Lehigh Valley / Poconos Golf News

BUCKINGHAM, Pa. – Seventy-two of the region’s top players will descend upon Lookaway GC Wednesday for the 104th running of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Open Championship, with hopes of etching their name in history as the winner of the storied 36-hole championship.

Breaking the Association’s recent tradition of hosting the event at older, more time-honored courses the likes of Merion GC, Philadelphia CC and Pine Valley GC, this year will mark the first time the Open visits Bucks County and the 11-year-old Rees Jones designed course set in Buckingham, Pa. 

POCONO MOUNTAINS, PA - What do golfers in the Northeast crave this holiday season' Spring. The Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau suggests placing the gift of golf under the Christmas tree this year with 2008 golf memberships and stay-and-play packages to any of the myriad courses in the four-county region. Memberships range in price to include everything from scheduled weekday play to unlimited golf at public courses or private clubs.

"While golfers love unwrapping a dozen golf balls or this year's hot new gadget that promises to improve their game, what could be better than opening a card that promises a season's worth of golf?" asks PMVB Executive Director Robert Uguccioni. "The Pocono Mountains offer championship courses that will challenge the best golfer as well as options that are both economical and kind to the less-skilled player."

The Pocono Mountains: Discover Golf's Great Destination Secret, are home to hundreds of holes of golf from legendary designers such as A.W. Tillinghast, Donald Ross and Jack Nicklaus. With classic designs that feature tight fairways and small greens, to expansive resort courses and modern gems, the four-county region has something to satisfy every taste.

POCONO MOUNTAINS, PA - The Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau announces midweek stay-and-play specials within the "Pocono Mountains: Discover Golf's Great Destination Secret" golf cooperative.

While many courses offer 18- or 36-hole midweek special, some of the resorts add to the package by including overnight resort accommodations in the Pocono Mountains - an ideal place to relax and reconnect. Whether planning a midweek break or a weekend getaway, it's time for the Pocono Mountains.

"While the weekends have always been popular among visitors to the Pocono Mountains, our co-op members are reaching out to prospective guests by offering hard-to-resist specials during the week," says Robert Uguccioni, executive director of the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau. "The area remains beautiful throughout the week. By planning a weekday visit to the Pocono Mountains, golfers can avoid the usual weekend traffic and unwind with a relaxing round." 

POCONO MOUNTAINS, Pennsylvania - The Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau has announced that Great Bear Golf Course & Country Club has been named one of Pennsylvania's best golf courses in Golf Digest Magazine's biennial ranking of the "America's Greatest Courses State by State 2007-08."

The Jack Nicklaus design - stretching to more than 7,000 yards from the tips and featuring five sets of tees - was rated No. 19 out of approximately 700 courses in Pennsylvania by Golf Digest raters.

Golf Digest's biennial best-in-state rankings are determined by the magazine's course rating panelists, a group of more than 800 low-handicap golfers who rated thousands of courses across the United States on a 10-point scale in various criteria to come up with the best courses in each state. There are roughly 17,000 golf courses in the country.

Pennsylvania's Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau is giving golfers a lot of green this summer. That's because the group's 2007 golf tour features a $1 million hole-in-one prize at the tour's final invitation-only tournament.

The Tour consists of six tournaments (best ball or scramble) that will be played at various Butler County golf courses beginning April 28. The top seven teams from the first five qualifying tournaments will be invited to participate in the final tournament at Oakview Golf Club in Slippery Rock, Pa. on Sept. 15. The tournament is open to all golfers (men, women and juniors), and a golfer's handicap is not required. Butler County is conveniently located just 20 minutes north of Pittsburgh along the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 79.

John Kunda, the dean of sportswriters in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, died Wednesday at the age of 72. Kunda, longtime columnist for the Morning Call in Allentown, battled with lung cancer and resultant complications for most of this year.

Although Kunda covered all sports with his popular columns that ran three or four times a week, he was most noted for his coverage of Penn State football and the golf scene. He retired from the Morning Call  in 2003 but continued writing for a number of other publications. Most recently, he was a contributing writer to GolfStyles Pennsylvania magazine.

How do you compete with the “Big Boys” of the golf equipment industry, who have many years head start in marketing and manufacturing, not to mention deep, deep pockets to fund their ventures? Two veterans of the front lines of the golf industry wars, Richard Merk and Bret Larsen are trying to do it in a revolutionary way, one club at a time, one charity tournament at a time with their launch of Upswing Golf early this year.

Merk, a former member of the senior executive teams at TaylorMade and then Callaway, and Larsen, a former VP of Manufacturing and then Golf Club Development at Callaway, have come together to try to bring the “average” golfer access to top quality equipment without the expense the “brand name” companies tack on to their clubs for marketing, advertising and endorsements.