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Jason Felp of China Spring and Ken Patterson of Waco posted 69-69--138 at Eagle’s Bluff in Bullard to claim the TGA North Four Ball title. Larry Thomas of Dallas and Chip Stewart of Irving won the senior division at 143.

After having two fingers reattached following an accident at his home in Westlake this winter Brandt Jobe returned to the PGA Tour in March.

Robert McMillan has moved from Harbor Lakes Golf Club in Granbury to become head pro at The Retreat near Cleburne.

Mathew Vilade of Hideway earned an exemption for this fall’s RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship by finishing third at the LDA’s Diamond in the Desert Classic.

Two Texas courses received recognition as runners-up in the National Golf Foundation’s fifth Customer Loyalty Awards. Cypress Golf Club’s Tradition Course in Spring and Pecan Hollow Golf Course in Plano took honors in the $40-$70 and $40 and under divisions, respectively.

Kevin Johnson of D.A.’s Spring Creek Golf Center in Plano named one of America’s Top 50 Kids Teachers by U.S. Kids Golf.

The Preston Trail Golf Club duo of Cameron Doan and Travis Johns posted 66-68--134 at the Stonebriar Country Club Fazio Course in Frisco to win the NTPGA UST Pro-Assistant. The same duo won in 2005 while Doan and Simon Buckle took home the trophy in 2006.

Jim George and Bill Caudle combined for 64 Stableford points at Gentle Creek Golf Club in Prosper to win the Championshp Flight of the DDGA Spring Member-Guest. David Aboud and Ken Sipiora took First Flight honors with 69 points.

When the touring professionals come to Irving for the EDS Byron Nelson Championship April 26-29, they will see a different Cottonwood Valley course for the first two days. Jay Morrish completed a major renovation last year that resulted in the greens, tees and bunkers being rebuilt, and made some design changes that will add about 20 yards to the length and test the shotmaking abilities of the game’s best players.

“It’ll be a better challenge,” said Director of Golf Paul Ernest, pointing to some new pin locations that will bring the water more into play. “But its main defense will continue to be the crosswinds.”

Ernest believes that the professionals will find the new greens, featuring a blend of LS44 and 962 bent grasses, a little easier to putt despite the additions of some undulations.

The No. 1 hole, featuring a Texas-shaped green, an Oklahoma-shaped bunker and a Gulf of Mexico water hazard, remains unchanged for the most part except that the championship tee will be moved back and right a few yards. A fairway bunker will be flashed up.

The water was moved closer to the green on the 165-yard, par 3 No. 2, providing for a dramatic pin placement much like on No. 17 of the TPC Course.

The pros will not see much difference on No. 3. It will play as a 500-yard par 4. However, a new tee will add 60 yards for the members, making it a 590-yard par 5.

A new fairway bunker will narrow the landing area off the tee on No. 4.
The tee on No. 5 was moved 25 yards to the right, making the hole more of a dogleg. A new back right pin placement will bring the water more into play on the approach.

The tee on No. 6 was moved 20 yards to the left, changing the angle for the approach and putting the bunker more in play.

The back tee has been lowered two feet on No. 7. Native grass was added on both sides of the fairway.

The back right of the green on No. 8 was enlarged.

The green on No. 9 was lowered two feet and any approach shot that comes up short now will likely find the water.

No. 10 remains basically unchanged.

A new tee was added on No. 11 while the left fairway bunker was removed and the right fairway bunker flashed up. The green is wider to the right and therefore closer to the water.

The tee has been lengthened by 20 yards and more contours added to the green on No. 12.

No. 13 will be 15 yards longer with the addition of a new tee. The depression on the left side of the green has been expanded and the green will also have more contours.

A new tee will add 30 yards on No. 14 and the green has been moved 35 yards to the left to the edge of the water, offering what Ernest called a “small target” for the approach with water catching errant shots.

No. 15 remains unchanged, but a new tee was added on No. 16 and the fairway bunker on the left of the landing area was flashed, meaning that even the pros will have to take an iron to get out. A bunker was also added on the left side of the green.

A bunker was added on the front right of No. 17 and the fairway bunker on No. 18 was moved closer to the fairway, narrowing the landing area.

The course was closed last July for the renovations and re-opened on a limited basis in January. Ernest reports that the feedback from the members has been very positive, saying that Morrish took a really memorable course and made it that much better. He did add that most members have found the course a little more difficult.

Ernest noted that all the bunkers were renovated, including new drainage, new barrier fabric to reduce erosion and contamination, and new sand added. Another new feature for the 2007 tournament will be the addition of a covered grandstand on the hill overlooking No. 17 on the TPC Course. It will be called the Chairman’s Guest Club with sponsorships costing $3,750.

