December 19, 2003, Vol. 3, No. 52

Sponsored by:

Bay Mills Resort and Casino/Wild Bluff-Brimley
Video: http://michigangolfer.tv/2003shows/show11/index.html
Web: http://www.4baymills.com

Grand Traverse Resort and Spa
Web: http://grandtraverseresort.com

Mississippi Golf
Video: http://michigangolfer.tv/2003shows/show2/index.html
Web: http://www.visitmississippi.org/golf_info/index.asp

French Lick Resort and Spa
Video: http://michigangolfer.tv/2003shows/frenchlick/index.html
Web: http://Frenchlick.com

Dundee Internet Services
Web: http://dundee.net

Edited by Art McCafferty-Publisher-Michigan Golfer

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__/ MICHIGAN GOLFER TELEVISION-INTERNATIONAL GOLF AND JEFF
JEFF DANIELS COMEDY GOLF JAM
__/ JIM ENGH, OF TRUE NORTH, NAMED "ARCHITECT OF THE YEAR" BY GOLF DIGEST
__/ MICHIGAN GOLF NEWS ASSOCIATION SUBSCRIBERS
__/ NATURAL GOLF CORPORATION NOW LISTED ON AMEX
__/ ARTHUR HILLS MICHIGAN GOLF TRAIL
__/ INDUSTRY CHIEF EXECUTIVES TO FOCUS ON KEY ISSUES IN SECOND ANNUAL PGA BUSINESS OF GOLF CONFERENCE
__/ SEVEN UP
__/ CHEMUNG HILLS TO BECOME A SUBDIVISION
__/ HEAVEN CAN'T WAIT: ANGELS CROSSING GC TO OPEN IN MICHIGAN IN SPRING '04
__/ TIGER WOODS, ANNIKA SORENSTAM AND TOM WATSON WINNERS OF GWAA PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARDS
__/ FAR OFF COURSE, GOLF BECOMES ADVENTURE SPORT
__/ BINDER PARK GETTING OUT OF A BIND
__/ QUOTE OF THE WEEK
__/ GOLF CALENDAR

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Our cameras traveled to Eastern Michigan University as our host for the show, Vanessa Bell, visited EMU's Sports Marketing class. Her guest for the show, Dr. Sam Fullerton, is an expert on sports marketing, a scratch golfer, and the Interim Department Head of Marketing and Law at EMU. The topic for the day was "International Golf: Similiarities and Differences". Our show covers golf in Germany, England, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia and the U.S.

http://www.michigangolfer.tv/2003shows/show23/index.html

JEFF DANIELS COMEDY GOLF JAM
Tis the season to be jolly. What better way to lighten up for this time of year, then to revisit this wild and wacky golf tournament. Designed to be a fund raiser for Purple Rose Theater in Chelsea, the Comedy Golf Jam is an absolute hoot.

In addition to having The Club at Black Rock in Coeur Alene, Idaho being named the "Best New Private" golf course in America for 2003, Engh is also being honored as the publication's first-ever "Architect of the Year."

"Jim continues to demonstrate why we selected him to design True North," said Brad McGinnis, co-founder of True North, a golf and real estate community in the northwest portion of Michigan's lower peninsula.  "And from the outset, he's told us he thinks our project has every chance of being recognized as perhaps the finest course he's done to date." 

Principal construction of True North Golf Club http:/www.truenorthgolf.com was finished late in the fall of 2003, with the club now slated to open in late spring or early summer of 2004.
Taken and edited from a PR from All About Golf

Media Contacts: 
Terry Moore (616) 247-1931  Email: tmoore@usxchange.net
Tom Cleary  (616) 954-2760  Email: tjcleary@aol.com

Natural Golf Corporation is a golf instruction and equipment company focused on delivering a total system for improving the play of golfers of all abilities. The Company produces and sells instructional videotapes explaining its Natural Golf swing system, offers golf schools through a network of instructors certified to teach the Natural Golfing swing system, and manufactures and sells golf equipment specifically developed for the golfer using its swing system.

