American Classic installs new golf simulator

American Classic Golf Club near Midway recently obtained a TruGolf simulator as part of the company’s expanding services to the golfing public.

ACGC course manager Austin Ebersole said they installed the new system shortly before Memorial Day. “It’s a very nice simulator. It has multiple courses you can play, including four Pinehurst courses as well as Torrey Pines,” he said. “It also has a putting option that uses three sensors instead of the two it uses for golf swings. It feels pretty accurate. It lines the putt up for you, and you just have to feel the putt as you make your stroke.”

The club currently limits simulator use to scheduled golf lessons with ACGC head pro Sam Cresta, assistant pro Chip Reese or Ebersole’s stable of students. Lesson fees are $50 for 30 minutes or a five-lesson package for $200.

The club plans to open the simulator for access beyond lessons later this fall, Ebersole said. Ideas under consideration include potential league play and time-based individual play options.

“I’m excited about the new system,” Ebersole said. “I hadn’t played any regular golf for about 20 months and spent three hours on it. I was able to go one-over par on the first round after that session.”

The club’s simulator space is also where ACGC manager Britt Morrison runs her Britt Marie Fitness Studio, complete with weightlifting and other useful training equipment for her students. Coordinating schedules for the two activities in the same large space is a club goal.

Morrison and Ebersole have continued their winning ways on the FlingGolf circuit. In May, she won her second straight individual title in a tournament in Florida. Ebersole couldn’t quite repeat his 2022 individual title but won his second straight FlingGolf team championship with his buddy Sam Scannell.

Both headed to Greeley, Colo., this week for the Colorado FlingGolf Open at Boomerang Links. It will be their first exposure to Flinging at altitude. 

U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship

Congratulations and good luck to Sawyer Brockstedt of Rehoboth Beach and Avery McCrery of Wilmington as they prepare to compete in the 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship. The United States Golf Association tournament will take place July 17-22 at the Air Force Academy’s Blue Course in Colorado Springs, Colo. 

McCrery and Brockstedt were on the 2023 state champion Tower Hill School golf team. McCrery also won the girls’ championship, with Brockstedt in fifth.

Fescue me

The Bay Course at Seaview Resort in Galloway Township, N.J., is a restored Donald Ross design from the early 20th century. It has hosted nearly every ShopRite LPGA Classic in its 35-year history. 

Located just west of Reeds Bay, the links-like layout is relatively open, with more elevation changes than one might imagine.

It also features multiple clumps of tall fescue rough, challenging golfers throughout the course.

Here are a few carnage or recovery stories I witnessed during the 2023 ShopRite.

German golf pro Isi Gabsa had twice played the ShopRite before the first round on June 9. She therefore she knew what she was in for when her drive on the par-4 fourth hole landed in the right fairway bunker, a few feet from its greenside leading edge. After chatting with her caddie, Gabsa tried a heroic recovery shot. 

The ball slammed into high fescue just past the bunker front and stayed there. 

Gabsa quietly muttered an obscenity, switched clubs, and changed her aim to go 90 degrees left toward the fairway. A big swing led to a short shot, landing in the right rough about 135 yards out. The next shot missed the green, and she eventually made a double bogey.

Gabsa landed in the fescue again with her tee shot on the par-5 18th hole, about 250 yards from the green. Her first attempt from there stayed in the high stuff, two feet closer to the hole. The next shot escaped the fescue but only reached the normal left rough 15 yards away. 

Gabsa eventually reached the green. Adding insult to injury, she suffered a lip-out on the way to a triple bogey. She later withdrew from the tournament, citing injury.

Australian Su Oh made a bad drive on the dogleg right par 4 16th hole. It drifted right and landed in high fescue adjacent to the right fairway bunker, about 140 yards from the hole. She talked briefly with her caddie, David Linquist, as they both inspected the lie. 

Oh took a wedge and made a nice out, landing about 40 yards closer to the green. Her third shot finished hole high in the right rough. Unfortunately, a flubbed chip came up short and led to an ugly double bogey. A birdie on the 18th hole brought Oh’s total to one over for the day, however, and she made the cut.

After the round, Linquist said, “We got lucky. It was sitting up [in the fescue] just right. If it had been buried like we thought it might be, we would have been forced to take an unplayable lie.”

Once burned twice learned, as they say.