Hilton Head Golf News

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC - Two outstanding veteran golfers, Jim Furyk and Davis Love III, plus a rising young star, Justin Rose, have just committed to play in the 39th annual Verizon Heritage at the Harbour Town Golf Links, April 9-15.

“This is a formidable trio joining our field,” said Tournament Director Steve Wilmot. “Furyk and Love are two of the most recognizable golfers on the PGA TOUR, while Rose has been threatening to crack the winner’s circle recently.”

This threesome joins a field that already includes Ernie Els, Chris DiMarco, Nick O’Hern, Zach Johnson and J.B. Holmes. All will be shooting for a record winner’s check of $972,000 from the tournament’s largest purse, $5.4 million.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL – Kiawah Island Golf Resort's Director of Golf, Brian Gerard, was recently named PGA Merchandiser of The Year (Resort Facilities) -- one of the highest annual honors bestowed by the PGA of America on a PGA Professional -- heading a list of 13 recipients who were honored at the 2006 PGA of America Awards ceremony at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

Gerard, 42, is in his 20th season at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort in Kiawah Island, S.C., and is the PGA Director of Golf, overseeing the operations of five courses at one of the world’s high-profile golf destinations. A native of Eureka, Ill., and a 1986 graduate of Western Illinois University, Gerard was elected to PGA membership in 1989. He has been a member of the Kiawah Island Golf Resort staff since 1986. He served as PGA assistant professional at Turtle Point @ Kiawah Island until 1990, then as PGA head professional at Turtle Point through 1995. He became head professional in 1995 at the Ocean Course, site of the 2007 Senior PGA Championship and the 2012 PGA Championship. He was named director of golf for the resort this month. Golf World Business recognized Ocean Course @ Kiawah Island as one of the 100 best golf shops in the country in listings from 1997-2001, and from 2003 through 2005.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL – Secession Golf Club Director of Golf Michael Harmon has been named the 2006 PGA Bill Strausbaugh Award winner -- one of the highest annual honors bestowed by the PGA of America on a PGA Professional -- heading a list of 13 awrad recipients.

Michael Harmon never got to meet Bill Strausbaugh, the namesake for the national award for PGA Professionals who distinguish themselves by mentoring their fellow professionals and improving employment situations. But, Harmon heard much about Strausbaugh through his members at Secession Golf Club, several of whom had taken lessons from the man they called “The Coach,” and who inspired many to become the best that they could be in golf. Harmon, in his 20th season at Secession Golf Club, and is the third Carolinas PGA Section member to be honored with the Bill Strausbaugh Award. Elected to PGA membership in 1986, the 52-year-old Harmon also received national recognition in 2004 as the PGA Merchandiser of the Year for private facilities.

The 2005 Hilton Head Island Celebrity Golf Tournament recently distributed $200,000.00 during a ceremony at the Crowne Plaza Hilton Head Island Beach Resort. The money will be shared by children’s charities in Hilton Head, Bluffton, Beaufort and to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

$25,000 has been contributed to the neediest of families in Long Beach, MS who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. Long Beach is a town which Beaufort has adopted in recovery efforts for the devastated area. Funds were distributed through the United Way directly to the families. An additional $3,000.00 was given to the Deep Well Project specifically for families who have been relocated to our community.

Is it possible that one of America’s most prolific golf course architects, from golf’s first-family of design, with his name connected to many of the most tantalizing tracks around the world, is also one of the most under-appreciated designers of our time? Known as much for his work as “The Open Doctor”, modernizing classic championship courses originally designed by Donald Ross (Pinehurst #2), A.W. Tillinghast (Bethpage Black, Baltusrol), his father Robert Trent Jones (Congressional, Hazeltine) and many others, some might find themselves having to think for a moment when asked to name a Rees Jones original (even though four of Golf Digest’s Top 100 are his).

The cat in the Panama hat is pretty tough to miss, whether it be on TV (as host of “HHI Golf Weekly on cable channel 3) or bouncing around the Robert Trent Jones practice range and putting green. Like Tinkerbell in the Peter Pan novels, the omnipreset Doug Weaver seemingly never stops moving, dispensing the teaching wisdom he’s collected in his many years in the game (some of you might not know this, but the former PGA TOUR player also played the weekend in two U.S. Opens) as so much pixie-dust.

Weaver, the long-time Director of Golf Instruction at Palmetto Dunes Golf Academy and Palmetto Hall, chuckles when he says he “gives hope to the hopeless”. But there’s a kernel of truth to that, and his more serious theory of helping golfers “play to their potential.”

PGA Teaching Professional Roben Sutton at Hilton Head National Golf Club will be more than happy to impart complicated swing techniques and spout all the technical mumbo-jumbo that many younger pros preach. But what he believes is critical in helping you imprve your game is YOU being able to FEEL what you’re doing with your swing (and maybe knowing what you’re practicing is correct).

That’s why he thinks the #1 teaching aid in the game today isn’t some expensive video replay system, or a fancy contraption with its own infomercial, it’s something you already have inside your own house or office- a big mirror. “A mirror is ‘live’”, says Sutton. “Videotape is history. The camera can’t see what you’re feeling when you’re making a swing, good or bad. When you watch yourself swing in a mirror, you not only see what you’re doing, you can feel it, and maybe most importantly, correct it. The feedback is immediate, and admit it, how many of us already practice our golf swing in the mirror anyway?”

How do you compete with the “Big Boys” of the golf equipment industry, who have many years head start in marketing and manufacturing, not to mention deep, deep pockets to fund their ventures? Two veterans of the front lines of the golf industry wars,

Richard Merk and Bret Larsen are trying to do it in a revolutionary way, one club at a time, one charity tournament at a time with their launch of Upswing Golf early this year. Merk, a former member of the senior executive teams at TaylorMade and then Callaway, and Larsen, a former VP of Manufacturing and then Golf Club Development at Callaway, have come together to try to bring the “average” golfer access to top quality equipment without the expense the “brand name” companies tack on to their clubs for marketing, advertising and endorsements.

In the golf swing, clubhead speed is generated through the law of centrifugal force. Your first science teacher tied a string around a rock and spun the rock in his or her fingers. The string formed the radius of a circle and the teacher showed you te radius had to remain constant to maintain the rock’s orbit.

Make the clubhead your “rock”, the shaft and your left arm are the “string.” To achieve maximum centrifugal force (clubhead speed) you must keep the shaft and left arm and wrists STRAIGHT, meaning that all of the teaching encouraging you to bend, “break”, cock, or hinge your wrists in the backswing might just lead you to more swing problems, or even wrist injuries. Yes, you can allow the pull of the club to stretch and flex the muscles of the arm at the joints, but DON’T bend the elbow and wrist. 

Didn’t someone famous once say, “It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose, it’s how you handle the post-game?” When Darren Clarke visited the media room after dropping nine shots to par in the last 13 holes at Harbour Town and blowing a four-shot lad at the MCI Heritage over Peter Lonard (Clarke being willing to talk about his train wreck was surprising enough) he said, not so surprisingly considering his week, “Anybody got a beer?”

Had he hung around a little longer, Lonard would have bought it for him. The first-time winner on the PGA TOUR didn’t want to leave Harbour Town when the tourney was over.