The original Cottonwood Valley course was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. and opened in 1982. There were nine holes west and nine holes east of MacArthur Boulevard. When Morrish was brought in to design the neighboring TPC Course, the nine holes on the east side were razed. With an assist from Byron Nelson, Morrish added nine new holes: Nos. 2-10. More than 250 trees were planted and the number and sizes of the bunkers were reduced.

When rains made the TPC Course un-playable in 1994, Cotton-wood was pressed into service for the Nelson. The following year, the PGA Tour approved the use of Cotton-wood for the first two rounds of the tournament. That’s when No. 3 was shortened to a par 4 and a new championship tee was added on No. 7.
One thing the professionals playing in the Nelson will miss this year is the presence of golfing legend Byron Nelson who always greeted them behind the 18th green. Nelson passed away last fall at the age of 94. The Salesmanship Club will honor his legacy at the opening ceremony on Tuesday. Then wife Peggy will be presented the Congressional Gold Medal on Saturday, marking only the fourth time an athlete has received the honor. Tom Lehman will lead a sunrise service on Sunday at 6:30am to remember Nelson.

The Nelson tournament remains the highest overall contributor to charity on the PGA Tour. Total contributions to the Sportsmanship Club will likely go over $100 million after this year’s event when the purse of $6.3 million is expected to be matched in donations.

Following the tournament, the TPC Course is scheduled to also undergo a major redesign, but the name of the architect has not been announced yet.

It’s not that big of a tree, but the one to the right of the landing area on No. 18 at the Firewheel at Garland Bridges Course eventually decided the outcome of the Firewheel at Garland Classic. Joe Lanza of Alexandria, California took home the $40,000 top prize for winning the inaugural U.S. Pro Golf Tour with a two-putt par from nine feet on the fourth playoff hole.

After finding the fairway the first three times, Steve Frieson of Scottsdale, Arizona found his tee shot near that small tree, and while he did manage to get his next shot back to the fairway, his third shot from 140 yards missed the green to the right. His lob wedge stopped quickly, but he failed to save par from 25 feet.
On the first hole of the playoff, Todd Rossetti of Plano found his swing for his second shot curtailed by that same pesky tree and he dropped out with a bogey. Lanza and Frieson missed from 15 and 27 feet, settling for pars.

Frieson’s second shot rolled over the green on the par 5 the next time the pair played 18 and neither he nor Lanza could make their birdie putts. Then both came up with great third shots the next time and converted short birdie putts, taking the cart ride back to No. 18 again.

“Tee-to-green, I probably played my best round of golf ever,” Lanza said of his closing six-under-par 66. “I was firing at everything, and actually missed three putts for birdie inside five-feet.”

Lanza got up and down for a closing birdie on No. 18 from almost the same spot that he ended up on the fourth playoff hole when his bump and run shot actually caught part of the hole. “I like to play that kind of bump and run shots,” he said.

That birdie enabled him to match the minus 10 turned in by Frieson, who also birdied the 72nd hole and had the best closing round of 65 playing just ahead of Lanza. “I kind of surprised myself at how well I played, seeing as I took most of the winter off and didn’t practice much.”

For Lanza, it was his biggest payday as a professional golfer. “My sponsors are so happy. They’ve been calling me nonstop and congratulating me. This is great and an awesome way to get the U.S. Pro Golf Tour season going.”
Lanza, who indicated that he would also be playing the Canadian Tour this season, noted that his only other previous trip to the winner’s circle had come in a Gateway Tour event in Phoenix last season that also involved a three-way playoff. “Liam Kandregen (a fellow USPGT contestant) came out and caddied for me in that event, too,” Lanza added.

Both Friesen and Lanza were finalists and in the 10-player shootout at the Trump Million Dollar Invitation last May, which was a major championship of the USPGT. Friesen said that came up. “At one point during the playoff, Joe looked at me and said, ‘This is just like the Trump Million Dollar Invitational.’ I made it further than Joe did in that event, but he got me today.”

Rossetti, who began the day with a three-shot lead, got off to a double bogey-bogey start, but rebounded to match par and finish at minus 10, missing a birdie on the final hole when his putt stopped an inch short dead on line.
Brett Paquett of Wentzville, Missouri, and Wil Collins of Rapid City, South Dakota, playing with Rossetti saw their title hopes go by the wayside when Paquet’s approach found water on No. 17 and Collins hit his second shot out of bounds on No. 18. They shared eighth place with Kevin Dillen of Paris and Kevin Streelman of Winfield, Illinois.

Finishing one stroke back in a deadlock for fourth in the tightly-contested tournament were Troy Kelly of Indio, California, Mike Wendling of Oklahoma City, Doug Diemer of San Diego and Mark Walker of Bedford.

In two years the Texas Legends Junior Tour has become the proving ground for the best young players in Texas and a model of cooperation for other associations around the country to emulate. It is a joint effort of the state’s three leading golf associations: the Northern and Southern Texas PGA Sections and the Texas Golf Association.

