Statewide organizations report spike in participation By Brad King No need to squint to find something or someone discussing the decline of golf. Rounds are down, they say. Courses are closing. The game can’t attract millennials because it’s slow and takes too long. Everywhere you look it’s doom-and-gloom. Tiger Woods is now raising young kids…
By David Droschak Joe Hardy turned 94 years old in January, and God willing, the founder and CEO of 84 Lumber will get to witness another remarkable accomplishment at his 2,000-acre resort in the scenic mountains of Southwestern Pennsylvania. What’s the ageless Hardy have up his sleeve this time at one of North America’s luxury…
By John Brasier Jake Rutter’s future goals in golf are simple. “I just want to keep playing golf,” he said. Rutter isn’t sure whether that means playing college golf. But he does have that option. He said Davidson College coach Tim Straub offered him a roster spot, and he has other options as well. “Some…
By John Brasier Madison Isaacson is already off to a fast start in 2017 after a strong showing last year. Isaacson, a junior at Ragsdale High in Jamestown, shot a solid 5-over-par 149 in mid-March to win the TYGA Archdale-Trinity Chamber Junior Open at Holly Springs by a whopping eight-shot margin. Already committed to play…
Junior Golf Pyramid By David Droschak Starting your child out in a golf program may not be a simple as it sounds if you’re new to the game. Proper direction from the start could mean all the difference in the world as to whether a 10-year-old falls in love with golf or finds the whole…
By John Brasier With its new white sand bunkers, Oak Valley Golf Club traded a little flash for dramatically improved playability and playing conditions. In a renovation expected to be complete by early March, Pinnacle Golf, which manages the Arnold Palmer design, is replacing the original sand with a white, G-Angle variety and converting many…
By Stuart Hall When Peggy Kirk Bell first met golf at age 17, how the wondrous, intertwining 78-year journey would unfold must have been unfathomable. In 1938, the idea of a young woman becoming a golf instructor or a touring professional or even a savvy business negotiator was likely as much wishful thinking as practical because…
By David Droschak Kris Spence grew up in a rural town of about 2,000 folks in the bootheel of Missouri that didn’t have a golf course. The Greensboro-based golf architect discovered the game as a 10-year-old when he stumbled across some old clubs and balls left by a neighbor of his grandmother. “The guy moved…
By Kurt Dusterberg Willie McRae sits comfortably on the veranda at Pinehurst Resort, looking out over a golf course he knows better than anyone who has ever lived. That might sound like an overstatement, until you consider that he is in his 73rd year caddying at Pinehurst No. 2. When a man’s career endures longer…
By Kurt Dusterberg It would be easy to write off 81-year-old John Gerring as an old-school teaching guru, a throwback to a bygone era. But Gerring hopes you will hear him out. After 55 years as a PGA professional, he knows what works, even if his instruction doesn’t involve whistles and bells. That’s by design;…