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2 April 2013 GOLF GUIDE 2013 Battle Creek Enquirer Battle Creek Enquirer GOLF GUIDE 2013 April 2013 3 Locals prepare for golf season at range at Cedar Creek Golf Club. JESSIE CARON/ENQUIRER The Battle Creek Enquirer’s Golf Guide 2013 takes a look at golf in the area, featuring information on local golf courses as well as tips on how to improve your golf game. INSIDE THIS SECTION » COVER STORY: Enquirer golf writer Will Kowalski talks to local experts on the importance of using driving ranges or practice greens to improve your success over a summer of golf rounds - Page 4 » KEY DATES: Mark your calendar for the top tournaments of the summer using our schedule of events -Page 11 » GOLF MAP: Find out where and when you can play golf throughout the area with our map of local courses - Page 12-13 » AREA COURSES: Locations, course hours, green fees and description of courses in the area - starting on Page 14 » SCHEDULES: Follow the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour and the Champions Tour with a season-long schedule - Page 20-21 » FIRST TEE: Find out what Battle Creek’s First Tee program has to offer this summer - Page 22 » CONTACT US: If you have a golf event, tournament or want to report a hole in one or an eagle, send information to the sports desk at the Enquirer at [email protected] 4 April 2013 GOLF GUIDE 2013 Battle Creek Enquirer DRIVENto SUCCEED The key to a golf season is to get some practice in early at a driving range like this golfer on the practice range of The Golf Club at Yarrow in Augusta. JESSIE CARON/FOR THE ENQUIRER By Will Kowalski | The Enquirer So, where does one practice golf? Certainly not on the golf course it- Local pros say self. When a linkster is playing a round, “Practice makes perfect.’’ every shot counts. Plus, there are usu- it’s best to have ally other golfers playing in front of you It’s a phrase that most folks have heard time and or behind you, which leaves little time again during their life’s endeavors. to try new things or take extra swings a plan when — which isn’t allowed during a round, Well, becoming “perfect’’ at something might be a anyway, unless you enjoy marking dou- bit of a stretch, as no matter what you’re trying to get ble-digits down onto your scorecard. working on Rather, the place to hone one’s game really good at, nobody’s “perfect.’’ is on the practice range and the practice green. And many local courses and practice ranges, Yet it is commonly accepted that the more one facilities have both ranges and practice practices at something, the better one gets. greens on their grounds. practice greens And that certainly holds true with the game of golf. See RANGE, Page 5 Battle Creek Enquirer GOLF GUIDE 2013 April 2013 5 RANGE Continued from Page 4 The only problem is, the majority of “average’’ golfers or those newer to the game don’t always know exactly what they’re supposed to really be doing when they’re “Home on the Range.’’ What’s right? What’s wrong? Follow along, and some answers will be offered by several local PGA teaching profes- sionals and/or players — with hopes of helping you become a better golfer, while also helping you get more enjoy- ment out of your links experiences. The local pros who offered their knowledge about the correct ways to do things on the range and the practice green for this article are John Morse, Matt Thompson, Gary Robinson, Ron Osborne and Dean Kolstad. For the wrong way to do things, yours truly can easily handle that angle, starting now. What not to do on the range Here’s another catch-phrase that seems appropriate: “Don’t do what I do.’’ I’ve been the golf writer at the En- quirer for 25 years now, and I’m pretty much an “average’’ bogey golfer myself. I have my moments when all goes well from tee to green on any one partic- Golfers work on their game at the driving range at Binder Park Golf Course. JESSIE CARON/FOR THE ENQUIRER ular hole every once in a while, and I wind up scoring well on that hole in the process. distance but which might insure better However, I also inevitably wind up accuracy); plain-ol’ out-of-sync swings taking my share of extra strokes here or follow-throughs; plus the mis-reading and there and everywhere during a or wrong-speed decisions of putts. round. Those extra, unwanted strokes And all of that bad stuff more than are due to a combination of mis-hits; bad likely has to