New York State Golf Association: Our First 100 Years, 1923-2023

N E W Y O R K S TAT E G O L F A S S O C I AT I O N

100 OUR FIRST 100 YEARS, 1923-2023

Foreword by John Blain, NYSGA Historian

I

t is with great pleasure — and an honor — to write a few words about the New York State Golf Association and its Centennial Celebration.

“Centennial.” There is a certain prestige that goes with the word. It signifies an occasion demanding attention and reflection. A centennial celebration also affords us the opportunity to look forward, to see how our experiences can improve the things we hold important.

So it is with the NYSGA, marking 100 years of service to golf all over New York state in 2023.

I have always been intrigued with the history of the game, its records and great achievements. Going back to 1977 when I played in my first NYSGA event, the Junior & Boys’ Championship at the Elmira Country Club, I have been fascinated with the history of our association and its competitions, competitors, volunteers and clubs where so many notable events and milestones have occurred.

Ironically, Fred Box — the longtime historian of our association — was a lifelong resident of Elmira. It seemed appropriate that I took over Fred’s role upon his retirement in 2006, during the fall meeting hosted by Fred’s beloved Elmira Country Club, of which he was a longtime member.

The NYSGA was officially founded on Aug. 9, 1923, at the Yahnundasis Golf Club in New Hartford. Its mission was to “foster closer and more intimate relations in and among the great body of golfers in New York state and to create an opportunity for an annual tournament which would have an official sanction as a state championship.”

From this focus and conducting one championship (the first Men’s Amateur championship was played later that year at the Garden City Golf Club), we have come a long way. Our association now conducts — among other endeavors — 19 state championships, the Amateur Series and sectional qualifying for USGA championships, and it is actively involved in Youth on Course. Entries for events and volunteers wanting to get involved are at an all-time high.

The NYSGA has put together this booklet, which salutes the greatest achievements in our association’s history, for your enjoyment. Thanks to the efforts of our hard-working staff, led by Bill Moore and Andrew Hickey, and the leadership of the NYSGA officers and Executive Committee, we have become the “go to” organization for golf in New York state.

John Blain

I would like to thank and acknowledge our Director of Marketing and Partnerships, Dan Thompson, who did virtually all the heavy lifting for our Centennial Celebration. In addition, he received considerable support from longtime journalist Pete Dougherty, the Albany Times Union golf writer who has done a superb job covering local golf in the Capital Region for decades, and Doug Vergith of Chautauqua, whose insight into our association’s history has proved invaluable. A special thanks also goes to Kevin Casey, golf historian extraordinaire who was instrumental in helping us pull this project together.

As you may have noticed in our 1923 mission statement above, longevity is not an explicit goal. However, reaching our 100th anniversary is an indication that things are going well. While a lot has happened in the past 100 years, in looking forward, we passionately believe the best is yet to come.

1 NYSGA 1923-2023

1923 -2023

The NYSGA at 100 – services provided today Tournament Play .

122 total days with a golf event (in a span of 127 days)

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2,009 total NYSGA tournament entries

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2,160 total Amateur Series entries

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8 total USGA Qualifiers conducted (with 409 entries)

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88 volunteers on Tournament Committee

GHIN Handicap Management Statistics .

258 member clubs

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40,727 individual members

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1,376,105 total rounds posted by members

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50,551 by 11,946 golfers – competitive rounds posted

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1,367 member or club support requests resolved

Club Tournament Management Product (Golf Genius) .

125 active clubs using software

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500,000-plus player rounds managed in the program

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814 support requests from clubs resolved

Course Rating .

34 courses rated

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41 course ratings planned in 2023

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81 volunteers on course Rating Committee

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1,040 volunteer hours spent on ratings

Rules Education (Spring 2023) .

3 full-day advanced classes held

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8 half-day refresher courses held

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386 total attendance at the 11 programs

2 NYSGA 1923-2023

The New York State Golf Association

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he history of the New York State Golf Association has been among the most interesting in the United States.

Given the state’s outsized role in the beginning of golf in the U.S, one would expect the NYSGA to have been right there at the beginning. But it took three decades, and a high-profile nudge, for New York to form its own governing golf association.

The American golf boom teed off in the 1880s in various parts of the country. Like ripples caused by pebbles tossed across a pond, golf expanded first in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic states and made its way across the country.

Nowhere were those footholds more solid than in New York, with pockets of golf blooming on Long Island, outside New York City and in a few cities and towns throughout the state.

By 1894, golf had graduated beyond a fad to 50 clubs in the entire country and had attracted a clientele willing to invest fortunes in time and resources to grow the game. With help primarily from golf professionals — almost exclusively immigrant Scots and Englishmen — who sensed the sweet smell of opportunity, the game started to take hold.

1923 2023

The United States Golf Association (USGA) was formed that year in Manhattan and started holding its men’s amateur and open championships. Golf clubs, public courses and golf associations were popping up across the country, holding championships, organizing team matches, devising handicaps and providing a structure for the growth of the game.

However, by 1920 the Metropolitan Golf Association, with a multi-state view of its role, had emerged as a premier regional golf association and assumed a leading role in New York’s part in the golf boom. There were other associations and loose alliances in pockets of the state, but nothing rose to a level of governance. New York was, therefore, one of the few states at that time without its own golf association or championship.

It took an early 1923 column by Grantland Rice, generally regarded as America’s premier sportswriter, with an assist

by Walter J. Travis, a leader of the Garden City Golf Club and proud disruptor of the already staid world of golf, to get things going. Rice loudly opined in Travis’ American Golfer magazine that New York state should have its own state association and championship. He followed that up with calls to prominent New York golfers.

Invitations went out to 150 clubs across New York, describing an association whose objective would be to “foster closer and more intimate relations in and among the great body of golfers in this state than is now possible.”

That Aug. 9, at New Hartford’s Yahnundasis Golf Club, delegates from across New York unanimously voted to form the NYSGA, and — wasting no time — hold the first men’s championship later that year.

Travis and Rice’s home club, Garden City, one of the nation’s most respected courses, offered to be the site of the late October match-play championship.

Grantland Rice

The first 100 years of the NYSGA were under way.

3 NYSGA 1923-2023

The birth of NYSGA Officers in 1923

Sherrill Sherman, Utica – President Irving S. Robeson, Rochester – 1st Vice President Ganson Depew, Buffalo – 2nd Vice President Don M. Parker, Garden City – Secretary-Treasurer Executive Committee: John M. Ward, Garden City; Grantland Rice, New York City; John F. Nash, Syracuse; Richard B. Emmett, Schenectady; Gardiner White, Glen Cove; Alfred Bourne, Garden City; Clarence Wheeler, Rochester; and Harry Davis, Buffalo.

Ganson Depew of Buffalo, an early leader of the NYSGA.

Yahundasis Golf Club in New Hartford, the founding site of the NYSGA.

4 NYSGA 1923-2023

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 1923.

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h e following pages illustrate each of the 10 decades that comprise the NYSGA’s first 100 years. Starting with the Association’s first breath in 1923, this account documents its evolution right up to this year’s packed docket of events. Written by Kevin Casey.

Past Executive Directors Tom Reidy (left) and Pat Keenan with the Ganson Depew Cup at Oak Hill in 1987.

5 NYSGA 1923-2023

1923 through 1929 A Delayed but Successful Start The Jazz Age; Babe Ruth; The Golden Age of American Sport; Bob Jones; the Teapot Dome Scandal; Charles Lindbergh; the 1929 Wall Street Crash

First Championship

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he inaugural NYSGA Men’s Championship got off to a promising — if sodden — start. Garden City was host to the inaugural championship as the first shots were struck Oct. 24, 1923. Sixty-one golfers qualified over 18 holes for 16 match-play positions. Despite the NYSGA’s emphasis on a state-wide championship, the majority of golfers hailed from the metropolitan area, probably a reflection of both the event’s newness and the challenges of cross-state travel in 1923.

Eddie Driggs from Cherry Valley and Gardiner White, the 1921 Met Amateur champion from Nassau, carded 77s in solid rain to capture the medal. An early featured match included heavyweight White vs. Rochester’s Arthur “Ducky” Yates, a highly regarded former North and South Amateur champion and future (1927) NYSGA titleist, won

by White. In the end, Driggs captured the finals in an 8-&-7 victory over Garden City member Clifton Mabon, foreshadowing future NYSGA Men’s Championship wins.

The New York Times concluded that “The first championship tournament of the newly organized NYSGA more than justified itself.” It further wrote that a “strong entry in respect to both numbers and class . . . contended for the title.”

Eddie Driggs of Cherry Valley, the inaugural NYS Amateur champion.

1923-29 NYS Amateur Champions Year

Host Club

Winner

1923

Garden City GC

Eddie Driggs Jr., Garden City

1924

Orchard Park CC

Lee Chase, Buffalo

1925

Lido CC

Jack Mackie Jr., Inwood

1926

McGregor Links CC

Al Brodbeck, Bronxville

1927

Oak Hill CC (East)

Arthur Yates, Rochester

1928

Westchester CC (West)

George Dawson, Harrison

1929

Mohawk GC

Maurice McCarthy, Mt. Vernon

6 NYSGA 1923-2023

New York Times, October 1923.

Arthur “Ducky” Yates of Rochester, 1927 NYS Amateur champion.

7 NYSGA 1923-2023

1923 through 1929 NYS Open

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sensible extension of the NYSGA’s mission and the fledgling Men’s Amateur championship was the concept of a New York State Open — that is, a competition for both the state’s best amateurs and professionals. The NYSGA decided to conduct the New York State Open starting in 1928, largely funded by the host, Onondaga.

The first New York State Open was intended strictly for residents of New York, but the princely purse of more than $2,000 — well beyond the norm for comparable events — drew an unsolicited contingent of touring professionals from across the country.

In a Solomon-like decision, the NYSGA let the foreigners play. Will Klein, a club professional from Long Island, won the two-day, 72-hole event by a stroke over Scotsman-turnedChicagoan Bob MacDonald.

The 1929 Open was held at Westchester the week before and just down the road from the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, guaranteeing a “Who’s Who of Golf'' quality field that included Billy Burke, Harry Cooper, Johnny Farrell, Walter

'20s Familiar Faces: Hagen and Gene Sarazen (all U.S. Open or PGA champions). Burke came out on top, his 1-under 287 beating unheralded George Christ by four.

The 1930 tournament at Green Meadow in Harrison in late June attracted a good field, including Burke, Wiffy Cox, Farrell and local favorite Joe Turnesa. Farrell captured the top prize with a birdie on the last hole for an even-par 288 and a two-shot victory over Cox. Despite featuring major tournament winners and excellent venues, the New York State Open faced strong headwinds. The Great Depression was having its way with professional sports, especially golf, which was dependent on business sponsors. In late 1930, the NYSGA decided to drop the State Open as financially prohibitive, intending instead to focus on amateur events.

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The winner of the 1929 NYSGA Men’s Amateur Championship was Maurice McCarthy, a Mount Vernon resident who was also the NCAA champion playing out of Georgetown.

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Rochester’s Arthur “Ducky” Yates, one of the more colorful players of New York’s Roaring ’20s, was a former football lineman at Yale who strained the scales at 300 pounds. Yates won not only the 1927 NYSGA Men’s Am, but also the 1925 North and South Amateur Championship and was a semifinalist in the 1931 U.S. Amateur Championship.

•

Lee Chase won the 1924 Men’s Amateur in his hometown of Buffalo, winning the title at Orchard Park. He had also won the Florida State Amateur that season, having a winter home down there.

The New York State Open remained mothballed until 1978, when the Metropolitan section of the PGA of America successfully revived the tournament.

NYS Open Results Year

Host Club

Winner

1928

Onondaga G&CC

Will Klein, Wheatley Hills

1929

Westchester CC

Billy Burke, Round Hill

1930

Green Meadow CC

Johnny Farrell, Quaker Ridge

Winner Billy Burke tees off at Westchester CC for the 1929 NYS Open.

8 NYSGA 1923-2023

Buffalo Courier, August 1924.

Sherrill Sherman

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he first president of the NYSGA was Sherrill Sherman, son of U.S. Vice President James Sherman (under President Howard Taft). The senior Sherman imbued his son with a decision to service. Like Theodore Havemeyer, the first president of the USGA, Sherman was the right person at the right time. A volunteer to both the NYSGA and his club, Yahnundasis, Sherman was a rock of support for decades to both.

Sherman remained NYSGA president for just two years, stepping down to assume the role as first vice president under Don Parker, another anchor board member in the NYSGA’s earliest years. Over three decades, Sherman served in every position the organization could offer.

Notably, whenever issues rose with other institutions, from banks to the USGA, it was Sherman who made the issues go away.

In 1956, he said, “Since the formation of the state association I have served continually in different positions, and it has always been a matter of great personal pleasure to have had this opportunity for continued service.” Sherman could have been the poster child for effective board membership.

Furthermore, he was a rare golf administrator who could also seriously play the game. Sherman played in 18 straight U.S. Amateurs, making it to the semifinals in 1915. He was the Yahnundasis club champion nine times over 27 years. In 1941, Sherman captured the NYSGA Senior Men’s Amateur.

In a crowning recognition for his contribution to the game, Sherman eventually became a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.

Sherrill Sherman, the first president of the NYSGA in 1923.

Sherrill Sherman of Utica (left) and Walter Travis of Garden City during a tournament at Yahundasis in 1920.

9 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 1930s The Great Depression; Herbert Hoover; The New Deal; Lou Gehrig; The Empire State Building; The Hindenburg Disaster; Hitler

NYS Women's Amateur Championship

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or the New York Women’s Amateur in 1930, the NYSGA was graced by the presence of a 19-year-old phenomenon from Hewlett on Long Island — Helen Hicks. She won her first NYSGA championship in Rochester at Oak Hill, followed it up a year later with a win at Lido, took a year off and then won it a third time in 1933 at Plandome.

Young Hicks wasn’t simply the best woman golfer in New York, but one of the best in the country. She twice reached the U.S. Amateur finals, besting Glenna Collett Vare in 1931 and losing to Virginia Van Wie in 1933.

After compiling a sterling amateur record, Hicks was asked by the USGA to represent the U.S. in the first Curtis Cup competition in 1932 in Wentworth, England (the U.S. won, 5.5-3.5).

Hicks had reached the top of the amateur golf mountain in her early 20s. An innovator, Hicks in 1934 became one of the first women sports professionals by signing with Wilson Sporting Goods to promote its golf equipment. Taking that thought one step further, in 1950, Hicks became one of the 13 founders of the Ladies Professional Golf Association.

Peggy Wattles of Buffalo, 1932 NYS Women’s Am champion.

Helen Hicks of Long Island, three-time NYS Women’s Am champion.

Who knows what influence the Women’s State Amateur had on Hicks’ budding career, but winning state championships on great venues must have been a confidence-builder.

Contestant pin and pamphlet from the 1930 NYS Women’s Amateur at Oak Hill CC.

Helen Hicks: Off to a Fast Start Year

Host Club

Winner

1930

Oak Hill CC (East)

Helen Hicks, Hewlett

1931

Lido CC

Helen Hicks, Hewlett

1932

Yahnundasis GC

Peggy Wattles, Hamburg

1933

Plandome CC

Helen Hicks, Hewlett

10 NYSGA 1923-2023

Rochester's Democrat and Chronicle, July 1930.

Peggy Wattles and Frances Snyder during their championship match in 1932 at Yahnundasis.

11 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 1930s An Emerging Star

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he demise of the New York State Open due to lack of funding proved to be a boon for the state’s junior golfers. Following quickly on the heels of the newly created Women’s Amateur, the NYSGA readjusted its sights and started the New York State Boys’ Junior Championship.

The first championship was held in 1931 at Onondaga. Hamilton Wright from Garden City will forever be the Empire State’s first junior champion with his win in 1931, but like the Women’s Amateur, a golfer soon emerged who would capture the state’s attention for years.

Willie Turnesa of Elmsford (second from left) and Tommy Goodwin of Rye (far right) with press at the 1935 NYS Amateur at Winged Foot.

Tommy Goodwin, a free-spirited 18-year-old from Winged Foot, would win both the 1932 Boys’ Junior at Siwanoy and the Men’s State Amateur at Niagara Falls to become the first of only two golfers to capture both titles in one year. For good measure, Goodwin would go on to successfully defend his junior title in 1933 at Troy.

Hamilton Wright of Cherry Valley, the inaugural NYS Junior Amateur champion in 1931.

In fact, by the time he hung up his spikes, Goodwin had won the NYSGA State Amateur four times (1932, ’36, ’46, ’53) and had been “in the arena” many times more, a worthy opponent for an increasingly impressive bevy of New York competitors.

1930-39 NYS Amateur Champions Year

Host Club

Winner

1930

Fresh Meadow CC

Jack Mackie Jr., Inwood

1931

Oak Hill CC (East)

Phil Perkins, Fox Hills

1932

Niagara Falls CC

Tommy Goodwin, Rye

1933

Garden City GC

Eddie Driggs Jr., Garden City

1934

Sagamore GC

Eddie Driggs Jr., Garden City

1935

Winged Foot GC

Ray Billows, Poughkeepsie

1936

Bellevue CC

Tommy Goodwin, Rye

1937

Oak Hill CC (East)

Ray Billows, Poughkeepsie

1938

Quaker Ridge GC

Willie Turnesa, Elmsford

1939

Siwanoy CC

Richard Chapman, Larchmont

12 NYSGA 1923-2023

Jack Mackie Jr. (right) of Inwood with his father.

Mackie won the NYS Amateur in 1925 and 1930.

Tommy Goodwin of Rye, two-time NYS Junior Amateur and four-time NYS Amateur champion.

Quality Is In

'30s Familiar Faces:

fraternity of fairly evenly matched, excellent competitors emerged in New York in the 1930s. Jack Mackie Jr. of Inwood won his second State Amateur in 1930. Tommy Goodwin contributed two wins in the decade, in 1932 and 1936.

•

Eddie Driggs Jr. added to his 1923 Men’s State Amateur title by winning two more in 1933 (Garden City) and ’34 (Sagamore), becoming the first three-time titleist.

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Jack Creavy, from Tuckahoe, won the Boys’ Junior Amateur in 1935 at Siwanoy, then found himself later that year in the Men’s State Amateur finals at Winged Foot (West) against a young Ray Billows. Alas, Billows came out on top, kickstarting his awesome NYSGA record.

A

An extraordinary golfer, Ray Billows, burst on the scene with a win in the 1935 State Amateur at Winged Foot, despite the distraction of having his jalopy break down as he pulled into the facility the first day and sleeping on the club’s porch to finance his caddie fees. He would win again in 1937 at Oak Hill, showing a penchant for wonderful venues. Billows, it turned out, was just getting started.

To the chagrin of low-handicappers throughout New York, these players may not have been the best of the lot.

The decade wound down with State Am wins by Willie Turnesa at Quaker Ridge in 1938 and Richard (Dick) Chapman at Siwanoy in 1939, players who would compile international resumes.

Ray Billows of Poughkeepsie, seven-time winner of the NYS Amateur after his first victory in 1935.

In terms of quality of players, New York was about to suffer an embarrassment of riches.

Richard "Dick" Chapman of Larchmont won the 1939 NYS Amateur.

Jack Creavy of Tuckahoe, 1935 NYS Junior Amateur champion. He went on to win the NYS Senior in 1976.

Phil Perkins of Fox Hills (left) with Bobby Jones during the 1928 U.S. Amateur final.

Perkins won the 1931 NYS Amateur.

1935 NYS Amateur Championship Pamphlet.

13 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 1940s Pearl Harbor; FDR; Rationing; Audie Murphy; “It’s a Wonderful Life”; The Marshall Plan; The Gold Dust Twins

NYSGA Men’s Senior Amateur Championship

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he NYSGA held a new event in 1940 in Syracuse focused on a rapidly increasing population of male golfers, age 50 and over (had since been increased to age 55) — the Men’s Senior Amateur Championship.

The 1941 rendition was won by the first NYSGA president, Sherrill Sherman. Still actively engaged in NYSGA governance decades later, Sherman was the first to win as a sitting member of the executive committee, and it may have been the most celebrated.

However, the decade belonged to Duane Tower, the manytime Niagara Falls club champion. Tower took home the statewide senior trophy in 1942 (Niagara Falls), 1944 (Lake Placid Club), 1945 (Oak Hill East), and in 1946 (Yahnundasis).

Effects of WWII

Sam Urzetta accepts the Ganson Depew Cup from Duane Tower after 1948 victory at Brookfield. Tower was NYSGA President from 1947 to 49.

Duane Tower of Niagara Falls, four-time winner of the NYS Senior Amateur.

The 1940s started with war raging in Europe. With every passing month, expectation increased that the United States would be sucked into the chaos, which it was in December 1941. Like the Great Depression a decade before, sports became an afterthought. What mattered was getting our soldiers, sailors and airmen home from World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an effort to salvage some normalcy, demanded that all sports continue play, despite an obvious shortfall of players. The USGA held its Open Championship in 1941, but then shuttered the event until 1946. The Masters was not played from 1943 to ’45.

Press and Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, New York) · 8 Jul 1944, Sat · Page 11 Downloaded on Oct 14, 2020

Focused as it was on the amateur game, the NYSGA continued play throughout the war years. However, the organization, led ably by veteran golf administrator Theodore Merseles of Siwanoy, made some adjustments.

The Red Cross became the beneficiary of all NYSGA tournament entry net revenue, and each NYSGA club was encouraged to hold monthly Pearl Harbor tournaments, with proceeds going to the Red Cross. For efficiency’s sake and to eliminate barriers to play, the NYSGA often conducted the men’s, women’s and/or men’s senior amateurs simultaneously, most notably at the Lake Placid Club in 1943 and ’44.

The immediate effect of the NYSGA’s decision to stay active was positive. The 1942 NYSGA Board announced that the roster of New York clubs reached a record of 101.

Clipped By: dan464 Wed, Oct 14, 2020

Press and Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, July 1944.

14 NYSGA 1923-2023 Copyright © 2020 Newspapers.com. All Rights Reserved.

Theodore Merseles, NYSGA President (1941–1944).

