By Kurt Dusterberg For most golfers, it’s easy to take the game at face value – the nice weather, the camaraderie, the challenge of making shots. A good round of golf is an invigorating break from the everyday routine. But to The First Tee organization, the game of golf is something more. It is a…
By Steve Hanf Score one for the cluttered garage. As Seth Lomison wraps up his junior career and contemplates life as a professional golfer, it’s easy to wonder “what might have been” had he not stumbled upon a lonely club and some old golf balls one day in the family garage. “It was like an…
By Steve Hanf Special programs exist to get young kids interested in playing golf. School teams exist at just about every high school and many middle schools for teens interested in playing golf. Now, a new organization will help bridge the gap between first learning the game and tackling the whole different world of competitive…
By STEVE WILLIAMS North Carolina’s juniors won bragging rights over their rivals from South Carolina and Georgia in the 8th annual Carolinas-Georgia Junior Championship. The event, which features the top 20 boys and top 10 girls from each of the three states, is annually played in mid-January at Mount Vintage Plantation Golf Club in North…
By STEVE WILLIAMS The thought of winning a state championship in women’s golf wasn’t even in the wildest dreams for Rockingham County High School for the better part of the school’s four decades. In fact, the Cougars barely managed to put together a team and had qualified just once for regional play. But a couple…
By EDDIE SOUTHARDS Salisbury had its run of 1-A/2-A state titles end this fall but it didn’t stop the Hornets’ top player from repeating as the individual state champion. Senior Grace Yatawara survived a playoff to win her second straight title. She shot rounds of 81 and 77 at Longleaf Golf and Family Club to…
By Marc Pruitt Erhardt makes cut at AJGA FootJoy Invitational Greensboro • June 8-12 — Greensboro’s Reilly Erhardt made the cut at the AJGA FootJoy Invitational at Sedgefield Country Club and finished tied for 44th at 16-over par after rounds of 71-76-73-76. Erhardt, who won the 1-A state championship last month while leading Bishop McGuinness…
By Marc Pruitt South Rowan’s Davis Richards, an N.C. State signee who won the individual title in the South Piedmont 3-A conference and finished 12th in the 2014 state championship, was expected to battle East Rowan’s Nick Lyerly for individual honors this time around. But instead of playing for a state title in early May,…
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 HANF As expected at a tournament, drama was unfolding on the back nine. It had nothing to do with the team championship, however, and everything to do with which Hornet would earn medalist honors. “Ultimately our job was to win a team state championship and hopefully one of our girls wins the individual,”…