Tag: New Jersey

Pain-free Nelly Korda comes into KPMG Women’s PGA at Baltusrol off a month-plus break, has new instructor

Nelly Korda tackles Baltusrol with a pain-free back and a new coach.

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. – Nelly Korda didn’t touch a club for several weeks after lower back pain resulted in a forced spring break. When the 24-year-old returned to work, it was with a new swing instructor. Jason Baile, director of instruction at Jupiter Hills Club in Florida, started working with the former World No. 1 a week and a half ago and this week is at Baltusrol Golf Club helping Korda prepare for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

“A couple of my sister’s friends work with him,” said Korda, who noted that LIV’s Peter Uihlein is among them. “I heard he’s really good, so testing him out.”

They’ve mostly worked on setup, she said, moving closer to the ball and getting her right shoulder more through the ball rather than stuck behind it.

Korda, currently No. 2 in the world, hasn’t won this season but has notched six top-six finishes. She’s one of four players on tour ranked in the top 20 in both strokes gained off-the-tee (third) and strokes gained putting (16th).

Korda trails only Jin Young Ko in strokes gained total per round.

This isn’t the first time Korda, an eight-time winner on the LPGA, has dealt with lower back pain, which caused her to withdraw from the KPMG at Aronimink three years ago after the first round.

HOW TO WATCH: 2023 KPMG Women’s PGA

This time around, Korda couldn’t point to a specific shot or movement that caused the pain, but she immediately talked to her doctor about it and decided to take several weeks of rest before it worsened. Korda’s last round on the LPGA was May 12 at the Cognizant Founders Cup, where she missed the cut. She’s now pain-free.

“There’s a lot of torque in the golf swing,” said Korda, “so I feel like I’m not the only golfer that kind of struggles with the low back.

“Also, when you’re traveling four weeks in a row, different beds, flying out right after your round, sometimes you just tweak it and you just need to take rest.”

Nelly Korda walks the first fairway with her team during a practice round before the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club on June 19, 2023 in Springfield, New Jersey. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Nelly’s sister, Jessica Korda, 30, announced late last month that she was taking a break from the tour indefinitely to try to get her back healthy.

“I think coming from a family that has played sports throughout their entire life, it just comes with it,” said Nelly. “You look at so many athletes, they all go through something. I can only speak on let’s say tennis, where you see (Rafael) Nadal, who battled with so many injuries throughout his entire career.

“It’s something you constantly learn from.”

Korda said her split from her previous instructor, Jamie Mulligan, was about time management more than anything else, and they remain close. She also still considers David Whelan part of her team. She sees Whelan often at Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida, when she’s at home, mostly casually. Korda started working with Whelan at age 14.

“Even when he doesn’t say anything, just the fact that he is there with me at practice makes me very comfortable,” she said. “I am where I am because of him.”

As the world’s best women take on Baltusrol’s Lower Course for the first time since 1961, Korda said the first four holes will be crucial. Getting through them in even par is a big goal for the week.

“They’re big, monstrous kind of holes,” she said.

Baltusrol’s dual courses (the Upper and the Lower) have hosted 16 USGA Championships and two PGA Championships. The championship tradition began in 1901 with the U.S. Women’s Amateur. Jack Nicklaus won two U.S. Open titles on Baltusrol’s Lower Course. Mickey Wright and Phil Mickelson won here, too.

“The club just bleeds major championship golf,” said PGA chief championships officer Kerry Haigh.

Korda was blown away Monday by the condition of the A.W. Tillinghast design, which was restored in 2020 by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner and reopened in 2021. The Lower ranks No. 35 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses in the U.S., and the Upper ties for No. 62. Both courses rank among the top 10 private clubs in New Jersey.

With rain in the forecast, players will face a different test than they’ve seen so far in sunny and dry practice rounds. The club’s new drainage and sub-surface air system might be put to the test before the weekend.

The rough, last cut on Sunday, is right where they want it. Korda said she tried to hit 6-irons from the rough and they came out as knuckle balls, dead left. Haigh said the PGA plans to top it off Wednesday and again Friday if needed.

“I enjoy these kinds of golf courses where you have to kind of think a little bit more,” said Korda, “and it’s a very demanding golf course as well … everything has to click for you this week in order to perform well.”

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What’s the holdup with this new municipal golf course and complex in the New York City metro area?

The facility includes an 18-hole golf course, driving range, short-game practice area, practice putting green and mini-golf area.

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OLD BRIDGE. N.J. – A spokesperson for a township just south of New York City said its new golf complex will not open until a management firm is found to run the facility.

The complex’s driving range is expected to open by the end of July, but that is subject to finding a management firm, Township Business Administrator and Director of Finance/CFO Himanshu Shah said.

