Talent expected for Fourth of July tourney

Fourth of July Tournament

The Annual Earl Hunt Fourth of July Golf Tournament kicks off this week with the first day of play on Thursday. The men’s leader groups will play the South Course on Thursday, North on Friday and finish on the South on Saturday, while the ladies play just the opposite rotation of two fabulous courses. This event always attracts a great field of players from around the Northwest and this year is no exception with college golfers all the way to older and experienced players.

While we have not had a local winner in the tournament for several years, I’m going to give Coral Schulz a chance to change that history. The Bobcat golfer had a great junior year in Bozeman and is playing some great golf lately.

The ever popular derby will see a different format this year with the men and women competing together on Friday around 5 p.m. The top 20 men and top 10 women will start the derby on the North Course front nine with two teams eliminated on the first three holes. With the Fourth of July on Thursday the idea to combine the ladies teams and men’s teams was a natural for this year. I would anticipate the ladies to make a great showing and will be playing in front of some 300 plus fans this year. The number of teams in the derby this year reflects the participation level of men and women in the tournament.

A reminder that both courses are closed for play for all three days so our maintenance crew has time to set up the course for the next day’s play.

USGA Agronomist Site Visit

Larry Gilhuly long time USGA Agronomist will conduct an advisory visit at Whitefish Lake Golf Club on Tuesday, July 16 starting at 7 a.m. We invite any interested members to tag along and learn as we visit various features of courses to examine conditions and gather new insights into the best practices. Whitefish Lake Golf Club has a long history with the USGA Agronomy site visits dating back of 30-plus years. We see this as a sort of audit each year to measure how well we are maintaining the course and to learn new ideas to do an even better job. Turf management is not an easy process and we are fortunate to have our extremely long-term and talented Superintendent Dick Collins heading that important facet of our operations. We look forward to having as many members attend as possible so everyone understands the process of assessing a good operation.

Getting on your Front Side

All good golfers finish on their swings on their front side as they come into contact with the ball. Getting to the correct position, on your front side, creates greater club head speed and helps keep the swing on plane. One good practice routine to help get the feeling of finishing on your front foot is to put your feet together with the ball place off your forward foot, then take a step forward and swing. Go slowly at first to get used to the move then continue at a more normal rate. Once you go back to your normal stance you should notice a better weight shift and much better contact. Swing Away!