67th U.S. AMATEURSENIOR AUGUST 27–SEPTEMBER 1, 2022 THE KITTANSETT CLUB MARION, MASSACHUSETTS
ON BEHALF OF THE MEMBERS OF THE KITTANSETT CLUB and all the great golf enthusiasts from the South Coast of Massachusetts, we would like to welcome you to Marion and the 67th playing of the United States Senior Amateur. Special thanks to our incredibly hardworking staff, without whom none of this would be possible; they represent the Club brilliantly in everything they do. Thanks also to our incredible partners at the USGA, Mass Golf, The Bay Club, the Town of Marion and all the very generous donors and committed volunteers for your support. And finally, huge thanks to our extraordinary Championship Committee whose passion and dedication make Kittansett shine.
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Welcome to the 67th U.S. Senior Amateur
Kittansett has a rich history of hosting amateur golf competitions, highlighted by the 14th Walker Cup Match between the United States and Great Britain & Ireland. The 1953 Walker Cup was won by a stacked United States squad that included such future stars as Ken Venturi, Harvie Ward, Gene Littler and Bill Campbell. In addition to the Walker Cup, Kittansett has hosted a number of regional and local amateur events including six Massachusetts Amateur Championships, with the most recent edition held in 2020. Kittansett members have won several Massachusetts Championships over the years, and we are proud to boast that our own Catie Schernecker is the reigning Massachusetts Women’s Amateur Champion.
The year 2022 is a special one for Kittansett as we celebrate our Centennial. The word Kittansett means “near the sea” and could not be a more appropriate name for our setting at the end of Butler’s Point on the shores of Buzzards Bay. We are all very proud of our design team led by William Flynn and Frederic Hood. Construction of the course began in 1922 and was completed in 1924. Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner continue to lead a restoration of the golf course that has included extensive tree removal, green expansions and a complete renovation of all our bunkers. We are confident that the competitors will enjoy the course, and if the wind picks up, watch out! We wish all of the competitors good luck and hope you all have a fantastic week at Kittansett.
J. DUNCAN GRATTON President NEWCOMB D. COLE III General Chairperson
LEGENDARYPMG.COM • 561-309-0229 EDITOR: JOHN STEINBREDER • MANAGING PARTNER: WILLIAM CALER • CREATIVE & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: LARRY HASAK MANAGING EDITOR: DEBBIE FALCONE • CONSULTING EDITOR: DAVID BARRETT ART DIRECTOR: MATT ELLIS • DESIGNER: SUSAN BALLE • BUSINESS MANAGER: MELODY MANOLAKIS PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: WILLIAM GREEN CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: JEFF BERTCH, L.C. LAMBRECHT, TRUMAN TERRELL, FRED VUICH COVER AND WELCOME LETTERS SCENE PHOTOGRAPHY: JEFF BERTCH table contents PUBLISHING & MEDIA GROUP PUBLISHING & MEDIA GROUP THE 67TH U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP PROGRAM IS PRODUCED BY 2 | 67TH U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP 1 WELCOME TO THE 67TH U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR A Message from The Kittansett Club President J. Duncan Gratton and General Chairperson Newcomb D. Cole III WELCOME LETTERS 4 Honorary Chairperson Muffy Marlio 6 USGA CEO Michael Whan 8 PARADISE ON THE POINT BY JOHN STEINBREDER18 A SENIOR’S MOMENT BY SEAN24FAIRHOLM THE 1953 WALKER CUP BY JOHN32HOPKINS THE GOLF COURSE BY DAVID NORMOYLE 56 THE BOBBY SUNDIALJONES BY JOHN STEINBREDER78 USGA CHAMPIONSHIPS IN MASSACHUSETTS BY RON GREEN JR. 84 MARVELOUS MARION BY JOHN STEINBREDER 94 & 95 THE KITTANSETT CLUB STAFF & COMMITTEE of
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The USGA, our Championship Committee chaired by Newk Cole, the entire Kittansett staff, the Massachusetts Golf Association, our sponsors and our many volunteers have worked together to make this championship a reality. I hope you will be thrilled to watch the finest amateur golf played with the best sportsmanship on a challenging and beautiful golf course.
Welcome from the Honorary Chair
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MUFFY MARLIO Honorary Chairperson
AS HONORARY CHAIRPERSON OF THE 67TH U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP, I have the pleasure of welcoming you and sharing the experience of our unique golf course on its 100th anniversary. We at Kittansett are proud to be hosting this championship and hope the contestants will be challenged by our small greens, strong prevailing winds and strategic bunkers. Since its founding in 1922, Kittansett has weathered the Great Depression, World War II, several major hurricanes and our share of powerful nor’easters. Our proximity to the sea is both a blessing and a vulnerability. Rising water table levels challenge us today. Originally designed by William Flynn with assistance from founding member Frederic Hood, the recent renovation by Gil Hanse has enhanced the links aspect of the course and highlighted the views of Buzzards Bay. Do note the unique mounds, a device the construction crews used to incorporate the many boulders they encountered as a design feature.
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Welcome from the USGA
WELCOME TO THE 2022 U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR and the excitement of a USGA championship!
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When it comes to showcasing, the USGA was created more than 125 years ago to conduct premier Open and amateur championships and provide inspiration to golfers and golf fans alike, and that commitment is as important to us now as it was then. We showcase and celebrate the world’s best by providing the stage for them to achieve their dreams. We are incredibly thankful to all those who support our championships and the players who compete in them. The USGA has a longstanding and important tradition of bringing national championships to communi ties throughout the United States, and it’s remarkable to know that more than 40,000 dreamers from around the world vie to play in our championships each year. We have an incredible lineup of venues, including classics like Merion Golf Club and The Country Club that we have visited for more than 100 years as well as amazing golf courses that we’re visiting for the first time. Earlier this year, we played our first-ever USGA championships in Puerto Rico and Alaska, and we debuted the U.S. Adaptive Open at Pinehurst No. 6 this summer, all of which helped us to celebrate and showcase the game’s best players on golf’s greatest stages.
At the United States Golf Association, our purpose is as clear as the letters that define us: Unify the golf community through the World Handicap System™, Course Ratings, GHIN, etc; Showcase the golfers who inspire us via our 15 annual championships; Govern the game to ensure a strong foundation; Advance the good of the game for future generations.
We offer our sincere thanks for the tireless efforts of the staff and leadership here at The Kittansett Club, and all those who make this championship possible. Your commitment is deeply appreciated, particularly coming off an extremely challenging couple of years. I’m proud to note that our game has proven to be a consistent and positive force in people’s lives and is enjoying a resurgence we haven’t seen in many years. There is much work ahead though, and we can’t do it alone. We’d like to thank our corporate partners — American Express, Cisco, Deloitte, Lexus, ProMedica, Rolex and Sentry — for stepping up and aligning their goals and brands with us. Thank you to the hundreds of thousands of USGA members and donors for their belief and support, and to our thousands of volunteers, without whom there would be no championships.
Most importantly, I want to recognize the players, who have worked hard to earn the opportunity to compete in a USGA championship. Thank you for your love and support of the game, and congratulations on earning your place in this week’s field. We know that many special memories will be made here and look forward to what promises to be a memorable championship. Looking forward,
.
