The simulator officially opened on Wednesday, joining others in Hong Kong, South Korea, Minneapolis and Dubai International Airport.
Denver International Airport is a hotbed of activity, as the Federal Aviation Administration has the facility listed as the third-busiest airport in the country, behind only Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth.
And while that can lead to lengthy layovers and long wait times, there’s some good news when it comes to the amenities now available.
Golf DEN is a new golf simulator that opened recently along one of the main concourses in the airport, meaning weary travelers can work on their ball flight instead of simply downing pints while waiting for a connecting flight. (Of course, cocktails are also provided at the new business.)
Golf DEN inside DIA airport is officially open! Turn your layover into playtim. Swing by for a quick golf session and a drink ⛳ Visit us on Concourse A on the Mezzanine. AirportGolf layover golf airportlife denver
According to a story at Westword, a Denver-based alt-weekly, the simulator is affordable as well, especially considering the cost to hit balls at other similar facilities.
Fees are listed in fifteen-minute increments, but people can also pay ahead online for convenience. One session is $20, while thirty minutes runs $34, and a full hour costs $65.
Equipment rental is included in the price, but Golf DEN encourages people to bring their own clubs or putters if they’re traveling with them. Additionally, comfortable clothes and real shoes that allow for a full swing are encouraged.
Golf DEN is located on the top floor of Concourse A. After passing through security and emerging from the trains (or walking across the bridge), simulator patrons must keep going to the third level. According to the Golf DEN website, the company is working to register with Google and Apple Maps to provide walking directions.
The simulator officially opened on Wednesday, joining others in Hong Kong, South Korea, Minneapolis and Dubai International Airport.
And more are on the way. The company that built Golf DEN has a similar project scheduled to open at Los Angeles International Airport in the future.
Kai Trump has publicly supported her grandfather at the Republican National Convention and via social media.
Kai Trump, the oldest grandchild of President-elect Donald Trump, enjoyed an early morning of playoff golf followed by a late night at a presidential election celebration on Tuesday.
Trump, a junior on the Benjamin School’s girls golf team, shot 79 (plus-8) to finish tied for 22nd at the Region 4-1A championship hosted at Miami Shores Country Club on Tuesday morning.
She made two birdies, seven bogeys and a triple bogey during her round. Trump is committed to play collegiate golf at the University of Miami.
The Bucs finished third as a team at 305 (plus-21), one shot away from state tournament qualification, likely ending Trump and the Bucs’ 2024 high school golf season.
In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Trump joined her father Donald Trump Jr. and several other family members on stage at the Palm Beach County Convention Center as her grandfather declared victory in the 2024 presidential election.
Kai Trump has publicly supported her grandfather with physical appearances at the 2024 Republican National Convention and via her personal social media. She has more than 400,000 followers on Instagram and more than 200,000 followers on X, both public accounts.
On Tuesday morning prior to the election, Trump posted a gallery of photos with her grandfather with the caption, “You inspire us all. I love you Grandpa.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/C-1D82Rs9rL
On Wednesday after the result, Trump posted images with her grandfather and family at Mar-a-Lago with the caption, “No one works harder or cares more about the American people. Congratulations Grandpa, I love you!”
Eric J. Wallace is deputy sports editor for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at ejwallace@gannett.com.
“The Legend of Bagger Vance” was released Nov. 3, 2000.
It’s the fourth highest grossing golf movie of all-time. It’s ranks seventh on IMDB among the best golf movies. It features three huge Hollywood actors – Matt Damon, Charlize Theron and Will Smith – and a big-time director, Robert Redford.
And on Nov. 3, 2024, “The Legend of Bagger Vance” turns 24.
Released in theaters just after Halloween in 2000, the movie got 3 ½ stars from movie critic Roger Ebert, who wrote:
Robert Redford’s “The Legend of Bagger Vance” could be a movie about prayer, music or mathematics because it is really about finding yourself at peace with the thing you do best. Most of the movie is about an epic golf tournament, but it is not a sports movie in any conventional sense. It is the first zen movie about golf.
When and where does the movie take place?
