Time Stands Still, Joe Saladino Wins the 102nd Travis Invitational at Garden City
THE BELL TOLLS FOR BIG BEN AS JOE SALADINO WINS THE 102ND TRAVIS INVITATIONAL
GARDEN CITY, NY – Hands stopped at five minutes to midnight, the inexorable march of Big Ben was halted at the 102nd Walter J. Travis Invitational as Long Island’s Joe Saladino defeated 2010 Travis champion “Big Ben” Hayes 2&0 in the tournament final at fabled Garden City Golf Club. Saladino took a 1-up lead with a 35-foot birdie putt at the par-3 second hole and never trailed, claiming his first Travis championship and erasing the memories of a final round loss in 2008. Both Saladino and Hayes are 1-1 in championship matches at the Travis and 7-1 in championship bracket play overall.
“It’s the greatest win of my life. I’ve won a lot of events here in the area, but this is the biggest,” confided the long-time Metropolitan Golf Association star. “There is so much history in this tournament and at Garden City, and it’s such a great competition, this is definitely it, my biggest win ever.” Saladino then sat back, smiled broadly, and took a long swig of one of Bob the bartender’s vodka southsiders while the table around him cheered.
“I wanted a win, a win, and a drink – a victory drink from the cup! And this is the sweetest southsider I’ve ever tasted,” explained a grateful Saladino, who used that mantra this year as a riff on the mantra from his 2008 run which was “a win, a win, and a yes,” meaning he wanted to win the Travis semi-final and final, and have his then girlfriend Sarah accept his marriage proposal. He came up one short in the win column, but still won in the biggest way when Sarah, who is now seven months preggers with the family’s first child, a boy, said yes.
“Now I can go home and tell her I got my Travis!” he finished energetically.
Winning the Travis Invitational is, indeed, an apotheosis to an amateur golfer – they become immortal, their history preserved by arguably the greatest stewards in golf. For 113 years the members of Garden City Golf Club have cherished and promoted the history of the game with reverence, and now Saladino, a local star and fan favorite since he was a teen, ascends into the rarified air of a Travis Champion, his name engraved on the same walls as Travis himself and over a century’s worth of well-decorated amateur champions.
To do it Saladino had to almost stop time itself, as Big Ben’s record in Travis championship matches rose to 7-0 after Hayes defeated top-seeded Ed “Scissorhands” Gibstein 1-up in the morning semi-final. A former Nationwide Tour contestant and University of Southern California star, Hayes earned his nickname by playing with clockwork precision during the match play phase, slowly but inevitably constricting opponents with a combination of gargantuan drives and a sublime short game. Shot after shot, clockwork precision. Ask not for whom the bells tolls, opponents, it tolls for thee.
In the final however, their roles were reversed. Hayes was never able to put pressure on Saladino, who got ahead, stayed ahead, and put enough pressure on Hayes to keep him a bay, the same way he did with T.J. Brudzinski in the morning semi-final winning 3&2.
SALADINO AND THE SCHENECTADY PUTTER
Hayes’s problems started when he began missing fairways to the right, putting himself in dicey lies, awkward stances, and terrible angles into Garden City’s small, cunningly defended greens. In the rough covered mounds one minute, off a dirt cart path the next, from the trees another time, he kept looking, for all the world, like he was going to lose the hole and fall hopelessly behind.
But Big Ben kept making clutch par putts to salvage halves. Time and again he would pour one in from 12, 15, even 20 feet to tie Saladino and keep the deficit to only 1 or 2-down. Other guys would have shot 85 and lost 5&4 from the places Big Ben was playing from, but Saladino’s lead never got higher than 2-up, and although Hayes was never able to square the match, he just kept hanging around. And that’s the last thing a golfer wants to do at Garden City – leave a guy hanging around late – because there is nothing but swing holes out there, and momentum at Garden City swings from shot to shot. Golfers steal matches late all the time at Garden City.
Take the 10th hole, for example. Saladino Goodyear blimped his tee ball to with 90 yards of the green. Big Ben drove deep right, into the rough with a ghastly angle to a green that slopes sharply away from the player to a pin cut front center. “Good luck” territory.
But Big Ben somehow put it to five feet left of the green while Saladino’s seemingly perfect approach rolled out forever leaving him 60 feet. He lagged to two feet. Then Ben flubbed the chip, leaving it 20 feet short.
So guess what happens? Hayes rolls in the 20-footer, Saladino misses the shorty, and Hayes goes to the 11th tee just one down…where he promptly drove into the woods again, and the cycle started all over once more. It was like that all day.
In the end, Saladino out-clockworked Big Ben; he was able to nurse the lead the entire round.
“14 was another example of that – perhaps the crucial turning point,” added Griffin McQuilling, Saladino’s caddie and reigning junior club champion at Garden City Golf Club.
“It was big,” agreed Saladino. “It gave me the enough breathing room to hold off the momentum swings I knew were still coming.”
Both players agree that at a mere 343 yards, the players normally view it as a birdie hole, “but miss the green and you’re begging for a par,” Saladino stated. Then both players drove into the same fairway bunker. But Hayes muscled the ball to another greenside pot bunker, (the worst place to miss), while Saladino hit the back collar of rough. Both players made indifferent chips, Saladino to 12 feet, Ben to 22.
And of course, Ben rolled his in. (Here we go again!)
“But Joe just dug deep, and poured it in right on top of him. It was so clutch,” said McQuilling. “That was the shot of the match.”
SALADINO PLAYS TO THE 17TH GREEN WHILE BIG BEN LOOKS ON
It certainly was big, and Saladino needed it because Big Ben wasn’t done. Still 2-down as they came to the 16th, Hayes drove into another fairway bunker, while Saladino rocketed his tee shot deep into the middle of the fairway. Playing to a green guarded by water left, sand right, pin tucked flush left, Ben’s approach landed 80 yards short in more rough covered mounds. Saladino hit the green and had an easy 2-putt from 25 feet. Your instincts tell you it’s Game, Set, Match – Saladino. Hayes played a creditable pitch, to 22 feet again, but it looked like a 2-putt par would do it for Saladino.
Of course, Big Ben just rolled the putt in again.
“I told him it was a great up and down, and inside I was muttering curse words,” quipped Saladino.
It only got tighter for Saladino as Hayes won the 17th hole with a birdie from off a cart path. His 215 yard hybrid shot to 15 feet was a laser beam.
BIG BEN WAS MAGICAL, EVEN IN DEFEAT. TROY WILL RISE AGAIN.
In the end, Big Ben fell one comeback short, and his 3-putt bogey from 40 at the last hole led to the final 2-up result, but even in a loss, Big Ben’s round was marvelous, every bit as entertaining to watch as Saladino’s fairways and greens. It was two gladiators, one Greco-Roman, one Trojan, locked in an epic battle.
“It was one of the best Travis finals I’ve ever seen,” confided one member, looking resplendent in his Garden City green jacket, and he’s right.
It’s also a great moment of redemption for Saladino, as well as a great “local boy done good” story, and the fact that he beat a former Travis champion makes it all the sweeter. He also raises his own competitive match play record since 2010 to a brilliant 29-1.
Interestingly, the 14th hole was the most crucial hole time and again over the weekend. Although short, the light-bulb shaped green is surrounded by trouble. The hole is sneaky hard.
“We kept making bogey with wedge on our hands,” lamented Ed “Scissorhands” Gibstein, who also put himself behind the 8-ball late with a 14th hole bogey in the morning semi-final against Hayes. It dropped him to 2-down. Like Hayes in the final, Gibstein lost 1-up on 18. Indeed at some point during Sunday’s play, the hole proved the downfall of all four semi-finalists except Saladino. All lost that particular match as well.
Tournament chairman Pat Fogarty had an interesting explanation.
“The course did a great job of testing distance control. You have to have the appropriate angle to get a good putt. You can be aggressive below the hole, but must defensive from above it,” he explained. “You have to give yourselves the best leaves to win matches at Garden City.”
Fogarty is right, but some of the credit must go to both Mother Nature for the fantastic spring that allowed wunderkind golf course superintendent David Pugh to get the fast and firm conditions that dictated that Garden City’s fiendishly intricate greens would defend par admirably against the best amateurs in the World.
