Its name may have changed, but there is still the same quality golf to be found in the northwest corner of Montana. The Flathead Valley Golf Association has rebranded itself and is now officially known as the Northwest Montana Golf Association, a name change that took effect in March.

With 10 championship courses all located within a 45-minute drive, the Flathead Valley was voted one of the top 50 golf destinations in the world by Golf Digest. The name and identity were updated to better enable the Association to support golfers' passions for playing the sport and visually align with the community's efforts to offer a superior Montana travel destination experience. The Northwest Montana Golf Association represents 10 golf courses, seven lodging properties, and multiple community partners throughout the Flathead Valley including some very nice RV parks.

Here’s a rundown on the golf courses that comprise the NMGA. In Kalispell you’ll find Village Greens Golf Club, Big Mountain Golf Course, and Buffalo Hill Golf Course. Located in Libby is Cabinet View Golf Club; Glacier View Golf Course sits at the entrance to Glacier National Park in West Glacier. The following line up of the Northwest Montana Golf Association includes Indian Springs Ranch Golf Course in Eureka; Meadow Lake Golf Resort in Columbia Falls; Mission Mountain Golf Club in Ronan, Polson Bay Golf Course in Polson; and Whitefish Lake Golf Course in Whitefish.

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Equipment manufacturers keep pushing the limits. Recently introduced on the market was the Cleveland Golf Classic Driver. Available in 270 or 290 grams, the company’s Ultralite technology ensures that the Cleveland Classic is among the lightest drivers available on the market. For non-mathematicians, 290 grams equates to 10.22 ounces while the 270 gram weight club translates to a mere 9.52 ounces. Hence, the potential increased club speed. 

The Cleveland Classic Driver’s distinctive retro-look is a throw back to popular persimmon wood that was used exclusively throughout the golf industry for the making of woods. Though golf club manufacturers including Cleveland, moved primarily to metal woods in the last few decades, the persimmon look and appeal have never faded. The classic pear-shaped design features a unique sole and color scheme reminiscent of its persimmon predecessors, including a faux brass titanium face insert that serves as an alignment aid.

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Cherokee Springs Golf and RV Resort in Hatch, Utah, is situated on a 500-acre ranch that is surrounded by state and forest service lands. Located a two-hour drive northeast of St. George and four hours south of Salt Lake City, Cherokee Springs is surrounded by great national parks, including Zion National Park, Bryce National Park, and the North Rim of Grand Canyon.  

Cherokee Springs is a great base camp for exploring southern Utah. It’s also good for sharpening your golf game. The nine-hole, par 36 golf course at Cherokee Springs plays to just over 3,000 yards. At 7,200 feet elevation, there’s no traffic noise and the scenery is always spectacular. The cost for nine holes is a reasonable $15, or $22 with a cart. For 18 holes, it’s $24 and $35.

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Losing weight and keeping fit are great side benefits of walking a golf course. To increase the “fun” aspect of monitoring your workout, consider strapping on the light-weight Slimcoach, a modified pedometer that monitors a host of health-related activities. Saying the official name of the device is a workout in and of itself: The Biggest Loser Slimcoach by Mytrak.

The Slimcoach is a very popular device, especially since it is used by participants on the reality TV series The Biggest Loser. You initially plug in the device via USB to your computer for a one-time goal setting profile set up. Then, clip it on your hip (recommended) and head to the course. The device, which is also called the M2 on the company web site, has a “health circle” that turns from red to green to give real-time updates on your progress while you walk from hole to hole. At the end of the day, simply connect your device online, either a Mac or PC, to automatically update your latest statistics on the Mytrak web site.

The M2 provides a visual update on the progress towards that day’s goal.  The first button press will show your progress at burning calories that day, and a second press of the button will show where you’re at for three indicators, namely heart, health, and energy. The heart area tells whether you are meeting your activity goals for that day; the energy section is basically how you’re doing on calorie burning, while the health area shows whether you are exercising consistently. The red/yellow/green indicators on the Slimcoach dial quickly show where you are at for the day, and hopefully will motivate you to reach your target goals.

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Butch Harmon, the renowned PGA golf instructor, has just released a two-DVD set instruction video just in time to help tune up your golf game for spring. “Butch Harmon About Golf presented by Titleist” features 57 chapters and more than 250 specific tips, totaling in excess of four hours of instruction. Harmon has been voted number one in Golf Digest’s annual ranking of America’s Best Teachers for the past 11 consecutive years. The man knows golf. The comprehensive DVDs cover every aspect of golf including the set-up, grip, driving, short game, putting, and everything in between.