The movie is set in Savannah, Georgia, in 1931, two years into the Depression that was gripping the country. Theron plays Adele, the daughter of a man who built a golf course but then goes broke and commits suicide. Facing financial hardship herself, Adele stages a $10,000 golf tournament and invites Bobby Jones (played by Joel Gretsch) and Walter Hagen (portrayed by Bruce McGill). She also talks local golf legend Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon’s character) into competing. He was the best golfer in the Savannah area before going off to World War I and coming back a broken man.
Where was the movie filmed?
The Legend of Bagger Vance was shot at Colleton River Club in South Carolina. The golf course’s website notes that “Colleton River was scouted for its classic and iconic courses and Lowcountry scenery.” The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island was also used in the movie.
Matt Damon did not have any previous experience playing golf; he spent a month with golf pro Tim Moss in Hilton Head, South Carolina, to prepare for the role.
The film cast includes four Oscar winners: Will Smith, Matt Damon, Charlize Theron and Jack Lemmon. It was also the last film Lemmon appeared in. He died June 27, 2001, about eight months after the movie’s release.
The last hole is actually not real. At the cost of $200,000, it was temporary, as filmmakers were trying not to disturb club activities.
How much money did The Legend of Bagger Vance make?
The highest-grossing golf movies according to box office earnings:
Tin Cup (1996) – $54 million
Happy Gilmore (1996) – $41 million
Caddyshack (1980) – $39 million
The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) – $30 million
The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005) – $15 million
Since Scott seemed so instrumental in getting Scheffler his first win, it only seemed natural his influence could help the Buffalo Bills.
Soon after Ted Scott started in his role as caddie for Scottie Scheffler, the Texan ended his run as the most acclaimed young PGA Tour player yet to win a title.
When Scott and Scheffler went through a trial run at the RSM Classic in November of 2021, Scheffler shot 63 in the first round.
“Literally, I had nothing to do with it,” Scott said at the time. “The next day was like the hardest day caddying in my life. I don’t know his game and 25-mile-per-hour winds. It was wild. He handled it with such maturity. I learned a lot about him.”
Since Scott seemed so instrumental in getting Scheffler across the victory finish line, it only seemed natural his influence could help the Buffalo Bills, who have enjoyed another impressive winning stretch under quarterback Josh Allen and coach Sean McDermott. The Bills have won the AFC East in each of the last four seasons, winning a first-round playoff game each year, but have failed to reach the Super Bowl since 1993.
McDermott spent time with Scott over the summer, talking about the nuances of sports psychology. Scott explained that when Scheffler started to keep things simple, eliminating major mistakes, he started to see greater success.
Soon after, McDermott passed the message along to Allen.
This week, the Bills face a home test against division rival Miami, and Scott took the opportunity to come up to practice, meet with the team, and he plans to stick around for Sunday’s contest.
A special guest visiting the Bills this weekend in Ted Scott, Scottie Scheffler’s caddie. He became connected with the Bills through Keon Coleman and Hope for Opelousas, an after school program for kids in Opelousas, LA, where Scott lives and Coleman is from. pic.twitter.com/gsTMJnkMqa
Scheffler’s incredible success has proved a financial windfall for Scott. Although all caddies may be paid slightly differently depending on their relationship with a player, the normal scale is as follows: 10 percent of winnings if a caddie’s player wins, seven percent for a top 10 and five percent for making the cut.
When Trump was shot Vance was mini-golfing with his family in Cincinnati.
When former President Donald Trump was shot in the ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, JD Vance, his soon-to-be running mate, was mini-golfing with his family in Cincinnati.
“I actually thought they had killed him because when you first see the video he grabs his ear and then he goes down,” Vance recalled after seeing the video of Trump’s July 13 rally. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God, they just killed him.'”
After seeing the video, the Ohio senator said he brought his family back to their Cincinnati home and grabbed his guns.
“At first I was so pissed, but then I go into like fight or flight mode with my kids … We were at a mini golf place in Cincinnati, Ohio. I grab my kids up, throw them in the car, go home and load all my guns. And basically stand like a sentry in our front door, and that was my reaction to it,” he said.
