SEND IN YOUR NEWS AND NOTES: All members of the MGWA, with items for our Newsletter, are urged to e-mail them to Chuck Stogel (chstogel@aol.com).
PHOTO GALLERIES: Please note that photo galleries from many of our MGWA meetings and outings are posted on our website (metgolfwriters.org). There are foursome photos, action photos, meeting photos and more. To access, log on to our website and click on Meetings & Outings, then open the photo gallery you wish to see (photos are free to copy).
HENDRICKS FIELD: OUTSTANDING REVITALIZATION
MGWA to Visit August 9th; Register Now!
The fact that classic architect Charles “Steam Shovel” Banks designed Hendricks Field GC in Belleville, NJ, has always been somewhat of a calling card. But after 90+ years of play, most Met area courses that old have needed a pick-me-up. Which is why Essex County closed the course for a full season not long ago and retained course craftsman and MGWA member Stephen Kay to handle the restoration. What has emerged is nothing short of spectacular and, for anyone who has yet to register to attend our MGWA meeting and outing scheduled for Wednesday, August 9th at Hendricks Field, we heartily encourage you to sign up and join if available. You won’t be disappointed. The course is located just a few blocks from the Garden State Parkway.
The Hendricks Field project included eliminating several holes to make room for a first class First Tee facility; a complete course makeover of tees, greens, bunkers, fairways; building several new holes by using adjacent forested park land; adding contour to green tops; re-routing the scorecard. Everything that was done is in the Banks tradition. There is a punch bowl green, a spectacular new par-3 Biarritz, an overall layout providing strategic tee shots and approaches, but also a par-70 course that is not only playable for all skill levels but one that should be thoroughly enjoyable as well. A recent visit to the site also revealed a course in excellent condition.
Our agenda on August 9th includes a morning meeting session — architect Kay will be one of the speakers — along with a buffet BBQ luncheon, afternoon shotgun golf, plus refreshments and prizes after golf. While everyone is invited to play golf, there also is an optional Pinehurst tournament available. There will be lots of prizes and raffle drawings.
Registration to attend is handled online via the MGWA website (metgolfwriters.org). Further information about our gathering is listed under “Meetings & Outings.” The entire cost for the day will be $85 per golfer. If you haven’t signed up yet, please do so right away.
JIMMY ROBERTS TO RECEIVE LINC WERDEN AWARD
A14-time Emmy Award winner, plus a hugely popular broadcaster, interviewer, TV studio host and renowned feature reporter, Met Golf Writers Executive Committee member Jimmy Roberts has been chosen to receive the Lincoln Werden Golf Journalism Award at the MGWA’s 71st National Awards Dinner on Wednesday, October 11th at Sleepy Hollow CC in Briarcliff Manor, NY.
Among others who will be celebrated at the Dinner: Larry Nelson, Gold Tee Award; Gil Hanse, the Paul Dillon Distinguished Service Award; Julio Ugaz, Mary Bea Porter Award; and the Youngs — Cameron, David and Barbara — this year’s MGWA Family of the Year.
Tickets to the dinner are discounted for MGWA members, and we are hopeful of a strong turnout from the membership in support of our association and its charitable beneficiaries. For more information and to order tickets, please log on to the MGWA website (metgolfwriters.org), click on the “Awards Dinner” section and then click on 2023 National Awards Dinner to find the Member Ticket form.
USGA HOLDS MEDIA PREVIEW FOR MID-AMATEUR
The U.S. Golf Association on July 18th held a media preview day at Sleepy Hollow CC in Briarcliff Manor, NY, in advance of the 42nd U.S. Mid-Amateur championship scheduled at the club September 9-14. Fenway GC in Scarsdale, NY, will share in staging the event by co-hosting the medal play qualifying rounds on Monday and Tuesday of tournament week. After the qualifying, the championship shifts exclusively to Sleepy Hollow for match play eliminations. A record 6,060 entries were received by the USGA for this year’s Mid-Amateur, which is available to amateurs 25 years-plus with handicaps not exceeding 3.4.
