Who could have ever guessed an island in Northern Michigan could have two golf courses, one of them associated with a historic building? I found that out while visiting Mackinac Island, specifically to see the 129-year-old Grand Hotel, which has lodged presidents and movie stars and was the site of the film Somewhere In Time. My wife, Jane, saw the film and said at some point in her life she wanted to see The Grand Hotel. So off we went from our home just west of Toronto in Mississauga. It took us about 10 hours.

The name Hawerchuk is synonymous with greatness in the National Hockey League, but it is building up a following in golf. Eric Hawerchuk, whose father Dale played 16 years in the NHL and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001, is in his fourth year as a professional golfer. The 27-year-old plays on the Great Lakes Circuit Canada Pro Tour, and recently won the Desjardins Insurance Challenge. While he followed his father in hockey, Hawerchuk knew he’d never be good enough to be drafted into major junior, so he focused full-time on golf, playing competitively starting at the age of 12.

Every golfer dreams of scoring a hole-in-one. No matter whether you play professionally or recreationally, it’s exciting to ace a hole. At this year’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, 18-year-old Brooke Henderson aced the par-3 13th hole from 152 yards with a 7-iron. It was the fourth of her career. She won the tournament, too, in a playoff against Lydia Ko. It was quite a week for the Canadian phenom, ranked number four in the world at the start of the week. Henderson won a car with hole-in-one – specifically a Kia K900 – which was a prize available for any player who aced that hole. She gave the car to her elder sister, Brittany, who caddies for her.

Golf can be tough, anyone who’s ever picked up a club can tell you that. Heck, even professionals struggle every once in a while. And when things take a turn for the worse on the golf course, sometimes the only medicine for a sickly-struck shot is a “gently” tossed club.

We’ve talked about miracles on the green before – in this blog where we talked about one-in-a-million shots made by our favourite pro golfers. But then we decided – why not look further into those odds? For example, a PGA Tour Pro’s chances for a hole in one is about 1 in 3000, while an average players odds are more to the tune of one in 12,000. Further investigation revealed some pretty amazing golf feats that definitely beat the odds – by both pros and the amateurs.

We’ve talked about miracles on the green before – in this blog where we talked about one-in-a-million shots made by our favourite pro golfers. But then we decided – why not look further into those odds? For example, a PGA Tour Pro’s chances for a hole in one is about 1 in 3000, while an average players odds are more to the tune of one in 12,000. Further investigation revealed some pretty amazing golf feats that definitely beat the odds – by both pros and the amateurs.

10 Books Every Golfer Should Have on Their Bookshelf! During the off-season, when I’m trapped indoors by literal mountains of snow and rampaging polar bears, I like to read. Of course I like to read about golf, because I’m a sucker for self-punishment and there’s no other way to torture yourself than by reading about something that you can’t do for another five months. So here they are – twelve books (in no particular order) that every golfer should have on their bookshelf for those rainy (or snowy!) days.

One of the great things about our golf game and the English language is that both are constantly evolving. New shots, new tricks, new highs, and new lows are just some of the ways we see our golf game change over the years. Luckily enough, new slang words are always being invented in order to better describe our game. Below are some of the old favorites on the green, and some new ones you might not have heard of before. Avoid The Sclaff 1.) That moment when you strike the ground before making contact with the ball? It’s called a “sclaff”. Coincidentally, it’s also the strangled noise I make when I hit a water hazard. It’s usually followed by an awful lot of yelling. (original image found here)

When Happy Gilmore first hit theatres, he amused us with his whacky, profanity laden outbursts and his tendency to break equipment. While the casual observer might write the game of golf off as a stuffy old game, the true golfers among us know that it is a game of passion, and like any passion the emotions associated with the commitment to the game can be a little….tumultuous to say the least. So it’s no surprise that some of our favourite (and not so favourite…) pro golfers occasionally take a leaf out of Happy’s book and go on mini-rampages when the game doesn’t quite go their way. So here they are – ten times the game of golf was “livened” up by pro golfers acting out.