The Explosive Rise of Junior Golf at Apawamis

BY MONIQUE THORESZ, PGA,DIRECTOR OF INSTRUCTION

If you think you’re seeing more kids playing golf at Apawamis lately, you’re not imaginingthings. Over the past decade, the Apawamis junior golf program has been thriving followinga major overhaul in 2012, and those changes are starting to pay huge dividends. The programrevitalization, along with many younger families joining the Club, has led to a resurgence ofyoung golfers playing and improving—at a rapid pace.

2022 Parent/Child Tournament

Photo By DS Photography

Some members may not know that Apawamis has had a rich history of junior golf excellence for many decades, with several juniors going on to play college golf and succeeding at a high level on the amateur stage. I must confess that until I began writing this article, I didn’t know much about the competitive record of Apawamis juniors, and I have since become inspired to make our members aware of this great history. As I began researching and speaking with people, the floodgates of information opened up! Unfortunately, there is no way to include all that I have learned in this article. And, although I have done my best to track down as much historical information as possible, there will inevitably be things I have missed, for which I apologize in advance. I welcome any additional information that members may bring to my attention.

JUNIOR GOLF ORIGINS AT APAWAMIS

Apawamis’ first Junior Club Championship was in 1956, the same year that Doug Casey’s family joined the Club. Head Professional Jack Patroni (1946- 71) had several assistants, one of whom was Miller Barber (pictured below), an outstanding player who won his first PGA Tour event in 1964 and went on to win 43 professional events. Doug Casey remembers playing golf with Miller as a youngster “for chocolate chip cookies.” Doug was the Junior Club Champion in 1963 and caddied and shagged balls on the driving range in the 1960s and 70s.

Miller Barber

Photo by Alex J. Morrison Copy Right PGA of America

Another Assistant Professional under Jack Patroni was Bill “Cotton” Dunn, who ran some fledgling junior clinics in the early 1960s. Mary Watkins, who grew up at Apawamis, remembers clinics with a handful of kids who would go out on the course to play afterward. Maryanne Lynch remembers attending junior clinics run by Cotton Dunn with her siblings around the same time but notes that it was a relatively informal program, and there wasn’t as much emphasis on juniors having “fun” through the game as there is today.

Growing up in the late 1970s, Norman “Chip” Snow, the 1980 and 1982 Junior Club Champion and 1985 Men’s Club Champion, remembers playing for Apawamis in junior interclub matches at Winged Foot and Wykagyl. Those matches “were a great experience and prepared me to play in tournaments,” he says. Apawamis’ difficult conditions “taught me the value of precision shots and helped me develop a very good short game,” he added, reflecting on the need to carefully choose which club to hit from the tee, valuing accuracy, not just distance.

Although there was a smallish junior program in the 1960s and 70s, current and former members that I have spoken with generally agree that it was in 1982, when Mike Summa began working as an Assistant Golf Professional under long-time Head Professional Frank Cardi, that the junior program began to grow. Mike and a couple of the other Assistants, Freddy Harkness and Peter Elder, ran a modest junior clinic program at the time. Although many of those that I spoke with remembered that Frank Cardi was a bit less enthusiastic than his assistants were about encouraging juniors (and women) to use the practice facilities and golf course. Unlike today with Apawamis being considered an active “family club,” at that time, Apawamis was much quieter and more focused on men’s golf. Doug Casey remembers that it was the addition of the pool in the 1970s that transformed Apawamis into much more of a “family club.”

Mike Summa took an interest in young juniors who came out to practice and play, teaching them about etiquette and rules, giving lessons here and there and, as noted above, running a modest junior clinic program. The former junior golfers I spoke with agree that Mike’s influence on them as young players was instrumental in developing their games and moving them to the next level. But, to be fair, the golf industry was very different back in the 1980s and 1990s, and not many facilities had full-blown junior programs or even full-time teaching professionals, as we see today at many clubs.

By the time Mike Summa became Apawamis’ Head Professional in 1988, a steady stream of juniors was beginning to improve and take the game more seriously. In 1989, a new era in junior golf was born with the advent of the Apawamis Junior Sports Program. With the Junior Sports Program now providing an opportunity for regular instruction in multiple sports by the various professional staff for several weeks in the summer, some standout junior golfers emerged.

Perhaps the best-known and arguably most successful young golfer from Apawamis was Johnny Williams, who was the Junior Club Champion in 1983 and 1985 and went on to play golf at Rollins College (Class of 1989). Johnny walked onto the team his freshman year and earned a scholarship for his remaining three years. He qualified for the US Amateur in his junior year in 1988, playing at Merion Golf Club, and finished third in the NCAA Division II Championship in 1988, which earned him a First Team All-American designation. After college, Johnny turned professional, playing on the South African Tour, Canadian Tour, Asian Tour and Hogan Tour (what is now the Korn Ferry Tour) for a couple of years before starting his business career.

