By STUART HALL Let’s be honest. How appealing is the thought of standing on the far end of the driving range with a bucket full of golf balls, repetitiously pounding one after another into vast acreage dotted by a few makeshift greens and bunkers. Oh, and it’s also hot and humid. Most golfers, if they…
By DAVID DROSCHAK Anne Marie Goslak proclaimed at the young age of 3 she wanted to be a golf professional. Maybe that’s why she has a soft spot in her heart for teaching the game to today’s exuberant youth. “I remember my dad asking me, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to be a ballerina?’…
By Robert Kimball It was an unseasonably cool, rainy morning when the man opened up the Rick Murphy training facility at Greensboro National Golf Club. He was, as usual, 15 minutes early. “I didn’t stay the head pro at Starmount Forest Country Club by being late,” he laughed. The man’s name is Leo Halloran, and…
By KURT DUSTERBERG Every few weeks, Brad Clayton gets his buddies together for a golf weekend. The men play some golf, then settle into an evening of corn hole and a cookout. When the sun sets, it’s time for a little “bucket golf” on a driving range, using glow balls. As the evening winds down,…
By Brad King The First Tee has steadily blossomed into a robust national organization that has impacted, influenced and inspired more than 9 million young golfers. Locally, however, when Mike Barber took the reigns as The First Tee of the Triad President and CEO in October 2011, the organization was represented at just three locations with…
By STEVE WILLIAMS In long-drive competition, they round off the blasts to the closest yard. Who needs the inches when the balls are rolling out to well in excess of 400 yards? But in the Re/Max World Long Drive Championship on a windy night in Las Vegas in early November, officials had to get out…
By STEVE HANF Twenty-five years later, Robert Linville’s Precision Golf School continues celebrating one success story after another, from golfers at the highest level to the rawest of newcomers. Linville continues working with Mike Goodes, who has earned more than $4 million since qualifying for the Champions Tour in 2007. Linville earned high praise from…
By STEVE HANF Davis Troxler developed a reputation for going overtime with his lessons at Precision Golf School. “I talk a lot,” Troxler said with a laugh. “We have a lot of fun. You hear us laugh all the time, but that doesn’t mean we don’t take it serious.” Troxler’s sessions with area golfers aren’t…
By MARC PRUITT There isn’t much that Randall James hasn’t seen or experienced in golf since he picked up the game when he was a kid, spending countless hours roaming the fairways at Zebulon Country Club, just east of Raleigh. James, who recently turned 50, has been the Director of Golf at Oak Valley in…
By STEVE HANF Jonathan Dudley teaches people how to play a better game of golf. For all the experiences the 33-year-old already has crammed into his life, he could teach a lot more than that. Small-town roots … college golf national championship … thoughts of a religious profession … a paid gig golfing with a…