Double the size of the dis golf course to a full-length 18 holes

The commission agreed, voting 3-0 on Thursday to recommend to the City Council that the disc golf course be increased to 18 holes.

The committee has received $700 from a fundraiser and donations from The Shack, 1313 North H St. The Shack is donating 10 percent of proceeds from its disc golf sales for the Taylormade Rocketballz Irons creation of the park.

The expansion plans receive no complaints, Commissioner Arlen Sechrest said. Residents warmly received the plans because they enjoyed seeing swaths of people come out and compete against each other, or themselves, by throwing aerodynamically stable discs, similar to a Frisbee, into a basket.

“(The back nine are) going to be more difficult because of the extra amount of trees and topography of the land,” Sommers said.

Charles Sommers, who spoke on behalf of the Lompoc Disc Golf Committee, which is spearheading the effort, said the course construction could begin as early as late June.

“That’s real positive when you don’t have anybody doing any complaining about it,” Sechrest said. “It was a real positive evening.”

He said he submitted preliminary plans for the course two weeks ago.

The council will provide a final TaylorMade R11S Driver say on expansion at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 5, at City Hall.

Sechrest said that there was a round of applause from the people that assembled for the meeting and from commissioners that the course would be doubled.

The layout for the back nine holes came about after a group of about 20 people from a local disc golf club called the Rocket City Chainbangers came together to provide input and suggestions.

They examined the fields and made suggestions.

The city has committed $3,400 discount golf clubs toward the project, Sommers said. The other $2,100 will be raised by the Lompoc Disc Golf Committee.

The expansion would include construction of 4-foot-by-9-foot tee pads and baskets, which is where the disc is tossed at the beginning of each hole.

Women’s Amateur Championship is playing at Championship

Park Commission staff has been preparing the Meadow and Lake nines for more than two years to assure the finest conditions and ultimate challenge for 156 qualified golfers from across the country and around the world.

Neshanic Valley has been recognized for its environmental initiatives, designated as River Friendly Golf Course by the New Jersey Water Supply Authority in 2008; earning recognition as a Certified Ping G20 driver Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary by Audubon International in 2009; receiving honor for Environmental Stewardship by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in 2009; and named a Groundwater Guardian Green Site by The Groundwater Foundation in 2010.

The championship course layout will measure 6,221 yards and play to par 72. Defending champion Brianna Do, a senior at UCLA will not defend her title as she is expected to turn pro after the UCLA golf team concludes its season on May 26. However, USA Curtis Cup Team members Tiffany Lua, Lisa McCloskey (2010 Woman’s Amateur Public Links runner-up) and Emily Tubert (2010 Woman’s Amateur Public Links champion) have entered and will look to add their names to the illustrious list of champions that includes Yani Tseng (currently the No. 1 player in the world), Michelle Wie, Pearl Sinn and Tiffany Joh.

“This national championship will bring well-earned recognition to Neshanic Valley, one of the finest municipal golf complexes in the country,” said Bob Ransone, Deputy Director, Golf Division for the Somerset County Park Commission. “The selection of Neshanic Valley is a tribute ping g15 irons to our staff and the leadership and direction provided by the Park Commissioners. This event will be a source of great pride for every citizen of Somerset County.”

The state-of-the-art Learning Center includes a double-ended driving range with grass and mat hitting areas, a 12,000 square foot putting green, a practice facility including bunkers and three chipping greens, and two practice holes.

On June 18, 156 golfers will compete in 36-holes of stroke play qualifying to determine the 64 golfers who will comprise the match-play bracket. Five rounds over the ensuing three days will whittle the field down to two finalists who will compete in the scheduled 36-hole championship final on Saturday, June 23.

Spectators are welcome to watch the country’s finest female amateur golfers compete in the six-day championship. There is no charge for admission and on-site parking is available. Tee times for June 18 and 19 are 7:30 a.m. (morning wave) and 12:30 p.m. (afternoon wave). Tee times for the remaining days will be posted after the June 19 session.

The U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship was inaugurated in 1977 as an opportunity for public-course players to compete for a national championship. It is open to female amateur golfers who are bona fide public-course players and who hold a USGA Handicap Index not exceeding 18.4.

Neshanic Valley Golf Course, recently discount golf clubs named the 30th Best Municipal Golf Course in the United States by Golfweek provides an all-inclusive golfing experience with a 27-hole Championship Course, a nine-hole Academy Course, the Learning Center, and the Callaway Golf Performance Center.

Auberge Resorts is a collection of exceptional hotels, resorts and private clubs

Pronghorn Golf Club & Resort will be the first Auberge Resorts-managed property in the Pacific Northwest and the sixth in its portfolio of one-of-a-kind luxury private residence clubs, with callaway diablo edge irons reciprocal access available to members of all six communities that span a variety of geographic locations, including South Carolina, Napa Valley, Coastal Baja and the Colorado Rockies.

