Golf is a game for a lifetime, it has often been said. A young boy or girl picks up a club, and

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Golf is a game for a lifetime, it has often been said. A young boy or girl picks up a club, and"

Evan Brooks
5 years ago
Views:

32-41_Nov 2011_CS-Legends_v4_v4 11/15/11 6:20 PM Page 32 COVER STORY OF THE GAME Through their talent, commitment, and passion, eight local legends have each spent more than half a century making

1 32-41_Nov 2011_CS-Legends_v4_v4 11/15/11 6:20 PM Page 32 COVER STORY OF THE GAME Through their talent, commitment, and passion, eight local legends have each spent more than half a century making golf a better game BY THE EDITORS Golf is a game for a lifetime, it has often been said. A young boy or girl picks up a club, and decades later is still holding a club or perhaps giving a lesson, taking a picture, or designing a championship course. As the cradle of American golf, the Met Area is fortunate to have more than a few people who have enriched the game for virtually their entire lives. Some are household names; many are not. The eight we chose to profile here are but a sample of the remarkable people whose experiences in the game span generations, and who set a treasured example for all of us. Tom Nieporte Age: 83 / Professional Emeritus, Winged Foot Golf Club, Mamaroneck, N.Y. In 1967, Nieporte won the Bob Hope Desert Classic, and remains the last club professional to win a PGA Tour event. It was such a big thrill for me, he said. I was standing over that last 12-foot putt and said to myself, Come on now, Tom, you deserve to make this. You ve spent a lot of time practicing these. I really psyched myself up before the putt, and went right up there and knocked it in the cup. I won by one over Doug Sanders. Nieporte was the head professional at the Piping Rock Club on Long Island and, from 1978 to 2006, at Winged Foot. The club members have meant so much to me. They had confidence in me being a good club pro, and I put that together with being able to hit the golf ball pretty well. And there were good players at both clubs, so even the casual rounds were great. Nieporte s career spanned a golden era in golf and significant developments in golf equipment. Physically, the players today are in better shape than we ever were. But Palmer, Nicklaus, Snead, Hogan, Demaret, all those guys I played with were just so talented. Remember, in those days you d hold a golf ball up by your forehead and drop it on concrete, and it d only bounce up as high as your knees. Now you drop it, and it hits you in the chin! I think the players had to be more skilled. He has advice on what young pros need to work on to succeed in tournament golf. Consistency is the key. In a four-round tournament, going from 68 to 80 won t work. But two 71s will work. I was a very good putter from four feet and in, and I got that way by practicing. Some of his fondest memories of tournament golf were about camaraderie, not competition. It was like a big family out there. If someone was running low on money, someone else would lend it to them. And we supported each other. In 1964, I was paired with Ben Hogan and Bobby Nichols in the final round of the PGA Championship in Columbus, Ohio. Tom Weiskopf, who was playing at Ohio State at the time, came out and walked the final 36 holes with me, saying he was going to bring me luck [Nieporte won the 1951 NCAA Championship while at Ohio State]. I told him, Yes, you are. I birdied the first hole and ended up tied for fifth, and I was a club pro, so that felt pretty good. RICHARD GRAULICH THE MET GOLFER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

32-41_Nov 2011_CS-Legends_v4_v4 11/15/11 6:20 PM Page 34 Dave Anderson Age: 82 / Pulitzer Prize-Winning Columnist, The New York Times The 1967 U.S. Open at Baltusrol, won by Jack Nicklaus, was the first major championship Anderson covered, but 1972 was among his most memorable years.

