MGWA July 2019 Newsletter

METROPOLITAN GOLF WRITERS ASSOCIATION

JULY 2019 NEWSLETTER

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).

PGA PRESS CONFERENCE TOPS BETHPAGE AGENDA

2019 Championship Review, 2024 Ryder Cup Preview

Entry signup is currently underway for the MGWA’s annual trek (since 1999) to Bethpage State Park, a Monday, August 12^th, event that features a round of golf on the renowned Black course. The deadline for members to sign up for Bethpage is Thursday, August 8^th by 2:00 pm; however, if you are requesting a local caddie to carry your bag (for an additional fee), you need to sign up by Tuesday, August 6^th.  NOTE: The Black course is not only a difficult challenge, it is “walking only.”

Our Bethpage gathering, which includes a continental breakfast and optional cash lunch after golf, will feature a 9:00 a.m. press conference in the Lenox Room in conjunction with the PGA of America. Guest speaker is John Handley, the Director of Sales & Marketing for the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup. He will review the 2019 PGA Championship that was held in May at Bethpage Black and he will offer a preview of early plans for the 2024 Ryder Cup to be staged at Bethpage. Other speakers include Betsy Wintenberger, Parks Director, and Andy Wilson, Grounds Superintendent.

Our Bethpage gathering is scheduled the day after the conclusion of the PGA TOUR’s Northern Trust playoff event at Liberty National in New Jersey. For further details about August 12^th  at Bethpage Black, and for signup information, please visit the MGWA website (www.metgolfwriters.org).

NJ/PHILADELPHIA TEAM WINS WRITER CUP . . . AGAIN

Forsgate CC in Monroe Township, NJ, was the host on July 25^th for the 12^th Annual Writer Cup outing, a hugely popular event which drew more than 70 attendees, nearly half of whom are MGWA members. Activities included a clinic, skills competition, on-course barbecue luncheon and famous after-golf steak and lobster dinner, plus prizes. Contested on the Banks course at Forsgate, the tournament featured a team of New Jersey/Philadelphia media versus New York/Connecticut counterparts. Team scoring included handicaps and counted the lowest 12 scores per team to determine a winner. For something like the 10th time, NJ/Philadelphia captured the coveted Writer Cup, posting an aggregate score of 1,056 to NY/CT’s 1,132. Individually, MGWA member Chris Lane posted the low gross score, a 4-over-par 75. MGWA member Bill Castner recorded his third career hole-in-one when he aced the 140-yard 12th hole (dubbed “Horseshoe”) with a 7-iron.

Tagmarshal, a GPS pace of play golf management system making inroads across the Met private and public course realm, was a major sponsor at Forsgate. The company, with overseas operations based in Ireland and South Africa, has its U.S. headquarters in Atlanta. Bodo Sieber, a former German international rugby union player and the CEO/co-Founder of Tagmarshal, was at Forsgate and spoke to the media group.

The Writer Cup was managed by On Course Strategies of Westport, CT, whose principals are MGWA members Jane Dally and Pat Norton. Sandra Jaskol, former Titleist executive and a club and teaching professional who was appointed Forsgate’s Director of Membership last month, also spoke to the media. For photos from the Writer Cup, please go to the MGWA website (www.metgolfwriters.org).