Willie Turnesa teeing off in 1938 U.S. Amateur final vs. B. Patrick Abbott at Oakmont CC. He won both the State Am and U.S. Am that year.

NYSGA Approach to Championship Play, 1941–45 Year

Men’s Amateur

Women’s Amateur

Senior Men’s Amateur

1941

Ray Billows @ CC of Troy

Virginia Guilfoil (Allen) @ Siwanoy CC

Sherrill Sherman @ CC of Troy

1942

Alex Stevenson @ Niagara Falls CC

Grace Amony @ Lake Placid Club

Duane Tower @ Niagara Falls CC

1943

Ray Billows @ Lake Placid Club

Kay Byrne @ Lake Placid Club

F.R. Ryan @ Lake Placid Club

1944

Joe Ruszas @ Lake Placid Club

Marjorie Harrison @ Lake Placid Club

Duane Tower @ Lake Placid Club

1945

Ray Billows @ Oak Hill CC (East)

Kay Byrne @ Briar Hills GC

Duane Tower @ Oak Hill CC (East) Virginia Guifoil of Syracuse and her parents. Her father, Oscar, was a NYSGA president from 1950 to 52.

Ray Billows and Willie Turnesa on the Walker Cup Team in 1949 at Winged Foot.

Marjorie Harrison, two-time time winner of the NYS Women’s Amateur.

Spectators heading to NYSGA championships at Lake Placid Club by horse-drawn carriage in 1943.

15 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 1940s New York's Big Four

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hile the nation started noticing the quality of New York golfers on the national scene in the 1930s, it was in the 1940s that the question “Who is the best amateur golfer in the state?” became a contentious conversation. While several names could be considered (see Goodwin), four were really in contention: Ray Billows, Dick Chapman, Willie Turnesa and Sam Urzetta.

Sam Urzetta of Rochester with the Havemeyer Trophy in 1950.

Billows, who worked for a printing company in Poughkeepsie, was the “everyman” champion, a player from humble means who somehow managed to carve out an amazingly rich — and national — resume over three decades.

Amateur golf was the province of the affluent in those days. How Billows was able to not just keep up, but to thrive, is difficult to comprehend.

In the course of his journey, he played golf with Bob Jones and Byron Nelson, competed in two Masters, represented the U.S. on two Walker Cup squads (1938 at St. Andrews in Scotland and 1949 at Winged Foot) and was a finalist in three U.S. Amateurs (1937, ’39 and ‘48), unfortunately losing each. Oh, and he won a record seven NYSGA Men’s Amateur championships (1935, ’37, ’40, ’41, ’43, ’45, ’49).

Willie Turnesa, like Billows, was a New Yorker without a country club background and the youngest of seven brothers, all golf professionals, who pooled their resources to get him to Holy Cross. But they didn’t ask young Willie

A Five-Peat

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Willie Turnesa with the Havemeyer Trophy in 1948 after defeating Ray Billows in an all-New York final at Memphis CC.

not to play. In the year he graduated from Holy Cross, 1938, Turnesa won the NYSGA State Amateur, held at Quaker Ridge, and later that year the U.S. Amateur at Oakmont in Pittsburgh.

After WWII, Turnesa captured his second U.S. Amateur in 1948 (besting Billows in the final) and the 1947 British Amateur over Dick Chapman. Turnesa served on three winning Walker Cup teams, 1947, ‘48 and ’51. More than a golfer, Turnesa served as president of both the MGA and the NYSGA and co-founded the Westchester Caddie Scholarship Fund.

Winged Foot’s Chapman was once described by Time magazine as the “Ben Hogan of amateur golf” for his extraordinary play. While Chapman won the 1939 NYSGA Amateur Championship at Siwanoy, he focused most of his competitive attention at the national level. Chapman earned an amateur record 19 Masters invitations and won an unmatched collection of national titles, including the British, French, Canadian and Italian amateurs.

Rochester’s Sam Urzetta played basketball at St. Bonaventure University in the late ‘40s, leading the nation in free-throw percentage. He was also a pretty good golfer.

Urzetta won the 1948 NYSGA Amateur and, in 1950, took the U.S. Amateur over Frank Stranahan, generally considered the decade’s best amateur. Urzetta played on the 1951 and ’53 U.S. Walker Cup teams with fellow New Yorkers Chapman and Willie Turnesa before turning professional.

As it turned out, this was the start of a Golden Age of New York Amateur Golf, which would extend for at least another decade.

Ruth Torgerson of Cherry Valley, five-time winner of the NYS Women’s Amateur.

here the men had several strong players, the women needed only one. Ruth Torgerson, a lawyer from Garden City, established herself as New York State’s dominant woman golfer of the 1940s.

Torgerson, who didn’t take up the game until 1928 when she was just out of her teens, soon became a local force. In 1934, she won her first of five Long Island Women’s Amateurs.

Women’s Amateur Championship title in 1946 at her home course, the Cherry Valley Club. She successfully defended in 1947 at Leewood, then followed that with three more consecutive NYSGA championship titles, compiling a “five-peat” that stands to this day as a NYSGA record.

Moving into the 1940s, Torgerson took the MGA’s Women’s Amateur three times. In 1949, she put on the Empire State’s unofficial triple crown, capturing the MGA, Long Island and NYSGA women’s titles all in one season.

Despite what could have been a “I have conquered this world, what’s next?”

Torgerson continued to compete well, finishing her NYSGA tour de force with the 1960 and ’61 Women’s State Senior championships.

Playing the kind of golf that made her New York’s most feared woman golfer, Torgerson claimed her first New York State

16 NYSGA 1923-2023

Doug Ford of Harrison, two-time winner of the NYS Junior Am.

'40s Familiar Faces: •

In 1940 and 1942, Doug Ford won the NYS Boys’ Junior Amateur Championship at Sleepy Hollow and Briar Hills, respectively. Ford, from Harrison, would later turn professional and capture the 1955 PGA Championship and the 1957 Masters.

He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

•

Leroy C. Crim of Binghamton, won the inaugural NYS Men’s Senior Amateur at Onondaga. One of the NYSGA’s most supportive clubs, the Syracuse club was the inaugural host of the following NYSGA championships: NYS Open (1928), Boys' Junior (1931), and Men’s Senior (1940).

•

Virginia Guilfoil Allen of Syracuse claimed the 1941 Women’s Amateur title at Siwanoy CC. She was also the daughter of Oscar Guilfoil, who served as NYSGA President from 1950-52.

During his presidency, the USGA complained about lack of cooperation and he headed a committee that brought the state body into line. For his efforts, he was awarded a gold medal.

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Dick Mayer, the 1947 NYSGA Men’s Amateur champion who became a Winged Foot professional, was a part of the 1954 U.S. Open drama at New Jersey’s Baltusrol. This first-ever televised USGA event found Mayer and Ed Furgol — who grew up in New York Mills — tied going into the 72nd hole. Mayer’s charitable double-bogey 7 handed Furgol his first and ultimately only major championship. He later came back to win the U.S. Open in 1957, when he beat defending champion Cary Middlecoff in an 18-hole playoff at Inverness to win his only major.

Dick Mayer of White Plains, winner of the 1947 NYS Amateur.

17 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 1950s Inchon Reservoir; “Some Like It Hot”; the McCarthy Hearings; “I Like Ike”; Arnold Palmer; the Interstate System; Yankees vs. Dodgers; Sputnik

Something in the Water

T

he 1951 Masters was notable for many things, including Ben Hogan’s impressive 8-under 280 winning score.

Somewhere on that list of interesting facts would be the decidedly un-Southern accent sported by more than 10 percent of the participants hailing from New York.

One would expect former Masters champion Gene Sarazen (Harrison) to be there along with fellow touring pros Ed Furgol of Utica and Dick Mayer, representing Winged Foot. Winged Foot amateur Dick Chapman was, of course, on site, in the middle of his 19 Masters appearances.

The biggest block of Masters contestants from the Empire State came in as a result of the 1950 U.S. Amateur, held at Minneapolis.

In the ’50s, the Masters extended invitations to quarterfinalists

Ed Furgol of Utica and Sam Urzetta of Rochester at the 1951 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills.

An impressive four New York amateur golfers had earned a reunion that following April in Augusta. The pimentocheese-and-grits crowd had to wonder what was in the water up North that got so many New Yorkers driving up Magnolia Lane.

Sam Urzetta with the Havemeyer Trophy in 1950.

Billy Shields NYS Amateur Finishes, 1951-55 Year

Host Club

Finish

1951

Knollwood CC

First

1952

Wolferts Roost CC

First

1953

Yahnundasis GC

Second

1954

Fairview CC

Did not play

1955

Moon Brook CC

First

18 NYSGA 1923-2023

from the previous year’s U.S. Amateur. In the 1950 U.S. Amateur, in an unprecedented show of strength from one state, Billy Shields of Albany received his invitation by virtue of his quarterfinal appearance. John Ward of Syracuse did Shields one better by making it into the semifinals. Then, Rochester’s Sam Urzetta captured the Havemeyer Trophy in an unlikely 39-hole final match over the most accomplished American amateur since Bob Jones, Frank Stranahan.

John Ward of Syracuse, 1941 NYS Junior champion and three-time NYS Amateur runner-up.

Not Quite a Three-Peat, Only Better

L

ater in 1951, building on the confidence that he had gained over the previous 12 months in the U.S. Amateur and the Masters, young Billy Shields started a glorious run at the NYSGA Amateur Championship. In 1951, at Elmsford’s Knollwood, Shields won the first of two consecutive State Am titles in a stacked field that included several former champions with national credentials, including Ray Billows, Tommy Goodwin and Willie Turnesa. Shields took home the trophy with a 4-&-3 win over Garden City’s Billy Edwards.

For the first time, reflecting the growing popularity of the event, the NYSGA held sectional qualifying to cut the field to 128 golfers for the main event at Wolferts Roost in Albany. Another great field made the cut, but Shields must have been salivating — Wolfert’s Roost was his home course. He delivered, with an impressive 6-&-5 victory over the inimitable, seven-time State Amateur champion, Ray Billows.

Shields had set the table for an unprecedented NYSGA Men’s Amateur three-peat in 1953 at Yahnundasis. His valiant effort fell just short when he lost on the last hole in the 36-hole final to Tommy Goodwin’s fourth and final State Am title.

Billy Shields of Albany, three-time NYS Amateur champion.

After missing the 1954 event due to U.S. Navy service, Shields was not yet done. He made the 1955 NYSGA State Amateur at Jamestown’s Moon Brook. Facing the persistent Goodwin in the finals again, Billy exacted some revenge for his ’53 loss in an excruciating 36-hole, 1-up final win.

Proving his mettle, Shields had won the NYSGA Men’s State Amateur in 1951, ‘52 and ’55, while losing in the final to Goodwin in ’53. In four events, Shields compiled a glittering 27-1 match-play record.

New York Times, July 1955.

Published: July 10, 1955 Copyright © The New York Times

Billy Shields (left) and Tommy Goodwin with trophies after the 1955 NYS Amateur championship match at Moon Brook. They faced each other twice in the state finals.

19 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 1950s Two New Championships

G

olf continued to grow during the 1950s, and the NYSGA responded, bringing on line two more state championships.

In 1953, the inaugural NYS Women’s Senior Championship was held at the Cherry Valley Club in Garden City and won by Mrs. Van DeVanter Crisp of Locust Valley. The event’s gold standard was set early by Mrs. Jerome Herbert of Purchase, who was victorious in 1955 (Knollwood), ’56 (Cortland) and ‘57 (Old Oaks), to become the first of three such consecutive winners of the event.

Jean Trainor of Rochester managed two hat tricks in her staggering nine total wins, while Frances Stearns, Poughkeepsie, dominated in 1984, ’85, and ’86.

In 1957, to encourage more young boys to compete statewide at a younger age,

the NYSGA made changes to its junior championship format. First, the New York State Boys’ Junior, which had started in 1931 with an upper age limit of 21, lowered the age limit to 18, which was more in line with the USGA and did not conflict with the growing college competitive calendar.

Then the NYSGA started the New York State Boys’ Sub-Junior that year. Initially set for boys 15 and under, today the oldest competitors must be no older than 14. The Boys’ 14-Under Junior Championship has identified early on some future Frances Stearns of Poughkeepsie with former NYSGA Executive Director Tom Reidy.

New York State stars, including Terry Diehl (1964), Joey Sindelar (1971), Dominic Bozzelli (2005), Yaroslav Merklov (2006) and Luke Sample (2017).

Terry Diehl (second from the left) winning the 1964 NYS Boys’ Sub-Junior at Cornell.

John Konsek of Buffalo, three-time NYS Amateur winner and 1954 Junior champion.

20 NYSGA 1923-2023

LEFT: John Ward (left) and Joe Gagliardi of Larchmont before 1956 NYS Amateur finale at Dutchess G&CC.

'50s Familiar Faces: •

Margaret Nevil of Cooperstown approached Ruth Torgerson’s NYSGA Women’s Amateur Championship BELOW: Rochester’s record of five straight titles (1946-’50) Democrat and Chronicle, by capturing the event four times in JulyDemocrat 1959. and Chronicle (Rochester, New York) 27 Jul 1959, Page 32 ’62. She five· years: 1958,Mon ’59,· ’60 and Downloaded on Oct 27,Women’s 2020 later added the NYSGA Senior Amateur trophy to her collection with a win in 1979.

•

The first State Men’s Amateur Championship held in the Southern Tier was captured by local favorite Mike Dudik in 1950 at Binghamton. He won 1 up on the 37th hole over 1949 Long Island Am champion Lloyd Ribner of Metropolis.

•

Larchmont’s Joe Gagliardi, at age 44, became New York’s oldest Men’s Amateur victor with his 1956 win at Dutchess.

Ruth Torgerson of Cherry Valley holds the record for most NYS Women's Amateur titles with five consecutive.

Clipped By:

John Konsek, shown putting, beat Ward Wettlaufer in an all-Buffalo 1959 NYS Amateur final at Troy.

Mike Dudik of Endicott, winner of 1950 NYS Amateur.

dan464 Tue, Oct 27, 2020

Copyright © 2020 Newspapers.com. All Rights Reserved.

21 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 1960s The Beatles; JFK/RFK/MLK; “Easy Rider;” Jack Nicklaus; the Super Bowl; the Apollo Program Don Allen of Rochester, five-time winner of the NYS Amateur.

Big Three of Men's Amateur

T

he NYSGA Men’s Amateur in the 1960s was primarily a tale of three golfers whose exploits spanned the decade: John Konsek, Don Allen and William Tryon.

John Konsek, the 1957 NYSGA Boys’ Junior Amateur champion from Buffalo, was the first golfer to record three consecutive Men’s State Amateur wins with victories in 1958 at Yahnundasis, 1959 at Troy, and 1960 at Locust Hill in Rochester. At Yahnundasis, an 18-year-old Konsek bested 37-year-old John Ward, 4 & 2. A New York State Amateur runner-up in 1949 ’56 and ’58, Ward was a veteran of national-level campaigns who later became president of the NYSGA. Konsek’s second win came at the expense of Buffalo’s Ward Wettlaufer, a player like so many in New York with national credentials. Wettlaufer would capture the Porter Cup, Eastern Amateur and North and South Amateur championships, played on the victorious 1959 Walker Cup squad and may be the finest contestant to never win the State Amateur. Konsek, the reigning Big 10 champion from Purdue, dispatched Wettlaufer, 4 & 3.

In 1960, Konsek made NYSGA history and captured his third straight State Am in another all-Buffalo final, this time against Edwin Kaczor.

Only one finals match kept the Konsek train from moving forward. This time, the year was 1961, and Konsek’s barrier was Don Allen, an insurance executive from Rochester. Allen won and — in just a few short years — would go on to twice challenge Konsek’s consecutive-wins record.

With victories in 1961, ’63, ’64, ‘70, ’72 and ’73, Allen would emerge as second only to seven-time champion Ray Billows in State Men’s Amateur triumphs. After failing to successfully defend in 1962 in the final against former Princeton football

Bill Tryon accepts Men’s Am Trophy from the NYSGA’s Ron Brownell at Yahnundasis in 1968.

It was Tryon's third title.

22 NYSGA 1923-2023

player Bill Tryon, Allen got back on the winning track in 1963 with a 7-&-6 win at Knollwood against Richard Rooney of Clinton.

Allen successfully defended in 1964 over Schenectady’s Ed O’Keefe at Leatherstocking in Cooperstown. Allen made the final again the following year against his nemesis, Bill Tryon, reaching the championship finals over an astounding five consecutive years (1961-65).

Yet again it was Tryon who foiled Allen’s run for three championships in a row. In a tense battle that came down to the 36th hole. Allen had a 20-inch putt to win the match, but “jerked his putt within inches,” according to one sobering account, and ended up losing on the 38th hole. While hard to imagine for someone who played on two Walker Cup teams and in three Masters, the miss may have expressed the pressure that John Konsek’s three-in-a-row performance held over Allen.

Tryon would win the 1968 State Amateur at Yahnundasis in a finals match with O’Keefe, the 1964 finalist from Mohawk in Schenectady. O’Keefe presented little resistance to Tryon, losing 7 & 6 and handing the champion his third State Amateur title in seven years.

1960-69 NYS Amateur Champions Year

Host Club

Winner

1960

Locust Hill CC

John Konsek, Buffalo

1961

Onondaga G&CC

Don Allen, Rochester

1962

Glens Falls CC

William Tryon, Elmira

1963

Knollwood CC

Don Allen, Rochester

1964

Leatherstocking GC

Don Allen, Rochester

1965

Lancaster CC

William Tryon, Elmira

1966

The Concord

Nick Raasch, Syracuse

1967

Nassau CC

John Baldwin, Plandome

1968

Yahnundasis GC

William Tryon, Elmira

1969

Elmira CC

Terry Diehl, Rochester

Downloaded on Oct 14, 2020

Elmira Star-Gazette, July 1968.

Star-Gazette (Elmira, New York) · 24

d By: dan464 Wed, Oct 14, 2020

ht © 2020 Newspapers.com. All Rights Reserved.

Clipped By:

Elmira Star-Gazette, July 1966.

Ray Billows (left) with fellow Dutchess member Bill Bogle of Poughkeepsie. Bogle was dan464 NYSGA President from 1975 to '76, and won the NYS Senior in 1979 to '80.

Thu, Oct 15, 2020

Copyright © 2020 Newspapers.com. All Rights Reserved.

Syracuse Post-Standard, July 1961.

23 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 1960s New York Girls' Junior Debut

B

y 1963, the NYSGA had recognized the need to conduct a championship for the state’s growing population of girl golfers. Following the basic template provided by the Boys’ Junior Championship, the NYSGA scheduled its first Girls’ Junior at Monroe in Rochester for girls aged 18 and younger.

Several events validated the NYSGA’s initiative. Gail Sykes, the 1964 champion, won the 1965 USGA Junior Girls Championship in Colorado. Just two years later Doll Story not only won her second NYSGA Girls’ Junior, she also won the USGA Junior Girls

Championship, this time in California.

Perhaps more than coincidentally, both Sykes and Story were pupils of PGA professional Tom Creavy, one of the state’s top instructors.

Soon thereafter, New York products Cathy Morse and Mary Lawrence were both USGA Girls Junior runners-up in 1972 and ’73, respectively, stamping a distinct New York State flavor on the national girls’ golf scene.

The 1965 champion at Teugega was Debbie Austin from Oneida. Austin played later on the LPGA, winning seven tournaments, including five in 1977. She was named that year’s LPGA Player of the Year.

1963-69 NYS Girls' Junior Champions Year

Host Club

Winner

1963

Monroe GC

Carolyn Ploysa, Lancaster

1964

Lakeshore Y&CC

Gail Sykes, Ballston Spa

1965

Teugega CC

Debbie Austin, Oneida

1966

Stafford CC

Doll Story, Clayville

1967

Seven Oaks GC

Doll Story, Clayville

1968

Drumlins CC (East)

Wendy Hodgson, McConnellsville

1969

Antlers CC

Sara Jane Stuhler, Amsterdam

Gail Sykes of Ballston Spa with the U.S. Girls’ Junior trophy in 1965.

24 NYSGA 1923-2023

Elizabeth “Doll” Story of Clayville with the U.S. Girls’ Junior trophy in 1967. Also pictured at right.

Diehl Hits Trifecta

R

ochester native Terry Diehl, born in 1949, became the first player in history to capture the New York State Boys’ Amateur (1964, Cornell University GC), Junior Amateur (1966, Moon Brook) and Men’s Amateur (1969, Elmira). His State Amateur championship came the same year he was named an NCAA All-American at the University of Georgia.

Diehl turned professional in 1971, claiming 20 top-10 finishes in PGA Tour events.

Throughout the past 100 years, the only other two golfers to accomplish this trifecta were also standouts from the Rochester area: Dominic Bozzelli (2005, 2007 and 2011-12) and Yaroslav Merkulov (2006, 200809 and 2009).

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, August 1969.

Nick Raasch of Syracuse, 1966 NYS Amateur and 1965 Junior champion.

'60s Familiar Faces:

John Baldwin captured the 1991 Mid-Am and 2001 Senior titles decades after winning the NYS Amateur in 1967.

Terry Diehl of Rochester was the first to win the NYS Sub-Jr., Junior and Men’s Am when he accomplished the feat in the 1960s.

•

In 1966, Syracuse’s 17-year-old Nick Raasch became the youngest-ever victor in the Men’s State Amateur, held at The Concord Course.

•

In 1967, Plandome’s John Baldwin captured the NYS Amateur, Long Island Amateur and Metropolitan Amateur championships, a triple crown that has never been matched.

•

Ballston Spa native Ronald Philo Sr. won both NYS Junior titles, with the SubJunior in 1961 at CC of Troy, then the Boys’ Junior the following year in 1962 at Niagara Falls.

25 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 1970s Watergate; “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid;” Billy Joel; “All in the Family;” Gas Lines; Nicklaus and Watson; The Pittsburgh Steelers

Winds of Change

T

erry Diehl’s victory in 1969 was the last NYSGA Men’s State Amateur Championship conducted in match play.