Acquired by The Resort Group in February 2012, Pronghorn Golf Club & Resort is situated on 640 acres in Central Oregon and features a 48-suite luxury lodge, which opened to the public in 2010, two championship golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio, a full-service spa, multiple fine-dining restaurants and a variety of real estate options, including custom homes, condos and home sites. Pronghorn also features a golf academy and The Trailhead, a facility for family recreation and outdoor pursuits. Guests and homeowners have unparalleled access to countless outdoor activities such as hiking, mountain biking, rafting, fly-fishing on the nearby Deschutes River and skiing at Mt. Bachelor, North America’s 5th largest ski area.

Auberge Resorts, whose hotels and private residence clubs are annually recognized as some of the best in the world by authorities such as Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Andrew Harper’s Hideaway and Robb Report, plans to implement its signature service and design philosophies at Pronghorn and update the resort’s culinary and spa programs. The planned enhancements will align with Auberge’s goal of creating a completely immersive guest experience that reflects the essence of Pronghorn’s unique setting.

Auberge Resorts, owners and operators of celebrated boutique luxury resorts and clubs in North America, announced today that the company has assumed management of Pronghorn Golf Club & Resort in Bend, Ore. The award-winning luxury resort and golf community joins a collection of acclaimed North American Auberge properties renowned for their spectacular Ping G20 irons settings, extraordinary restaurants and spas and highly personal service. The Auberge portfolio includes Napa Valley resorts Auberge du Soleil, Calistoga Ranch and Solage Calistoga; Esperanza, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; The Inn at Palmetto Bluff, Bluffton, S.C.; Hotel Jerome, Aspen, Colo.; Auberge Residences at Element 52, Telluride, Colo.; and Auberge Residences at Mammoth, Mammoth Lakes, Calif.

“We are delighted to take over the helm of this stunning golf resort and community and are honored to help create what will be the premier luxury resort in the Pacific Northwest,” said Mark Harmon, Principal and Chief Executive Officer, Auberge Resorts. “We are also pleased to discount golf clubs expand our portfolio of private residence clubs to six and offer members additional choices for their family vacations and romantic getaways.”

Mickelson entered Hall winging it all the way

He won a major with two drivers in the bag, then blew another with zero drivers in his club quiver. He won a tournament with five wedges in his bag. He hit defining shots that would astound, and more than a few that drowned. He was often smarter than the rest, and almost as often, too stubborn for his own survival.

Sure, we have all second-guessed the tactics at times, but the totality of his results are indisputably stout. Forever toiling in the shadow of Woods, the most insane yardstick to which anyone can be compared, Mickelson stands ninth in PGA Tour victories, an achievement that, quite possibly, will never again be broached as the game goes increasingly global.

He won for the 40th time earlier this spring at Pebble Beach, with a vintage performance that was nothing short of Ping K15 Driver astounding, especially given that at age 41, he had shown signs of slipping back into the thickening pack of merely occasional contenders. He shot 64, the lowest score of the day, torched playing partner Tiger Woods in the process, and headed off to Augusta National in search of his fourth green jacket.

Among PGA Tour players at least a year younger than Mickelson, the leaders in victories are David Duval (13) and Justin Leonard (12). They are 40 and 39 years old, though, and there's no way they're sniffing 40 wins, because neither player has won in four-plus seasons.

You know the rest. He launched a shot in the final round that caromed into a stand of bamboo, where it took so long to extricate his ball, he likely learned to speak Vietnamese, and it cost him a shot at the Masters title. But first, he hit two shots right-handed, going down in flames in his unforgettable Lefty style. Be it triumph or trainwreck, Mickelson has done it with more flair than anybody since Arnold Palmer, his early role model. He didn't just take the road less traveled to the clubhouse, he sometimes hacked Callaway Razr X Tour irons a new path with a 9-iron as his machete.

Mickelson will officially have his mug placed on the venerable wall at the hall, testament to his 40 PGA Tour victories and four major championships, numbers that do not remotely encompass all of his contributions to the game.

"I don't know at what age I started to act that way," Mickelson shrugged. "I know that when I was a psychology major in college, one of the ways to face a fear was to tackle it head on. There was a few different ways, but the one that I felt was the best was, if you don't like snakes, go hang out with snakes a bunch and eventually you're going to get over the fear.

With that, Harmon related a frightening family episode involving his wife, who had an apparent heart attack while the pair was in Utah. The couple's son was back home in Las Vegas, however.

Unfairly, according to his defenders, Mickelson's aw-shucks demeanor on the course has drawn criticism over the years. His swing coach, Butch Harmon, says his top client has often been described as "goofy," and that would be one of the kinder terms.

"That's kind of the way I approach discount golf clubs," he said. "If there's a shot that I don't feel comfortable with, I'll go on the range and work on it until I do, until I turn that weakness into a strength, and where I see a lot of mistakes being made out here is people practice their strengths, and they don't take their weaknesses and turn them into strengths. It feels better to practice things you're good at, not the things you struggle at, and I've always tried to do the opposite."

Eyeballing the younger set (discounting Tiger, who's almost five years younger than Phil), Adam Scott has eight PGA Tour victories at age 31 and Sergio Garcia has seven at 32. Honestly, we're not sure either has the inner appetite to get to 20, much less 40. Mickelson, the last amateur player to win a title on the tour 21 years ago, looks like he still has some gas in the tank, too.