McNair went with his heart

“We finally came to a point that every golf course comes to,” McNair said. “You have to make a very hard decision on which direction you go. And we made what we thought was an easy decision to preserve this incredible golf course that had been here long before our family ever took it over.”

Aiken Golf Club, which is sandwiched between Hitchcock Woods and the downtown area, traces its origins back to the Taylormade Burner 2.0 irons bustling Winter Colony scene of the early 1900s.

The original Highland Park Hotel had burned down in 1898, but it was rebuilt in 1912. A four-hole layout had been built a few years before, but the new hotel expanded it to 11 holes. In 1916, the course gained fame as the first in the nation to offer women’s tees.

The McNair family entered the picture in 1959 when McNair Sr. purchased it from the city and switched the name back to Highland Park.

McNair Sr. died in 2001, but he knew that his son was restoring the course.

“It has been a lifelong journey not only for me, but for my father,” McNair said. “I think he’d be very proud of where we’ve been and what kind of club we are now. He’d be very proud.”

The club recently held its third annual callaway razr x irons McNair Cup – the event that honors McNair Sr. – and the players marveled at the challenges presented by a course that plays just 6,048 yards from the medal tees.

Now, as the club celebrates its centennial, the hard work is being recognized. Golfweek recently ranked Aiken Golf Club as the 13th-best place to play in South Carolina for courses that are accessible to the public. That comes on top of other awards that have given the club kudos for its charm and affordability.

Inglis and legendary designer Donald Ross are generally given credit for the course’s design. With the work done by McNair in the late 1990s, the Morgans thought he should get equal billing as one of the layout’s co-designers.

During Masters Week, a team of course raters from Golfweek descended on Aiken Golf Club.

McNair said he had visualized his work plenty of times.

Aiken Golf Club attracts a variety of golfers. Senior players enjoy the lack of length. Players on a budget enjoy the low cost. Scratch players enjoy the challenge when McNair sets the pins in difficult locations.

“We will continue to make improvements. There will be a time when the next generation will take over,” McNair said. “Golf courses are always changing, and I think we’ve really set the standard discount golf clubs for what this golf course should be. I think the next 100 years will be exciting.”

Transformation of Rock Springs Golf Course

VVH has a five-year contract with the city, with three, five-year options. The new managers said at the outset that their priority is to make the course more user-friendly, particularly making changes to facilitate faster play.

That shed and a second one will be callaway diablo edge irons moved to Rock Springs to contain maintenance equipment. Garden Girls Landscaping did the plantings.

Trees and tall scrub on the hill that had blocked the view from No. 1 tee are gone, the resulting bare areas sowed with grass seed and covered with protective hay. The deck has a fresh coat of paint, new wood lattice around its base, newly planted perennials surrounded by mulch, table umbrellas for calm days and new steps to the platform.

Crews all over the course are cutting off dead branches, felling trees, taking out weeds and tall brush, planting flowers inside circles of day lilies and generally cleaning up.

With the trees gone below the first tee, avid golfer Springman said the view from the hill is more panoramic and players can see where they hit their balls.

Under new management since May 1, the city-owned course got a new superintendent Saturday. He is Brian McKinney of Jerseyville.

"They would search and search; it took too long," he said. "Now, the rough is such that they can drive up and see the balls. We don't want to penalize people so they can't play the game. We want people to have fun. We are going to make it a nice golf course."

"We mowed all of our greens shorter so the Ping G20 irons balls will move faster," he said. "Everybody is loving this."

Rick Springman, 63, of Godfrey, who works for Van Hoy at Nautilus Fitness Center in Alton as maintenance manager, also is supervising the course. Van Hoy is majority owner of Nautilus.

"It made everything look so narrow and close in, it felt claustrophobic," Springman said about tree and other plant overgrowth in the No. 7 fairway and throughout the course during a tour Tuesday.