2 32-41_Nov 2011_CS-Legends_v4_v4 11/15/11 6:20 PM Page 34 Dave Anderson Age: 82 / Pulitzer Prize-Winning Columnist, The New York Times The 1967 U.S. Open at Baltusrol, won by Jack Nicklaus, was the first major championship Anderson covered, but 1972 was among his most memorable years. Nicklaus won The Masters that year, and then he won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. I had to convince my editor, Jim Roach, that it was worth sending me to Muirfield to cover the British Open as Jack pursued the Grand Slam. He had me go over early and cover Wimbledon, and then I followed Nicklaus every hole at Muirfield. On my way home, they had me stop in Dublin to cover a Muhammad Ali fight against Al Blue Lewis. So they got their money s worth on that trip. Among golfers, Nicklaus holds a special place for Anderson. I ve always said that Nicklaus was the best interview in sports. He d sit there as long as somebody had a question, and if another golfer was coming in he d go off to the side or outside and stand there and talk to whoever wanted to talk to him for another 20 minutes or whatever. He was the best. He thinks the golf media could have been a lot tougher on Tiger Woods over the last two years. I think they ve been fair if anything, they ve been easier on him rather than harder on him. Especially the television media, because no one seems to want to offend him. I don t think anyone can offend him more than he offended himself. George Plimpton once said that the smaller the ball, the better the writing. Anderson sees why. In golf, it s just the player and the ball, and there s nobody in between. It s not like other games, when the coach gets grilled or talks about the game. There are so many people involved. In golf, the player s by himself. That s the beauty of it. One of his most important achievements is one that not many people know about. I tell you, I m proudest of winning the William P. Richardson Award [given by the Golf Writers Association of America for outstanding contributions to golf] in Because it s not just a journalism award, it s given to all different kinds of people in golf. I think, Wow, my name is on the same trophy as Jack Nicklaus? Something s wrong here! THE MET GOLFER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

32-41_Nov 2011_CS-Legends_v4_v4 11/15/11 6:20 PM Page 36 Joe Cantwell Age: 81 / Past MGA President, Tournament Chairman, and USGA Rules Official Cantwell got involved with the Rules of Golf through a

I retired early and was looking for things to do. So Jimmy got me introduced to the MGA, and then Dick Silver became a real influence and a mentor to me.

3 32-41_Nov 2011_CS-Legends_v4_v4 11/15/11 6:20 PM Page 36 Joe Cantwell Age: 81 / Past MGA President, Tournament Chairman, and USGA Rules Official Cantwell got involved with the Rules of Golf through a fellow member at Hempstead Golf & Country Club. There was a member named Jimmy Smith, and he had been involved with the MGA and was a good friend of Dick Silver. I retired early and was looking for things to do. So Jimmy got me introduced to the MGA, and then Dick Silver became a real influence and a mentor to me. And then I did well at USGA Rules School and was invited to join the USGA Rules Committee. USGA Rules officials are in high demand. I ve officiated seven U.S. Opens, 10 U.S. Senior Opens, three U.S. Amateurs, and 15 or so U.S. Public Links Championships. I ve had the chance to visit some great courses I loved Riviera, and of course Pebble Beach. Actually one of the most memorable was the 1999 U.S. Senior Open at Des Moines Country Club in Iowa. They have 36 holes there and they configured an 18-hole course that was really beautiful. The crowds were terrific that year, too, and it was during the time that I got assigned to Arnold Palmer s group three straight years. Cantwell, a native Long Islander, also officiated both U.S. Opens at Bethpage Black. That first Open was so special. It was like being in the middle of Madison Square Garden. It gave the public golfer an opportunity to not only see all these great players, but also to express pride in the fact that Bethpage was the host of this great event. Cantwell nearly had to call a penalty on Palmer, one of his favorite players. It was the U.S. Senior Open at Riviera, and I spotted what I thought was Palmer s ball in the thick kikuyu rough. It was buried so deep that he couldn t see any markings to identify it, so he asked me, Can I pick it up? I said yes, and he started to bend down and I said, Whoa, wait, you have to mark it. I could see myself being torn apart by his gallery if I had to call a penalty on him. Luckily I stopped him in time. It s been a great ride for one of the most respected Rules officials in the country. No one ever enjoyed the experience more than I did. I enjoyed every minute of it. In major championships, you re out there for four and a half hours of relaxation and then 30 seconds of terror if you re called in for a ruling. But almost every time I came off a golf course, the players were appreciative. They said thank you, and that means a lot to a volunteer. Yogi Berra Age: 86 / Baseball Hall of Famer One of the most famous players in baseball history took up golf more than 60 years ago. I started playing back in 1947, when I lived in St. Louis [his hometown] during the off-season. Stan Musial got me started and I originally played left-handed, just like I hit a baseball. But I switched to righty a few years later. However, I ve always been a lefty putter. He is a longtime member of Montclair Golf Club in West Orange, N.J., and hosts an annual celebrity golf outing there to raise money for various charities. My son Timmy joined Montclair and then convinced me to join him. I love it there. We have such a diverse membership and, most importantly, 36 holes. We re a big family at MGC. I ve been lucky enough to win plenty of prizes in charity events, but I just give my prizes away. The fun to me is in the winning, not what you get for it. I let my partners have the prizes. He keeps a level head on the golf course, even if other members of his family don t. My favorite playing partners are my three sons: Larry, Timmy and Dale. We have a ball on the course, but they sure get mad! After I retired from baseball, I was a coach and manager so I always kept golf in perspective. I could always have fun with it and always said, Thank God I don t make a living playing this game. Don t get me wrong, though, I was competitive. I liked to hit with men on base, and I liked to make 10-footers. I wasn t scared. He has witnessed evolutions in golf and baseball over the years and isn t in a hurry to go back to the way things used to be. I like to be positive about everything. I ll say things have changed for the better in both sports. Conditions, equipment, training, and travel are all better. Of all the baseball players Berra has known and played with, there is one in particular who used his skills well on the golf course. Probably Mickey Mantle. He was so strong, and he could hit an old balata ball 300 yards, with accuracy. Mickey was a low single-digit player. He was a heck of a lot better than me. I could hit a baseball farther than I could hit a golf ball! People ask me to remember some of my best shots, and I have no idea. All the good shots blend together. TOP: JIM KRAJICEK; LEFT: YOGI BERRA MUSEM 36 THE MET GOLFER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011

