Charitable Times Ahead
Charities and non-profits can always use an influx of cash to keep operating and serving others who are less fortunate. So this time of year as the golfing season gets underway is what these groups cherish as thousands of golf fund raising events are scheduled.
Three come to my mind for various reasons.
On May 20 was the massive Automotive Golf Classic for support of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan, held at Indianwood Country Club and sponsored by General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, and Nissan. The turnout and sponsorship was so strong from the automobile industry that both the Old and the New Courses had to be utilized to hold all the foursomes. In raising about $500,000, yes half-a-million, event chairman Peter Brown ...
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A Dry, Warm Welcome to May
Posted By Tom Lang, 05/02/13 at
05:16 PM
Rain, rain, go away … that childhood rhyme could be the battle cry of every golf course in Michigan this spring.
Fortunately, the May forecast is looking much brighter for course owners and the players who eagerly anticipate frequent visits to Michigan’s finest manicured green grass layouts.
Multiple-course owner, designer and operator Jim Dewling, also a member of the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame, said most course owners plan for 200 days each year as the length of Michigan’s golf season. He currently operates or owns courses like Timber Trace and Whispering Pines in Pinckney, and Highland Hills, north of Lansing.
“Courses budget a certain amount (of play) for April golf, and when it’s gone, ...
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Golf Season in the U.P. Well Worth the Wait
Warmer spring weather is in the air and The Masters champion has been crowned, so it must be time for golf in Michigan – well, most of Michigan.
Sweetgrass Golf Club, an award-winning links style course at Island Resort & Casino in the Upper Peninsula, just moved opening day back from the end of April to May 10. Director of Golf Dave Douglas describes the reason shortly after tax deadline day as, “we still have snow on the ground, especially from some drifts and banks. It will be wet for a while.”
Yet there is nothing wet about the business forecast at Sweetgrass, ranked by GolfWeek as an annual top 15 “Best Courses You Can Play” pick in the state. Golf rounds have shown double-digit growth since the ...
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Fall Golf: Time to Practice
With the exception of high school girls’ golf, the competitive golf season has pretty much come to a close in early October here in Michigan. Fitting in a few extra rounds while enjoying the cooler weather and wonderful colors on the trees, fall is also a great time for any golfer to prepare their game for next season.
One professional teacher recommends putting away your driver and focus on using whatever club gets every tee shot in the fairway. He contends that birdies might not be plentiful with the strategy (when are they anyway?), but keeping the big numbers off your score card that often come with trying to blast a driver down a tight fairway is an overall positive and is good mental momentum going into next spring.
Another offering ...
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Pressures of the Ryder Cup
I love Ryder Cup week, as much or more because I love both golf and team efforts, whether that be on the playing field or in the workplace.
A lot of attention is given to the Ryder Cup — and to a lesser degree the President’s Cup — in regard to the pressure placed on the players; the pressure that goes beyond the norm of playing for one’s self most of the time to now being responsible for the results of a team, a country or a continent. If anyone showed that pressure in an outward way it was Hunter Mahan crying during the press conference after the USA’s loss to Europe in 2010 when Mahan felt he personally blew it for everyone in the final round.
A CBSsports.com story described that day this way:
...
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Gaylord and Pure Michigan
Golfing in Michigan has gained national acclaim through the highly successful Pure Michigan campaign — no surprise there. What most do not know is that the Gaylord area takes a lot of credit for the general concept, and they have a point.
This summer is the 25th anniversary of the self-appointed “Gaylord Golf Mecca” and the official anniversary event took place recently with more than 100 golfers taking in the TreeTops Jones Masterpiece by day — before being joined by several more dozen people at a dinner featuring guest speaker Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, who also praised the Mecca for its intuitive progressiveness.
Courses in the Gaylord Golf Mecca are the core of the Pure Michigan golf ads, but it’s more about a ...
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Most Fun Golf Courses in Michigan
It’s not difficult to believe that Michigan is a little golf crazy compared to other parts of the country, but I and many others consider that a great moniker for our recreational economy.
Golf Digest recently announced its “Top 50 Most Fun” golf courses to play in America. In a normal poll of any kind it would be easy to expect each state to have one golf course good enough to make the list. Unfortunately for some, Michigan stole eight of the top 50 spots, an astronomically imbalanced number in our favor — and a testimony to our dominance at having great courses where we all can enjoy the game.