MICHAEL WHAN USGA CEO
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The Kittansett Club was created by a group of golf enthusiasts in 1922 on a special rock-filled parcel of land on Buzzards Bay by JOHN STEINBREDER PHOTO: THE AMERICAN GOLFER
Paradise on the Point
BACKGROUND
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Above: An architect’s sketch of the “Winter House,” which is part of the clubhouse complex. Opposite: Map from club brochure, circa 1922. Inset: Kittansett’s centennial logo
The speed limit is 25 miles per hour, but the impulse invariably is to go faster, knowing that a round on a top-100 course lies ahead. Keeping one’s eyes on the road as it snakes through this part of the drive is no easy task either, given the stunning visuals that so easily divert one’s attention. After disappearing for a moment behind another stand of trees, Butler’s Point and the body of water that sur rounds it, Buzzards Bay, come fully into view.
There are yachts tacking in the distance, their multicolored spinnakers bulging in the breeze, and sleek powerboats cutting through waves. A foursome of golfers putts out on the 17th green, which abuts the road, as other groups walk down the fairways of Nos. 1 and 18, the weathered, wood-shingled pro shop, cart barn and clubhouse rising just beyond them. Logic dictates that a spit of land cannot make an en trance because it is not able to move. But the setting at the end of Butler’s Point certainly makes for a grand one. In fact, it is one of the best in the game. And so is the club located there.
Kittansett, founded in 1922, takes its name from a pair of Native American words, kittan meaning “sea” and sett for “near.” Not surprisingly, given its location in an area where shellfish have long proliferated, the founders chose a scallop shell as their logo. They also decided to make golf the cen terpiece of their association.
The task of constructing the course fell to one of the original members, Frederic Hood. A local rubber company magnate, he was a natu ral choice for the job, being a keen player who had learned about course architecture during trips to the British Isles. For decades, the conven tional wisdom was that Hood had not only over seen the building of the Kittansett layout, but had also con ceived of its design. But the discovery of a trove of documents in a Pennsylvania barn just after the turn of the 21st century revealed that the actual architect was William Flynn, a Bay Stater by birth who had moved to Philadelphia and set up a very successful golf course design firm in the city. Considered one of the greats from golf’s Golden Age of PARADISE ON THE POINT
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HE ANTICIPATION BUILDS as one gets closer to the section of land known as Butler’s Point. There is a glimpse on the left of a verdant fairway through stands of hardwoods, then a view of a well-bunkered green and beyond that a pair of tees and another fairway. Suddenly, the lane bends to the left, curling behind the tee of a par 3, and water pops into view. It is deep blue in color but marked with whitecaps. The wind that blows out of the southwest is scented with salt, and seagulls soar over the foam-flecked swells, looking for bait fish.
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The list of features that commend the Kittansett course, which was one of Flynn’s first solo efforts, is a long one. “The rout ing is both interesting and challenging,” says Mark Milhench, a legacy member who grew up in a house just off the 18th fairway and is not only a former men’s club champi on but also a past president. “Then, there’s the easy walk across land that is flattish for the most part but still has lots of character. The beautiful views, too. And the hole designs. It’s the sort of course you love to play and never tire of playing, no matter what your handicap.”
Above right: Hole No. 3, circa 1924. Right: Clubhouse, circa 1925 course architecture, his credits included Cherry Hills in Colorado, Shinnecock Hills on Long Island and the ninehole Primrose Course at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. As for Hood, he turned out to be more proj ect manager than anything else, though he did add some design touches of his own. The track at Kittansett measured 6,374 yards from the back of the regular tees when it came on line. It started and finished near the tip of Butler’s Point, with an out going nine that worked its way north along the shore and into more wooded property before the incoming holes wound their way back to the Constructionsouth. commenced in 1922, with nine holes opening by August the fol lowing season. The full 18 was playable in 1924. Soon after they were finished, Fran cis Ouimet, the celebrated amateur golfer and winner of the 1913 U.S. Open, played in an exhibi tion match. In time, Kittansett made Ouimet an honorary member, and he returned to Butler’s Point many times in later years.
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Above left: A message to the founding members. Inset: The Invitational Four Ball began in 1927.
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Muffy Marlio, who won 22 women’s golf club champi onships over four decades and is the honorary chairperson for the 2022 U.S. Senior Amateur, agrees. “Thanks to the wind, which can blow from all directions, the course plays differently almost every day,” she explains. “And it can be set up to accommodate a wide range of skill levels. From the tips, it challenges the very best players in the game. But Kittansett can also be a lot of fun to play for casual golfers with higher handicaps.”
As was the case with many clubs of that era, Kittansett has endured more than its share of challenges. There were the
“I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be 17 again, a senior at Tabor, racing around the Kittansett course, trying to get in as many holes as possible before we had to go back to school for dinner,” said Teravainen, who held the course record at Kittan sett for a spell (after shoot ing 67 there in the 1978 Massachusetts State Ama teur) and later competed on the Asian and Japan Golf Tours. “If you ever have a chance to play Kittansett, especially in the spring, you’ll see why I have a few wind shots in the bag. Maybe I’m seeing it with a youthful, enthusiastic, dreaming mind, but Kittansett is still my favorite course in the world.”
Above: Hurricane Carol (1954) swarms the Golf Shop.
Inset: A clubhouse plaque indicates the level of flooding during the “Great New England Hurricane” of 1938.
Few comments speak as clearly to the quality of the Kittansett layout than the ones Peter Teravainen made some years ago to celebrated golf writer Michael Bamberger for his book, To The Linksland. A graduate of Tabor Academy, which is located just down the road from Kittansett in the town of Marion, Teravainen was struggling at the time to make a living on the PGA European Tour. And one day in a faraway land, no doubt feeling a bit homesick, he spoke to Bamberger about the things he missed most.
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Opposite: Kittansett Club trophies surround the club’s replica of the Walker Cup.
PARADISE ON THE POINT
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Winterside Living Room 16 | 67TH U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP The Ambrose Stevens Putter Collection
Clubhouse expansion, 2022 PARADISE ON THE POINT
“I have had a number of bad rounds at Kittansett but have never had a bad day,” adds George Sine, a top execu tive with Titleist who joined Kittansett in 2011. “It’s such a tranquil place, and the course is such a great test of golf. It is also one of the most beautiful places on earth. And what makes it even better is that we are surrounded here by really good people who love the game of golf and also the clubKittansettitself.” has also proven to be a first-rate tourna ment venue. The most prominent competition ever to be staged there was the 1953 Walker Cup, and those matches featured a number of golf’s greatest, including Ken Venturi, Joe Carr, Gene Littler, Bill Campbell and Harvie Ward. The Massachusetts Golf Association has long recognized what a terrific site Kittansett is as well, holding its Amateur Championship there on six occa sions, most recently in 2020, and its Women’s Stroke Play Championship, aka the Edith Noblit Baker Trophy, an equal number of times.
THE KITTANSETT CLUB | 17 financial hardships that came with the Great Depression, and the difficulties that arose when the U.S. military occupied the grounds during World War II, forcing the club to close down. It was battered on multiple occasions by hurricanes that flooded the golf course, littered the property with debris and washed away the pro shop among other outbuildings.
To be sure, it has not been an easy run. But Kittan sett has not only survived through the decades but also prospered.Ithas long thrived as a member’s club, a place for men, women and children to enjoy the game of golf as well as each other’s company, whether during a round on the course, a beverage at the 19th hole when the last putts have fallen or a dinner in the clubhouse with family and friends.
John Steinbreder is editor of the U.S. Senior Amateur magazine.
Now comes the U.S. Senior Amateur, and there is no doubt that the Kittansett layout will give competitors all they can handle as it helps identity the best golfer of a certain age. It is a very special place, no matter what the game or the occasion.
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A Senior’s Moment
Opposite: The art-deco trophy awarded to the winner of the U.S. Senior Amateur was produced by Rogers Brothers and features a gold-plated stem with blue enamel and a distinctive hand-hammered bowl.
