearance in three years for Janson, who's recorded scores of par or
better in four of his last six Champions Tour rounds.
Three years ago Janson was named by his alma mater as the greatest
golfer in the history of Michigan State University. While competing on the
collegiate level he was named to the All-America second team as a
senior, along with former U.S. Open champions Tom Watson, Tom Kite and Andy
North. Janson began his career at Green Ridge Country Club in Grand Rapids,
which later became known as Egypt Valley when the club relocated to Ada in
1990. He has played in numerous major championships, including the 1975 U.S.
Open in Chicago at Medinah, where he was paired in the third round with his
boyhood idol Arnold Palmer.
*Ed. Note-The Grand Rapids Sports Hall of Fame can be viewed at the
downtown Days Inn. ***
Bill Newcomb, architect of the Crystal Mountain Ridge course and site
of this year's Fifth Third Bank Women's Michigan Open, was in
Thompsonville for the fesitivities and to see how his course would hold up. Vanessa Bell, participant of the tournament and also a member of the Futures
Tour, loved the course, but took Bill to task for one of the holes, the 16th.
As it turned out, par was protected as winner Bremma Hall, with one over
par, after surviving a playoff.
Bill was pumped, as he had just signed to do a fourth nine at
Tanglewood, his first nine hole course in three years. "It has been tough out there for architects, work has been spotty." said Newcomb. He also is working on removating an 18 hole course in Dorr County, Wisconsin. Bill was highly
praised for The Orchards, a course he designed that opened in Dorr
Country, a couple of years ago.
Bill, a principal with the Calderone Farms course just outside of
Chelsea, indicated that clubhouse construction will begin this August.
Calderone Farms is up over 25% this year, a welcomed sign, for a club that has
struggled since it opened a couple of years ago. "It has a great
location on I-94 and the population is growing towards it," said Bill. "Overall,
golf rounds are down about 20% in the industry, we are happy that we
are going against that trend." ***
I finally managed to get to John Feinstein's "Open: Inside the Ropes at
Bethpage Black" and really found it to be a great read. In the past two
decades of reporting on golf, I have grown weary of pronouncements like
"Golf's best kept secret" or it is "a hidden gem". In the case of
Bethpage Black, all that had been said about the course was true. In addition,
the original course under the supervision of A.W. Tillinghast held up even
after some work by Rees Jones to get it ready. As Tiger Woods said,
Bethpage Black "is the toughest par-70 I have ever played in my life."
Feinstein does a wonderful job in describing how they brought the
course back and how the USGA went about making the decision to play The Open
on a real public course.
The book is by Little, Brown and Company and I highly recommend it. ***
The monthly National Golf Rounds Played Report from Golf Datatech shows
a 3.8% decline in rounds played in May compared to the same month in
2002. For the year, rounds played are down 2.7% versus the first five months
of 2002. Gains in May rounds played were posted by the Mountain region (2.3%)
and West North Central (1.1%). Largest declines came in the Middle Atlantic
(-10.8%), South Atlantic (-6.7%) and East South Central (-6.3%).
Through five months, West North Central showed the largest YTD
increase, 6.7%, followed by Mountain, 4.1%. The biggest declines came in Middle
Atlantic (-13.7%) and New England (-13.3%).
Taken from NSGA Research Department at info@nsga.org. ***
Since most of the high profile senior golf tournaments have wrapped for
theyear, we thought we would dedicate a few songs for them. The songs
have been changed just a tad to accommodate their aging tastes:
Taken from the Internet Advisor Newsletter http://internetadvisor.net ***
Yarrow Golf & Conference Center is pleased to offer
the Augusta Open on Augusta 14 & 15th featuring The Golf Club at Yarrow has been nominated
for Best New U.S. Golf Course; This event is the best
chance to experience all that Yarrow has to offer.
NOTES:
Your two person best ball team plays on both Thursday & Friday.
Each team also gets to use scores from a contestant in this years
PGA Championship being played concurrently in New York.
Yarrow can customize your package to include optional events
or additional golf at 11 participating courses.
Call or Email for many more details and Entry Form.
***
Fay (USGA official who championed the move of The Open to BethpageBlack)
circled the third green and walked down the hill leading to the fourth
tee. Starting to feel a bit chilled, he walked onto the tee of the first
par-five on the golf course and came to a dead stop. 'That's when I
knew,'he said. 'Right there it hit me. It all came back.'
The fourth tee on the Black is one of those magic golf places that golfers
talk about forever. It isn't as scenic as the 18th at Pebble Beach or
the ninth at Turnberry, because there's no water anywhere in sight. It
isn't as daunting as the 17th at the TPC at Sawgrass or as historic as the Road
Hole at St. Andrews.
But it is breathtaking, with Tillinghast's famous cross bunkers in
front of you, and elevated fairways on the other side of them, and trees left
and right to make you pay for a mistake. For a golf hole built in the
1930's it stands up remarkable well to the technology of today. Even a perfect
drive leaves a top player with a decision to make about how to play his
second shot. That comes later, though. On the tee, one just stands there and
pays homage to Tillinghast.
Taken from "Open", by John Feinstein. Little, Brown and Company, 2003.
***
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