I have no idea what characteristics Golf Digest raters use to determine the most fun, but here is where our eight ...
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Michigan PGA's Tournament of Champions
BOYNE FALLS – Not often do a father and son get to play in one of the top competitive tournaments in Michigan, yet three sets of dad and offspring are doing just that this week at the Michigan PGA’s Tournament of Champions.
This very unique format is made up of winners from past pro and amateur events, pitting male and female, juniors and seniors all in one tournament from varying tees at Boyne Mountain Resort, co-founders of the tournament. It was the first of its kind in the country when instituted 21 years ago.
Want to find all the golf legends in Michigan, from Pete Green to Lynn Janson, or the hottest young players on the mini tours; or some of our best lady golfers? Keep an eye on Boyne ...
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Tullymore Shows Flexibility in Development Plan
The newest owners of the Tullymore and St. Ives properties near Big Rapids, Michigan made a 10-year plan about 5 years ago that didn’t turn out as rosy as it could have when the economy took a nose dive soon after it was first implemented.
So they had to think fast and reassess. So far the results appear very favorable considering the odds of trying to make sense of the challenging real estate market.
On a recent visit, both golf properties proved to be in excellent condition, plus they offered various real estate options for permanent residents, second home seekers, or those who just want to visit for a few days.
According to CEO Terry Schieber, the original intent was to develop the properties mostly for primary housing instead ...
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Nine-Hole Charity Golf Outings Save Time and Money
Golf is arguably the sport most closely tied to tradition – but a new way of utilizing golf as a fund-raiser is cropping up.
The customary golf outing designed to raise money for charitable causes ranging from cancer research to school booster clubs to political campaigns has pretty much been mapped out as playing an 18 hole scramble, serving dinner and drinks, and bidding on a few auction items. That business model has proved to be very successful for decades but for one drawback – it can take a lot of time.
Some area courses have seen a growing interest in shaving at least a few hours off the participants’ time commitment by hosting 9-hole events instead.
...
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Alan Mulally and Rick Smith on Business and Golf
Ford CEO Alan Mulally and teaching pro Rick Smith of TreeTops Resort in Gaylord headlined the recent annual meeting of the Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) at Franklin Hills CC. Combined they spoke for almost two hours and everyone in the crowd of 100-plus acted is if they couldn’t get enough. Smith’s talk was energetic, personable and filled with great golf stories — while Mulally spoke so casually and without prepared notes to a crowd of business men and women that it seemed more as if he were sitting by the fireplace smoking a pipe with friends.
First the bad news for the golf lovers in the room: Mulally was understandably asked if Ford would be getting back into golf sponsorship as it did with a prior 14-year run of the Ford Senior ...
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Augusta National and Women
I’d like to think I’m an opened-minded, equal-opportunity supporter of most things in life – but in all honesty I don’t personally care if Augusta National Golf Club does or does not add women to its membership roll. As long as nobody gets physically hurt, organizations need to be free to make their own decisions – and if the nearly 80-year-old club wants to soon add lady members, great. If not, that’s its choice too.
The dicey membership topic came up again Wednesday in the press conference room during Augusta Chairman Billy Payne’s annual address to the media – and several media wouldn’t let the subject go even when it was clear Payne was not going to take the bait.
"All issues of ...
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Golf’s Big Three
Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player got the Masters Tournament off to a good start Thursday as honorary starters. Earlier, the trio was asked if there’s a current-day Big Three in their minds.
Arnold Palmer said: “I think Gary and Jack and myself, we did a lot of television golf and that’s how the big three kind of got that name. And of course the record here at Augusta is part of it, too. But the fact that we were together competing against each other in the early days of television had a lot to do with the whole thing.”
Jack Nicklaus said: “There’s a lot more players today. I think all of us probably agree that Tiger is still the dominant force in the game even though he’s struggled ...