The trophy was donated in 1955 by Dold, a USGA Executive Committee member.
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T HERE ARE FEW TOURNAMENTS IN GOLF tougher to win than the U.S. Senior Amateur. It starts with the pressure of limited opportunity. From the time a 55-year-old competitor is eligible for senior amateur golf, the clock seems to tick a few beats faster. Most only get a handful of chances before they can no longer realistically contend in a tournament that asks the winner to navigate through eight grueling rounds.
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Bill Campbell (center), with Lew Oehmig (left) and future Kittansett Club President Arthur Rice (right), received the Frederick L. Dold Championship Trophy at Chicago Golf Club in 1979.
The U.S. Senior Amateur is the pinnacle of senior amateur golf by SEAN FAIRHOLM
A MOMENT
And then there is the growth of senior amateur golf. In the first 49 years of the tournament, which dates back to 1955, there were 13 individuals who won the event more than once. It was a sign of a short list of standout amateurs dominating, but not necessarily against deep fields of seasoned players. That’s no longer the case. In the past 17 years, only Paul Simson has captured two U.S. Senior Ams, and the wealth has been spread amongst the best senior amateur golf has to offer. Of the 16 different winners in that time span, 10 are members of the National Senior Amateur Hall of are not just respected names, but the majority of event participants now compete regularly through out the year in top-tier tournaments. Fitness regimens are taken seriously. The senior game also provides a renewed sense of purpose for those who have long been facing younger competition in the mid-am realm. It all adds up to one brutally difficult week and one deserving champion. To hold the Frederick L. Dold trophy at week’s end, a player must weave his way through a gauntlet of the game’s best. Completing that journey is a crowning achievement, of ten filling the missing bullet point in an oth erwise sparkling résumé. That was exactly the case last year when Gene Elliott won his final two holes to clip Jerry Gunthorpe, earning his first USGA championship in dramatic fashion and cementing Elliott’s place atop the senior amateur summit. “It’s the cherry on top of decades of golf,” Elliott said. “To say you are a USGA champion at 59 years old, what a thrill and what an honor that is. I look at those banners they have up at the course for past champions. Those are all of my friends. Paul Simson, Sean Knapp, Bob Royak… I’m just
SENIOR’S
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RecentFame.champions
Top left: USGA President Richard S. Tufts (left) gives the Dold Trophy to J. Wood Platt, winner in the inaugural 1955 U.S Senior Amateur. Top right: William McWane, left, presents the trophy to Thomas C. Robbins in 1958. Inset: Curtis Person Sr. won the event in 1969.
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Right: William Hyndman III won the 1983 U.S. Senior Am at Crooked Stick Golf Club. excited that my picture is going to be up on those banners. It’s hard to fathom for me.”
Left: Merrill Carlsmith won back-to-back U.S. Senior Amateurs in 1962 and 1963.
This year at The Kittansett Club, an exhausted cham pion will overlook Buzzards Bay with the same fulfillment Elliott experienced a year ago. The beauty of the tournament is that a fascinating sto ryline will inevitably emerge. Perhaps an older player will unexpectedly carve a path to the title. Vinny Giles won the 2009 edition at the age of 66, which came 37 years after his U.S. Amateur triumph. Giles went on a magical run that started by making a 60foot eagle putt on the final hole of the first round of match play to force extra holes where he would survive. A few days later, he found himself in a nip-and-tuck championship bout against John Grace that came down to Giles sinking an 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole. “I thought my day had passed,” Giles said while recently reflecting on the week. “There are only a couple of goals that you really ever have as a senior. Obviously the number one goal is to try to win the U.S. Senior Am. For senior amateur golf, it’s the only thing people will ever remember.”
Pat Tallent battled his way into a similar situation to Giles back in 2014. After losing in the final to Simson in 2010 and struggling to advance through match play in subsequent years, a 61-year-old Tallent decided he would take a year off from the tournament. However, his wife Cindy was taking a business trip out west and convinced him to go to Southern “THERE ARE ONLY A COUPLE OF GOALS THAT YOU REALLY EVER HAVE AS A SENIOR. OBVIOUSLY THE NUMBER ONE GOAL IS TO TRY TO WIN THE U.S. SENIOR AM.”
—VINNY GILES
A MOMENT Past U.S. Senior Amateur Champions (from left) Vinny Giles, Buddy Marucci, Paul Simson, Patrick Tallent, Dave Ryan, Chip Lutz and Doug Hanzel during the players dinner for the 2017 U.S. Senior Amateur at The Minikahada Club.
SENIOR’S
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California to compete at Big Canyon Country Club.
Some are recognizable names. Some are returning to competition after years away from the game, looking to establish a closing chapter to their career.
Cindy made her way to Newport Beach after finish ing work and then walked all eight rounds following her husband. Tallent held off Bryan Norton in the final match, sinking a dramatic 30-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole to clinch the title. “She was much tougher than me,” Tallent said. “She was as much responsible for me winning as I was.” But for every player to win the U.S. Senior Am in the waning moments of their ability to compete on that stage, there have been far more contestants winning early in their eligibility. There is a new batch of 55-year-old players each year, and they seem to be getting longer off the tee with each cohort. They arrive with energy, immediately circling the date of the biggest event left on their calendar.
“For some, it’s a brand-new start,” Giles said. “And once you’re there, the goal of every legitimately good player is to win the U.S. Senior. If they win that event, they’ve sort of reached the pinnacle.”
2000
1963
1992
1961 Dexter H. Daniels Southern Hills C.C.
1968
Robert B. Kiersky Fox Chapel G.C.
Merrill L. Carlsmith Sea Island G.C.
There is a reason for that. In many cases, victory in the U.S. Senior Am is the last great accomplishment in amateur careers that have spanned decades. It’s one final shot to win a major on the amateur calendar. And for those who break through, their names are remembered in the history books forever.
1993
U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR PAST CHAMPIONS
1994
1999
G.C. 1972 Lewis W. Oehmig Sharon G.C. 1973 William Hyndman III Onwentsia Club 1974 Dale Morey Harbour Town Golf Links 1975 William F. Colm Carmel Valley G. & C.C. 1976 Lewis W. Oehmig Cherry Hills C.C. 1977 Dale Morey Salem C.C. 1978 Keith K. Compton Pine Tree G.C. 1979 William C. Campbell Chicago G.C. 1980 William C. Campbell Hot Springs (Cascades) 1981 Edgar R. Updegraff Seattle (Wash.) G.C. 1982 Alton Duhon Tucson (Ariz.) C.C. 1983 William Hyndman III Crooked Stick G.C. 1984 Robert Rawlins Birmingham (Mich.) C.C. 1985 Lewis W. Oehmig Wild Dunes B & R.C. 1986 R.S. “Bo” Williams Interlachen C.C. 1987 John Richardson Saucon Valley C.C. 1988 Clarence Moore Milwaukee (Wis.) C.C. 1989 R.S. “Bo” Williams Lochinvar G.C. 1990 Jackie Cummings Desert Forest C.C. 1991
1998
1958
2001
Jeff Wilson was in that category, winning his first USGA Championship as a 55-year-old in 2018 at Eugene Country Club. Wilson is one of two players to claim lowamateur honors in both the U.S. Open and U.S. Senior Open, but winning the U.S. Senior Am is a singular memory for the car “Aftersalesman.Iwon,there was a satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment that you don’t get playing in another golf tournament,” Wilson said. “And you think that might kind of go away over time, but it never does. As time goes on, it actually makes you more appreciative of it.”