Vance’s neighbors previously told The Enquirer they noticed more security outside at his home after the assassination attempt. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine reportedly approved additional law enforcement to monitor the residence.
Days before the rally, Trump told Vance he was a front-runner for his vice president and suggested they go to Butler together and announce him as VP, Vance said. But Trump ultimately decided against that, saying they needed more time to prepare an announcement. He picked Vance as his vice president two days later on July 15.
Vance’s 3-hour interview with Rogan aired almost one week after Trump also appeared on the podcast.
Michael Zenert was near the fourth green at Uniontown Country Club near Pittsburgh when he found the ring.
Any class ring is special, but a U.S. Naval Academy class ring is something that only the elite in our country will ever earn the right to wear.
David Lorenzo, Class of 1964, had his ring on through numerous combat missions while serving in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. The veteran Marine Corps fighter pilot even had his Naval Academy ring on when his F-8 Crusader was hit by enemy fire forcing him to eject over Laos in January 1968 − he was rescued a few hours later by U.S. forces.
He would eventually return to the United States, and about six years after graduation, golfing with his father in Pennsylvania, he lost the prized ring somewhere on the course.
“It survived combat, but it couldn’t survive my golf game,” said Lorenzo, a sturdy and tough-looking 82-year-old.
Now, Lorenzo and that ring have been reunited thanks to a Pennsylvania man who found the ring this summer on the same golf course that Lorenzo lost the ring on 54 years ago. Michael Zenert was near the fourth green at Uniontown Country Club near Pittsburgh when he found the ring in a clay splotch that had been exposed by recent rains.
“I saw this shiny thing and I thought it was a beer can tab,” said Zenert, 70. “I dug it out so no one would step on it and I saw it was a ring.” He cleaned it up and saw it was a U.S. Naval Academy ring, class of 1964, with Lorenzo’s name engraved on the inside.
On Friday, Zenert returned the ring to Lorenzo at the National Naval Aviation Museum at Naval Air Station Pensacola, where Lorenzo is a volunteer and also the narrator for the Tuesday Blue Angels practices and Wednesday autograph sessions with the U.S. Navy’s elite flight demonstration team.
“Let’s see if it still fits,” Zenert said after handing Lorenzo the ring in front of family members, friends and museum staff.
“I never thought I would see it again,” Lorenzo said. “It was very sad when I lost it, and this means a lot.” Lorenzo’s wife, Cathy, purchased him a new one years later, identical to the ring he lost. It’s on his hand now. But Lorenzo tried to put his old ring on as well. It had been so long.
“Does it fit?” Zenert asked.
“Very close,” Lorenzo said, holding up his hand. “I can get it to the first knuckle.”
He’s bigger now. Wiser and older too.
Mike Zenert, of Irwin, Pennsylvania, points to Dave Lorenzo’s Naval Academy ring worn by his wife Cathy Lorenzo at the National Naval Aviation Museum onboard NAS Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. David Lorenzo, a 1964 Naval Academy graduate and former Marine F8 fighter pilot, lost his 1964 Naval Academy ring while golfing in Pennsylvania over 50 years ago in the early 1970’s. Mike recently found it at that golf course, tracked down Lorenzo and personally delivered it to him.
Gregg Pachkowski/Pensacola News Journal
“I was 145 pounds soaking wet back then with a 28-inch waist,” Lorenzo said. “That’s about 50 pounds and 10 inches” difference from the present.”
Zenert and his wife, Carol, live near Pittsburgh, but he was able to track Lorenzo down through the internet after finding a podcast where Lorenzo talked about his military experiences.
“I just knew I couldn’t send this in the mail,” Zenert said of the ring. “I knew it had to be personally delivered.”
So, after a trip to Orlando to see his son, the couple drove to Pensacola, arriving Thursday night and meeting with the Lorenzos Friday at the museum.
Zenert presented Lorenzo the class ring in front of an F-8 Crusader on display, similar to the one Lorenzo flew in combat. The supersonic fighter jet is known as the “Last of the Gunfighters” because it was the last fighter jet with guns as its primary weapons.