In 1970, the format changed to 72 holes of stroke play, with 144 players cut to 70 at the end of 36 holes.

The change from match play to stroke play for championship events like this was common throughout the country. Notably, stroke play was what viewers saw on their televisions every week and, increasingly, their concept of how to determine the best golfer. More pertinently to New York, the adjustment was

made largely to accommodate the requests from host clubs and their members for a more compact format that would not tie up weekends.

On the revenue side, the format change encouraged higher player aspirations and tournament entries.

The qualities lost in the move — for example, the intimacy of a smaller field and the nuances of match play — were more than offset with a growth in players, revenue and the good will of host clubs.

1970-79 NYS Amateur Champions Year

Host Club

Winner

1970

Locust Hill CC

Don Allen, Rochester

1971

Cavalry Club

Mike Slipko, Niagara Falls

1972

Dutchess G&CC

Don Allen, Rochester

1973

The Concord Course

Don Allen, Rochester

1974

Wayne Hills CC

George Burns, Jericho

1975

Bellevue CC

Alan Foster, Syracuse

1976

Grossinger's CC

Radford Yaun, Liberty

1977

Albany CC

Rich Serian, Troy

1978

Moon Brook CC

Jeff Sluman, Rochester

1979

Drumlins CC (East)

Mark Balen, Lackawanna

Don Allen

Don Allen with Masters invitation in 1965.

One thing did not change as a result of the Men’s State Amateur format. The same Don Allen who won three times in match play in the first half of the 1960s proved his mastery of golf with three wins in stroke play in 1970, ’72 and ’73.

(1965, ’67), played in the Masters three times (1965, ’66, ’67) and competed in 23 U.S. Amateurs.

A self-effacing insurance executive and lifelong Rochester resident, Allen proved to be a national treasure. In addition to his six men’s State Amateur titles, Allen represented the U.S. on two Walker Cup teams

26 NYSGA 1923-2023

Statewide, Allen won the NYSGA Mid-Amateur Championship in 1985 and 1987. In 1994, 1996, and 1997, Allen won the NYSGA Men’s Senior Amateur Championship. His competitive display over almost 40 years of amateur golf is without peer in New York. In his induction into the NYSGA Hall of Fame in 2012, Allen was also named “NYSGA Golfer Of The Century.”

Jeff Sluman of Greece (Rochester) sank a 40-foot putt to win the 1978 NYS Amateur at Moon Brook.

Don Allen and family with Ganson Depew Cup (Men’s Am), 1973.

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, July 1978.

27 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 1970s Women's Senior Amateur Moves to Adirondacks

T

aking up the northern quarter of the state’s square mileage, New York’s Adirondack region boasts inordinate opportunities for excellent golf in its few months of warm weather. The NYSGA recognized and embraced this concept wholeheartedly, conducting each Women’s Senior Championship of the decade within the region at either the Whiteface Club or the Lake Placid Club in the Olympic town of Lake Placid.

In fact, the event was held in Lake Placid from 1969 to 1979. In the 70 years of the Women’s Senior Amateur, the Lake Placid Club has hosted the event four times and The Whiteface Club a whopping 14 times.

The ’70s encampment at these clubs was good for the event, with champions emerging from outside the region — one with a particular flair. Future NYSGA Hall of Famer Jean Trainor from Rochester continued an unmatched dominance in senior golf, winning seven of her nine Senior Women’s Amateurs (1968-69, '71, '76-78, '81-83) at the Lake Placid venues.

Jean Trainor of Rochester, seven-time winner of the NYS Women’s Senior. The trophy, a silver platter, was retired in her honor at the CC of Rochester in the 1990s.

A young Jean Trainor swinging, 1930s.

Anne Coupe of Rochester, four-time winner of the NYS Women’s Senior, served on the NYSGA committee. The current state Women’s Senior trophy is named in her honor.

1970-79 NYS Women’s Senior Amateur Champions Year

Host Club

Winner

1970

The Whiteface Club

Virginia Allen, Syracuse

1971

The Whiteface Club

Jean Trainor, Rochester

1972

The Whiteface Club

THE NEW YORK STATE GOLF ASSOCIATION

1979

CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENTS ENTRIES CLOSE

Nancy Rutter, Buffalo

1973

The Whiteface Club

Anne Coupe, Rochester

1974

The Whiteface Club

Anne Coupe, Rochester

TUES., JULY 10th SAT., JULY 14th

MONROE GOLF CLUB PITTSFORD, N.Y.

TUES., JUNE 5th thru THURS., JUNE 25th

TUES., JULY 17th thru FRI., JULY 20th

DRUMLINSG0LF CLUB EAST COURSE SYRACUSE, N.Y.

JUNIOR GIRLS

MON., JULY 9th

TUES., JULY 24th At Tournament Site

TUES., JULY 24th thru FRI., JULY 27th

MC CONNELLSVILLE COUNTRY CLUB MC CONNELLSVILLE, N.Y

JUNIOR & BOYS

MON., JULY 2nd

MON., JULY 9th thru WED., JULY 20th

TUES., JULY 31 thru THURS., AUG. 2nd

SOARING EAGLES GC H0RSEHEADS. N.Y.

SENIOR WOMEN

SAT., JULY 28th

NONE

TUES., AUG. 14th WED., AUG. 15th

WHITEFACE INN GC LAKE PLACID, N.Y.

SENIOR MEN

SAT., SEPT. 1st

NONE

MON., SEPT. 10th thru WED., SEPT., 12th

DUTCHESS GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y.

S E P A R A T E E N T R Y FO R M S F O R E A C H O F T H E S E E V E N T S M A Y BE O B T A IN E D F R O M N E W Y O R K S T A T E G O L F A S S O C IA T IO N M EM BE R C L U B S , O R FR O M N E W Y O R K S T A T E G O L F A S S O C IA T IO N O F F IC E R S A N D C O M M IT T E E C H A IR M E N , A N D S E C T IO N A F F A IR S C O M M ITT E E M E N - L IS T E D BELOW .

C H A IR M E N -

M E N 'S A N D B O Y'S E V E N T S

A F F R O N , J E R O M E .......................................................................

...................................R iv e r Road, N ew burgh, N .Y . 12550

914-562-0440

A L L E N , D O N A L D .........................................................................

............... 622 Sibley T o w e r Bldg., Rochester, N .Y . 14604

716-454-6900

...............................13409 Quaker S t., Collins, N .Y . 14034

716-992-3833

............................. 21 M arket S treet, Poughkeepsie, N .Y .

914-454-1100

B R E E N , W I L L I A M .........................................................................

...............................456 L e w is Place, Mineola, N .Y . 11501.

B R E N N A N , F L O Y D .......................................................................

.............................7597 G lencliff R d., Manlius, N .Y . 13104

315-682-5060

..................... 63 G eorgetow n Lane, Fairport, N .Y . 14450

716-223-1284

...............................240 Oneida S t., Syracuse, N .Y . 13202

315-475-2111

B R O W N , L Y L E ...............................................................................

B Y R N E , J O H N .................................................................................

C H E S H IR E , W I L L I A M ..................................................................

................... 93 W es tg a te D riv e, Huntington, N .Y . 11743.

D IH L M A N , H E N R Y F .....................................................................

............... 124 M uirfield Rd. Rockville Center, N .Y . 11570

516-627-5310

D IM M IC K , G E R A L D .....................................................................

................... 1191 Chenango S t., Binghamton, N .Y . 13901

607-724-9372

E T E S S , M A R K ...............................................................................

..................... Grossinger H otel, Grossingers, N .Y . 12734

914-292-5000

F R A M E , R I C H A R D .......................................................................

....................... 12 E . Jericho T rp k e., Mineola, N .Y . 11501

516-746-1200

G A T E S , J O H N J R ............................................................................

................... 15 Schoolhouse Lane, Rochester, N .Y . 14618

716-473-3589

G R E E N ,R O B E R T ...........................................................................

.................................................... R D #2, P eru , N .Y . 12972

518-561-7551

................... 3712 Country Club R d., EndweU, N . Y . 13760

607-723-6401

H E R M A N , B E N J A M I N ..................................................................

..................... Briar Hall CC, B riarcliff M anor, N .Y . 10510

914-941-4300

H O R Y , T H O M A S .............................................................................

.....................................4541 M ain S t., Snyder, N .Y . 14226

716-839-0464

H E A T H , S H E R R Y .........................................................................

H O W A R D , R O B E R T .....................................................................

Virginia Allen, Syracuse

TOURNAMENT SITES

TUES., JULY 10th At Tournament Site

FRI., JUNE 1

B A L L , A L B E R T .............................................................................

The Whiteface Club

DATES OF EVENTS

SAT.. JUNE 30

B O G LE , W IL L IA M [S enior M en’s Tournament Chairman] . . . . .

1975

QUALIFYING ROUNDS

WOMEN'S AMATEUR MEN'S AMATEUR

....................... 39 Sherburn D riv e, Ham burg, N .Y . 14075 .............................88 M aple S t., Rouses Poin t, N .Y . 12979

M A C A R T N E Y , W I L L I A M ............................................................

.................................1676 Lincoln A v e ., U tica, N .Y . 13502

M U R P H Y , D R . J A M E S ....................................................................

........................... 165 M anning Blvd., A lb an y, N .Y . 12203

N E L A N , J O H N ...............................................................................

............................. 46 LaSalle S t., Jam estown, N .Y . 14701

N E S T O R , J O S E P H ..........................................................................

....................... 14 W ashington A v e ., E ndicott, N .Y . 13760

P E R R IN E , E D W A R D ......................................................................

..................................... 9 M artin D riv e , R om e, N .Y . 13440

S H O R T , A L L E N ..............................................................................

518-459-1520

............................. 1237 Central A v e ., Alban y, N .Y . 12205

K A C Z O R , E D W I N ...........................................................................

M A Y E R , D A V I D ..............................................................................

716-649-8958 315-797-1630 518-489-6241 716-485-3931 607-754-2382 315-337-1434 716-487-1917

....................... 209 E . 6th S treet, Jam estown, N .Y . 14701

S M IT H , D O N A L D ..........................................................................

..................... 48 M on terey D riv e, Rochester, N .Y . 14618

S M IT H , D R . J A M E S ......................................................................

............................... 149 Audubon D r., Snyder, N .Y . 14226

716-271-4333

r

716-839-5774 518-462-3531

S P I T A L N Y , N E I L ............................................................................

............................. 510 Madison A v e ., A lb an y, N .Y . 12208

S P R A G U E , H O W A R D [M en ’s A m ateur Tournament Chairman]

................116 W ooded H eights D r., Camfllus, N .Y . 13031

S T A A T S , R O B E R T ..........................................................................

N e w Y o rk N ew s , 220 E . 42nd S t., N e w Y o rk , N .Y . 10017

212-682-1234

T R Y O N , W I L L I A M ..........................................................................

315-672-3923

............................. 350 W . Church S t., Elm ira, N .Y . 14902

607-734-4291

W A IT E , H A R L O W ..........................................................................

....................... 4 T amilian R d., Poughkeepsie, N .Y . 12601

914-454-1132

Y A U N , R I C H A R D ..........................................................................

................................... 29 Yaun A v e ., L ib e rty , N .Y . 12754

914-292-9584

Z U R E N D A , G E O R G E [Juniors & Boys Tournam ent Chairman] .

................................... 1704 Cedar S t., Ehnira, N .Y . 14901

607-734-2058

C O U P E , M R S . D O U G L A S S [ W omen’s Am ateur Tournament Chairman] ................................. 1920 C lover S t., Rochester, N .Y . 14618

716-442-4299

D E E L E Y , M R S . L A W R E N C E [Ju nior G irl's Tournam ent C h a irm a n ]................................... R D #1,3041 R t. 49, Blossvale, N .Y . 13308

315-245-2677

1976

The Whiteface Club

Jean Trainor, Rochester

1977

Lake Placid Club

Jean Trainor, Rochester

1978

Lake Placid Club

Jean Trainor, Rochester

1979

The Whiteface Club

Margaret Nevil, Cooperstown

C H A IR M E N -

W O M E N 'S A N D G IR L ’ S E V E N T S

H A W E S , R E G I N E ..........................................................................................................................................B ellevue A v e ., R y e , N .Y . 10580 O F F IC E R S M r. E m fl M acK ay, Presiden t 40 H ow ard S treet

28 NYSGA 1923-2023

A lb an y, N .Y . 12207 518-434-3195 M r. L y le K lie r, T reasu rer

M r. Richard W alsh, 1st Vice-President 3980 Sheridan A ven u e Buffalo, N .Y . 14226

j

M r. Nicholas Burns, 2nd Vice-President 1 W e s t P ark R ow Clinton, N .Y . 13323

716-839-3911

315-853-5051

M rs. L aw ren ce D eeley, S ecretary

M r. R . J. H ogan, E xec. Sec’y.

3575 W e s t R id ge Road

R D #1,3031 R t. 49

5 3 102nd S treet

Rochester, N .Y . 14626

Blossvale, N .Y . 13308

T ro y« N .Y . 12182

716-225-1026

315-245-2677

518-235-3007

T h e Rules o f th o United-States G o lf Association w ill govern all play except as th ey m ay be modified b y th e E xecutive Committee.

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'70s Familiar Faces: •

Continuing a strong Empire State showing in the USGA Junior Girls Amateur, Cathy Morse and Mary Lawrence finished runner up in consecutive years, 1972 and ’73.

•

Joey Sindelar, a future PGA Tour star, was 13 years old when he won the 1971 NYS Boys’ Sub-Junior Amateur Championship at Seven Oaks.

•

Seven-time NYSGA Men’s Amateur champ Ray Billows captured his final NYSGA event at the 1974 Men’s Senior Amateur Championship at Grossinger’s, his eighth and final NYSGA title in an amazing career.

•

Jeff Sluman, the 1988 PGA champion, captured the NYSGA State Amateur at Jamestown’s Moon Brook. Four shots back heading into the final round, a 20-year-old Sluman posted a 68 to win by three.

•

East Aurora’s Mark Balen won the 1973 Boys’ Junior at Soaring Eagles GC, and then the 1979 Men’s Amateur at Drumlins East.

Mary Lawrence (right) of Canton was a U.S. Girls’ Junior runner-up to Amy Alcott (left) in 1973.

Lawrence captured the NYS Girls’ Junior title in 1973-74, and then a State Amateur title in 1977.

Ray Billows (second from left) receiving the Bill Stark Bowl after winning the 1974 NYS Senior, his final New York State title.

Star-Gazette (Elmira, New York) · 13

Anne Coupe — An Extraordinary Life

F

our-time winner of the NYS Women’s Senior Amateur (1965, ‘68, ‘73, and ‘74) had expressed just a few years before those victories that she “. . . hated golf and had always played tennis . . . I would never take up the game.” But, in response to a bet proposed by her husband, she tried the game, liked what she saw and decided to see how good she could get. After just a few years of learning the game, Coupe won her first senior tournament, the 1965 Senior Women’s Am.

Her late-in-life success at golf turned out to be just one amazing story in Coupe’s amazing life, most of which centered on her athletic exploits. These included being a part of national level competition in curling, but only after setting collegiate records in swimming, playing varsity tennis and winning state golf titles.

Coupe later served on the board of the NYSGA, bringing to bear the perspective of a multisport athlete.

Clipped By:

Elmira Star-Gazette, August 1971.

dan464 Tue, Aug 27, 2019

Copyright © 2019 Newspapers.com. All Rights Reserved.

29 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 1980s Sally Ride; Pac-Man; Berlin Wall; “The Simpsons”; the 1986 Masters; Ronald Reagan, Sandra Day O’Connor; Microsoft Word

Professional Aspirations

A

significant change in the makeup of the top players in the NYSGA emerged in the late 1970s then hit flank speed in the 1980s.

Until then, only a handful of State Men’s Amateur champions— for example, Sam Urzetta (1948), Terry Diehl (1969), George Burns (1974) — made their way to the professional ranks, either as club professionals or as PGA touring professionals.

Television, Arnold Palmer and improved access to the game increased the game’s and the golf professional’s life appeal.

In the 1980s, of the nine different NYSGA Men’s State Amateur champions, six turned professional, including Joey Sindelar (1980) and Tim Straub (1987, ’88). Already in the PGA ranks were former champs George Burns (1974) and Jeff Sluman (1978).

Sindelar won six PGA Tour events in the decade, while Hulbert took three titles. But it was Sluman who captured the major, the PGA Championship, in 1988. Jeff was to achieve greater success in the ‘90s when he became New York’s leading money winner, eclipsing $7 million.

Joey Sindelar of Horseheads hoisting the Ganson Depew Cup in 1980.

It wasn’t just the folks winning the gold medal who were turning pro. Joey Sindelar, the 1980 champ, was joined on the PGA Tour by his Horseheads buddy, Mike Hulbert, who lost the state title in 1979 in a playoff.

Wayne Levi of Herkimer, who played in NYSGA events from 1971-72 while attending Oswego State, turned professional in 1973. He made his way through the mini-tours, eventually earning his PGA Tour card in 1977. Levi won 12 tournaments on the PGA Tour and was named the tour’s Player of the Year in 1990, when he triumphed four times. Levi was the first NYSGA alumnus to take home more than $1 million in a single season.

The women’s game was not immune to the lure of the tour. Future NYSGA Hall of Famer Dottie Pepper from Saratoga Springs won both the New York State Girls’ Junior and Women’s Amateur Championships in 1981, when she was only 15. The only female player to accomplish that dual victory, Pepper earned a golf scholarship to Furman University, where she became an All-American. She then joined the LPGA and became New York’s most decorated woman professional golfer, with 17 tour wins, including two LPGA majors.

Mary Anne Widman was Pepper’s successor in the Women’s Amateur in 1982 and ’83. A three time All-American at Duke University, member of the U.S. Curtis Cup squad and considered the country’s top amateur, Widman turned professional and earned non-exempt status on the LPGA in 1985 through qualifying school. She played on the Futures Tour in 1986 and ’87.

By the 1980s, players who had cut their competitive teeth on NYSGA competition were extending their influence beyond the amateur ranks onto the world’s most competitive golf arenas.

30 NYSGA 1923-2023

Jim Roy of Syracuse, 1981 NYS Amateur champion and four-time Mid-Am champion.

1980-89 NYS Amateur Champions Turned Professional?

Year

Winner

1980

Joey Sindelar, Horseheads

Yes

1981

Jim Roy, Syracuse

Yes

1982

David Boeff, Ontario

Yes

1983

William Boland Jr., Troy

No

1984

George Zahringer, Sands Point

No

1985

Christopher Lane, Binghamton

No

1986

Jay Gunning, Colonie

Yes

1987

Tim Straub, East Aurora

Yes

1988

Tim Straub, East Aurora

Yes

1989

Tim Marsh, Endicott

Yes

George Zahringer of Sands Point, who claimed the 1984 NYS Amateur at Troy.

Dottie Pepper of Gansevoort (Saratoga) is the only player to capture the NYS Girls’ Junior and Women’s Am title in the same year. She claimed both in 1981 at the age of 15. She is pictured here with longtime NYSGA committee member Betty Deeley.

Mary Anne Widman (Levins) of Elmira, winner of the 1982 NYS Women’s Am.

31 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 1980s Mid-Am — An Innovative Solution

B

y the 1980s and throughout the country, a dissonance emerged in top-level men’s amateur golf. More and more, the names on championship trophies were those of college golfers who spent considerable time every week working on their game, then testing it often under the crucible of intense competition.

The amateur who was past his mid-20s typically had to squeeze practice and competitive golf into a schedule that included a full-time job and family life. The golfer who played simply for the love of the game found himself at a distinct competitive disadvantage.

In 1981, the USGA created its Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship for post-college golfers who were not pursuing golf as a career. The NYSGA followed suit, establishing the State Mid-Amateur Championship in 1984, its first new championship in two decades.

Immediately setting a tone that evoked memories of NYSGA mid-century championships, the Mid-Am gained acceptance among the slightly grayer, slightly huskier, over-25 set. The 1984 NYSGA Mid-Am was played at Glens Falls and won by Albany’s Charles Murphy.

The following year, a familiar name topped the leaderboard — Don Allen. Rochester's most prolific amateur, captured the Mid-Am in both 1985 at Drumlins (East) and 1987 at his beloved CC of Rochester. Allen’s embrace of the Mid-Am sealed the deal, making the event one of the NYSGA’s most popular events.

1984-94 NYS Mid-Am Champions Year

Host Club

Winner

1984

Glens Falls CC

Charles Murphy, Albany

1985

Drumlins CC (East)

Don Allen, Rochester

1986

Crag Burn GC

Ken Andrychuk, Clifton Springs

1987

CC of Rochester

Don Allen, Rochester

1988

Wolferts Roost CC

Bruce Aubin, Poughkeepsie

1989

Bellevue CC

Tom Flynn, Syracuse

1990

Dutchess G&CC

Steve Nosonowitz, Poughkeepsie

1991

Brookfield CC

John Baldwin, New York City

1992

Bristol Harbour GC

Alan Foster, Manlius

1993

McGregor Links CC

Cliff Earle, Saratoga Springs

1994

Wayne Hills CC

David Benedict, Rochester

32 NYSGA 1923-2023

Charles Murphy of Albany, winner of the inaugural NYS Mid-Amateur in 1984 at Glens Falls.

Two National Champions Going at It

1

988 was a special year in New York golf. That was the last year that two players who had national championships on their resumes faced off in the final round of the NYSGA Men’s Amateur at Yahnundasis.

Ralph Howe, a left-hander from Long Island, was the reigning U.S. Public Links champion, a quarterfinalist in the British Amateur, and the Middle Atlantic Amateur titleist. His stated goal for the year was to earn an invitation to compete in The Masters the following year. His 1988 U.S. Public Links title, won in Wyoming the week before the State Am, just about ensured the invite.

Howe’s biggest threat was Tim Straub, the defending 1987 NYSGA Men’s Amateur Champion who had the 1983 U.S. Junior Amateur title under his belt. He was an Arnold Palmer Scholarship recipient at Wake Forest University and the top player on one of the top squads in the NCAA. The two obviously brilliant players were at their playing peaks. In fact, Straub and Howe had finished 1-2 respectively in the State Am in 1987. Straub prevailed again in 1988, winning on the first playoff hole after the two finished on top at 290, six-over par on the alwaystough Yahnundasis.

