Author: Matt Tevsh

The Island Resort Championship is returning to its annual spot on the Epson Tour schedule this summer and organizers are hoping this year’s event will be one of the biggest and best ever. To start, this year’s total purse for the June 24-26 championship has been increased to $212,500. “Our goal every year is to beat their top spot on Tour,” said Tony Mancilla, general manager of the host property, Island Resort and Casino in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Like many stops on the Epson Tour, the growth has been promising. The Island Resort stop is approaching nearly double the purse…

On opening day for Major League Baseball two major cities along the Lake Michigan southern tip are hosting games, yet traffic is moving along nicely on the main interstates by late afternoon. Such is life after a post-pandemic season when stadiums are bringing back fans in limited capacities while also serving as vaccination sites. Still, spring and hope are refreshingly in the air. Not only are the temperatures around the Midwest forecasted above average for the coming week, but also the Augusta National Women’s Amateur has started in Georgia. The Masters will soon follow, back in its traditional spot on…

Forget about a Tiger Woods great escape or a Phil Mickelson super flop. For the public golfer, this Central Wisconsin golf resort has a different type of hero shot opportunity in its DNA. The tee shot soared like an eagle which was, coincidentally enough, the ambitious goal on the scorecard. As it reached its peak and then headed downward, past a menacing fairway bunker and towards a tumbling landing area, it was lost from sight. The level of the sun and the nature of the sweeping, downhill par-4 hole design made it difficult to follow all the way to a…

They call it the “Driftless” Area, which really just means there is plenty of unspoiled beauty ahead. After all, Mother Nature, by golf or general landscape, is the usually the best creator. To delve deeper, however, might give even a better appreciation. That this focal point can offer the best of the “Driftless,” otherwise known as an area of the Midwest left unharmed by the glaciers during the ice age, makes it feel like a pure experience. On a drive in from all points surrounding – Dubuque, southeast Minnesota and southwest Wisconsin – the stage is set. Sweeping hills and…

The Warren Course is just about ready to crown the nation’s senior champion in late June If any college campus could be compared to Augusta National, it might just be the University of Notre Dame. With its attention to detail, symmetry, architectural and natural beauty and history, it offers… wait for it… a tradition unlike any other. In a little over a month it will add to its story when the Warren Golf Course becomes the first university course to host a U.S. Senior Open. The 40th version of the United States Golf Association (USGA) Championship will be played in…

Augusta National’s Amen Corner – a nook of holes 11 through 13 on hallowed Georgia property – is as good as it gets for a three-hole stretch of golf anywhere. Imagine a place then where the stakes are raised even higher. A place, say, where a three-hole stretch included not only the most famous hole of the aforementioned Masters Tournament trio, but also the signature one from The Players and one from an iconic U.S. Open venue, too. What would that feel like? At Northern Bay Resort (www.northernbayresort.com, 608-339-2090), such an experience is closer to a reality than it is…

How early is too early for a beer? On this day, that question seemed logical since two older gentlemen substituted their morning coffee for a couple of barely pops. It may have been five o’clock somewhere, but it was 10 a.m. here and the location certainly seemed like an odd place to discuss current events over a couple of Spotted Cows in plastic cups. This, after all, was a stylish golf shop – almost department store-like – at one of the hottest golf resorts in the country. It sports some of the best logoed merchandise and brands in the business.…

Is this the end or the beginning? That question popped as the fireworks soared high above yet close by from a second floor porch among the amphitheater setting. Perhaps it was the reflection of the colorful display on the lake and its fountains below that evoked such philosophical thinking. Or maybe it was just the size of the explosions, each one looking like it could be the start of the finale. The folks at Grand Geneva, for their two cents, call it a start. On their web site they say “Start Your Week With A Bang” to promote the fireworks…

There has been a trend over the past couple of decades with some of country’s top public courses that have been built. That is, location is everything and nothing at the same time. Think about some of the more recent masterpieces created on stunning canvases in spots that take some effort to find. From coast to coast, Bandon Dunes along the Pacific Ocean in Oregon, Sand Valley through the restored sand barrens of Central Wisconsin and Streamsong upon land recovered from a former phosphate mine in Florida. Minnesota can relate with many of its top public courses. None may be…

      There has been an identity crisis of sorts at a once-hyped Central Wisconsin golf course. Steve Tacheny wants to do something about it. How does he start? By throwing out the floor mats without any hesitation. “I’m grabbing all these and we’re going to the dumpster with them,” he said in March as his group prepared for the opening of the 2018 golf season. Tacheny is the general manager with a new ownership group in place to revive the Northern Bay Golf Resort and Marina in Arkdale. When he saw the clubhouse mats this winter that read “the Castle…