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Overheard at Augusta National Tuesday
Tiger Woods: (who played a practice round with Fred Couples, Tuesday morning)
“This is my 18th year, so I’ve spent just about half my life playing this tournament. It’s understanding how to play this golf course, where to miss it. I’ve gotten just umpteen amount of advice from guys who have played here way more than I have. That’s really helped. Over the years of playing with Raymond and Freddie and Ollie and Nick Price, you name it, right on down the list, of just understanding how to play this golf course.
“Granted, it’s changed over the years, but still, you still miss it in the same spots. Just understanding how to do that has really helped me over the years, and I think that’s one of ...
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No Better Work Assignment Than This...
Everyone has had a job (or two) they dread, and hopefully at least one they have loved.
This week it’s the latter for me, where I have the privilege of reporting from Augusta, Georgia at The Masters. My first time was 2009.
The first announcement on this week’s blog is the pairings which were just released at 12:00 noon, Tuesday, April 3, 2012. Some key ones of note to watch are:
Alma, Michigan’s Randal Lewis is paired with former Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal, and Robert Garrigus, at 8:01 Thursday, 11:08 Friday.
Tom Watson, who played a practice round Monday with Lewis, is paired with Johnson Wagner and amateur Hideki Matsuyama at 9:40 and 12:58.
...
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Tiger Risking Injury
I’m sorry; I just don’t understand Tiger Woods.
During the pro-am of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, video of Tiger showed him aggressively stopping his downswing and soon after grimacing in great pain. He tweaked something in his back and the pain was real; I believe it.
His explanation at a post-round press conference was that a “professional photographer” (said in jest) snapped some photos during his downswing. Really, Tiger? Because of a few clicks from a camera (and most are very quiet digitals these days), you feel the need to immediately halt all that force and momentum build up, that purposeful momentum to crush the ball like everyone else on the planet wishes they could?
This was not the ...
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Three’s The Charm: Michigan’s Gaylord Golf Mecca
This is not news: Michigan’s economy has suffered greatly for far too long.
I for one believe a lesson in Michigan’s robust return can be learned from a group of golf course owners in northern Michigan — the so-called Gaylord Golf Mecca. The Mecca, an offshoot of the Gaylord Convention and Tourism Bureau, is celebrating its 25th year in 2012. The basic idea behind the Mecca is to pool resources to market the entire north-central section of Michigan as a tourism destination so visitor dollars can benefit multiple golf courses’ bottom line.
Due to the anniversary, local businesses might notice the golf lovers on their staff are a little antsy at work on the 24th of each month this ...
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Merging Golf and Business
Michigan State University has taken a new approach to teaching business values and networking — and the growth of the class would make any CEO smile.
Using Golf in Business is a special-topics business class and the first of its kind in the Big Ten. LPGA teaching pro and MSU alum Jan Brintnall created and teaches the course.
Oct. 14th I had the pleasure of being one of dozens of business professionals to join more than 100 students for an outing at The Emerald Golf Course north of St. Johns, Mich. The outing was designed specifically so students could apply what they’ve learned in the classroom and for business pros to evaluate the students’ behavior, engagement, and networking skills.
Brintnall told me, “We seem ...
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Marygrove College in Detroit Debuts Golf Practice Facility
Marygrove College hosted the grand opening in early October for its new golf practice facility — a rare find in any urban environment across the country — on the east side of the campus along on McNichols (Six Mile Road) in Detroit.
The facility represents — and will cater to — so many facets of need: access to the game of golf for kids who can’t afford it otherwise, a home practice area for the newly-created men’s and women’s golf teams at the college, and foremost to the original impetus — a real grass site for the Midnight Golf Program.
Midnight Golf is a youth development organization supported in part by Marygrove College, the PGA of America, and numerous local teaching pros ...
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Michigan Fall Golf Tour
The Great Lakes State rightfully brags on a national level about its Pure Michigan warm-weather golf — but while shorter in duration, perhaps even nicer is Michigan’s few prime weeks of fall golf, even if it means dressing in an extra layer.
Our rich mix of hardwood trees that turn various colors against a backdrop of evergreens and majestic lakes and waterways can turn even brutal golf scores into a pleasurable day outdoors.
I’ve had the pleasure of trying all 10 courses listed below (in no particular order), and believe they are extra special in the autumn season. Several have earned national awards. Others are less known but still outstanding places to play when combining factors like: golf challenge for various skill levels, special views ...
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