So as the Sun set over idyllic Garden City Saladino, defending champion Nick Gilliam, and one black clad journalist gathered on the 18th green with former Travis runner-up Steve White for an impromptu putting contest with Saladino’s trophy, a replica of the Schenectady putter Travis himself used to win the 1904 British Amateur. (The black clad journo won…well one round, at least.) Saladino gets his Travis, joining Gilliam and Big Ben and Walter Travis, and many other names, and now his legacy – an indisputable amateur golf masterpiece, jiust like the Travis invitational itself it – will live on, promoted and revered by the guardians of a sacred sporting trust. Years pass, but to the members of Garden City, all times are one, and Saladino’s story will be told long into the camaraderie-filled nights through the decades. Perhaps one day in the not too far future, Saladino can take his yet unborn son to the club, and let him hear the story from the members themselves. It will be as cherished by them as much as by Saladino. In the end, that’s why we all kept coming back for 102 years, isn’t it? Because here, time stands still.
FINAL RESULTS FOR THE 102ND WALTER J. TRAVIS INVITATIONAL AT GARDEN CITY GOLF CLUB
(Seedings in parenthesis)
WALTER J. TRAVIS CHAMPIONSHIP
(2) Joe Saladino over (5) Ben Hayes 2-up
DEVEREUX EMMET CUP
(6) Kevin Marsh over (8) Nick Gilliam
CHARLES BLAIR MACDONALD CUP
(5) John McClure over (7) Scott Mackesy
ROBERT TRENT JONES CUP
(1) Kevin Hammer over (7) Steve White
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT CUP
(7) Greg Stebbins over (8) Billy Kreitsek
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER CUP (SENIORS)
(3) Gary Daniels over (8) Jay Blumenfeld
NEWS, NOTES, AND QUOTES
BATTLE OF THE DOPPLEGANGERS
“Oh no!” moaned Mike Kelley when he saw his name next to Ryan Chin on the pairing sheet for the first round of the match play.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“We play the same game, from the same place, with the same clubs, and he gonna hang around all day!” Kelley said. Sure enough, they were within five yards of each other all day. Kelley got a measure of vindication, avenging a loss last year with a 1-up victory.
What was Chin’s downfall? Travis’s coffin! Like Walter Travis in the 1908 U.S. Amateur, Chin left the match in that bunker.
POETRY CORNER
Hey Henry, Rene, and Bobby! We have a new couplet for the poem:
Bobby slings the booze and vino
Just don’t ask for cappuccino!
Our Green and Gothic Home!
GEOGRAPHICAL DIVERSITY
The six winners from the various flights all hail from different states – a true testament to the national – even international – strength of the field.
ST. JOHN’S CELEBRATES
Within hours of his victory, St. John’s University reported the win, noting that, “the two time MGA player of the year” as one of the great modern players who wore the red and white. Saladino joins, “all-time wins leader Andrew Svoboda [who] currently sits in fourth on the Nationwide Tour money list, and alumnus Keegan Bradley [who] already has 10 top-25 finishes on the PGA Tour this year.”
One St. John’s graduate celebrating particularly fervently is pro shop staff member Jesse Fitzgerald. He was Saladino’s roommate at St. John’s for three years. Go Red Storm.
“EVERYBODY DO THE SALADINO!”
“Saladino?” asked one of my golf writer buddies when I told him about my weekend. “Sounds like a new dance craze – ‘Everybody do the Saladino!”
Well they are – at Huntington Country Club at least.
Top Seeds, Former Champion Reach 2012 Travis Invitational Semi-finals
ANOTHER GORGEOUS DAY GREETS GARDEN CITY GO.LF CLUB FOR THE 102nd TRAVIS INVITATIONAL
GARDEN CITY, NY – Another blue sky sparkling crystalline beamed down on Garden City Golf Club as the top two seeds at the 102nd Walter J. Travis Invitational powered their way into the semi-finals of the championship bracket with dominating performances, but their meeting in the final is far from certain as a former champion and a noted giant-killer stand in their way.
Top seeded Ed “Scissorhands” Gibstein snipped and clipped his opposition into perfect origami figures, jumping out to 5-up leads after nine holes in both matches and then cruising to post 5&4 and 7&6 victories over North Fork’s Scott Osler and Oakmont’s Curt Coulter respectively. Gibstein also won his second qualifying round medal on Friday and in doing so tied a record of Walter Travis’s that had stood for 96 years – longest span between first and last medals. Researchers are also checking to see if his front nine 31 (6-under) might be another competitive record.
“This is so cool,” he marveled. “To have this resurgence right now, and to find myself winning the Richardson and then coming here with a chance to win amidst all this history and these members of this club is amazing. This club and this tournament and all their history is what amateur golf all about. It’s great to just come and be a part of it, but to have a chance to go out and become a part of it forever makes me want to go out there again right now. Put the tee in the ground – let’s and go!” he concluded eagerly.
Indeed, the man they call “Scissorhands” for his dramatic but highly successful tree-clearing campaign at his home club of Engineers looks ready to go out and play with a rake, an Easter egg and a lantern and still win 2&1. He’s flat-out dominated this tournament so far and is riding a hot streak he attributes to recent swing changes. “Flipperhands” might have been a more accurate nickname as his tendency to get too wristy was a swing flaw he battled last year. But now he has it under control and is firing on all cylinders.
“Between Jaime Hurless, one of the teaching pros at Glen Oaks, and some help from my buddy Robert Deruntz at Engineers, I’ve fixed it so I’m not so shut-faced on the backswing. I weakened my left-hand grip which helps me rotate the club into a more neutral position on the backswing,” he explained.
Then he sat back and got thoughtful for a minute. “I think also with age and maturity I’m not putting as much pressure on my self to win or even play. I’m just having more fun with it.”
Isn’t that golf? You stop worrying about winning, and suddenly you go on a hot streak. You can have all the skill you want, but golf is still a mental game.
As for Scissorhands, he says he’s coming back for a sequel at Engineers.
“I deserve my nickname, and the course needs more tree removal. We have spectacular topography at Engineers, and we can’t and won’t let that wonderful terrain and those gorgeous views be hidden by trees that have no architectural significance,” he said firmly. “We cleared out a lot, and we’re gonna clear out a lot more.”
But Scissorhands’s seemingly irresistible force will meet an unquestionably immovable object in 2010 Travis Champion “Big Ben” Hayes, whose blend of gargantuan length and clinical precision won him the title his first appearance in the Travis. He won both his matches handily – 4&3 – over 2006 Travis champion Eoghan O’Connell in the morning and Dan Russo in the afternoon.
Hayes’s run this year looks eerily similar to his win in 2010. This year, as then, he is the number five seed.
“It’s incredible, beyond all my expectations,” the former Nationwide Tour contestant and University of Southern California star beamed as he held the replica Schenectady Putter and Waterford crystal trophy at the 2010 championship awards ceremony. “I’m thrilled and privileged to be a part of the prestigious history of this wonderful club and tournament. Every club should be like Garden City.”
Now he has a chance to enter more rarified air – that of a multiple winner of the Travis Invitational – a remarkably difficult feat, between having to battle one of the strongest fields in amateur golf and surviving five rounds of both medal and match play on a cunning and relentless Garden City Golf Club, where any hole can shatter your momentum. It will be an epic matchup – mojo vs. metal – freewheeling, sweet-swinging Gibby, trying to surpass his 1998 run to the Travis Invitational finals versus Big Ben, precise as a soviet chess player and indomitable as the chiseled Trojan mascot of his alma mater, trying to win multiple titles. It will be a magnificent spectacle.
The other semi-final match-up is equally mesmerizing. 2nd seeded Joe Saladino, one of the Metropolitan Golf Associations most decorated champions will face 14th seed T.J. Brudzinski, who knocked out 2008 Travis Champion Mike Kelley in his afternoon match.
The runner-up in 2008, Saladino said that year that he wanted “a win, a win, and a yes,” meaning he wanted to win the semi-final and final and then get his girlfriend to accept his marriage proposal. He came up one short, but he got the right two out of three, as he’s an ecstatically happy married man.
“She’s the greatest. I still won that day in the biggest way!” he exclaimed. “And we also got married on Travis weekend, so it’s our anniversary too. We think it’s great that such a wonderful tournament as the Travis and a place like Garden City also helps us remember the greatest days of our entire lives.”
This year Saladino has a new mantra.
“This time, it’s a win, a win, and a drink – a victory drink from the Cup!”
That would make for a nice anniversary present. But it will be a long haul over 36 holes before anyone will claim the Waterford Crystal trophy and replica Schenectady putter used by Travis to win the 1904 British Amateur. And although Saladino’s record in match play events since 2010 is an eye-popping 25-1, Garden City Golf Club is a great equalizer. Fortunes swing from shot to shot and no lead is safe.