Soon, with a Santa hat he had brought with him to take Christmas photos at the museum, the gray-bearded Zenert was in the cockpit, with Lorenzo on the side of the jet showing the cockpit’s features to him. Zenert’s face was covered with a Santa-sized smile.
“This is amazing,” he said. “I’ve always loved planes and this place is fantastic. I think I’m having an overload, it’s that cool.”
Watching the two men talk over the cockpit were their wives, Cathy Lorenzo and Carol Zenert, and a host of Museum officials and volunteers, including retired U.S. Navy Capt. Sterling Gilliam, National Naval Aviation Museum director, and retired U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Kyle Cozad, president and CEO of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. Also, there was Lorenzo’s longtime friend Debbie Naylor, a museum volunteer and longtime Delta Airlines flight attendant who has known him since the first Nixon term.
Lorenzo went to fly for Delta after heroically serving with the Marine Corps for six years and the two met there. He retired from Delta in 2002.
“He’s just an absolutely amazing person − what he’s done and accomplished,” Naylor said. “He is so talented and knowledgeable. I used to call him ‘the Encyclopedia’ because he just knew everything. Now, I call him ‘Mr. Google’ because the young people now don’t know what an encyclopedia is.”
Don’t expect to this see down at your local muni anytime soon.
Ok, so this isn’t really about golf, but the guys at Grind Hard Plumbing Co. have created perhaps the craziest golf cart.
Not actually a plumbing company, Grind Hard is a group of friends in South Dakota who like to make custom motorized vehicles. Their website also has a cool selection of merch.
In a video on their YouTube channel, Grind Hard shows off a golf cart that was suped-up with an engine from a Yamaha R1 street bike. The R1 is famous for how fast it is. And this golf cart flies, although the narrator admits there’s no front brakes, questionable rear brakes, a could-be-better roll cage and a frame that they actually broke during one of the rides.
This particular video is about an hour long but you get the gist of everything in the first minute or so. Just don’t expect to this see down at your local muni anytime soon.
Caitlin Clark loves her some golf. Just after the WNBA season ended for her Indiana Fever squad, Clark said she’d be hitting the golf course soon, joking that “I’ll become a professional golfer.”
On Monday, video surfaced on TikTok of Clark at a golf course, where she teed one up on a par 3 and then got all jazzed after getting it close to the hole, her ball stopping about three feet away.
“Is this like a ‘We’re good’?” she asked. “I don’t think so,” was the reply from her playing partner.
Despite playing on some recently aerated greens, Clark then drained the putt and let out a “YES!”
PopStroke will soon have 17 locations in six states.
The first PopStroke opened in Florida in 2019 and there are now 15 locations in six states. The 16th will open soon in San Antonio and then all eyes will be on No. 17.
That’s the one that PopStroke is calling its “flagship” venue.
Billed as the most expansive build-out yet, the Palm Beach, Florida, location will have an outdoor rooftop pool and a sushi lounge.
Popstroke calls its experiences “elevated mini golf and entertainment venues backed by Tiger Woods and TaylorMade.”
PopStroke is also currently engaged in a fundraiser throughout the month of October in partnership with The Jimmy Fund and The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. PopStroke is donating $1 from every round of golf, with $100,000 already raised for The Jimmy Fund.
Let’s take a closer look at the lefties on the PGA Tour.
About 10 percent of the U.S. population is left-handed but there has only been 17 lefties to win on the PGA Tour.
One place they can find common ground is the official website of being left-handed, lefthandersday.com, where it appears the struggle is real:
“August 13th is a chance to tell your family and friends how proud you are of being left-handed, and also raise awareness of the everyday issues that lefties face as we live in a world designed for right-handers.”
August 13, 2024, marked the 33rd annual International Lefthanders Day. On that site, you can purchase things such as left-handed scissors. For left-handed golf clubs, you’re probably better off looking elsewhere.
Fifteen non-righties have combined to win 86 times on the PGA Tour, led by you-know-who, Phil Mickelson.
With Brian Harman’s win at Royal Liverpool in 2023, there have now been three lefties to win the Open Championship, joining Bob Charles (1963) and Phil Mickelson (2013).