With the combined experience and expertise in tournament planning and administration of the three organizations, deserving young boys and girls have had the opportunity to play in professionally run competitions on some of the finest courses in Texas, including Barton Creek, Champions, Cimarron Hills, Deerwood, LaCantera, Lakewood, Spanish Oaks and TPC at Las Colinas. The objectives of the tour have been to serve as a natural progression for those players who have competed successfully in other developmental junior series, to provide valuable experience for those who want to compete on the national junior stage, and to honor those who have made significant contributions to the game of golf in Texas such as Byron Nelson and Jack Burke, Jr.

Since its inception, nearly every event on the tour has had coveted exemptions to the American Junior Golf Association tournaments, the nation’s leading junior tour and the premier scouting ground for college coaches. The Texas Legends Junior Tour’s five major championships—the EDS Byron Nelson Junior, State Boys and Girls, Junior Match Play, Tylerpaper.com Junior and the season-ending Tour Championship—have the most of these exemptions.
As might be expected, college coaches have taken notice. More than 50 former members have gone on to play college golf, including standouts like 2005 Player of the Year Ben Blundell who plays for the University of Oklahoma, and 2005 Mark Brooks Junior champion Will Griffin, a Texas Tech Red Raider who was named the Big 12 Player last October.

By any measure, the tour has been an overwhelming success. Parents love the fact that their kids can compete in first-class tournaments without having to drive or fly halfway across the country, and kids enjoy being treated like PGA Tour stars at each and every event. Membership contines to grow and the size of the fielders have been increased from 90 to 144 during the summer months to accommodate the growing number of junior players eager to be a part of the tour. Proceeds generated from the tour will provide for grants and scholarships and will support programs like the First Tee and Golf-In-School programs.

Are U-shaped grooves on the way out?

The United States Golf Association is considering new regulations on groove configurations in an effort to maintain the element of skill at the game’s highest level. Dick Rugge, the USGA’s senior technical director, noted that the skill of driving the ball accurately has become much less important in achieving success on the Tour than it used to be. Instead, it’s a “grip it and rip it” theme out there now.

Research by the USGA and the R&A confirmed that the grooves on today’s clubs do allow the ball to make better contact with the clubhead, allowing the game’s best players to get additional spin on urethane-covered, soft golf balls, even when hit from bad lies in the rough. The tests further showed that the majority of the golfers who use harder balls and who do not generate as high of a clubhead speed did not see gains in spin like the Tour pros.

The existing standard for grooves is rather vague, without any real measurements mentioned: “not sharp to the finger.” The new proposal will specify exact measurements, calling for edges to be no less than .010 inches in radius. In addition, the size will be regulated—the total cross-sectional area of a groove divided by the groove pitch must be 0.0025 square inches per inch.
Will this mean U grooves will no longer be allowed? Not necessarily, according to the USGA. If the proposal is adopted, grooves do not need to be V-shaped to comply. The grooves can be any shape—deep and thin or shallow and wide or small and relatively close together or large and wide apart.

There’s no reason to abandon your present clubs at all. Everyone will have time to adjust. The USGA will allow time for the manufacturers to react and will not make a final decision until this fall. The USGA will give manufacturers time to retool. If approved, the change will not take place until January 1, 2010. Tournaments may be able to adopt a local rule, much like today’s one-ball rule, to make it effective a year earlier. A grace period—likely to be 10 years—also will be implemented for clubs in use or manufactured prior to the deadline for events that do not involve highly skilled players.

The USGA first allowed square grooves to be used 25 years ago since it made manufacturing of stainless heads easier at the time. Karsten Solheim of Ping rounded the edges of the grooves on the Ping Eye 2 irons so as to reduce the damage to the soft balata covers on balls at that time, feeling that he conformed to the rules. However, the USGA in its testing felt otherwise and sought to ban the clubs. The PGA Tour also voted to ban their use in its events. Solheim sued the USGA and a settlement was reached. Solheim did made small changes in the spacing of grooves, but golfers who had the Eye 2 irons were allowed to keep using them.

Maybe we’ll see more of the shotmakers return to the winner’s circle after the new groove regulations become standard.

The USGA also announced that it will consider relaxing standards concerning adjustable features on woods and irons, now limited to weight alone. If approved, the change would be effective January 1, 2008.

“We believe these changes will benefit all golfers by allowing them to have a better chance to find clubs that are fitted to their individual swing characteristics,” said Rugge.

Of course, adjustments could not be made during a round.

There can be some debate about which courses are the toughest in Texas. Is it the Dye Course at Stonebridge Country Club in McKinney, Dallas National Golf Club in Dallas, the TPC at Craig Ranch in McKinney or Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity? Some may have others they consider atop any list.

