NW Ontario Golfing News May 2012

May 2012

San Antonio, Texas Offers Great Golf Experiences See Pages 4 - 5

The TBDGA 2012 Tournament Calendar BUSHNELL GOLF LAUNCHES NEO+ GOLF GPS RANGEFINDER WATCH Calloway Golf Demonstrates What’s New For 2012

Northern Lights Golf Complex Offers A Complete Golf Experience Page 8

Bubba Watson Plays Bubba Golf!

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San Antonio, Texas Offers Great Golf Experiences

BY SCOTT A. SUMNER

NW Ontario Golfing News In September I received the opportunity to visit a place I had never been to before, San Antonio Texas. It was also my privilege to participate in the Las Americas Golf event and meet former Number One LPGA Tour player Lorena Ochoa whose

You can get to San Antonio quite easily with flights through Toronto and Houston. It would also be helpful if one day we get out jet service back to Minneapolis, which would improve your connections time even more.

My hotel destination would be the beautiful Westin LaCanterra Resort. I am

Lorena Ochoa was a huge draw at her Las Americas Event River Walk is a unique waterway system right through downtown San Antonio the Resort course and the Palmer course.

foundation would benefit from the funds raised at the event.

definitely a fan of Westin properties and this hotel featured 500 rooms and amenities and two championship golf courses,

My first golf game would be at the Quarry Golf Club in San Antonio Texas.

The course opened in 1993 with Keith Foster as the designer. This is one of his first designs that made him famous and he has done many redesigns and new courses since. “ We have a links style course on the front nine and then a links feel back nine with holes running in a concentric circle in the old quarry pit. I love that there are only trees on one hole so people don’t have to worry about losing their ball. You can also be really aggressive on some holes because you can cut off a lot of the doglegs. None of the holes look the same which is nice,” said Sean Etheredge, Head Golf Professional at the Quarry. “ We have some really fancy office buildings near the course. The course was first here and then the homes came up and finally the office buildings. Prior to us the quarry was unused for several years.”

Alamo Cement is the company that owns all the land. Concord Properties built

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the project. The Quarry is a public play course with green fees during the week at $69 and $99 on the weekend. Also at 2 pm it is $49 and at 4pm $29 so quite a difference. Each green fee includes cart and range. You can play golf all year round at the Quarry. “ We have nice enough weather in the winter period and get many Canadians here each year. Many stay downtown on the River Walk. It is heaven down there with everything real close with all the historical sites like the Alamo there. That is where the San Antonio Spurs play in the NBA as well as the University of Texas SA football teams. We have a division 1 golf team as well.” said Etheredge.

An interesting experience in San Antonio is to have dinner on a floating barge while you get to see the 4 miles plus of the Rivers edge in downtown. The activity level of people in this area seemed very high and it is worth spending some of your time off the course.

Continued Next Page

May 2012

San Antonio, Texas Offers Great Golf Experiences Continued From Previous Page Our second golf game would be the Las Americas Lorena Ochoa golf event, which is played as a scramble on the Resort Course at La Canterra. La Canterra has two courses- the Resort course which was designed by Tom Weiscoff and Jay

TPC San Antonio, which currently holds the Valero Texas Open Borish and played host to the Texas Open, a PGA Tour event, for 15 years and the second course is an Arnold Palmer Signature design course, which is absolutely spectacular. “ Both golf courses are good with unbelievable elevation changes as we are right on the edge of the Texas hill country. We have a huge clubhouse here with a very large golf shop along with lockers rooms and our grill. We are also just a couple hundred yards from the 500-room La Canterra Westin Hotel. We also have a teaching academy with 3 professionals on staff whom do video analysis,” said Steve Shields Director of Golf Operations at the Westin La Canterra Resort. “ San Antonio is a wonderful place to visit with great weather all year round. Our winters are very mild. The summer can get warm. The Resort course is a friendly golf course with wide fairways. There are no force carries except for one hole. The Palmer course really is a dramatic golf course. The main thing about the Palmer course is the elevation changes, if you like a challenging course. It is great with more difficult driving and more complex greens.

It is a really fun course to play with a fantastic clubhouse in that location as well. It is a great place to have lunch and look at the views of the 9th and 18th green.,” said Shields. “ This is our second Lorena Ochoa event here. She is really, really, good- unbelievably good. It is to raise money for her foundation and to gain some awareness of the some of the golf we have available in San Antonio, particularly at the Westin La Canterra Resort.”

who turned pro at 20 and was number one female player in the world for 4 years winning 27 LPGA events including 2 majors. “ I had planned my retirement for many, many years with the decision not happening from one day to another. I like retirement very very much. There is always time to do other things. Right now my priority is the school and the foundation. My goals and dreams were inside the golf course and now it is nice to have time to do other things. I like to stay to home more now and I will have a child soon so it is fun. The baby is due the first week of December.”

typically we get a lot of nice golf days here then,” said Tommy Parkinson, Golf Professional at TPC San Antonio. “ I like both courses here. The Oaks never plays the same twice and you find yourself in positions you have never been before. The green complexes are really good depending on where the flags are. Birdies are tough to come by and you have to take advantage of the opportunities the golf course gives you. The Canyons is a little

more scenic of the two with more rolling terrain. It is a little more player friendly with birdie opportunities out there. Both courses are quite challenging and designed by some of the renowned architects out there today.”