do with the way I usually course mental management decisions approach my time on the range. (for instance, using a driver on a tight First off, I’ve never taken lessons fairway instead of a fairway wood or iron or hybrid which would lead to less See RANGE, Page 6 LIST OF LOCAL PUBLIC GOLF PRACTICE RANGES » Binder Park Golf Course/The First Tee of Battle Creek, 7255 B Drive S, Battle Creek (Binder Park 979-8250, First Tee 979-6203). » Bedford Valley Golf Club, 23161 Waubascon Rd., Battle Creek (965-3384). » Cedar Creek Golf Club, 14000 Renton Rd., Battle Creek (965-6423). » Marywood Golf Club, 21310 North Ave., Battle Creek (968-1168). » Riverside Golf Club, 245 E. Columbia Ave., Battle Creek (962-3921). » Hit-Em-Here, 1790 Columbia Ave., Battle Creek (965-5221). » The Medalist Golf Club, 15701 N Drive N, Marshall (789-4653). » Maple Hills Golf Club, 16344 East C Ave., Augusta (731-4430). » Golf Club at Yarrow, 10499 N. 48th St., Augusta (731-2698). » Stonehedge Golf Club, 15530 D Ave., Augusta (731-2300). » Gull Lake View Golf Club, 7417 N 38th St., Augusta, opening June (731- 4149). » Hickory Ridge Golf Course, 65 N 30th St., Galesburg (382-6212). » Tomac Woods Golf Course, 14827 26 1/2 Mile Rd., Albion (800-835-9185). » Foundation Learning Center, 491 Jonesville Rd., Coldwater (517-279-6164). » Golf Club of Coldwater, 270 Narrows Rd., Coldwater (517-279-2100). 6 April 2013 GOLF GUIDE 2013 Battle Creek Enquirer RANGE Continued from Page 5 from a professional, which is why I’ll probably never get better. And without lessons from a pro, I guess you could say I really don’t know how to correct my swing or set-up problems the way I should. That said, to make things worse, here’s my typical practice range routine: Get a basket of balls, stretch out a little, then grab the driver out of the golf bag and start banging away a few dozen times. Then, if I still have a few moments “The more often you produce a consistent swing and then reproduce it, the better you will play.” JOHN MORSE PGA pro before my tee time, I might hit a couple of short irons and wedges on the range, then go to the practice green and putt a few balls around with hopes of finding a “line’’ and getting to know the speed of the greens that I’ll soon be encounter- ing. But that’s pretty much it. That’s my routine. And it’s not a very good one, is it? The right things to do That said, it’s now time to find out the correct way to approach a practice range and practice green, via com- ments from some local experts. Those experts are: » John Morse, age 55, of Marshall. Morse is a 1976 Marshall High grad who first went to Kellogg Community Col- lege, then on to the University of Michi- gan where he became captain of the squad. He then turned professional, played and won all around the world, played and won on the PGA Tour, and in more recent times was a former head pro at Marshall Country Club and also played on the Champions (Senior) Tour. Morse — who has earned well over $1 million playing golf in his lifetime along with hitting over a million golf balls on the range — said he’s had some back problems again recently, and that if he doesn’t wind up playing in Champions Tour and PGA Tour events again this season, that he might be helping out this summer as a teaching pro at Battle Creek Country Club. » Matt Thompson of Battle Creek. As a prep star at Lakeview High he helped Marshall’s John Morse, a veteran of the PGA Tour, works with a young golfer on the driving range. AL LASSEN/FOR THE ENQUIRER See RANGE, Page 7 Battle Creek Enquirer GOLF GUIDE 2013 April 2013 7 president of the Western Michigan RANGE Chapter of the Michigan PGA, he’s cur- Continued from Page 6 rently the secretary of the Michigan PGA (he’ll assume the role of president the Spartans win a state title and was in about four to five years), and on his also a two-time prep individual state staff at Binder Park is PGA teaching medalist. Thompson, now 23, completed pro Paul Hawkins, whom Osborne said his tenure with the University of Michi- is now Binder Park’s No. 1 teaching pro gan golf team as one of its captains last as well as the site’s top club fitter. The spring — he also won a unprecedented current president of the Michigan PGA five consecutive Calhoun County Ama- is Gary Koenes, most recently of teur titles during his prep and collegiate Springbrook Golf Course in Springfield.

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