One subjective way to determine which one is the toughest is to check out the United States Golf Association’s course ratings. A course rating reportedly identifies the difficulty as played by a scratch golfer. It’s a number rounded to one decimal place (i.e. 72.3), and length is usually the major factor, not water and trees. The Texas Golf Association has teams of members who use a standarized formula coupled with their own views after playing the course.

So checking out the TGA’s website, here’s a list of the top 10 and ties in the state:

77.6 - Stonebridge Ranch CC (Dye Course), McKinney

77.1 - Dallas National GC, Dallas

77.0 - TPC at Craig Ranch, McKinney

76.2 - Whispering Pines GC, Trinity

76.2 - Split Rail GC, Aledo

76.1 - Wolfdancer GC, Lost Pines

75.9 - Stonebridge CC (Hill Course), McKinney

75.8 - Redstone GC (Tournament Course), Humble

75.7 - The Golf Club at Castle Hills, Lewisville

75.5 - Gentle Creek GC, Prosper

75.5 - Cimarron Hills G & CC, Georgetown

Wait a minute, the USGA also has a Slope Rating system designed to indicate the relative difficulty of a course for the bogey golfer, telling which ones the higher handicapper will need more strokes than the lower handicapper.

Here are the top 8 from the TGA:

155 - Dallas National GC, Dallas

152 - TPC at Craig Ranch, McKinney

151 - Woodlands CC (Player Course), The Woodlands

147 - Stonbridge Ranch CC (Dye Course), McKinney

147 - The Golf Club at Castle Hills, Lewisville

147 - The Club at Escondido, Horseshoe Bay

146 - Stonebridge CC (Hill Course), McKinney

146 - Gleneagles (King’s Course), Plano

Hye Jung Choi, the winner of the 2006 The Power of a Dream Golf Classic, finished as the co-medalist in qualifying last fall to earn her spot on the LPGA and will not be returning to Frisco. Five other top money winners from 2006 on the Futures Tour also earned LPGA exemptions. Karrie Webb, Grace Park, Paula Creamer and up to 80 percent of the current LPGA players got their starts on this circuit.

Zayra Calderon, president and CEO of the Duramed FUTURES Tour, believes that the closer alignment with the LPGA has elevated her circuit in the eyes and minds of fans across the country.

“The LPGA and the Duramed FUTURES Tour share similar values and are essentially in the same business,” Calderon said. “Alignment will allow us to share our fan base, expand our tournament markets, increase sponsorships and join forces to create new programs and events that will support the growth of women’s professional golf.”

When asked if it took much convincing to make the LPGA realize the caliber of players on the FUTURES Tour, Calderon answered: “There is no need to convince anyone anymore. The facts speak for themselves. The next generation of stars are first seen on the Duramed FUTURES Tour and there is a lot of respect from players and staff on both tours.”

Calderon hopes that even more players from her circuit will be granted automatic exemptions to the LPGA in the future as has been the case of Nationwide Tour players being elevated to the PGA Tour.
What are the biggest stumbling blocks for young players on the Duramed FUTURES Tour?

“Players are always surprised of the level of competition,” Caledron said. “How hard and competitive it is and what it takes to put it all together. Becoming self reliant is a big transition for rookies. Being away from their coaches and parents is a new experience for them. They have to make all the decisions for themselves.”

The Duramed FUTURES Tour did reduce the minimum age for participants to 17.

“While we would like to encourage the players to finish their education and wait a little before turning professional, we also realize that we cannot stop those players and families that have made the decision to leave school and play professionally. Reducing the age requirement allows us to get in front of this trend and create the necessary parameters to make the transition smooth for the players.”

Fans who want to see some of these young players up close can participate in three preliminary pro-ams, attend one of the clinics or the special luncheon on April 11 or even serve as a volunteer.

Check out www.TheDreamFuturesClassic.com for additional details.

Most of the new golf fashions for women from top designers are fashioned so as to project confidence and elegance. For women competing on the golf course, especially with men in a corporate setting, projecting that image is important. If you can afford to treat yourself, then it’s worth your while to begin investing in some quality pieces that will be the forefront of your golfing wardrobe. By adding to your collection regularly, you can ensure you always have something fresh and fashionable and you won’t over wear or wear out your original items. The Ralph Lauren, Coach and Escada lines have some beautiful items that are well made and hard wearing. The key to having a compact wardrobe is color coordination. Make sure everything you buy will go with at least three other things you own. This way, you will actually wear the clothes you buy instead of hiding them away at the back of a closet. But then again, we ladies do that with every piece of clothing we buy anyway, right?

Of course, without a doubt, the clothes women wear on the golf course should always look great, but more importantly they need to be functional. Couture and function? Yes, I said it. We need deep pockets for tees and balls, rear and front pockets for our score cards, but most importantly, we need to be able to move around comfortably. I’d say these high-end designers have finally gotten it right with women’s golf couture.