“The range opening may be delayed if we don’t have a management company in place,” he added.

The course is expected to open in late fall, Shah said. Old Bridge is just south of New Brunswick, which sits near the southern tip of Staten Island.

“It is very difficult for a municipality to operate such a facility,” Shah said. “There is a lot of intricacy required.”

Old Bridge Golf Club at Rose Lambertson is located on the north and south side of Lambertson Road. The facility includes an 18-hole golf course, driving range, short-game practice area, practice putting green and mini-golf area.

Old Bridge Golf Club at Rose Lambertson is expected to open later this year.
The project also includes a 6,000-square-foot clubhouse, 5,000-square-foot maintenance building, eight bioretention basins and six wet ponds for stormwater management throughout the golf course.

Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play 2023: State-by-state rankings for public-access layouts

As part of a redevelopment agreement, Efrem Gerszberg, owner of 2020 Acquisitions, a national real estate development company, agreed to build the course, at no cost to the township, and turn it over to the township.

At its June 13 meeting, the Township Council unanimously approved going out to bid for a management company to operate the complex.

The township will maintain ownership of the land and the golf course, township officials said.

One of the conditions of the contract, Shah said, is the selected provider make annual payments to the township,

It’s unusual for a governmental entity to operate and manage a golf course because employees don’t have the expertise, Township Attorney Mark Roselli said.

Roselli explained that competitive contracting is being used because it is “designed for specialized services and the operation of a golf course is certainly a specialized service.”

“It’s not a situation where you go out for the lowest responsible bidder because there’s so many different issues involved in managing and operating the golf course,” he said.

The management firm will be responsible for the operating, upkeep and maintenance, but also acquiring the necessary equipment for operating a golf course and the concession stand, Roselli said. The concession stand will also be management’s responsibility, he added.

“It’s not unusual to do it this way,” Roselli said. “It’s a win-win. It’s a large undertaking, but the goal is to seek and obtain it from someone who has the expertise in operating it, so that we can move forward.”

The course will have a four-tier rate schedule, with the lowest rate for Old Bridge residents, followed by Middlesex County residents, then state residents and then out-of-state residents, as required under the Green Acres agreement.

Email: sloyer@gannettnj.com Susan Loyer covers Middlesex County and more for MyCentralJersey.com. To get unlimited access to her work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

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Golfweek’s Best Private Courses 2023: State-by-state rankings of private courses

Golfweek’s Best 2023: The top private golf courses in each state.

Want to find the best private golf courses in each state? You’re in the right spot, and welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of top private layouts as judged by our international panel of raters.

The hundreds of members of that ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings.

All the courses on this list are private and don’t accept daily-fee or resort play. We also publish a separate list of top public-access layouts in each state.

KEY: (m) modern, built in 1960 or after; (c) classic, built before 1960. For courses with a number preceding the (m) or (c), that is where the course ranks on Golfweek’s Best lists for top 200 modern and classic courses in the U.S.

* indicates new or returning to the rankings

Editor’s note: The Golfweek’s Best 2023 rankings of top 200 Modern and top 200 Classic Courses will be released June 19.

More Golfweek’s Best for 2023:

New NJ little league rule: If you confront the ump, step behind the plate yourself

Do you take issue with an umpire’s call? Step up behind the plate and see if you can do any better. That’s a new New Jersey little league rule to combat confrontations between umps and fans.

A New Jersey little league is telling unruly fans to put up or shut up.

The Deptford Township Little League has instituted a new rule this season to combat the number of arguments between fans and umpires. Spectators who confront umpires during a baseball game must umpire three games before they are allowed back to watch, according to USA TODAY.

This comes in the wake of two volunteer umpires quitting from mid- to late-April, the league’s president Don Bozzuffi told WPVI.

“They’re being abused, they don’t need that … So they’re walking away,” he said to the TV station.

Parents arguing with umpires is by no means a new phenomenon, but combativeness appears to be worsening in many areas. Bozzuffi said that the goal of the rule is not for parents to start calling baseball games but instead for them to see how difficult of a job it is.

For safe measure, if the rule does force a spectator to call the game, a certified umpire will also be at the game to ensure calls are correct.

Maybe fans will see that their usual vantage point from the stands is not as accurate as the one of an umpire behind the plate.

“They think that the call was bad, which always amazes me that they can see a strike better over there than the umpire can one foot in back of them,” Bozzuffi said.

WPVI reported that people generally liked the rule. Bozzuffi said the kids are excited about it, and even some parents are looking forward to its implementation.

More Stories:

Tennessee high school baseball team’s season ends after pitch count violation wipes out no-hitter

Friday Night Notes: Notre Dame’s dominance, Dylan Raiola update and more

Top 10 Notre Dame men’s basketball players according to ChatGPT

Let’s see what AI knows about Irish men’s hoops.

