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Tournaments
The Champions Tour returns to Nashville, May 25 - June 1 for the Music City Championship at Gaylord Opryland. The tournament will again take place at Springhouse Golf Club.
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Sponsorship
Peter Johncke, the "Trick Shot Master," signs an equipment endorsement deal with Scandinavian equipment maker Mgolf.
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Associations
The Virginia State Golf Association announces the courses and dates for its 2003 men's championships. Beginning in March, VSGA championships will visit three states, with nine layouts serving as host facilities.
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Colleges
Former UCLA head golf coach and current professional at Bel-Air Country Club Eddie Merrins is selected as the recipient of the 2002 Honor Award by the Golf Coaches Association of America in cooperation with the College Golf Foundation as Associate Presenting Sponsor.
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Health
An automated external defibrillator created by CardioReady is available for no charge to golf courses, businesses and organizations that are not equipped with an AED or need additional support at their events.
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Briefly
Pete Byman and Carl Marinello have joined QLink Golf as sales reps to secure new retail accounts throughout Florida. QLink is expanding their retail presence with 13 new accounts secured in November. New retailers include Edwin Watts stores in Ft. Lauderdale and Naples, Fla., the LA Golf Exchange in Los Angeles, Calif. and Masters Golf in Midland, Texas, in addition to nine golf specialty stores throughout Florida, California and Texas. ...

Members will soon have another course to call their own at the new Shadow Wood Preserve community, which opened earlier this year. The latest Arthur Hills / Steve Forrest designed 18 Hole Championship "Preserve" Course has been routed around existing wetlands, ponds and forests just to the north of Naples in south Lee County, Fla. ...

A Huxley Golf all-weather putting green has become a key component in the golf studies programs at Cornwall's Duchy College. About 30 students use the green regularly as part of full-time golf-related courses leading either to a National Diploma in Sport and Performance (Golf) or a Foundation Degree in Golf. ...

EarthLink will participate as the major sponsor for Digital Concepts' upcoming CD-ROM to be delivered to 650,000 Golf Magazine subscribers. ...

Scottsdale-based OB Sports Golf Management announces The Duke at Rancho El Dorado will open to the public in January. The Duke will feature a championship-style, 18-hole, par-72 golf course that measures 7,050 yards from the back tees. Peak season rates are estimated to be $85 with an Arizona resident rate of $75. ...

Mississippi State University signs Jake Lambert out of Jackson Academy in Jackson, Miss., to its men's golf team, according to head coach Greg Martin. ...

ValleyCrest Golf Course Maintenance, a division of ValleyCrest Companies, signs a partnership to perform golf course maintenance for Ramblewood Country Club in Mount Laurel, N.J., a 27-hole championship public country club. ...

Ashworth announces it is ranked by the Darrell Survey as the top golf brand in shirt usage among golf consumers. This is the sixth consecutive year that Ashworth has been ranked number one.

Reader's Forum Australian golf star Greg Norman criticized a decision last week to have two players share the Australian PGA title, saying tournament rules that state sudden death should continue until a winner is decided should be adhered to no matter what. Last week, Norman criticized organizers of the Australian Open for canceling the first round because of unplayable greens, saying Australian golf was humiliated. Should Norman continue to speak out on issues in golf, especially in his native Australia? Do you enjoy hearing what he has to say? What role should Norman take in the golf world as he gets older and continues to diversify into other business interests? Let us know your opinions by sending your responses to info@gpagolf.com with the subject line RE: Norman. Also include your first initial and last name, along with your city and state or country.

Casual Friday
Road Hole Stays (Almost) the Same

Tradition is going down the tubes, so it seems to Casual Friday. All this discussion of women being admitted to Augusta National, awarding professional tournament titles to two players simultaneously, and now we hear the good folks at St. Andrews are considering changes to the infamous Road Hole.

Apparently, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Course officials completely deny the deep greenside bunker that tripped up Ernie Els as recently as last month and that gave David Duval grief at the 2000 British Open Championship has been moved, or even fiddled with beyond removing about six inches from its lip. Some reports indicated that the wall had been taken down as much as two feet, which would put it back to the level it was at in the 1960s, but officials decided the change was too much and ordered it rebuilt.

As well, the gathering area on the green that sends so many balls down into the gaping maw of that bunker has been made a bit larger. But no other moves or changes have taken place. That's a good thing, Casual Friday thinks, because otherwise golfers both far and wide may have been up at arms.

"The whole town is in uproar," Dr. David Malcolm, a previous captain at the New Club at St. Andrews, told a columnist for The Times of London. "Tampering with the bunker is going too far. A lot of players have cursed it through the years, but a lot more will mourn its passing like a dear and familiar friend."

Controversy over minor changes to this beloved and cursed hole have popped up before.

"The critics remind me of the people who disagreed with us when we said we wanted to resurface the road at the back of the green," complained Peter Mason, a spokesman for the Links Trust. "They said it would ruin the hole. We did it nonetheless and it has made no difference. It is still an exciting hole. Do you honestly think we would deliberately make a mess of the most famous bunker on the most famous hole of the most famous course in golf?"

Well, we're sure that the best intentions have not produced the best results on courses elsewhere in the world, but for now the Road Hole and its bunker have endured only minor alterations.

FIRST CUT

She said yes. Suzy Whaley, a Connecticut professional who became the first woman to qualify for a spot in the field of a PGA Tour event, has decided to play in the 2003 Greater Hartford Open. Whaley won the Connecticut PGA Sectional, which automatically qualifies her for the event. ...

Florida golf professional Patrick Riley and his business partner Clark Collins are mad at Callaway Golf. According to a lawsuit the two filed, their ideas were incorporated into the company's Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball putter without giving them credit or money. Callaway denies that the pair's Perfect Putter bears any resemblence to the 2-Ball and that the company will "vigorously defend" itself.

CORPORATE TIP: The Scorecard Technique

All business meetings have an agenda and goals. You should have your own agenda and goals for your next business meeting that is taking place on the golf course. A great way to keep track of your goals during your corporate round of golf is to write your goals on a scorecard. Write specific questions you want to ask your client during your round. As you discuss the questions jot the answers on your scorecard by yourself when you have the chance. This technique helps you stay focused during your corporate round of golf. It also helps to review the valuable information you have learned about your client on your way to developing a strong business relationship.

Are your sales executives prepared for their next five hour appointment on the golf course? Magnolia Golf Group provides corporate seminars and keynote speaking engagements throughout the country teaching Corporate Golf: Building Business Relationships Through the Game of Golf. Go to www.magnoliagolfgroup.com for additional information.