Tim Straub of East Aurora (left) with Ralph Howe III (right) of Long Island before NYS Amateur final in 1987.

Straub accepts the U.S. Junior Amateur trophy in 1983 at Saucon Valley CC in Bethlehem, Pa.

E.J. Pfister of East Aurora, winner of the 1980 NYS Sub-Junior.

'80s Familiar Faces: •

Of the 10 State Senior Amateur Championships in the 1980s, only four didn’t have the last name “Hoff” or “Perkins.” Bob Hoff won the NYSGA Men’s Senior Championship in 1982, ’84 and ’87. Brother Jack Hoff crashed the party in 1986, giving the two, playing out of Rochester’s Oak Hill, the event’s only sibling, consecutive-year champions.

Gerald Perkins, from LeRoy and playing out of Stafford, won four championships, the first two in 1988 and ’89 and then two more ‘91 and ‘92.

•

George Zahringer was the most notable exception to the amateur-to-pro pipeline that emerged among the 1980s NYSGA Amateur champions. The 1984 winner from Sands Point is one our region’s most decorated amateur golfers. In addition to the State Am, the stockbroker won one Metropolitan Open, five Metropolitan Amateurs and – at the national level – won the 2002 U.S. Mid-Am Championship and a spot on the 2003 U.S. Walker Cup team.

•

Bill Bogle of Dutchess, a past NYSGA president, won three Senior Amateur championships in 1979, 1980 and 1983.

•

E.J. Pfister of East Aurora, winner of the 1980 NYSGA Boys’ SubJunior championship, captured the 1988 individual NCAA Division I championship playing for Oklahoma State.

•

Skaneateles’ Tom Scherrer gave notice for great things to come when he won the 1986 NYSGA Boy’s Junior Amateur at Winding Brook. Scherrer went on to play for the University of North Carolina. His superb play in the national amateur ranks (including a win at the 1990 North and South Amateur) earned Scherrer a spot on the 1991 Walker Cup squad. He validated that selection as a finalist in the 1992 U.S. Amateur Championship. After turning professional, Scherrer won the 2000 Kemper Open on the PGA Tour along with three Nationwide Tour events.

Tom Scherrer of Skaneateles (right), winner of the 1986 NYS Junior Amateur at Winding Brook.

33 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 1990s World Wide Web; O.J. and the Bronco; “Hello, World!”; Dot.com bubble; Y2K

Delancy (Lancy) Smith

B

uffalo native and longtime Park Club member Lancy Smith compiled two hot streaks decades apart as a NYSGA competitor with a total of seven state championships. Winning her first Women’s state Amateur Championship in 1966 at age 18, Smith went on to take home the trophy again in 1968 and 1970. Almost 30 years later, Smith started her second championship blitz when she captured the first of four NYSGA Women's Senior Ams in five years: 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2002.

Smith’s impact wasn’t confined to New York, with several appearances on the national scene. The former dental technician won the 1974 Women’s Western Amateur and Women’s Eastern Amateur (1970, ’71, ‘73, ’74) championships. Coupled with her participation in numerous USGA events, Smith was recognized by Golf Digest magazine as one of the top ten U.S. amateurs a dozen years from 1970 to 1984 — taking the top spot in 1980.

One of the most important parts of Smith’s competitive life was her extensive involvement with the Curtis Cup competition, the biennial set of matches between the best women amateurs representing the United States a team from Great Britain and Ireland. Smith was a starting member of five Curtis Cup squads (1972, ’76, ’78, ’80 and ’82) and an alternate on four more.

ABOVE: Lancy Smith of Williamsville with the Women’s Senior trophy in 2002 at Shorewood.

TO THE LEFT: Lancy Smith was a member of five Curtis Cup teams in the 1970s and ‘80s, and was selected to be the captain in 1994.

With Smith’s selection as captain of the 1994 U.S. team, she joined Willie Turnesa, Walker Cup playing captain in 1951, as the two New Yorkers who captained our country’s most important international amateur teams.

Parity Reigns at Men’s Amateur

F

or the first time in its history, the NYSGA Men’s State Amateur Championship had ten different winners in a full decade. Often taken as a sign of good health in the sporting world, no single player dominated the state’s most important amateur event.

The move in 1992 from a medal-play, 72-hole event to a match-play finish may have been a big reason for the lack of one or two players rising above the field. The new format actually depended on medal play in local qualifying to identify the 144-player field, then again on site to determine the low 32 qualifiers who would then commence match play. More potential potholes coupled with the typically unpredictable nature of match-play golf may explain the many different eventual winners.

34 NYSGA 1923-2023

In 1994, however, one family definitely was in control of the proceedings. At Victor’s Cobblestone Creek, David and Paul Bonacchi, brothers from East Rochester, made their way into the final, the first such all-in-the-family final in NYSGA history.

With four of the brothers’ eight early matches taking them to at least the 17th hole, the journey was anything but easy. But in the final, David, a career East Rochester policeman, took charge of the 36-hole, brotherly squabble with a solid 3-&-2 victory.

David, 39 at the time of his only NYSGA championship victory, went on to become a two-term mayor of East Rochester.

Brothers David (left) and Paul Bonacchi before 1994 NYS Amateur final match at Cobblestone Creek.

Our 75th Anniversary

I

n 1998, the NYSGA took a moment to commemorate its 75th anniversary at Yahnundasis, during the NYS Mid-Am, won by a top player at the club in New Hartford, Luke Hobika. Sharing prime real estate behind the ninth green and the club’s League of the Iroquois totem pole, a boulder and plaque were dedicated to note the founding of the organization in 1923 at that club.

Not lost on any of the attendees was the vital role Yahnundasis has played in the growth of the NYSGA and golf in the Empire State. Besides the ten Men’s and Women’s Amateur Championships hosted by the club, Yahnundasis supplied the association’s first president, Sherrill Sherman, and has provided counsel and support for every important decision. A stronger relationship would be hard to imagine.

1990-99 NYS Amateur Champions Year

Host Club

Winner

1990

Albany CC

Joe Wilson, Rochester

1991

Brook-Lea CC

Leonard Lasinsky, Syracuse

1992

Drumlins CC (East)

Todd Dischinger, Syracuse

1993

Seven Oaks GC

Jeffrey Peck, Clifton

1994

Cobblestone Creek

David Bonacchi, Rochester

1995

Moon Brook CC

Dirk Ayers, Jamestown

1996

Links at Hiawatha GC

Michael Valicenti, Elmira

1997

Dutchess G&CC

Greg Rohlf, New Rochelle

1998

Pinehaven CC

Bryan Smith, Kingston

1999

Wanakah CC

John Gaffney, Buffalo

Luke Hobika, two-time NYS Mid-Am winner, claimed his first title at his home course in 1998 and then his second almost two decades later in 2015 at Wolferts Roost.

A boulder and plaque was presented to Yahnundasis during the NYSGA’s 75th anniversary celebration in 1998.

35 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 1990s

Alan Foster won the NYS Super Senior in 2009 at Stafford, completing his sweep of individual NYSGA titles (Amateur, Mid-Amateur, Senior, Super Senior).

Super Seniors

I

n 1996, the NYSGA Men’s Super Seniors Championship debuted. The latest in a abundance of new championships practically every decade of the NYSGA’s existence, the Super Seniors reflected the importance of a growing demographic within New York golf — the player over 65 years of age. A proof-of-principle event, the men’s version was followed in 2007 by the first NYSGA Women’s SuperSenior Championship. Both events are experiencing excellent participation.

In its second year, the Super Senior crowned a familiar name.

When Bob Hoff, who won the NYSGA Men’s Senior three times (1982, ’84, ’87), came out on top at the Cedar Lake Club in Utica, he became the first winner of both the association’s Senior, Super Senior championships.

Then, in 1998, Hank Malfa of Mamaroneck won the first two legs of his three-peat, with wins at Midvale and Stafford. Malfa would complete the job the following year with his win at McConnellsville.

Hank Malfa of Mamaroneck (left) won three consecutive NYS Super Senior titles from 1998 to 2000. He is pictured with former NYSGA Executive Director Pat Keenan.

1996-2000 NYS Men’s Super Senior Champions Year

Host Club

Winner

1996

Westwood CC

Bob Lindahl, Cortland

1997

Cedar Lake CC

Robert Hoff, Rochester

1998

Midvale CC

Hank Malfa, Mamaroneck

1999

Stafford CC

Hank Malfa, Mamaroneck

2000

McConnellsville GC

Hank Malfa, Mamaroneck

36 NYSGA 1923-2023

'90s Familiar Faces:

ABOVE AND TOP LEFT: Moira Dunn of Utica, three-time winner of the NYS Women's Am. CENTER LEFT: Nannette Hill of Pelham Manor, three-time winner of the NYS Girls' Junior.

BOTTOM LEFT: Don Allen wasn’t dominant only in the Amateur, he also won three Senior titles from 1994 to '97.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Meaghan Francella of Rye won NYS Girls’ Junior titles in 1998-99 while she was still in middle school.

•

Moira Dunn, a national-level amateur and eventual LPGA tour member from Utica, captured three straight Women’s State Amateur Championships in 1992, ’93 and ’94. These wins validated her 1989 New York State Junior Girls Championship promise. The Florida International AllAmerican turned pro in 1994.

•

Belying the usual difficulty of winning junior golf championships over two years — much less three — Kerri Murphy of Amsterdam carted off three State Girls Junior Amateur Championship trophies beginning in 1993, her 6-&-5 victory in her first win being the event's largest margin. Not to be outdone, Nannette Hill from Pelham Manor won three straight championships from 2000 to 2002.

•

Don Allen won three NYSGA Men’s Senior Championships in four years 1994, ’96 and ‘97. Allen’s final win at the Cedar Lake Club in 1997 was his record 11th NYSGA title in his distinguished playing career.

•

A big decade for New York girls junior golf, the 1990s also saw the emergence of Rye’s Meaghan Francella, who won State Girls Junior Amateur Championships in 1998 and 1999. What made Meaghan particularly special was that she was still in junior high school. She became the NYSGA’s youngest champion at age 13 when she won in 1998 at Vestal Hills.

37 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 2000s 9/11; The Tiger Slam; Global Financial Crisis; Super Bowl XLII; Harry Potter; Kobe’s 81

Departed Too Soon

N

Alabama.

ew York’s golf community was shaken in early 2014 with the news that Danielle Downey, a three-time NYSGA Women's Amateur champion, passed away in a traffic accident in

A remarkable athlete from Spencerport, Downey scored 1,000 points on her high school basketball team and competed on the boys’ golf team. She earned a golf scholarship to Auburn University, where she was a three time All-American and four-time all-SEC selection.

Downey won the 2000 SEC Championship and led Auburn to SEC team championships in 2000 and 2003.

She won three straight Women's Ams in 1999, 2000 and ‘01. Following her sterling collegiate career, Downey turned professional, playing initially on the Futures Tour, then graduating to the LPGA Tour in 2006, where she competed for four years.

Danielle Downey of Rochester, three-time NYS Women’s Amateur champion.

Downey with Meaghan Francella of Rye (right) and NYSGA’s Betty Deeley before 2001 Women’s Am final. Downey and Francella played collegiate golf for Auburn.

38 NYSGA 1923-2023

Downey with fellow Rochesterian Christy Rittenhouse (Schultz) in 2001 at Cortland CC.

NYSGA Amateur Series Takes Flight

T

he NYSGA’s original 1923 charter was focused on conducting a men’s amateur state championship. In keeping with the times, little to no attention was given to identifying a women’s or junior champion or even New York’s best professional golfer. And the idea of encouraging competition among the great unwashed higher handicap golfers from which all those champions would emerge was never even considered!

Happily, times (and golf) have evolved, and the picture is completely different.

A consistent premiere of new NYSGA events commenced almost right away,

starting with the State Open (1928), the Women’s State Amateur (1930), the Boys Junior (1931), the Senior Men’s (1940) and Women’s (1953) Championships.

The drum roll continues to this day.

The NYSGA now conducts 19 state championships every year.

Then, in 2006, the NYSGA held its first State Day event, which was open to all NYSGA golfers, regardless of gender and skill level.

Today, the most popular NYSGA event is the Amateur Series, open to all NYSGA members, regardless of their championship aspirations. Averaging

about 20 single-day events throughout New York, the Amateur Series provides the higher-handicap golfer the opportunity to compete against peers at a similar skill level. The events are held at many of New York’s top courses (including premier private clubs) and are played in competitive, both net and gross, formats.

The result is about as far evolved as possible from 1923’s exclusive, limited mission. Today’s inclusive NYSGA events help golfers from all over the state enjoy the experience of competition and camaraderie that only golf can offer.

39 NYSGA 1923-2023

The 2000s

Christy (Rittenhouse) Schultz of Rochester with NYS Women’s Amateur and Mid-Amateur trophies. 2004, 2022.

Christy Schultz’s Trophy-Case Problem

T

he first NYSGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship was held in 2009 at Drumlins (East), roughly a decade after the first comparable men’s event. Rochester’s Christy (Rittenhouse) Schultz quickly claimed the event as hers by taking home the trophy in 2009 and 2010.

In fact, Schultz captured five state titles in six years, having already won the NYSGA Women’s Amateur in 2004, 2007 and 2008. For the cherry on top, Schultz waited more than a decade to win her third and fourth Mid-Ams in 2021 and 2022, first at Teugega. Then, in 2022,

Schultz successfully defended her title at McGregor Links.

When combined with her wins in the Girls’ Junior in 1996 and 1997, Schultz holds a women’s record nine combined NYSGA championship titles (Jean Trainor claimed nine Women’s Senior titles). One could say that double-digit state championships are in the cards for Schultz. In 2023, she should be considered a top contender when she defends her title at Corning. There’s little doubt that the market in Rochester for a really big trophy case is heating up.

Match Play bracket from Christy (Rittenhouse) Schultz Girls' Junior victory in 1996 at Mohawk.

Christy Schultz's NYS Titles Girls' Junior

Women's Am

Women's Mid-Am

1996, Mohawk GC

2004, Robert Trent Jones GC

2009, Drumlins CC (East)

1997, Gowanda CC

2007, Oneida Community GC

2010, Sodus Bay Heights GC

2008, Wayne Hills CC

2021, Teugega CC 2022, McGregor Links CC

A Singular Men’s Achievement

T

he early 2000s gave us few things to smile about. Two occurred in quick succession when John Baldwin, from New York City, in 2001 and then Alan Foster, from Manlius, in 2002, captured the NYSGA Men’s Senior Amateur Championship. In doing so, they joined Don Allen as the only golfers to successfully traverse the ages by winning the Men’s State Amateur, Mid-Amateur and Senior Amateur Championships.

In 2009, Foster, a medical doctor from Manlius, extended the accolades one step further by capturing the Men’s

Right: Alan Foster of Syracuse claimed the 1975 NYS Amateur at his home club, Bellevue.

Below: John Baldwin of New York City after winning the NYS Senior in 2001 at Niagara Falls CC.

Super-Senior Championship, becoming the only New York golfer to win all four NYSGA individual men’s championships, a feat that spanned four decades.

Foster often took his game to a larger stage. He won the 2000 Senior Porter Cup and qualified for 13 national championships.

In both the 2004 and 2005 U.S. Senior Amateur Championships, Foster made it all the way to the semi-finals. He competed in Britain several times, capping his sterling career with a win in the 2005 Senior British Open Amateur Championship.

Foster with the Men’s Senior trophy in 2002, pictured with the NYSGA’s John Sherlock.

Alan Foster's NYS Titles Men’s Amateur

Men’s Mid-Amateur

Men’s Sr. Amateur

Men’s Super Senior

1975, Bellevue CC

1992, Bristol Harbor CC; 1995, Ontario CC

2002, Powelton Club

2009, Stafford CC

40 NYSGA 1923-2023

Ready for Next Level

I

n 2009, Penfield’s 17-year-old Yaroslav “Yarik” Merkulov successfully defended his NYSGA Junior Championship title at Skaneateles, becoming the first junior golfer — by today’s rules of engagement — to win the NYSGA Junior and Amateur Championships in the same year.

In all fairness, in 1932, a 19-yearold Tommy Goodwin was victorious in both events, but the age requirements for the Junior Championship were changed midcentury in accordance with USGA practices to not admit players who had reached their 18th birthday.

But perhaps more to the point, Merkulov’s last-round 61 at

Yaroslav “Yarik” Merkulov of Penfield captured both the NYS Junior (top) and Amateur (below) in 2009.

Skaneateles also smashed the tournament course record of 67.

This title was the fourth NYSGA championship that Merkulov has captured in the last three years.

Besides the 2009 Men’s and Junior Amateurs, he claimed the Boys' Sub-Junior in 2006 and the 2008 Junior Amateur. On the national level, Merkulov made it to the quarterfinals of the 2009 U.S. Junior Amateur before losing to No. 1 seed Jordan Spieth.

He was clearly ready to make the transition to the next level — college golf. "I wanted to win this (the Junior Amateur) so badly," he said. "It's my last time to play in it, and I wanted to defend my title.”

Meghan Grehan of Mamaroneck (above) won the NYS Women's Am in 2001-02. She is pictured with Maggie Lester, (below) who also claimed consecutive titles in 2005-06.

'00s Familiar Faces: •

In 2001, Rochester’s Kevin Haefner set two impressive Men’s Amateur records.

His 13-&-12 triumph in the final broke an almost six-decade-old mark set in 1944.

This win would also mark the first time the championship medalist prevailed as titleist.

•

Gail Brophy, from Saratoga Springs, took home the first two NYSGA Women’s SuperSenior Championships in 2007 (Whiteface Club) and ’08 (Holiday Valley). Her bid for a three peat ended with Sandra Wood’s triumph in 2009 at Thendara. Wood, from Ithaca, went on to win again in 2010 and ‘11, becoming the event’s first three-time champ.

•

Jim Roy, a once-struggling former PGA Tour golfer who had regained his amateur status, dominated the NYSGA MidAmateur Championship with victories in 1999, 2001, ’02 and ’04. In 2009, at age 50, Roy qualified for PGA Champions Tour, one of few amateurs to make that transition back to touring pro.

•

Megan Grehan captured two consecutive Women’s Amateur titles in 2001-02. She became the youngest winner at age 13 after defeating Amber Weinerth of Highland Park 4 & 3 in a 36-hole final match at Pinehaven. The two finalists also shared co-medalist honors, both shooting 77 during the stroke play qualifying round.

Grehan nearly matched Dottie Pepper as the only to win the Women’s Am and Girls’ Junior in the same year but lost in the Girls’ Junior finale at Glens Falls to Nannette Hill of Pelham, who captured her third consecutive title that year at age 14.

Kevin Haefner of Rochester, 2001 NYS Amateur Champion at Seven Oaks.

41 NYSGA 1923-2023

2010-2022 COVID-19; Tom Brady; Netflix; Climate Change; Instagram/Tik Tok; LeBron

Birth of NYSGA Hall of Fame

I

n 2012, the NYSGA created its Hall of Fame “to identify, recognize, and enshrine the state's finest amateur and professional golf competitors, as well as those who have made outstanding contributions to the game throughout New York by their careers as golf teachers, coaches, mentors, and volunteers to the game.”

The inaugural Class of 2012 set the tone, selecting some of the state’s most enduring and iconic competitors: Ray Billows and Don Allen; the patron saint of New York women’s golf, Betty Deeley; two of the most influential golf journalists in the country in Grantland Rice and Frederick Box, and Bill Tryon, a champion golfer who went on to serve the NYSGA as its president, treasurer and long-time executive committee member.

Grantland Rice

Ray Billows

Frederick Box

That initial class of six honorees has been supplemented by five more classes (in 2015, ’17, ’19, ’22) that have brought in an additional 20 remarkable, passionate people, ranging from professional major champions to people who have dedicated their lives to New York State golf.

Don Allen Betty Deeley (second from left) with NYSGA tournament crew in 1980s.

42 NYSGA 1923-2023

Bill Tryon

The Pandemic

C

OVID did what World War II didn’t, shut down the NYSGA tournament schedule. The entire 2020 season was canceled due to the extreme uncertainty created by the pandemic and the caution that governments and the golf industry used to protect lives. The good news is, of course, that golf throughout the country came back stronger than ever, with people enjoying the outdoor — and safe — recreation the game offered.

In both the Women’s Amateur and Senior Amateur, the 2021 champions picked up roughly where they were before the pandemic. Kyra Cox of South Salem, the Women’s Am winner at Teugega, had prevailed before in 2018 and 2015 state championships. The 2021 Women’s Senior Amateur champion, Kim Kaul of Colden built on her prior experience with prior wins in 2015 and 2008.

The 2021 Men’s Senior champion, Daniel Russo from Hagaman, didn’t miss a beat with his victory at the Powelton Club. With that win, he matched his 2019 victory at the Cavalry Club, providing a nice set of bookends to the COVID disruption.

Kyra Cox of South Salem, three-time winner of the NYS Women's Amateur.

Dan Russo of Hagaman, two-time NYS Senior champion.

Charlie Berridge of Scarsdale hitting shot at Onondaga during 2022 NYS Amateur. He won the title in record-setting fashion.

Kim Kaul of Colden, three-time NYS Women’s Senior champion, during awards ceremony in 2021 at Pinehaven.

2010-2022 NYS Amateur Champions Year

Host Club

Winner

2010

Albany CC

Doug Kleeschulte, Kingston

2011

Oak Hill CC (West)

Dominic Bozzelli, Pittsford

2012

Elmira CC

Dominic Bozzelli, Pittsford

2013

Schuyler Meadows Club

Matt Stasiak, Clarence

2014

Bellevue CC

Luke Feehan, Carmel

2015

Kaluhyat GC at Turning Stone

Trevor Sluman, Rochester

2016

Mohawk GC

Tyler McArdell, Baldwinsville

2017

Bethpage Black

Adam Condello, Fairport

2018

Irondequoit CC

Will Thomson, Pittsford

2019

Crag Burn GC

Ben Reichert, East Amherst

2020

Suspended for COVID-19

2021

Schuyler Meadows Club

James Allen, Scarsdale

2022

Onondaga G&CC

Charlie Berridge, Scarsdale

43 NYSGA 1923-2023

2010-2022 Record Scoring

T

he 2022 season gave us unprecedented scoring as Charlie Berridge from Wykagyl shot a 14-under-par 270 to win the NYSGA Men’s Amateur at Onondaga by three shots over Jason Lohwater from Brook-Lea.

