Moore is not your average golf-course owner

RMG Club offers three membership plans, and if golfers think the prices seem low (ranging from $49 a month for unlimited twilight golf at one of the courses to $179 for an all-access pass to all three courses including free range balls), there's a good reason for that.

Many of the early memberships were purchased by players who had belonged to Oakbrook Country Club, which RMG bought late last year. The price for unlimited all-access at one of the three courses began at $99, but because of demand, the price has risen to $119 at Oakbrook (it remains $99 at The Classic and McCormick Woods).

Mike Moore, the CEO of RMG Golf Management, said memberships are selling "beyond our wildest imagination. We are discount golf clubs way ahead of our projections."

What is especially gratifying to Mike Moore is what players are telling him.

"We wanted to make golf more affordable and give more people a chance to play," Moore said. "We want our members to play on nice courses and nice facilities. We want the quality to stay up and the prices to stay low."

Moore and 13 partners, a group that includes family and friends, formed RMG Golf Club Management, which owns ping g15 driver and operates three South Sound golf courses, including the course Moore grew up playing: The Classic in Spanaway, long owned by his father, Mike.

"People have been thanking me, saying they are playing more golf, and telling me, 'You made it so I can do it,' " Mike Moore said.

"The price is subject to supply and demand," said Mike Moore, who said the courses can also be played by nonmembers Titleist 712 MB irons. "We are working hard to make sure the members get plenty of opportunities to play."

Ryan Moore played Oakbrook a "handful of times" while growing up, and he said area players will enjoy the course.

He said that, while their prices are low by industry standards, the company will succeed thanks to efficient scheduling and the draw of good facilities.

"It's an older, classic country-club design," Ryan said. "It's a shot-shaper's golf course with great doglegs, tough par 3s, and classic greens with a nice amount of slope. It's a good test of golf."

Hamilton County golf course is attractive to visitors

"Oh yeah, we get them all the time here," said Mark Wisman, golf pro at Bear Slide in Cicero. "Most of them come from neighboring states like Michigan, Illinois and Ohio."

"We've been selling Hamilton County as a golf destination since 1997," said Karen Radcliff, deputy director of the visitors bureau. "Typically, our hotels sell 500 to 600 packages each year."

It's not a hard sell for Radcliff and her team members, who recently traveled to a golf convention in Chicago, where Mizuno MX-1000 irons they courted business groups seeking excursions for employee retreats, among other potential customers.

The local hotel-golf packages include eight public golf courses, six of which are in Hamilton County -- Bear Slide, Plum Creek, Prairie View (Carmel), Purgatory (Noblesville), River Glen (Fishers) and Wood Wind (Westfield) -- and Brickyard Crossing and The Fort Golf Resort.

Carmel is also home to courses Dye has designed, including the semi-private Plum Creek and the private Crooked Stick, Bridgewater and Woodland.

Crooked Stick is probably the best- known course outside of Indiana -- famously hosting the 1991 PGA  Mizuno JPX-800 Irons Championship, an event that launched the career of one of the sport's most well-known names, John Daly.

In addition to this year's PGA event at Dye's signature Crooked Stick, there is a national LPGA futures tour event in Fishers at The Hawthorns Golf & Country Club, which is not a Dye course. The My Marsh Golf Classic will be played from May 28 to June 3.

The trail includes Brickyard Crossing, Maple Creek Golf and Country Club and The Fort Golf Resort in the Indianapolis area; Plum Creek; Mystic Hills Golf Club in Culver; the Kampen Course in West Lafayette; and the Pete Dye Course in French Lick.

"There is not only a national draw, there is a worldwide draw to play Pete Dye courses," Mike David, executive director of the Indiana Golf Office, told The Star last year when the Pete Dye Trail was launched. "For people to come and play so many in a small area, I think there's definitely an appeal."

"Each year about 30 percent of our visitors travel here because they are visiting friends or relatives," Radcliff said. "All others are coming for a variety of reasons, including golf.

Hamilton County's visitor's bureau sends staffers to three or more golf consumer shows outside of Indiana each winter to promote local courses. They go to shows in Cincinnati, St Louis, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Mich., and Novi, Mich., a suburb of Detroit that hosts the largest discount golf clubs golf show in the Midwest.

Many take advantage of special golf packages -- coordinated efforts between local hotels and eight public courses -- put together and marketed by the Hamilton County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

At least 15 hotels have established special "stay-and-play" rates, ranging from $190 to $260. That gets you a single night's stay and two rounds of golf. For extended stays, golfers can get three nights and four rounds at rates that range from $410 to $570.

Radcliff said the most recent survey of visitors to the county (in 2009) showed that more than 20,000 visiting golfers who had responded to visitors bureau marketing efforts had spent more than $6 million -- a conservative figure that did not include other visitors who came to play on their own.

Lee Westwood was top the first-round leader board

Ernie els, a four-time champion and also the tournament favorite, was lurking nearby the top until he closed with two bogeys to have an even-par 72.

Phil Mickelson, looking for his fourth green jacket, lost a ball at the par-4 10th on his approach to only his second triple bogey in 75 competitive rounds at Augusta National. He finished a birdie for any 74.

Then there was clearly Luke Donald, the world's top-ranked player, whose standing in the tournament was thrown into Titleist 712 AP1 Irons question temporarily as a consequence of an administrative error.

When all of the ripples from your spills had dissipated, Lee Westwood, that's 0 for 55 in majors, was atop the first-round leader board which has a five-under 67, one stroke in front of Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 British Open champion from South Africa, and Peter Hanson of Sweden.

Westwood, who played the front nine in 32 strokes, finished with two bogeys and seven birdies en route to equaling his career-low round here.

There weren't any weaknesses available today inside my game, said Westwood, who finished second behind Mickelson really. I hit it close, hit lots of fairways and rolled in some nice putts.

Six players were tied for fourth at 69: Paul Lawrie, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Francesco Molinari, Ben Crane, Jason Dufner and Bubba Watson.

Rory McIlroy, the reigning U . s . Open champion, opened having a double bogey at No. 1 and scrambled for the 71. His score was matched by Patrick Cantlay, the amateur from U.C.L.A.

What Lawrie, Jimenez and Molinari share ?a apart from their European roots  is they have shown they're able to thrive on the spotlight's periphery. Lawrie, 42, won the 1999 British Open, which can Titleist 712 AP2 Irons be remembered more to the collapse of Jean van de Velde, who designed a triple bogey about the final hole and lost inside a playoff.

For some time, Lawrie said, the favorite narrative of that British Open van de Velde lost the tournament, not too he won it deeply troubled him. One day, I merely thought, ??Man, precisely what are you battling against this for Lawrie said. There's just no reason. Just get on with it. Just play your golf. Individuals will respect you should you discount golf clubs win tournaments.

Jimenez, a cigar-chomping Spaniard, was combined with Woods, which meant he'd to contend with the distraction caused from the sizable gallery, which moved to the rhythm of Woods's shots.