The city’s popular Free Friday Night Flicks program, now in its 22ndyear, will now include a pair of “Fairway Flicks” at two city courses this summer, as part of an initiative to get golfers and non-golfers to visit Lexington’s public courses. Prior to each movie, there will be golf-related activities, including putting challenges and footgolf.…
Topgolf-Like ‘Golf Entertainment Facility’ to Open in Sioux Falls, S.D. Next Year
The Sanford Sports Complex’s 54,000-sq. ft. Great Shots attraction, scheduled to debut in late 2019, will include a restaurant, video game-filled children’s area, meeting space, the Sanford POWER Golf Academy and an interactive driving range. The facility will be indoors and heated, and season passes will be sold. Troon will operate Great Shots’ full-service restaurant…
Columbus (Ohio) CC’s All-Encompassing Renovation is Highlighted
The 125-year-old club in Ohio’s capital city has completed a two-year, $4.5 million renovation of its Donald Ross golf course while also adding amenities, activities and programming to appeal to a younger and more family-oriented demographic. Seventy-five new members, with an average age of 39, joined last year. An article and photo slideshow in…
Montana Courses Make Slow Recovery from Flood Season
An especially heavy spring flood season has delayed the opening of a number of courses in the Missoula area and interrupted construction or renovation projects on others. Linda Vista Golf Course, which has been shut down completely because of flooding for the first time since 1997, was still pumping water off its saturated courses on…
Charbonneau GC Selects OB Sports
The 27-hole facility in Wilsonville, Ore. features recently renovated amenities to accommodate increased public play and use, including an upgraded restaurant, a new high-end, covered year-round golf practice facility and a new event venue to host more non-golf-related events, including weddings and other celebrations. Charbonneau Golf Club in Wilsonville, Ore. has selected OB Sports Golf…
Brockton, Mass. City Course Tops $1M in Revenues for First Time Ever
The milestone for the D.W. Field Golf Course marked “the best year in the history of the golf course,” said the city’s Superintendent of Parks, and was due to improved course conditions and hard work by its staff. “D.W. Field is quickly becoming one of the most popular destinations for golfers on the [Massachusetts] South…
Newton (N.J.) CC Opens Doors to Wave of Summer Benefit Tournaments
The Sussex County Open Championship, offering championships in the men’s, women’s and senior divisions, will be played at the club for the first time this July. “It’s very important to me,” said club President Jeff Bonham. “We were kind of jealous of other clubs in New Jersey that [were giving out] the crown of ‘Best…
Scientists Study Ways to Minimize Golf Course Runoff
In work partially funded by the United States Golf Association, researchers compared the effects of hollow-tine core cultivation (HTCC) and verticutting on controlling pesticide runoff by simulating rainstorms at a test site at the University of Minnesota, and concluded that the HTCC practice is more effective at absorbing more runoff. Scientists from the United…
PGA Golf Club Honored for Community Leadership
The Port St. Lucie, Fla. property has been honored by the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County as the first recipient of its Leadership Recognition Award. The PGA of America’s 54-hole facility, established in 1996, has employed as many as 2,500 local people, helped to attract visitors and new residents, and invested more than…
Clubs’ Response to “Monarchs in Rough” Program Takes Off
The program formed through a partnership between Audubon International and the Environmental Defense Fund, which encourages clubs and golf courses to create and maintain habitat for Monarch butterflies and other pollinators in out-of-play areas, has already enrolled more than 250 properties since it was launched in January. The sponsors have now set a new goal…
Legion Memorial GC’s $3.7M Makeover to Relieve Neighborhood’s Flooding Problems
The work at the Everett, Wash. course will provide new stormwater detention sites that should help prevent destructive flooding that the neighborhoods around the course experienced in 2013 and 2015. “About 20 percent of the nation’s golf courses make use of stormwater detention,” said a city official. “It’s useful for both sides—you need ponds on…
Oregon’s Sandpines Golf Links Changes Name to Florence Golf Links
Course manager OB Sports has announced the change of Oregon seaside course Sandpines Golf Links’ name to Florence Golf Links. The name change honors the course’s host city of Florence, and kicks off its second quarter-century of play. Designed by noted architect Rees Jones, Sandpines/Florence won a Golf Digest “Best New Public Course in America”…
Nemacolin Woodlands to Debut First Topgolf Swing Suite in Pennsylvania
The Farmington, Pa. resort property will open the new attraction just in time for the busy Fourth of July travel season. Nemacolin Woodlands will be only the fourth venue in the world to offer it. In addition to the popular Topgolf golf-targeting simulator game, the Swing Suite will include multi-sport games, HDTVs, lounge seating and…
Palm Desert (Calif.) CC’s 9-Hole Course to Be Developed
After lying completely dormant since 2014, the executive course is about to become condominiums, following a City Council vote to rezone the property for residential development. The financially troubled golf facility, which also had an 18-hole course, has been closed since developer PD Holdings purchased it out of bankruptcy in 2011. After lying completely dormant…
Twelve-Hole Course Proving More Feasible in Crowded Central Illinois Market
While the future of the 18-hole Stone Creek Golf Club in Urbana, Ill., which is already zoned for residential development, looks uncertain past the end of this year, Railside Golf Club in Gibson City, Ill. is discovering significant efficiencies—and added customer appeal—after downsizing to 12 holes. The vision of Atkins Group founder Clint Atkins…