2024 Fall Issue

Jay’s Tee Box

    Wow, where did this year go? It feels like yesterday I was putting my snowblower away to trade garage space with my lawnmower. The great news is that snow is still a few months away, and even when the white stuff comes down, we’ve got some great warm weather destination options for Midwesterners to enjoy.

    We begin our Fall Issue with our cover destination of Branson, Missouri, and the Southwest Ozarks – where golf can be played 12 months a year, just maybe not every day of those 12 months. This is where you will find Big Cedar Golf and its 77 holes of remarkable golf that includes Payne’s Valley, Ozarks National, and Buffalo Ridge. Bass Pro Shops Founder and CEO Johnny Morris is a credit to the game, and I highly urge you to head to Missouri if you haven’t done so already!

      We stay in the Midwest for a feature on one of our favorites in The Badger State – SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. By hosting last year’s U.S. Senior Open, the rest of the world got to see what locals already knew – the Robert Trent Jones Jr. gem is one of the finest parkland courses in the nation. And now thanks to their adjacent Inn at SentryWorld, stay and play groups can revel in the course’s beauty for multiple days.

     Every Fall Issue of MGM doubles as a travel issue, and in 2024 we take you from coast-to-coast highlighting the best spots to extend your season. Lead Staff Writer Matt Tevsh had the enviable task of describing why Mississippi is a golf-rich state rich from north to south and east to west. Speaking of west, Matt also chronicles Wolf Creek’s rise to prominence as the real-life video game course continues to draw worldwide attention to Mesquite, Nevada.

    Editor Glen Turk continues our globe-trotting tour with features on the amazing island of Puerto Rico and Fort Myers, Florida. During Glen’s trip to Puerto Rico in March he had the good fortune of teeing it up at the Puerto Rico Open Pro-Am with now two-time PGA TOUR winner Robert McIntrye. Seems to me like Glen is a good luck charm of sorts!

    We head back to the Midwest for a profile of the remarkable career of Bernie Frederich of BOYNE Golf in Northern Michigan. Bernie’s 50+ year career in the game was honored last year as the PGA of America named him Executive of The Year. Our own Deb Patton looks back at the influence Bernie has had at a regional and national level.

    Every issue of Midwest Golfing Magazine is made better thanks to Chips Shots, Ask Annex, our Pro Page with Michael Crowley, and Paul Seifert’s Best of the Midwest. Finally, a Fall Issue of MGM would not be complete without our Editor’s Choice Awards, now in its 19^th year, which is amazing to me!

Make Some Birdies,

Jay Royle, Publisher