Charlie Berridge of Scarsdale, 2022 NYS Amateur champion.

On the women’s side, 15-year-old Kennedy Swedick needed every shot to take home the trophy at McGregor Links, but she had some good memories in her corner — Swedick had won the New York State Public High School Girls’ Golf Championship at McGregor just a month earlier. She channeled that win to a 9-under 207, good for a one-shot victory over Ohio State junior Lauren Peter. The two finished each round within a shot of each other for all 54 holes and were a staggering 15 shots in front of the rest of the pack at a normally challenging McGregor Links course — shades of Watson and Nicklaus’ “Duel in the Sun'' at Turnberry in the 1977 Open Championship.

Both of these two winning scores were records for their respective events, in line with the inexorable march of lower scores at championship levels of play around the world. Better scoring has been attributed to a number of different changes, including increased distance/shot, better conditioning (of both courses and golfers), and improved ball and club technology.

Each of those factors likely played a hand in Swedick’s and Berridge’s records. Don’t count on their records to last long.

Kennedy Swedick of Albany (right) on the final green at the 2022 NYS Women’s Amateur. She won in record-setting fashion over Carmel’s Lauren Peter.

Dominic Bozzelli of Pittsford won the Sub-Junior, Junior and Men’s Am, each at least once, before turning professional.

Record-setting scorecards from Dominic Bozzelli and Charlie Berridge.

44 NYSGA 1923-2023

More New Championships

'10s Familiar Faces:

slew of new NYSGA championships came online in the 2010s, all with a common thread. In a nod to the realization that fourball play is America’s most used day-to-day format, the NYSGA created six new state championships:

•

Finding a fountain of youth, Syracuse’s Teresa Cleland turned the usual progression of amateur/ mid-amateur/ senior amateur on its head by capturing the 2009 and 2010 Women’s Senior Amateur Championships before taking the Women’s Mid-Am three years in a row, from 2011-’13.

•

In the 2013 Men’s Am at Schuyler Meadows, Matt Stasiak had been chasing leader Victor Fox since the first round. He finally pulled even with Fox by the time they teed off the 71st hole. Then, Stasiak promptly made a heart-wrenching double bogey, apparently sealing a runner-up finish.

However, fortunes flipped on the par-4 final hole as Stasiak hit his best drive of the day.

Watching Fox wrestle with the results of a bunkered tee shot, Stasiak knocked it on and drained the birdie putt. Fox missed an eight-foot bogey putt, giving Stasiak a threeshot swing and a rollercoaster one-shot victory. Never give up!

•

In 2012 at Elmira, Dominic Bozzelli captured his second straight NYSGA Men’s Amateur Championship with a sizzling 11-under par 277. The Rochester native and member of the Auburn University golf team turned professional in 2013.

•

Bailey Shoemaker joined Kerri Murphy and Nannette Hill as three-time titleists of the NYSGA Girls Junior Amateur Championship. Winning in 2017, ’18 and ’19, Shoemaker was gearing up to take home her record fourth consecutive (under age 18) state junior title in 2020. Those plans were derailed by the COVID-19 epidemic, which shut down all tournament play that entire year.

A • • • • • •

Men’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship (2011).

Men’s Senior Amateur Four-Ball Championship (2012).

Amateur Mixed Four-Ball Championship (2013).

Senior Amateur Mixed Four-Ball Championship (2013).

Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship (2018).

Women’s Senior Amateur Four-Ball Championship (2018).

The six new team events tended to start modestly, but by 2022, they had collectively made a big difference. This year, they will engage more than 350 two-person entries and broaden the appeal and reach of NYSGA events to — in many cases — an otherwise untapped audience.

By the end of 2022, and buoyed by the success of the team championships, the NYSGA added two senior championships that will start in 2023:

•

The Men’s Legends Amateur Championship, which is open to golfers at least 70 years old.

•

The Men’s Super Senior Amateur Four-Ball Championship, contested among players at least 65 years old.

These two new events point to the importance of senior play in New York. Golfers are living and competing longer, and the NYSGA sees these championships as a great opportunity to provide value to the people who have supported New York golf for years.

Matt Stasiak of Clarence putting on the sixteenth hole during his 2013 NYS Amateur victory.

Teresa Cleland of Syracuse, is a three-time NYS Women's Mid-Am champion and two-time NYS Women's Senior champion.

Bailey Shoemaker of West Edmeston captured three consecutive NYS Girls’ Junior titles at Seven Oaks from 2017 to 19.

45 NYSGA 1923-2023

NYSGA Hall of Fame (Est. 2012) MISSION STATEMENT:

The mission of the NYSGA HALL OF FAME is to identify, recognize, and enshrine in a Hall of Fame the state’s finest amateur and professional golf competitors; those individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the game of golf throughout all of New York State by their careers as golf teachers, coaches, mentors, and volunteers to the game and to the organizations that administer golf in New York; and those who have performed widely recognized contributions to golf and have had a unique impact on golf in New York State.

FRAMEWORK:

In establishing the Hall of Fame, the NYSGA adopted a detailed procedure for appointing a Chairman and Committee members and a structured process for selecting and recognizing Hall of Fame Members.

CANDIDATES:

As described in the Mission Statement, candidates for Hall of Fame induction fall into two broad categories: 1. Competitors — players with distinguished competitive records.

2. Contributors — volunteers and others who have had a significant impact on the game in New York State.

Class of 2012

Donald Allen – Competitor Frederick Box – Contributor Grantland Rice – Contributor

Class of 2015

John Konsek – Competitor Donald Ross – Contributor Sam Urzetta – Competitor and Contributor

Class of 2017

Virginia (Guilfoil) Allen – Competitor

Class of 2018

Walter Hagen – Competitor Gene Sarazen – Competitor

Class of 2019

John Baldwin – Competitor and Contributor Joey Sindelar – Competitor

Class of 2022

Jeff Sluman – Competitor Terry Diehl – Competitor Roslyn “Cookie” (Swift) Berger – Competitor

Ray Billows – Competitor Betty Deeley – Contributor William Tryon – Competitor

Thomas Reidy – Contributor Lancy Smith – Competitor

Joe Enright, Hall of Fame chairman.

Alan Foster – Competitor

Dottie Pepper – Competitor and Contributor Willie Turnesa – Competitor and Contributor

Mary Anne (Widman) Levins – Competitor Walter Travis – Competitor and Contributor

Robert Biviano – Contributor Jean (Ramaker) Trainor – Competitor Mary Anne Widman Levins, 2019 inductee.

46 NYSGA 1923-2023

Joey Sindelar speaks to an attentive audience during his 2019 induction.

Bill Tryon (left) and Don Allen, 2012 inductees.

Friends of inductee Dottie Pepper at Brookhaven in 2018.

Terry Diehl (left) and Jeff Sluman, 2022 inductees.

Inductee John Baldwin (left) and NYSGA’s Doug Vergith at Elmira in 2019.

47 NYSGA 1923-2023

Executive Directors of the NYSGA

D

uring he 1970s, under the leadership of Moon Brook CC’s Allen Short in his second presidency, it was decided by the NYSGA’s Executive Committee that a full-time executive director was needed to conduct the lineup of tournaments each season.

Longtime volunteer Robert Hogan of Albany was the first to be appointed to this position, serving in the role until his death.

Robert Hogan,

Roger Harvie,

The association suffered a major loss in 1982 when its first Executive Director, Bob Hogan of Albany, died suddenly. A trophy in his honor for the new Mid-Amateur was dedicated.

He was named to succeed Hogan but soon left to join the USGA as a field representative in 1984.

Albany (1973 - 1982)

Rochester (1982 - 1984)

Thomas E. Reidy, Elmira (1984 - 1995)

A Corning Community College accounting professor, Reidy took the NYSGA into the computer age. He served 11 years before resigning but has continued his interest serving since on the executive committee. Reidy was general chairman of the 1983 tournament at Elmira CC and soon joined the NYSGA on the sectional committee. He was inducted into the NYSGA Hall of Fame - Class of 2015, and continues to be involved with the NYSGA to this day.

J. Patrick Keenan, Syracuse (1995 - 2003)

Past President Pat Keenan succeeded Reidy, who had health problems and moved the NYSGA’s headquarters from Elmira to the Syracuse area. During his tenure, the USGA P.J. Boatwright Jr. internship program was founded. During his presidency in 1989, he initiated the NYSGA News, a printed publication that won the National Golf Foundation’s Eckhoff Award. In 1996 under the leadership of President Harlow E. Waite, the association moved to serve member clubs additionally by starting a club service division headed by Mark Conradt of Lockport. The division offers clubs handicapping by computer, course ratings and an internet site providing complete information on all NYSGA activities. He guided the NYSGA through the association’s 75th anniversary celebration in 1997.

Bill Moore,

Syracuse (2003 - Present) When Keenan retired, the Board decided that a full time employee was required. Moore was hired to replace him in the position. A product of the USGA P.J. Boatwright, Jr. internship program, Moore worked closely with Keenan during the 1997 and 1998 seasons, and was also a competitor in many state championships during the 90’s. In Moore’s two decades in the leadership role, he has seen the staff increase from being the first full-time employee with one intern to six full-time, three part-time, and three seasonal interns we now have on the team.

48 NYSGA 1923-2023

The NYSGA’s Executive Secretaries

Prior to the Executive Director position, the NYSGA had several Executive Secretaries who managed a bulk of the administrative efforts during the association’s first fifty years.

Lester A. Palmer

New York City (1926-1933)

Mary McGraw

Elmira (1950-1965)

Lee Babson

Syracuse (1965-1973)

An Interview with Bill Moore, NYSGA Executive Director 'We are as healthy as we've ever been'

L

ike many involved in golf administration, New York State Golf Association executive director Bill Moore was first a player — and a proficient one — before evolving into his current role.

Moore, a Manchester, N.H., native who moved to the Syracuse area at age 8, has played in four U.S. Golf Association events (one U.S. Amateur, two U.S. Mid-Amateurs and one U.S. Amateur FourBall). His path to the organizational side began in 1997, when he was in the USGA’s P.J. Boatwright Jr. internship program under Pat Keenan, the previous executive director.

Since he succeeded Keenan in 2003, Moore has overseen substantial growth to the association, which now has six full-time employees and has added numerous championships.

As part of the NYSGA’s Centennial Celebration, Moore tackled several topics covering his two decades of service and what he sees for the future.

This interview with Bill Moore was conducted by Times Union golf writer Pete Dougherty.

Q: How did you get started with the NYSGA? You got involved because of the intern program?

Bill Moore: Yes. Pat Keenan, my predecessor, was executive director, and he was a member of Bellevue Country Club, where I grew up and I worked. Pat knew me from the club, and he knew I was playing local events and I was interested in the state events and what he did.

Bill Moore, the fifth executive director of the NYSGA

When the internship opened up from the USGA, the P.J. Boatwright internship, he gave me a call. I graduated the year before from Notre Dame, and I was figuring out what to do with my life. He hired me as his intern in ’97, and I interned with him for two summers. It was just him and me.

We had an independent contractor who sold GHIN, but it was he and I who did all the administrative work and ran our championships, much more barebones than we do today.

He was the one who brought me in and was still on the job [in 1998], and I needed to go get a full-time job. I went out, I worked with human resources for five years in town, and when Pat decided to fully retire, I was one of the four finalists Continued on pg 50

49 NYSGA 1923-2023

Bill Moore Interview... Continued to interview for the job and was fortunate enough to get it and start in 2003.

Q: In those 20 years, obviously the association has grown a great deal. How did that come about? You’re up to six full-time employees now?

Bill Moore: We have six full-time, four interns and three seasonal employees.

The opportunities and events and all the programs that these other states and regional associations were running gave us a lot of great ideas to come back here and implement once we had the funds to do it. The Amateur Series is something that came out of that. Some of our other championships, rulesseminar programs, a lot of those ideas came from something that another state or region had created and been successful with, and we were able to implement those ideas here.

When I got the job, my No. 1 goal was to bring everything "As we started to in-house. We were relying grow, the other goal Bill Moore: When the handicapping service took off in middle- on volunteers. For instance, 2000s, that was what got us going in the right direction in terms if you tried for the State Am was to try to get more of growth. There were a lot of people playing golf, but we hadn’t in Albany, you would send people involved in done anything more than just run our championships for the your entry straight to [past the association who best players in the state. Once we did more club services — the president] Dick Dorgan’s GHIN handicap system, and we were always doing course house. Dick Dorgan would weren't championship ratings — but once we started bringing in some revenue from collect all the money, and players. They were that, that was above and beyond what we were accustomed he’d call Pat Keenan and the average golfer, to, we had some ability to start to grow. We started on the say, ‘I have 48 guys and four tournament side. I was running all the championships, and we exempt players.’ We’d say, and that's what the hired Andrew [Hickey, assistant executive director] to be my ‘OK, you’re going to have 11 Amateur Series right-hand man for that. spots,’ and he'd go and run brought to the table."

We had a club-services person. Scott Gerbereux, who was able the qualifier. He’d send out postcards with all of the tee to come in and work for us full-time. We went pretty slowly from one to two to three [full-time employees], hung around times. He’d run the qualifier and send us the results. We got three for quite some time. As we continued to get more people those 11 players, and Pat and I would go out and run the State using the GHIN handicap system, raising the price of that Amateur. service over the years, we’ve come to a place where we've been Now, with credit-card entries and then not taking checks or able to expand the number of services we provide and expand anything like that, all of those entries come here. We certainly our tournament schedule five-fold over what we used to do. We still rely on our volunteers to do a lot of the assistance at those used to rely on volunteers to run a lot of our qualifying events, qualifiers, but my No. 1 goal was to bring everything in-house and now all that's done here in-house. and make it as fair as possible.

Q; How were you able to grow from one full-time person, being you, into that?

We needed the personnel to be able to do that and administrate it and do all that paperwork. We've slowly ramped up in that direction, and that's where the growth has been, on the championship side. The club services are still run by basically one-and-a-half folks, but the rest — all the championships, the Amateur Series, our regional association events — those are all run by our staff, as well.

Q: When you took over as executive director, were some of the programs you’ve added a goal of yours? Did you think back then that it was realistic to be able to create an Amateur Series and to grow the sport through some of the regional associations?

Bill Moore: I came from a background where I only knew what we did here at the NYSGA and then what the USGA did in their championships. One of the perks of this job is that we're automatically members of something called the IAGA, which is the International Association of Golf Administrators. They have a conference every year where 90-100 golf administrators get together and do two- or three-day meetings, get-togethers and networking.

50 NYSGA 1923-2023

It wasn’t equitable what was going on in all the different areas of the state in terms of how they were conducting the tournament, the professionalism of it. Some people had some resources, some people didn't. By bringing all of that in-house, that was the one major goal I started out with, to streamline everything.

As we started to grow, the other goal was to try to get more people involved in the association who weren't championship players.

They were the average golfer, and that's what the Amateur Series brought to the table.

Q: I know you’re an accomplished player who has played in a number of USGA and NYSGA events. Do you find that helps in the administration of tournaments? Can you learn things from the golfers that you've been able to apply to how you run things?

Bill Moore: I think so. It's nice to play in some of those events, and I always thought it was important to go out and play some other regions’ events, too. When I was lucky enough to qualify for a USGA championship or I was able to go play in maybe a Buffalo District or a club event somewhere else, there were always ideas that I could pick up and bring back to our events.

The State Amateur logistics — the food and beverage, the signage and everything we do at the club — is vastly different from what we did 25 years ago, but very little of that stuff is an original idea. That's all stuff that we got from playing in other events that did something well, and we wanted to bring it and implement it at our events.

When it comes to course setup, that was something that I think I had an advantage in by being someone that played a lot of tournament golf. I knew what kind of things challenge good players. Was it the length of the golf course? Was it rough? Was it obstacles? Hole locations? Those kinds of things.

I would always tell my interns, it was very simple for me to step into the transition to set up a golf course for men or junior players. I had a much more difficult time learning how to run a senior women's championship and what kinds of things were too difficult or too easy for them, because they play the game much differently. That was certainly an advantage, that I had one half of the spectrum. I could see how they’d want to set that golf course up, but it still wasn't an easy transition, that's for sure.

Q: What did you learn from Pat Keenan and the executive director before him, Tom Reidy, on how to run things as an executive director?

Bill Moore: Organization. I thought the two biggest parts of the job when I got it were being organized, and respecting and utilizing the talent we have with our volunteers. We have some great people on the committee who have run tournaments for a long, long time. They knew what they were doing.

Pat was one of those people who ran qualifiers for a long time. He was a USGA committee member for the U.S. Junior Committee.

He had a lot of experience in that. That's what I picked up most from him, the importance of keeping great records, being super-organized, just being prepared for whatever might come your way at our championships.

Pat Keenan was still running his business, but it was a very small business when he was running it. We didn't have a lot of revenue. It was basically a summer part-time job. I joke with Andrew [Hickey] all the time, when I was the intern in ’97, ’98, our office was in the attic of Bellevue Country Club. They used to give us a room in the attic. It was free, which was great, and we were members there.

On a regular day, we’d go in, work from 8 or 9 to 12 o'clock, go downstairs, have lunch, then go play golf. That was literally every day. Now I have six full-time people here, including me, working 40 hours a week — and in the winter, which just blows my mind. It’s a much different place than it used to be.

Q: When did you move to these offices?

Bill Moore: We moved to a full-time office out of Bellevue in ’03. Right down the street from Bellevue we had an office at an office park for about 13 years, and then we bought this building [in Jamesville] in 2015 or 2016, and we've been here ever since.

Q: What do you see for the future of the NYSGA? Are there things you still want to do down the road?

Bill Moore: For sure. Embracing and bringing in the average golfer is something we need to continue to get better at. We have a membership now of more than 40,000 golfers in upstate New York, outside of Rochester, that we serve. The Amateur Series is great. That brings another 1,000-1,500 people into the fold who know who we are and what we do.

But we’ve got to continue to do a job with education. Andrew does a great job with his regional rules seminars. Next year, there will be some more changes with the World Handicap System, and I'll be out doing some seminars for the World Handicap System, finding ways to engage and embrace other golfers that maybe aren't tournament golfers who want to learn a little bit more about the NYSGA or find their way into being a more regular golfer. There are a lot of golfers out there who don't play that many rounds a year.

The second thing we're pushing for now is trying to bring the rest of upstate New York under our umbrella with regard to tournaments. We have the resources now to be able to assist those smaller associations that maybe don't have those resources. While Buffalo and Syracuse have always had strong golf associations and have some funds to do some things logistically to make the event special for the players, a lot of those nice championships over the years have fallen by the wayside because they either don't have anyone to run them or they've run out of funds or they don't have sponsors.

The Watertown City Championship, Triple Cities Golf Association [Southern Tier], Capital Region golf events, there are a lot of tournaments that were great at one time that have fallen away. We're trying to lend our assistance to bring those events back to the importance that they held.

There's still something to be said for a city champion in an underserved community that doesn’t host our events. It doesn't make sense to take a state event to some corner of the state where it's hard to get hotels, it’s hard to travel, but we certainly can lend some assistance to make the tournaments that they do have better, and bring their best players up and to play state championships and have a more defined ladder to bigger and better from those areas.

Q: Throughout your tenure there and back when Pat Keenan was there, you always relied on volunteers and rules officials to help you. Can you talk about their importance and their role in keeping things running smoothly?

Bill Moore: It’s vital for us, not as much now with the more staff that we have. We’re able to go and do more of the work we used to rely on them for, but 10 or 15 years ago, and when I first started 20 years ago, we had a tournament committee that did almost all that work. They were out doing all the golf-course marking. They were doing all of the course setup, because there was only one person, me, handling tee times and registration and all of the player responsibilities.

Continued on pg 52

51 NYSGA 1923-2023

Bill Moore Interview... Continued We had all these volunteers running and doing all of the conducting of the tournaments themselves on an island.

Fortunately and unfortunately, we're able to do a little more now to help them out. We still have a very strong tournament committee that does a lot of that help.

We have some qualified rules officials and all different areas of the state that are able to help us. You can't run a great championship without having a few extra rules officials on the golf course, a bunch of spotters or marshals on the golf course to help move things along. Those things all make things special for the players to have that ability out there to have someone have your back and help keep your round moving, seeing a friendly face in an NYSGA hat, someone to just wave to you and say hello and thank you for being there is a great thing we’ve always had with our committee.

What is a great thing that we've always had with our committee — and we've had such great committee members over the years — we discuss in here all the time how difficult it is that as we get older, they're also getting older, and some are not able to do as much. Being able to bring them back and have them work maybe one event a year instead of our traveling family we used to have that work six or seven events a year.

It's just so nice to see everybody, and we're able to give them some jobs out there that maybe aren't as taxing or complicated, but they're still a part of our championships. Our committees have done an unbelievable job on that end, and I'll say on the other hand, on the club-services side, we still rely mainly on our volunteers for course-rating services. We have teams of 15 or 20 folks that are out there, boots on the ground, rating 4050 golf courses a year with our staff liaison, Mark Ackley, that are doing that grunt work out there. We couldn't do without them. We’re lucky to have the volunteer base that we do.

Q; During your 20 years, is it safe to say that the toughest period is probably during COVID-19? What was it like trying to make decisions during that pandemic?

Bill Moore: COVID was bad because we couldn't do what we love to do and be out there running events. We still supported the clubs. I was very proud of the way we were able to hang on and pay our staff for the year even though they weren't out there working all year, which was huge.