Indeed, Saladino nearly lost a gargantuan lead in his afternoon match, but the 11th hole proved the turning point.
“I got out to a 4–up lead after four, but it dwindled down to 1-up after 10,” he explained. “But a birdie on 11 got the momentum back for me, and momentum is everything on this golf course.”
He’s right. And once you get it, you have to keep it. But therein lies the difficulty, Garden City shows you so many different lengths – short one minute, long the next – so may changing wind directions, and is so exacting around the greens, even golf’s greatest amateur players will be forced to grind for 18 holes.
“Guys are making bogeys out there with wedges in their hands,” admitted Gibstein, who did that twice in row yesterday, on 10 and 11 in his afternoon match. And 14 has snake-bitten about everyone in the field at some point.
Saladino righted the ship and defeated 10th seed Dan Goldstein 3&2. He beat James Buckley 4&3 in the morning.
Saladino will face 14th seeded T.J. Brudzinski who defeated his doubles partner and 2008 champion Mike Kelley 1-up in the afternoon zooming past Kelley in a stunning reversal. 1-down with three to play, Brudzinski birdied the last three holes, holing putts from Southampton, Mamaroneck, and Bayonne in the process.
“They were bombs,” admitted a gracious Kelley. “That one on 16 was at least 40 feet and the 20-footer on 18 was a double breaker.”
Indeed, the ball wandered around like a confused tourist, meandering over the myriad humps and rolls of the iconic Eden hole’s green, before tumbling into the cup and setting off a massive ovation from the grandstand and veranda to close the day’s play.
“Anything can happen in match play, and never give up at Garden City!” gushed an elated Brudzinski, who is on his deepest run in the tournament. He also defeated Dan Macdonald 4&3 in the morning. “You get an extra boost because this event is so special. It’s the crème de la crème of amateur events. So many great players have walked here – if these walls could talk!” he explained energetically. “So you just get inspired by everything and everybody, so you want to play well. The members and the history make you want it so much more.”
“To be in the conversation with the name Walter Travis means you’ve done something really special in golf,” agreed Saladino. “When you become champion here, it’s a life event. You take it to the grave. It’s an honor every golfer would cherish. Actually, in a way, you take it past the grave, because the members keep you alive forever. That’s why Garden City is so special.”
Edward Scissorhands 2, Gibstein Wins Second Travis Invitational Medal
JOHN ERVASTI ABOUT TO PUT THE SKIDS ON A ZANY 16-FOR-1 PLAYOFF
GARDEN CITY, NY – Drinking deeply from the fountain of youth, Ed “Scissorhands” Gibstein won his second Walter J. Travis Invitational qualifying round medal with a sparkling 3-under 70 at Garden City Golf Club. It was the second Travis medal for Gibstein, who also took the same honor in 1998 en route to a runner up finish.
“It held up?” he asked surprised. It did, and it also put him in the record books with another name – Walter J. Travis. Both he and Travis have won medals 14 years apart, the longest span in tournament history. Travis won his first and last medals in 1902 and 1916 respecively.
In the record books…sharing one with Travis himself…a record that stood alone for 96 years – now that’s a staggering feat, and all Garden City was elated for the popular Scissorhands, long considered a valuable addition to the event for his terrific play, raconteur wit, and passion for golf course architecture.
The man who got his nickname from an aggressive tree removal campaign at his home club of Engineers and who has played in nearly every one of the last 25 Travis Invitationals raced out of the gate with birdies on the first three holes, all with putts longer than 15 feet. He turned in a sizzling 6-under front nine of 31, (remember, Garden City is par-37-36=73), but Garden City bit back late.
“I hit a ball so deep in the woods on the 10th tee, I abandoned it and took my medicine,” he recalled. “His medicine” was a double bogey, which was followed by another bogey at the par-4 11th. “I chunked a 3-wood off the tee and thinned a bump and run chip. It was chopped salad.” He then traded a three-putt bogey at 16 for a routine 2-putt birdie at the short par-5 17th to close out his round.
Gibstein is surging right now. He won his fourth career Richardson Invitational Tournament at Seawane Country Club two weeks ago, enduring a format as potentially exhausting as the Travis – stroke play followed four rounds of match play.
“I hit the ball great at the Richardson, but I didn’t putt well. I had three three-putts on the back nine of the final.” He still managed to eke out a 2&0 win over Hal Berman.
“But today, the tone was set by my putter. Making those three long birdie putts to open the round felt good and really got the round started well.”
Gibstein went off early and took advantage what everyone called the best weather ever for the opening day of the Travis. 75 degrees and sunny, without a cloud in the sky, fair Garden City was beaming bright, not even a breath of wind until noon-ish, right after Gibstein finished. Joe Saladino was runner-up with a 2-under 71. He also went out early in benign conditions.
When the wind did pick up it swirled chaotically, changed direction frequently, and scores soared. All players who posted 1-over par 74 or better made the championship flight.
BILLY KREITSEK SETTLES SOME UNFINISHED BUSINESS WITH THE 18TH HOLE "YOU DON'T WANNA KNOW THE THOUGHTS THAT WERE RUNNING THROUGH MY HEAD!"
In the first round of the match play phase, Gibstein will face 16th seed Scott Osler always a tough out and a threat to go deep in the bracket. The winner of that match faces the winner of the 8-9 match, John Ervasti (Even par 73) vs. Oakmont’s Curt Coulter (1-over 74).
Ervasti, who was in the second to last group of the day, might be lucky to get to the tee at all tomorrow morning as he provided the day’s other marquis headlines, and in doing so ruined a lot of people’s day with a shocking buzzkill. His 73 wiped out what would have been a 16 players-for-1-spot playoff for the final seed in the championship bracket.
That’s completely hilarious. 16 guys for one slot – what sight that would have been! A Chinese fire drill meets bumper cars. How do you even send that out? Two eightsomes? Four foursomes? Remember, the people who finished the hole first still have to sit around, waiting for everyone to finish each hole before starting the next.
It looked for all the world like a lock too. By four o’clock, we thought the 16-for-1 stock car race was a fait accompli. So much so that PGA Head Professional Emeritus Gil McNally went around from player to player to line them up. He sought out one after the other: “Go get your shoes on…go get your shoes on…go get your shoes on…”
Meanwhile Ervasti was oblivious to all this. He saw a lot of guys milling around pointing at him as he played the last two holes and got his 73 to the house, but he didn’t care. Ervasti is laconic and phlegmatic. He’s played in nearly every Travis Invitational since 1983. He just shrugged his shoulders and chuckled afterwards.
“I’m shocked at this,” he admitted. “I’ve only played two or three times this year. I guess they’re all wishing I would have chosen to play in the senior division. But hey, that’s golf.”
He’s played just two or three times all year, and he just cruises in with a little old even par 73 and knocks out 16 guys. Do that in a Texas money game, and they’ll shoot you on general principle. If Dan Jenkins were here, he’d call Ervasti a dadgum tarnation polecat for ruining a good story.
“Look who shot Bambi,” quipped Irish ex-pat Eoin O’Connor, who was relegated to the lower flight by Ervasti’s late heroics. In fact, the list of players bumped looks like a Who’s Who of Mid-Amateur golf. Besides O’Connor, Ervasti knocked out tournament chairman Pat Fogarty, defending champion Nick Gilliam, 1998 champion Ken Bakst, Richardson runner-up Hal Berman, and well decorated amateur players Adam Pecora, Brian Komline, Chuck Del Priore, and Jerry Chang.
On the home front, two Garden City members made the championship bracket. 4th seeded Tim Schmitt, the 2004 Travis Invitational champion, finds himself in a quadrant with two other recent Travis champions. He’ll square off against 13th seed Dan Russo, while 5th seeded “Big Ben” Hayes of Whisper Rock, the 2010 champion, faces Eoghan O’Connell, the 2006 champion. Interestingly, when Hayes won in 2010, he did it as a 5 seed.
Mark Thompson, the other Garden City member in the top bracket took the 7th seed. He’ll meet 10th seed Dan Goldstien. The winner takes on the winner of the 2-15 matchup, Joe Saladino vs. James Buckley.
“I said to myself ‘you’re going to do good things today and your going to do bad things today. Just trust yourself that the good things will happen,’” Thompson explained. “So even though I bogeyed one right out of the gate, I shrugged it off and stayed calm.”