Another excellent golfer of the same era as Johnny Williams was Jimmy Dunn, who played Division I college golf at Loyola University, graduating in 1989. Cabot Williams—Johnny’s younger brother and Junior Club Champion in 1987—followed Johnny to Rollins and played on the golf team, graduating in 1994. Mike Saunders, the 1988 Junior Club Champion—whose parents were instrumental in bringing the prestigious American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) tournaments to Apawamis in the 1990s—was also a great golfer and played college golf for Georgetown, graduating in 1994. Mike worked for the AJGA for a time after college before starting his business career.

Jimmy Dunn

In all, Apawamis hosted five AJGA events throughout the 1990s, the last in 2010. Perhaps the most famous winner of an AJGA event at Apawamis was Sergio Garcia, who won in 1998.

Sergio Garcia named an honorable mention Rolex Junior All-American in1998 after winning the Marsh Junior at Apawamis.

Photo courtesy of the AJGA Blog

Apawamis has also hosted seven Metropolitan Golf Association Junior Championship, which is among the most competitive junior amateur events in the area. The fact that Apawamis has graciously hosted many of these junior events signifies its deep commitment to competitive amateur golf on the junior level.

Tony McCutcheon, the 1992 and 1993 Junior Club Champion, played golf and squash for Williams College, graduating in 1999. Tony was co-captain of the team in his senior year (1999) and made All-American that year, finishing eighth out of a field of 120 in the NCAA finals. Bill Oleson, the 1994 Junior Club Champion, played college golf at Brown University, achieved “All Ivy” during his junior year, and captained the team in his senior year.

Edward C. Haley was Junior Club Champion in 1968 and an excellent player. He is the father of Ted Haley, who won the 1994 AJGA tournament at Apawamis. Ted went on to play golf for the University of North Carolina, graduating in 2000. He had a wonderful amateur career, playing in three US Amateur tournaments (1995 at Newport, 1996 at Pumpkin Ridge, and 1997 at Cog Hill).

Three junior golfers have managed to win the Junior and Men’s Club Championship in the same year: Jeff Hadley (1969), Jimmy Dunn (1984), and Christian Ostberg (2014).

2014 Champion Christian Ostberg

Madeleine (Sullivan) Loehr, Charlotte (Gerrish) Koster, and Colleen (Purcell) Tenan, who all grew up at Apawamis in the mid-1990s, remember that the junior golf program under Mike Summa was where they grew to love the game. Madeleine says that she participated in Junior Sports Program longer than her peers because she loved to play golf and even signed up for early-morning sessions on the course before Junior Sports began so that she could play more. Charlotte and Colleen remember that the foundation they received as juniors in the basic rules and etiquette of the game have made them comfortable being on the course with others and confident in their ability to play with anyone of any skill level.

A few other players emerged to play college golf, notably Jeff Pike, (who played for Bucknell and graduated in 2010) Alex Bermingham (Trinity College), and Walker Steers (St. Lawrence University); both graduating in 2013.

Although Apawamis does not boast as long of a history of college golfers on the women’s side, there are a few standouts. At the turn of the 20 th century, Genevieve Hecker won back-to-back US Women’s Amateur tournaments (then called the National Women’s Golf Tournament). Her first was in 1901, winning at Baltusrol Golf Club when she was just shy of 18 years old, finishing in a four-way tie for medalist honors before taking the final match. Genevieve also won the following year (1902) at The Country Club in Brookline. In her later years, she wrote a book called Golf For Women, the first book ever written exclusively for female golfers. I own a copy of Hecker’s book and can attest to how well some of the ideas have aged in the years since she wrote it!

Barbara McGhie, who won six Apawamis Women’s Club Championships, had a stellar amateur career, playing golf at Wellesley College (in addition to field hockey, basketball and squash). She was inducted into the Wellesley Hall of Fame for her golf achievements. When she was 17 years old, Barbara was the runner-up in the inaugural USGA Girls’ Junior Championship in 1949. In 1951, Barbara was the National Intercollegiate Golf Champion (the equivalent of the modern NCAA Individual Champion) after finishing runner-up the previous year. She also won the New York State Women’s Amateur Championships in 1951, 1952, and 1954.

Mary Watkins won the Apawamis Women’s Club Championship in 1970 when she was 18, breaking up a string of Jean Crawford titles from 1969 to 1974. As mentioned above, Mary describes a small junior clinic program in the early 1960s and remembers looking up to the great women golfers at the Club—Jean Crawford and Sis Choate—as an inspiration to improve her game. Mary attended Hollins College (now Hollins University) at the same time as legendary lifelong amateur Carol Semple Thompson. While there was not a golf team there until Mary’s senior year, they did play matches in the Virginia Intercollegiate division.

The next female college golfer who grew up at the Club that I was able to identify was Rebecca Warner, who played for Bowdoin College and graduated in 2011.

For a little over a decade after Mike Summa left Apawamis in 2000 to become the Head Professional at The Stanwich Club, the junior golf program shifted slightly to the back burner. While the summer Junior Sports Program continued, there was no driving force behind the junior golf program from the professional staff, and participation dwindled.