And there was this old Irish pro, Terry Connors, who was giving lessons there, and I d stop to watch. One day he asked me, Are you interested in golf?

4 32-41_Nov 2011_CS-Legends_v4_v4 11/15/11 6:20 PM Page 38 Louise Munro Age: 85 / 27-time Club Champion, Innis Arden Country Club, Greenwich, Conn. Munro knew nothing about the game when she first started. I was raised in Stamford, and we lived near a nine-hole public course at Cummings Park. And there was this old Irish pro, Terry Connors, who was giving lessons there, and I d stop to watch. One day he asked me, Are you interested in golf? And I shrugged I mean what does a 12-year-old know? Well, if you want to play golf, I ll teach you. So I showed up the next day and the first thing he did was put a club in my hand and let me swing it. And he showed me pictures of Sam Snead, and he said, I want to make you swing like Snead. I can really tie back my love of the game, and of practicing, to him. She is a 27-time club champion [most recently in 1995], including 15 in a row. I hit a fairly good tee ball. Not long, but good enough. But from 100 yards in, I was deadly. And I loved practicing; I still do. This fall we had a really foggy day, and I was the only one out there hitting balls in the fog. She s quite the prankster. I remember once getting to the 18th tee, playing with this gal, and it was just the two of us. It was summertime. And I like to joke around. When she got through hitting her ball, she turned around, and there I was with my blouse off with my bra showing. She says, Louise, what are doing?! I said, It s warm out here. So before I hit my approach shot the pro comes down with his cart, and I put my blouse on again, and she said, he almost saw you without your blouse. And so the pro drives down to the side of the 18th green. He stops, turns around, and yells, it s in the hole! The ball went in the hole in two, and I said, see, it pays to take off your shirt. She wants to leave a lasting legacy at the club besides being a celebrated champion. I think I ve inspired other women here at the club. I try to encourage them and I send them congratulatory cards each time someone wins the championship. I donated the Munro junior golf trophy, too. I tell people to enjoy the game and show it, play according to the Rules, and be fair and honest. Just be a good human being all-around. She appreciates the way players of her generation approached the game. They didn t have fairways that were cut perfectly. They didn t have yardage markers. It was all interpretation. They knew how to get the ball in the hole. I was partners once in a competition with Patty Berg. We lost 1-down, but it was fun to watch her play. RUSSELL KIRK/GOLFLINKS Steve Kozak Age: 90 / Caddie, Upper Montclair Country Club, Clifton, N.J. Steve Kozak is believed to be the oldest active caddie in the country. I really enjoy being outside and on the golf course. I first started caddying at Yountakah Country Club in Nutley [New Jersey]. I did that for four years during high school. I ve been at Upper Montclair since 1970 and I won the caddie championship in I really enjoy being at this club with all of the members here. I ve seen two holes-in-one. While many people of his generation are retired, Kozak doesn t let his age keep him from doing what he loves. Caddying keeps me in great shape, and I continue to walk all 18 holes. I m not carrying the bags any more, but when I go out, I have four putters and I am reading the greens and giving distances. I live close to the course so I come over a couple times a week and will normally caddie once on the weekends. Life hasn t always been fairways and greens for the U.S. Marine Corps veteran. I served in the Marine Corps during World War II from I was there during Iwo Jima. When I got back, I went to work for a little while and then re-enlisted for another three years. I spent 13 months in Korea. As the longest-tenured and oldest member of the caddie brigade at Upper Montclair, Kozak has seen a change in the people he guides around the course. They re now better players, and better payers. Upper Montclair held a luncheon in Kozak s honor for his 90th birthday, on October 1, It was really nice of everyone to come out and give me a pat on the back. I m very lucky to be at a club that appreciates its caddies. I hope I can continue doing this for as many years as I can. 38 THE MET GOLFER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER THE MET GOLFER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

