June Newsletter ☀️

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McIlroy pleased with opening 67 at BMW PGA

While a short miss on the final green denied him a share of the clubhouse lead, Rory McIlroy had plenty of reason to smile after opening the BMW PGA Championship with a 5-under 67.

McIlroy won the European Tour’s flagship event in memorable fashion in 2014, erasing a seven-shot deficit on the final day. But the West Course at Wentworth has otherwise been a house of horrors for the Ulsterman, as he missed the cut in his three other appearances since 2012 and has played the course in a combined 10 over in his eight career appearances.

This marks his first return to the event since 2015, and he’s now one shot off the early pace after a round that at times offered glimpses of his commanding form from recent years.

 

Full-field scores from the BMW PGA Championship

 

“I think I did everything pretty well,” McIlroy said. “I drove the ball much better, put the ball in play off the tee a lot more than I’ve done the last couple weeks, so that’s been really good. I thought I gave myself a lot of chances, and I took most of them.”

McIlroy started slowly, and a bogey on No. 9 after a poor approach from the middle of the fairway meant he made the turn in just 1 under. But he got that dropped shot back on the next hole, then added birdies on Nos. 14 and 16 to climb up the leaderboard. He appeared poised to add at least one more tally, but was unable to birdie either of the two closing par-5s at Wentworth including a miss from inside 4 feet on No. 18.

“A little frustrated that I couldn’t get a birdie or two out of the last couple holes, but overall a really good start,” he said.

Making his first start since a missed cut at The Players Championship, McIlroy sits two shots behind Lucas Bjerregaard with hopes for “more of the same” from his game over the weekend on a course that has often had his number.

“If I can hit the ball like I did today over the next three days,” McIlroy said, “I think I’ll be right there.”

 

Source: golfchannel.com

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SUMMER JUNIOR GOLF CAMPS!

SUMMER JUNIOR GOLF CAMPS

Attention all Junior Golfers! Come join one of our Summer Golf Camps if you want to improve your golf game and have fun this summer! Our Head Golf Professional Taylor Battaglia will be the instructor of each 3 day camp where you will learn life skills, rules of the game of golf and practice all different areas of the game. There will be a variety of activities as well as a tournament on the last day of camp! For more information or to get signed up, please email Taylor by clicking the link below!

$175 PER JUNIOR

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

9:00am to 12:00pm Each Day

June 13th – 15th  · June 27th – 29th ·  July 11th – 13th

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Summer Adult Golf Classes at the Fairgrounds!

Hello there, check out our summer classes!

LADIES SUMMER GOLF CLASS

Wednesdays 5:30 – 6:30pm

June 13th – July 11th

$100 per person for the 5 week class

Looking for a fun summer golf class to help improve your game? Here’s your chance! Our Head Golf Professional Taylor Battaglia will teach the class. Each class ladies will go over a golf rule and a golf skill. It’s a great environment for beginners as well as intermediate players that are looking to get their game back into shape! For more information or to get signed up, please email Taylor by clicking the link below!

ADULT COURSE MANAGEMENT CLASS

Wednesdays 6:30 – 7:30pm

June 13th – July 11th

$125 per person for the 5 week class

Looking to get out and play more golf this summer? Well here is your chance! Our Head Golf Professional Taylor Battaglia will teach this exciting golf class where each week students will join Taylor on the golf course to improve their game and their course management skills. If you ever have questions about the rules or you’re not sure what to do in certain situations out on the golf course then this is the class for you! For more information or to get signed up, please email Taylor by clicking the link below!

Jordan Spieth: Tiger ‘certainly playing well enough’ to win soon

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tiger Woods left a lot of money, world-ranking points, FedEx points and his Bridgestone golf ball at the bottom of the water in front of the 17th green Sunday.

You would hardly know it based on his positive reaction after he tied for 11th at the Players Championship, shooting a final-round 69 after earlier being in a tie for second place behind eventual winner Webb Simpson.

“I really played really good today. I hit it so good,” Woods said after shooting rounds of 72-71-65-69. “I had control of it from tee to green. I made some putts. I felt good on basically every facet of the game, and it’s weird — not to really mishit a shot today and only shoot 3 under par is just weird … because I played much better than that.”

Woods began the day tied for eighth, 11 strokes behind Simpson. By the time Woods teed off, he had dropped to a tie for 17th.

He steadily climbed the leaderboard with birdies at the second, third, fourth and ninth holes. He added birdies at the 11th and 12th and was 6 under par for his round. At that point, he had closed to within four strokes of Simpson and was tied for second at 14 under par.

