Jackson Merriss was born premature was wasn’t expected to survive.

After defying the odds, his parents were told they’d be lucky if he’d ever recognize them.

Then he wasn’t supposed to be able to walk or talk.

But, the 8-year-old from South Carolina defied those predictions and has become a pretty good one-armed golfer, competing against, and often beating, other golfers.

Watch the video below to learn more about Jackson’s touching and amazing story.

Video originally published by The Greenville News. 

SHANGHAI — The PGA Tour has its first Chinese members, and now has reason to believe they won’t be the last.

After a one-year hiatus, the PGA Tour China Series resumes in 2018 under a four-year agreement between the PGA Tour and the China Golf Association (CGA) in which the prize money and number of tournaments will increase.

“These will be brand new tournaments, providing players with more opportunity to participate, as well as to establish a route for China golfers to get through and into the world stage of golf,” said Zhang Xiaoning, president of the CGA. “The development of golf tournaments here is not only helping the tour itself, but also to help China develop better and more professional golfers and to raise the interest of our citizens to the sport of golf.”

The announcement Wednesday was at the HSBC Champions, the only World Golf Championships event in Asia. It was at the HSBC Champions four years ago that the tour first launched the PGA Tour China Series.

The start of the 2017 season was delayed during discussions, and eventually scrapped.

Justin Shin was the leading Canadian on the PGA TOUR China Order of Merit in 2015. That season, the Maple Ridge, B.C., native became the first Canadian to win on the PGA TOUR China series, capturing the United Investment Real Estate WuHan Open en route to a 9th place finish on the Tour’s Order of Merit.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said the tournaments in 2018 would have a minimum purse of 1.5 million Chinese yuan (roughly $225,000), an increase from 2016. He sees success through Dou and Zhang already reaching the PGA Tour after just three years of the China series, and a handful of others on the Web.com.

The HSBC Champions sets aside six spots for Chinese players.

Team Canada Women’s Development Squad coach and director of next generation, Matt Wilson, speaks to the new centralized program where Development Squad athletes will train out of Bear Mountain Resort in B.C. from February to June.

In early October, 18 athletes were named to the Amateur and Development Squads for the 2017-18 season. Learn more about the athletes and the new structure by clicking here.

Springfield, N.J.– Canada’s golf course superintendents cruised to victory over their American counterparts at the inaugural Can Am Cup, earning a 73-point victory at the rain-shortened event.

The Cam Am Cup is a Ryder Cup-style golf and educational event that sees golf course superintendents from Canada square off against their colleagues from the United States.

The Canada contingent built an early lead on day one of the event, which took place at Baltusrol Golf Club. The advantage held up when day two at Canoe Brook Country Club was plagued by heavy rains. Most groups had finished about 13-14 holes before play was suspended and eventually cancelled.

Participants from both sides of the border were the real winners at the Can Am Cup, who mixed golf at a pair of world-class, 36-hole facilities with a series of equally stellar educational sessions.

During Monday’s activities at Baltusrol, attendees had the opportunity to choose between a tour of Baltusrol’s maintenance facility, guided by director of grounds Mark Kuhns, CGCS, and a session with golf course architects Rees Jones and Douglas Carrick on what superintendents need to know about golf course design and renovations.

And then on Tuesday at Canoe Brook, consultant Laura Katen led a presentation on communications and maximizing your professional potential.

To learn more about the Canadian Golf Superintndents Association, visit www.golfsupers.com. And, for more info from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, visit www.gcsaa.org.

SAN ANTONIO, Tex. – Maddie Szeryk paced the Texas A&M Aggies to a second place finish on Tuesday in the Maryb S. Kauth Invitational at Briggs Ranch Country Club.

Szeryk, a returning member to the Team Canada Amateur Squad, posted a final-round 70 (-2) to grab a share of second place individually. The London, Ont., resident finished the 54-hole event at 8 under par (70-68-70), one stroke shy of medallist and Scotland native Connie Jaffrey, a junior at Kansas State.

The runner-up finish marks Szeryk’s fourth top-10 finish in as many events this season with the Aggies. She is coming off a campaign which saw her capture WGCA First Team All-America and First Team All-SEC honours, and rank fourth in the nation with a school-record 71.24 stroke average.

Szeryk was one of 18 Canadian athletes recently named to the 2017-18 Team Canada program – learn more by clicking here.

The Aggies will tee-it-up next at the Trinity Forest Invitational in Dallas, Tex., from Oct. 30-31.

Click here for full scoring.

Canadian golfers are used to all kinds of playing conditions. Blistering hot, cold and windy, wet days and, of course, those dreaded frost delays. When such challenging conditions exist, a superintendent or club committee may take action to try to preserve areas of the course — or the entire course — by instituting a Preferred Lies rule. Comically, I’ve heard this referred to as Lift, Clean and Cheat on more than one occasion.

While professional competitions are rarely played under these circumstances — when weather is extremely poor, they simply suspend play until they can resume or cancel the round — we get numerous questions regarding these so-called “Winter Rules.” The most common one is whether scores for handicapping are permitted when these rules are in effect.

First, let’s define what preferred lies are. Preferred Lies (or Winter Rules) is a local rule that may be adopted by the committee in charge of a course when adverse conditions are so apparent throughout a course that improving the lie of the ball in a specified way would promote fair play and help protect the turf. Scores made when this local rule is in effect must be posted for handicap purposes unless the committee (preferably the Handicap Committee) determines that conditions are so poor that such scores are not to be posted, in which case the committee should really consider suspending play anyway. For clarification, individual golfers playing the course do not independently decide whether scores are acceptable because of this condition.

It’s important to note that there are also pitfalls in adopting Preferred Lies. When invoked, it conflicts with the fundamental principle of playing the ball as it lies. Winter rules are sometimes adopted under the guise of protecting the course when, in fact, the practical effect is just the opposite — it permits moving the ball to the best turf, from which divots are then taken and the course is injured further. Also, Preferred Lies generally lead to lower scores and Handicap Factors. To mitigate this, a committee should ensure that its course’s normal scoring difficulty is maintained as much as possible through the adjustment of tee markers and related methods.

Therefore, while Preferred Lies may seem like a good idea for players and courses, adopting them may be counterintuitive. It’s a good idea to carefully consider each situation or condition before coming to a final decision.

Active score posting season for each province can be found here.

This article was originally published in the Fall Issue of Golf Canada Magazine. Click here to view the full magazine.

Joseph Paris is a writer, speaker, mentor, and “thought leader” in the discipline of “Operational Excellence.” He is the founder of XONITEK, an international consultancy, and the Operational Excellence Society think-tank. He is also a life-long golfer, having learned the game in upstate New York before moving to Germany.

In his words, Operational Excellence is “a comprehensive end-to-end program for the continuous and deliberate improvement of company performance and the circumstances of those who work there.”

In a blog on his company’s website, Paris entertainingly expounds on some of the lessons to be learned from golf for the purposes of business and Operational Excellence. For the purposes of this article, he agreed to streamline several of those pertinent thoughts into some fundamentals familiar to all golfers.

Grip

“In golf, when you have too tight a grip, you become stiff and rigid and you lose flexibility and flow,” says Paris. “You have to loosen your grip during the pursuit of Operational Excellence.  If you have hired good people, you have properly outfitted them, and they are clear on what the strategy is and the tactics to be deployed are, then there is no need to micro-manage them. Let them run. Be there for support, but stay out of their way.”

Posture

Rather than physical posture in golf, this applies more to your mental posture or attitude when it comes to business. “You always have to prepare for the unexpected,” Paris says.  Business, and life in general, have their own version of golf’s “rub of the green,” an unpredictable, unexpected influence or occurrence. Business has its own share of bad lies and unfilled divots. “You have to be resigned to the fact that it is extremely unlikely that your plan will play out the way you imagined. You have to be flexible enough to adjust to changing circumstances.”

Alignment

You may be one of the many golfers who use some sort of alignment device on the range to ensure all the vital parts of your swing—shoulders, hips, feet, clubface—are pointed in the same direction, accurately and deliberately, toward the target. Keep that image in mind when you’re off the golf course and in the office, says Paris. “Maintaining alignment of your business activities to your business strategies is the difference between success, and varying degrees of less success, including complete failure.”

Focus

When you prepare to hit the day’s first tee shot, you have a plan, a goal, a strategy. But, obviously, you don’t go directly from that tee shot on the first hole to putting out on the 18^th. “There’s a lot of real estate in between that has to be negotiated,” says Paris. “You have to take it one shot at a time, just like in business, reducing that strategy to bite-sized morsels.

“One of the biggest challenges in golf and business is filtering out distractions. You have to train yourself to ignore that which is not important.”

To that end, he advocates adapting the “OODA Loop” for business purposes. Originally utilized by fighter pilots during the Korean War, it refers to the decision cycle of Observe, Orient, Decide and Act. Among other uses, the OODA Loop is intended to provide clearer vision and targeting, thus improving the chances of success. “Commit to the shot,” in golf terms.

Back To Basics

No matter whether it is your golf swing or a business situation, Paris says that “when things start falling apart, go back to the fundamentals. The natural instinct for someone who is in trouble in golf, and most other stressful situations, is to press harder. Although this instinct is natural, it is also very wrong.” The result, he says, is a “death spiral” on the course or in the boardroom.

“When you feel yourself in the death spiral, it’s time to get back to basics—slow your game down, use more conservative clubs and tactics, have your developed mind take over from your primal instincts. Slow down, step back. Observe and assess the situation and then re-engage. In business, if you find that you are digging yourself into a hole, the first thing you need to do is stop digging.”

Paris says writing his blog was an enlightening experience as he uncovered more and more parallels between golf and business. He also discovered that “all of my business experiences haven’t helped my golf game as much as golf has helped my business experiences.”

All the more reason you should be playing more golf, right?

Canada’s Elizabeth Tong of Thornhill, Ont., was the lone Canadian to advance from the Stage II of LPGA Qualifying School at the Plantation Golf & Country Club in Venica, Fla.

From the brink, to the wrong side, Elizabeth Tong (Thornhill, Canada) entered the final round in a tie for 85th, knowing she had to improve her standing if she wanted to finish inside the top 80 to advance to Stage III.

“I fixed something on the range, which really helped so I could hit the ball straight,” Tong said. “I was like, ‘Don’t be scared to be aggressive because once you do that, you’re going to start making bogeys.’  That was the plan.”

Tong shot a 3-under on Sunday to finish 4-over for Stage II. That was good enough to finish tied for 55th.

“It’s actually my first time at Stage III,” said Tong. “That’s exciting in itself. I’ve played both of those courses before, so it won’t be totally foreign.”

The top 80 and ties from Stage II advanced to Stage III. All in all, 82 individuals fired plus-7 or better to advance to the final stage from Nov. 27 – Dec. 3 in Daytona Beach, including Yadloczky, Sepmoree, and Tong.

Players that did not finish in the top 80 will still have Symetra Tour membership for the 2018 season, including Canadians Megan Osland (Kelowna, B.C.), Christina Foster (Toronto), Brogan McKinnon (Mississauga, Ont.) and Anna Young (Saskatoon, Sask.).

RICHMOND, Va. – Bernhard Langer made a 15-foot eagle putt on the par-5 18th hole Sunday to overcome a mediocre round and win the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, the first event in the PGA Tour Champions’ Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs.

Langer, even par for the day before getting to the easiest hole on The Country Club of Virginia’s James River Course, beat Scott Verplank by one shot. Verplank, playing two groups ahead of Langer, shot a bogey-free 6-under 66 to erase a five-shot deficit, but missed short birdie putts on the 17th and 18th holes.

Langer followed his second-round 63 with a 70 to finish at 16 under. The victory was the sixth this season and 35th on the tour for the 60-year-old Langer, and clinched the top seed in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix.

And there it is!@BernhardLanger6 makes EAGLE on the 18th to defeat Scott Verplank by 1 shot at the @DECCGolf.#SchwabCup Playoffs pic.twitter.com/VLMT1RjCnR

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) October 22, 2017

Billy Mayfair (65), Kenny Perry (65) and Vijay Singh (71) tied for third at 12 under.

Langer became the second player on the tour for players 50 and older to make eagle on the final hole to win by a shot. Scott McCarron, who won this event last year, did it at the Allianz Championship in Boca Raton, Florida.

Canadians Rod Spittle and Stephen Ames finished inside the top 54 to advance to the second instalment of the Champions Tour playoffs next week in the PowerShares QQQ Championship at Sherwood Country Club in Sherwood Oaks, Calif. The top 36 will advance to the third and final event, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Eun-Hee Ji fired a 7-under-par 65 to win the Taiwan Championship on Sunday for her first LPGA title since the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open.

Ji, who had a six-stroke lead heading into the final round, carded seven birdies to finish at 17-under 271, six strokes ahead of Lydia Ko, who also closed with a 65.

Top-ranked So Yeon Ryu also shot a bogey-free 65 to move into a tie for third place with Lizette Salas and Carlota Ciganda.

“I’m so happy and excited because I haven’t won in 8 years, I’ve been waiting for this moment.” Eun-Hee Ji interview at #SwingingSkirts pic.twitter.com/wNGRLJDtqF

— #CMEFinalStretch ? (@LPGA) October 22, 2017

Sung Hyun Park, the U.S. LPGA Tour rookie of the year, shot a 71 to finish well back at 5-over while defending champion Ha Na Jang was a further stroke behind after closing with a 68.

LPGA Tour veteran Jenny Shin, who started the final round tied for second, struggled with the conditions and fell into a tie for 14th after a 73.

Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., and Hamilton’s Alena Sharp both finished the tournament even – Henderson after shooting a final-round 68 and Sharp going out with a round of 74.