Hotel Fitness Championship Have you ever volunteered at a professional golf tournament? If you ever get the chance, I encourage you to try it just once. In the early 1990's, I had the opportunity three times in Fort Wayne at Ben Hogan Tour events. The Ben Hogan Tour was a precursor to the Nike Tour, Nationwide Tour, and Web.com Tour, all feeder tours to the PGA Tour. I was a marshal at three events held at Brookwood Golf Course once and Orchard Ridge Country Club twice. I worked one tournament in the fairway (keeping people behind the ropes and identifying where the players' drives landed) and two tournaments at greens (keeping people behind the ropes and holding up the "QUIET PLEASE" signs when players were about to chip or putt).
During the past two years, I volunteered to work at Sycamore Hills Golf Club for the Web.com Tour Finals at the Hotel Fitness Championship and I encourage you to do the same, if only once.
This experience is a fantastic opportunity to see how the best players in the world accomplish what you can't seem to do. It's pretty amazing to see these players smash drives and hit amazingly high irons. I remember watching John Daly in the early 90's at Orchard Ridge Country Club in Fort Wayne hit drives. Wow. And I'll never forget watching as players hit two-irons as high as I hit my wedge. Amazing. I still don't understand the physics.
During the past two years, I volunteered to work at Sycamore Hills Golf Club for the Web.com Tour Finals at the Hotel Fitness Championship and I encourage you to do the same, if only once.
This experience is a fantastic opportunity to see how the best players in the world accomplish what you can't seem to do. It's pretty amazing to see these players smash drives and hit amazingly high irons. I remember watching John Daly in the early 90's at Orchard Ridge Country Club in Fort Wayne hit drives. Wow. And I'll never forget watching as players hit two-irons as high as I hit my wedge. Amazing. I still don't understand the physics.
Sycamore Hills Golf Club Sycamore Hills has hosted the first of the four tournaments in each of the first two years of this playoff. The Top 75 Regular Season Money Winners off the Web.com Tour and numbers 126 through 200 from the PGA Tour's FedExCup points list qualify for this first playoff tournament. Each week during the four week championship, the list is whittled down until finally, 50 "cards" are awarded to players providing them the opportunity to play full or part time on the next year's PGA Tour. Trevor Immelman, a former Masters Champion, won the 2013 inaugural event and Bud Cauley won the 2014 event. Both shot a 20 under par 268 and earned $180,000 out of the $1 million dollar purse.
Sycamore Hills endured an eleven inch rain just a few days before tournament week. On Monday of tournament week, the creek that runs through the golf course still had whitewater and as it ran under the bridge to the driving range, it looked like a mini-Niagara Falls. I am amazed the course became as playable as it was in such a short time. This is quite a tribute to the club's maintenance staff and many volunteers.
When a course receives that much rain so close to a tournament, it makes for very low scoring. Despite a "toughening" of the course from 2013 to 2014, the players didn't have to worry about a course that's running "hard and fast." Drives land softly and they can throw darts into the greens. And that's just what they did.
I received only positive comments from the players about the condition of the course and especially the greens. They raved about how pristine they were and how smoothly they rolled.
Sycamore Hills endured an eleven inch rain just a few days before tournament week. On Monday of tournament week, the creek that runs through the golf course still had whitewater and as it ran under the bridge to the driving range, it looked like a mini-Niagara Falls. I am amazed the course became as playable as it was in such a short time. This is quite a tribute to the club's maintenance staff and many volunteers.
When a course receives that much rain so close to a tournament, it makes for very low scoring. Despite a "toughening" of the course from 2013 to 2014, the players didn't have to worry about a course that's running "hard and fast." Drives land softly and they can throw darts into the greens. And that's just what they did.
I received only positive comments from the players about the condition of the course and especially the greens. They raved about how pristine they were and how smoothly they rolled.
Approach to the 9th Green at Sycamore Hills Golf Club
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