1962
1971 Tom Draper Sunnybrook Bill Bosshard Cr ystal Downs C.C. Clarence Moore The Loxahatchee Club Joe Ungvary Farmington C.C. O. Gordon Brewer The Champions G.C.
1965
1995
James Stahl Jr. Prairie Dunes C.C. O. Gordon Brewer Taconic G.C.
Merrill L. Carlsmith Evanston G.C.
2002 Greg Reynolds Timuquana C.C. 2003 Kemp Richardson The Virginian G.C. 2004 Mark Bemowski Bel-Air C.C. 2005 Mike Rice The Farm G.C. 2006 Mike Bell Victoria National G.C. 2007 Stan Lee Flint Hills National G.C. 2008 George “Buddy” Marucci Shady Oaks C.C. 2009 Mar vin “Vinny” Giles III Beverly C.C. 2010 Paul Simson Lake Nona Golf & C.C. 2011 Louis Lee Kinloch Golf Club 2012 Paul Simson Mountain Ridge C.C. 2013 Douglas Hanzel Wade Hampton G.C. 2014 Patrick Tallent Big Canyon C.C. 2015 Chip Lutz Hidden Creek G.C. 2016 Dave Ryan Old Warson C.C. 2017 Sean Knapp The Minikahada Club 2018 Jeff Wilson Eugene (Ore.) C.C. 2019 Bob Royak Old Chatham G.C. 2020 Championship canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic 2021 Gene Elliott Country Club of Detroit Gene Elliott and his wife Dalena pose with the trophy after he won the 2021 U.S. Senior Amateur at Country Club of Detroit.
1957 J. Clark Espie Ridgewood (N.J.) C.C.
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1960
Dexter H. Daniels Tucson National G.C.
Sean Fairholm covers competitive amateur golf as a senior writer for Global Golf Post.
1959
1956
1970 Gene Andrews California G.C.
1964
Thomas C. Robbins Monterey Peninsula C.C. J. Clark Espie Memphis (Tenn.) C.C.
Michael Cestone Oyster Harbors Club
1966
1969
Cur tis Person Sr. Atlanta C.C.
1955 J. Wood Platt Belle Meade C.C. Frederick J. Wright Somerset C.C.
Cur tis Person Sr. Wichita C.C.
1997
Cliff Cunningham Atlantic G.C. Bill Shean Jr. Skokie C.C. Bill Ploeger Portland (Ore.) G.C. Bill Shean Jr. Charlotte (N.C.) C.C. Kemp Richardson Norwood Hills C.C.
William D. Higgins Waverley C.C.
1967 Ray Palmer Shinnecock Hills G.C.
1996
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THE KITTANSETT CLUB | 25 The victorious 1953 USA Walker Cup team (from left): Charlie Yates, Jack Westland, Dick Chapman, Harvie Ward, Don Cherry, Sam Urzetta, Ken Venturi, Gene Littler, Jim Jackson, Charlie Coe and Bill Campbell. THE 1953 WALKER CUP USA won the match at Kittansett, but the GB&I captain will be best remembered for a show of sportsmanship by JOHN HOPKINS THE 1953 WALKER CUP USGA
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We should consider the 1953 Walker Cup at Kittansett in this same vein, because a demonstration of fair play by Tony Duncan, the GB&I captain, far overshadowed the predictable result of another comfortable victory by the USA, the 13th of the 14 to that date. Charlie Yates, the 1938 British Amateur champion, captained a strong USA team that included Gene Littler, who would go on and win the 1961 U.S. Open, and Ken Venturi, who won that same event three years later. How Duncan’s gesture over shadowed the event itself is easily told, though first I should give some golfing details about Duncan and his extraordinary family. If I said they were to Welsh golf what the Khans were to squash or the Bachs to music, you could accuse me of over egging it slightly. But listen to this.
For many people the 1995 Walker Cup at Royal Porthcawl may be memorable more for it being the debut of Tiger Woods rather than that GB&I won. Think about the 1999 Ryder Cup at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., and what comes to mind? The comeback by the USA against Europe in the final day’s singles to sweep to a home victory that had seemed unlikely when Europe led 10-6 the evening before. 1953 WALKER CUP
HOW OFTEN IS AN EVENT, be it an Open Championship, a Masters, a Walker or Ryder Cup, remembered as much for one incident as the whole event itself? We all recall the 1999 Open at Carnoustie for being the one where Jean Van de Velde ran up a seven on the 72nd hole just when it looked as though he would become the first man from France to win the championship since Arnaud Massy in 1907.
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Some“Icharacter.foundhim very imposing, a bit frightening because
Four members of the Duncan dynasty won 14 Welsh Amateur Championships between them. John Duncan, the head of the family, was a founder member of Southerndown Golf Club near Bridgend in south Wales, as well as the winner of two Welsh championships and runner-up in a third. J. Hugh Duncan, one of John’s brothers, was a semi finalist in the Welsh Men’s Amateur in 1908 and 1909. Blanche Duncan, John’s sister, was the only woman to have won the Welsh Women’s Amateur on four consecutive occasions as well as being once a runner-up. Margery Duncan, John’s wife, won the Welsh Women’s Amateur Championship in 1922, 1927 and 1928. George Duncan, John’s son, was a semifinalist in the 1956 Welsh Amateur. And as for John’s son Tony, or to give him his formal moniker, Lt. Col. A.A. Duncan, he won four Welsh Amateur championships, was runner-up in a fifth and in 1939 became the first Welshman to reach the final of the British Amateur. Later he became the first Welshman to captain a Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team and he remains the only playing captain of a Walker Cup team who declined to select himself as a player.
Duncan’s personality and knowledge of the game made him a natural choice to captain the 1953 Walker Cup team. “I was captain and on the team, but didn’t pick myself
Above: GB&I Captain Tony Duncan (left) and USA Captain Charlie Yates meet before the Match begins.
Top: Members of the GB&I Walker Cup team (from left): Gerald Micklem, John Morgan, Joe Carr, Arthur Perowne, Roy MacGregor, Norman Drew, Ronnie White, James Wilson and John Langley. Team Captain Lt. Col. A.A. (Tony) Duncan displays his putting form.
THE KITTANSETT CLUB | 27 he was quite military,” Iestyn Tucker, a member of many Wales teams captained by Duncan, said at the time. “But I’ve never had more respect for anyone as a golfer or a man than Tony. I have tremendous regard for the way he plays golf and for his attitude to the game. He has always insisted that if there was any dispute, it was the spirit of the game which mattered and not the rules, and that no one should do anything that contravened the spirit of the game, which I think is a marvelous. He said that if you were giving an opponent a putt, you picked up his ball and gave it to him. You didn’t throw it.”
28 | 67TH U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP Above: USA Team Captain Charlie Yates, Gene Littler, Ken Venturi and Don Cherry inspect the course during a practice illustratorCommitteeAnActionRight:round.onthe18thgreen.Opposite:illustrationofbothteamsandKittansettChairsbyBostonGlobeJimKrig. Editor’s note: Can you spot which faces and names are incorrectly matched?
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“In the first day’s foursomes I was roaming around and noticed a fracas on the second hole. I went to see what was going on and discovered that Jimmy Jackson, a very nice American who was partner ing Gene Littler, had 16 clubs in his bag when playing James Wilson and Roy McGregor. The Americans were all for disqualifying their side.