Then he sat back, broke into a wide smile and eagerly added, “Besides – it’s the greatest thing in the World to be a member here. I’ve been here six years now, and there’s never been a single day where I wasn’t completely excited to come and be here. I love being with people who love golf as much as I do. Bogeying one os no big deal.”
Then the discussion turned to the members’ wonderful reverence for the traditions and history of golf – not just Garden City, but all golf.
“No other sport has tradition like ours and in a time when everyone wants to tear down tradition, golfers still know that by upholding tradition, you learn respect for yourself and others. It helps you grow as a person. Where else is it cool to call a penalty on yourself?!”
The always eloquent Saladino agreed. “Upholding traditions shapes a person’s character in a positive way by teaching them integrity. They also serve as reminder that beauty of golf is how it brings people together working for a common good, not just thinking about yourself.”
That’s the magic of the Garden City members – they know it’s not merely who they are or what they do that makes them great, but what they do for others.
In the final quadrant of the championship bracket, 3rd seed Dan McDonald meets 14th seed T.J. Brudzinski while the 6-11 matchup is a rematch of a first round tilt last year, 6th seed Ryan Chin vs.; 2008 Travis Champion Mike Kelley.
GREAT PIN PLACEMENT ON THE PAR-3 2ND HOLE
WALTER J. TRAVIS CHAMPIONSHIP BRACKET
1. Ed “Scissorhands” Gibstein (70) vs. 16. Scott Osler (74)
8. John Ervasti (73) vs. 9. Curt Coulter (74)
4. Tim Schmitt (73) vs. 13. Dan Russo (74)
5. “Big Ben” Hayes (73) vs. 12. Eoghan O’Connell (74)
2. Joe Saladino vs. 15. James Buckley
7. Mark Thompson vs. 10. Dan Goldstein
3. Dan McDonald vs. 14. T.J. Brudzinski
6. Ryan Chin vs. 11. Mike Kelley
Heat Outpaced by Indiana
By Mike Z. – Special Basketball Correspondent to AWITP
Chris Bosh’s absence could not seem more apparent, as the Miami Heat experienced a rare home-court loss to the Indiana Pacers 78-75. Led by David West’s 16 points and 10 rebounds, Indiana pulled even in the Eastern Conference semi-final series against the heavily favored Heat at one game a piece. LeBron James (who played power forward in Bosh’s absence) and Dwayne Wade combined for 52 points, but it wasn’t enough, as the remaining Heat starters managed a mere seven points.
Miami’s three point shooting problems continued, adding a woeful 1-11 total to the ghastly 0-10 showing in Game 1. The Pacers also out-rebounded the Heat 50-40 as Bosh sat on the bench nursing the abdominal strain that may keep him out an unknown number games. Playing a game high 43 minutes, James looked sluggish and admitted being exhausted in the fourth quarter.
“It’s a lot more taxing being in there with bigger guys,” James said poignantly. “When you’re on the perimeter, there’s more space. The interior is more cramped and physical.” Although James managed to snatch nine rebounds, Indiana’s physical play turned the tide. The Pacers battled for every rebound, dove for every loose ball, and withstood tough fouls, including a flagrant foul from a clearly frustrated Dwayne Wade who pushed Pacer Darren Collision to the floor.
“We can’t get too excited because we won one game,” said Pacer David West. “That is not our goal in this series. We can’t overreact because we were able to get one game down here.”
His leadership was appreciated by Pacers head coach Frank Vogel, referring to West as the “backbone” of the team. “I don’t know how else to say it. He’s our leader. I can’t say enough positive things about David West,” continued Vogel. “I’m glad he is on our team.”
Bosh’s absence may prove comparable to that of Derek Rose to the Bulls or Dwight Howard to the Orlando Magic. Both teams were eliminated in the first round and could not gather enough support to fill the vacancy of their injured players.
Indiana secured a crucial win against a Heat team that went 28-5 at home in this strike-shortened season. They now have home-court advantage for the remainder of the series.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Proving Again that Golfers, Golf can Make a Better World
WASHINGTON, DC – When speaking of golfers doing charitable works, golf writer Rom Sirak once said that, “Golf can’t make a difference, but golfers can.” He’s right, but the converse is true as well. At times one golfer may not be able to do a lot to help those in need, but many together can make all the difference.
Cut to this coming June 4th, and golfers from across the country will gather at Stonewall Golf Club on the idyllic shores of Lake Manassas, Virginia for the St. Jude Open, a tournament raising money for children’s medical research. From its humble beginnings decades ago, the tournament has raised over $2.3 million and helped countless children and their families as they battle bravely against a variety of illnesses.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was founded in 1962 by the late entertainer Danny Thomas. St. Jude is the first institution established for the sole purpose of conducting basic and clinical research into catastrophic childhood diseases, mainly cancer. St. Jude has treated children from all 50 states and around the world. On average, 7,800 active patients visit the hospital each year. The hospital freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world. St. Jude treats children without regard to race, religion, creed or ability to pay. No family ever pays St. Jude for anything.
When the hospital opened in 1962, children diagnosed with cancer faced a virtual death sentence. Only two out of every 10 children diagnosed would survive the disease. Yet today, St. Jude has helped push overall survival rates for childhood cancers to 80 percent.
Think about that for a moment. Is there any greater sadness than a parent burying their child? Because of people like you, who give generously to this noble cause, four times as many families have been spared that agony. Whether it’s pediatric cancer, sickle cell or other childhood illnesses, St. Jude leads the way in researching and discovering effective treatments that save young lives and keep families together. Your contribution will give some child a chance, and help prevent unfathomable heartache and loss.
There are many levels of contribution and sponsorship for the tournament, from USD 1,000 to USD 25,000, and even thought we are we are less than three weeks from the event, there is still room in the tournament to play or sponsor at many levels. Sponsorship packets are available on the St. Jude Open website or just email me and I’ll send one to you, along with contact info for the tournament coordinators.
St. Jude: they know that it’s not what you do that makes you great, but what you do for others.
For more information, contact Brenna O’Malley, 4600 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 102, Arlington, VA, 22203, brenna.omalley@stjude.org, (703) 351-5171, or by fax at (703) 469-1976, or call 2012 tournament director David Black at (703) 754-0100.
Pau! Pau! Pau! Gasol, Lakers Finish Nuggets in Game Seven
PAU GASOL WOULD NOT BE DENIED
[Editor's Note: AWITP is proud to introduce a new special correspondent to the site - Mike Z., who will be reporting on basketball and baseball. Mike Z. brings his inimitable flair and observant eye to two new sports on our site. Look for interviews with players, media, and sports business executives as well as game recaps and analysis. Mike Z. joins Rodney Zilla, Jon Kulok, and Franklin S. Tower as special correspondents. In his first piece, Mike looks back at the Lakers win in Game 7 against the Nuggets...and yes, we know the Lakers got blown out last night by the Thunder. We've been a little busy here getting ready for live golf coverage. Next time, Mike will look at the Spurs-Clippers series. Break a leg, Mike - Jay]
Lakers Rebound From Blowout, Finish Nuggets in Game Seven
By Mike Z. – Special Basketball Correspondent to AWITP
Pau Gasol redeemed himself, Andrew Bynum owned the boards, and the Los Angeles Lakers dug deep to finish the pesky Denver Nuggets 96-87 in a tense, physical Game Seven at the Staples Center. Gasol scored 23 points, had 17 rebounds, and four blocked shots, while Bynum had a career playoff high 18 rebounds. Ty Lawson and Al Harrington scored 24 each for the scrappy Nuggets, who pushed the Lakers to the limit, battling back from a 16 point second half deficit before bowing late. It was the fifth consecutive time the Lakers have defeated the Nuggets in the NBA playoffs, the most recent being 2009 in the Western Conference finals.
While Kobe Bryant praised Laker forward Metta World Peace in pre-game interviews, anticipating World Peace’s defensive contributions, it was Gasol instead who carried the Lakers after turning in a dismal Game Six performance, where he posted a mere three points and three rebounds in a 113-96 loss.
“We were aggressive, we attacked the paint better, we pounded the boards as hard as we could, every single time…our backs against the wall also had something to do with it,” explained Gasol. “I’m not a player who can put up three points and three rebounds in one game.”
Seemingly humiliated by the way the Nuggets took him out of Game Six, the fired-up Gasol insisted on being pummeled with football pads by assistant coaches during practice, imploring the staff, “Hit me harder.”
