The Driving Range at Libertyville Sports Complex, thrice voted the “Best Driving Range in Chicago” by the Daily Herald, is giving more to their community than just a place to practice their golf game year-round. Throughout the month of January, the facility hosted the “LSC Driving Range Food Drive” to collect non-perishable food items for a local pantry.
The range can be a place where dreams come true, just ask 6-year-old Christian Backhouse. Thanks to the Children’s Wish Foundation, Christian, who has been diagnosed with leukemia, flew from England with his family to attend the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and fulfill his dream of meeting a PGA Tour golfer. On the range at PGA National Resort & Spa, Christian put his own swing on display while spending time with two-time tour winner Jonas Blixt.
With the brutal winter the northeast has endured, it makes sense to think that the timing is right for an indoor golf practice facility. Timberlin Golf Club in Berlin, Connecticut is on the brink of making it happen. Last month Saratoga Associates, a landscape architecture/engineering firm, delivered a presentation to the municipality detailing the plan to build the new facility. The potential cost of project is $2.1 million. If approved, construction would be completed by the start of the 2016 season.
Before winning the 2015 Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club outside of Los Angeles, PGA Tour professional James Hahn was mostly known for doing the “Gangnam Style” dance on the rowdy 16th green at the Phoenix Open. As sudden cold weather and rain disrupted the usually perfect Southern California conditions during the three-man playoff, Hahn was right at home. “I remember days when I was living at home (in the Bay Area), I would go to Metropolitan Golf Links and it would be raining every single day and I would be the only guy on the range,” said Hahn. “I would go home and look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘You worked hard today…You deserve all the good things that happen to you.’”
