Houston Golf News

It doesn’t take a single-digit handicap to plan a golf tournament. Instead, an ideal chairperson needs to be a supreme organizer with excellent planning skills to take an event from original blueprint to post-round barbecue. Before targeting potential participants and sponsors, a golf tournament needs a purpose, golf course, name and date. And because the more visual elements incorporated into the event the better, a Web site dedicated to your tournament and a colorful, eye-catching logo wouldn’t hurt. And if you’re really into New Media, making a Twitter account or Facebook page dedicated to your golf tournament is a quick and easy way to promote and update the progress of the event.

Despite a sagging economy and lack of a title sponsor, the LPGA Tour will in fact have a season-ending Tour Championship, and it will be held in Houston.

The Houstonian Golf & Country Club is the new home of the LPGA’s year-end event, which will mark first time the Houston metropolitan area has welcomed a regular season LPGA stop since 1986. In 2003, The Woodlands Country Club was the site of the Samsung World Championship.

We spend so much time on which driver or shaft will give us those few extra yards off the tee that we tend to overlook a very important piece of equipment. A particular style of ball can help us gain that extra distance we so desire. With a driver we try to optimize the launch angle and spin rate to create maximum distance, but lets not stop there. The proper golf ball will enhance our driver results.

Not all golf balls are created equal. There are urethane covers, blended covers and Surlyn covers. Golf balls can have two, three or four layers. Dimple patterns can vary along with size and shape of the dimple on a ball. All of these components can and will have some effect on how the golf ball will react.

Borden, Vickers win division titles

Simonton’s David Narveson bested the field at Eagle Pointe Golf Club with an even-par score of 71-71-142 to take the overall title in a May 11-12 Bridgestone Golf Southern Texas PGA Senior Series tournament.

Narveson took home $300 for winning the overall competition in the tournament and $550 for winning the Senior Division.

Houston’s Steve Parker was the overall and Senior Division runner-up, posting a score of 72-72—144, good for $430 in winnings. Third place went to Steve Trafton of Austin, who went 76-69—145 for a $350 check.

Four years ago, Jeff Strong decided to act. The result was the Southern Texas PGA Foundation Pro-Am at Eagle Pointe Golf Club, and its goal is to provide financial support for the Southern Texas PGA Foundation, through which the STPGA funds its wide range of junior golf activities.

The 2009 edition of the tournament was held on Apr. 27 . . . 28 teams and Southern Texas PGA Professionals played in the tournament.

“We raised $11,000 this year and we’ve raised $34,500 since the tournament began,” said Strong, the head PGA golf professional and general manager at Eagle Pointe.

HOUSTON – Long considered one of the top sports cities in the United States, it has been almost six years since the stars of the LPGA Tour have competed in Houston, Texas. But this fall, golf fans can look forward to the return of women's professional golf to Texas when The Houstonian Golf & Country Club plays host to the LPGA Tour Championship.

The 2009 LPGA Tour Championship, to be held November 17-22, will feature a field of 120 of the top LPGA professionals in the world, a $1,500,000 purse, and a unique format that will see a cut after 36 holes to the low 70 professionals and an additional cut after 54 holes to the low 30 pros.

In 2002 Dr. Norman Berkman founded a Father-Son golf tournament in the hopes of creating an event where fathers could spend a day golfing with their children to celebrate Father's Day while supporting a worthy cause at the same time.

His vision, the annual Father's Day Father/Child Charity Golf Tournament, has become a very successful and popular event in the Houston area. The eighth edition of the event is scheduled for Thursday, June 18 at Wildcat Golf Club. 

The brand-new golf course at the Legends Golf & Safari Resort in South Africa is an amazing stretch of 18 holes designed by 18 different top-flight golfers, including Padraig Harrington, Colin Montgomerie, K.J. Choi, Retief Goosen, Justin Rose, Trevor Immelman and Vijay Singh.

And I'm sure each one of those 18 holes is a perfect mini-masterpiece of challenge and reward. Along with, apparently, a lion or two along the way, if we're to believe the brochures.

But that's nothing. Wait until you get to the bonus 19th hole.

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.

While the PGA Tour frowns upon the use of field strength as determined by the Official World Golf Rankings as the most significant criteria for determining the prestige of any given tournament, it's hard to ignore the collection of talent assembled this week in southeast Texas for the Shell Houston Open.

Attracting golfers with a setup similar to what they'll encounter next week at Augusta National, this week's Shell Houston Open will feature a field comprised of 15 of the top 20 golfers in the world.