The golf season finally has arrived here at Brickyard Crossing.
On Tuesday, March 17, we opened for play with a “Pay the Temp” promotion, which meant the air temperature was the price for your greens fee and cart for the round. We ended up being completely booked.
The weather was perfect. Sunny and high 60’s, with a low around 40 degrees. So we started out the season full bore and ended up extending the “Pay the Temp” promotion for the rest of March.
We had some fun with the opener taking place on St. Patrick’s Day. We had the Gordon Pipers here, and we did a little ceremony with Indianapolis 500 veteran A.J. Foyt IV, Nationwide Tour pro Chad Collins, Brickyard Crossing superintendent Jeff Stuart and myself. A.J. and Chad ended up playing, but Jeff and I were too busy to join them.
Congrats to Chad on his 13th-place finish last weekend in New Zealand. He flew in late Monday and came out to help us kick off the 2009 golf season.
In other golf news, Phil Mickelson finally finished one off over the weekend. Now the debate over whether Phil or Tiger will be the favorite at The Masters has heated up, I think I will take Tiger.
Tiger’s last couple of rounds last weekend looked like the old Tiger, but he has made some minor changes that the experts pointed out. His footwork is better, and his swing looks a little different. Speaking of swings, has anyone seen Hank Haney trying to fix former NBA great Charles Barkley’s golf swing on The Golf Channel? Wow – what a undertaking. But Charles is working really hard at fixing it.
Not much else going on. I’m just glad to see some golfers and actually a promising forecast for the next week or so. It felt good to get back in the swing of things here at the course, see some familiar faces and meet some new golfers that had not played the Brickyard before.
That is going to be one of our initiatives this year, introducing golf to people who have never played the game before. I’ll keep you posted on this as the PGA of America has programs in place aimed at increasing the number of golfers.
Until next week, keep stretching for a new swing. Get out to the Brickyard and “Pay the Temp” or visit your local course and hit some balls.
Jeff Schroeder
PGA Head Professional
Brickyard Crossing
This week has been busy here at the Brickyard despite the rain and cool temperatures.
Short blog this week due to activities here at the course, but the main thing is to tell you about a few happenings.
First, Indianapolis 500 veteran PJ Jones, son of 1963 “500” winner Parnelli Jones, got to town this week looking for a ride in the Indy 500. PJ, who loves to play golf, had a hole-in-one Monday on our 14th hole. His first ace ever. The strange thing is, it was on a par-4. That’s right, a 305-yard par-4 in what I would say soft conditions. It has rained here about every other day. If my memory is right, that is the second hole-in-one on that particular hole here at the Brickyard.