Forest Dunes’ New 10-Hole Short Course Opens August 1
ROSCOMMON, MI – Northern Michigan’s Forest Dunes, one of the country’s most acclaimed golf destinations, is proud to announce the August 1 opening of its new 10-hole, 1,135-yard Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns-designed Short Course.
Home to the celebrated Tom Weiskopf-designed Forest Dunes course(ranked 28th on Golf Digest’s list of America’s Top 100 Public Golf Courses) and the innovative reversible Tom Doak layout, The Loop (with its counterclockwise Red routing ranked No. 47 and the clockwise Black routing ranked No. 45 on the same Golf Digest list) and the 18-hole, two-acre Hilltop Putting Course, Forest Dunes offers one of the most complete and unique golfing destinations for golf aficionados and buddies trips.
Situated on a peaceful, rolling bulge of land positioned perfectly between The Loop and Forest Dunes courses and near the spacious clubhouse, pavilion, practice area and massive HillTop Putting Course, the short course, with fun, strategic holes measuring between 65 and 150 yards, is a new focal point and an energetic hot spot for golfers of all ages and skill levels.
Forest Dunes owner Lew Thompson wanted a fun and playable course for his grandkids and beginning golfers so he entrusted Johns and Rhebb, who helmed the renovation at Orlando’s Winter Park 9 course, to build a course with entertaining shot values and an unintimidating sense of fun. He also wanted it ready for this summer. Johns and Rhebb responded with a course that has excellent shot values while maintaining a playfulness is throughout the design. And they got it built and grassed in just 81 days.
The short course’s creatively-designed greens are constructed to funnel balls toward pin locations, improving the likelihood of ever-elusive holes-in-one, while a few tee shots tempt you to make use of strategic slopes and banks instead of flying it in the air. The greens showcase a variety of subtle shapes, many being bowl-shaped and some resembling catcher’s mitts or table tops.
A unique feature on the course will be that holes 1 and 10 are crossover holes with a tree protecting from direct ball flight issues. “The land gave us such a great canvas to create something fun that offers a ‘welcoming handshake’ to entry-level players and says ‘this is what golf can be.’ Here you can go out in your flip flops and hit flop shots with a few buddies, try to make an ace on every hole, or use a putter off the tee to try and run one on the green,” says Johns.
Not only does the design lend itself to great on-course fun, its routing also incorporates Forest Dunes’ bustling social scene, with the entire first hole and 10th viewable from the pavilion. “The pavilion is the social hub, it’s where music is playing and people are having drinks, so we wanted to take some of that liveliness and put it into play somehow,” Johns adds.
Thompson thinks the prime location of the short course will easily entice guests to play it before or after a round on The Loop or Forest Dunes or any time they’re recreating on the resort grounds. “When you come to Forest Dunes, we want you to have a good time,” says Thompson, who says music, bare feet and eightsomes are all fair game on the new par-three course if that’s what it takes to make the game more accessible and fun.
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Two Nippon Shaft Players Win Over the Weekend
CARLSBAD, CA – Two 20-something players used Nippon Shaft products in their irons to win tournaments this weekend on the European Tour and on the Korn Ferry Tour.
The 23-year old from Rome, Italy won the Betfred British Masters using Nippon Shaft’s N.S. PRO MODUS³ Tour 120 X flex steel shafts in his irons (3-PW). He shot an 18-under par total with rounds of 65-66-66-69—266 at the Close House Golf Club in Newcastle Upon Tyne in northern England.
“The goal is to go to the U.S. Open,” the champion said afterward. He can do so if he finishes in the top 10 in the European Tour’s mini-Order of Merit, as the U.S. Golf Association has canceled open qualifying because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, on the Korn Ferry Tour, a 25-year-old Oklahoman won the Price Cutter Charity Championship using Nippon Shaft N.S. PRO MODUS³ Tour 130 X flex steel shafts in his irons. He shot a bogey-free final round 8-under 64 to shoot 21-under at Highland Springs Country Club in Springfield, Missouri for a one-stroke victory in the 72-hole event. He earned $117,000. It was his third top 10 finish of the season.
These are the fifth and sixth victories for MODUS³ products on world tours this season; the product series counts more than 200 tour victories since inception.
This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the release of N.S.PRO MODUS³ Tour 120, the first in the MODUS³ series. With four models, MODUS³ shafts have been in the bags of more than 200 players on every major global tour and have been used in more than 200 tour victories worldwide.
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Michael Feland
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