The surface in the No. 9 fairway is in poor condition. Workers were cutting narrow strips in the dirt Tuesday and installing hardy Bermuda grass sod that will spread over the current grass and bare dirt throughout the fairway. Crews also will smooth bumps in the dirt surface.

Throughout the course, workers have trimmed down the grass in roughs that were so tall, golfers had difficulty finding their balls, which was aggravating and slowed play, Springman said.

McKinney is easy for golfers to spot. He brings to work his faithful sidekick, Maggie, a mixed-breed dog that lopes alongside discount golf clubs his golf cart as he makes his rounds on the course.

"In the fall, we will move some tees forward" to shorten distance between holes, making some greens larger and cutting fairways wider, Springman said.

Whitby golf course is open for competetion

Whitby Coastal Estates, which owns all Whitby land still available for development, is offering 13 hectares of what used to be a former golf course at Duck Creek North for just under $7 million.

The 13ha now up for sale includes three Mizuno MP-59 Irons hectares of reserves. The balance is described as suitable for 130 multiunit titles and smaller high-density lots as well as 20 estate-sized lots. It has an asking price of $6.94m.

Plans for this area provided for 91 lots but a recent letter from council showed it was keen to encourage medium to high-density development in the area to make better use of local infrastructure and services.

It also recognised demand for sections to be available on the former golf course, ahead of its planned development programme.

"This land will produce some of the best sections ever offered in Whitby. The larger lots are intended to border the stream that runs through the 13 hectares and all sections will be within five minutes walk of the new New World supermarket," said Gollins.

"The plan avoids all of the frustration and time delays that take most developers to the edge these days."

More than 3000 sections were developed and sold before the consortium company was sold to Whitby Coastal Estates in 1997, which still has another 64ha available for further growth.

Whitby Estates managing director David Titleist 910 D3 Driver Bradford said he was looking to sell partly because he wanted to speed up development of the remaining land in Whitby.

"I'm 68 and I have two sons who have neither the inclination or ability to take it over. We've got a 10-year programme so it makes more sense now that we've gone through the development programme and got council agreement."

Bradford said Duck Creek North was well priced - the 10.3ha of land available for development was going for about $70 per square metre, which was 30 per cent below the price Ryman Healthcare paid for its new Waikanae North retirement village. Whitby was also closer to Wellington.


This land was previously the ninth to 18th holes of the golf course and Bradford said they were retaining the slightly larger Duck Creek South, where it had another 80 consented lots.

The council was encouraging multi- unit, more intensive development and another retirement village/rest home complex could certainly be part of the mix as well, said Gollins.

A lot of work was going on there - part of it had been sold for a new supermarket, another part had recently been sold to discount golf clubs Samuel Marsden Collegiate for an expansion of their Whitby school and work had been completed on cleaning up another six lots in Shoal Pl.

Creek will renovate Boundary Oak Golf Course

"As long as our debt financing is something we can afford on an annual basis, lets go!" said Councilman Gary Skrel, noting that he is a golf enthusiast. "I am for the most improvements that we can afford. This is Walnut Creek and this community expects a high-quality facility."

And city leaders say there is good reason to believe that profits from the course will be enough to pay back the loans.

families would hang out as they wait for a golf game to be over, said Councilwoman Kristina Lawson.

Exactly what will be included in the remodel is not clear yet because it will depend on how much Walnut Creek can Titleist 910 D2 Driver afford when it comes to financing. City leaders are considering revenue bonds, which would be paid back by profits from the golf course not tax dollars. The cost for improvements could be more than $5 million.

Other improvements could include a reconfiguration to the upstairs of the clubhouse where events take place.

While the golf side of the business looks to remain relatively flat, city leaders think there is room for real growth on the food and beverage side -- specifically, in the business of holding weddings and tournaments at the course. This past year there were around 250 events held at the course.

The city and the company CourseCo, which operates Boundary Oak, have created a five-year rolling long-range Mizuno MP-69 Irons financial plan, which forecasts revenue and expenses.

