Green Reading

True Blue among area courses utilizing social media for promotion

True Blue Golf Plantation, one of America’s top 100 public courses as ranked by Golf Digest, is giving away a two-night, three-round golf vacation through Facebook.

Golfers can visit and like True Blue’s Facebook page. Once the page reaches 1,500 likes, a random drawing will be held to determine the winner of the vacation package.
 
The prize includes a two-night stay at the True Blue Resort Villas and three rounds of golf at True Blue Golf Plantation and its sister course, Caledonia Golf and Fish Club, for four golfers. The vacation has a retail value of $3,000.  Those interested can visit the following websites for more information:
http://www.truebluegolfplantation.com/, http://www.fishclub.com/, http://www.caledoniagolfvacations.com/

 

Johnson giving it another shot at Torrey Pines

Dustin Johnson’s going to give it a go again this week.

After making a bit of a foolhardy decision to play last week in the Humana Challenge, the former Myrtle Beach resident and Coastal Carolina All-American is teeing it up this week in the Farmer’s Insurance Open at Torrey Pines near San Diego.

He had been recovering from knee surgery on Nov. 29 and hadn’t walked a full 18 holes since that surgery before the first round last Thursday. Johnson rode a cart and walked only about every other hole in practice rounds, and developed back pain that caused him to withdraw midway through the second round.

Hopefully, Johnson is healthy enough to complete 72 holes.

He goes off the 10^th tee at Torrey Pines’ North Course at 11:50 a.m. (Eastern) Thursday with Gary Woodland and Camilo Villegas, and goes off the first tee of the South Course at 12:50 p.m. (Eastern) in Friday’s second round.

The fields are beginning to get deeper as well as stronger at the top as the season enters its fourth week – third week with full fields. This week’s entrants include Phil Mickelson, Ryo Ishikawa, Aaron Baddeley, Angel Cabrera, Ernie Els, Rickie Fowler, Bill Haas, J.B. Holmes, Anthony Kim, Hunter Mahan, Geoff Ogilvy, Justin Rose, Vijay Singh, Brandt Snedeker, Johnny Vegas, Nick Watney and Bubba Watson.

Other local ties

Former CCU golfer Tom Gillis, who played in Conway in 1990, is making his second start after missing the cut to the final round of last week’s Humana Challenge with a 5-under 211 in his 2012 debut.

Bishopville’s Tommy Gainey tied for 79^th and missed the cut in the past two weeks in his two starts this year, and is playing for the third consecutive week.

Former Grand Strand resident Kris Blanks, who lived in Myrtle Beach from 1996-2002, is not playing this week after tying for 29^th in his 2012 debut at the Sony Open and missing the cut last week.

Johnson withdraws from Humana Challenge in second round

Dustin Johnson apparently attempted to come back from minor surgery on his right knee a little too soon.

He withdrew from the Humana Challenge presented by the Clinton Foundation on Friday, citing back pain, after playing nine holes of the second round at La Quinta Country Club in La Quinta, Calif.

It doesn’t appear the former Coastal Carolina University All-American and Myrtle Beach resident put much of his season in jeopardy, however. He said he still intends to play the Farmers Insurance Open next week at Torrey Pines.

“My knee is okay, I’m not worried about it,” Johnson told reporters before he left the course Friday.

Johnson believes the back pain resulted from the way he was walking, possibly favoring his right knee.

Johnson had arthroscopic surgery on the knee to repair cartilage damage in November, and he hadn’t walked a full 18 holes before Thursday’s first round. He said his lower back was extremely stiff and painful at the time of his withdrawal.

The world’s No. 8 player was the highest-ranked competitor in Palm Springs this week. He shot an even-par 72 on the Palmer Course on Thursday.

Johnson skipped the PGA Tour’s first two events of the season in Hawaii and initially planned to return to competitive golf at Torrey Pines next week. But he missed the game and thought he was ready for an early return, and decided late last week to enter the Humana.

The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, where Johnson has collected two of his five PGA Tour wins, is in three weeks, from Feb. 9-12.

Blanks scores Dr. J at Humana Challenge

Dustin Johnson isn’t paired with one of the nine celebrities playing in the first three rounds of the Humana Challenge this week, but another former Myrtle Beach resident Kris Blanks is.

Blanks, who lived on the Grand Strand from 1996-2002, gets NBA Hall of Famer Julius Erving in the third round on the PGA West Nicklaus Course.

In addition to Dr. J, other celebrities in the field are actors Don Cheadle, Morgan Freeman, Billy Crudup, Lucas Black and Craig T. Nelson, and musicians Alice Cooper, Smokey Robinson and Michael Bolton.

Freeman gets a couple South Carolina boys in former USC golfer Kyle Stanley and Bishopville’s Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey. The Freeman and Gainey pairing should make for some interesting fairway conversation.

 

Dustin Johnson begins season at the Humana Challenge

Dustin Johnson’s right knee is apparently feeling pretty good – good enough to begin his season this week.

Johnson had arthroscopic surgery on Nov. 29 to repair damaged cartilage in his right knee and initially intended to return to competitive golf at next week’s $6 million Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, according to his agent, David Winkle of Hambric Sports Management.

But the former Coastal Carolina University All-American and Myrtle Beach resident is entered in the $5.6 million Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation (the event was formerly known as the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic).

Johnson’s first round of the 2012 season tees off at 12:50 p.m. Eastern (9:50 a.m. at the PGA West Palmer Course) on Thursday in La Quinta, Calif. He’s playing in the opening round of the pro-am with amateur partner Jim Barnett, and is paired with Charles Howell III and his amateur partner Fred Schaeffer.

The tournament has a three-course rotation, so Johnson will move to La Quinta Country Club and the PGA West Nicklaus Course for the second and third rounds. He’s scheduled to be joined by amateur Dan Wolterman at 1:20 p.m. Eastern (10:20 Pacific) in the second round.

Johnson said Saturday through his Twitter account, shortly after being added to the field, that "This is something I was hoping to do and [rehab] has been going really well so I felt the Humana Challenge was a great event to come back!"

Johnson worked with swing coach Butch Harmon in Las Vegas on Monday before continuing on to the tournament site. He hasn’t played at PGA West for the past two seasons after tying for 12th in the Bob Hope as a rookie in 2008 and tying for 66th in 2009.

Johnson had reportedly been experiencing pain since last July, when he was a runner-up to Darren Clarke in the British Open.

He was expected to be on crutches for a week following the late November surgery, then resume chipping and putting, and be nearly full strength by late December. He said on Twitter on Jan. 5 that he was "still getting over the tail end" of his rehab.

Despite discomfort, Johnson won The Barclays in August to become the first player since Tiger Woods in 1999 to win in each of his first four years on the PGA Tour straight out of college. He has five career wins and more than $13.5 million in official earnings, not including $2.5 million for finishing in the top five in the FedEx Cup playoffs in each of the past two seasons.

"Man it feels good to be back," Johnson said Wednesday on Twitter.