The Harmons

“Dad joined Wykagyl when we were very young junior golfers so we wouldn’t be around Winged Foot. All the Harmon boys thoroughly enjoyed our time at the club. Last year, me, Billy and Butch returned to Wykagyl for a round of golf, 50 years later. We remembered every hole and enjoyed this great golf course. Congrats on hosting the 100th State Amateur"

Wykagyl has paid tribute to two of its favorite sons, Val Bermingham and Clare Briggs, by naming days for them in their memories. Today, the “official” golf season begins on Bermingham Day in April and closes on Briggs Day in October. Perhaps the choice of these days is fitting. Opening Day ushers in a new season, when golfers, with high hopes, set out to emulate the skills of Bermingham while Briggs Day, marking the end of the season, is the time to cast cares away and live it up in the manner of the jovial and ebullient Clare Briggs.

Bermingham made the name Wykagyl prominent by his golfing prowess and Briggs spread the name of Wykagyl through his series of golf cartoons which were published for years in the New York Tribune and later the Herald Tribune. Briggs made Wykagyl the setting for his humorous drawings and the names of many of Briggs’ cronies from the club were included in his cartoons.

Briggs joined the club in September 1914 and immediately became one of the popular “boys.” In tribute to him the Governors named a large room in the upstairs locker house the Briggs Room. In 1925 Briggs presented the club with 100 of his famous cartoons.

Bermingham and Briggs were good friends and each had a warm regard for each other. In an article in the Herald Tribune in October 1948, Bermingham described Briggs as a very warmhearted person who loved human companionship and was respected by every Wykagyl member. In the same article, the reporter said:

"Briggs spread the name of Wykagyl to every corner of the country. Briggs’ talent lay in his ability to record the actual in a comical way that would bring all the elements of a particular situation more clearly to light."

During the 1920s, the New Rochelle Art Association commissioned its best known artists to create a series of signs on major roadways to mark the city’s borders including "New Rochelle: The Place to Come When a Feller Needs a Friend,” which was created by Briggs representing one of his major comics of the same name.

Briggs’ home in New Rochelle, known as Blue Anchor, can be seen from the 18th hole when the trees are dormant.

Briggs remained loyal to Wykagyl until his death on January 3, 1930.

Butch Harmon, Craig Harmon, and Bill Harmon

Claude Harmon, Sr. was the 1948 Master’s Champion and Winged Foot’s head professional from 1945 - 1978. During the 1960s, he was a member of Wykagyl and his four sons, Butch, Craig, Dick, and Billy, represented Wykagyl in numerous junior and amateur events.

Butch Harmon won the 1961 MGA Junior Championship and teamed with Jimmy Fisher to win the 1963 British Victory Tournament. Butch went on to be a winner on the PGA tour, and the instructor and/or golf coach to Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Stewart Cink, Greg Norman, Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Justin Leonard, Rickie Fowler, Jimmy Walker, Dustin Johnson, Gary Woodland, and Nick Watney.

Craig Harmon, former head professional for 42 years at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, NY and site of this year’s PGA Championship, won the Westchester Amateur in 1965. Billy Harmon was runner up in the 1967 Met Amateur and Dick Harmon was runner up in the 1968 Met Amateur.

All four boys would grow up to be ranked by Golf Digest among the Top 50 teachers in America at one point in their careers. The Harmon legacy continues with Butch’s son, Claude Harmon III, serving as recent PGA champion, Brooks Koepka’s, swing coach.

Between 1971 and 1988, Dave Ragaini was an eight-time Wykagyl club champion. He won the 1971 Westchester Open as an amateur. Ragaini may best be remembered for a bet he made to play all 18 tee shots from his knees. On the 207 yard par three 13th hole, he knocked his three wood into the hold for an ace. This remarkable feat was documented in Ripley’s Believe It or Not

One of the more influential, and possibly, the most memorable member of Wykagyl was Walter A. Peek who was a member from the late 1930s - 2009. As a golfer, he was a threetime club champion at Wykagyl, club champion at Winged Foot, Cornell University’s champion and four-year team member, semi-finalist in the NYS Amateur, champion of the Eastern Army and Navy Championship, and winner of the first Ike Championship with partner, Howard Miller. Nationally, he was a quarter finalist in the North and South and medalist in both the Trans-Mississippi Amateur Golf Championship and Winged Foot’s Anderson Memorial.

He loved to compete and his favorite Wykagyl event was the Three-Day Member-Guest where he was a fixture as both a player and auctioneer. After his death in 2009, the tournament was renamed in his memory, The Walter A. Peek Memorial ThreeDay Member-Guest.