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Great Britain & Ireland’s Joe Carr blasts out of a bunker on the 27th hole during his singles match. to play principally because there was so much work to do,” Duncan said. “It was quite soon after the war and we didn’t have a secretary or manager. I had to do everything, includ ing dish out the dollars, and I didn’t think it was possible to leave two people out and play myself. There was so much that had to be done.
THE 1953 WALKER CUP
“I got up on my soapbox and said, ‘This is ridiculous. We haven’t come 3,000 miles to win a 36-hole match by default on the second hole.’ Charlie and I went thumbing through the rule book and found one that said in exceptional circumstanc es the penalty of disqualification may be modified.
John Hopkins is a senior writer for Global Golf Post.
Thus, less is known about the predictable USA vic tory — by nine points to three — than an act of sportsman ship by the GB&I captain. Duncan’s gesture lives on in the minds of most people far longer than the result of the match, even though the match was notable for the performance of John Llewellyn Morgan, a Welshman, who won two of his team’s three points. He and Gerald Micklem defeated Bill Campbell and Charlie Coe in the first day’s foursomes and then Morgan beat Coe in the singles, too.
“That was fine. The match went to the fourth tee and put Great Britain and Ireland three up which meant that the pair only lost by 5 & 4. The chap wrote in the local paper the next morning, ‘Great Britain waives the rules.’ ”
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Coe probably went to his grave ruing the fact that he had lost all his matches in one of his seven Walker Cup appearances. Everyone else remembers the day that Britannia, led by a Welsh martinet with a penchant for sportsmanship and fair play, waived the rules.
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(This was a play on the words of a famous, 18th-century hymn that is regularly sung with great vigor by Britons on patriotic occasions, the chorus of which is: “Rule Britannia. Britannia rules the waves. Britain never will be slaves.”)
U.S. Captain Charlie Yates is presented the Walker Cup by USGA President Totton Hefflefinger as GB&I Captain Tony Duncan looks on.
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The Golf Course “Wind and its curious habits and infidelities by the seaside make most British championship courses, and just so do I think that wind makes Kittansett.” —LEONARD CRAWLEY, ENGLISH NEWSPAPER COLUMNIST AND FORMER GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND WALKER CUP TEAM MEMBER by DAVID NORMOYLE PHOTO BY JEFF BERTCH THE KITTANSETT CLUB | 33
In reality, Kittansett’s picturesque course began life as a desolate and impenetrable boulder-strewn woodland that required its features to be discerned from topographical maps pinned to drafting tables in the Philadelphia office of William S. Flynn. This same man was responsible for some of America’s great courses of that period, including Shinne cock Hills, Cherry Hills and contributions to Pine Valley, and he waited nearly a century to receive full credit for his scientific and innovative design at Kittansett.
The perception, for decades, was that the creation of Kittansett’s famous course was an uncanny and singular achievement led by a proud local member named Frederic C. Hood. Hood was a rubber company magnate and general man-about-golf in New England during this period. He was also responsible for leading construction of the course, person ally paying for a portion of the cost overruns, and generally being the course’s steward until his death in the 1940s.The full reality of Flynn’s involvement came from a discovery in late 2008 or 2009, according to Gil Hanse, Kittansett’s consulting architect since 1995, of Flynn’s origi nal map for the course, and several individual hole drawings, that “caused a big sea change, if you will, right in the middle of the 25-plus years we’ve been working here.” Hanse added, F OR A CENTURY NOW, golf at the end of Butler’s Point in Marion, Mass., has remained a constant battle between perception and reality, shifting like the ever-present seaside winds. Just as the land for this thoroughly New England club separates Buzzards Bay from the Sippican Harbor, it is The Kittansett Club’s rare British spirit that offers a golf experience with one foot firmly planted on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Golf Course Architect William S. Flynn Today one might perceive such a rough and rugged seaside course — “Kittan,” after all, being the Wampanoag word for sea or bay, and “sett” meaning to be near, as every story about Kittansett seems obligated to point out! — one might perceive the course to have been maintained in a continuously natural, links-like state since it was created in the early 1920s. After all, the traditional out-and-back routing embraces Buzzards Bay almost immediately, starting from the exposed tip of a 3-mile-long point surrounded on all sides by open water, leading to the famed third hole, with its island green perched on a beach, then tacking along a docile salt marsh before venturing inland for an interlude among forested heathland that feels more like Surrey, England, than coastal Massachu setts, only to reemerge back into the freshening sea air and panoramic water views for the final few holes. Surely, one thinks, this is exactly why the club’s founders chose to build a golf course on this land. Kittansett’s three-act routing sequence, beginning and ending near the sea, is not unlike that on the other side of the continent at Cypress Point.
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Several hurricanes in 1938, 1944, 1954 and 1991 caused significant damage to the condition of both the course and native flora, leading to the perception among members and various concerned agencies that the tree
The reality, as reported 46 years later in the club history, was that, “the absence of stone walls is pretty good evidence that the land had never been cleared for cultivation and the reason was probably that earlier inhabitants were so hindered by rocks that they gave up the idea.”
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A key element of Flynn’s original plan is the distinctive interrupted fairways or cross-rough on at least eight of the 14 long holes. These features don’t favor any individual type of player as all golfers must negotiate the broken ground based on their skill or the day’s conditions. Flynn’s map and hole drawings called for interrupted fairways on holes that cur rently don’t possess the feature, such as Nos. 4, 6, 10 and 16. Contemporaneous course maps from Flynn’s work at Pine Valley and Cherry Hills confirm this feature was in deed a Flynn trait, and the 1968 Kittansett history suggests the same: “The course was laid out as a series of one-shot holes from lengths of 110 to 235 yards, each different in character and providing varying problems in changing wind and weather.”Theperception from the 1922 prospectus reassured potential new members that, “A thorough examination showed the land, almost all of which was covered by trees, to be excellently adapted to a high grade golf course, both to the quality of the soil and as to the gently sloping contour and unusual features of terrain.”
“After we found the Flynn plans, it became clear there were some bunkers that had been taken out or that weren’t built. So we felt like we could possibly push the envelope a little bit more with making recommendations.”
Plan of Kittansett and Butler’s Point, 1925
Necessity being the mother of invention, the abundant volume of glacial till and low-lying soils gave way to some of Kittansett’s most distinctive features: its numerous rock mounds and drainage ditches. The functional reality of what to do with all these extra boulders — and extra water — now offers the strategic perception of elevation changes, both up and down, on a relatively flat site.
“Back then one of the key takeaways,” said Hanse, “was that the golf course was so heavily treed that when
THE GOLF COURSE 36 | 67TH U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP Hole No. 1 Hole No. 9
A further reality that became clear to members in the 1990s was that a course named “near the sea” was hardly honoring that name, given that sea views had become fully forested and obscured on far too many seaside holes. Hanse’s tree-clearing work in the last quarter century has made signif icant strides in returning Kittansett to embrace its intent as a fully seaside course.
Above and opposite: William Flynn’s original hole renderings and notes. overgrowth and stagnant marsh were meant to be. Fortu nately, aerial photos of the course from the 1950s proved the reality to be otherwise.
David Normoyle is a golf historian based in Saratoga Springs, New York. No.
you’re out on the Point, playing 2 and 17 and coming up 16 you couldn’t even see the water.” In 1922, when the club wrote to future members of its aspirations, the prospectus stated, “The course has been planned and built to be a first class course of the highest character, both for the championship player and for the player of ordinary ability.” Perception and reality meet yet again, one hundred years on at Kittansett for the 67th U.S. Senior Amateur Championship.
