By David Droschak The first lunch meeting in February 2012 between Pine Needles Resort president Kelly Miller and golf course architect Kyle Franz hit on a wide range of topics. At one point, Southern Pines Golf Club came up, and Franz sat up in his chair. Franz had played the 115-year-old course numerous times while…
By Brad King Alex Smalley didn’t quite play his way into the six-man playoff to determine the 2021 Wyndham Championship, eventually won by Kevin Kisner. Nevertheless, the former Duke star captured plenty of attention along the way. Playing on his home course at Sedgefield Country Club, the 24-year-old Smalley carded three rounds in the 60s,…
By David Droschak For every PGA Tour player, there are hundreds, even thousands of guys like Ben Schlottman. Schlottman was a state champion at Forsyth Country Day, a star college golfer at Auburn who was named SEC freshman of the year and won the prestigious North and South Men’s Amateur Championship at Pinehurst Resort in…
By David Droschak Few golfers – outside of Tiger Woods – have had a more successful junior career than Jason Widener. The former Greensboro native won over 50 junior tournaments, including the U.S. Junior Amateur, was the No. 1 ranked junior player in the country for two years in the late 1980s and became one…
By David Droschak Macy Pate was seeking warmer weather and the ability to work on her golf game on a full-time basis when her family moved from the North Carolina mountains to Winston-Salem last August. The 15-year-old Pate, a fierce competitor, was also looking for players to push her and challenge a skill set that…
By David Droschak Going low has been the rule at the Wyndham Championship since moving to Sedgefield Country Club rather than the exception, with winning scores regularly at 20-under-par or better. The last five Greensboro winners have broken that barrier with Brandt Snedeker firing an opening round 59 in 2018 and last year’s champion Jim…
By David Droschak Spend more than five minutes with Dona Lerner and Kathy Bounds and its evident there is a true division of labor in the well-oiled machine that is the Dona Lerner Golf Academy. Lerner is the face of the business while Bounds is the worker bee. The common ground is a love for…
By David Droschak Hall of fame golf course architect Tom Fazio loves to rattle off his favorite features of mountain golf in North Carolina — hills, terrain, elevation, framing, definition, trees, natural streams, waterfalls. “All of these things come with the territory and then it’s just a matter of how you fit it in, how…
By DAVID DROSCHAK Approaching the two-month mark from its Aug. 12-15 dates, the Wyndham Championship has a game plan that includes its loyal legion of sponsors, tens of thousands of fans and a top-notch field. In other words, normalcy is near for longtime tournament director Mark Brazil, who is celebrating 20 years on the job…
By David Droschak Reaching the top in golf often requires tremendous sacrifices, including long hours on the practice range, a never-ending focus on fundamentals, mental toughness and course management, just to name a few. Macy Pate added one more item to the mix this past year. The Reagan High School freshman and her family had…