Gil Morgan to appear at Heartland Golf Expo Friday

Gil Morgan, a 25-time winner on the Champions Tour and seven-time winner on the PGA Tour, will make his first appearance at the Heartland Golf Expo presented by WinStar Casino on Friday.

Morgan will talk and take questions at 2:30 p.m., following David Edwards, another distinguished member of the Oak Tree Gang.

Morgan trails only Hale Irwin with 45 and Lee Trevino with 29 in Champions Tour victories. He and Irwin were the dominant players on the Champions Tour from 1996-2007 and he is still highly competitive today. He is also known as one of the genuine nice guys in golf, humble and reserved. He will begin his 2010 season the following week at the Ace Group Classic in Naples, Fla.

The Expo begins at 11 a.m. Friday. First speaker is three-time World Long Drive Champion Sean "The Beast" Fister, followed by popular Oklahoma City pro Jim Woodward, who currently teaches at Oak Tree National.

The Expo runs through 9 p.m. Friday with a Friday Night Party beginning at 4 p.m. The party will feature food, drinks and a performance by guitar wizard and golf pro Mark Galloway, as well as special games and contests.

The Expo continues Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.  PGA pros from around the state will be giving free lessons in our hitting net where major manufacturers will be showing off the latest in technology. SilverHorn Golf Club is providing a green fee to all entrants and Golf Digest subscriptions are also available to all entrants, as well as a copy of the 2010 South Central Golf Directory and the 2010 Texas Golf Directory.

Tickets are $8 at the door. Seniors 55 and over are $5 throughout the show good for all day. Tickets are $5 for all who enter during party hours from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Children 17 and under are free. There are discount coupons at www.southcentralgolf.com that apply only to full price admissions.
 

 

Great speakers at the Heartland Golf Expo

Contact: Ken MacLeod, 918-280-0787 or ken@southcentralgolf.com

OKLAHOMA CITY - Some of the top teaching and playing professionals in the nation will be sharing their insight at the Heartland Golf Expo presented by WinStar Golf Course this Friday and Saturday at the Centennial Building at State Fair Park.

Friday's lineup includes former PGA Tourist Jim Woodward of Oak Tree National followed by long-time PGA Tour and Champions Tour stalwart David Edwards, one of the original Oak Tree Gang members. E.J. Pfister, a top 100 teacher who teaches at both Oak Tree National and Gaillardia, will be on hand Saturday.

In addition, long-time favorites Sean "The Beast" Fister, a three-time world long drive champion, teaching legend Marshall Smith of Miami, Okla., putting guru Andy Dillard of Oklahoma City and perhaps a special special guest or two will be on the stage. Other PGA professionals will be giving free lessons throughout the show in the 100 foot hitting net, where golfers will also be able to see the latest in equipment from such vendors as Cleveland, Wilson, Adams, Nike, Tour Edge, Ping, Callaway and Titleist.

New this year is a Friday Night Party from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Admission is $5 during the party. We will have $1 beers while they last, snacks, courtesy of Emerson Biggins, live music by guitar virtuoso Mark Galloway and special contests, including your chance to outdrive The Beast, all with great prizes. A fun place to start your Friday night.

The $10,000 putting contest returns, with the winner receiving a year's membership at the tremendous Fairfax Golf Club along with a chance to putt for $10k. Winners will also receive a new Slotline putter. The Long Drive contest winner will receive a year's membership to SilverHorn Golf Club in Edmond, among other goodies. Anyone who competes will receive a two-ball sleeve of Bridgestone Golf Balls, the official golf ball of the Heartland Golf Expo. There is also a Birdie Ball contest and a Closest to the Pin contest for some great prizes.

French Lick Resort earns Golf Digest honor

French Lick, IN - French Lick Resort, the resort destination located in southern Indiana, has earned its most accomplished golf honor to date. The new Pete Dye course has been selected “Best New Public Course” in the country by Golf Digest. 