THE MODERN JUNIOR GOLF ERA

Junior Golf Programs Instruction with Monique and Jacob

When I first came to Apawamis in 2011, I spent most of my time observing the existing junior golf program, which essentially meant the summer Junior Sports Program, since there really weren’t any other structured offerings. However, having spent the previous eight seasons at Westchester CC with its robust junior golf program, I knew that more could be done, and I made it my mission to create the finest junior golf program in the metropolitan area at Apawamis. James Ondo, our new Head Professional beginning in 2013, gave me wide latitude to create programs that would last the test of time and build a program from the ground up that would change the landscape of junior golf at Apawamis.

In 2013, we added the first Advanced Junior Golf Academy (our own AJGA—intentionally so-named to be reminiscent of the American Junior Golf Association tournament program) to the summer sports schedule, offering a dedicated golf-intensive program to provide advanced instruction to juniors. In addition, we rewrote the curriculum for the After-School Clinic program and the golf portion of the Junior Sports Program. This curriculum overhaul was critical, ensuring that all juniors receive consistent, quality information from our professional staff. We added training programs for the assistant professionals so that every instructor that junior golfers interact with is well-versed in the theory and language used in our programs. Finally, all of our programs are based on the principles of Long-Term Athletic Development (LTAD—the idea that children need to perform age-appropriate motor skill acquisition drills to maximize athletic potential). Fundamental Sports skills are layered on top of Fundamental Movement Skills in the LTAD hierarchy, with the intention of creating athletes first, and golfers second.

2022 Apawamis Junior Golf Academy

Gradually, as the junior program grew, we added additional offerings (Saturday Girls’ Golf Clinics, Fall Ball, PGA Junior League, Junior Play with the Pro, and Elite Junior Golf). We’ve also added a Junior Certification Program, a requirement for juniors who wish to play on the course unaccompanied by adults—to ensure that the standards of play, rules, and etiquette are well understood by our junior golfers.

It may surprise you to learn that the number of juniors at the club between the ages of 6 and 17 has remained relatively steady for at least the past 12 years, leveling out to around 500 kids (give or take). That’s a lot of kids at the Club! At this point, we have added so many programs that we are truly limited in what we can offer by our physical facilities—we simply don’t have anywhere else to put more kids or instructors.

In the years since the “re-boot” of our junior program, it has grown not only in size but in magnitude. What I call the “baseline competence” of our juniors has grown exponentially as more of our kids have been exposed at earlier ages and with more consistent instruction and time on the course. We are experiencing a culture shift, and that shift has taken the better part of a decade to take hold—but we have plenty of momentum on our side now.

This brings us full circle in connecting the junior golf programs of our past, present, and future. In recent years, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of juniors playing in local Met PGA events, playing for their high school teams, and playing in Hurricane Tour and American Junior Golf Association events. This year alone, we have had 16 juniors play in over 70 Met PGA events, Hurricane Tour events, and American Junior Golf Association events. For some, the next step will be to pursue a dream of playing college golf. And while playing college golf is not (and shouldn’t be) the overall measure of a successful junior program, I believe that if we’re doing things correctly, we should be showing our juniors what’s possible if they choose to dream.

2022 Apawamis Qualifier for National Drive Chip & Putt

We are especially proud of two of our juniors who have committed to play for college teams: Hailey Ryan, who has just begun her freshman year at Bowdoin College in Maine, and Sam O’Hara, who is committed to the University of Virginia program starting in the fall of 2023. Both juniors have worked hard on their games over the years and it has clearly paid off. As I write this article, nine other juniors at the Club have expressed an interest in playing at the college level. Time will tell if those dreams will come true, but ultimately, what’s important isn’t whether our kids go on to play in college or even at the elite amateur or national or professional level. What’s important is that they can dream of it.

Sam O’Hara, Medalist at the qualifier for the 74th US Junior Amateur Championship

Photo courtesy of NY State Golf Association

Hailey Ryan

When our members know the great history of Apawamis’ past junior golfers it helps to foster an environment where there is a healthy competition level and exceptional play—because the past can inform the future. When we show our juniors what others who come before us have done, they can also imagine those things as possible for themselves. That’s one of the essential ways that culture is created and nurtured.

I hope you have enjoyed this walk down memory lane of Apawamis junior golf history. I have very much enjoyed speaking with so many current and former members of the Club and learning about our rich history of junior golf accomplishments. As I remain at Apawamis, I will constantly strive to improve our junior program so that our professional staff can provide the most comprehensive and superior programming that our facilities will allow. I am so grateful to the membership at Apawamis for providing the resources and support for our programs over these past 12 years, and I can’t wait to see what the future will bring.

2022 Junior Golf Clinic

The Mission of the Junior Golf Program

Provide a high-quality learning environment where juniors learn athletic and golf-specific skills that will prepare them for a lifetime of involvement in golf;

Foster an environment of fun that promotes a love for the game of golf;

Provide a pathway for committed juniors to experience competition and develop skills that allow them to test the limits of their abilities; and

Promote core values of honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, fun, perseverance, and judgment.