One of Golf Digest Magazine’s Best Young Teachers joins one of northern Michigan’s top resort destinations.

Jason Guss, a rising star among the country’s young PGA golf instructors, has joined the team at Otsego Club & Resort in Gaylord where he will launch the resort’s new golf academy.

Jason comes to the Otsego Club after 11 years working with Rick Smith, one of the games top instructors. Guss was on staff at Smith’s golf academies at the nearby Treetops Resort in Gaylord, and Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida.

He’s earned national honors from one of the most influential publications in the game, as Golf Digest magazine listed Guss among its Best Young Teachers in 2010. He was also twice selected by Golf Digest as one of the top 20 teachers in America under the age of 40, the only teacher in Michigan to earn that prestigious recognition.

Guss is also one of three instructors selected by the magazine to create their first set of hour-long instructional DVD’s called The Golf Digest Clinic.

“I am very excited about the opportunity to take my professional teaching knowledge and swing philosophies and start my own golf academy with Otsego Club”, Guss said. “The Otsego Club is a world-class resort destination and I am looking forward to providing a world-class golf academy experience for guests and members.”

With his addition to the Otsego Club, Guss joins the Osprey Recreation group, one of the state’s leading golf course operators and the owners of the Black Forest and Wilderness Valley courses on the western outskirts of Gaylord. The Black Forest course was designed by renowned architect Tom Doak and has earned national recognition as one of the top courses in the country and the state.

Jason said his apprenticeship with Smith, and Smith’s top assistant, Henry Young, was invaluable.

“My years working with Rick and Henry gave me the opportunity to work with some of the greatest players in the game, and learn about the golf swing from one of the best in the game,” he said. “It was truly an opportunity of a lifetime.”

Guss often assisted Smith, while Smith coached such elite players as PGA Tour stars Phil Mickelson, Rocco Mediate, Lee Janzen, and Jerry Kelly to name a few. In addition, Guss also taught at the Brett LeBrocque golf academy in Melbourne, Australia, one of the best golf schools in that country.

“Jason Guss is truly one of the most talented and elite young golf instructors in the country. We are very excited to be able to have someone of his experience start developing golf academy programs for Osprey Recreation and the Otsego Club,” said Phil Cutting, Director of Hospitality and Recreation for Osprey Recreation.

In the coming season, the Otsego Club and the new golf academy will offer a variety of instructional programs including one, two, and three-day sessions, on-course instruction, as well as individual lessons for beginners to elite players.

There will be a variety of programs for junior players with special instruction for those with ambitions to play collegiate golf. A program tailored for women will also be a feature of the new academy.

“I am looking forward to sharing my swing philosophies with golfers of all levels as well as growing the game,” Guss said. “Regardless of your playing ability, whether you’re a beginner or an elite player looking to take your game to the next level, our golf academy will provide the tools and opportunities to improve your golf game.”

Guss has been a keynote speaker for the Michigan PGA Section, sharing his own insights into the golf swing. He filmed four Golf Channel Academy instructional pieces, and appeared as a guest on Michigan Golfer Live.

Founded in 1939, Otsego Club & Resort has been a prominent fixture in northern Michigan and is the oldest operating private ski club in America. The resort’s two 18-hole courses are complimented by Doak’s Black Forest course, and the original 18-hole layout at the Wilderness Valley complex. In addition, the resort offers 117 lodge rooms, suites, and condominiums. There are more than 24,000 square feet of meeting space, and three restaurants, including the award-winning Duck Blind Grille and The Pontresina, a multi-year winner of the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence. Visit www.otsegoclub.com for more information.

Post from: Travelling Golfer

Otsego Golf Club and Resort Gains New Instructor

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Do you play golf in Wisconsin?  If you do, you absolutely must check out the Birdie Book.

The Birdie Book is Wisconsin’s statewide discount golf book and it was first released in 2010.

The 2011 book will be printed in mid January and will incorporate over 180 great Wisconsin golf courses.

It’s a full color $20.00 book and it features a minimum of 2 aggressive tee time specials per golf course so you can save big bucks no matter where you play golf.

It’s also a great way to get out & try a new course without breaking the bank.

No more expensive discount golf cards or expensive packages, My Birdie Book has it all.

In fact they also have local golf shops offering aggressive coupons.  Nevada Bob’s in Madison & The Golf Headquarters in Onalaska both have 20% off their merchandise.