Quite a few MGWA members attended the Media Day on July 18, which included a morning meeting, buffet lunch and afternoon golf. Speakers at the meeting included: Brian DePasquale, USGA Director of Championship Communications; Bill McCarthy, USGA Championships Director; Mickey Anania of Sleepy Hollow, the event chairman; ex-Fenway president Jeff Citron; A.J. Sikula, SHCC Director of Golf; and, Chris Cavaliere (pictured, left) of nearby Katonah, NY, who has qualified to play in the Mid-Am. Cavaliere just turned 25 and became eligible for his first Mid-Am. A graduate of Somers (NY) High School, he is a three-time Westchester Amateur champion and former All-ACC golfer from Boston College who has played in two U.S. Amateurs.
“Sleepy Hollow extended an invite to the USGA and, after some discussion and a site visit, we accepted,” explained McCarthy. “It is a fantastic facility, and the restorations have been dramatic. The tree removal program has opened many vistas. As a partner, Fenway might make this the best combination of two courses we have ever had.”
The designs for the two classic courses have several aspects in common. Sleepy Hollow is an original C.B. Macdonald crafting with tweaking by A.W. Tillinghast. Meanwhile Fenway is a Tilllinghast product. Further, both layouts have undergone recent renovations overseen by Gil Hanse, with additional support at Sleepy Hollow provided by the late George Bahto.
(For a standalone recap of the USGA media day and a gallery of photos, please go to “Meetings & Outings on the MGWA website).
PAR-3 LINKS AT VALLEY FIELDS NOW OPEN
A nine-hole, par-3 course, which sits adjacent to the Taconic State Parkway, “reopened” on July 8th in Yorktown, NY, under the name of the Links at Valley Fields. Owned by the town of Yorktown and situated in the hamlet of Shrub Oak, the then privately owned venue originally opened for play in 1985 under the name Shadow Creek GC. Its name was changed in the 1990s to Shallow Creek, but the course and its buildings fell into limited use and poor conditions, and the facility shuttered in 2007.
Valley Fields has been leased via an initial five-year agreement to Yorktown Golf Group after the town canceled a 2014 operating agreement with RC Recreation Development, which never reopened the venue. RC, which asserts it put more than $8 million into revitalizing the facility, has a lawsuit pending against the town.
Fees to play a round at the par-27 Links at Valley Fields (www.linksyorktown.com) — which also has a new clubhouse, restaurant and bar — are: $35 for Yorktown residents; $40 non-residents; $30 seniors and veterans; $23 juniors 12-and-under. Push carts are available, as are golf lessons.
BURNS RECEIVES LIFETIME AWARD FROM MONACO
Colin Burns (right), a well-respected veteran of the club and hospitality sector of golf, was presented with the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Monaco U.S. Celebrity Golf Cup by His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco on June 23rd at a gala dinner.
Joining Prince Albert II in the presentation was Pascal Grizot, the executive director of the French Golf Federation and the 2021 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.
“I am humbled to receive this award from HSH Prince Albert II,” Burns said. “Golf is a game where lifetime friendships are built and nourished. I have been blessed to work with thousands of great people in this great game. I am lucky to have spent so many decades doing work to assure people enjoy the game in places they like to think of as home.”
Burns, recently appointed COO of a new private facility called Apogee in Hobe Sound, FL, spent more than 30 years as the general manager at Winged Foot GC in Mamaroneck, NY. At Winged Foot, Burns was the executive director for the 1997 PGA Championship, the 2004 U. S. Amateur and the 2006 and 2020 U.S. Open Championships.
MT. KISCO CC SHOWCASES COURSE UPGRADES
Reddy, Berger Advance to MGA Four Ball Tournament
A group of 60 MGWA members were treated to a day of activities on June 20th at Mount Kisco (NY) CC, including the opportunity to play on the par-71 course which recently completed selected tee, bunker and green renovations crafted by architect and MGWA member Stephen Kay. Reviews for the renovations from the Met Golf Writers were universally positive, along with considerable compliments for the excellent conditioning of the course which has the look and feel of an “upstate” golf venue.
“The golf course received a dramatic upgrade in the past six months’ said Kevin Ausserlechner, MKCC director of golf. “We recently hosted a Met PGA event with 156 players, with a lot of positive feedback from the pros. We are very pleased with the work that Stephen Kay did.”
