10 Public Golf Courses to Play Around Jacksonville, Fla.
You came to play Sawgrass, we get it. But there’s a lot more great golf on Florida’s “First Coast.” Twenty-five years ago, I packed my clubs and what I could fit in my Chevy Malibu and drove to Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., to begin a summer internship at PGA Tour Productions. I would’ve earned more […]
Graeme McDowell: At Home at Lake Nona
Not only does Graeme McDowell live at Lake Nona outside Orlando, he co-owns a popular local hangout where everybody definitely knows his name First there was a honk. Not the New York City cabbie lean-on-the-horn that blares, “Hey, move it or lose it!” but rather a quick tap meant to grab one’s attention accompanied by […]
Name to Know: CBS Sports Lead Golf Producer Sellers Shy
A year and a half ago, Jim Nantz played in a charity golf outing at Monterey Peninsula Country Club with CBS colleague Sellers Shy, who was in town doing a site survey. They were grouped with budding PGA Tour star Maverick McNealy and, playing from the tips, Shy contributed seven birdies and shot 67. “After […]
Michael Collins: Golf’s Newest Media Star
Comic to caddie to covering golf for radio, TV, and online, Michael Collins is the game’s newest media star Sam MacNaughton, the agent for Rickie Fowler among others, has been known to greet Michael Collins with a friendly, “What’s up, Dream?” It’s an abbreviation of the nickname he coined for Collins—“The American Dream”—a one-of-a-kind character […]
Questions: European Tour CEO Keith Pelley
Keith Pelley, the chief executive of the European Tour, thinks the pro game needs to speed up for the digital age, marvels at his players’ respect for one another, and wishes the media weren’t so negative. And yeah, he’s a Canadian. _____________________ Q. Was there any resistance from the players to a Canadian taking over […]
The Real Cost of Hosting a USGA Event
Hosting a USGA National Championship can bring a club notoriety and prestige—along with a major financial headache During the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship this past March, Innisbrook Resort owner Sheila Johnson sipped on a cocktail at a media reception when her phone buzzed. After checking the incoming e-mail message, a smile creased her faced. She […]
Must-See at the Masters
It’s (almost) the most wonderful time of the year. The wait from the end of August’s PGA Championship to the Masters in the first week of April feels interminable. Soon the golf world will converge at Augusta National, one of golf’s most cherished cathedrals. I’ve been going since 1998, and it is one of those […]
How Former Caddie Steve Hulka Set Up the Perfect Moving Business on the PGA Tour
Longtime PGA Tour caddie Steve Hulka was waiting to check in at Baltimore’s Thurgood Marshall Airport not long after 9/11 when he spotted two military personnel carrying M-15s. That’s when it hit him how much traveling, especially for those who do it for a living, had changed for good. “It was an eye-opener and I […]
Characters: Justin Ray – The Answer Man
As Adam Hadwin picked apart Colonial Country Club—hitting its first 13 fairways in regulation during the second round of the 2015 Crowne Plaza Invitational in Fort Worth, Texas—Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee wondered when was the last time anyone had hit every fairway and every green on the course known as “Hogan’s Alley.” But Chamblee […]
Jack Nicklaus at 80
Jack Nicklaus is telling stories. He’s seated on a makeshift stage for the reopening of the Great Waters course at Reynolds Lake Oconee, a design he originally built in 1992 in the picturesque, golf-mad community between Atlanta and Augusta. Back then, Nicklaus convinced the ownership that instead of building a string of McMansions along the 90 miles of lakefront, they should take […]
