Archive

FarmLinks Finds It’s Time For A Change

By Len Ziehm SYLACAUGA, AL. -- The FarmLinks course in this little town about 45 miles from Birmingham already has a big reputation. Golf Digest, Golfweek and the National Golf Foundation have recognized it for one good thing or another. Soon, though, things will be changing. Honours Golf, which managed the facility for 10 years, will be leaving and a new management team is coming in. Honours did a good job, but 81-year-old owner Jimmy Pursell wants to take his course in another direction. Pursell, who made a big impact in the fertilizer…continue reading →

Searching For Golf Bargains On Florida’s Gulf Coast

By Len Ziehm SARASOTA, FL. — The main goal was to get to know a new area on our first two-month winter odyssey and — of course — that meant getting to know the golf options on Florida’s Gulf coast. We did a good job of both. Between our arrival in Sarasota on Dec. 30 and our departure on Feb. 29 we played 14 of the 18-holers and one of the nine-holers. We didn’t have access to the area’s premier private clubs, like Concession, The Founders Club, Sara Bay, Longboat Key Club, Venetian,…continue reading →

Alabama’s An Underrated State For Golfers

By Len Ziehm GULF SHORES, AL. — There is, I believe, a misconception about golf in Alabama. Sure, the creation of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail 20 years ago was a big boost for golf in the state. In fact, it was a marketing breakthrough for the entire golf industry. The Trail has 11 courses covering 468 holes, with most in the Birmingham area. Newcomers to Alabama may well gravitate to those layouts. There’s a lot more to golf in Alabama than the Jones Trail, however. I witnessed that up-close-and-personal on the…continue reading →

Harbor Shores – A Feel Good Story

By Len Ziehm BENTON HARBOR, Mich. -- Anything Jack Nicklaus is sure to be good in golf, and The Golf Club at Harbor Shores is no exception. It’ll gain immense exposure in this summer of 2012 as the site of the Senior PGA Championship. It’ll also host that event in 2014. Considering the course didn’t open until July 1, 2010, it has elevated its profile by leaps and bounds in a very short time.  The Nicklaus connection, of course, helped in the course getting instant credibility. It also didn’t hurt that Benton Harbor-based…continue reading →

Branson Has A Lot More Than Golf

By Len Ziehm BRANSON, Mo. -- The golf is quite good in this lively little town in the southwest corner of Missouri. In just the last few years Branson, with about 6,000 full-time residents, has emerged as a golf destination. There are 13 courses in the general area, and they can accommodate all types of players. Eight of them -- operating through the website golfbranson.com -- encompass the super tough Murder Rock, credited to controversial PGA Tour player John Daly; Branson Creek, designed by the highly-respected architect Tom Fazio; the spiffy Payne Stewart…continue reading →

Golf’s Hall Of Fame Deserves A Profile Boost

By Len Ziehm ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- The World Golf Hall of Fame doesn’t get the media attention that baseball’s Hall in Cooperstown, N.Y., or football’s counterpart in Canton, Ohio, receive -- and that’s a shame. It’s well worth a visit and some who were there in its first years will be quite impressed with what they’d see there now.I’m embarrassed to say that I never made the trek during my 40 years as a golf beat writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, but I did make it one of my first stops after…continue reading →
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