For the past few months, I’ve heard quite a bit about the AI information bot known as ChatGPT. It was the subject of an episode during this past season of “South Park”. More importantly, I’ve heard how it’s such a game-changer that writing jobs are done for. We’ll see about that as I’m not too worried about it, but then again, I’m sure newspaper employees said the same thing about the internet in the mid-1990s.

When our editor Nick Shepkowski decided to ask ChatGPT what it thought Notre Dame’s 10 best football players were, I decided to follow suit and ask the same question but for the 10 best men’s basketball players instead. Keep in mind that even the bot knows this list is subjective:

“Please note that there are many other outstanding players who have played for Notre Dame and could also be included on this list.”

So keep that in mind as you go over the following list, which also includes ChatGPT’s description of each player:

Tiger Woods to build golf course in New Jersey for baseball star Mike Trout

Tiger Woods, Mike Trout partner up to build upscale private course in New Jersey.

Baseball star Mike Trout has partnered with Tiger Woods to build a private golf course in Vineland, New Jersey. Named Trout National – The Reserve, the 18-hole layout will be about 45 minutes south of Philadelphia and is slated to open in 2025.

“I’m so excited to finally officially announce that we’re doing this project, and doing it in a community that means so much to me,” Trout, a three-time American League Most Valuable Player who plays for the Los Angeles Angels, said in a press release. “I was born in Vineland and raised in Millville. I met my wife, Jessica, in Millville, and my parents and siblings and in-laws still live in the area. I could put down roots anywhere in the country, but Jessica and I make South Jersey our offseason home and always cherish the time we get to spend there.”

Construction on Trout National – The Reserve will begin this year.

The club, which is being developed with John and Lorie Ruga, owners of Northeast Precast of Vineland, is being constructed between Sheridan Avenue and Route 55.

“I love South Jersey and I love golf, so creating Trout National – The Reserve is a dream come true,” Trout said. “And then to add to that we’ll have a golf course designed by Tiger? It’s just incredible to think that this project has grown to where we’re going to be working with someone many consider the greatest and most influential golfer of all time.”

Woods and his archeticture firm, TGR Design, is also creating a new short course as part of Cobbs Creek Golf Club in Philadelphia.

“I’ve always watched Mike on the diamond, so when an opportunity arose to work with him on Trout National – The Reserve, I couldn’t pass it up,” Woods said in the press release. “It’s a great site for golf, and our team’s looking forward to creating a special course for Mike, Jessica, John and Lorie (Ruga).”

The will also have a “cutting-edge” practice range, short-game area, clubhouse, restaurant, “five-star” lodging, a wedding chapel and more.

“We’re going to be doing some really cool things from a service and offering standpoint,” Trout said. “Although plans aren’t finalized quite yet, I’ll put it to you this way – this will not be your grandparents’ country club.”

The release said the course will leverage the site’s topography, including deciduous and evergreen forest in places and rolling farmland in others. The sandy site was once home to a silica sand mine, so drainage and turf conditions should be excellent, according to the release. As TGR Design becomes more immersed in the project, additional details will be released.

“Mike’s a great guy and we both care deeply about our community,” John Ruga said in the release. “Like Mike, I always dreamed about the possibility of opening a truly one-of-a-kind golf club. When we met and started talking about our individual visions, it became clear that we were on the same page. Trout National – The Reserve is going to be the place where members gather to enjoy an unforgettable club experience. Equally as important, we’re focused on making the club a catalyst for job creation and economic development in our area, while also exploring ways for non-members to enjoy it.”

TGR Design, with Beau Welling and Scott Benson as senior design consultants, has constructed several full-size courses and short courses around North America. The firm’s Bluejack National ranks No. 3 in Texas on Golfweek’s Best list of private courses and No. 62 on Golfweek’s Best list of modern courses in the United States. Payne’s Valley at Big Cedar Lodge ranks No. 4 in Missouri on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access layouts, and El Cardonal at Diamante Cabo San Lucas ranks No. 26 on Golfweek’s Best list of courses in Mexico, the Caribbean, the Atlantic islands and Central America.

– Golfweek’s Jason Lusk contributed to this report.

Where is Fairleigh Dickinson, the No. 16 seed with the historic upset of No. 1 Purdue?

Where is Fairleigh Dickinson, the No. 16 seed who just took down No. 1 seed Purdue?

Fairleigh Dickinson shocked the basketball world on Friday night by becoming only the second-ever No. 16 seed to take down a No. 1 seed in the NCAA men’s tournament.