For further information on NAX and other Amex-listed companies, please visit http://www.amex.com.
Taken and edited from PRNewswire

"The African-American golfer spends well over $1 billion per year on golf-related goods and services, and is grossly underserved by both mainstream golf media and the overall golf industry," said New Paradigm president Jahmal Pullen in a press release. http://sevenup.com

Stretching through southern, western and northern parts of Michigan, the Arthur Hills Michigan Golf Trail features 15 of the finest Arthur Hills-designed layouts in the country. Headlined by memorable courses such as Shepherd's Hollow, Bay Harbor, Double JJ Resort, HawksHead, the Legacy and Red Hawk, the Trail offers golfers the opportunity to play classic Arthur Hills layouts, each offering their own unforgettable scenery and challenging designs.

To learn more about Golfer's Guide Web Design and Internet Marketing Packages, please contact Sean Cripe at 800-408-9200 or scripe@golfersguide.com.

The conference, sponsored by The PGA of America, is in conjunction with the 51st PGA Merchandise Show, the world's largest golf exposition, Jan. 29 - Feb. 1.

When the Fox River Paper Company closed its century-old plant in Vicksburg, local businessman Bob Thompson stepped in to buy the industrial site and its attendant properties.  Then he hired Matthews to design the golf courses that are the cornerstones of a new golf and real estate community.  "When we first looked at the land owned by the paper company, we were fearful there might be some large environmental issues to face," says Matthews.  "But once we examined it and did our soil and water testing, we found it was absolutely ideal for golf."

Matthews then proceeded to design his layouts with classic themes and the local golf population in mind.  Angels Crossing features sweeping vistas, wide fairways, greens that are large and undulating and detailed bunkering.  More importantly, his routing includes no forced carries over water and was completed with a minimum of land movement; the result being a course that will open next year with a green fee of under $40.  " I think Angels Crossing really reflects where the industry is going in the next few years," said Bob Thompson.  "We needed to be mindful of the glut of high-end golf pricing in our area and state, but we didn't want to provide golf that's less than outstanding.  As a result of what Bruce has done, we've accomplished both objectives."

Matthews' grandfather (Bruce I) and uncle (Jerry) are probably Michigan's most prolific course designers, and the opening of Angels Crossing in 2004 is highly anticipated in southern Kalamazoo County.  The community will feature 98 single-family home sites and 24 condominiums.  Veteran Michigan superintendent Roger Barton will oversee golf course maintenance at Angels Crossing which offers five sets of tee boxes and stretches to 7,169 yards, while Michael Hill is the head golf professional. 

Angels Crossing Golf Club: (269) 649-2700
Website: http://www.golfangelscrossing.com

Media Inquiries:  Terry Moore (616) 247-1931

We also did a couple of early shows with architect Bruce Matthews III, one where he talked about his golf philosophy http://michigangolfer.tv/2001shows/show3/index.html and one where he talked about his grandfather, Bruce http://michigangolfer.tv/2001shows/show16/index.html

-------------ADV--------------MICHIGAN TRAVEL TELEVISION--------
This month our Michigan Runner cameras caught Governor Granholm finishing the mile run in the Detroit Thanksgiving Turkey Trot. http://michiganrunner.tv/2003turkeytrot/

On the travel side we caught the holiday lights at the Park Place Hotel and downtown Traverse City. We also stopped by Grand Traverse Resort and Spa to catch their decorations and the Gingerbread Village. We top it off, or I should say we tap it off, with the Grosse Pointe Singers giving us their presentation of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town". Finally, we hear "Deck the Halls" from the Ypsilanti High School Choirs. http://michigantravel.tv/2003holidays/

The setup was perfect. Only the execution was a little lacking.

"The TV survived for hours," Schilling said, still disappointed.

This is not your father's golf.

In this version of the game, the point seems to be to choose the most outlandish setting in which to try to get the ball into a makeshift, albeit predetermined, hole, say, from a riverbank onto a barge. The clubs are second-hand, the beer comes in cans, and everything is par for the course. It is played everywhere — through cities, from rooftops, and across vacant lots.

There are no cardinal rules, other than to be safe and have fun. Around the world, thousands are heading out into the urban wild, brandishing golf clubs but otherwise unencumbered by any sense of golfing tradition. When the mood strikes, the golf rebels sneak onto golf courses at night and play with glow-in-the-dark balls.

For cross golfers, freedom's just another word for didn't pay the greens fees.

Cross golf, which takes its name partially from cross-country, is also known as urban golf, X-golf and turbo golf. The game has sprouted throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and has made inroads in Asia. The sport has also taken hold in America, where a cross golf tournament was recently founded in San Francisco.