Improvements include structural and mechanical repairs and bringing the facility into ADA compliance. The council was also interested in relocating the cart barn from the west to the east side of the building and replacing it with the grill and pro shop. Council members believed that if the grill was a nicer place to have a meal, more golfers would eat there and spend more money. And

CourseCo predicts Boundary Oak's food and beverage business will grow 25 percent this year, said Tom Isaak, president of CourseCo. Revenues for food and beverage services are projected to be around $1.5 million by the end of this fiscal year and 1.7 million by next fiscal year.

This would not be the first time the discount golf clubs city issued bonds to pay for improvements at the course. Bonds were used in 1997 to pay for new cart paths and an irrigation system.

"It's a forecast based on what we think given the market and the physical facility," Isaak said. "We think its going to take several years to realize that potential. We are kind of catching up with the market."

"I think we would improve access to the golf course for a wide variety of people by making improvements to these facilities," she said. "And over time that means (the course would make more) money."

Michael Long said he keep up with the youngsters on OneAsia

Long will tee it up against players half his age in next week’s GS Caltex Maekyung Open Golf Championship at Namseoul Golf & Country Club in the Korean capital, hoping that a settled approach to the game will reap its own reward.

“At my age it is simply a goal to just make the cut in events,” Long said. “Anything beyond that is a bonus.”

“The most recent equipment change I have made is to add the TaylorMade three wood to my bag,” he said. “I like the consistency it brings.”

While the Kiwi missed the cut at the Volvo China Open in Tianjin last month, he rolled back the years in the season-opening Enjoy Jakarta Indonesia Open in March to grab a share of third place Taylormade Rocketballz Irons with a final round seven-under par 65, the best 18-holes of the tournament.

Asked what separates a successful weekend with one where you pack your bags and head home early, Long admits he is mystified.

“When you are a young pro you feel you have to practice hard and go to the gym and there is no time for experiencing new discount golf clubs or sightseeing,” Long said.

Long, who hails from Cromwell in New Zealand but now lives in Perth, Australia, turned pro at 21 and enjoyed a couple of seasons in the world’s top 100 in the 1990s while he plied his trade on the European Tour.

“I don’t really see a coach all that much. I have a full time job in Perth and I don’t get too much time to practice or see a coach. Andrew Mowatt, the head pro at Royal Fremantle Golf Club, keeps an eye on my game,” he added.


“Having played on the U.S. Tour, European Tour, Nationwide Tour and the Australasian Tour over the last 22 years I have no ambition to play on a full time tour,” he said. “I am happy working in a job and playing golf part-time.”


“As I really don’t play too much golf, other than when I’m playing a tournament on OneAsia, I really TaylorMade R11S Driver couldn’t say how my game is as the moment,” he said.

His finest result on OneAsia remains a joint second at the Nanshan China Classic last year after a four-man play-off won by Korean youngster Kim Bi-o.

He also played the Nationwide Tour for five years, winning the 2001 Boise Open and the 2003 Virginia Beach Open, and twice graduated to the PGA Tour, but failed to keep his card on both occasions.

Age has also given the New Zealander an appreciation for life off the golf course — even while traveling as a touring pro.

Long Putter may help improve your game

Putter length became a hot topic last August when Keegan Bradley, 25, won the PGA Championship with a belly putter. Until then, every major in PGA Tour history had been won by someone with a standard-length putter.

The long putter has been around for about 25 years, the belly putter for about a dozen years. Until last year, both lengths were usually considered the tools of flawed golfers. However, Bradley and Ping G20 fairway wood Simpson considered themselves good with standard-length putters but even better with belly putters.

"Try reversing your grip — for a right-handed golfer, the left hand will be low," she said. "This stabilizes the wrists and promotes a more rhythmic stroke, two elements of putting that often break down for those struggling on the greens. A thicker grip can also help as it keeps the hands quieter. If your misses are inconsistent, you may benefit from a heavier putter, one that allows you to feel the head. Putting is, after all, about feel and confidence."