If you need a set of clubs or even just a wedge, definitely check in to the Birdie Book before check out.

At its minimal $20.00 price point you can’t go wrong even if you’re going to
play just once or twice.

They have just about every golf course in the Wisconsin Dells area and hundreds of others that will challenge your game.

Swing by the Birdie Book’s official website for a complete list of their participating courses and specials.  You won’t be disappointed and you can pre-order the book today!

Post from: Travelling Golfer

Do You Play Golf In Wisconsin?

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Courtesy Princeville Makai Golf Course

Are you old enough to remember Blue Hawaii, the “Elvis movie”, as they’re called today?

I was two years away from being born when it was filmed in 1961, but I’ve seen it, several times. I love Elvis movies.

Right now I’m blue because I’m not in Hawaii playing golf, feeling that Kona breeze and soaking up the rays as they can only be soaked in Hawaii.

Think of it this way … there are golf courses and then there are Hawaii golf courses.

From the Old Blue Course at Wailea Golf Club, to Royal Ka’anapali to King Kamehamea there’s just no other place on earth like the Hawaiian islands and there’s just no other place on earth with the amount of championship golf courses like there is in Hawaii.

Mountains, plantations, lush tropical scenery, rain forests, big blue sky, sunshine, beautiful blue water, surfing, clean sandy beaches … I could go on and on about all there is to see and do, but you already know this, you just need to something about it, like head over right now and make travel plans, get some tee times and pack your shorts, sandals, polo’s and clubs.

Even the good folks at Travel+Leisure magazine have called Kauai #2 in their survey for World’s Best Island. Galapagos was #1 and when I was there there were no golf courses.

Travel+Leisure editors calculate the awards on reader input, ranking five qualities: natural attractions, activities and sights, restaurants and food, people and value.

One thing you can count on is that when I finally get a chance to head over to play Hawaii golf and need a Hawaii tee time, I know exactly what website I’ll be using and that’s HawaiiGolf.com.

And I think you should too, so head over, check ‘em out and tell ‘em Mike sent you.

Post from: Travelling Golfer

Wishing I Was Golfing In Hawaii

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For the 12th year, PGA/LPGA Professionals in your area will be offering free ten minute golf lessons throughout the month of May as part of PGA Free Lesson Month.

At some point during the month, the one millionth free lesson mark will be reached and that’s an amazing stat.

Especially in this economy, I thought this annual promotion of the game of golf would be of interest to everybody, especially the hackers out there who have never taken a lesson !

To find participating facilities in your area, simply go to PlayGolfAmerica.com and click on the PGA Free Lesson Month box at the top. Enter your zip code to find the facilities in a 10, 20 and 30 mile radius.

Play Golf America!

Post from: Travelling Golfer

Get A Free Lesson From A PGA Pro In May

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Congrats to the team from the U.S. of A. as they finally won back the Ryder Cup.

Congrats to Valhalla Golf Club. The excitement and the tremendous conditions and an American victory did wonders for the stature of that course. That has to now be the most “playable” Jack Nicklaus design ever.

Being a Kentuckian, I’m especially proud of Kenny Perry and J.B. Holmes. And, since we used to live on Pensacola Beach, we’ve spent enough time around Milton, Florida to know a lot of fine people like Boo Weekley.

I was at the Wednesday practice round and have some ball markers that’ll be kept in their cases til I can go 1 1/2 hours down the road to Country Creek in Franklin and have Kenny sign ‘em.

Post from: Travelling Golfer

Kentucky Comes Up Big In Ryder Cup

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My friend John Coyne, who wrote the two books you see in the big box on the right side of my blog, just emailed me and let me know about an interview he did with Bill Thompson of Bill Thompson’s Eye on Books.

It’s only about 10 minutes long so give it a listen and then head over to Amazon and get both of these books, because they may well be the two best books ever written that have golf as the main theme.

Post from: Travelling Golfer

John Coyne Interviewed by Bill Thompson

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My good friend Terry Koehler, also known as The Wedge Guy, recently did an interview with Fred Greene over at the GolfSmarter Podcast.

Click here to listen to The Wedge Guy talking about the short game.

It’s the June 3rd, 2008 episode, it’s about 42 minutes, it’s very “listenable” and very informative.

Post from: Travelling Golfer

Listen To The Wedge Guy Talking Golf

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The Travelling Golfer and three friends ventured into Jasper, Indiana to try and tame Sultan’s Run golf course.

