Orlando Golf News

CELEBRATION, FL - Darrell Armstrong announced today that his celebrity golf tournament will return to Mystic Dunes Golf Club in Celebration, Fla. on Saturday, August 23, 2008.

The golf tournament is part of Armstrong's 2008 Annual Celebrity Weekend being held August 22 to 24 in Orlando to benefit the Darrell Armstrong Foundation for Premature Babies.

The 9th annual golf tournament begins at 7:00 a.m. with registration and breakfast, followed by a shotgun start at 8:00 a.m. An awards banquet will be held immediately following the scramble. Mystic Dunes Golf Club and Wayne Densch Charities are this year's title sponsors.

ORLANDO - Members of the U.S. Armed Forces are taking off their combat boots and putting on their golf shoes thanks to a special offer from Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando. Now through the end of Sept. 2008, active duty, reserve and retired military personnel can enjoy a special offer of $35 for a round of golf (cart included) at the award-winning Shingle Creek Golf Club.

The discounted greens fees, which normally range from $89 to $149 depending on time of year, include a golf cart featuring GPS yardage system, complimentary valet parking, on-course beverage and delivery service, a state-of-the-art practice facility, access to the full-service 1,600 square-foot golf shop and full-service Clubhouse Grille and Bar, access to PGA teaching professionals at the Brad Brewer Golf Academy and discounts for Drivers Club members. 

If you know golf, you know that golf is a game of mental agility, focus and concentration. We all know how to focus, right? Well, not necessarily. Being focused is a learned response. It takes concerted effort and sometimes, especially when distracted, our ability to fixate on one object is stunted causing us to become frustrated, anxious and even angry.

To complicate things for all you golfers out there…lessons, videos and practice can only take you so far, which furthers your frustration level. You might say to yourself, “I am practicing and why am I not improving?” How do you get the upper edge to play with the same concentration and determination of Tiger? Quite simply. You learn how to control your thought patterns, which shift your perception and ultimately change your behaviors. Consequently, you play better, more consistently, and far more relaxed, culminating in a lower score at the end of your round. 

Celebration Golf Club is offering unlimited $1 perday twilight tee times May 1 through Sept. 30. Gene Garrote, vice president of Celebration Golf Company, said the $149 package offer includes unlimited golf on Celebration’s 18-hole course anytime after 4 p.m. daily. Garrote said residents of Celebration can buy the package for $139.

“That’s a good three to four hours a day, and if you’ve never unwound from a busy day on a golf course, you don’t know what you’re missing,” Garrote said. “This is the ultimate happy hour,” he said. 

ChampionsGate Resort, the 1,800 acre resort-style luxury community in Osceola County, will start construction of 100,000 square feet of retail and office space and 180 luxury rental apartments in downtown ChampionsGate in May.

March Reicher, senior vice president of operations at ChampionsGate, said the cost of the construction project is estimated at $69 million. “We are currently negotiating with a wide range of restaurants and retailers for space in the new downtown district,” said Reicher. 

Celebration Golf Club recently hosted its Annual Celebration Town Championship during the Masters weekend and Kenny Nairn, golf director at Celebration, said the annual tournament’s schedule has given the event a new name---the Celebration Nairn said Celebration Golf Club gave each of the tournament division winners a Celebration Blue crested jacket to seal the deal. 

I recently attended a Jeffrey Gitomer seminar, author of The Little Red Book of Sales. One of the points he made was that it is much easier to make a sale to the guy making the budget versus the guy following the budget. If you can show value and if you can show that you can increase the bottom line, there are very few CEO’s in the world that will not talk to you.

Case in point: if you were the guy mopping the floors at Office Depot and asked 25 customers a day what they liked about the store and what they would like to see differently and then compiled that information into a report, odds are you could get an appointment with the CEO at their home office in Delray. (For you folks keeping score, that is 6,500 surveys in a year). The point is, if you have valuable information or valuable contacts, YOU are VALUABLE and people that can make decisions will see you. 

LAKE MARY, FL - The Mike Bender Golf Academy and the Timacuan Golf Club will host the second annual Pro-Am Benefit Tournament, with proceeds going to Boy's Town Central Region Demetree Campus.

The golf tournament is set for Friday, July 25 at 8 a.m. at Timacuan, and is open to anyone. Cost per player is $100 and includes breakfast, lunch, range balls, golf cart and green fees, and a replay voucher. It is sponsored in part by the "all new Sunny 105.9, Orlando's  Greatest Hits Station". www.Sunny1059.com. 

CELEBRATION, FL - Mystic Dunes Golf Club has announced a complimentary junior program this summer. Golfers under the age of 16 can play golf for free at Mystic Dunes Golf Club with a paying adult after 2:00pm daily from June 1 to September 30, 2008.

"It is my hope that Mystic Dunes can introduce young players to a game they will enjoy for a lifetime," said Rick Smith, Mystic Dunes Director of Golf.

To book a tee time or for more information, call the Mystic Dunes Golf Club Pro Shop at (407) 787-5678.  

Cuhaci & Peterson Architects of Orlando and AVID Group, a civil engineering firm in Tampa and Orlando, presented a check in the amount of $11,000 to Hospice Foundation of America. The contribution represents proceeds from the annual AVID-Cuhaci & Peterson Golf Tournament.

The check was presented in the memory of the late Jason Kmiec, an AVID Group engineer with the Tampa office and resident of Gainsville who passed away due to cancer.

Shown in the photo (left to right) are: Murray Biullon and Steven Stuebs of AVID Group, David Abrams of Hospice Foundation of America; Jed Downs and Michael Lynch of Cuhaci & Peterson.