Lehigh Valley / Poconos Golf News

Golfers today are constantly bombarded with fancy marketing messages from equipment manufactures vying for their business. Amidst all the flash and hype, how can the average player know what will actually help their game? It can be difficult to differentiate the gimmicks from those products that offer a true technological advancement. One company that is absolutely the “real deal” and worth checking out is Boccieri Golf: maker of the Heavy Putter.

In order to truly value the Heavy Putter you must get to know its inventor, Stephen Boccieri. A scratch golfer and nuclear engineer, Boccieri applied the skills from his day job to his passion, spending his spare time evaluating equipment from all major manufacturers. He was puzzled by the structural inconsistencies that existed across the board and soon began modifying the equipment to improve performance, an admittedly self serving task as he was searching for ways to better his own game.

The Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau has announced that the Mount Airy Casino Resort Golf Club has re-opened.

The course had been temporarily closed for two seasons due to construction of the new resort, which features a mix of more than 2,500 of the latest slot machines, including the newest themed video slots, electronic table games, as well as progressive jackpots.

After taking part in a recent onine survey, amateur golfers have weighed in, and the results confirm that copying a professional golfer's swing doesn't work for them. 

Teens don’t find basics on how professionals do it. Seniors can’t relate to current professional’s swing speeds. Women are seeking distance, but can’t find it. A lack of basic golf learning techniques has stagnated amateur scoring. Overall, growth Of the game is effected. The findings are gleaned from more than ten years of ongoing personal discussion, surveys and debate.

The recently released biennial Zagat Survey listing "America's Top Golf Courses" includes both Hideaway Hills Golf Club and Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, according to the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.

"It's an honor to have two of our courses distinguished as elite courses in the country," said Carl Wilgus, president and CEO of the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau. "While Shawnee and Hideaway Hills are exemplary layouts and worthy of praise, we're blessed with dozens of wonderful courses that meet and exceed the needs of avid golfers."

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.

POCONO MOUNTAINS - With spring in the air, golf courses across the Pocono Mountains have begun welcoming golfers for the 2009 season. Many facilities have already opened their fairways, while others are applying the finishing touches to prepare for a busy year.

"Spring is a very exciting time here in the Pocono Mountains and avid golfers have been anxiously awaiting another action-packed golf season," says Carl Wilgus, president and CEO of the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau. "From classic courses to modern gems, we take great pride in knowing this destination offers something for every taste."

Home to a classic course annually listed as one of the world’s best and host of multiple U.S. Open championships, the state of New Jersey is no stranger to world-class golf venues.

Featuring more than a dozen upscale public golf courses, Atlantic City is adding another dimension to golf in the Garden State, bringing avid golfers from all over the country with the promise of unmatched “Stay and Play” opportunities.

Good golfers need to know plenty of numbers: yardage, par, rating, slope, and so on. But this summer, the only number golfers need to know to book an affordable and convenient golf getaway is the number nine. Why? Because it's the lucky number that keeps popping up in 2009 Stay & Play travel packages in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania.

Stay & Play packages are a turnkey way to visit the region since they feature all of the necessary components for a great golf trip: overnight accommodations at one of nine area hotels, breakfast, and 18 holes of golf with greens fee, cart and taxes at one of nine participating golf courses. 

Buoyed by its success operating multi-course portfolios in and around major metropolitan cities, Billy Casper Golf has been selected by the City of Philadelphia to manage five golf assets.

Under the long-term agreement, Billy Capser Golf will direct all activities at Cobb's Creek Golf Club (Olde and Karakung courses), FDR Golf Club, John F. Byrne Golf Course and City Line Sports Center. The company operated the courses in 2008 under an interim contract. 

As biter temperatures spread to the Southeast this week bringing near-record cold to a region that seldom experiences conditions that would allow for snow and ice to accumulate, many golf courses had to at least delay starting times because of frosted fairways.

However, one golf tournament in northeast Pennsylvania favors frozen fairways and frigid temperatures over sun-drenched skies and ideal weather; call it a hybrid between your average Saturday scramble and a New Year's Day polar bear plunge.