The NCCGA will be hosting 56 amateur golf tournaments this Spring at some of the best public golf courses around the country. This season's hosts rank among some of the best the courses the NCCGA has ever played in the regional portion of the schedule. From top campus courses, to top 100 public courses, these facilities have been chosen based on location, quality, and affordability for our teams. Below we have featured some of the top tournaments hosts for this Spring:
Harborside International Golf Center:
Chicago, IL
Great Lakes Region
Harborside International Golf Center
Located just a few minutes from downtown Chicago, Harborside is home to two of Golfweek's "Best Courses You Can Plan in Illinois". It is also home to one of the best practice facilities in Illinois. The driving range includes bent grass tees, practice target greens, and short game practice areas. These top rated courses, proximity to downtown Chicago, and extensive practice area makes this an ideal host for amateur golf tournaments. The two championship courses, Port and Starboard, were designed by Dick Nugent and are links styled courses. Harborside hosts many competitive events every year and was host to a PGA Champions TOUR event in 2002. The Great Lakes Regional Event on April 11/12 will be feature a round on each the Port and Starboard courses.
Sign up for Great Lakes Regional #2
The Golf Courses of Lawsonia:
Green Lake, WI
North Region
The Woodlands - Lawsonia
The Golf Courses of Lawsonia, located in Central Wisconsin, offers two championship courses, The Links and The Woodlands. Lawsonia was voted 2008 "Wisconsin Golf Course of the Year" and is consistently ranked in top 50 classic golf courses in the country. The NCCGA has hosted amateur golf tournaments a few times at Lawsonia and each event has been a great experience. This spring, the tournament will be hosted on The Woodlands course, which offers a challenging 18 holes carved into oak, maple, pine, elm and walnuts trees. Be sure to stop to enjoy the lakeshore panorama on hole #3 and a century old quarry at hole #2. The North Regional event will be held here on April 11/12.
Lyman Orchards Golf Club:
Middlefield, CT
Southern New England Region
Lyman Orchards Golf Club
Lyman Orchards, like the previous two venues, features two championship golf courses designed by Hall of Fame architect Robert Trent Jones and Hall of Fame golfer Gary Player. The NCCGA tournament will be playing The Jones Course on Saturday and The Player Course on Sunday. The Jones course features rolling hills on the front nine and several dog legs on the back nine as the course weaves through woodlands, wetlands, and grasslands. The Players course is situated in an apple orchard and requires accuracy off the tee due to its tight fairways and 34 well-positioned bunkers.
Sign up for Southern New England Regional #1
The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail At Hampton Cove:
Owens Crossroads, AL
South Region
The South #1 regional event will take place at Hampton Cove on March 28th & 29th on The River Course. This golf course is a pristine golf destination for golf tournaments as it makes its home along the Flint River in Alabama. The course was built on former soybean fields and is very challenging due to the fact that 16 of 18 holes including water.
Hampton Cove - River Course
Championship Golf Course At University of New Mexico:
Albuquerque, NM
Desert Region
UNM Championship Golf Course
The Championship Golf Course at University of New Mexico is not only one of the top rated campus courses in the country, it is consistently ranked one of the top daily fee public facilities in the country. Golf Digest has named the course "Top 25: America's Best Public Golf Courses" and "A Four Star Award in Places to Play". The accolades continue as Golf Magazine has named the course a "Top 100 Course you can Play" not once, but three times. In addition to being highly rated, the Championship course has hosted top amateur golf tournaments including the 1998 NCAA Men's Championship, 2008 NCAA Women's Championship, PGA Tour Qualifying 1978, and the Nike Tour in 1996. The University of New Mexico Club Golf Team will be looking to defend home turf on April 11/12.
While we have highlighted a handful of courses in this short list, the NCCGA is able to compete at 56 amazing venues across the country this spring. Our golfers not only get to experience a great variety of courses, but also some of the highest quality courses around. Be sure to stay up-to-date with all the tournament action this spring!
** Tom Thrift is a Zone Manager at Nextgengolf. Direct questions about courses in your area or how to start a team to: tom@nextgengolf.org