Hole No. 15 Hole
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THE KITTANSETT CLUB | 41 2 PAR 4 398 YARDS 2 PHOTO: FRED VUICH/USGA
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54 | 67TH U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP 9 PAR 4 408 YARDS 9 PHOTO: FRED VUICH/USGA
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How a statue of the game’s greatest amateur made its way to The Kittansett Club by JOHN STEINBREDER O NE OF THE FIRST THINGS A VISITOR to The Kittansett Club notices at the start of a round is the bronze statue of a golfer sitting on top of a working sundial by the first tee. And the plaque mounted on the rock on which the work of art rests explains the reason for its being there: “To Ray Dennehy, who devoted his life to Kittansett as a teacher and friend 1927–1973, we dedicate this memorial May 1980.”
Above: Ray Dennehy. Opposite: The Bobby Jones sundial is located by the first tee at Kittansett.
The Bobby Jones Sundial
Ray Dennehy, of course, was the longtime head golf professional at Kittansett, and after he passed away in the spring of 1978, club leaders started looking for a way to honor him. Two years later, they did so, at a ceremony dedicating the figure that was attended by more than 100 members as well as Dennehy’s widow Olga; their two sons, Raymond Jr. and Norman; and their wives and children.
BERTCHJEFFOPPOSITE:FAMILYDENNEHYLEFT:
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58 | 67TH U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP A Boston Herald newspaper clipping dated September 13, 1973, celebrates the tenure of Head Professional Ray Denney.
The Kittansett replica arrived at the club in August 1979. Nine months later it was dedicated as a memorial to Dennehy. Club members had it mounted on a rock by the first tee, and it was cov ered with a cloth for the ceremony. After saying a few words, club President Brad Eames left it to Dennehy’s widow Olga to remove the cloth and read the inscription at the base of the sundial.
“I WANTED TO HAVE TWO COPIES. ONE FOR THE CORNING COUNTRY CLUB ... WHERE I WAS ALSO A MEMBER, AND ONE FOR KITTANSETT.” —AMO HOUGHTON, LONGTIME KITTANSETT MEMBER
Later Pascale gave the sundial statue, which featured the words “Slow Back, Time Right” on the base, to a pair of sports-minded restaurant owners in Erie, Rick and Hank DeDionisio. And they in turn presented the figure to the nearby Downing Golf Course, which hosted the 1969 U.S. Public Links.
But that tells only part of the story, and what is less well known is how that effigy, which is 18½ inches high and boasts a rich brown patina, came to be at the club at all — and the ways that it is connected to AugustaSometimeNational.during the 1960s, a gentleman from Erie, Pa., named Pete Pascale was visiting a junkyard in Rochester, N.Y., when he came across a statue of a golfer that was part of a sundial. Both were in states of disrepair. Being a golfer, Pascale saw some value in the bronze, which is estimated to have been cast in 1938, and took it home. Once he cleaned it up, he concluded that the sculp tor, who was an American artist named Edwin E. Codman, had used Bobby Jones, the great amateur player and the co-founder of Augusta National and the Masters Tournament, as the model.
Then in the spring of 1972, the brothers hit upon the idea of offering the statue to Augusta National due to their admiration of and respect for Jones. They asked John May, a senior editor at the time for Golf Di gest, to act as an intermediary, and the journalist con tacted Clifford Roberts, who had started the club with Jones in 1933 and then helped him run it. Roberts accepted the gift, and the statue sundial was placed outside the member’s pro shop at Augusta National. It remains there to this day.
It is not exactly clear when the membership of Augusta took possession of the figure. What is known is that the late Amo Houghton, who was a member of that club as well as a life member at Kittansett and a longtime summer resident of Marion, became quite taken by the sundial. Houghton was a scion of the family that founded and then ran for many years the Corning Glass Works and a former Congressman from New York State. He was also aware that Kittansett members were looking for a possible memorial to erect at the club to commemorate Dennehy’s long service.
Houghton thought the Jones effigy might be a suit able monument and asked Augusta for permission to have a pair of replica casts made. “I wanted to have two copies,” said Houghton, who joined Kittansett in 1945 and passed away in spring of 2020 at age 93. “One for the Corning Country Club in upstate New York, where I was also a member, and one for Kittansett.”
THE KITTANSETT CLUB | 59 THE BOBBY JONES SUNDIAL ARCHIVECLUBKITTANSETTTHEOPPOSITE:
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hosting USGA events since the
USGA Championships in Massachusetts
The Bay State has a rich history of organization’s founding in by RON GREEN JR.
1894
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LIBRARYPUBLICBOSTON
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CROLL THROUGH the long history of USGA championships in all of their various forms — U.S. Opens, national amateur tournaments and team competitions — and a recurring theme TheMassachusetts.develops.Country Club. Brae Burn Country Club. Essex County Club. Salem Country Club. Myopia Hunt Club. Each of those has hosted at least four USGA championships, and The Country Club just hosted its 17th with the U.S. Open in June, tying it with Oakmont for the second-most hosting duties, just one behind Merion Golf Club.
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Francis Ouimet and his caddie Eddie Lowry stroll to victory during Ouimet’s historic 1913 U.S. Open triumph at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.
More than a century ago, when golf was just begin ning to grow into what it has become, the U.S. Open was a regular part of the Massachusetts sports calendar. Seven of the first 29 U.S. Opens were played in the state.
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Women’s Opens played at Salem Country Club. The list of champions at The Country Club includes Ouimet, Curtis Strange, Jay Sigel, Julius Boros and Henry Fownes.
In all, 19 different Massachusetts clubs have hosted USGA events, including Wollaston Golf Club in Milton where a kid named Tiger Woods won the 1992 U.S. Junior. Since the USGA was founded in 1894, at least one USGA championship has been played in Massachusetts everyThedecade.2022
Bob Jones won a U.S. Amateur in Massachusetts.
Left: Wille Anderson captured four U.S. Opens from 1901–1905 — two of those wins came at Myopia Hunt Club.
U.S. Senior Amateur is the second USGA event played at The Kittansett Club. The first was the 1953 Walker Cup matches, which the United States team won, 9-3. Only five states (Pennsylvania, California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois) have been more frequent hosts than Massachusetts, and none of those has a better story than 20-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet winning the 1913 U.S. Open at The Country Club, a monumental moment in the evolution of American golf. Among the truisms within the game is the notion that where a player wins matters. Winning a USGA event in Massachusetts comes with its own slice of history.
Right: Bobby Jones took nine USGA championships including his 1928 U.S. Amateur victory at Brae Burn Country Club.
Babe Zaharias and Betsy Rawls both won U.S.
USGA CHAMPIONSHIPS (4)USGA
Beth Daniel and sisters Harriott and Margaret Curtis won there,It’stoo.tempting to say the American game set its roots in Massachusetts given its deep history in the state. The Country Club, one of the grand locations in golf, was one of five founding clubs within the USGA, joining Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, Saint Andrew’s Golf Club, Chicago Golf Club and Newport Country Club.
“He was America’s first golf hero, and he put golf on the front pages of American newspapers for the first time,” said Michael Trostel, a Massachusetts native and director of championship content for the USGA. Where it happened enhanced the story.
Lauded for his honesty, Jones responded with one of his most famous comments: “You might as well praise me for
While addressing a shot, Jones noticed that his ball moved slightly. Though no one else saw it, Jones called a one-stroke penalty on himself. He ultimately finished tied with Macfarlane after 72 holes and lost in a playoff.
Right: Anne Quast Sander claimed one of her three U.S. Women’s Amateur titles at Taconic Golf Club in 1963; she also won four U.S. Senior Women’s Amateurs.
