Leelanau Sports Guy at sportspig.com

From The Grand Traverse Resort…

LPGA great Meg Mallon will be at Grand Traverse Resort & Spa on Tuesday August 30 to play The Bear, the first time she will play the legendary Jack Nicklaus golf course. Mallon will be at the Resort to play The Bear with three amateur golfers, who placed the winning bid on a Michigan Sports Hall of Fame fundraiser item to play with Mallon. Mallon was inducted in to the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame as part of the 2010 class. During her professional career, Mallon won 18 LPGA tournaments from 1991 to 2004, and was a member of eight Solheim Cup Teams from 1992 to 2005. You can view Mallon’s career record and bio on the LPGA website. For more information about the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, visit: www.michigansportshof.org.

A quick note from J. Michael DeAgostino of the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa…

At the PGA Professional National Championship in Hershey, PA, today Grand Traverse Resort & Spa’s Head Golf Professional Scott Hebert scored an eagle, a hole-in-one on the 215-yard, par-3, 16th hole.

Hebert finished the day with a score of one-under-par 70. Currently on the third day of play, he is at 4-under-par and tied for 15th place. There is one more round to be played at Hershey tomorrow.

The top 20 finishers in the PGA PNC receive exemptions to the PGA Championship, to be held this year August 18-14 in Atlanta, GA.

It was in 2008 that Hebert won the PGA PNC.

Click here to see his scorecard at this year’s PGA PNC.

Watch this entertaining video from PGA Head Professionals Casey Powers and Mike Fay from Boyne Mountain.

Here’s an exclusive article re-posted with permission from TMZ…

Tiger Woods is golfing like a man possessed — hitting ball after ball after ball at the golf course near his home in Isleworth … and TMZ has obtained the first unstaged photos of Woods back in action.

Woods hit the course yesterday with 2 male companions and practiced his ass off from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM — working on everything from drives to pitches and putts.

We’re told Tiger’s session was uninterrupted — and he seemed completely focused throughout the entire grueling workout.

As we previously reported, sources in Isleworth tell us Tiger is dead set on competing for the Tavistock Cup — which will be held at the same Isleworth golf course where he’s practicing.

And with that news … Phil Mickelson probably needs a fresh pair of undies.

The Jack Nicklaus designed golf course The Bear will celebrate it’s 25th year of challenging golfers this summer on June 17, 2010. The Grand Traverse Resort has invited the public to participate by sharing photos and stories and offering special prizes and savings during the upcoming golf season.

The Bear was the first Nicklaus designed course in Michigan and helped pave the way for modern designed golf courses in northern Michigan.

The Golf Association of Michigan’s most recent review of The Bear measured it at 7,078 yards, and gave it a rating of 76.3 and slope of 148. In spite of its difficulty, it is fair. Landing areas are generous and it rewards good shots. And good golfers can score on it, as the Resort’s Head Golf Professional, Scott Hebert, who won six Michigan Open championships on The Bear, will attest.

“The Bear is the best golf course I’ve ever played and after 25 years it has not lost any of its bite! Every hole is different, which makes it unique, and to play it well, your game should be sharp,” stated Hebert.

Perhaps the best-known golfer to play The Bear was the winner of the 1990 Ameritech Senior Open, Chi Chi Rodriguez, who said, “(The Bear) is one of the great golf courses we play. The thing that makes this course so great is that it can be set up as tough as you want. This course challenges you on every shot. This is the way golf courses should be designed.”

For more information and details visit www.grandtraverseresort.com.

Photo of The Bear courtesy of Grand Traverse Resort & Spa

I don’t cover golf too often in the blog, but I stumbled upon this article reviewing Arnold Palmer’s King’s Challenge Golf Course. I don’t play golf much anymore, but when I used to I did enjoy this course. My scores weren’t great, but hey, it was fun! The #8 par 5 hole is amazing and MichiganGolf.com writer Brandon Tucker talks about that and more in the article below.

Read King’s Challenge G.C. near Traverse City: A classic N. Michigan golf course at MichiganGolf.com