Northern Hickory Golf Tour 2025

/ The Grateful Golfer / 1 Comment

The 6th annual Northern Hickory Tour was conducted over three days, Thursday, August 21 to Saturday, August  23, 2025. This tour is designed to expose golfers to the wonderful world of hickory sticks. The Hickory Stick Ambassadors are great guys to play golf with and provide all the clubs you need to enjoy a round using 100 year old clubs.

Day #1: Location to be determined on the way to North Bay, Ontario.

Day #2: Osprey Links Golf Course

On Friday, our ambassadors will play their hickories at Osprey Links Golf Course, located in Callander Ontario, just outside the City of North Bay. This annual event offers and opportunity to play with hickory stick clubs. All are welcome to come out and give it a try. Tee time is 11 am. The more the merrier!

Day #3: Laurentide Golf Course

On Saturday, our players will journey to Laurentide Golf Course in Sturgeon Falls about 30 minutes west of North Bay. This is the second year in a row the Northern Tour has ventured to this wonderful track. With its upward-sloping bowl-shaped greens which ran off on all sides, approach shots, chipping and putting are challenging. The front nine was tight but the back nine was open. Laurentide is owned by the Mantha family.

To quote Bill Vossen, GHSC Event Coordinator for the North Bay and Sturgeon Falls events:

“Both clubs appreciated our business but they really found the fact that we continue to play with hickory-shafted clubs to be cool and interesting.”

If you are interested in playing on either day you can contact me through this website or text Bill Vossen at 705 472 1512.

By letting us know you are interested in playing, Bill will know how many tee times to make as well as have enough clubs for everyone. Hope to see you there!

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!

Consistently Hitting Your Aim Point

/ The Grateful Golfer / 2 Comments

Every golfer tries to hit their target. The process to accomplish this fundamental part of golf is the bane of many players. For some reason, they miss their target because of many swing mechanic faults. Of course, we all want to fix these challenges and over time practice is the only real approach to fixing swing errors. In my case, I have a slightly different error that causes me to miss my aim point to the left. It is a fundamental challenge that has become more apparent due to my changes in how I hit my approach shots. I am still working through this primary error and believe I have a way ahead that will help lower my golf scores.

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Playing Your Best Game Of Golf

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Every once in awhile, we hit the links and from the first tee shot our game is dialed in. That is what happened to me yesterday. I played my first match play game in the Club Championship tournament against the current club champion, Misha. Right from the beginning, I was on fire and I ended up playing the best game of the year. Unfortunately, Misha did not have his best game and the outcome reversed from last year. I always wonder why from one day to the next how my game can change. I think I know why yesterday I was successful, but there is definitely a larger picture on this topic.

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Playing Winning Golf

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As I watch the Open this weekend from the Dunluce Course, which refers to the championship course at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland, I am trying to figure out the solution to playing winning golf. The professionals all have a plan on how to play this challenging course and I am sure it is tailormade to their game; execution of that plan will be the challenge. Many amateurs, including myself most of the time, do not develop a plan but play reactive golf. We determine our next move by the result of our previous shot. This is a fun way to play golf, but not necessarily conducive to low golf scores. We are not playing winning golf, but hope and prayer golf. And that needs to change.

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Regaining My Golf Swing After A Month Off

/ The Grateful Golfer / 3 Comments

In the middle of June I had an operation that put me out of commission until just recently. It is nothing serious, but something that needed to be taken care of sooner than later. Yesterday, I went and played 12 holes and felt very good after finishing. I purposely have been taking my time getting back into a full round in order not to reinjure myself and delay my full return. As I was swinging away, right from the first tee, I noticed that my ball direction was not as consistent as normal. Sometimes I would tug the ball left or slice the ball right. Overall, the first few holes was definitely not as smooth as normal. That is okay, because I realized what I was doing and was able to straighten out my swing errors by the end of the 12 holes.

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