Set specific, measurable goals when heading to the range or putting green![]() It's often said that practice makes perfect. But that's not always necessarily the case. As the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi put it: "Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect." With that in mind, we reached out to Wade Wilson, a PGA professional at El Niguel Country Club in south Orange County, for his thoughts on what it means to practice perfectly. “When I talk to golfers, they often say they are going to practice on the range or they are going to work on their putting,” he told us. “But the first question I ask them is, ‘What are you going to go practice?’ or ‘What part of your game are you going to go work on?’ Their responses are often quite revealing.”
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Inland Empire’s Goose Creek Golf Club has earned its stellar reputationWhile Goose Creek Golf Club in Jurupa Valley is challenging enough to be a perennial favorite to host some of the biggest professional events in the region, it’s also welcoming enough to ensure that average golfers can enjoy themselves too.
Nestled in the Hidden Valley Wildlife Area and meandering along the Santa Ana River, the Inland Empire gem is easily accessible from Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties and has hosted qualifying events for the PGA Tour, USGA and others. The par-71 Schmidt-Curley Design routing that plays 6,560 yards from the tips should be a destination no matter where you live in Southern California. “If you are looking for a pure golf experience based on a creative and effective course design that’s well maintained and a course that’s fun and challenging to play for all levels, this is it,” said Ross Fisher, the PGA Director of Golf at Goose Creek. Roger Dunn Golf Shops catalog features top gear, best deals for the holidaysSeason's greetings, golfers, your ultimate golf holiday gift guide is here.
Roger Dunn Golf Shops, which has been serving golfers in Southern California for 55 years along with its sister company The Golf Mart, has released its 2020 Holiday Gift Guide, a digital publication full of golf equipment, apparel, accessories, and special savings for the season. How to improve your bunker play without a whole lot of effortWhen it comes to extricating your golf ball from a greenside bunker, Southern California PGA Teacher of the Year and Director of Instruction at Journey at Pechanga Randy Chang suggests it’s a lot easier than most amateurs think.
“The dreaded bunker shot. For most of you out there, this is the hardest shot in the game. For most professionals, this is the easiest,” Chang says. “Here’s why: It doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to get the golf ball out of the bunker. It’s not hard at all.” Check out the video below to see how simple it really is… Bruce Yungkans wins SoCal Golf Insider’s Masters contestDustin Johnson may have run away with the 2020 Masters, but our SoCal Golf Insider Masters contest came right down to the wire — and then went into extra holes.
And when the final numbers were tallied, it was Bruce Yungkans who took home the top prize. Top amateurs from around the country will play Shadow Hills December 18-21. Agave Amateur returns to Indio’s Shadow Hills Golf Club in DecemberSouthern California has long been a region that develops some of the top golfers in the world, thanks in part to the favorable year-round weather and bevy of incredible courses from the coast to the desert. And many of the best collegiate players from SoCal and surrounding areas will tee it up in December at one of the most competitive amateur events in the region.
From December 18-21, a field of 112 players will compete at Indio’s Shadow Hills Golf Club in the fourth annual Agave Amateur, part of the prestigious Troon Saguaro Amateur Series. NCAA picks La Costa Resort to host trio of future national championshipsThe NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Golf Committees have selected Omni La Costa Resort & Spa as the host site for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Division I Men’s and Women’s Golf Championships. Play will be conducted on the resort’s storied Champions Course following a planned 2022 renovation by golf course architect Gil Hanse.
The event’s debut at La Costa will mark the Division I Women’s Golf Championship’s return to SoCal after a 28-year absence. The Division I Men’s Golf Championship was last played in the region at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades in 2012. The Men’s and Women’s Championships will be contested over consecutive weeks starting in 2024, the first year each culminating national championship will be played in combination at a neutral site. Follow along this 30-minute routine to improve your flexibility and your gameIf you want to crush the ball and hit it far like the tour pros, there’s two things you need to have: flexibility and mobility.
In the following video, Mike Hansen of Hansen Fitness for Golf in Irvine, will take you through a 30-minute routine that is designed to assist in those areas by targeting the joints and muscles that are most important for your body and golf game. Torey Edwards is the reigning Long Beach Men's Amateur and SCGA Mid-Amateur champion. Long Beach’s Torey Edwards shoots second career 58 in recent SCGA eventTorey Edwards said the best way to describe it was like an out-of-body experience. Similar to a baseball player who experiences stretches where the ball looks as big as a grapefruit coming out of the pitcher’s hand or a quarterback who finds himself knowing exactly what the opposing defense will do before the ball is snapped, Edwards was without a doubt in the zone.
So as the Long Beach native and Long Beach State graduate lined up a 30-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole at Pasadena’s Annandale Golf Club on October 29, he felt confident he had a great chance to make the downhill, slightly right-to-left putt. What he didn’t know as his Titleist rolled into the center of the cup was that he was putting for the second 58 of his life, because a math error had him convinced it was for 59. “You can sabotage great rounds if you start thinking about the end result and what it means - whether you’re trying to break 80, break par or card a career low,” Edwards explained. “I was able to stay out of my own way and focus on each shot, and I was in a mode where I felt like I was going to birdie every hole I played. I was definitely in that zone that you hear people talk about.” Our favorite hole contest is over, but here's a bunch more reader submissionsWe asked our readers to tell us their favorite holes in Southern California and received a variety of responses.
And while not all of our entries could be winners (we picked four in October), here are the rest of the submissions. Scroll to the bottom of this post to see the four winning entries. Thank you to all who participated! |
AboutGreetings, fellow golfers, and welcome to SoCal Golf Insider! We are Rob Lyon and Eric Marson and we've been reporting and writing about the game throughout the region since 1995. Here, we will provide you with the latest news, features, reviews and more on all things golf in Southern California. Let’s tee it up! Contact UsGot some news to share about what's going on in the SoCal Golf community? SHARE IT HERE. Archives
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