We played it from the tips, as we always do everywhere we go and in the end, we felt like ol’ Sultan himself had run over us, around us and thru us !

The photo you see above includes my friends Kevin Cawthorne, Todd Hart and Shane Bosemer.

The course was in pretty good shape, as it usually is and the greens rolled as well as I could hope for, because I putted as well as I can putt.

Sultan’s Run has long been a favorite of mine and we used to travel the short 1 1/2 hours from Louisville several times a year. Of late, after it’s purchase by a new ownership group, the rates seemed a bit high to me, so we dropped it from our rotation. $53 may be inexpensive in many parts of the world, but in our area, that’s over-priced, especially since I can get to the Kentucky State Park golf courses, several of which are better and play for 20% less.

The courses website has this to say about the course’s history:

“It was only a few years ago that this lush land was home to Supreme Sultan, a horse of history and literally a legend in his own time. It was over these hills and valleys of picturesque beauty that Supreme Sultan sired a record number of World Champion American Saddlebred horses. No place on earth can lay claim to this record.

Now, this same ground recalls the heritage of Supreme Sultan just as an engraved stone marks each unique and challenging tee box, memorializing the name of one of these World Champions. From its very beginning, this land was destined for greatness, but few would have predicted the creation of a world class golf course that would entice champions of the links.

Sultan’s Run embarked on an extensive remodeling project in 1996, taking the golf course to the pinnacle of public golf. Designer Tim Liddy, a disciple of world renowned architect Pete Dye, took what God had laid out and what the course already offered, and enhanced it. All 18 holes have been beautified in some shape or form from entirely new bunkering and reconstructed greens, to complete rework of several holes. The end result is that Sultan’s Run has become a world class golf facility that golfers will talk about long after their round is done.”

If your within 2 hours or so of Sultan’s Run, it’s very much worth the trip. You won’t be disappointed. If you’re looking to stay overnight and play a couple of rounds, stay downtown at the Hampton Inn and eat at the Schnitzelbank restaurant. You’ll thank me later.

The most famous hole at Sultan’s Run is, of course, the 18th, which starts with a drive over a gorge and ends with a waterfall behind the green.

The water is very, very cold. I know, since I always put my head under the falling water to instantly cool me off. And I do mean instantly.

All in all, it’s a helluva golf course and you’ll enjoy yourself. Send me an email if you’re going and I’ll join you over there !

Post from: Travelling Golfer

Sultan’s Run in Jasper, Indiana

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Today we’re going to feature a golf article written by author and humorist David Wood.

David’s the author of Around the World in Eighty Rounds, a soon to be published book about his travel around the world and golfing while he went.

For lack of a pithy saying, take it away David -

A Poor Man at Blue Canyon

Indulge me while I regale you on the magnificent charms of living the life of an Asian millionaire for a day while golfing at the wonderful Blue Canyon Golf Club in Phuket, Thailand.

I now have a pretty good clue how the other one-percent lives (Didn’t it use to be how the other half lived?).

They live quite well thank-you-very-much in tropical, exotic Thailand – especially at the Blue Canyon Golf Club which boasts of having two world-class courses sitting on as fine a piece of natural golfing real estate as you’ll find anywhere in the world.

Thoroughly captivated by its joyous ambiance, I found myself seriously contemplating a life of crime to be able to afford joining the delightful, but expensive, club.

Now, I’m not smart enough to be a white-collar criminal. Plus I don’t even have any white collars except on golf shirts.

However, I’ve decided to start knocking off the convenience stores that seem to dot the corner of almost every block in the world. I figured two-to-three holdups per week should cover the ongoing cost of the club with little problem.

By the way, if you are a convenience store clerk reading this, please, don’t mistake me for a real burglar when I enter your store and say that I have a gun.

Don’t worry ! That’s just my finger under my golf shirt. Don’t shoot me ! Just give me the cash and I’ll send it directly back to the Blue Canyon Club.

You’re probably thinking, “What’s in it for me ?” Listen up. I plan to put all the names of the convenience stores that I rob into a hat. I’ll have a drawing, and the lucky winner will join me in the annual member-guest tournament, on me – my treat !

What could be better than that ?

It’s the Canyon Course – the elder of the two golf courses at Blue Canyon – which has the pedigree even the winner of the Westminster Dog Show would envy.

