Tampa Bay Golf News

The holidays came early with the second Annual “Brittany & Friends” Celebrity Pro-Am at St. Petersburg Country Club December 8th. Brittany Lincicome and friends Angela Stanford, Kristy McPherson, Kelli Kuehne, Jenny Gleason, Meredith Duncan and Woody Austin hosted a clinic for juniors and spectators. The real surprise was Derek Jeter who dropped by for a round.

“Having Derek see firsthand the positive impact our chapter is making on our junior players was incredible,” said Mike Puffer, tournament chairman. Puffer is an alum of The First Tee of St. Petersburg program, a principal organizer of the tournament, and President of the Chapter Advisory Board. “We’re grateful for his support and thankful he could spend the day with us. Everyone was thrilled to have him at our event.”

More than 41,000 industry professionals from all 50 U.S. states and 74 countries came to the 56th PGA Merchandise Show, Jan. 29-31 in Orlando to uncover the latest products and trends, write new business, share business best practices and strategize for the year ahead. The results found the industry’s most influential business leaders pleasantly surprised by the resiliency of the golf industry and recharged to navigate a predicted tough economy in 2009. PGA Professionals, retailers and industry leaders came to see the latest products of 1,100 golf manufacturers in 1.1 million gross square feet of interactive exhibit space of the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC).

Floridas Largest Golf Show would like to invite all that have a passion for the game of golf to the Tampa Convention Center March 20-22, 2009 to experience the game indoors like never before.

Attendees will be able to meet and interact with golf celebrities and even get tips on how to improve their games by the people who teach on the Tour. The true golfing experience will be on the huge indoor driving range where you will be able to test the latest products and technology to improve your game by all the major manufacturers.

Transitions Optical, based in Pinellas County, has taken over sponsorship of Tampa Bay’s PGA Tour event and the first Transitions Championship for Healthy Sight is expected to draw a banner field to the Copperhead Course at the Innis-brook Resort and Golf Club on March 16-22.

Last year, Sean O’Hair emerged victorious over a tough group of final day contenders who included Stewart Cink, Geoff Ogilvy and local favorite Ryuji Imada. O’Hair’s quest to defend his title should be even more difficult as a number of top players who missed the 2008 event are expected to play.

The Karbon Tour will debut Saturday, May 9th at Walden Lake G&CC in Plant City. This event is for the avid golfer who wants a chance to play on a national tour. This two-man best ball tournament will pay out $1,000 to the first place team. The Karbon Tour has selected the Ronald McDonald House as the benefitting charity for this first event. Each Karbon Tour event will benefit a selected local charity.

The 23rd annual Club Day is scheduled for Saturday, March 14th from 9:00 am to 2 pm at Mangrove Bay Golf Course in St. Petersburg. This event is open to the public. Free range balls are available to participants.

Club manufacturers expected to participate include: Titleist, Cobra, Nike, Callaway, Adams Golf and U.S. Kids. Club Day is a great opportunity to demo a wide variety of the latest golf equipment. There will be discounted pricing on all equipment purchased that day plus a huge pro shop sale with merchandise up to 40 percent off.

The First Tee of Tampa Bay is proud to announce a new partnership with Big Golf Discounts.com. Big Golf Discounts.com has launched a new member-content Web site promoting golf savings of all kinds, which has been constructed to benefit The First Tee of Tampa Bay and other area chapters.

The Web site, BigGolfDiscounts.com, provides its members with current coupon specials and passes to area golf courses, practice facilities, retailers and teaching professionals. The specials are printed directly from the member's computer, and a specific amount from each nominally-priced membership (under $20) will benefit The First Tee area chapters. 

Tim Leto, a Florida native born and raised in Tampa, has won the November/December 2008 Tampa Bay Golfer's Guide contest. Tim wins twosomes at the following great golf courses: World Woods Golf Club, Brooksville Country Club, Dunedin Country Club, Clearwater Country Club, The Golf Club at Cypress Creek and The Eagles.

The golf turned out to be a great birthday and Christmas present for Leto, who celebrated his 39th birthday on Christmas day. He plays once a week, shooting in the mid to high 70's. "I don't belong to a club. My friends and I play all over Tampa Bay," he said. "The Golfer's Guide really comes in handy for that." 

INNISBROOK, Fla. – Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club, which hosts the annual PGA Tour Transitions Championship, has named Rodney Green as its new director of golf.
 
Green will oversee all golf operations at Innisbrook, including daily oversight of all four of the resort’s championship golf courses, merchandising for three golf shops, golf instruction, operating and capital budgets, staffing, and the Transitions Championship, to be held March 16-22, 2009, on the Copperhead Course. Green replaces longtime Director of Golf Jay Overton, who is now the resort’s host professional. 

Hello again golfers. I would like to focus on Florida’s Largest Golf Show that the West Central Chapter, North Florida PGA is proudly co-hosting with none other than the Turner/Williams Media Group, specifically, Jim Turner, one of the Chapter’s valued sponsors. These folks really know how to organize a show which will be held March 20-22 at the Tampa Convention Center.

All indications are that this will be a tremendous opportunity for you, the consumer, to test all the latest golf equipment as well as visit the many vendors that are all related in some way to the game of golf. We will be giving away prizes hourly, including vacation packages and golf packages at some of the best courses in the Tampa Bay area. Our PGA professionals, including Teacher of the Year for the West Central Chapter Matt Mitchell, will be on hand to give you tips to help your game.