Best known for his work in the early 1990s with Greg Norman, the sought-after teacher and instructor also shared his teaching skills with Tiger Woods for more than 10 years from 1993 to 2004. Since his early experience with Norman, Harmon has worked with more than 100 PGA, LPGA, and European Tour players, including 21 Major winners.

The instructional DVDs include footage from the golf professionals who benefitted from Harmon’s instruction, such as Phil Mickelson, Nick Watney, Dustin Johnson, and Lee Westwood. “I have worked with some of the greatest players in golf, and I am proud of the success they have had while working with me,” Harmon shares. “However, I created this DVD for the thousands of golfers that I will never have a chance to try and help. This is my legacy to the high school golfer trying to make the team, the golfer trying to win his Saturday Nassau, or the lady golfer taking up the game.”

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Over the years, the beautiful course that is Augusta National Golf Club – home of this weekend’s 76th Masters Tournament – has provided unforgettable thrills and drama. Whether you are lucky enough to watch the Masters in person, or view it like most on TV, you can’t help but get caught up in the annual thrills that this event produces. A good friend of mine is fortunate to be there in person to witness the action first-hand. A few of the reasons why Augusta National Golf Club is so popular is because of its rich tradition, some of which includes:

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Motorola has just entered the golf-specific GPS market with its introduction of the MotoActv Golf Edition. A cutting-edge GPS Golf tracker, virtual caddy, and online clubhouse, users can track their golf game on up to 20,000 courses worldwide right from their wrist.

The GPS tracks the front, center, and back distances to greens and hazards, while the virtual caddy keeps track of your scorecards, club selection, and key statistics. Other benefits of using the MotoActv include tracking data like total steps taken, distance covered walking the course, and calories burned, thus making it possible to simultaneously stay fit and shave shots from your scorecard.

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This year, there’s a new meaning to March Madness: Trying to watch a basketball game amid the plethora of commercials! It’s as bad as another sports adage: “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.” There’s a simple cure, though: Grab your clubs and head to the nearest golf course. 

This month’s featured RV-Golf Resort is located in central Washington State. Suntides Golf & RV Park, located in Yakima, averages more than 300 days of sunshine annually.  Suntides is surrounded by residential homes, fruit orchards, the Naches River, and a host of fabulous wineries no more than a tee shot away. The 5,941-yard Suntides Golf features very flat terrain throughout the 18-hole, par 70 course. This popular public course is open year-round and draws a lot of visitors from the West Side of the Cascade Mountains, specifically the Puget Sound region of Seattle.

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The golf industry – like most businesses around the country – has taken its share of hits in the last few years with the worldwide economic slump. This downturn, however, has a silver lining for golfers. Some of the best golf courses and country clubs are loosening the reigns and adjusting their qualifications for membership. One prestigious golf club in Washington State is a shining example of what’s available.

The stately Tacoma Country & Golf Club is the oldest private golf club west of the Mississippi River. With its roots dating back more than a century, TCGC has long been the standard for golf excellence in the Pacific Northwest. According to General Manager Josh Bridge, the Tacoma Country & Golf Club is soliciting for new memberships for the first time. The par 72, 18-hole championship course measures 6,686 yards, and offers any of three basic membership options:

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Indoor golf simulators are a great way to practice when you are on the road and there’s no golf course available. Experiencing a world-famous course that you probably never will visit is an added benefit of golf simulators. Visit a local golf show and you’ll find at least a half dozen being used in various capacities. Over the last few decades, golf simulators have become highly sophisticated in their engineering and design and closely imitate the golf course experience. They do for golfers what treadmills did for runners: Let them enjoy their sport all year long. 

The golf simulator used on the Golf Channel is produced by the company aboutGolf. The company also supplies golf simulators for the PGA Tour Superstores throughout the country, where more than 28,000 lessons are given on simulators annually. Though the cost of an aboutGolf simulator is not cheap – various models sell for $50,000 to $68,000 – they continually expand worldwide. In Asian countries where land is a premium, golf simulators are more plentiful than golf courses. South Korea, which is about the size of Minnesota, has 25,000 golf simulators.

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