Golf

This week marks 35 Par for the Course columns that have been featured in the pages of the News Journal throughout 2025. While it’s not exactly what I envisioned when I first made plans to launch the series, I think it’s been a pretty good run. With that being said, I am retiring the column… for now. I am open to reviving Par for the Course at some point, but right now I have to put it on indefinite hiatus for a number of reasons. First, I am about to dedicate a considerable amount of time in the coming weeks to not only wrapping up what is left of the...

When I first started this column, one of the main goals that I had in mind was to make an honest attempt to pick up the game of golf myself. Admittedly, I haven’t done a great job with that. I managed to work in a couple of lessons early on, but this past spring and summer my goal of actually getting out onto a course, or at least going to the driving range, was sadly unmet. What can I say? Life has been hectic, and my work schedule at the moment really isn’t conducive to picking up new hobbies. Mostly, I have been busy writing about other people’s experiences on...

The 2025 boys golf region championship meet took place on Monday, Sept. 22, at the London Country Club. Collected here are several photos from the meet, including student-athletes from Whitley County, Corbin, North Laurel, South Laurel, Knox Central and Barbourville high schools.

Jeremy Daniels is serving as the newest boys golf head coach at Whitley County High School. A member of the WCHS Class of 2010, he played golf himself as a Colonel for six years. He says that getting to return and take over a program that he was once a member of all those years ago is a “pretty cool” experience. “I like the competitiveness of the sport,” said Daniels, who has also served as a longtime assistant for the school’s varsity baseball team and has volunteered as an assistant football coach at the middle school level in the past. “There is the one-on-one factor, but then it is also...

A while back, I got the idea to try and do some sort of a retrospective on the old Tri-County Country Club for an entry in the Par for the Course series. I bounced the idea off of Corbin High School Boys Golf Head Coach Joe Roberts, who promptly went to work organizing a reunion dinner for old club members at David’s Steakhouse. The reunion dinner took place Monday evening, and while it was somewhat of a small crowd, there were still plenty of entertaining stories to be heard, and I picked up a couple of ideas for potential future column entries. Those in attendance at the dinner were: Roberts, Dork...

It has been a busy month for the Corbin High School golf program... First was a special co-ed tournament that both the Redhounds and Lady Hounds competed in in Lee County, Virginia. The event consisted of 19 teams and 92 total golfers. Corbin finished fourth overall, with Makena Myatt finishing sixth overall as an individual competitor. CHS boys coach Joe Roberts commented that his top three golfers - Brady Webb, Ethan Gambrel, and Clay Botner - are continuing to get better as the summer concludes and we officially enter into the fall season. Roberts commented that the co-ed tournament in Jonesville was a first for the CHS golf program. He expressed...

This week’s column is one I have been thinking about writing since I first launched the series back in January. As someone who has not had a ton of experience actually hitting golf balls, I have often wondered, “Is there really a need for so many different types of balls?” Let’s explore this further… Again, not being the most well-versed person in this particular topic, I decided to go online to give myself a crash course in golf ball science. I found a couple of pretty informative articles that helped to illustrate several things to me, including how golf balls are constructed, when a player should consider investing more money...

Golf enthusiasts in the region are likely already well aware of the talent possessed by Corbin Lady Hound Makena Myatt. She has spent the last couple of years mixing it up against some of the state’s top young golfers as a middle schooler. Now, she is poised to continue her success as a freshman at CHS this fall season. Throughout the summer, she has continued to hone her skills, most recently achieving a major milestone in this year’s nationwide Drive, Chip and Putt youth development competition. According to the information found on its official website, www.drivechipandputt.com, the annual competition is “a joint initiative founded in 2013 by the Masters Tournament,...

In the year 2000, Scott Bishop read a Golf Digest article on scholarship opportunities in girls golf. After asking the superintendent if Whitley County High School could start its own girls golf team, he was tasked with getting it off the ground. Bishop said that the early years were a struggle, but by the mid-2000’s the team was competing for, and winning, regional titles. In recent years, Bishop has served as an assistant coach and has offered private lessons. This year, he is once again being tasked with leading the Lady Colonels as head coach. “I am extremely excited and grateful for the opportunity,” he said. “It is going to...

Austin Reynolds is excited to be back at his old stomping grounds as the new head coach of the Corbin High School girls golf team. As a member of the CHS Class of 2019, he played football and baseball for the Redhounds before going on to develop a love for golf after completing his undergraduate work at Union Commonwealth University, formerly Union College. “I had a buddy who said I should try it,” Reynolds said recently of getting involved with golf. “I have dedicated the last three-and-a-half years to getting good, and I love it now. It’s what I do with my free time.” Reynolds graduated from Union in 2022 with...