But like Saturday, when he was 8 under through 12 holes, the round stalled at the par-4 14th and this time was compounded by a tee shot into the water at the par-3 17th.

In both cases, Woods hit a sand wedge approach, but he said he did not misplay either shot.

“No. 14, it’s blowing downwind, and it’s off the left, and [the pin] is on top of that crown, and I thought it [the ball] was going to skip,” Woods said of the shot from 110 yards. “I thought I was going to have a hard time keeping it up top, and I spun it off the ridge. Left it short and hit a good putt. Just didn’t go in.”

The hole has been something of a nemesis for Woods. It is where he hit his tee shot in the water — leading to a controversial drop — on his way to victory in 2013. He bogeyed the hole Saturday. This time, he pounded a driver 355 yards into the fairway and had the short distance to the flag.

After it came up short and rolled off the front of the green, Woods elected to putt and left it 8 feet short then missed the par putt.

After failing to birdie the par-5 16th for the second straight day, he arrived at the par-3 17th and watched Jordan Spieth stick his shot to a few feet from a precarious pin that is typically on the right side on Sundays.

“I think I messed him up,” Spieth said. “He went and looked in my bag, and I had a 52-degree [sand wedge], which is a pretty aggressive play. I had to draw it from the water. And then he hit one, and the wind is just going like this the whole day, and if he caught this, he’s a tap-in birdie. It was unlucky there.”

Woods said Spieth’s shot did not impact him and that it was simply the wind.

“It was blowing downwind, and then, unfortunately, it switched in my face,” Woods said.

The resulting double-bogey bounced Woods out of the top 10, which meant a significant difference in prize money, FedEx points and the world ranking.

Woods finished at 277, 11 under par and seven shots back of Simpson and three back of second-place finishers Charl Schwartzel, Jimmy Walker and Xander Schauffele.

After beginning the week ranked 92nd in the world, Woods will move up to 80th. He would have been pushing the top 50 with a second-place finish. The drop also cost him approximately $600,000 in prize money, as the three players who tied for second each received $821,333, while Woods got $225,500. He will move from 53rd to 48th in the FedEx Cup standings.

Having won 14 major championships and 79 PGA Tour events in his career, Woods is not much concerned with where he is in the various rankings. But he noted Sunday that he would like to qualify for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August.

“One of my goals is to get into Akron, one last time, before we leave there,” Woods said of the tournament he has won eight times at Firestone Country Club. It is moving to Memphis, Tennessee, after this year. “I’ve won there eight times, and I would like to get there with one more chance. But I’ve [got] to do some work between now and then.”

 

https://twitter.com/PGATOUR/status/995726211975294976

 

Short of a victory, Woods needs to be ranked among the top 50 in the world as of July 23 or July 30 to qualify.

“He’ll win sometime soon enough,” said Spieth, who tied for 41st after a final-round 74 that included an 8 at the last hole. “He’s certainly playing well enough to do so. All in all, I think he played like a 5- or 6-under round, almost shot 7 or 8 and ended up with 3.

“So his game, if I compare it to other guys that are winning golf tournaments that I’m playing with day to day, it’s right up there.”

Woods will take the next two weeks off and is expected to return at The Memorial Tournament, held May 31-June 3, that he has won five times but hasn’t played since 2015. That year, he shot his highest score as a pro, a third-round 85.

He has come a long way from those days. Some 13 months after spinal fusion surgery, he has played nine worldwide events — eight on the PGA Tour — and posted five top-12 finishes. He has jumped from 1,199th in the world to 80th. And he has some confidence.

“I felt comfortable with every facet of my game today,” Woods said. “Everything felt good. I had control, I was hitting it high, low, right, left, didn’t matter what it was. I felt like I had control of it today.”

 

Source: ESPN.com

🌞 May Newsletter 🌞

Stay up to date with all our events, classes, tips, and tournaments at Fairgrounds Golf Course by reading our monthly newsletters.

Our May Newsletter is available now!

Feel free to check out our website at Fairgroundsgolfcourse.com for more information, news, & upcoming events!

Lydia Ko wins in a dramatic playoff, her first victory in two years

Lydia Ko has faced plenty of heat over the past couple years. The general questions surrounding her have been about why a teen sensation with 14 LPGA titles to her credit would change her coach, her equipment, her caddie—and why has it been two seasons since her last victory? Thankfully for her sanity, it sounds like she hasn’t been paying too much attention to all the critics.

And when she was faced with the chance to change the narrative, Ko stepped up. Five days after turning 21, the New Zealand resident celebrated by claiming her 15th LPGA title, a playoff victory over Minjee Lee at the MEDIHEAL Championship.