MAPLE MOOR REOPENS; DEVELOPERS EYE MET COURSES

Maple Moor GC, White Plains, NY, a Westchester County-owned muni designed by Archie Capper and Tom Winton and opened in 1924, closed early last autumn for a $5.5 million renovation. The facility reopened to golfers on July 4. The primary focus was to eliminate poor drainage and frequent flooding at the holes adjacent to the Hutchinson Parkway and river. Significant renovations involved the eighth, ninth and 18th fairways; new tees at holes 9 and 18 and all par-3s; upgraded cart paths; refurbished bunkers; and landscape beautification. MVM Construction, Mount Vernon, NY, provided the work. Maple Moor accommodates 35,000 rounds of golf per season . . . Elsewhere in the Met area, where the golf course building boom has gone bust --- as it has nationwide --- developers are moving ahead with plans to turn various fairways and greens into housing and other uses, although a number of lawsuits accompany some of the schemes. After seven years of haggling with local groups in White Plains, NY, the French-American School of New York has secured tentative approval from the city’s Common Council to demolish dormant Ridgeway CC and turn the property into an educational development. Bulldozers are expected imminently . . . In Greenburgh, NY, Ridgewood Real Estate wants to build 175 townhomes on the site of the former Elmwood CC, which it purchased for $13 million and closed in 2017. Here too, local residents are opposing the housing plans . . . According to the local Journal News, Ridgewood also purchased and closed Apple Ridge CC, which overlaps the borders of Mahwah and Upper Saddle River in New Jersey, for $10.4 million in 2014, but in 2017 sold the property to Toll Brothers for a reported $30 million. Toll Brothers is currently building a complex of large single family houses at $1 million-plus each and has renamed the location Orchard Ridge . . . In Lakewood, NJ, plans for a 556-unit residential development on the 27-hole Eagle Ridge GC are facing a pair of lawsuits . . . In River Vale, NJ, Woodmont Properties has received final approval, per the Journal News, to build a 249-unit townhome community on a nine-hole portion of the current 27-hole Edgewood CC . . . Also underway now at the former High Mountain GC in Franklin Lakes, NJ, Toll Brothers is erecting 275 homes . . . In Rockland County, NY, where Minisceongo CC closed in 2017, ownership is attempting to get housing plans approved . . . Thoughts are small-scale at Metropolis CC in Greenburgh, NY, just down the road from Elmwood, where the club is looking to sell just six acres to be developed into a senior living facility . . .Finally, both Hampshire CC, Mamaroneck, NY, and Woodmere CC on Long Island have been involved in protracted lawsuits against their respective communities who oppose the clubs’ housing plans. At Hampshire, the club wants to sell a portion of its property for housing development. At Woodmere, new owners want to close the golf club entirely, to be replaced by 285 luxury homes. The idea is opposed by the Town of Hempstead and the matter remains in litigation.

PEOPLE, PLACES, ETC

David Reasoner, Head Pro at Ridgewood CC, Paramus, NJ, will receive the Bill Strausbaugh Award for Distinguished Service from the PGA of America in November at the organization’s Annual Meeting in West Palm Beach, FL . . . The PGA TOUR’s Northern Trust championship, the first tournament in the newly reduced (to three events) FedEx Cup playoffs, is scheduled the week of Aug. 6-11 at Liberty National GC, Jersey City, NJ. The Northern Trust will be held in the Boston area in 2020 and return to the Met area in 2021. For a full media kit, go online to www.thenortherntrustmedia.com. Media contact: Tour PR rep Emily Tillo (904-273-3642, emilytillo@pgatourhq.com).

LANE, SILVERMAN CAPTURE QUILL & TEE BETTER BALL

Silverberg, Neuman to Represent Club in MGA Four Ball

Hempstead Golf & Country Club on Long Island proved a wonderful host for a Met Golf Writers meeting and outing on June 26^th. Weather was warm and sunny, and the par-71 A.W. Tillinghast course was in great shape, and challenging. Special thanks go to General Manager John Brisson and the husband-wife golf shop duo of Michele and Colin McConchie for enormously gracious accommodation. Course Superintendent Joe Tamborski, plus Women’s Met Golf Association President and MGWA member Lori Ann Cerullo both spoke to our group during a morning meeting session. Established in 1899, the WMGA is a very active organization and the second oldest women’s golf association in the country. In addition to its tournament agenda, recent initiatives have focused on independent individual membership and junior development.

Our afternoon golf competition featured the Quill & Tee GC better ball tournament, which also serves as our club qualifier for the Met Golf Association Four Ball championship. Bart Silverman and Chris Lane were runaway winners in the better ball, combining for an 11-under-par net 61. Then, in the largest match of cards the Q&TGC has ever had, four twosomes tied at 4-under net 68, with second place going to Jon Silverberg and Jeff Neuman. Jon Olson and Paul Rogers placed third, John Frew and Patrick Lundgren were fourth, and David Barrett and Tom Ierubino fifth. Silverberg and Neuman will advance as the Q&T representative team to compete in the sectional qualifying round of the MGA Four Ball in the fall. For photos from Hempstead and other MGWA events, go to our website (www.metgolfwriters.org).

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