In 1919, Walter Hagen overcame a five-stroke deficit entering the final round to win the U.S. Open at Brae Burn Country Club, his second national championship.
“It’s one of the cathedrals of golf” is how John Bodenhamer, chief championships officer for the USGA, describes it.
Left: Babe Zaharias won the 1954 U.S. Women’s Open Championship at Salem Country Club.
The great Willie Anderson won the first of his four U.S. Open titles at Myopia Hunt Club in South Hamilton in 1901. It was one of four U.S. Opens played at Myopia from 1898 through 1908 with Fred Herd, Anderson twice and Fred McLeod winning championships there. It was at The Country Club in 1913 where the game experienced a seismic shift in terms of its overall popularity. That’s when Ouimet, who was living across the street from the club with his parents while working as a clerk in a sport ing goods store, took down Harry Vardon and Ted Ray — the dominant players in their day — in a playoff that shook the game.Ouimet, the reigning state amateur champion, was a late entrant to the U.S. Open because he was reluctant to ask for time off from his job. His victory changed the trajectory of the sport in the United States.
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One of the most memorable events in Bobby Jones’ career came at the 1925 U.S. Open at Worcester Country Club in a tournament he lost to Willie Macfarlane.
Fourteen months earlier, Zaharias underwent surgery for colon cancer, which led to a long and extensive recovery and rehabilitation period. At Salem, Zaharias soared, winning the championship by 12 strokes, a record that stands today as the largest margin of victory in the event. It was Zaharias’s 10th and final major championship and she played the last round with an amateur named Mickey Wright, who went on to win four U.S. Women’s Opens.
The state of Massachusetts — and particularly the Boston area — takes its sports seriously and while champi onship golf may not be there every year, it has a place in the soul of Bay State sports fans.
Left: Massachusetts-born Meg Mallon was victorious at the 1991 U.S. Women’s Open before winning the championship again in 2004 at Orchards Country Club.
not robbing banks,” said Jones, who had won two of his nine USGA titles at that point. The U.S. Women’s Open has been played four times in Massachusetts with Babe Zaharias, Betsy Rawls, Hollis Stacy and Meg Mallon winning. It was Zaharias’s victory in the 1954 Women’s Open at Salem Country Club that added another chapter to her remarkable story.
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“Boston has become a kind of city of champions,” Trostel said. “Teams have won the World Series, the Stanley Cup, the NBA championship and multiple Super Bowls.
Ron Green Jr. is a senior writer for Global Golf Post and a past president of the Golf Writers Association of America.
When Woods won the 1992 U.S. Junior at Wollaston, it was the second of three consecutive victories in the event and part of his unmatched run of six consecutive years win ning a USGA championship. It has been 69 years since the USGA has played an event at Kittansett, a beloved site perched on the water’s edge. The 1953 Walker Cup matches were played there and the American side rolled to a 9-3 victory led by eventual U.S. Open champions Gene Littler and Ken Venturi.
“People are accustomed to big events there and to have national championships such as the U.S. Open and the U.S. Senior Amateur there is a big deal. It’s really important to golf fans in the area.”
Right: Matt Fitzpatrick won the 2013 U.S. Amateur Championship at The Country Club prior to his historic 2022 U.S. Open triumph there.
QUAKER RIDGE GOLF CLUB 83 USGA Championships in Massachusetts 19 HOST SITES, 59 CHAMPIONSHIPS The Country Club (17) Brookline 1902 U.S. Women’s Amateur Genevieve Hecker 1910 U.S. Amateur William C. Fownes 1913 U.S. Open Francis Ouimet 1922 U.S. Amateur Jess W. Sweetser 1932 Walker Cup Team USA 1934 U.S. Amateur W. Lawson Little Jr. 1941 U.S. Women’s Amateur Elizabeth Hicks 1953 U.S. Girls’ Junior Mildred Meyerson 1957 U.S. Amateur Hillman Robbins Jr. 1963 U.S. Open Julius Boros 1968 U.S. Junior Amateur Eddie Pearce 1973 Walker Cup Team USA 1982 U.S. Amateur Jay Sigel 1988 U.S. Open Curtis Strange 1995 U.S. Women’s Amateur Kelli Kuehne 2013 U.S. Amateur Matt Fitzpatrick 2022 U.S. Open Matt Fitzpatrick Brae Burn Country Club (7) West Newton 1906 U.S. Women’s Amateur Harriot S. Curtis 1919 U.S. Open Walter Hagen 1928 U.S. Amateur Robert T. Jones Jr. 1958 Curtis Cup Tie 1970 Curtis Cup Team USA 1975 U.S. Women’s Amateur Beth Daniel 1997 U.S. Women’s Amateur Silvia Cavalleri Salem Country Club (6) Peabody 1932 U.S. Women’s Amateur Virginia Van Wie 1954 U.S. Women’s Open Babe Zaharias 1984 U.S. Women’s Open Hollis Stacy 1977 U.S. Senior Amateur Dale Morey 2001 U.S. Senior Open Bruce F leisher 2017 U.S. Senior Open Kenny Perry Essex County Club (5) Manchester-by-the-Sea 1897 U.S. Women’s Amateur Beatrix Hoyt 1912 U.S. Women’s Amateur Margaret Curtis 1938 Curtis Cup Team USA 1995 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Brenda CorrieKuehn 2010 Curtis Cup Team USA Myopia Hunt Club (4) South Hamilton 1898 U.S. Open Fred Herd 1901 U.S. Open Willie Anderson 1905 U.S. Open Willie Anderson 1908 U.S. Open Fred McLeod Taconic Golf Club (3) Williamstown 1956 U.S. Junior Amateur Foster Bradley Jr. 1963 U.S. Women’s Amateur Anne Quast Sander 1996 U.S. Senior Amateur O. Gordon Brewer Longmeadow Country Club (2) Longmeadow 1995 U.S. Girls’ Junior Marcy Newton 2005 U.S. Junior Amateur Kevin Tway Orchards Golf Club (2) South Hadley 1987 U.S. Girls’ Junior Michelle McGann 2004 U.S. Women’s Open Meg Mallon Wellesley Country Club (2) Wellesley 2003 USGA Women’s State Team Ohio 2016 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Ellen Port Worcester Country Club (2) Worcester 1925 U.S. Open Willie Macfarlane 1960 U.S. Women’s Open Betsy Rawls Belmont Springs Country Club (1) Belmont 1916 Women’s Amateur Alexa Stirling Charles River Country Club (1) Newton Centre 2003 USGA Men’s State Team Tennessee Dedham Club & Polo Club (1) Dedham 1975 U.S. Girls’ Junior Dayna Benson The Kittansett Club (1) Marion 1953 Walker Cup Team USA Oyster Harbors Club (1) Osterville 1960 U.S. Senior Amateur Michael Cestone Red Tail Golf Club (1) Devens 2009 U.S. Women’s Am. Public Links Jennifer Song Sankaty Head Golf Club (1) Siasconset 2021 U.S. Mid-Amateur Stewart Hagestad Stow Acres Country Club (1) Stow 1995 U.S. Amateur Public Links Chris Wollmann Wollaston Golf Club (1) Milton 1992 U.S. Junior Amateur Tiger Woods THE KITTANSETT CLUB | 83
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The tony New England town that Kittansett calls home has welcomed summer visitors since the 1870s by JOHN STEINBREDER Marion photography by TRUMAN TERRELL N OT SURPRISINGLY, the golf course at The Kittansett Club is often ranked among the best in the country by leading golf publications. And if such a list existed for the most charming coastal communities in America, the town in which that layout is located — Marion, Massachusetts — would hold an equally lofty position.