The belly putter is anchored into the golfer's stomach, about an inch or so to the target side of the belly button, and that anchor becomes the fulcrum for the swing. The putter is gripped with Ping K15 Irons both hands in the grip of the golfer's choice and the club swings like a pendulum. Wrist action is easier to control and the golfer automatically is in what is considered by many pros to be a perfect putting position. The result is a more consistent swing.


Coston also reiterated the age-old putting advice that proper speed on a putt is more important than direction and a pre-putt routine is essential. He also said that most putts are either 30-40 feet or 5 feet or less and golfers should practice accordingly.

There is controversy regarding belly and long putters. A lot of golfers, including Tiger Woods, think any putter longer than a conventional one should be banned. Their argument is that discount golf clubs was intended to be played with hands, not with a club anchored to the body so the business end can swing as a pendulum.

One option with the long putter is to hit sidesaddle (facing the hole and putting from the side). This is an unusual style, but some golfers find it effective.

A heavy putter is about twice the weight of a regular putter. It's easier to have a good pendulum stroke and good tempo with a heavy putter because the club does a lot of the work on its own. The heavy putter has advantages on short putts, but distance-control problems are common.

Coston also reiterated the age-old putting advice that proper speed on a putt is more important than direction and a pre-putt routine is essential. He also said that most putts are either 30-40 feet or 5 feet or less and golfers should practice accordingly.

Curtis took Texas Open lead

Mathis matched Curtis with a 67, Triangle had a 65, and Every was poised to inch even closer before darkness suspended play. He'll line up for an 11-foot birdie chance on the par-4 17th when second-round play resumes Saturday.

Blake Adams (69), Ryan Palmer (69) and Hunter Haas (74) were tied for fifth at 4 under.

The afternoon group wasn't so lucky. A still morning gave way to 20-mph gusts delivered by a passing storm cell, freezing the leaderboard and raising the projected cut line to 4 over. Troy Matteson tumbled hardest, slipping from fourth to potentially out after an 81 summed up by a quadruple-bogey on the par-5 14th.

In his first time playing TPC San Antonio, Curtis has looked right at home after starting the year in Dubai and hopping around on the European Tour. The Texas Open is just his fourth PGA Tour stop Titleist 712 AP1 Irons because of his low conditional status following a miserable 2011, when he didn't muster a top-10 finish for the first time since joining the tour in 2003.

Wrapping up his second round at the Texas Open just before a two-hour storm delay left behind a stiff wind that protected the early leaders, Curtis shot another bogey-free 5-under 67 on Friday to finish at 10 under. He was two strokes ahead of David Mathis and three in front of Cameron Triangle and Matt Every.

That's the year Curtis came out of nowhere to win at the British Open. He racked up two more tour victories in 2006 but hasn't won since, and his 149th ranking on the money list last year was a career-worst. The slump, Curtis said, has left him not only trying to repair his game but also his mindset.

Triangle and Scott Piercy, who started the day 4 over, vaulted back into contention with their 65s. Triangle began a bogey-free round with birdies on five of his first six holes, using his Titleist 712 AP2 Irons on the fairway to setup four putts from 4 feet or closer.

"We'll see how it goes over the weekend," Curtis said. "When you're not playing the schedule that you want, you don't have it all laid out in front of you before the year starts, you're kind of playing when you can. It's hard."

The 36-hole lead is his first since the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2010.

"Everybody knows me, know that I don't stress about much," Curtis said. "If you see me stressing it's probably over nothing, too. I usually sweat the small stuff, and the big stuff, I don't really worry about."

No longer able to pick and choose discount golf clubs where he plays, Curtis described simply being "ready to go" if his phone rings the week before a tournament. He said he tries to focus on the 12 to 15 starts he expects to make this year rather than dwell on his place near the bottom rung of the tour.

"There was no wind this morning and it was a little softer," said Triangle, who finished eighth at the Houston Open earlier this month. "So you could be a little more aggressive to the pins."