It worked, as the Nuggets had no answer for Gasol in Game Seven. He took control early and played a complete game at both ands of the floor. The defining moment of the game came when Gasol, exhibiting ferocious determination, seized five consecutive offensive rebounds in one possession alone late in the fourth quarter.
“He was monstrous for us,” stated a relieved Laker head coach Mike Brown, “he was absolutely freaking amazing.”
Brown was right: Gasol’s singular effort exemplified will to win that championship teams display in the clutch. That’s why the Lakers have won 17 NBA world titles, and that’s why the Lakers are 15-1 in Game Sevens at home, including their last 11 straight.
The Lakers also got an outstanding defensive performance from World Peace, who made his return from a seven game suspension for viciously elbowing Oklahoma City’s Jeff Harden in April. On the defensive end of the floor, he held Denver’s Danilo Gallinari and Andre Miller to 1 of 9 and 1 of 10 shooting respectively.
That’s Michael Cooper-esque.
“He made plays tonight that won’t show up on the stat sheet,” admitted Brown.
“I guess I can provide a spark,” added the former Ron Artest.
Now the Lakers, the third seed in the Western Conference square off against NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant and the second seeded Oklahoma City Thunder…which means World Peace and Harden will meet again, with a trip to the conference finals in the balance.
“I don’t shake hands with substitutes,” said World Peace, referring to Harden, who won the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award. It will be Kevin Durant, however, matched up against World Peace, when the teams take the floor in Game One tomorrow night.
The series wild card looks to be the Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook. While Durant provides most of Oklahoma City’s offensive spark, the plays run through Westbrook, who will prove a tough match-up for the Lakers slower guards.
Still, the Lakers have Kobe Bryant, whose unparalleled ability for taking over not only a game, but a series is legendary.
“Kobe is the X-factor, and he can still put that team on his back,” added AWITP correspondent Franklin S. Tower. “Few players can exhibit the will to win that Kobe does. He’s still the heart and soul of the Lakers.”
“You don’t have to double team me that much,” Kobe told Nuggets head coach George Karl during the series finale,” “I’m too old.”
But everyone knows even Kobe doesn’t believe that.
Travis Week Begins: Our Green and Gothic Home
FAIR GARDEN CITY BEAMING BRIGHT!
To celebrate the opening of Travis week, it’s my paean to Garden City and the Travis Invitational. Christmas in May starts Friday! Welcome to the most heartwarming week in amateur golf.
Our Green and Gothic Home
The joyous daybreak’s shimmering light
Reveals a blessed, stirring sight,
Fair Garden City, beaming bright!
Our green and gothic home.
The world may clamor all around,
But tranquil solace have we found.
Where Emmet first broke fertile ground,
And Travis’s name is renowned,
Now countless champions are crowned.
Our green and gothic home.
So out and back the players go
Through banshee winds that howl and blow,
Just like a century ago,
Our greatest amateurs convene
Where golden fescue waves serene
On either side of fairways green
‘Neath blue skies sparkling crystalline.
Our green and gothic home.
Across the windswept Hempstead Plain
The valorous will strive to reign
O’er Walter Travis’s domain,
And by their struggles hope to gain
A crystal Waterford trophy,
And putter from Schenectedy
As laurel wreaths of victory,
And write their names in history,
Our green and gothic home.
And at eighteen the story’s told
That Travis dug too deep a hole
And lost an Amateur of old
But if you need a closing par,
And hit your final shot too far
Chef Tony’s voice yells from the bar:
“Your ball went in my vichyssoise!”
Our green and gothic home.
From Auchterlonie’s Haskell Ball
To Billy Edwards, you’ll recall,
The last member to win it all,
There’s Travis with his long cigar
And Eger, Burns, and Zehringer,
Rejoice the glory of their name,
And toast the virtue of the game,
100 years of rousing cheers,
Of frothy beers and smiling peers,
Of hearts sincere and friendships dear,
Our green and gothic home.
Tonight the troops of angels bright,
An inextinguishable light
Of halos, wings, and Holy Might,
Shall play beneath the starry night,
Our green and gothic home.
The Grand Old Club, The Grand Old Man,
The Grand Old Amateur still stands.
So raise your voice and clap your hands!
It’s what her legacy commands.
Our green and gothic home.
And so, “so long,” but not “farewell,”
For soon again the cheers shall swell
Through every dale, dune, and dell,
As evening’s embers’ last faint glow
Fills full our hearts and fires our souls,
We’ll reminisce the story told
From holy whispers long ago:
“Within the city’s bustle lies
A gleaming jewel in glad sunrise,
An emerald ‘neath the blissful skies,
Our green and gothic home!
Our green and gothic home!
Our green and gothic home!”
Robert Trent Jones, Jr. to Receive Ellis Island Medal of Honor
Quintessential golf architect Robert Trent Jones, Jr. will be honored tomorrow night at the 2012 Ellis Island Medals of Honor ceremony, a high recognition given to remarkable Americans who exemplify outstanding qualities in both their personal and professional lives while continuing to preserve the richness of their particular heritage. Over 100 Americans descended from immigrants who passed through Ellis Island are honored each year for contributing to our country’s national identity, while preserving and promoting the distinct values and heritage of their ancestry.
This year’s recipients also include Frankie Valli and Brooke Shields, among others.
Established in 1986 by NECO, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor was designed to pay homage to the immigrant experience, as well as for individual achievement. Medals are awarded to U.S. citizens from various ethnic backgrounds whose professional and personal contributions have created a better world. Both the United States House of Representatives and Senate have officially recognized the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and each year’s recipients are read into the Congressional Record.
“I’m deeply honored and moved. I’m also overjoyed because I get to celebrate this honor with my loving wife Claiborne on both mother’s day and her birthday,” said Jones.
We’ll have more coverage of the event over the weekend. Last year’s winners included former Miami Dolphins football coach Don Shula and New York Daily News cartoonist and columnist Bill Gallo.
Christmas in May – The Travis Invitational at Garden City Golf Club
DEFENDING CHAMPION NICK "007" GILLIAM BEGINS HIS TITLE DEFENSE NEXT WEEKEND AT THE TRAVIS INVITATIONAL
TRAVIS TRIVIA!
Here’s a new feature for this year – each day you’ll get a Travis trivia question. Answer after the article.
Q. This winner of the 1998 Travis Invitational played out of Sunningdale in Westchester, defeated popular amateur competitor Ed “Scissorhands” Gibstein in the final, and was the only golfer in a five year period to supplant David Egar as champion. (The answer is at the bottom of this article.)
—The Grand Old Club, the Grand Old Man
The Grand Old Amateur still stands
So raise your voice and clap your hands
It’s what her legacy commands
Our Green and Gothic Home–
GARDEN CITY, NY – There is something sacred, something sublime, something unparalleled about the Walter J. Travis Invitational at Garden City. PGA Tour Players have the Masters; amateur golfers have the Travis. At 102 years young “The Grand Old Amateur” is still a Gold Standard example of how to run an amateur golf competition in America.
Founded in 1899 the Devereux Emmet design at Garden City Golf Club underwent a mild renovation in the mid-1900′s by fabled member, 1904 British Amateur champion, and later quintessential Golden Age golf course architect Walter J. Travis, whose work there mostly consisted of adding slight internal contours to the greens, (already wickedly tilted to one side or the other), and deepening the bunkers.
Travis may have done too good a job – the left front bunker on the par-3 18th hole cost him the 1908 U.S. Amateur title. He hit into it, but couldn’t get out, bowing to J.D. Travers in the national semi-final. It’s now called “Travis’s Coffin” as it’s said he “dug his own grave,” for that tournament at least.
However, the Grand Old Man did win eight “Spring Invitationals” as the Travis Invitational was called from 1902 – 1939. They changed the title to the Travis Memorial in 1940 and then again later to the present title. And for all that time, the Grand Old Amateur has remained remarkably constant: stately, charming, and dignified, the Travis is to amateurs what the Masters is to pros – a revival and a reunion. Each year, the members open not only their club, but their hearts and what results is a celebration not only of golf history and competition, but the game’s core values of altruism and camaraderie as well.