The roots of European cross golf trace back to Hamburg 10 years ago, when Torsten Schilling, now 39, played golf in hotel corridors at night while traveling as a television producer. The rounds always seemed to end with damaged walls.

"I spent a lot of time apologizing to hotel directors," he said. That persuaded him to continue his hobby elsewhere.

While by no means the first person to hit a golf ball outside the manicured confines of a golf course, Schilling may have been the first to quit his day job because of it. He founded and runs the cross golf group known as the Natural Born Golfers. The team logo is a skull with golf clubs for crossbones, and tattered jeans and motorcycle jackets are the unofficial clothing.

The Natural Born Golfers has grown to more than 50 members in Hamburg and is affiliated with hundreds more around the world. Schilling organizes international cross golf tournaments, and has negotiated a series of sponsorship arrangements with beer, software, and car companies.

It's hard to put a number on how many people play cross golf, because the anarchic spirit of the sport does not encourage the formation of leagues and clubs with registries. One measure of its popularity is that 143,000 people have registered on the Natural Born Golfer site, according to Schilling. The Internet is also littered with Web sites devoted to groups of various sizes that document their hometown cross golf team.

The growth of cross golf comes in the midst of an ongoing golf boom in Germany. In percentage terms, golf has been the fastest-growing sport in Germany over the last decade, and in the same time frame has added more participants in absolute numbers than any sport other than gymnastics.

Although comradely anarchy lies at the heart of the sport, semiorganized versions of it are starting to develop. In Austria, the Hotel Toni has added cross golf tournaments to its guest activities. According to the owner Franz Wenko, the hilly north Tyrolean landscape around the hotel makes for adventurous back-woods golfing both in summer and winter.

There are few rules, although, Wenko said, "it's not good form to try and hit the cows."

"Then we get problems with the farmers."

Cows are not a problem for the San Francisco tournament, begun in 2001. Because of other hazards, however, the tournament is played with a lawsuit-proof foam ball.

Taken from an article from Golf Digest

Woods has won the GWAA award five consecutive years and six of the last seven. It is Sorenstam's third consecutive win and her fifth GWAA award -- she also won in 1997 and 1995. This is Watson's first honor as a senior, but he won the honor six times when he was playing on the PGA TOUR, including four in a row from 1977-80.

Woods, 27, won five times world-wide, finished second on the PGA TOUR money list, won his fifth consecutive Vardon Trophy and set a record for consecutive tournaments in the money (114). He was sidelined early in the season after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery but went on to win 27.7 percent of the tournaments he entered (five of 18). Woods also won the PGA TOUR and PGA of America player of the year awards.

Woods received 54 percent of the vote. Ernie Els, who won seven times and won the European Order of Merit finished a distant second with 18 percent. Vijay Singh was third with 14 percent.

Sorenstam, 33, was an overwhelming winner, getting 98.6 percent of the vote. She became the first female to play in a PGA TOUR event in 58 years when she played in the Bank of America Colonial in May and won seven tournaments worldwide, including two majors to complete her Grand Slam. She won six LPGA events and finished out of the top 10 just once in 16 events. She failed to win a sixth Vare Trophy because she didn't play enough rounds to qualify.

Watson ran away with the senior honor, getting 93 percent of the vote, after winning two events, both majors, and leading the money list in an incredibly emotional season which began with his longtime caddie and friend Bruce Edwards being diagnosed with aggressive ALS. Watson's support was relentless as he helped raise funds for ALS research and educate the public. On the course, Watson played in a record nine majors combined and finished T28 at the U.S. Open, where he shared the first-round lead, and T18 at the British Open. He had 10 top 10s in 14 events, led the tour in scoring average and won the 2003 Payne Stewart Award.

Taken and edited from a PR from GWAA
Media Contact:
Melanie Hauser

Tour and Association Calendars

Associations
Golf Association of Michigan http://www.gam.org/champ/schedule.cgi
Michigan Section PGA http://www.Michigan.PGA.com
Michigan Golf Course Owners Association http://mgcoa.org
Golf Course Superintendents Association of America http://www.gcsaa.org

Tours
Canadian Tour- http://www.cantour.com
European Tour- http://www.europeantour.com
Hooters Tour- http://www.ngahooterstour.com
Futures Tour- http://www.futurestour.com
PGA-- http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/pgatour.html

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