Ko didn’t just win, she won in style, making an eagle 3 on the first extra hole, the par-5 18th at Lake Merced Golf Club outside San Francisco after hitting her second shot from 234 yards to less than three feet.

https://twitter.com/LPGA/status/990758034711363585

The leader after each of the first three rounds, Ko was asked on Saturday night whether or not she felt pressure from people talking about if she’s going to win again or not. Ko responded to the question saying, “I’ve been very distant from like press and media. No offense.”

It was a typical Ko response: honest, yet perfectly considerate.

The last time Ko had slept on a 54-hole lead was at the 2016 U.S. Open. The last time she had won was a week later at the Marathon Classic. Since that victory, Ko has changed her swing coaches, going from David Leadbetter to Gary Gilchrist to her current instructor, Ted Oh, who she began working with in early 2018. She changed her clubs, moving from Callaway to PXG. And she changed her caddie, multiple times. When all of these changes didn’t add up to continued dominance on tour, some questioned whether or not she had made the right choices.

But Ko stayed patient, confident, and relatively quiet about all of the adjustments.

During Sunday’s final round, the lead changed hands multiple times. Ko had started the day one stroke ahead of Jessica Korda. A cold putter kept Korda from making a charge (she’d finish with a Sunday 74). Meanwhile, early bogeys from Ko brought Lee, who started the day three strokes off the lead, into the mix. Lee made five birdies on the back nine to finish 12-under for the tournament, posting a closing 68.

After making the turn with a 38, Ko improved on the back nine and was sitting at 11 under for the tournament, playing in the group behind Lee. She watched as Lee made her birdie putt to finish at 12 under. That putt meant Ko had to make birdie to force a playoff.

Ko’s approach shot came up short on the short par 5, and her chip for eagle grazed the high side of the cup. She tapped in for birdie and a Sunday 71, and the two 21-year-olds went back to the 18th tee for the first playoff hole.

Each player headed into the playoff having had experience winning at Lake Merced in the past. Lee won the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior, where Ko had lost in her semifinal match. Ko won the Swinging Skirts LPGA event in 2014 and 2015 at Lake Merced.

Both put their drives in the fairway. Ko, with a 3-wood in her hands from 234 yards out, hit a towering shot over some branches that hung over the left side of the fairway. It hit in front of the green, rolled up and almost into the hole. Lee made birdie, but it wasn’t enough. Ko’s short eagle putt rolled in and she left the 18th green in tears.

After the win, Ko opened up more about what it felt like to play 43 starts without a win.

“I was frustrated because sometimes I would go into the Thursday feeling, Hey, I feel like I can actually play really well, and then miss the cut or shoot over par,” Ko said. “I think it was more frustration against myself from myself. I think sometimes self pressure is the biggest thing where you kind of put a lot of load on your shoulders. That’s what my mom actually said, hey, just clear your mind, just take away all the weight off your shoulders and just go out and play. That’s what I think I was able to do this week, which is always nice when you’re kind of playing without fear and you’re just out there freely.”

 

Source: Golf Digest

Putting prepared Park’s path back to No. 1

Inbee Park brings more than her unshakably tranquil demeanor back to the top of the Rolex Women’s World Rankings this week.

She brings more than her Olympic gold medal and seven major championships to the Mediheal Championship on the outskirts of San Francisco.

She brings a jarring combination of gentleness and ruthlessness back to the top of the rankings.

Park may look as if she could play the role of Mother Teresa on some goodwill tour, but that isn’t what her opponents see when she’s wielding her Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball mallet.

She’s like Mother Teresa with Lizzy Borden’s axe.

When Park gets on one of her rolls with the putter, she scares the hell out of the rest of the tour.

At her best, Park is the most intimidating player in women’s golf today.

“Inbee makes more 20- and 30-footers on a regular basis than anyone I know,” seven-time major championship winner Karrie Webb said.

All those long putts Park can hole give her an aura more formidable than any power player in the women’s game.

“A good putter is more intimidating than someone who knocks it out there 280 yards,” Webb said “Even if Inbee misses a green, you know she can hole a putt from anywhere. It puts more pressure on your putter knowing you’re playing with someone who is probably going to make them all.”

Park, by the way, said Webb and Ai Miyazato were huge influences on her putting. She studied them when she was coming up on tour.

Webb, though, believes there’s something internal separating Park. It isn’t just Park’s ability to hole putts that makes her so intimidating. It’s the way she carries herself on the greens.

