Jacksonville Golf News

On the golf course, a few feet can be the difference between finding a hazard and landing in a safe spot with a good angle to attack the pin, and club selection is often an integral component in reducing distances to the cup if you're able to find the putting surface.

GreenFinder Golf GPS , a system that utilizes already-exisiting global positioning systems on your iPhone or Blackberry to calculate the distance from the golfer to various targets on the course, is a simple, convenient and affordable way to improve your golf game by having the right club in your hand and the information necessary to make the right play.

Honours Golf Company has announced that PGA Master Professional Billy Peterson will serve as general manager of King & Bear and Slammer & Squire golf courses located at World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fla.  Honours Golf Company has owned and managed the two championship courses since November 2000.   

Before joining Honours Golf, Peterson served as general manager for The Renaissance Club, an exclusive private golf club located in Dirleton, Scotland and with headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla.

Golfing legend Gary Player, golf's international ambassador for the past half-century, will deliver one of the keynotes addresses at the spring Golf Inc. Conference March 30-April 1, 2009 at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fla.

The former member of golf's "Big Three," along with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, has become a prolific course architect, designing more than 300 courses around the globe. 

PGA Tour veteran and Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) spokesman Frank Lickliter II glanced down the fairway toward the famed 17th Island Green at TPC Sawgrass in September and sighed heavily.

Normally, a golf swing would not take this much out of him; after all, he’d played this hallowed course many times during THE PLAYERS Championship, one of the TOUR’s pinnacle events, and had swung a golf club a million times in his career. But this time, decked out in body armor and wearing a Kevlar helmet, it was diffcult just to lift the club off the ground, let alone hope for anything near par.

Lickliter was participating in a charity golf tournament benefting WWP and fve other military homefront groups as part of PGA Tour Charities’ Birdies for the Brave military outreach program (www.pgatour.com/birdiesforthebrave). All of the participants wore military gear for one hole in an effort to gain insight into what combat soldiers deal with every day on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Langer Looks to Repeat Dominant Performance as Champions Tour Event Returns to
Hammock Beach Resort March 30 – April 5

At last year’s Ginn Championship at the Hammock Beach Resort, Bernhard Langer displayed the exceptional talent that has made him a worldwide force in golf for the better part of three decades, as he blew away the Champions Tour competition to claim a commanding eight-shot victory.

Langer is expected to be back in Palm Coast to defend his title along with a list of worthy challengers that could include Fred Funk, Nick Price, Tom Kite, Tom Watson, Mark O’Meara, Gary Player and Hale Irwin, all of whom competed in last year’s tournament. The Golf Channel will provide Friday – Sunday coverage of the event. 

ST. AUGUSTINE - The World Golf Hall of Fame is now 126 members strong after the inductions of 1963 Open Champion Sir Bob Charles, three-time Major Champion Denny Shute, distinguished amateur golfer Carol Semple Thompson, fabled writer Herbert Warren Wind, the first person to capture the first two Major Championships in one year, Craig Wood, and legendary golf course designer Pete Dye.

"This class really does exemplify the special qualities which set golf apart from other sports and makes it very special indeed," PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem told the large crowd assembled on the lawn outside the World Golf Hall of Fame." 

JEKYLL ISLAND, Ga. - In the next few weeks the golf season tapers off in many parts of the country, but keen golfers can continue to hone their game and take advantage of superb golfing conditions during the winter months with free golf! Check out the Jekyll Island Club Hotel's Golfers Heaven Package.

The Jekyll Island Club Hotel is found in the heart of the Historic District on Jekyll Island, which is located just south of Brunswick and St. Simons Island and a a little more than an hour from Jacksonville. Rated among the top 500 resorts worldwide by Travel & Leisure, the Jekyll Island Club offers superb resort accommodations, outstanding service and unforgettable golf in natural settings. 

This year marks the first time that The Ginn Sur Mer Classic will be played at the Ginn Hammock Beach Resort's Conservatory Course. It's also the first time the PGA Tour will make two trips to Florida's Palm Coast in the same calendar year.

The Ginn Sur Mer Classic at The Conservatory, a PGA Tour Fall Series event, will be played Oct. 27 - Nov. 2 and will serve as a complement to the PLAYERS Championship, one of the premier events on the PGA Tour annually played at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach. 

The PLAYERS Stadium Course at the PGA Tour's flagship TPC Sawgrass, home to THE PLAYERS Championship, has been named the "No. 1 Best Golf Course in Florida" in Travel + Leisure Golf's "2008 World's Best Golf Resorts Readers' Survey," which appears in the magazine's September/October issue. The survey results cover readers' favorite courses and resorts within the U.S., the Caribbean, Mexico, Latin America, Canada and the British Isles.

In the same survey, the Sawgrass Golf Resort & Spa, which includes TPC Sawgrass, was named the No. 1 golf resort in Florida and No. 9 on Travel + Leisure Golf's list of the "2008 Top Ten U.S. Golf Resorts." Within those rankings, the Sawgrass Golf Resort & Spa was ranked No. 2 in the U.S. in the category "Best Resorts for Buddy Trips." 

ST. AUGUSTINE - St. Johns Golf & Country Club, owned by St. Joe Company and managed by Billy Casper Golf , will host the first stage of the 2008 PGA Tour Qualifying School, Tuesday-Friday, October 21-24.

The 72-hole, stroke-play tournament at St. Johns will be contested between roughly 80 golfers with the top qualifiers advancing to the second stage of competition. St. Johns was selected by the PGA Tour as one of only 11 golf courses across theUnited States to host a first round qualifying competition. This will be the fourth time St. Johns has hosted a Q-School event.