“You just can’t say enough about the members and how the minute you arrive, they make you feel a part of the club,” noted Kevin Hammer, one of the country’s greatest Mid-Amateur champions and a perennial threat to win the Travis. He was a semi-finalist in 2008, bowing to tiny, but plucky Mike Kelley, the eventual champion. “It’s so wonderful to hear how much they appreciate you coming to compete and bask in all the celebrations of the great history. ‘Camaraderie’ is the right word. ‘Throwback’ is another – it’s like stepping back in time through the decades. It’s changed so little, and that’s the beauty and rarity of it,” he concluded eagerly.
“Camaradarie is right. Ever since my sponsor, Noel Volpe, brought me here, I’ve been inspired by the devotion the members have toward their wonderful history,” confided a smiling Hans Albertsson. “The course is fantastic, but the wonderful good cheer of the members and the way they preserve and promote their one-of-a-kind history is even more refreshing. I look forward to seeing them each year as much as I do playing in the tournament. It’s a blessing.”
“I love that they haven’t touched anything there. I felt like I walked through time into the 1800s,” agreed defending champion Nick “007″ Gilliam, so named for all his hair-raising, James Bond-esque, late round escapes he produced in marching to the 2011 title in his rookie appearance in the Travis.
“You know what I love? My husband’s new nickname!” beamed his blithe, bubbly wife Jamie. “That makes me a Bond girl!”
Well if Gilliam hopes to repeat, he’s going to need more than a bunch of gadgets from Q and a beautiful Bond girl. Only 16 players out of over 120 make the championship match play bracket, so a golfer needs to keep super-spy cool in the crucible of Travis competition; the tournament is a rugged test of a contestant’s skill at both match and medal play over the three days of play.
“Friday is a single qualifying day where the top 72 players out of the field of over 120 will advance to the match play rounds conducted over the weekend,” explains tournament chairman Pat Fogarty, who is also a contestant. “The match play portion has five competition flights: a championship flight of the top sixteen players after Friday’s medal play, a second flight of the next sixteen players, and then three more flights of eight players each. Additionally, sixteen more players will qualify for the “senior legends flight.”
“One of the nice things about the tournament is that, with 72 qualifiers, a player has a good chance to advance to weekend play,” added Albertsson. Indeed, they need that many flights, as the quality of player the tournament attracts is staggering; well-decorated state amateur champions can lock horns with former U.S.G.A. championship winners in any bracket, one through five. One year Jeff Thomas, a seven time New Jersey state amateur champion, met Jerry Corville, a U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, in the fifth flight.
“Another year I remember Hunter Semels defeating Joe Sommers in a match where Hunter was 5-under and Joe was 4-under,” Albertsson recalled. “The level of talent the tournament attracts is staggering. Great champions can meet each other in any flight.”
“The field is so strong that the difference in ability between a top seed and a bottom seed in any flight can be negligible,” Garden City golf pro emeritus Gil McNally explained. “Moreover, the stroke play portion of the competition is only one round, where anything can and will happen.”
But while the field can be jumbled by the casual slings and arrows of the capricious bounces of a single round, the match play portion is an equalizer, giving the more skilled player a chance to overcome a high seeding and work through the brackets.
“In a tournament like this, being the top seed is not anywhere near as much of an advantage as it is in other sports like basketball,” McNally stated with a knowing smile. 2009 alone saw a startling bloodletting at the top of almost every bracket as five number one seeds out of the six flights were eliminated in the first round of match play. Then in 2010, medalist Dave Reneker of Bel-air Country Club tied the competitive course record with a sterling 67, only to bow out in the first round of match play.
COMING HOME - WHAT TOM DOAK CALLED "THE BEST EDEN HOLE IN AMERICA"
What makes Garden City such a great match play course is the large number of “half-par holes,” – easier holes that tempt you into going for birdie or even eagle, but also harder holes make you feel like your par picked up a shot on the field. Generally, players try to score on the four par-5s (4, 7, 13, and 17), and the shorter par-4s, then hang on for dear life the rest of the way around.
“You know that on some holes, it’s going to be a challenge to make a par, and no matter where you are on the golf course, if you miss an approach, you’ll be scrambling big time,” stated Allbertsson. “If you don’t capitalize early, you feel you’re under pressure because you have the hardest holes in front of you. Six, eight, and 10-12 are tough and, of course, 15,” he explains, describing the famous “Wall Hole,” a behemoth of a 487-yard, uphill par-4, bisected by a stone wall, its green so severely pitched from left to right, a mis-hit might end up on the adjacent 13th green. “You have get off to a good start, and avoid any big mistakes,” he concluded.
Albertsson additionally noted that the greens are also a cunning defense to the golf course, with both macro and micro-movement. “They might appear to be flat, but they have everything from subtle rolls to severe contours. They are challenging to read and are equally tough on approaches and greenside recovery shots. You must be patient and your short game must be sharp.”
“Every time I play it, I have a different favorite hole, and I learn something new about it every day,” agreed Gilliam. “I love the open links feel of the golf course. It’s as though it hasn’t been touched by time in 112 years.”
Additionally, Garden City is also known for its Muirfield-like rough – tall and thick – and its deep pot bunkers, sometimes not even big enough for one angry golfer and his wedge. One example is the short, but dangerous par-4 14th. Almost ringed with tiny, penal pot bunkers from tee to green, the hole resembles the great links holes of both Muirfield and Royal Lytham.
As a result, any hole can trigger a monumental swing in the momentum of the match. One minute you can be in the catbird seat, in the middle of the fairway with a perfect angle to the flag and your opponent in trouble, and then one shot later, you can short-side yourself greenside and be more toasted than your morning English muffin. The reversals Garden City doles out not only from hole to hole, but shot to shot make it one of the greatest match play courses in the World…anywhere, and that means no lead is safe.
Although the tournament is a Mid-amateur event, young guns have dominated of late. Last year, Gilliam was touted pre-tournament as a prize rookie by both Fogarty and Hammer and then won the tournament in his first appearance. Big Ben Hayes did the same thing in 2010, winning the Travis in his first try. Hayes was only a few short years out of college when he out-dueled his USC roommate and co-competitor on the golf team Brad Shaw in the semi-finals on his way to the title. Both he and Gilliam are favorites to make the championship bracket.
Other pre-tournament favorites include Hammer, Albertsson, Reneker, and a pair of Irish ex-pats known casually as “Owen 1″ and “Owen 2″ – that is Eoin O’Connor and Eoghan O’Connell. “Owen 2″ (O’Connell) is the larger one physically, hence “Owen 2.”
“Larger which way?” quipped Kevin Hammer, never passing up an opportunity to skewer his dear friend and partner in this year’s Anderson tournament, another major amateur championship conducted at Winged Foot. And you can bet, the longer they stay in the tournament, the more barbs they will toss at each other about their physiognomy and golf games. O’Connell won the Travis in 2006. He also owns and operates the Fox Club in South Florida – a club so Irish, it’s been dubbed “Dublin in the Palms.”
EOIN O'CONNOR (OWEN 1) PLAYS TO THE 1ST GREEN DURING A PLAYOFF HOLE LAST YEAR. HE WON.
Similarly, “Owen 1″, (Eoin O’Connor), has had two high finishes in the match play bracket. He’s an unflappable match play competitor – as relentless as he is precise and even-keeled. Watch out also for Roger Hoit, a former semi-finalist, Steve White, John Marisco, and Alan Fadel, who all had strong showings at the Coleman Invitational at Seminole two weeks ago and are rounding into form just in time.
But the Travis is much more than just the best amateurs in the country. It’s great local favorites like the always dangerous Joe Saladino, the 2008 runner-up to Mike Kelley and a periennial winner at Met Golf events, or attorney Joel Lulla who was runner-up in 2009 to Chris Lange, or Jed Raynor, the Garden City member who thrilled not just the members, but all the amateur golf world during his Cinderella run to the semi-finals of the 100th Travis in 2010. His remarkable performance proved that sometimes at the Travis, the race goes not to the strong, but the sturdy.
“The year I won we played five rounds in three days against the best competition in the country, and I remember Joel and I were absolutely exhausted by the final,” recalled Lange. “This golf course and this tournament test you on every shot. No one is going to run away and hide.”
But most importantly, the Travis is defined by the generosity and selflessness of the members. It’s the irrepressible Noel Volpe spreading good cheer as he roots for each player coming down the fairways. It’s the unquenchable Merrick McQuilling bringing the Sun with him wherever he goes, peals of sincere laughter at his raconteur wit ringing across the veranda. And it’s the unsinkable Billy Kreitsek sharing his infectious love of the game with new friends and old, as well as each and every member of Garden City who put ego aside the day they don their Garden City-green member’s jacket.