All of us — some have bigger families, some are single — but we all have our needs, and we didn't have to lay anybody off. We didn't have to furlough anyone. We were able to keep everyone employed and engaged. I was proud of how we stayed current with city and state government and the rules and regulations that came to golf and trying to be someone that assisted those owners and clubs with the rules and regulations that seemed to change almost every day and could get them answers on some of the questions they had.

That was a tough time for us as an association, but what was almost tougher was three or four years prior to COVID, when golf numbers were declining. Clubs were in bad shape. A lot of clubs were in need of members. Our membership numbers

52 NYSGA 1923-2023

were dropping every year. I got a lot more phone calls in that period, from probably 2015 to 2020, than I did during COVID, once the initial brunt was past us and we actually knew what we could do and what we couldn't do.

Those five years of clubs having trouble paying their bills, having trouble keeping the lights on in some of these places, some of our great clubs statewide that had real money problems, that was a much tougher time for us because we had a heck of a time getting players to travel and play in our events. " You never know We had a heck of a time what the next 25 servicing and supporting years is going to our clubs that have been so good to us over the years. hold, but it’s been

Financially it was just a a fun ride." tough thing, and the crazy part about COVID was it brought a heck of a lot of people back into this game.

Now we are as healthy as we've ever been, and my 20 years and probably 20 years prior to that, in regard to the number of people playing golf in upstate New York. It’s really nationwide. It’s fantastic.

Q: Any final thoughts?

Bill Moore: I'm so proud of who we are and what we've become. Looking back at a hundred years, I was the intern for the 75th anniversary, which was a nice event we held at the Yahnundasis [in New Hartford]. It was a fun year. You could just tell that we were on to something.

We would always be around running the State Am, whether we got into club services or we didn’t, but to see how far we've come in this 25-year stretch and the staff we've been able to bring in and help out, and the product we provide to our golfers, is the coolest thing.

It's just great to see the talent that we have here and the champions we have and the product we've been able to roll out to them. To see these great players move on to national events and know that maybe they got their start here is a pretty fulfilling thing. You never know what the next 25 years is going to hold, but it’s been a fun ride.

From left: Pat Keenan, Bill Moore, Tom Reidy, John Sherlock

NYSGA Officers, Staff & Interns NYSGA Officers . . . . . .

President – Henry Fust, Onondaga G&CC 1st Vice President – Jamie Miller, Crag Burn GC 2nd Vice President – Doug Vergith, Chautauqua GC Secretary – Iris Stanek, Lancaster CC Treasurer – Robert Smith, Highland Park GC General Counsel – Peter Jones, Drumlins CC

NYSGA Executive Committee . . . . . . . . . . . .

Shawn Baker, Oak Hill CC Lee Bearsch, Binghamton CC John Burns, Niagara Falls CC Ryan Gabel, Southern Dutchess CC Jim Gifford, Mohawk GC Megan Grehan, Hudson National GC Brent Herlihy, Glens Falls CC Lawrence Lessing, The Creek Christy Schultz, Oak Hill CC Frank Suits, Cortland CC Rich Weber, Brookfield CC Brian Williams, Winged Foot GC

NYSGA Staff Listing . . . . . . .

Bill Moore, Executive Director Andrew Hickey, Assistant Executive Director Dan Thompson, Director, Marketing & Partnerships Jack Travers, Assistant Director, Rules & Competitions Deb Spilman, Special Events & Volunteer Ops. Michael Dirkes, Manager, Regional Associations Mark Ackley, Manager, Course Rating

Past NYSGA Interns (1996-2022) 1996 Jay Vizgaitis 1997 Jason Corbin 1997 Bill Moore 1998 Bill Moore 1999 Chris Wallace 2000 Josh Waldman 2001 Steve Murphy 2002 Sarah McCarthy 2002 Jason Wetmore 2003 Chris Kinslow 2004 Stacey Whyte 2005 Scott Gerbereux 2006 Justin Clark 2007 Casey Miller 2008 Ben Maywalt 2008 John Cronly 2009 Andrew Hickey 2009 Kevin Solan 2010 Kevin Solan 2010 Rasmita Taylert 2011 Eric Reinauer 2011 Seth Awes 2012 Ranelle Graber 2012 Joe Fanelli

2013 Nate Schroeder 2013 Genna Tripoli 2014 Ben Picone 2014 Matt Placito 2015 Dan Thompson 2015 Zach Sullivan 2016 Alex Hahn 2016 Nicolette Darois 2017 Brandon Grzywacz 2017 Scott Ricca 2018 Ryan Doyle 2018 Jack Travers 2019 Jack Travers 2019 Adam Blackwell 2019 Mike Timmerman 2019 Sara Stanley 2020 Dan Mort 2020 Matthew Whaley 2021 Dan Mort 2021 Jack Margaros 2021 Michael Dirkes 2022 Michael Dirkes 2022 Parker Gauthier 2022 Fred Wilkes

*Names in bold are currently full-time employees for the NYSGA

NYSGA Interns – 2023 . . . .

Chris Buerle, Communications Alex King, Tournament Operations Damian Rodriguez, Tournament Operations Christine Van Allen, Tournament Operations From left: Andrew Hickey, Michael Dirkes, Bill Moore, Deb Spilman, Jack Travers, Dan Thompson.

Andrew Hickey at USGA qualifier.

Mark Ackley during an NYSGA course rating.

53 NYSGA 1923-2023

NYSGA Presidents 1923 - 2023 YEAR(S)

PRESIDENT

CLUB AFFILIATION

24

1979-80

Richard Walsh

CC of Buffalo

Garden City GC

25

1981

George Zurenda

Elmira CC

E.E. Wyman

St. Andrews GC

26

1982-83

Lyle Brown

CC of Rochester

Milton S. Bowman

Siwanoy CC

27

1984-85

Sherry Heath

Binghamton CC

Bill Stark

Bellevue CC

28

1986-87

Mark Fitzgerald

Winding Brook CC

1941-44

Theodore I. Merseles

Garden City GC

29

1988-89

J. Patrick Keenan

Bellevue CC

7

1945-46

Harry Harmon

Oak Hill CC

30

1990-91

Edward Thaney

Ridgemont CC

8

1947-49

Duane L. Tower

Niagara Falls CC

31

1992-93

John Sherlock

Tuscarora GC

9

1950-52

Oscar Guilfoil

Lake Shore Y&CC

32

1994-95

Richard Downing

Onondaga G&CC

10

1953

Jack Ahern

Wanakah CC

33

1996-97

Harlow E. Waite

Dutchess G&CC

11

1954

William Turnesa

Knollwood CC

34

1998-99

John J. Donovan

Ontario CC

12

1955-56

Fred Wright

Winged Foot GC

35

2000-01

Patrick Shatzel

Ridgemont CC

13

1957-58

Pierce Russell

CC of Troy

36

2002-03

John Sherlock

Tuscarora GC

14

1959-60

John Ward

Onondaga G&CC

37

2004-05

Thomas Reidy

Elmira CC

15

1961-62

David Harden

McConnellsville CC

38

2006-07

Bob Biviano

Ontario CC

16

1963-64

Ronald Brownell

Yahnundasis GC

39

2008-09

Janet Reiner

Shorewood CC

17

1965-66

Gerald Dimmick

Binghamton CC

40

2010-11

Richard Dorgan

Albany CC

18

1967-68

Allen Short

Moon Brook CC

41

2012-13

Edward Koslick

Cedar Lake Club

19

1969-70

William Tryon

Elmira CC

42

2014-15

Richard Galvin

Ontario CC

20

1971-72

Charles McAuliffe

Lancaster CC

43

2016-17

Joseph Strykowski

Elmira CC

21

1973-74

Allen Short

Moon Brook CC

44

2018-19

Warren Winslow

Western Turnpike GC

22

1975-76

William Bogle

Dutchess G&CC

45

2020-21

Joseph Enright

Lancaster CC

23

1977-78

Emil McKay

CC of Troy

46

2022 -

Henry W. Fust

Onondaga G&CC

YEAR(S)

PRESIDENT

CLUB AFFILIATION

1

1923-25

Sherrill Sherman

Yahnundasis GC

2

1926-35

Don Parker

3

1936

4

1937-39

5

1940

6

Image unavailable

Sherrill Sherman

Don Parker

E.E. Wyman

Milton S. Bowman

Bill Stark

Theodore I. Merseles

Harry Harmon

Duane L. Tower

Oscar Guilfoil

Jack Ahern

William Turnesa

Fred Wright

54 NYSGA 1923-2023

Pierce Russell

John Ward

David Harden

Ronald Brownell

Gerald Dimmick

Allen Short

William Tryon

Charles McAuliffe

William Bogle

Emil McKay

Richard Walsh

George Zurenda

Lyle Brown

Sherry Heath

Mark Fitzgerald

J. Patrick Keenan

Edward Thaney

John Sherlock

Richard Downing

Harlow E. Waite

John J. Donovan

Patrick Shatzel

Thomas Reidy

Bob Biviano

NYSGA Executive Committee in 1965 at Onondaga G&CC. Janet Reiner

Richard Dorgan

Edward Koslick

Richard Galvin

Joseph Strykowski

Warren Winslow

Joseph Enright

Henry W. Fust

55 NYSGA 1923-2023

Trophies of the NYSGA

T

he New York State Golf Association annually conducts 19 state championships of New York State.

As the popularity of golf has grown over the past century, the NYSGA’s championship schedule has grown to provide opportunities to different genders and age categories, and in more recent years, team championships that incorporate both four-ball and modified chapman stroke play formats which have become popular and have generated strong interest among the players.

Here’s a brief history of the NYSGA’s eight permanent state trophies that have been provided to the champions over the years (besides the trophies mentioned below, there are various other champions and runner-up trophies that are awarded to top finishers at each tournament. Many of the newer team championships do not have a permanent trophy for the winners.

NYS Men’s Amateur

The Ganson Depew Cup (Est. 1923) The first trophy, the “Ganson Depew Cup” was presented at the first championship, the state Men’s Amateur, conducted in October 1923 at the Garden City Golf Club. The handsome trophy designed by Tiffany’s was donated

by Ganson Depew, who was one of two initial NYSGA vice presidents and a prominent figure in Buffalo-area golf. He represented the NYSGA on the USGA’s executive committee during the association’s formative years.

NYS Women’s Amateur

Oak Hill Country Club Championship Trophy (Est. 1930) The NYSGA added the association’s second championship with the Women’s Amateur in 1930, and the trophy was donated by the first tournament host site and now iconic Oak Hill in Rochester.

NYS Boys’ 18U Junior Amateur The Hickock Cup (Est. 1931)

The next oldest trophy is the “Hickock Cup” which was donated by the famous belt company of Rochester, N.Y. The trophy represents the Junior Men’s championship, initially for men ages 21 or below, but since changed to age 17 and below, and more recently 18 and below.

NYS Boys’ 14U Amateur

The J. Patrick Keenan Cup (Est. 2021) It wasn’t until 1961 that a Boys state championship was started for boys age 15 and younger, which has since been lowered to age 14. The initial trophy was called “The Ernest White Cup” after an old association friend, but was renamed the “J. Patrick Keenan Cup” in 2021 in honor of the former Executive Director and Past President, who was a dedicated promoter of junior golf across the state.

NYS Girls’ Junior Amateur

The Betty Deeley Trophy (Est. 1996) The original trophy was a handsome bowl generic to the Association. That first trophy was retired, and in 1996 the NYSGA introduced the “Betty Deeley Trophy”, a new modern trophy, named after the Association’s outstanding volunteer and chairperson of both the state Women’s and Girls’ Junior championships. The first winner of this new trophy was Christy Rittenhouse.

The original bowl has since been reinstated.

56 NYSGA 1923-2023

Ray Billows hoisting the Ganson Depew Cup after 1935 win at Winged Foot.

NYS Women’s Senior Amateur

The Anne Coupe Memorial Trophy (Est. 1996) The present Women’s Senior Amateur trophy is “The Anne Coupe Memorial Trophy” donated by her family and dedicated by the Association in honor of her many contributions to golf and society. Prior to 1996, all Women’s Senior champion names were engraved on a handsome silver tray, which was retired in honor of Jean Trainor, to the CC of Rochester where it originated. Trainor holds the state record for most victories in one tournament, winning the title nine times from 1968-1983.

NYS Men’s Senior Amateur The Bill Stark Bowl (Est. 1996)

The Men’s Senior began in 1940 at the Onondaga Golf & Country Club, where LeRoy C. Crim won the “Don M. Parker Memorial Trophy”, named after the NYSGA’s first secretary-treasurer and longest term of any president (19261935). The existing trophy is “The Bill Stark Bowl” named after past NYSGA President and long time Syracuse volunteer.

NYS Men’s Super Senior Amateur The Howard Sprague Trophy (Est. 1996)

The Men’s Super Senior for players ages 65 and older, started as a separate championship in 1996. Prior to that it was an age category award in the Senior Men’s event. “The Howard Sprague Trophy” named after a very notable Association member and Syracuse golfer.

NYS Men’s Mid-Amateur

The Robert Hogan Memorial Trophy (Est. 1984) The concept of the Mid-Amateur championship was originated by the USGA to provide for those players who were beyond their college golf years. The NYSGA Mid-Amateur began in 1984, and “The Robert Hogan Memorial Trophy” was named after the Association’s first full-time Executive Director during the 1970-80s.

57 NYSGA 1923-2023

NYSGA Golf Writers

T

he rich history of golf probably wouldn’t be as welldocumented as it is without the scores of writers who have covered the sport through the years.

From as far back as 1923 and the origin of the New York State Golf Association, newspapers from throughout the state have

Albany Times Union: Joyce Bassett, John Bonifacio,

Tom Cunningham, Pete Dougherty, Gene Fitz Patrick, Andy Iron, Johnny Jones, Ralph Martin, Joe Ravella, Lindy Strout

Albany Times Union, Knickerbocker News: Ron Armstrong, Bill Arsenault, Ben Danforth

Associated Press: Jim Munn, Marvin R. Pike Avon Herald News: Bert Falardeau Binghamton Press: Bill Hart, Harry Watts Jr., Mark Wren, Hal Yeglin

Brooklyn Daily Eagle: John Torenli Buffalo Courier-Express: Charley Barton,

Chip Draper, Mike Kanaley, Jack Laing, Harry Yorke

Buffalo Evening News: Mike Calandra, Jack Horrigan, Bob Stedler, Frank Wakefield

Buffalo News: Bob DiCesare, Mark Gaughan, Jay Skurski Buffalo Times, Buffalo Evening News:

extensively chronicled the players and events that have made golf what it is today.

The following list, which may not be all-encompassing but represents a significant faction, salutes the scribes who have reported on not only the NYSGA but local golf in general.

Middletown Times Herald-Record: Al DeSantis,

Ed Golemboski, Ralph Wimbish

Mount Vernon Daily Argus: Ralph Wimbish New Rochelle Standard-Star: Jim O’Toole New York Daily News: Hank Gola, Dana Mozley New York Herald Tribune: Al Laney New York Post: Mark Cannizzaro, Doug Gould,

Gene Roswell, Ralph Wimbish

New York Times: Dave Anderson, Kingsley Childs,

Arthur J. Daley, Larry Dorman, Bill Fields, Damon Hack, Maureen Orcutt, John Radosta, William D. Richardson, Michael Strauss, Lincoln A. Werden, Gordon S. White Jr., Alex Yannis

New York World Telegram and The Sun: Lawrence Robinson

Newburgh News: Bo Gill

Capital Area Golf: Frank Ciarlo, John Craig, Bob Weiner

Newsday: Mark Hermann, Jeff Williams Nyack Journal News: Howard Munck

CNY Golfer: Katharine Dyson, Perry Noun, Fran Piraino

Olean Times Herald: Chuck Pollock

Elmira Star-Gazette: Wayne Boucher, Frederick Box, J.

Peekskill Evening Star: Ray Lapolla

Gene Korzelius

Henry Brown, Ed Collins, Charlie Coon, Dave Edick, Mark Fleisher, Andrew Legare, Jim Limoncelli, Al Mallette, Jeff Murray, Larry Paltrowitz, Michael Sharp

Glens Falls Post-Star: Dave Nathan, Will Springstead,

Pete Tobey

Jamaica Daily Press: John Brennan Jamestown Post-Journal: Scott Kindberg, Jim Riggs Kingston Freeman: Rick Remsnyder, Mike Stribl,

Charles Tiano, Don Treat

Long Island Daily Press: John Brennan, Mike Lee Mamaroneck Daily Times: Marc Maturo Met Golfer: Alan Bastable, I. Martin Davis,

Dave Donelson, Helen Farrelly, Hank Gola, Tim Hartin, Jeanne McCooey, Greg Midland, Peter Morrice, Jay Mottola, Howard Munck, Jeff Neuman, Jimmy Roberts, Paul Rogers, Bill Quirin, Les Schupak, Nick Seitz, Chuck Stogel, Gene Westmoreland, Tony Wimpfheimer

58 NYSGA 1923-2023

Port Chester Daily Item: Arn Shein Poughkeepsie Journal:

John R. Flanagan, George A. Palmateer, Ed Rozell

Queens Chronicle: Ron Marzlock Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:

Brett Avery, George Beahon, Francis Cass, Jim Castor, Tony Destino, Dave Freeland, Bruce Koch, Frank Lillich, George R. Loves, Sal Maiorana, Paul Pinckney, Hans Tanner, Jack Tucker

Rochester GolfWeek: Dave Eaton Rochester Times-Union: Pat Burgess, Jean Giambrone Rockland Journal: Howard Munck Rome Sentinel: Todd Dewan, Dwayne Kroohs,

Kenny Kudrewicz, Steve Jones, Rich Haubert, Joe Silkowski, John Sturbin Jr., John Theall

Saratogian: Al Mottau

Schenectady Gazette: John Bonifacio, Lou Torre,

Bob Weiner

Schenectady Union Star: Bill Arsenault, Al DeSantis Staten Island Advance: Cormac Gordon, Stephen Hart, Annalise Knudson

Syracuse Herald-Journal: C.P. Smith,

Bud Vander Deer

Syracuse Herald-Journal, Herald American: Chuck Harty Syracuse Herald-Journal/Post-Standard: Bob Snyder, Joe Tesori Sr.

Syracuse Post-Standard: Gerry Ashe, Donna Ditota, Mike Holdridge, Pat Paddock, Bill Reddy, Chris Wagner, Rick Wheeler The American Golfer: Walter J. Travis Today Media: Dave Donelson Troy Record: John Craig, Mike Dyer, Don Hubicki Utica Daily Press, Observer-Dispatch: Chuck Stogel

Utica Observer-Dispatch: Cash Garvey,

Bill Higdon, Craig Horan, Jan Huston, Pat Malin

Westchester Journal News: Guido Cribari, Mike

Dougherty, Rick Remsnyder, Jimmy Roberts, Chuck Stogel, Sam Weinman

Westchester Magazine: Dan Berger Westchester Rockland Newspapers:

Frederick Box NYSGA Historian (served 1989 - 2006)

F

rederick Box was an integral part of the New York State Golf Association for many years as the association’s historian. Prior to his years with the NYSGA, he was a writer and editor for over 40 years for the Elmira newspapers with service in Corning and Hornell.

Invited to join the NYSGA after his retirement, he was its first historian, wrote the comprehensive history of the organization and was the principal newsletter writer. In 2006, he was recognized for these efforts by being presented a plaque and designated historian-emeritus for perpetuity.

Later, a media intern at the NYSGA was established in his name.

He continued writing a column for the NYSGA eNews until the age of 91 where he finally passed the torch to the current historian, John Blain.

Newspapers He Worked for Prior to Joining the NYSGA:

• •

Elmira Star Gazette (Elmira, N.Y.) Gannett News (Hornell, N.Y.)

Frederick passed away in 2014.