Walter was a natural showman with Broadway in his blood. His mother, and former Wykagyl member, Edna Peek, was a comedian for the Ziegfeld Follies. For 30 years, he sang barbershop semi-professionally. He wrote and recorded several songs, including “It’s Christmas All Over Town,” which received play over the air waves. As Wykagyl’s de facto master of ceremonies for decades, he led the very popular Christmas Carol Sing, turned the Three-Day Member-Guest pari-mutuel auction into a comedy show, fought back tears at every fourth of July lawn party while reciting the poem, “I Am the Nation,” and played leading roles in the annual club shows held in the maintenance facility.

In 1976, as a result of the poor economy, regular membership dwindled to 150 and the club had difficulty paying its bills. During a meeting of bondholders, there was strong support for a proposal to sell the club property to developers and merge with Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich. It was Walter who turned the tide of that meeting with an “impassioned” plea. Almost 50 years later, former member, Dr. John Byrne, recalled, “I still get shivers when I remember Walter’s speech that saved the club.” The vote never took place and a small group of members provided the necessary financial assistance to keep the club afloat.

Not only did he make history, but helped preserve

it for the Club for generations of members to follow. In 1968, as chairman of the Historical Committee, he oversaw the publishing of Seventy Years of Wykagyl and, in 1998, as Centennial Co-Chairman with Charlie Del Priore, published Wykagyl’s 100 year history.

Mostly, he is remembered for his unique personality. He wore shorts to play golf in all weather conditions, be it sun, rain, and, even, snow. At the time, when players were not allowed to wear shorts at Winged Foot, he donned his out-of-date, high-water paisley bell bottoms in silent protest. He routinely serenaded the pro shop, putting green and ninth hole terrace from the first floor men’s locker room showers. He had a glass eye -- actually three; one for everyday use, an American flag for the fourth of July, and a shamrock for St. Patrick’s Day. His (one) eye for fashion led people to think he was color blind. He was not.

His “Stupor Bowl” parties at Färthaven were a favorite of Wykagyl members and provided material for NYC’s local television stations. One year, the party was filmed for CBS’s national news broadcast, but was pre-empted by the untimely death of former vice president and presidential candidate, Hubert Humphrey, after which he wryly quipped, “I never liked that guy.”

As Club President, he installed a suggestion box in the tree that was near the ninth hole terrace, easily accessible to any member with a 12-foot ladder. He cleaned his golf ball by putting it in his mouth and then swirled it around with his fingers. When he wanted to hit a long drive, he choreographed his set up and swing to “Casey at the Bat.” Always the last to leave any party, he finished the evening with a songfest around the grand piano.

It has been said that Walter A. Peek was a “character with character.” For decades, in many ways, it was his distinctive character that helped shape the Club’s unique personality. To many, he was simply regarded as “Mr. Wykagyl!”

Greg Rohlf, 1997 NYS Amateur Champion, also won the Wilson Cup, Nassau Invitational, NYC Amateur, Westchester Amateur (three times), the Ike Championship, the Ike Championship team prize with Wykagyl member Chuck Del Priore, the Met Amateur (twice), the MGA Mid Amateur, and the Anderson Memorial. He was the 1998 MGA Player of the Year. Greg qualified for the 1997 US Amateur, and was a US Open local qualifier 1991, 1995, 1996, and 1998. He qualified for the 1998 US Mid Amateur qualifier and was a ten-time MGA International Team Member.

Mrs. Charles T. Stout joined Wykagyl in 1909. Born Genevieve Hecker in 1883 in Darien, CT, she became a very gifted player. In the opening years of the 20th century, she won the US Women's Amateur in 1901 (Baltusrol) and 1902 (The Country Club).

She was at the top of her game in the Met region where won the first Women's Met championship in 1900 and again in 1901, 1905, and 1906. When handicaps were first assigned in 1910, hers was recorded as plus-one.

As is the case with modern champions, she authored instruction articles. In 1904, she published Golf for Women. The book was the first golf primer for women at the time.

In 2020, Mrs. Stout was inducted into the MGA Honors Hall of Merit.

Howard Miller was an eight-time club champion from 1944-1956, and set the Wykagyl amateur record of 66 in 1941. He also teamed with Walter A. Peek to win the first Ike Team Championship in 1954.

Joseph Lelash won the 1960 NY State Senior Championship.

Jimmy Fisher teamed with Butch Harmon to win the 1963 British Victory Tournament. He then teamed with Wykagyl Head Professional Bob Watson to win the Westchester Pro-Am championship in 1964. And then in 1966 won both the MGA Amateur (match play) and Ike (stroke play) Championships. And he set the Wykagyl course record of 65 in 1968.

Chuck Del Priore is a five-time club champion, won the 2003 Westchester Amateur and qualified for the 2006 US Amateur and the 2010 US Mid-Amateur. He teamed with Greg Rohlf to win the 1997 Mittlemark, 1998 Ike Stroke Play Team Championship, and the 1998 Courville Memorial tournament.