There’s another golf trail that’s been paved; this one in the Jayhawker or Sunflower State. Kansas has joined the growing list of golf course cooperatives that have mushroomed around the country in order to increase the collective number of rounds. Of the 273 golf courses in Kansas, 11 have banded together to form the Sunflower Golf Trail (SGT), which officially began operating on New Year’s Day.

Participating golf courses include the following: Emporia Municipal, Stagg Hill in Manhattan, Rolling Meadows in Junction City, Salina Municipal, Hays Municipal, Turkey Creek in McPherson, Carey Park in Hutchinson, Hesston Golf Park, Prairie Trails in El Dorado, Quail Ridge in Winfield, and Mariah Hills in Dodge City.

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Dave Stockton’s new book on putting is worth every cent of the $27.50 retail price tag. “Unconscious Putting: Dave Stockton’s Guide to Unlocking Your Signature Stroke” packs a ton of useful information in its 101 pages. Stockton, a veteran golf champion and renowned putting instructor, won five major championships, 11 tournament victories on the PGA Tour, and 14 wins on the Champions Tour. The strategies found in Unconscious Putting fixed Rory McIlroy’s troubles in 10 minutes and were integral in his win at last year’s U.S. Open.

In Unconscious Putting, Stockton stresses a new mental approach: One free of mechanical thoughts, alongside physical routines that insure a player stays locked in on their target. “I believe putting is a simple act,” says Stockton. You see the line the ball should take to the hole, lock in on that line, and let the stroke go while that line is fresh in your mind. Unfortunately, many, many players at every level put up a lot of roadblocks for themselves and get in the way of their own good putting.”

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For the last quarter century, the Frank Sinatra Starkey Hearing Foundation Celebrity Invitational has been held in the California desert. The two day event, held March 1-3 this year, benefits the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center at Eisenhower Medical Center in the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs.

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The PGA Tour recently unveiled a free iPad app available for the 2012 golf season. The PGA Tour app, sponsored by Callaway, is available now in the Apple App Store. The app’s centralized dashboard design provides fans with at-a-glance access to exclusive live coverage information including scoring, player statistics and course statistics. The PGA Tour’s iPad app will offer live streaming video coverage from multiple events in 2012, as well as video highlights from all PGA Tour events this year.

“With the continued success of the iPad and our overarching strategy of reaching PGA Tour fans across multiple platforms, we are very excited about the launch of the official PGA Tour app,” said Tim Finchem, Commissioner of the PGA Tour. “All of our digital platforms are very important to the way we engage our fans, now and into the future, and this is a great step forward.”

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Garmin International, makers of quality satellite navigation devices for more than two decades, introduces its Approach G6 GPS device at two trade shows this month. This new must-have for serious golfers was recently introduced at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronic Show and will also make another splash on the east coast at the annual PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando in late January.

The Approach G6 GPS golf device is sleek and user-friendly, and weighs just over three ounces. It comes with more than 25,000 pre-loaded worldwide golf courses, and is equipped with an internal rechargeable battery which allows golfers to use the device for an entire weekend, roughly 15 hours, on one charge. There are no subscriptions or additional fees. Company officials also say that course updates and new courses will be updated throughout the year, available free to users.
Another nice feature of the Approach G6 is its layup arcs which are drawn on the map and offer at-a-glance references for the 100, 150, 200, and 250 yard markers for layup decisions. Golfers can also touch the place on the layout map that they want to measure or get a closer look at the landing area.

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To honor one of the all-time greats in golf, the Ben Hogan Museum of Dublin (Texas) recently opened its door in this small town 100 miles west of Fort Worth. Hogan was born in Dublin in 1912, and spent the first nine years of his life there. The Hall of Famer with the sweetest swing in golf won nine major championships. He died in 1997 at age 84.

The creation of the museum was the result of the city’s working relationship with the Fort Worth-based Ben Hogan Foundation, whose mission is to “honor, celebrate, and preserve the legacy and character of Ben Hogan.” The Dublin museum is the first of several local projects that will target that mission. “It is seldom one sees a community so united and committed to celebrating their history as I have found in Dublin, Texas,” said Robert Stennett Executive Director of the Ben Hogan Foundation. “We were thrilled to work with the citizens of Dublin to make this dream a reality.”

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If your New Year’s resolution includes some version of weight loss or weight control, consider looking into Larry Jacobs’ weight loss program specifically geared for golfers. Promising golfers smaller clothing sizes, no hunger, plenty to eat, and the sublime feel of lightly striding up the 18th fairway with legs as fresh as on the first, Jacobs will present his latest Weight Loss for Golfers Tele-Seminar Series on February 15, 2012 – and with a special half-price offer. Guaranteed to make participants “Thin for Life,” the four-part program comes at a time of year when many golfers should be thinking about getting healthy and back in shape for the upcoming golf season.

Through countless individual consults and more than 50 Weight Loss Tele-Seminars, Jacobs has enabled thousands of golfers from all walks of life in 22 countries to modify and improve their eating habits. More recently he’s focused on golfers, with a list of notables that include Champions Tour Players Fred Funk and Allen Doyle; famed Golf Instructor Don Trahan, NBC Sports’ Dottie Pepper; former PGA Tour player now turned TV and Radio Commentator John Maginnes and PGA of America’s 2011 Professional of the Year David Hutsell. In fact, Tour Pro D.J. Trahan’s father and swing coach Don Trahan now fits into a suit he hasn’t worn in 17 years and credits Jacobs’ program with saving his life.

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With the New Year just hours away, most snowbirds have already migrated south for the winter. Some of the lucky RV-golfers will be teeing it up at the 9-hole executive course at Desert Palms Golf and RV Resort in Salome, Arizona. Sandwiched between the Harquahala and Harcuvar Mountain Ranges, Desert Palms is located on Highway 60 between Wickenburg and Quartzsite. The fertile valley is rich in agriculture and booming with growth, and the surrounding area offers old gold mines, lots of history, peace and solitude, along with scenic views, and wildlife.

The name Dick Wick Hall has permanence throughout the town of Salome. Hall, his equally famous frog, and the stick figure dancing Mrs. "Salome" Pratt have been fixtures for more than a century. Dick Wick Hall, co-founder of the town, once wrote that “Mrs. Salome Pratt took off her shoes and danced across the hot sand and burned her feet.” Thus, the town became "Salome – where she danced – Arizona." Her picture can be seen on several buildings in town, along with that of the Salome Frog.

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Some golf courses just seem to carry the spirit of the season with them all year long. That’s especially true of golf establishments that contain the name Christmas in their title, like Christmas Valley Golf Course, Christmas Lake Golf Course, and Christmas Mountain.

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A few years ago I sat in the cozy bar at Arnold Palmer’s Restaurant in La Quinta, Calif. and ordered the restaurant’s namesake drink, an Arnold Palmer. The half unsweetened tea and half lemonade drink was made famous by Palmer, who popularized it by requesting the refreshing drink frequently in golf course clubhouses across the country during his days on the PGA Tour. Those wishing to ring in the holidays with a little holiday cheer might want to kick it up a notch. If you take the ingredients of the Arnold Palmer and add a shot of vodka, you’ve created a John Daly, named for the PGA bad boy and frequent imbiber. Any Arnold Palmer drink to which alcohol is added is sometimes referred to as an adult Arnold Palmer. Another variation is if you use sweet tea, rather than unsweetened tea in the mixture. This drink is called the Winnie Palmer, affectionately named for Palmer’s first wife.

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