Al Bamberger Jr., Bob Glauber, Al Mari, Larry Weisman

White Plains Reporter Dispatch:

Ed Croke, Bill Glauber, Bob Oatway, David Kaminer

59 NYSGA 1923-2023

NYSGA Records NYS Men’s Amateur – Championship Records Match Play Format (1923–1969, 1992–2008) Stroke Play Format (1970–1991, 2009–2023)

Winner of NYS Men’s Amateur and NYS Junior Amateur

Most Times Hosted by a Member Club

Dominic Bozzelli (2007 Junior; 2011, 2012 Men’s Amateur)

6–Oak Hill Country Club (1927, 1931, 1937, 1945, 1987, 2011) 6–Yahnundasis Golf Club (1946, 1953, 1958, 1968, 1988, 2007) 4–Country Club of Troy (1941, 1959, 1984, 2006) 4–Elmira Country Club (1957, 1969, 1983, 2012) 3–Dutchess Golf and Country Club (1956, 1972, 1997) 3–Albany Country Club (1977, 1990, 2010) 3–Bellevue Country Club (1936, 1975, 2014) 3–Knollwood Country Club (1951, 1963, 1986) 3–Moon Brook Country Club (1955, 1978, 1995)

Mark Balen (1973 Junior; 1979 Men’s Amateur) Terry Diehl (1966 Junior; 1969 Men’s Amateur) Tommy Goodwin (1932, 1933 Junior; 1932, 1936, 1946, 1953 Men’s Amateur) John Konsek (1957 Junior; 1958, 1959, 1960 Men’s Amateur) Leonard Lasinsky (1983 Junior; 1991 Men’s Amateur) Yaroslav Merkulov (2008, 2009 Junior; 2009 Men’s Amateur) Nick Raasch (1965 Junior; 1966 Men’s Amateur) Ben Reichert (2015 Junior; 2019 Men’s Amateur) Matthew Stasiak (2005 Junior; 2014 Men’s Amateur)

3–Onondaga Golf and Country Club (1940, 1961, 2022)

Radford Yaun (1972 Junior; 1976 Men’s Amateur)

Most Victories

Winner of NYS Men’s Amateur and Junior Amateur in Same Year

7–Ray Billows (1935, 1937, 1940, 1941, 1943, 1945, 1949) 6–Donald Allen (1961, 1963, 1964, 1970, 1972, 1973)

Tommy Goodwin (1932)

4–Tommy Goodwin (1932, 1936, 1946, 1953)

Yaroslav Merkulov (2009)

3–Edmund Driggs (1923, 1933, 1934)

Youngest Champion

3–John Konsek (1958, 1959, 1960) 3–Billy Shields (1951, 1952, 1955) 3–William Tryon (1962, 1965, 1968)

17–Nick Raasch (1966) 17–Yaroslav Merkulov (2009) 17–Will Thomson (2018)

Consecutive Victories

*difference of months/days

3–John Konsek (1958, 1959, 1960)

Oldest Champion

2–Don Allen (1963, 1964) 2–Don Allen (1972, 1973) 2–Ray Billows (1940, 1941) 2–Dominic Bozzelli (2011, 2012) 2–Edmund Driggs (1933, 1934) 2–Kyle Hess (2002, 2003) 2–Billy Shields (1951, 1952) 2–Tim Straub (1987, 1988)

44–Joe Gagliardi (1956)

Widest Margin of Victory (During Match Play Era) 13 and 12–Kevin Haefner def. Dan Ricci (2001) 13 and 11–Joe Ruszas def. Steve Doctor (1944) 11 and 10–Dirk Ayers def. Jason Piurkowski (1995)

Longest Championship Match (During Match Play Era) 39 Holes–Ray Billows def. John Ward (1949)

Highest Winning Total (72 Holes) 298 (+10)–Donald Allen (1973) 292 (+8)–Alan Foster (1975) 295 (+7)–George Burns (1974)

60 NYSGA 1923-2023

MISC. Records Lowest Winning Total (72 Holes) 277 (-11)–Dominic Bozzelli (2012)

NYS Amateur Champions to also win a USGA Title U.S. Amateur

280 (-9)–Joey Sindelar (1980)

2–Willie Turnesa (1938, 1948)

280 (-8)–James Allen (2021)

1–Dick Chapman (1940)

Lowest Consecutive Rounds

1–Sam Urzetta (1950)

270 (-14)–Charlie Berridge (2022)

65, 67–Charlie Berridge (2022)

U.S. Women’s Amateur

65, 66–Jason Lohwater (2022)

1–Helen Hicks (1931)

66, 67–Jeff Sluman (1980) 66, 67–Jeffrey Peck (1992) 66, 68–Ben Reichert (2021)

Lowest Final Round by Champion 66–James Allen (2021)

U.S. Open 1–Dick Meyer (1957)

U.S. Junior 1–Tim Straub (1983)

67–Mark Balen (1979)

U.S. Girls Junior

67–Dominic Bozzelli (2012)

1–Gail Sykes (1965)

67–Will Thomson (2018)

1–Elizabeth “Doll” Story (1967)

Most Runner-up Finishes

U.S. Mid-Am

4–Ray Billows (1936, 1942, 1946, 1952)

1–George Zahringer (2002)

3–Donald Allen (1962, 1965, 1974)

U.S. Senior Am

3–Tommy Goodwin (1937, 1938, 1955) 3–Robert Hughes (1982, 1985, 2000)

1–Bob Royak (2019)

3–John Ward (1949, 1956, 1958)

USGA Runner-ups

2–Chris Blyth (2018, 2019)

3–Ray Billows–U.S. Amateur (1937, 1939, 1948)

2–Andrew DiBitetto (2004, 2007)

1–Philip Perkins–U.S. Amateur (1928)

2–Ralph Howe III (1987, 1988)

1–Joe Gagliardi–U.S. Amateur (1951)

2–Jake Katz (2010, 2011)

1–Cathy Morse–U.S. Girls Junior (1972)

2–Charlie Murphy (1977, 1985)

1–Mary Lawrence–U.S. Girls Junior (1973)

2–Dr. Edward O’Keefe (1964, 1968)

1–Tom Scherrer–U.S. Amateur (1992)

2–Lloyd Ribner (1948, 1950)

1–George Zahringer–U.S. Mid-Am (2001)

Longest Match 39 Holes–Ray Billows def. Johnny Ward (1949)

Most Masters Appearances 3–Donald Allen (1965, 1966, 1967) 2–Ray Billows (1939, 1940)

Most Walker Cup Appearances 2–Donald Allen (1965, 1967) 2–Ray Billows (1938, 1949) 2–Sam Urzetta (1951, 1953)

1–Tim Spitz–U.S. Mid-Am (2009) 1–Derek Bard–U.S. Amateur (2015)

NYS Amateur Champions to win PGA Championship 1955–Doug Ford, NYS Junior Am (1940, 1942) 1988–Jeff Sluman, NYS Amateur (1978)

NYS Amateur Champions to win Masters Tournament 1957–Doug Ford, NYS Junior Am (1940, 1942)

61 NYSGA 1923-2023

NYSGA Records NYS Women’s Amateur – Championship Records Match Play Format (1930–1953, 1956–2008) Stroke Play Format (1954–1955, 2009–Present) Most Times Hosted by a Member Club 4–Yahnundasis Golf Club (1932, 1950, 1977, 2018) 4–Whiteface Inn GC (1959, 1963, 1966, 1968) 3–Lake Placid Club (1942, 1943, 1944) 3–McGregor Links Country Club (1974, 1987, 2022)

15–Kyra Cox (2015) 15–Kennedy Swedick (2022) 15–Dottie Pepper (1981)

Widest Margin of Victory (During Match Play Era) 1969–Lancy Smith def. Stephanie Simmons (14 and 12) 1977–Mary Lawrence def. Connie McCarthy 13 and 12)

3–Onondaga Golf and Country Club (1937, 1948, 1949)

1947–Ruth Torgerson def. Hilda Swanson ( 12 and 11)

3–Schuyler Meadows Club (1955, 1976, 2017)

Longest Championship Match (During Match Play Era)

3–Drumlins Country Club (1971, 1988, 2009)

Most Victories 5–Ruth Torgerson (1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950) 4–Margaret Nevil (1958, 1959, 1960, 1962) 3–Barbara Bruning (1951, 1952, 1954) 3–Kyra Cox (2015, 2018, 2021) 3–Danielle Downey (1999, 2000, 2001) 3–Moira Dunn (1992, 1993, 1994) 3–Helen Hicks (1930, 1931, 1933) 3–Christy (Rittenhouse) Schultz (2007, 2008, 2009) 3–Lancy Smith (1966, 1969, 1970) 3–Dianne Wilde (1965, 1971, 1973)

Consecutive Victories

1982–Mary Anne Widman def. Jamie DeWeese (38 holes) 1978–Cindy Kessler def. Paula Slivinsky (37 holes)

Highest Winning Total (72 Holes) 224 (+11)–Christine Schmitt (2014) 226 (+10)–Victoria DeGroodt (2011)

Lowest Winning Total (72 Holes) 207 (-9)–Kennedy Swedick (2022) 216 (-3)–Kyra Cox (2021) 217 (-3)–Marianna Monaco (2017)

Lowest Consecutive Rounds 67, 71–Kennedy Swedick (2022)

5–Ruth Torgerson (1946-50)

Lowest Final Round by Champion

3–Margaret Nevil (1958-60)

69–Kennedy Swedick (2022)

3–Moira Dunn (1992-94)

69–Marianna Monaco (2017)

3–Danielle Downey (1999-2001)

Winner of NYS Women’s Amateur and NYS Girls’ Junior Dottie Pepper (Both in 1981) Cathy Morse (Girls’–1972, Women’s–1974) Sara Jane Stuhler (Girls’–1969, ‘70, Women’s–1975) Lise Ann Russell (Girls’–1978, Women’s–1979) Mary Lawrence (Girls’, 1973, ‘74, Women’s, 1977) Moira Dunn (Girls’–1989, Women’s–1992-95) Sally Dee (Girls’–1988, Women’s–1991) Lisa Brandetsas (Girls’–1985, 1986, Women’s–1990)

Winner of NYS Women’s Amateur and Junior Amateur in Same Year Dottie Pepper (1981)

Youngest Champion 13–Megan Grehan (2002)

62 NYSGA 1923-2023

Most Runner-up Finishes 4–Virginia (Guilfoil) Allen (1945, 1951, 1955, 1959, 1961) 3–Ruth Torgerson (1944, 1952, 1957)

Most Curtis Cup Selections 4–Lancy Smith (1978, 1980, 1982, 1984)

Biggest Field Size 142 entries in 1949 at Onondaga G&CC Kellie Stenzel, Dottie Pepper and NYSGA’s Betty Deeley at 1982 NYS Girls’ Junior at Pompey Club.

NYSGA Past Champions Men's Amateur Champions

Women's Amateur Champions

Boys' Junior Amateur Champions

Girls' Junior Amateur Champions

Year 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Year 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Year 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 -45 1946 -55 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007* 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Year 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007* 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Host Club Winner Garden City CC Edmund Driggs, Jr., Garden City Orchard Park GC Lee Chase, Buffalo Lido CC Jack Mackie Jr., Inwood McGregor Links CC Al Brodbeck, Bronxville Oak Hill CC Arthur Yates, Rochester Biltmore CC (West) George Dawson, Harrison Mohawk CC Maurice McCarthy, Mt. Vernon Lakeville CC Jack Mackie Jr., Inwood Oak Hill CC Phil Perkins, Fox Hills Niagara Falls CC Tommy Goodwin, Rye Garden City CC Edmund Driggs, Jr., Garden City Sagamore GC Edmund Driggs, Jr., Garden City Winged Foot (West) Ray Billows, Poughkeepsie Bellevue CC Tommy Goodwin, Rye Oak Hill CC Ray Billows, Poughkeepsie Quaker Ridge GC Willie Turnesa, Elmsford Siwanoy CC Richard Chapman, Larchmont Onondaga G&CC Ray Billows, Poughkeepsie CC of Troy Ray Billows, Poughkeepsie Niagara Falls CC Alex Stevenson, Niagara Falls Lake Placid Club Ray Billows, Poughkeepsie Lake Placid Club Joe Ruszas, Albany Oak Hill CC Ray Billows, Poughkeepsie Yahnundasis CC Tommy Goodwin, Rye Westchester CC Richard Mayer, White Plains Brookfield CC Sam Urzetta, Rochester Syracuse Yacht & CC Ray Billows, Poughkeepsie Binghamton CC Mike Dudik, Endicott Knollwood CC Billy Shields, Albany Wolfert's Roost CC Billy Shields, Albany Yahnundasis CC Tommy Goodwin, Rye Fairview CC Robert Monk, White Plains Moon Brook CC Billy Shields, Albany Dutchess G&CC Joe Gagliardi, Larchmont Elmira CC Jack Veghte, Gloversville Yahnundasis CC John Konsek, Buffalo CC of Troy John Konsek, Buffalo Locust Hill CC John Konsek, Buffalo Onondaga G&CC Don Allen, Rochester Glens Falls CC William Tryon, Elmira Knollwood CC Don Allen, Rochester Leatherstocking GC Don Allen, Rochester Lancaster CC William Tryon, Elmira Nick Raasch, Syracuse The Concord Course Nassau CC John Baldwin, Plandome Yahnundasis GC William Tryon, Elmira Elmira CC Terry Diehl, Rochester Locust Hill CC Don Allen, Rochester Cavalry Club Mike Slipko, Niagara Falls Dutchess G&CC Don Allen, Rochester The Concord Course Don Allen, Rochester Wayne Hills CC George Burns, Jericho Bellevue CC Alan Foster, Syracuse Grossinger's CC Radford Yaun, Jamestown Albany CC Rich Serian, Troy Moon Brook CC Jeff Sluman, Rochester Drumlins CC (East) Mark Balen, East Aurora Vestal Hills CC Joey Sindelar, Horseheads Wanakah CC James Roy, Syracuse McGregor Links CC David Boeff, Ontario Elmira CC William Boland, Jr., Troy CC of Troy George Zahringer, Sands Point Ridgemont CC Christopher Lane, Binghamton Knollwood CC Jay Gunning, Colonie Oak Hill CC (East) Tim Straub, East Aurora Yahundasis GC Tim Straub, East Aurora Vestal Hills CC Tim Marsh, Endicott Albany CC Joe Wilson, Rochester Brook-Lea CC Leonard Lasinsky, Syracuse Drumlins CC (East) Todd Dischinger, Syracuse Seven Oaks GC Jeffrey Peck, Clifton Springs Cobblestone Creek CC David Bonacchi, Rochester Moon Brook CC Dirk Ayers, Jamestown Links at Hiawatha GC Michael Valicenti, Elmira Dutchess G&CC Greg Rohlf, New Rochelle Pinehaven CC Bryan Smith, Kingston Wanakah CC John Gaffney, Buffalo Monroe GC Michael Valicenti, Elmira Seven Oaks GC Kevin Haefner, Rochester Transit Valley CC Kyle Hess, Buffalo Ravenwood GC Kyle Hess, Buffalo Wiltwyck GC Matt Thomas, Blasdell Ontario GC James Scorse, Churchville CC of Troy Andrew DiBitetto, Rochester Yahnundasis CC John Duthie, Lansing Pinehaven CC Jeff Wolniewicz, West Seneca Ravenwood GC Yaroslav Merkulov, Penfield Albany CC Doug Kleeschulte, Kingston Oak Hill CC (West) Dominic Bozzelli, Pittsford Elmira CC Dominic Bozzelli, Pittsford Schuyler Meadows Club Matt Stasiak, Clarence Bellevue CC Luke Feehan, Carmel Kaluhyat GC Trevor Sluman, Rochester Mohawk GC Tyler McArdell, Baldwinsville Bethpage Black Adam Condello, Fairport Irondequoit CC Will Thomson, Pittsford Crag Burn GC Ben Reichert, East Amherst Suspended for COVID-19 pandemic Schuyler Meadows Club James Allen, Scarsdale Onondaga G&CC Charlie Berridge, Scarsdale

Host Club Winner Oak Hill CC Helen L. Hicks, Hewlett Lido CC Helen L. Hicks, Hewlett Yahnundasis GC Peggy Wattles, Hamburg Plandome CC Helen L. Hicks, Hewlett Hotel Champlain Course Sylvia Leichner, Lido Lakeview CC Sylvia Leichner, Lido Mohawk GC Jean E. Bauer, Providence, RI Onondaga G&CC Marion Turpie (Lake), Plandome Cherry Valley CC Ruth May, Inwood Oak Hill CC Peggy Delahant, Albany CC of Troy Marjorie Harrison, Ausable Forks Siwanoy CC Virginia M. Guilfoil (Allen), Syracuse Lake Placid Club Grace M. Amory (Ryan), Locust Valley Lake Placid Club Kay Byrne, Rye Lake Placid Club Marjorie Harrison, Ausable Forks Briar Hills GC Kay Byrne, Rye Cherry Valley CC Ruth Torgerson, Garden City Leewood CC Ruth Torgerson, Garden City Onondaga G&CC Ruth Torgerson, Garden City Onondaga G&CC Ruth Torgerson, Garden City Yahnundasis GC Ruth Torgerson, Garden City Leewood CC Barbara Bruning, Armonk Binghamton CC Barbara Bruning, Armonk Hempstead G&CC Roslyn Swift (Berger), Old Westbury Saranac Lake Club Barbara Bruning, Armonk Schuyler Meadows Club Naomi A. Venable, Poughkeepsie Cortland CC Naomi A. Venable, Poughkeepsie Briar Hall CC Judy Frank, Purchase Leatherstocking GC Margaret Nevil, Cooperstown Whiteface Inn GC Margaret Nevil, Cooperstown Glens Falls CC Margaret Nevil, Cooperstown Niagara Falls CC Gail Purdy, Glens Falls Leatherstocking GC Margaret Nevil, Cooperstown Whiteface Inn GC Gail Purdy, Glens Falls Dutchess G&CC Mrs. Albert B. Brower, Pelham Corning CC Dianne Wilde, Amsterdam Whiteface Inn GC Lancy Smith, Williamsville The Park Club Roslyn Swift Berger, Amherst Whiteface Inn GC Elizabeth Story, New Hartford CC of Rochester Lancy Smith, Williamsville Colonie G&CC Lancy Smith, Williamsville Drumlins CC (East) Dianne Wilde, Amsterdam Cedar Lake Club Darcy Lepir, Hamburg CC of Ithaca Dianne Wilde, Amsterdam McGregor Links CC Cathy Morse, Rochester Corning CC Sara Jane Stuhler, Amsterdam Schuyler Meadows Club Cathy Morse, Rochester Yahnundasis GC Mary Lawrence, Canton Teugega CC Cindy Kessler, Orchard Park Monroe GC Lise Anne Russell, New City Foxfire GC Mary Jo Kelly, Albany Rome CC Dottie Pepper, Saratoga Springs Ives Hill CC Mary Anne Widman, Elmira Seven Oaks CC Mary Anne Widman, Elmira St. Lawrence CC Kathy Hart, New York Mills Oneonta CC Kellie Stenzel, Lyons Brook-Lea CC Jamie DeWeese, Rochester McGregor Links CC Penne Nieporte-Bollaci, Mamaroneck Drumlins CC (East) Jean Bartholomew, Garden City McConnellsville GC Tiffany Maurycy, Schenectady Sodus Bay Heights CC Lisa Brandetsas, Rochester Tuscarora GC Sally Dee, Syracuse Oneonta CC Moira Dunn, Utica Stafford CC Moira Dunn, Utica Centerpointe CC Moira Dunn, Utica Ives Hill CC Eve Marie Lux, Poughkeepsie McConnellsville CC Gail Flanagan, Rye River Oaks CC Gail Flanagan, Rye St. Andrews GC Sara Doell, Webster Kingswood GC Danielle Downey, Rochester Ontario GC Danielle Downey, Rochester Cortland CC Danielle Downey, Rochester Pinehaven CC Megan Grehan, Mamaroneck Oswego CC Megan Grehan, Mamaroneck Robert Trent Jones GC Christy Rittenhouse, Pavilion Gowanda GC Maggie Lester, Oswego Nevele Grande Resort Maggie Lester, Oswego Oneida Community GC Christy Schultz, Rochester Wayne Hills CC Christy Schultz, Rochester Drumlins CC (East) Kristina Wong, Vestal Sodus Bay Heights GC Rene Sobolewski, Williamsville Rome CC Victoria DeGroodt, Walden Seneca Falls CC Ellen Oswald, Westchester CC of Ithaca Jenna Hoecker, Rochester Dutchess G&CC Christine Schmitt, Pittsford Tuscarora GC Kyra Cox, South Salem Elmira CC Bailey Cocca, Latham Schuyler Meadows Club Marianna Monaco, Yonkers Yahnundasis GC Kyra Cox, South Salem Lancaster CC Jennifer Rosenberg, Laurel Hollow Suspended for COVID-19 pandemic Teugega CC Kyra Cox, South Salem McGregor Links CC Kennedy Swedick, Albany

Host Club Winner Onondaga G&CC Hamilton W. Wright. Garden City Siwanoy CC Tommy Goodwin, Rye CC of Troy Tommy Goodwin, Rye Orchard Park CC Billy Ward, Syracuse Siwanoy CC Jack Creavy, Tuckahoe Seawane Club Alick Gerard, Southampton St. Andrew’s GC Charles C. Pettijohn, Jr., Rye Schuyler Meadows CC Guy Berner, Hamburg Lakeshore Yacht & CC Ted Welgoss, Auburn Sleepy Hollow CC Douglas Ford, Harrison Bellevue CC John Ward, Syracuse Briar Hills CC Doug Ford, Harrison Bellevue CC George M. Stuhr, Garden City Suspended for WWII Run under other auspices Bellevue CC E. Stewart Wallace Jr., Ithaca Wanakah CC John P. Konsek III, Buffalo Oak Hill CC Curt Siegel, Snyder Garden City GC John McCleary, Amsterdam Elmira CC Marc Yahn, East Amherst CC of Troy Peter Famiano, Schenectady Niagara Falls CC Ronald A. Philo, Ballston Spa Bellevue CC Carl DiCesare, Rochester Cornell University GC Craig Luther, Buffalo Briar Hill G&CC Nick Raasch, Syracuse Moon Brook CC Terry Diehl, Rochester Colonie G&CC Neil Spitalny, Colonie Lancaster CC E. J. Cardish, Jr., Troy Nottingham Knolls Billy Gormley Jr., Ballston Spa Cornell University GC Tom Street, Buffalo Seven Oaks GC Don Kalode, Liverpool Moon Brook CC Radford Yaun, Liberty Soaring Eagles GC Mark Balen, Hamburg Binghamton CC Dan Marlowe, Binghamton Stafford CC James Gridley Jr., Syracuse Lancaster CC David Boeff, Ontario Elmira CC Gary Battisoni Jr., East Aurora Seven Oaks GC John Ryan Jr., Rochester Soaring Eagles GC Bob Royak, Guilderland Winding Brook CC Alan Schulte, Oneonta Stafford CC Kyle Gay, Clarence Clifton Springs CC Eric Manning, Cortland Soaring Eagles GC Leonard Lasinsky, Syracuse Dutchess G&CC Daniel Wilkinson III, Cicero Wayne Hills CC Jerry Springer, Purchase Winding Brook CC Thomas C. Scherrer, Skaneateles Teugega CC Rick Spiehs, Marathon Ives Hill CC Brett Fulford, Jamestown Ontario GC Tim Larsen, Seneca Falls Seneca Lakes CC Shane Barrett, New York Mills Bristol Harbour GC Joshua Cupp, Rome Albany CC Anthony Occhipinti, Rome Wellsville CC Tim Kennedy, LeRoy Oswego CC Kyle Dwyer, Walden Shorewood CC Tim Myers, Syracuse Ridgemont CC Timothy Smith, East Aurora Shaker Ridge CC Ben Bates, Schenectady Vestal Hills CC Jonathan Bump, Apalachin Drumlins CC (East) Ben Eldridge, Ballston Spa Wellsville CC Dennis Gosier, Saratoga Springs Caledonia CC Marco Poccia, Saratoga Springs Glens Falls CC David May, Auburn Tuscarora GC David May, Auburn McConnellsville GC Alex Park, Ithaca Centerpointe CC Matthew Stasiak, Clarence Drumlins CC (East) Donald DeNyse III, Albany Mark Twain GC Dominic Bozzelli, Pittsford Oneonta CC Yaroslav Merkulov, Penfield Skaneateles CC Yaroslav Merkulov, Penfield CC of Mendon Josh Holling, Horseheads McGregor Links CC James Blackwell, North Tonawanda Mark Twain GC Gavin Hall, Pittsford Skaneateles CC Conor Raeman, Canandaigua Ridgemont CC Andrew Fedele, Rochester Cedar Lake Club Ben Reichert, East Amherst Seven Oaks GC Christian Chapman, Victor Seven Oaks GC Jude Cummings, Pittsford Seven Oaks GC Luke Sample, New York Seven Oaks GC Luke Sample, New York Suspended for COVID-19 pandemic Seven Oaks GC Anthony Delisanti, Sanborn Soaring Eagles GC Jack Berl, Victor