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MarvelousMarion
The weathered, cedar-shingled homes fronted by sweeping porches and well-manicured lawns are one reason for that. So are the views of Sippican Harbor from many of those abodes and the tall-masted yachts and sleek motor boats that fill that wide and welcoming haven in the summer.
Above: One of Great Hill Dairy’s inhabitants Opposite: Old Landing Wharf
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The narrow lanes that crisscross the burg, whose winter population of 5,000 more than doubles in the summer, are shaded by stately hardwoods and bordered by tall privet hedges and verdant flower gardens. There is an enticing quiet to the place, too, broken only by the occasional sound of a screen door slamming or of a hymn gently being played by the carillon in the bell tower of the First Congregational Church. Near-constant breezes rustle the leaves of the trees that shade the roadways as they also spread the soothing scents of salt water through the air. Some of the homes in Marion bear the names of the ship captains who once owned them — and who in the 1800s hunted whales in nearby waters from this port and sailed their schooners to the far corners of the earth, delivering goods from the New World and returning with merchandise from those farawayLocatedlands.some
20 miles southwest of Plymouth Rock, where the Pilgrims first landed in 1620, Marion was settled nearly 60 years later by a group of English men and women. Back then, it was called the Land of the Sepecan, or Sippican, which was the appellation for an Indian village at the head of the harbor. Less than a decade later, Sippican and other nearby hamlets decided to combine forces, assuming in the process the collective name of Rochester, as many of the
Pinney Point Beach Club, est. 1953 General Store
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In the spring of 1852, Sippican formally seceded from Rochester and incorporated as a separate town. Some wanted to retain its original name, but then it was decided to take the Marion moniker instead, after General Francis Marion, a South Carolinian celebrat ed for his military prowess during the Revolutionary War. Part of that was the result of the relationship local ship captains had developed with Marion’s home state from their voyag es there and also an admiration for his courage and skill in combat. Others liked the new name because it was easier to holler “Marion!” from ship-to-ship than “Sippican!”
inhabitants had come from Rochester, England. Those early colonists sustained themselves with the seafood they harvested from local wa ters as well as with the livestock they raised and the crops they grew in the fields they had cleared. In time, the villagers began selling the tar they made from the white pines that proliferated and after that, salt from the sea. Salt became a par ticularly important part of the local economy, but that changed in the early-1800s when the market moved to salt culled from mines rather than seawater. But by that time, Sippican had developed into a prosperous shipping port, so the impact of that shift was negligible.
Among the most notable of those seasonal visitors was President Grover Cleveland, who remains the only American to have served two non-consecutive terms in office as president. His first term as began in January 1885. He was also the only president to be married in the White House when he wed 21-year-old Frances Folsom in 1986. They left Washington D.C. after he lost the 1888 presidential election to Benjamin Harrison. The following year, the Beverly Yacht Club, est. 1872 Tabor Academy, est. 1876 Sippican Tennis Club, est. 1908
By the 1870s, Marion had evolved into something of a summer destination, in large part due to the building of railroads that made it much easier for city dwellers to leave hustle, bustle and heat in urban centers like Boston and New York for the beguiling beauty and cooling ocean breezes of Marion. Sailors were especially drawn to the area, as it boasted one of the choicest har bors in all the northeast. They also liked that the winds blew quite reliably across Buzzards Bay. This period came to be known as the Golden Era, and it saw prominent artists, politicians and business leaders flocking to the region. A number of hotels were built during that time as well as the Beverly Yacht Club (established in 1872) and the Sippican Tennis Club (founded in 1908).
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90 | 67TH U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP
PHOTO: JEFF BERTCH THE KITTANSETT CLUB | 91
Bird Island, which marks the entrance to Sippican Harbor, is visited by Great Horned Owls from the mainland as well as Great Black-backed Gulls.
The presence of people like the Clevelands lent a certain cachet to Marion, and for several decades it prospered as something of a resort community. But the last of the hotels closed in the 1920s — the same decade that The Kittansett Club came to be — and Marion morphed into more of a summer community and a place where families came to relax and recreate in the warmer months.
Above and opposite: Tranquility on Buzzards Bay
former president and first lady spent their first summer in Marion. And they returned every season until he successfully ran again for president in 1892. By all accounts, they reveled in the quiet beauty of the seaside community. They took walks through the village unattended, worshipped at the First Congregational Church and accepted invitations to dinner parties.
President Cleveland especially loved fishing in Buzzards Bay, and he spent so much time plying local waters with his rod and reel that a favorite spot of his came to be known as Cleveland Ledge.
Cleveland once described Marion as “the most beautiful little town in the United States.” It remains more or less that same place today.
92 | 67TH U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP MARVELOUS MARION
THE KITTANSETT CLUB STAFF The Club would like to thank the following senior staff members for their dedication to the operations of the 67th U.S. Senior Amateur Championship 94 | 67TH U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP Amanda Zimmerman CLUBHOUSE MANAGER John Kelly GROUNDS SUPERINTENDENT Dan Ferrare, CEC, CCA EXECUTIVE CHEF Steve Mann, PGA GENERAL MANAGER/COO Ali Hamilton MEMBERSHIP SERVICES MANAGER Michael Moore, PGA DIRECTOR OF GOLF SERVICES Lisa Beausoleil, MBA FINANCIAL CONTROLLER Joe Andrade FACILITIES MANAGER J. P. Connelly, PGA HEAD GOLF PROFESSIONAL
Steve Mann, PGA GENERAL MANAGER/COO Amanda Zimmerman CLUBHOUSE MANAGER Lisa Beausoleil, MBA FINANCIAL CONTROLLER Ali Hamilton MEMBERSHIP SERVICES MANAGER Dan Ferrare, CEC, CCA EXECUTIVE CHEF J.P. Connelly, PGA HEAD GOLF PROFESSIONAL Michael Moore, PGA DIRECTOR OF GOLF SERVICES John Kelly GROUNDS SUPERINTENDENT Joe Andrade FACILITIES MANAGER COMMUNICATIONS Sheila Grady CHAIR Mimi Henderson CAPTAIN DIVOT PATROL Steve Heacox CO-CAPTAIN Greg Johnson CO-CAPTAIN FINANCE Bill Creevy CHAIR FUNDRAISING Michael Kane CO-CAPTAIN Mark Milhench CO-CAPTAIN GOLF OPERATIONS Will Hickey CHAIR RANGE Rob Sudduth CAPTAIN SCORING Ken Kotowski CO-CAPTAIN Meredith Scala CO-CAPTAIN SPOTTERS Fran Doran CAPTAIN GROUNDS John Murray CHAIR HOUSE Kristen Hatcher CHAIR, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEDICAL Michael Popitz CHAIR PARKING & TRANSPORTATION Jim Parker CHAIR, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE PARKING Michael Curran CAPTAIN TRANSPORTATION CC Dyer CAPTAIN PLAYER HOSPITALITY Jon Burr CO-CHAIR Alex Dauria CO-CHAIR REGISTRATION Chip O’Hare CO-CHAIR John Reinman CO-CHAIR SIGNAGE Anne Lucas CHAIR VOLUNTEERS Gene Lonergan CHAIR, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Todd Richins CAPTAIN UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION CHAMPIONSHIP DIRECTOR Greg Sanfilippo CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER Macy Wright MANAGER Joey Geske 67TH U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP COMMITTEE Muffy Marlio HONORARY CHAIRPERSON Newcomb Cole Jan Heller GENERAL CHAIRPERSON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR THE KITTANSETT CLUB | 95