Club president Vinny Nagler added: “We did not want to cut corners with this project. We brought in the best sand from Ohio. Fortunately the weather cooperated so we were able to get the work done on time. We added a few trees while removing many others. Mount Kisco now has a different look that is more playable for average golfers but still challenging for better golfers.”
Paul McCarthy, vice president, was the club officer who most closely oversaw the renovations. “Removing trees really opened up a lot of the course,” he said. “With the bunkers, working with old photos — especially 1947 aerials — really helped. Much of the restoration was aimed at playability, but in some areas improved drainage also was a factor.”
Mount Kisco officials foresee more course renovations in the offing at some point, in addition to focusing on other club facilities, such as the pool, pickle ball courts and wintertime attractions.
Our competition at Mount Kisco featured the annual Quill & Tee Better Ball tournament, which — for those twosomes who declare in advance of play — also comprises the Q&T club qualifier for the Met Golf Association Four Ball event. There was a tie for first at net 62 in the Q&T Better Ball between Lokesh Reddy and Eric Berger with Jozef Thur and Michael Kimmel (pictured, left). With Thur and Kimmel eschewing the MGA segment, Reddy and Berger now will advance to the next stage, MGA sectional qualifying. Should they survive that qualifier, the MGA Four Ball finals will be held October 23rd at Deal GC in New Jersey. Placing third in the Q&T Better Ball at net 64 were Jon Olson and Dan Berger; fourth on a match of cards at net 69 were C.J. Papa and Frank Qasim. Winners in the non-Q&T MGWA segment at net 64 were Hank Gola and Mark Cannizzaro. Nearest to the pin winners on Hole No. 4: Brian Crowell, Bob Dorgan, Mike Ceriello. Nearest to the pin on Hole No. 10: Dan Berger, Wayne Kamidoi, Dave Donelson.
PEOPLE, PLACES, ETC.
For a thought-provoking treatise on the new, impending rules regarding golf balls, here is a link to a column by MGWA member Matt Ward: https://golftoday.co.uk/golfs-other-ticking-time-bomb/ . . . Bill Kennedy, a New Jersey-based MGWA member from 1996 to 2008, has resided in Oxford, ME, since 2008. where he is in his 10th season writing a golf column for the Lewiston Sun Journal. Still a dues-paying MGWA member, Kennedy sends this note about moving north, writing in the third person: “Why Maine? He was a camp counselor there 1957-63, and took his family to Maine on vacation 1978-2002, purchasing a summer cottage there in 2002. That was rebuilt for year-round occupancy in 2008, which is when Kennedy became a Maine resident. Of this decision as a 60-year Garden State resident, he says, ‘I doubt if I could afford to move back to NJ.’ ” . . . Saint Andrew’s GC, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, hired Joseph Day as its new executive chef. He previously served in a similar capacity at Quaker Ridge GC, Scarsdale, NY. He also has worked at Hudson National, Morefar and Winged Foot golf clubs, plus Westchester, NY, restaurants Peter Pratt’s Inn and Crabtree’s Kittle House . . . Philanthropist Chris Davis, owner of the Garrison (NY) Golf Club that closed its course — a 1961 Dick Wilson design — after the 2021 season, has donated 98 acres to the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, which plans to build an open-sided, covered pavilion on less than 10 of its acres overlooking the Hudson River, according to various local media. HVSF moved from its former nearby Garrison home at historic Boscobel House & Gardens in 2022, using a tented facility for its productions. Davis also owns Highlands CC in Garrison, which has a nine-hole course and other amenities, and continues to operate as a semi-private club . . . Developer Dan Pfeffer, who purchased the 106-acre Hampshire CC in Mamaroneck, NY, in 2010 for $12 million, and has been battling the village since 2014 over his desire to build housing on the property — nestled in the tony Orienta Point neighborhood — is now proposing to donate a portion of land to the Mamaroneck school system while building a complex of condominiums for seniors and keeping the 18-hole course open, according to reports in the Rockland/Westchester Journal News. The school system operates the Hommocks Middle School, which is adjacent to the Hampshire club, and eyes expansion of the school and its playing fields. However, according to reports, Mamaroneck Mayor Tom Murphy has said the new plan is unacceptable. Lawsuits over the issue have cost both sides in the dispute considerable amounts of money.