32-41_Nov 2011_CS-Legends_v4_v4 11/15/11 6:20 PM Page 40 Rees Jones Age: 70 / Golf Course Architect, Montclair, N.J. In his role as U.S. Open Doctor, Jones was responsible for getting Bethpage Black ready for its first U.

Some people in the crowd knew who I was because I had been in the papers so much, and I kept hearing We got em, Rees! or You stuck it to em! or The course won, Rees! It was pretty exciting.

5 32-41_Nov 2011_CS-Legends_v4_v4 11/15/11 6:20 PM Page 40 Rees Jones Age: 70 / Golf Course Architect, Montclair, N.J. In his role as U.S. Open Doctor, Jones was responsible for getting Bethpage Black ready for its first U.S. Open in One of my favorite memories was being inside the ropes in the final round at Bethpage that day. Some people in the crowd knew who I was because I had been in the papers so much, and I kept hearing We got em, Rees! or You stuck it to em! or The course won, Rees! It was pretty exciting. Jones has seen numerous changes in course design over his career. When I started out we didn t have the environmental constraints we have now, but I think they ve made courses better because they made it harder to work in low-lying wetlands and took us up to highlands, where we can use the ground game in our design as well as the aerial game. We were also much more casual back in the early days. We used to do a lot more work in the field. Now we do more detailed plans because of the approval process. We still do a lot of field work, mainly in the design of the green complexes. The single biggest factor in whether or not he takes a design job is the piece of land. The essential ingredient is having enough land to create 18 holes that have enough room. Gently rolling topography is great, even a flat piece of land is fine. But if it s just too rugged or on a major sidehill, then you have a problem and it s not going to be a fun experience. There are many more sites available to us these days because of the popularity of the game and people s willingness to invest. But some sites shouldn t have golf designed on them. You want to build 18 natural golf holes. As one of the sons of the legendary Robert Trent Jones, Rees learned many valuable lessons. His first piece of advice to me was that if I was going to design courses that would host major championships and that the pros would play, I d better develop a thick skin. And I have. You have to have a thick skin in any design endeavor, especially one that is interacted with, like a golf course. It s not a passive space, it s an active space, and it s going to evoke different emotions from different people, probably in every round. RUSSELL KIRK/GOLFLINKS Jules Alexander Age: 85 / Photographer, Rye, N.Y. Known for his classic photos of Ben Hogan, Alexander was primarily a fashion photographer before deciding to come to the 1959 U.S. Open at Winged Foot. I had heard about Hogan, naturally, but had never seen him. I followed him while he was playing a practice round with his good friend Claude Harmon. And I was totally absorbed by the man and the way he moved and played, and even the way he smoked a cigarette. What a miracle that was, to start my time in the game with one of the greatest to ever play. Following that Open, Alexander began to cover golf just as he was also taking up the game. I had been mostly confined to a studio, and golf brought me outside where I was able to move around. It was totally different from any other outdoor location shooting I d done. And because I had started to play golf, I was really interested in following the Tour and taking photos of these great players. It was the way I learned, because I never really had a lesson. I heard a great quote from Hogan once. He said, If you play well one day, don t go to sleep, because things will be different in the morning. