Golfing opinions to flow again

First and foremost, I’d like to say Happy Mother’s Day to all of the wonderful mothers out there!

After what seemed to be an endless winter, I am so very glad to officially say, welcome back to another exciting Vindicator golf season.

For those of you who took the time to read some of my columns last year, thank you for returning. I guess if you choose to read again in 2013, we must be doing something right (or at least OK).

And for those of you out there who may be reading one of my articles for the first time, I’ll try to give you the quick overview.

Every Sunday for an 18-week span, I’ll write a column giving my personal insight and opinion on a different golf topic. And while the topic will change from week to week, I promise I’ll do my best at making it relevant and thought-provoking.

If you like it, great. If not, that’s OK, too. I can honestly say that if there’s one thing I learned from last year’s responses, it’s that no matter what I wrote about — whether it was a “thought” piece or a Valley spotlight ... whether I included my family and made it personal or not ... short or long ... opinion or fact SEmD I had at least one person (other than my mother who’s obligated) say they loved it and at least one person say “not your best.”

So chances are, you’ll fall somewhere in the middle.

But when it comes to last year’s columns, I’ll be honest — I loved writing every single one of them. Think about it: For 18 weeks last summer, I got to sit down and share my favorite stories and thoughts and opinions on all things golf.

I got to talk about college golf, spend time with local legend Jerry McGee and highlight a great golfing family like my friends, the Porters.

If all that wasn’t enough, I got to include how those stories and topics intertwined with my favorite personal stories involving my family, my beautiful wife (always going after brownie points) and my amazing friends. For a guy who loves his family, his wife, his friends and the game of golf, what can be better than writing a weekly column about all of the above?

So now here we are in 2013 — what’s in store for this year?

The Vindicator’s Greatest Golfer of the Valley 4.0 promises to be bigger and better than ever. I’ll give my opinion on a few “in the now” topics (i.e. Tiger Woods’ ruling at Augusta).

We’ll highlight a few local courses and special traditions across the Mahoning Valley. We’ll start the trash talk on the Valley’s Greatest Scramble Team. And maybe we’ll even approach, or cross, that invisible line that separates fun pieces from “critical” or “questioning” pieces.

It’s going to be a great summer. I hope you’ll join me right here for the next 17 weeks. And one more time — Happy Mother’s Day to my mom, my mother-in-law, and all the other great moms across the Valley. Please remember that even though we don’t tell you as often as we should, your sons and daughters love you very much.

As always, thanks for reading. And until next week, hit ’em straight.

Karzmer is a former Valley golf professional who writes a Sunday golf column for The Vindicator. In his spare time he sells commercial insurance for Huntington Insurance and loves getting feedback on his weekly columns via email at jonah.karzmer@huntington.com.