The 63-58 victory over star-studded Purdue has plenty of people wondering who exactly Fairleigh Dickinson is and where they come from.

Well, the school is located in Hackensack, New Jersey. Fairleigh Dickinson describes itself as “the largest private university in New Jersey” and that it’s a “not-for-profit, nonsectarian, multicampus institution.”

Fairleigh Dickinson’s website says it was founded in 1942 and estimates it has 12,000-plus full-time and part-time students.

This is the school’s seventh appearance in the NCAA men’s tournament.

The Knights won a play-in game over fellow No. 16 seed Prairie View View A&M in 2019 before losing to No. 1 Gonzaga.

Fairleigh Dickinson now joins University of Maryland, Baltimore County as the second team to ever take down a No. 1 seed in the NCAA men’s tournament.

It’s history that will reverberate in New Jersey and beyond for years to come.

Notre Dame commit among finalists for national player of the year

Quite the honor for the future Irish star.

The Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year has ended up at Notre Dame a few times. [autotag]Brianna Turner[/autotag] won it in 2014 and [autotag]Skylar Diggins[/autotag] in 2009. Two other winners, Erin Boley in 2016 and Michelle Marciniak in 1991, began their collegiate careers at Notre Dame but transferred elsewhere after one season. Another player could soon be joining those ranks.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] of Paul VI in Haddonfield, New Jersey, committed to the Irish on Nov. 15. This came a few months after winning gold with the U.S. in the FIBA U17 Women’s World Cup. Now, she is one of three finalists for the Gatorade National Girls Player of the Year.

When Hidalgo announced her decision to commit to the Irish, [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] said the following:

“Irish eyes are smiling! We are ecstatic to welcome five-star point guard Hannah Hidalgo to the ND family!  Hannah brings swag, competitiveness, and a relentless drive that will instantly elevate our program. She is-multi dimensional, lightning fast and tenacious defensively with a scorer’s mentality and a high basketball IQ.  Hannah does a great job of pushing pace and making everyone around her better.  The Joyce Center will be electric to watch one of the fastest backcourts in the country with the additions of Hannah, Cass Prosper and Emma Risch.”

Here are some profiles of Hidalgo and the other two finalists for this award:

Vineland, New Jersey hosting ‘Parade For Pop’ to celebrate Chiefs RB Isiah Pacheco

#Chiefs RB Isiah Pacheco’s hometown is hosting ‘The Parade For Pop’ on April 23 to celebrate their newest Super Bowl champion.

Kansas City Chiefs RB Isiah Pacheco already has “Isiah Pacheco Day” in his hometown of Vineland, New Jersey, but now he’s getting a parade to honor his latest achievement.

Vineland Mayor Anthony Fanucci announced last week that the town would celebrate the Super Bowl LVII champion with “The Parade for Pop” on Sunday, April 23 beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. It’ll feature both a parade and rally, which likely be similar to the parade and rally they had back when they gave him the key to the city and retired his jersey at Vineland South High School back in June.

Speaking to The W Show’s Steve Walls at the 101 Awards this past weekend, Pacheco explained what this honor from his hometown means to him.

“I can only imagine how — I had a parade when I got the key to the city,” Pacheco said. “So, this one’s going to be a little bit different. Last year, one of our Vineland players from Vineland (South) High School, my ex-teammate (Rams OL Jamil Demby), won the Super Bowl with the LA Rams last year. So back-to-back in the City of Vineland, it’s something special to the community. It’s moments we can’t get like this for us to represent New Jersey and your community and Cumberland county, I’ll do whatever I’ve got to do to put that respect on the face of the community.”

That community is eager to celebrate its latest Super Bowl champion.

“So many residents of Cumberland County are eager to demonstrate their admiration for Isiah’s accomplishments,” Mayor Fanucci said, via WPG Talk Radio. “This community rally will be an opportunity for all of us to offer our congratulations to our hometown hero upon achieving his dreams of becoming a World Champion, and for being such a wonderful ambassador for the City of Vineland.”

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N.J. angler lands giant albacore, breaks 38-year-old record

A New Jersey angler’s October catch of a 78-pound albacore has shattered a state record that had stood since 1984.

A New Jersey angler’s October catch of a 78-pound albacore has replaced a state record that had stood since 1984.

The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife announced Wednesday that it has approved Matthew Florio’s record application for his catch aboard the Luna Sea.

Florio was fishing at Hudson Canyon and using a butter fish as bait when the recored albacore struck. The catch measured 48-3/8 inches and beat the previous weight record by 3.4 ounces.

For comparison, the world record for albacore stands at 88 pounds, 2 ounces. That catch occurred at Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, in November 1977.

Albacore, commonly referred to as longfin tuna, are a migratory species  found globally in tropical and warm temperate waters.