Host Club Winner Monroe GC Carolyn Ploysa, Lancaster Lakeshore Yacht & CC Gail Sykes, Ballston Spa Teugega CC Debbie Austin, Rome Stafford CC Doll Story, Clayville Seven Oaks GC Doll Story, Clayville Drumlins CC (East) Wendy Hodgson, McConnellsville Antlers CC Sara Jane Stuhler, Amsterdam Locust Hill CC Sara Jane Stuhler, Amsterdam Gowanda CC Mary Pat Kircher, Rochester Irondequoit CC Cathy Morse, Rochester CC of Ithaca Mary Lawrence, Canton Teugega CC Mary Lawrence, Canton Seven Oaks GC Cynthia Pietrusik, Lackawanna McConnellsville GC Cynthia Pietrusik, Lackawanna St. Lawrence G&CC Kathy Lawrence, Canton Ives Hill CC Lise Ann Russell, New City McConnellsville GC Pamela Darmstadt, Mamaroneck Cedar Lake Club Jamie DeWeese, Rochester Oswego CC Dottie Pepper, Saratoga Springs Pompey Club Kellie Stenzel, Geneva McConnellsville GC Dottie Pepper, Saratoga Springs Teugega CC Suzy McGuire, Fayetteville Cortland CC Lisa Brandetsas, Rochester Cedar Lake GC Lisa Brandetsas, Rochester Sodus Bay Heights GC Allison Greer, Millbrook Seven Oaks GC Sally Dee, Syracuse Corning CC Moira Dunn, Utica Oneida Community GC Julie Brand, Alder Creek Oswego CC Julie Brand, Alder Creek Dutchess G&CC Holly Turton, Ithaca Clifton Springs CC Kerri Murphy, Amsterdam CC of Ithaca Kerri Murphy, Amsterdam Oneida Community GC Kerri Murphy, Amsterdam Mohawk GC Christy Rittenhouse, Caledonia Gowanda CC Christy Rittenhouse, Caledonia Vestal Hills CC Meaghan Francella, Rye Drumlins CC (East) Meaghan Francella, Rye Wellsville CC Nannette Hill, Pelham Manor Caledonia CC Nannette Hill, Pelham Manor Glens Falls CC Nannette Hill, Pelham Manor Tuscarora GC Tessa Teachman, Webster McConnellsvile GC Kristina Wong, Vestal Centerpointe CC Anna Cho, West Nyack Katelynn Mannix, Glens Falls Drumlins CC (East) Mark Twain GC Carly Bergin, Binghamton Oneonta CC Suzie Lee, East Northport Skaneateles CC Bailey Cocca, Latham CC of Mendon Bailey Cocca, Latham McGregor Links CC Nicole Morales, South Salem Mark Twain GC Danielle Fuss, Rochester Skaneateles CC Alexis Hios, Rye Ridgemont CC Marah Penn, Hamburg Cedar Lake Club Maren Cipolla, Lewiston Seven Oaks GC Lindsay May, Auburn Seven Oaks GC Bailey Shoemaker, West Edmeston Seven Oaks GC Bailey Shoemaker, West Edmeston Seven Oaks GC Bailey Shoemaker, West Edmeston Suspended for COVID-19 pandemic Seven Oaks GC Julia Zigrossi, Spencerport Soaring Eagles GC Sophia Li, New York

63 NYSGA 1923-2023

NYSGA Past Champions continued Boy's Sub-Junior Amateur Champions

Men's Mid-Amateur Champions

Men's Senior Amateur Champions

Women's Senior Amateur Champions

Year 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007* 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Year 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Year Host Club Winner 1940 Onondaga G&CC LeRoy C. Crim, Binghamton 1941 CC of Troy Sherrill Sherman, Utica 1942 Niagara Falls CC Duane L. Tower, Niagara Falls 1943 Lake Placid Club F. R. Ryan, Roslyn, L.G. 1944 Lake Placid Club Duane L. Tower, Niagara Falls 1945 Oak Hill CC (East) Duane L. Tower, Niagara Falls 1946 Yahnundasis GC Duane L. Tower, Niagara Falls 1947 Westchester CC Jack A. Ahern, Hamburg 1948 Brookfield CC William B. Stark, Syracuse 1949 Lakeshore Yacht & CC Noble Miller, Canandaigua 1950 Binghamton CC Ted Stacy, Binghamton 1951 Knollwood CC Al Manginnes, Elmsford 1952 Oak Hill CC (East) Ed Randall, Rochester 1953-69 Run under other auspices 1970 Lake Placid Club Jack Hendry, Syracuse 1971 Concord Course Jack Hendry, Syracuse 1972 Leatherstocking GC Burt Kling, Rochester 1973 River Oaks GC Ed Walsh, Fulton 1974 Grossinger's CC Ray Billows, Poughkeepsie 1975 En-Joie GC Burt Kling, Rochester 1976 McGregor Links CC Jack Creavy, Tuckahoe 1977 Skaneateles CC John Simonaitis, DeWitt 1978 McGregor Links CC Anthony Maragno, Gloversville 1979 Dutchess G&CC William Bogle, Poughkeepsie 1980 Briar Hill CC William Bogle, Poughkeepsie 1981 Oneonta CC Don Martin, Buffalo 1982 Corning CC Robert Hoff, Rochester 1983 Onondaga G&CC William Bogle, Poughkeepsie 1984 Deerfield CC Robert Hoff, Rochester 1985 Moon Brook CC Jack Klink, Syracuse 1986 Edison Club Jack Hoff, Rochester 1987 Cortland CC Robert Hoff, Rochester 1988 Stafford CC Gerald Perkins, LeRoy 1989 Elmira CC Gerald Perkins, LeRoy 1990 Teugega CC Robert Gunnell, Jamestown 1991 Ontario GC Gerald Perkins, LeRoy 1992 Wellsville CC Gerald Perkins, LeRoy 1993 Bellevue CC Robert Gunnell, Jamestown 1994 Blue Heron Hills GC Don Allen, Rochester 1995 Colonie G&CC John Pretak, Poughkeepsie 1996 Westwood CC Don Allen, Rochester 1997 Cedar Lake Club Don Allen, Rochester 1998 Midvale CC James Infantino, Rochester 1999 Stafford CC James Infantino, Rochester 2000 McConnellsville GC Charles Connolly, Queensbury 2001 Niagara Falls CC John Baldwin, New York 2002 Powelton Club Alan Foster, Manlius 2003 Normanside CC Richard Couch, Oneonta 2004 Lakeshore CC Michael Daniels, Albany 2005 Vestal Hills CC Larry Gresham, Conklin 2006 Lafayette CC Donald Van Gorder, Ithaca 2007 Powelton Club Ron Bayer, Newburgh 2008 Normanside CC Charles Connolly, Queensbury 2009 Stafford CC Matthew Haefele, Bergen 2010 Wayne Hills CC Charles Connolly, Queensbury 2011 Vestal Hills CC David Benedict, Honeoye Falls 2012 Wolferts Roost CC Steve Nosonowicz, Pleasant Valley 2013 Normanside CC Frank Broderick, East Aurora 2014 Cedar Lake Club Frank Plata, Cazenovia 2014 Onondaga G&CC Tom Fletcher, Syracuse 2016 Brookfield CC Paul Pratico, Schenectady 2017 Crag Burn GC Dave Prowler, Manhasset 2018 Mohawk GC Robert Hughes, Watertown 2019 Cavalry Club Daniel Russo, Hagaman

Year 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Host Club Winner Wanakah GC Leon Kantor, New York Mills Oak Hill CC Fred Kucker, Rochester Garden City GC Billy Snyder, Troy Elmira CC Pete Roby, Rochester CC of Troy Ronald Philo, Ballston Spa Niagara Falls CC Joseph Banazek, Syracuse Bellevue CC John Govern, Binghamton Cornell University GC Terry Diehl, Rochester Briar Hall G&CC William Harmon, Mamaroneck Moon Brook CC Richard Serian, Troy Colonie CC Peter Kern, Glen Cove Lancaster CC Don Kalode, Liverpool Drumlins CC (East) Bob Steele, Fredonia Cornell University GC Terrence O'Brien, Rochester Seven Oaks GC Joey Sindelar, Horseheads Moon Brook CC Dan Delekta, Rome Soaring Eagles GC Dan Tzivanis, Binghamton Binghamton CC Ted Brodzik, Lancaster Stafford CC John Wanish, Cortland Lancaster CC Harold Girdlestone, Hyde Park Elmira CC David Bartholic, Schenectady Seven Oaks GC Kevin Burnsworth, Oneonta Soaring Eagles GC Jamie Ungerland, Elmira Heights Winding Brook GC Ed Pfister, East Aurora Stafford CC G.C. Kling, Rochester Clifton Springs CC Tony Hejna, East Aurora Soaring Eagles GC Dan Vona, Dunkirk Dutchess G&CC Tommy Nixon, Rochester Wayne Hills CC Tommy Nixon, Rochester Winding Brook CC Tom Kircher, Pittsford Teugega CC Jonathon Doctor, Skaneateles Ives Hill CC Greg Albrecht, Endicott Ontario GC Tim Rose, Endicott Seneca Lakes CC Anthony Occhipinti, Rome Bristol Harbour GC Dan Myers, Skaneateles Albany CC Tim Kennedy, LeRoy Wellsville CC Marty Mills, LeRoy Oswego CC Kevin Haefner, East Henrietta Shorewood CC Brendan Sheeran, Niagara Falls Ridgemont CC Stephen Tokarz, Rochester Shaker Ridge CC Marco Poccia, Saratoga Springs Vestal Hills CC Dennis Gosier, Saratoga Springs Drumlins CC (East) Teddy Collins, Manlius Billy Hanes, East Aurora Wellsville CC Caledonia CC Nick Park, Ithaca Glens Falls CC Nick Park, Ithaca Tuscarora GC Matt Canavan, Saratoga Springs McConnellsville GC Peter Creighton, Kenmore Centerpointe CC Dominic Bozzelli, Pittsford Drumlins CC (East) Yaroslav Merkulov, Penfield Mark Twain GC Joe Drummond, Pittsford Oneonta CC Gavin Hall, Pittsford Skaneateles CC Gavin Hall, Pittsford CC of Mendon Henry Sandlas V, Seneca Falls McGregor Links CC Alec Bard, New Hartford Mark Twain GC Alec Bard, New Hartford Skaneateles CC Will Thomson, Pittsford Ridgemont CC Will Thomson, Pittsford Cedar Lake Club Jeremy Summerson, Victor Seven Oaks GC Jude Cummings, Pittsford Seven Oaks GC Luke Sample, New York Seven Oaks GC Anthony Maglisco, Westhill Seven Oaks GC Charlie Fischer, Orchard Park Suspended for COVID-19 pandemic Seven Oaks GC Jacob Olearczyk, Barnevald Soaring Eagles GC Jacob Olearczyk, Barnevald

Host Club Winner Glens Falls CC Charles Murphy, Albany Drumlins CC (East) Don Allen, Rochester Crag Burn GC Ken Andrychuk, Clifton Springs CC of Rochester Don Allen, Rochester Wolferts Roost CC Bruce Aubin, Poughkeepsie Bellevue CC Tom Flynn, Syracuse Dutchess G&CC Steve Nosonowitz, Poughkeepsie Brookfield CC John Baldwin, New York City Bristol Harbour GC Alan Foster, Manlius McGregor Links CC Cliff Earle, Saratoga Springs Wayne Hills CC David Benedict, Rochester Ontario GC Alan Foster, Manlius Normanside CC Mike May, Auburn Elmira CC Michael Valicenti, Elmira Yahnundasis GC Luke Hobika, Utica Crag Burn GC Jim Roy, Syracuse Bellevue CC Tim Hume, Williamsville Leatherstocking GC Jim Roy, Syracuse Westwood CC Jim Roy, Syracuse Teugega CC Patrick Pierson, Central Nyack Shaker Ridge CC Jim Roy, Syracuse CC of Rochester Matt Clarke, Loudonville Brookfield CC Aaron Tallman, Lancaster Dutchess G&CC John Vaccaro, Albany Elmira CC Tim Rose, Endicott Glens Falls CC Ken Riter, Buffalo Crag Burn GC Tim Hume, Cheektowaga Dutchess G&CC Jimmy Welch, Valatie Midvale CC Tim Spitz, Pittsford Onondaga G&CC Jim Scorse, Churchville Teugega CC Jamie Miller, Silver Creek Wolferts Roost CC Luke Hobika, Dewitt Stafford CC Jim Scorse, Churchville Yahnundasis GC Patrick Keegan, Rochester Wanakah CC Jamie Miller, Hamburg Tuscarora GC Bradford Tilley, Easton, Conn.

Suspended for COVID-19 pandemic Shaker Ridge CC Carl Schimenti, Ithaca Seven Oaks GC Billy Hanes, Elma

Men's Super Senior Amateur Champions Year 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Host Club Winner Westwood CC Bob Lindahl, Cortland Cedar Lake Club Robert Hoff, Rochester Midvale CC Hank Malfa, Mamaroneck Stafford CC Hank Malfa, Mamaroneck McConnellsville GC Hank Malfa, Mamaroneck Niagara Falls CC Coville Windsor, Seneca Falls Powelton Club Robert Botsford, Poughkeepsie Normanside CC Ralph Maru, Mechanicville Lakeshore CC Alfred Audi, Fayetteville Vestal Hills CC Perry Noun, Oswego Lafayette CC John Dennett, Lake George Powelton Club Mickey Gallagher, Groton Normanside CC Mickey Gallagher, Groton Stafford CC Alan Foster, Manlius Wayne Hills CC Charles Connolly, Queensbury Vestal Hills CC Charles Connolly, Queensbury Wolferts Roost CC Charles Connolly, Queensbury Normanside CC Earl Winchester, Glenmont Cedar Lake Club Randy Young, Jamesville Onondaga G&CC John Hathway, Brantingham Brookfield CC Jim Smith, East Aurora Crag Burn GC Jim Smith, East Aurora Mohawk GC Jim Hamburger, Poughkeepsie Cavalry Club John Hamilton, Tuckahoe Suspended for COVID-19 pandemic Powelton Club Scott Dean, Woodstock Springville GC Robert Branham, Norwich

NYS Women’s Senior & Super Senior Amateur trophies on display in 2019.

64 NYSGA 1923-2023

2020

Suspended for COVID-19 pandemic

2021 2022

Powelton Club Springville CC

Daniel Russo, Hagaman Kevin Vandenberg, Pulaski

Host Club Winner Cherry Valley CC Mrs. Van DeVanter Crisp, Locust Valley Saranac Inn Mrs. Richard Hellman, Scarsdale Knollwood CC Mrs. Jerome Herbert, Purchase Cortland CC Mrs. Jerome Herbert, Purchase Old Oaks CC Mrs. Jerome Herbert, Purchase Oneonta CC Margaret Frank, Albany Monroe GC Mrs. John Pennington, Buffalo Pelham CC Ruth Torgerson, Garden City Binghamton CC Ruth Torgerson, Garden City Teugega CC Mrs. Anthony DeLiso, Woodstock Ridgemont CC Mrs. Anthony DeLiso, Woodstock Brookfield CC Mrs. James Sherman, Utica Lakeshore CC Anne Coupe, Loudonville Wolferts Roost CC Grace Ryan, Red Hook Lake Placid Club Anne Coupe, Loudonville Midvale Golf & CC Jean Trainor, Rochester The Whiteface Club Jean Trainor, Rochester The Whiteface Club Virginia Allen, Syracuse The Whiteface Club Jean Trainor, Rochester The Whiteface Club Nancy Rutter, Buffalo The Whiteface Club Anne Coupe, Rochester The Whiteface Club Anne Coupe, Rochester The Whiteface Club Virginia Allen, Syracuse The Whiteface Club Jean Trainor, Rochester Lake Placid Club Jean Trainor, Rochester Lake Placid Club Jean Trainor, Rochester The Whiteface Club Margaret Nevil, Cooperstown Oneonta CC Mrs. William Warren, Rochester Bristol Harbor CC Jean Trainor, Rochester The Whiteface Club Jean Trainor, Rochester The Whiteface Club Jean Trainor, Rochester Thendara GC Frances Stearns, Poughkeepsie Vestal Hills CC Frances Stearns, Poughkeepsie Deerfield CC Frances Stearns, Poughkeepsie The Whiteface Club Patricia McCormack, Old Forge Tan Tara GC Frances Stearns, Poughkeepsie Onondaga G&CC Lois Destalto, Saratoga Springs Bristol Harbor GC Frances Stearns, Poughkeepsie Pinehaven CC Frances Stearns, Poughkeepsie Colonie G&CC Anne Ralph, Rochester Dutchess G&CC Sue Sims, Skaneateles Cavalry Club Sue Sims, Skaneateles Caledonia CC Linda Smythe, Oswego Sue Sims, Skaneateles Lockport Town CC Ballston Spa CC Linda Hedges, Rochester Thendara GC Lancy Smith, Snyder Inlet GC Lancy Smith, Snyder CC of Rochester Michelle Marquis, Fayetteville Elmira CC Lancy Smith, Snyder Shorewood CC Lancy Smith, Snyder Thendara GC Kathy Hunt, Clarence Club at Villa Roma Kathy Hunt, Clarence Reservoir Creek GC Maggie Kril, Spencerport Cedar Lake Club Maggie Kril, Spencerport The Whiteface Club Jan LaVigne, Penfield Holiday Valley CC Kim Kaul, Colden Thendara GC Teresa Cleland, Syracuse Brookwoods CC Teresa Cleland, Syracuse Clifton Springs CC Carina Watkins, Phoenix Shorewood CC Sharyn Costello, Ithaca Wayne Hills CC Susan Kahler, Niskayuna Kanon Valley CC Nancy Kroll, Schenectady Thendara GC Kim Kaul, Colden The Whiteface Club Mary Sicard, Lake George Corning CC Mary Sicard, Lake George Thendara GC Tammy Blyth, Pittsford Bristol Harbour GC Mary Sicard, Lake George Suspended for COVID-19 pandemic Pinehaven CC Kim Kaul, Colden Ranic GC Susan Kahler, Saratoga Springs

Women's Super Senior Amateur Champions

Women's Mid-Amateur Champions

Year 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Year 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Host Club Winner The Whiteface Club Gail Brophy, Saratoga Springs Holiday Valley CC Gail Brophy, Saratoga Springs Thendara GC Sandra Wood, Ithaca Brookwoods CC Sandra Wood, Ithaca Clifton Springs CC Sandra Wood, Ithaca Shorewood CC Sharyn Costello, Ithaca Wayne Hills CC Sharyn Costello, Ithaca Kanon Valley CC Michelle Marquis, Fayetteville Thendara GC Cecily Havens, Syracuse The Whiteface Club Cecily Havens, Syracuse Corning CC Sandra Wood, Ithaca Thendara GC Ronnie Levine-Ribble, Penfield Bristol Harbour GC Kitty Colliflower, Rochester Suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic Pinehaven CC Mary Jo Kelly, Loudonville Ranic GC Mary Jo Kelly, Loudonville

Host Club Winner Drumlins CC (East) Christy Schultz, Rochester Sodus Bay Heights GC Christy Schultz, Rochester Rome CC Teresa Cleland, Syracuse Seneca Falls CC Teresa Cleland, Syracuse CC of Ithaca Teresa Cleland, Syracuse Dutches G&CC Joanna Beatty, Newburgh Tuscarora GC Dani Mullin, West Islip Elmira CC Joanna Beatty, Newburgh Schuyler Meadows Club Lauren Cupp, New Hartford Yahnundasis GC Jenna Hoecker, Rochester Lancaster CC Jenna Hoecker, Rochester Suspended for COVID-19 pandemic Teugega CC Christy Schultz, Livonia McGregor Links CC Christy Schultz, Livonia

NYSGA Thanks and Credits NYSGA Centennial Sub-Committee

Thank you to the following individuals who spent a considerable amount of time to plan, research and create this booklet to celebrate the first 100 years of the NYSGA.

John Blain, Chairman Pete Dougherty Doug Vergith Dan Thompson, Staff Liaison The NYSGA would like to thank the following organizations that provided images for this booklet: United States Golf Association, Oak Hill Country Club, Onondaga Golf & Country Club, Yahnundasis Golf Club, Country Club of Troy, Historical Images and Newspapers.com.

We'd also like to recognize our partner regional associations for the exceptional work they do in promoting the game of golf in New York State and beyond: Buffalo District Golf Association, Capital District Golf Association, Long Island Golf Association,

Metropolitan Golf Association, Rochester District Golf Association, Syracuse District Golf Association, Triple Cities Golf Association, Westchester Golf Association and the United States Golf Association. Also the Professional Golf Association sections within our state: Central NY, Metropolitan NY, Northeastern NY and Western NY. Lastly, we'd like to thank all of the volunteers, from the past and present, who dedicate their time, energy and expertise to serving golf and helping to promote this great game each season.

Printing provided by FLP Group/KOC Printing, Auburn, New York. Design and layout by Denise Lowery.

Spectators enjoying the 1937 NYS Women's Amateur championship match between Marion Turpie of Plandome and Betsy McLeod of Buffalo on the second green at Onondaga G&CC in Fayetteville.

New York State Golf Association, 4933 Jamesville Road, Jamesville, N.Y. 13078

NYSGA.ORG

1923 -2023

'We are as healthy as we've ever been'