SAVANNAH, GA. — Spring Forums were a fixture on the yearly calendar for the International Network of Golf starting in 1991. The first three were held in Hilton Head, S.C., and that’s not far from this week’s version in Savannah, Ga.
This Spring Forum is different from all the others, though. The ING contingent gathered at the Thompson Hotel, beautifully located on the Savannah River. Welcoming events were held there on Monday, June 1, and most of the remaining activities in the three-day event are at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club, the premier private residential club in the southeastern United States. It has six clubhouses, three restaurants, five swimming pools, three tennis complexes with 31 courts and a 52,000 square foot wellness center.
And, not surprisingly, the golf facilities are top notch. There’s a 3,000 square-foot Golf Performance Center and six championship golf courses there;
Needless to say, it’s going to be a lot of fun over the next two days.
Mike Jamison, the executive director of ING, has made the Forums special. In addition to Georgia, they’ve been staged over the years in North and South Carolina, Michigan, Colorado, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Utah and Mississippi.
Innisbrook Resort, in Florida, was the site for our first appearance in 2011 and we haven’t missed one since. All bring back good memories, and this week’s will, too.
The history of this event is of historical interest, as it’s been held at popular facilities all around the country with date adjustments needed only occasionally.
Jamison made yearly stops from 1991 to 2019. Then the pandemic caused a shutdown for three years. Jamison revived the event with a Fall Forum in 2022 with Sebring, FL., hosting that year as well as in 2024 and 2025.
Valley Forge, in Pennsylvania, was the site in 2023. The event was back in the spring that year, and now it’s a spring attraction again.
ING brings the golf industry and the sport’s media members together. The Forums include presentations from golf industry leaders as well as social rounds mixing the participants from all walks of golf life. Golf has benefitted greatly from these annual gatherings, and that’ll be the case again after the participants scatter when this one is over.