“It’s Christmas in May,” explained member Pat Mucci, laconically summing up the feeling everyone can’t help but embrace upon arriving at Garden City. He’s right – for one week, the golf world can see the true virtue – the sincere value – of the game in all its purity and graciousness. It’s refreshing to see things are still done with homespun charm and Olde World courtesy. The Grand Old Club, the Grand Old Man, the Grand Old Amateur still stands, in all its stoic, dignified, and venerable history. That’s part of what makes Garden City Golf Club an Ancient Splendor of Golf World – every word capitalized because it is the definitive article, as it were. And with the right kind of eyes, you too can see what golfers have seen there for over a century.
TRAVIS TRIVIA ANSWER: Ken Bakst. David Egar won in 1997 and then again from 1999-2001.
No one has ever Repeated as Players Champion at Sawgrass: Ballengee
Hat tip to Ryan Ballengee of Golf Channel for this tidbit I had forgotten:
No one has ever repeated as Players champion since the tournament moved to Sawgrass.
Now the question is…why? And what does the architecture have to with it?
May and June Scheduling at AWITP
Tournament coverage season kicks into fifth gear this next week with live daily reports from Garden City Golf Club for the Travis Invitational, Winged Foot for the Anderson Team Event, and then Olympic Club for the U.S. Open.
We’ll also have reports and reviews from no less than six excellent designs nationwide, featuring the work of Emmet, Mackenzie, Hanse, Brauer, Phillips, Urbina and more, so stay tuned.
Finally, as the hockey and basketball playoffs continue, we’ll have analysis from all our correspondents, including a new writer: Rex Goliath! (No…not the 47 pound rooster of wine fame.) Rex will join Bruce, Franklin, and Rodney. Look for him as the playoffs progress.
And get ready for a great Travis…
Golf Architect Bill Love Talks About Getting Olympic Club Ready for the 2012 U.S. Open
We caught up with Bill Love, the architect responsible for getting Olympic Club ready for this year’s U.S. Open.
Jay Flemma: We’ve heard that the opening stretch of holes at Olympic Club will be the toughest start to a U.S. Open in recent memory, but that there might be some birdies coming home. What look to be the toughest holes at Olympic Club and what look to be the birdie ops?
Bill Love: There are some holes that you’d think would be very difficult, like three. If they play the back tee at 247 yards to a small green for that length, that will be a difficult shot with wind and elevation change. On number two, the fairway has been aligned closer to the left side, and so now the hillside with a really steep slope-off is in play. Miss that by fairway too much and you’ll have a real issue even trying to find your ball, let alone trying to play it. Four is tough. It plays to a green plateaued on three sides. We lengthened six also and moved the fairway bunker to catch drives. 12 is a strong par-4, and so is 14. And 13 and 15, (the par-3s), have tough greens, so they’re no pushover.
Birdies opportunities? That depends on the player. Take a hole like 17, which was a brutal par-4, but is now a par-5. Also the short par-4 7th may be a scoring opportunity, but there aren’t too many easy holes out there.
JF: Winning score? Over or under 280?
BL: I can’t answer that, I don’t have any idea. We think this will be a strong test of golf, though. These targets are elevated and the addition of the mowed chipping areas around the greens will make it tougher still. Balls will roll quite a ways away from the target, so there’s a premium on approach shots. It’ll be interesting!
JF: Since the advent of Mike Davis’s graded rough, driving accuracy among U.S. Open winners has dropped in importance. From 2000-2005, winners averaged T-9 in driving accuracy. However from 2006-2011, winners averaged T-33 in driving accuracy. With all the trees at Olympic Club and with the reverse camber of the fairways, will we see driving accuracy play a more important role this year?
BL: What Mike Davis’s graded rough does is make the penalty incurred equate to how poor the golf shot was. Believe me, there will be some heavy rough to gouge it out of too. But we want to test all types of different recovery shots and let a player use all the shots in his arsenal.
The topography of the golf course is still relevant and important and how well you place the ball off the tee sets up the whole golf course. Now the topography at Olympic Club requires that you consider what will happen to the ball after it hits the fairway and runs along the ground. You must place the tee shots well, or they may run through the fairway or behind a tree, and you won’t have an opportunity for birdie.
Mike Davis does a great job with a lot of his ideas – like tee rotation at various holes. At the par-5 16th, they can make it really long if we stretch it to the tips, or over 70 yards shorter if they want. There are also new angles of tee boxes, right and left, so you’ll attack the golf course differently on a daily basis.
JF: Will the reverse camber have a limiting effect – a restrictor plate of sorts – on scoring?
BL: Because of the topography, people will be forced to move the ball both ways, which is a good way to not only defend scoring, but emphasize skill in a player. As such, Olympic Club is a unique golf course – one of a kind, and very special. It’s a unique piece of land and it hasn’t been manipulated. There are remarkably diverse holes, and it will be interesting to see the pros play it with so many trees gone. We don’t have tree limbs hanging all over the place like before, so it won’t have the claustrophobic feel to it that it had in past Opens.
JF: One player once said you could walk down the fairway sideways and feel the tree branches on your chest!
BL: Well, we cut down over 600 trees, so some holes won’t feel like you’re hitting out of a tunnel. In the past, there were so many trees you got a really narrow view off the tees, and that sort of became part of Olympic’s character. We got rid of the dead and diseased trees, again, over 600, and pruned out a few more just to give the healthy pines and cypresses room to grow. Now you don’t drive out of chutes so much.
That sometimes limited people’s perception of the golf course, and it was a bit unfair because it’s such a beautiful, rolling piece of property with lots of fairway undulations. This tournament you’ll see a broader panorama of the beautiful fairway surrounds and I also hope people will see not only the beauty, but the new strategies and angles we’ve put back in now that there are slightly wider fairways. We opened it up so they have longer views across the property, as well as also seeing more elevation change in the property. You’re going to see a completely different Olympic Club than in years past. And we did it all without modifying anything from tee to green on the course, (with the one exception of lowering the fourth tee to open up visibility a little bit, but it has no impact on play, and adding one fairway bunker on 17. We also lengthened the course by about 350 yards to provide a better test for today’s equipment).
JF: Some players and pundits believe the toughest U.S. Open tests are Winged Foot (West), Oakmont, and Oakland Hills (South). Last year, we saw one of the easier venues at Congressional. Where does Olympic Club fall on the list of difficulty?
BL: You’d have to ask the players, but I know the Lake course is rated consistently as a very tough test of golf. I think it could be the equal of Oakmont, Oakland Hills or Winged Foot. I’ll be very surprised if the players don’t find it a very strong test of golf. And Olympic could prove to have the strongest opening set of holes that the players have faced in a long time.
JF: How long, do you think?
BL: I don’t know exactly, but we know that – having worked on it and watched it come together, the first six holes are very strong. If they get around that stretch at close to par they will be doing really well, I think.
[Author's Note: USGA Executive Director predicted "2-over" for those six holes would be a good score.]
JF: We saw rather rudimentary golf design principles at Atlanta Athletic Club which featured ridiculous length and ubiquitous water. Does the reverse camber at Olympic Club show us that there is a better way of defending a course and toughening it up besides just water and length?
BL: The fairway undulations at Olympic Club are one way. The tops of the fairways have a lot of slope, so you must place your shot into the smaller plateau in the fairway and then, again, find the right section of these old-style greens. You’ll need iron accuracy and tee shot accuracy. So as you said before, Greens in Regulation will be a big factor. The defenses at Olympic do put a premium on precision.
JF: Oly lets everyone come to the party. Some strange rangers tend to swing by the winner’s circle at Olympic Club to pick up their check and trophy. Why?
BL: I never really thought about it that way, but I guess it could be true. The topography makes it so there’s no advantage to hitting it 350. You must have accuracy on your length…
JF: You mean distance control?
BL: Yes, so you don’t go into the back of a hill or through the knee of a dog leg or into some swale where you get an uneven lie. There are great slopes in these landing areas.
JF: Does a plodder have an advantage?
BL: You need a good tee ball and you need good course management, as well as execution. The new length – we added 300 yards – will make a difference, but it’ll be mostly placement in the fairways. I guess it makes sense – get it on the green and put it in the hole is what it’s all about.
JF: How did you get into golf architecture?
BL: I went to undergrad school for architecture at Catholic University and then grad school at U. Maryland. After I graduated I went out and worked in a building architect’s office for a while and they had a lot of work they did where they contracted with landscape architects.