It has been named “The Best Course in Thailand,” “The Best Course in Asia,” “The Best Championship Course in Asia,” and “The Asia and Pacific Golf Resort of the Year,” as well as holding numerous major world professional tournaments including the Johnnie Walker Classic – won by my fellow millionaire (not that I’m letting the whole experience go to my head or anything) Tiger Woods in 1998.

The week before I played the course, two of my future clubmates – Ernie Els and Nick Faldo – had been at Blue Canyon, relaxing and preparing for the upcoming Johnnie Walker Classic to be held in Bangkok the following week.

To think that I’m only one measly little million dollars away from saying, “Good morning, Ernie ! That was one hell of a good shot you hit on eighteen yesterday, big fella.”

Or, “Hey, Nick! Fancy a game today? I’m just going to need my usual twenty shots a side.”

Oh, what fun we’d have!

Built on an old rubber plantation with natural ravines and valleys, Blue Canyon is a symphony of green fairways, fragrant flowering trees, and wondrous foliage that would force Monet to get the easel out of his golf bag and start painting.

The Canyon Course has it all: large, fast, undulating greens, tricky water hazards, and naturally rolling fairways that turn each hole into a mini-SAT golf test.

Several holes are outstanding. My favorite was the par-four 390-yard thirteenth hole –a real gem – which horseshoes around a deep ravine that must be cleared on your drive.

If successful, your second shot is 185 yards uphill to a severely bunkered green that rests peacefully beside the grand, elegant clubhouse. Playing this hole when he won there in a play-off against Ernie Els in the Thailand Johnnie Walker Open in 1998, Tiger drove the green !

Standing on the tee-box, it would never even occur to me that route was a possibility. We’re talking a carry of 340 plus yards straight across the unforgiving ravine to an uphill green sitting behind a grove of tall rubber trees standing watch on the edge of the cliff that must be cleared as well.

No way! I couldn’t think of a more difficult golf shot, or anyone with the ability or imagination to try such a heroic feat.

The next hole, the fourteenth, presents itself like a wolfish par-five wearing a lamb’s par-three clothing. Playing this diabolical hole is as scary as waking up next to Bea Arthur.

While it looks nothing but beautiful, resting all peaceful-like in the middle of the lake – a veritable torture chamber of evil awaits your innocent little ball. The wind, the water, the tiny target, your nerves – you really don’t have a chance.

Best to just hit your shot quickly knowing that it’s going straight into the water, then proceed rapidly with a rueful smile to the drop area.

The terrific holes go on and on. Course record holder Freddy Couples calls the par-three seventeenth, one of the best par-three’s in golf. He’s not alone – the 221-yard hole has been named in the top 500 golf holes in the world.

The finisher is excellent as well with water flanking the eighteenth fairway to catch the errant drive. The second shot on the stout par-four plays directly toward a peaceful waterfall that cascades gently down the hill on which the grand clubhouse sits regally perched. It’s the perfect setting to finish playing a great course.

To be fully forthcoming, all the holes are remarkably memorable. I could go on and on about this golf wonderland. How is it that I can never remember where I put my car keys, yet I can recall every blade of grass at Blue Canyon ?

After playing, I sat on the elegant clubhouse patio overlooking the course mesmerized by all the colors as the sun started to slowly descend over beautiful Phuket.

I dreamed of playing this course on a daily basis and then relaxing in that very spot taking in the awesome view. What could be better ?

Purples, reds, greens, and blues – the full spectrum of the earth’s finest colors – formed a serene palate soothing my constantly restless mind.

The spell had been enhanced by an orange butterfly that suddenly flittered directly past my gaze as if to tell me that the glories of life are fleeting and time is racing by.

I summoned the cheerful waitress and asked, “Excuse me, would you please tell me where the nearest convenience store might be ?”

Post from: Travelling Golfer

A Poor Man At Blue Canyon

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Here’s another great shot from Golf Courses Of The US Open.

This one’s the 2nd hole at Torrey Pines, a golf course I’m sure el Tigre played a lot on growing up. Maybe ol’ Lefty did too.

Click thru to the website and check out the book and click thru to Torrey Pine’s website and see if you can get us on and I’ll fly out for a round … or two !

As always, you can get a better view by clicking on the photo.

Post from: Travelling Golfer

Torrey Pines – 2nd Hole

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