Tullymore Classic Week Is Here

I am, as I post this, at Tullymore for a round of golf just prior to the tournament playing …I’ll post photos later today.

Tullymore Classic Week Arrives: Future LPGA Stars Shine at Tullymore

CANADIAN LAKES – Tullymore Golf Resort, an award-winning world-class golf and lodging destination in the heart of Michigan, is the place to be every week, but especially this week.

For the second consecutive year the Tullymore Classic, a Symetra Tour event featuring the future stars of the LPGA Tour, will unfold on the Fourth of July Weekend. Play is slated for Friday through Sunday (July 1-3) in a 54-hole, $100,000 tournament on the resort’s championship course.

The fun with the golf professionals starts Monday (June 27), though, when several Symetra Tour golfers participate in the special Eagle Village Pro-Am at Katke Golf Course in Big Rapids to benefit Eagle Village’s youth programs. Katke, on the campus of Ferris State University, is sponsoring the site and golf packages. Tullymore is underwriting the cost of the professionals playing with foursomes that day.

The Eagle Village Pro-Am leads into Tuesday practice rounds and a junior clinic from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Tullymore Golf Resort. Junior golfers will get tips from touring professionals and Tullymore head PGA golf professional Scot Cucksey, who said some openings remain for junior golfers in the clinic. Go to www.tullymoreclassic.com for a link to have your junior golfer involved.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday admission is complimentary while Friday, Saturday and Sunday tournament day tickets will be available at the main entrance; one day general admission $10, three-day general admission $18.

Pro-am days are Wednesday and Thursday presented by SpartanNash, on behalf of its Our Family® and Spartan® exclusive private brands, and the Canadian Lakes Property Owners Corporation.

Canadian Lakes Property Owners are sponsoring the Wednesday Pro-Am Day, in part to promote their vibrant private residential area one hour north of Grand Rapids. Within 11 square miles members and their guests can experience lakes, boating, fishing, beaches, golf, tennis, pickelball, softball, indoor and outdoor pools, disc golf, volleyball, sledding, dining and more.

SpartanNash will be sponsoring the Thursday Pro-Am Day, and hosting girls’ high school golf teams. The fifth largest food distributor in the United States is inviting the high school golfers as its guests for the entire week, including a junior clinic, the Pro-Ams and the three rounds of the Symetra Tour championship.

The Tullymore Golf Resort Festival Craft Beer Tent is another reason Tullymore is the place to be on the Fourth of July Weekend.

The popular band “Honesty and The Liars” will play live music, and the craft beer tent will feature beers like Bells Oberon, Bells Two Hearted, Saugatuck Brewing Company, Leinenkugel and much more on Friday evening (July 1). The craft beer tent will be open from 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., and “Honesty and the Liars” will perform starting at 7:30 p.m.

Craft beer tent vouchers for $10 each are on sale now at the Tullymore Clubhouse at the resort and will be limited to 300 people. A voucher includes admittance to the tent, entertainment, swag and two beers. Visitors will have to bring the pre-purchased voucher to the tent to obtain a wrist band and their two beer tokens. Additional beer tokens can be purchased at $5 each or four for $15. Festival goers must be 21 years or older to enter the craft beer tent, and must have the pre-purchased voucher. The resort asks that visitors drink responsibly and always assign a designated driver.

Cucksey said the second Tullymore Classic promises to match and exceed the first presented last year on the same Fourth of July weekend.

“Our volunteers, our members, our staff, everybody learned so much last year and are excited to bring another great tournament to Tullymore Golf Resort and Canadian Lakes,” he said. “This area is a wonderful place to be on the Fourth of July, and it’s great to be a part of it once again.”

Two distinct world-class golf courses welcome golfers to Tullymore, including the award-winning Tullymore course designed by the renowned James Engh, which will play host to the pros in the Tullymore Classic.

In addition, St. Ives Golf Club is a prime example of the best design work by Michigan’s own Jerry Matthews. The 36 holes of great golf wind amid 800 acres of glacier-carved rolling Michigan woodlands and wetlands in the captivating Canadian Lakes area.

The luxuriously appointed accommodations and premium amenities like indoor and outdoor pools, and two comfortable clubhouses with great dining service options make for more reasons to visit and stay for a while. Choose from a getaway for two in the cozy inns, or a cottage, condominium or rental home for an unforgettable few days away or even a home away from home.

The championship will tee off on Friday and conclude on Sunday with the top 144 up-and-coming professionals in women’s golf will competing. The winner will earn $15,000 and have an opportunity to move into the top-10 on the Volvik Race for the Card money list. The top-10 on the year-end Symetra Tour money list earns LPGA Tour membership for the 2016 season.

Meanwhile, the golf staff is working to make sure the Tullymore course is ready for the world-class competition. Superintendent Alex Greenacre and his staff will work with the LPGA to provide a perfect tournament course condition. Cucksey is making sure golf operations run smoothly so resort visitors can enjoy the experience as they play where the pros will be playing in July.

Last July in the inaugural Tullymore Classic, Daniela Iacobelli, who was born in Detroit and lived in Michigan until she was a teenager, birdied three of her final four holes and drained a clutch birdie putt at No. 18 to win by a stroke.

Iacobelli is on the LPGA Tour this year after her win at Tullymore and seven other top-10 finishes put her fifth on the Volvik Race for the Card money list at the conclusion of the 2015 season. The top-10 each year earns LPGA Tour membership for the next season.

Iacobelli and the other tour members gave Tullymore Golf Resort rave reviews for is golf course, tournament presentation, hospitality and especially the golf fans last year’s tournament attracted. Several of them as well as Symetra Tour officials cited the crowds as among the largest and most enthusiastic on the entire schedule.

Tullymore Golf Resort is a must-stop for golfers who want to play, stay and watch. The resort has hauled in a page of awards and honors including being named Michigan’s No. 1 Golf Resort and one of the Top 50 Golf Resorts in the U.S. in the 2010 Golf World Readers’ Choice Awards. In addition, the resort was named the Silver Medal Winner – Premier Resorts 2010 – The Best Destinations in Golf by Golf Magazine. As for the Tullymore course, it has earned a five-star rating from Golf Digest several times since 2007 and has been ranked among the top 100 Greatest Courses in America multiple times.

Visit www.tullymoreclassic.com for more tournament information and to be a part of the Tullymore Classic.

Visit www.tullymoregolf.com for resort information

2016 TULLYMORE CLASSIC SCHEDULE

TUESDAY – Practice Rounds for pros and Junior Golf Clinic, 3-5 p.m., complimentary admission; Meet The Pros Party – Invitation Only

WEDNESDAY – Practice Rounds for pros, 7 a.m. – Noon, complimentary admission; Canadian Lakes Property Owners Corporation Pro-Am, 1 p.m. shotgun start, complimentary admission for spectators

THURSDAY – Practice Rounds for pros, 7 a.m. – 10:30am, complimentary admission; SpartanNash Pro-Am, 11:30 a.m. shotgun start, complimentary admission for spectators

FRIDAY – First Round of Tournament Play – 7:30 a.m. First Tee Time

SATURDAY – Second Round of Tournament Play – 7:30 a.m. First Tee Time

SUNDAY – Final Round of Tournament Play – 7:30 a.m. First Tee Time

Via Greg Johnson