I remembered that Frank Lloyd Wright said that building and site are so interconnected that everything is all one big design, so I went back and got a degree in landscape architecture at the University of Virginia. Back then my goal was to design football stadiums and other recreational facilities. But in school we did independent studies and theses. I was always interested in golf design, so I did one and they approved it, and I went out and interviewed architects. It was so fascinating and it combined everything I loved: nature, golf, the outdoors.
JF: So then what happened?
BL: I learned, “this is the ultimate recreational facility to design. This is as cool as it gets!!”
(Laughter)
JF: Who did you interview?
BL: It’s been a long time. Ed Ault, and Buddy Loving were two. Then once I got m grad work done, I went and got a job with Ed Ault for a while, and then I went out on my own. It was great working for Ed, I learned so much from him. He was from the old school of Geoffrey Cornish and George Cobb and Trent Jones, Sr. That’s where I learned the philosophies of that period. Then I studied the older architects to see how the craft evolved to get where it was.
JF: Who are you older favorite designers?
BL: I’m pretty partial to Mackenzie – I like his philosophy on working with terrain. Plus he got great sites and made the most of them. His greens and his bunkering were something else – not only to look at, but to play!
Isn’t it fascinating to look back on these architects and the sites they got, and you see how the mark of the great architects is in how they could make the most out of the land they got and make a truly great course out of it. I’m envious when I see how they could discover such interesting features in each course, bring it to fruition, and make it seem unique and special. They’d walk the landscape endlessly and connect with the property to understand the spirit of the place and the inherent nature and character of the land. Every property is unique and you have to bring out the best character of every site and enhance it through the design of the golf course. That’s the greatest thing about golf – you can go all around the world and play the greatest courses in the world, and they all have that “statement of place.”
I also like Tillinghast, Seth Raynor, and Donald Ross for the same reason. Take Bellport Country Club in the village of Bellport, Long Island for example. It’s an old Seth Raynor course on the south shore. The club dates from 1899 and I think the course was built maybe around 1921? It runs right out to the water, but they had to redo three holes to bring them up out of a marsh and do some shoreline stabilization. So Trent Jones, Sr. built three holes right on the ocean, but they weren’t in the flavor of Raynor, they were in Jones’s style and they were good holes, but they didn’t fit with the rest of the course and everyone knew it. So when I did a master plan in 2002 and suggested they redo those holes in the flavor of Raynor so they match the rest of the course, they agreed.
The Jones greens were fine, but we wanted to add Raynor features and strategies, so we redid all the bunkering, not the greens. We loved trying to emulate the bunkering work of Raynor and blending everything the best we could. We added long narrow bunkers with berming on one side, and some geometric bunkers and some rectilinear tees too. The tee boxes needed enlarging.
I remember one great hole, 17, where I’m going around with the super and we get to that green and it’s a bowl with a berm in front had chocolate drop mounds in front hiding it, making it blind.
JF: So it’s an Alps Hole?
BL: Yeah! So we were duplicating really interesting and bold things like that, or square bunkers, or anything Raynor would have done. We even did some chocolate drops.
But my favorite memory was turning to the super and telling him, “if I ever built this on an original design or suggested it to the membership of some private club that knew nothing about Raynor, they’d fire me!”
Bob Furchert was his name, and he laughed so hard after I said it, because he knew it was true. But it wasn’t unusual to him, he’s been there a long time. We are so pre-conditioned about maintenance – for the most part, not always, but often – I marvel at and admire his ability to have the members so in tune to what he was doing.
When you get the opportunity to build over the work of a great Golden Age architect: that’s one of the most gratifying moments of an architect’s life. So you take care to really be true to that architect and make your work look like it’s been there since the beginning of the golf course.
I got a wonderful compliment that really made me grateful and happy recently. We added a fairway bunker on 17th hole, where there had never been a bunker there before. Someone that played it said it looked like it had been there for the roughly 100 years of the golf course. Simulating Sam Whiting – that’s exactly what I was trying to do, and it sure was fun.
JF: What’s next for you?
BL: We’re opening a new course in North Carolina called Carolina Colors. It’s private, but it’s open for public play right now.
JF: Anything public?
BL: Laurel Hill in Lorton, Virginia. It used to be a federal prison 12 miles from D.C. down I-95 corridor in Fairfax County. It will host the 2013 U.S. Publinx.
Cybergolf to run my Interview with Bill Love, the Architect Prepping Olympic Club for the 2013 U.S. Open
Cybergolf is running my interview with Bill Love, the architect doing all the renovation work at Olympic Club for this year’s U.S. Open. The link is here.
From the article:
JF: Who are you older favorite designers?
BL: I’m pretty partial to Mackenzie – I like his philosophy on working with terrain. Plus he got great sites and made the most of them. His greens and his bunkering were something else – not only to look at but to play!
Isn’t it fascinating to look back on these architects and the sites they got, and you see how the mark of the great architects is in how they could make the most out of the land they got and make a truly great course out of it. I’m envious when I see how they could discover such interesting features in each course, bring it to fruition and make it seem unique and special. They’d walk the landscape endlessly and connect with the property to understand the spirit of the place and the inherent nature and character of the land. Every property is unique and you have to bring out the best character of every site and enhance it through the design of the golf course. That’s the greatest thing about golf – you can go all around the world and play the greatest courses in the world and they all have that “statement of place.”
“I also like Tillinghast, Seth Raynor and Donald Ross for the same reason. Take Bellport Country Club in the village of Bellport, Long Island, for example. It’s an old Seth Raynor course on the south shore. The club dates from 1899 and I think the course was built maybe around 1921. It runs right out to the water, but they had to redo three holes to bring them up out of a marsh and do some shoreline stabilization. So Trent Jones, Sr. built three holes right on the ocean, but they weren’t in the flavor of Raynor, they were in Jones’s style and they were good holes but they didn’t fit with the rest of the course and everyone knew it. So when I did a master plan in 2002 and suggested they redo those holes in the flavor of Raynor so they match the rest of the course, they agreed.
The Jones greens were fine, but we wanted to add Raynor features and strategies, so we redid all the bunkering, not the greens. We loved trying to emulate the bunkering work of Raynor and blending everything the best we could. We added long narrow bunkers with berming on one side, and some geometric bunkers and some rectilinear tees too. The tee boxes needed enlarging.
I remember one great hole, 17, where I’m going around with the super and we get to that green and it’s a bowl with a berm in front had chocolate drop mounds in front hiding it, making it blind.
JF: So it’s an Alps Hole?
BL: Yeah! So we were duplicating really interesting and bold things like that, or square bunkers, or anything Raynor would have done. We even did some chocolate drops.
But my favorite memory was turning to the super and telling him, “If I ever built this on an original design or suggested it to the membership of some private club that knew nothing about Raynor, they’d fire me!”
Bob Furchert was his name, and he laughed so hard after I said it, because he knew it was true. But it wasn’t unusual to him, he’s been there a long time. We are so pre-conditioned about maintenance – for the most part, not always, but often – I marvel at and admire his ability to have the members so in tune to what he was doing.
When you get the opportunity to build over the work of a great Golden Age architect: that’s one of the most gratifying moments of an architect’s life. So you take care to really be true to that architect and make your work look like it’s been there since the beginning of the golf course.
I got a wonderful compliment that really made me grateful and happy recently. We added a fairway bunker on 17th hole, where there had never been a bunker there before. Someone that played it said it looked like it had been there for the roughly 100 years of the golf course. Simulating Sam Whiting – that’s exactly what I was trying to do, and it sure was fun.”
Forsgate’s Todd Edelman Featured in Golf Business Magazine
Let’s have MORE than just a golf clap for Todd Edelman, Director of Business Development at Forsgate Country Club, because he’s been featured in this month’s issue of Golf Business Magazine. Music lover, outstanding golfer, father of the year candidate – his little daughter is adorable – and now golf business exec non pariel.
Way to go Todd, way to go Forsgate! For the rest of the article, check in on-line or in news stands. And Todd, welcome to the Honor Roll.
Video of the WEAK! Ron Artest Elbows James Harden
While we finish up some serious U.S. Open prep work, get ready for the Travis Invitational at Garden City and the Anderson Team event at Winged Foot, and continue our Architect’s Progress Series, here’s proof that Ron Artest is still the same jerk he was before changing his name to Metta World Peace. How about changing your name again to something more appropriate like Snot Fishy Poot Stain?
NBA action – It’s Fantastic!