The leading golf publication's annual review of America's Best New Courses appears in the January 2010 issue and covers the best new courses in the public, private, Canadian, and remodeled categories. A panel of 950 male and female golfers conducts the annual best new survey by rating the courses based on a shot values, design variety, resistance to scoring, memorability, and aesthetics.
 
The Pete Dye course edged out some of America’s best new golf courses including, Palouse Ridge at Washington State University; Tetherow Golf Club, Bend, Ore.; Pound Ridge Golf Club, New York; and Blue Top Ridge Golf Club in Iowa; which rounded out the top five.
 
“As we began the journey some four and a half years ago, we never imagined that golf at French Lick would become so highly acclaimed, and recognized both regionally and nationally, in such a short timeframe,” said Dave Harner, French Lick Resort’s director of golf. “Great things happen when you combine the efforts of three visionaries Bill Cook, Steve Ferguson, and Pete Dye.”
 
Ron Whitten, the magazine’s senior editor of architecture, described the Dye course as, “a stark, treeless, wind-swept concoction by octogenarian Pete Dye, the Gandolf wizard of course design.”

The course, regarded as one of the most breathtaking and exciting 18 holes of golf in the country, was carefully carved on a dramatic hilltop offering a variety of elevation changes, rugged and dramatic terrain, narrow fairways and vintage Pete Dye characteristics. There are spectacular views from every hole, some that stretch for over 40 miles.

Dye said he was tickled to hear of the award; the fifth time one of his designs to win that prestigious honor. He said designing the course on such a severe, hilly landscape was challenging but a lot of fun.

“I made more than 140 trips there and I walked that course 40 to 50 times,” he said. “As I built the golf course I tried to get the tees, the fairways, and the greens in position that they have these long views over the valleys and hills. A lot of southern Indiana is natural forest, a lot of it is state owned, so you can see for miles. The ambience of the course is the look, the vistas from all the different tees, greens, and fairways.”

Complementing the Dye design is the property’s historic Taggart mansion, dramatically restored, to serve as the clubhouse offering sweeping views of the course from its hilltop location. From the mansion the course spreads out 50 feet below, “routed like a four-pointed star, with squiggly fairways dotted by typical Pete Dye bunkers,” Whitten said in his review. 

Although the course stretches out to a whopping 8,102 yards from the championship tees, it is designed for all levels of play with the forward tees set at 5,100 yards. Whitten said he was also impressed by how easy it was to walk the layout, especially from the regular tees at 6,115 yards. Each tee is located next to the preceding green.
 
The course is already on the national golf radar. In 2010 it will be the site of the PGA of America’s Professional National Championship. The resort predicts this will be the first of several high-profile professional events it will host on the Dye layout in the future.
 
For more information or to book a stay, please visit www.frenchlick.com or call our reservation specialists at (888) 936-9360.
 

Top amateurs, club pros choose Titleist

From the top amateurs to the best club professionals, Titleist products received overwhelming approval last week at the U.S. Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club and the South Central Section Professional National Championship qualifier at Wichita Country Club.

It was an all-Titleist final at the U.S. Amateur, with the winner Ben An  trusting the Pro V1 golf ball and 14 Titleist golf clubs in his record-setting victory.  Runner-up Ben Martin relied upon a Pro V1x golf ball and 12 Titleist golf clubs for his success.  Below are What's in the Bag listings for the champion and runner-up:

Winner's Bag:  Pro V1 golf ball, 909D3 driver (9.5), 909F2 fairway metal (13.0), 909H hybrid (19.0), ZM irons (3-9), Vokey Design pitching wedge (48), Vokey Design Spin Milled sand (54) and lob (58) wedges, Scotty Cameron 350 putter).

Finalist Bag: Pro V1x golf ball, 909D2 driver (7.5), AP2 irons (4-P), Vokey Design gap (50) and sand (56) wedges, Vokey Design Spin Milled lob (60) wedge, Scotty Cameron Xperimental putter.

In a survey of the 312 players in the field, 85 percent played Titleist golf balls, while the nearest competitor had 23. Titleist also led in drivers, fairways metals, hybrids, iron sets, wedges and putters. Following are the rankings provided by Titleist.