Would You Like To See LPGA Play the Same Courses as the PGA?
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
I think it would be interesting to watch the Professional women play the same course as men.
Imagine the greats of the LPGA playing Bay Hill, Augusta National, Doral, and Muirfield Village!
Wouldn’t you love to see Inbee Park and Stacy Lewis battle it out down the 18th at Doral’s Blue Monster?
In general, I would like to see the LPGA compete more often on the PGA courses, with the changes that make it fair for women players, of course. The women usually play separate courses, which are not as exciting as most of the men’s courses.
Last year, Juli Inkster said that the men play great golf courses week in and week out, where most of the LPGA courses are ‘good’ but not usually ‘great.’ That is why the LPGA players were all thrilled to play the 2014 U.S. Open at the famous Pinehurst No. 2 Course. The premium courses draw bigger crowds and are in pristine condition normally, which leads to better scoring opportunities and more excitement.
Instead of seeing Tiger Woods hole a clutch putt at the 18th at Bay Hill, wouldn’t you love to see Kristie Kerr do the same thing?
Michael Whan, Commissioner for the LPGA, tried to convince the USGA to put the Women’s Open on the same course as the men for 2015, but that didn’t happen.
Oh well, maybe this one time, it was not bad to play a different course. Sorry RTJ, Jr.!
Would you like to see the LPGA get the opportunity to play these great courses? Post your comments below.
Nicklaus toughens up Muirfield Village by removing bunkers?
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Jack Nicklaus is the consummate Golf Professional.
The best player who has ever lived was always meticulous in his preparation for every event he ever participated in, particularly the Majors. So why would it be any different when he built a golf course? Muirfield Village has become one of the premier golf courses in the USA. In his pursuit for perfection, Nicklaus continues to tweak the course long after it was originally opened in 1973. Alex Miceli of Golf Week gives us an interesting story on Jack’s remodel.
Nicklaus’ bunker-removal project at Muirfield won’t make 18th any easier.
DUBLIN, Ohio – When PGA Tour players make their annual pilgrimage to the Columbus area for this week’s Memorial Tournament, they will notice a change to Muirfield Village Golf Club. Six bunkers have been eliminated at the 18th hole.
Jack Nicklaus, the course designer and tournament host who grew up in nearby Upper Arlington, has unveiled many changes since opening Muirfield Village in 1974. Mainly because of improved equipment, Nicklaus has redesigned or dramatically changed every hole in the ensuing four decades.
Thus, eliminating four bunkers on the right side of the closing hole’s fairway this spring were part of the lengthening process that predates the 2013 Presidents Cup here.
The Best Golfing States in the Land – My State came in #5!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Where Does your State Rank in “Golfiness” ?
Jim Moriarty has written a terrific story for LINKS Magazine called ‘The Best Golf States.” Jim says each state’s “golfiness” is considered. That means that the following factors are studied and tallied to decide how ‘golfy’ your state is.
1. percentage of estimated golfers per the current population
2. number of facilities
3. state’s place in the record book of American golf
(examples: the Masters is in Georgia and California has Pebble Beach)
4. Weather and Commute
Read more about this first-ever “best-golfing states” ranking, and find out where your state came in!
Believe it or not, there has never been a ranking of the best states in golf. Until now.
By: Jim Moriarty
In a preview of our spring issue cover story on the golf ranking of all 50 states, here’s a sneak peak at the first 10. How do you define best? Ultimately, the answer came down to one elusive word: ‘golfiness.’
We also took into consideration a number of benchmarks gleaned from statistical information obtained from the National Golf Foundation and elsewhere: where each state ranks in terms of percentage of estimated golfers, number of facilities, total rounds and rounds played per estimated golfer, in addition to the somewhat more amorphous measurement of passion which the NGF has posited on a 1-to-5 scale, with 1 the highest. Weather and golf history were also factors.
Let the 19th-hole debates begin.
1. FLORIDA.
You are my sunshine. Not the only one, just No. 1.
2. MICHIGAN.
The state where Hogan brought the Monster to its knees.
3. OHIO.
Giving us Jack Nicklaus is reason enough to be in anyone’s top five.
4. CALIFORNIA.
And if Jack had just one more round to play, it would be at Pebble Beach.
5. SOUTH CAROLINA.
The Lowcountry is where golf washed ashore in America.
6. TEXAS.
Hogan, Nelson, and Babe Zaharias alone make it a six-shooter.
7. ARIZONA.
Holy Leaping Cactus, it’s a dry heat and prickly good golf.
8. WISCONSIN
A Midwestern state on the ascendency: Whistling Straits, Erin Hills.
9.. GEORGIA
In April there is no golfier place on Earth. One out of 12 ain’t bad.
10. ILLINOIS
Like the Western Golf Association, once more major than it is now.
To read the full cover story and see the complete ranking, click here.