“She never gets ruffled,” Webb said. “She says she gets nervous, but you never see a change in her. If you’re going toe to toe with her, that’s what is intimidating. Even if you’re rolling in putts on top of her, it doesn’t seem to bother her. She’s definitely a player you have to try not to pay attention to when you’re paired with her, because you can get caught up in that.”

Park has led the LPGA in putts per greens in regulation five of the last 10 years.

Brad Beecher has been on Park’s bag for more than a decade, back before she won her first major, the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open. He has witnessed the effect Park can have on players when she starts rolling in one long putt after another.

“You have those times when she’ll hole a couple long putts early, and you just know, it’s going to be one of those days,” Beecher said. “Players look at me like, `Does she ever miss?’ or `How am I going to beat this?’ You see players in awe of it sometimes.”

Park, 29, won in her second start of 2018, after taking seven months off with a back injury. In six starts this year, she has a victory, two ties for second-place and a tie for third. She ended Shanshan Feng’s 23-week run at No. 1 with a tie for second at the Hugel-JTBC LA Open last weekend.

What ought to disturb fellow tour pros is that Park believes her ball striking has been carrying her this year. She’s still waiting for her putter to heat up. She is frustrated with her flat stick, even though she ranks second in putts per greens in regulation this season.

“Inbee Park is one of the best putters ever,” said LPGA Hall of Famer Sandra Haynie, a 42-time LPGA winner. “She’s dangerous on the greens.”

Haynie said she would rank Park with Kathy Whitworth, Mickey Wright and Nancy Lopez as the best putters she ever saw.

Hall of Famer Joanne Carner says Park is the best putter she has seen since Lopez.

“I thought Nancy was a great putter,” Carner said. “Inbee is even better.”

Park uses a left-hand low grip, with a mostly shoulder move and quiet hands.

Lopez used a conventional grip, interlocking, with her right index finger down the shaft. She had a more handsy stroke than Park.

Like Lopez, Park prefers a mallet-style putter, and she doesn’t switch putters much. She is currently playing with an Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball putter. She won the gold medal with it two years ago. She used an Oddysey White Ice Sabertooth winged mallet when she won three majors in a row in 2013.

Lopez hit the LPGA as a rookie in 1978 with a Ray Cook M1 mallet putter and used it for 20 years. It’s in the World Golf Hall of Fame today.

“I watch Inbee, and I think, `Wow, that’s how I used to putt,’” Lopez said. “You can see she’s not mechanical at all. So many players today are mechanical. They forget if you just look at the hole and stroke it, you’re going to make more putts.”

Notably, Park has never had a putting coach, not really. Her husband and swing coach, Gi Hyeob Nam, will look at her stroke when she asks for help.

“When I’m putting, I’m concentrating on the read and mostly my speed,” Park said. “I don’t think mechanically about my stroke at all, unless I think there’s something wrong with it, and then I’ll have my husband take a look. But, really, I rely on my feel. I don’t think about my stroke when I’m out there playing.”

Hall of Famer Judy Rankin says Park’s remarkably consistent speed is a key to her putting.

“Inbee is definitely a feel putter, and her speed is so consistent, all the time,” Rankin said. “You have to assume she’s a great green reader.”

Beecher says Park’s ability to read greens is a gift. She doesn’t rely on him for that. She reads greens herself.

“I think what impresses me most is Inbee has a natural stroke,” Beecher said. “There’s nothing too technical. It’s more straight through and straight back, but I think the key element of the stroke is that she keeps the putter so close to the ground, all the time, on the takeaway and the follow-through. It helps with the roll and with consistency.”

Park said that’s one of her fundamentals.

“I keep it low, almost like I’m hitting the ground,” Park said. “When I don’t do that, I miss more putts.”

Beecher believes the real reason Park putts so well is that the putter brought her into the game. It’s how she got started, with her father, Gun Gyu Park, putting the club in her hands as a child. She loved putting on her own.

“That’s how she fell in love with the game,” Beecher said. “Getting started that way, it’s played a huge role in her career.”

 

Source: GolfChannel.com

2018  JUNIOR SUMMER TEAM

2018 JUNIOR SUMMER TEAM

All Juniors – Ages (8-17)

Are you interested in playing summer golf competitively? Well here is your chance! The North Bay Junior Golf League season begins in June and there will be weekly tournaments which consist of a 2 person scramble format at different golf courses in the area each week. All players must be Youth on Course Members and they must sign up by May 31st to reserve their spot on the team!

For more information or to get your junior signed up for the team please email our Head Golf Professional Taylor at tbattaglia@fairgroundsgolfcourse.com

 

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