It was a fun experience playing golf in San Antonio. This is a location to check out, especially during the colder months we have in the north.

Last year Lorena came out of retirement in October to play an event at Mission Hills, China and won the event. “ I think the competitive spirit will always be there for me. I am still the same person, nothing changed in me. The tournament life was tough on the LPGA and I always said I wanted to play for no more than 10 years, retire at the top and move on. There are so many other things to do outside of the LPGA. Now I do golf clinic tournaments like this 2 or 3 times per month. I am very active and happy with what I am doing right now. We have a school in Guadalajara with 400 kids from 1st to 9th grade. We support underprivileged kids, ” smiles Lorena Ochoa. “ I always felt the love of the Mexican people when I was playing and say thank you to all of them for their support and love. Right now I am working hard and have new goals. It is nice to feel that support here as well. I have always been involved in the foundation. I might do some other professional golf tournament events as that is the beauty of the game, you can keep playing.”

My last course to play in San Antonio would be at the TPC San Antonio, which currently holds the Valero Texas Open in April. Greg Norman designed the course along with player consultant Sergio Garcia.

The two golf courses here along with the 1000 room JW Marriott Hotel opened in January of 2010. The other course was designed by Pete Dye with player consultant Bruce Lietske and will hold the ATT Championship for the first time shortly, a Champions Tour event. “ In comparison the weather is good 365 days when the temperature can be in the 40’s and 70’s during the winter months but

A definite highlight of my trip was seeing the golf clinic put on by Lorena Ochoa and then having a one on one interview with her afterwards. Lorena started golfing when she was 5 years old at Guadalajara, Mexico and played her first state tournament at age 6, first national event at 7 and the first international event when she was 8. “ I tried my best to get better. Sometimes it was easy, sometimes it was hard, but I always knew I wanted to play golf for many years. It was important for me to get as much competition as possible to get better. I knew that playing in the US was important so that’s why I came to the States for College at University of Arizona, the number 1 team,” said Lorena

May 2012

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Northern Lights Golf Complex Offers A Complete Golf Experience

BY SCOTT A. SUMNER

NW Ontario Golfing News If you are golfer in Thunder Bay, you most likely hit your first golf balls of the season at the Northern Lights Golf Complex range in April. “The phone starts ringing as soon as the snow melts. Sometimes we have

snow on the range but people don't in town so they just assume we are ready to go. We open pretty much as soon as the snow goes and have opened when there still is snow in the area. The people want to get outside as early as they can," smiles Nadine Breukelman, part owner of Northern Lights Golf Complex. Northern Lights is a unique golf facility in Thunder Bay and

Northern Lights Golf Complex has continued to make upgrades to their property with dual greens on the Regulation 9

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area, as it has a large driving range and practice area, a par 3 executive course as well as a regulation nine holes.

The 160 acre property began as a dairy farm for 15 years for the Breukelmans in 1979. In 1994 the family decided to stop dairy farming and built a driving range converting the pasture area. That summer the par 3 course construction began and the following year opened. The regulation 9 was finalized in 2001. For two years prior to the regulation course completion it ran with just the first five holes. The clubhouse was built in July of 1995.

"The par three course is a good training facility for kids. We also have a strong group of seniors and family’s who come out as well as seasoned golfers who want to work on their short game. There are often office tournaments on the par 3 course as they don’t feel intimidated." states Nadine Breukelman.

"We got into the golf business when we left the dairy business as we didn't really want to move from the area. We had the property and golf was a good fit. We checked into it and decided to do it," states Gerald Breukelman. "I played once a year and wasn't a golfer. I had no intention of golfing when I quit farming, it just worked out. I wanted to remain self employed as I had never worked for anyone else."

"On the Northern Lights par three course we had someone come in and design it, tell us what soils to use etc. We learned a lot

and on the regulation course I felt we could do most of it ourselves with some landscaping help," notes Gerald Breukelman. "We bought a dozer, dump truck and back hoe and when we were finished sold them."

The majority of the golfers at Northern Lights are green fee players, although there are a few members. "We have regulars who we see each week. Our evenings and weekends are good and our goal is to get more people out during the day," states Gerald Breukelman. "Our play has increased steadily each year though the number of new courses has made it more competitive to grow. Some of the country clubs have opened up to the public more freely.”

Northern Lights has worked at developing a fun atmosphere for golfers. They have both ladies and mens clubs. " We have our non competitive ladies club with many members. The ladies can golf either course and afterwards have a barbeque and at the end of the year a wind up that everyone looks forward to. The women are all ages and from all acts of life," notes Nadine Breukelman. "It is a minimal cost to join and that includes our wind up of the year meal. We also have a more competitive league and there you can maintain your handicap. We will always welcome the ladies and get them into a group. When the ladies come they just pay their greens fees.

Our mens club is on Thursday and they maintain handicaps."

Late last fall it was fun to get out to Northern Lights Golf Complex and play the regulation course twice and par 3 course once in a friendly annual competition with some friends!

If you want to hit some booming drives on the range, hone your short game on the par three course or play a competitive game on the regulation 9 be sure to get out to the Northern Lights Golf Complex this season.

May 2012