In the News

MYRTLE BEACH - Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday recently announced that more than $65,000 was raised during the second annual Know Your Score: Fight Prostate Cancer Celebrity Golf Tournament and Gala held Aug. 29, 2009. Since starting the prostate education and research campaign in 2008, the Myrtle Beach golf community has helped raised more than $205,000 for the Know Your Score: Fight Prostate Cancer and ZERO - the Project to End Prostate Cancer campaigns.

The day began with an 18-hole celebrity golf tournament at The Long Bay Club in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. with each participant having the opportunity to play golf with one of the celebrities who traveled to Myrtle Beach to help fight prostate cancer. After golf, participants headed to Kingston Plantation in North Myrtle Beach for the Gala for dinner, entertainment and the opportunity to bid on sports memorabilia during a silent auction. 

PALM BEACH GARDENS - PGA Village, located in Port St. Lucie, Fla., is ranked No. 51 among the "75 Best Golf Resorts in North America," according to the latest listing by a panel of more than 900 course raters, as selected by Golf Digest. The ranking marks the second consecutive time that the facility has made Golf Digest's list, which is one of the most-coveted honors in the industry, as hundreds of resorts across the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean are reviewed.

Golf Digest's listing once again places PGA Village, which features 54 holes of Championship golf by Tom Fazio and Pete Dye at PGA Golf Club, a 35-acre PGA Center for Golf Learning and Performance and the PGA Historical Center, home to the Ryder Cup Trophy and the four major Championship trophies of golf, alongside some well-known and impressive company. 

Judy Rankin, World Golf Hall of Fame member and television golf commentator, has been selected to receive the 2010 Old Tom Morris Award by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA).

The award will be presented during the 2010 GCSAA Education Conference at Celebrate GCSAA! presented in partnership with Syngenta, Feb. 9 at 5:30 p.m. Formerly the Opening Session and Welcoming Reception, Celebrate GCSAA! is hosted by GCSAA President Mark D. Kuhns, CGCS. The conference (Feb. 8-12) will be held in conjunction with the Golf Industry Show (Feb. 10-11) at the San Diego Convention Center. 

The results of Golf World's second annual "Readers' Choice Awards" are in, and it appears that the people who voted and the so-called experts have differing opinions when it comes to who deserves to be on top.

Perhaps the biggest surprise comes in the Public Golf Course category where Forest Dunes Golf Club, located in the tiny village of Roscommon, Michigan (Pop. 1,133), earned top honors. Forest Dunes doesn't even appear in Golf Magazine's well-respected rankings of the "Top 100 You Can Play," and Golf Digest has the course tied for 37^th in its list of "100 Greatest Public Courses."

Dana Garmany, chairman and founder of Troon Golf, has announced he will retire from his role as chief executive officer with the company on December 31, 2009.

As planned, the role of chief executive officer will be taken over by Hud Hinton on Jan. 1, 2010. Hinton has served as president and chief operating officer of Troon Golf since 1999. Garmany will continue in his position as chairman of the board and will remain active in strategic company decisions, but all day-to-day activities and decision making will be handled by Hinton. 

Market Leader on Track for Best Year Ever Despite Down Economy  

Knetgolf, the world’s largest combined recycler and refinisher of premium, pre-owned, brand-name golf balls, reports a year-to-date customer savings in excess of $20 million, averaging more than a dollar per ball. 

Projected to sell a company-best 20 million golf balls in 2009 across North America (and in 30 other countries), Knetgolf’s sophisticated recycling process provides consumers with quality, unblemished balls at significant discounts.

Following the recent breakout success of the Golf Channel’s most talked about original series, The Haney Project, which featured beleaguered NBA Hall-of-Famer Charles Barkley’s attempts to save his golf game, Everybody Loves Raymond star and Emmy Award-winner Ray Romano has signed on as Hank Haney’s next celebrity golf student for the series’ highly anticipated second season.

Scheduled to debut in spring 2010, the series will follow the same entertaining format that made the premiere season of The Haney Project a critical and ratings success.

As the agency charged with marketing Scottsdale to tourists and meeting planners throughout the world, we at the Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau understand the devastating impact of this current recession and its impact on all aspects of tourism, including golf.

Individuals and companies alike are cutting back on expenditures. While these cutbacks are crippling the economy in the short term, they will hopefully lead to sustainable economic recovery. We’re hopeful that Americans will feel comfortable opening their pocketbooks and spending—in moderation—in the very near future.

United States Team Captain Fred Couples used performance as his ultimate criteria when making his Captain's selections for the upcoming President's Cup. International Captain Greg Norman went a different way, opting for two very popular players.

Struggling Australian Adam Scott and soon-to-be 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa were selected to join the International squad, while reigning U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover and Hunter Mahan, member of the 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup team, were picked to represent the Red, White and Blue.

Pebble Beach Resort has been ranked No. 1 in the 2009 edition of Golf Digest's 75 Best Golf Resorts in North America. The resort, which will host the 2010 U.S. Open, regains the top spot after having dropped to third place in the previous ranking in 2006. Pebble Beach was also ranked No. 1 in 2004 and in 2002.

To determine The 75 Best Golf Resorts in North America, Golf Digest called upon its 900-plus course rating panelists, who also produce the list of America's 100 Greatest Courses. The panelists rated hundreds of resort courses in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean on a scale of 1 ("awful") to 10 ("perfect").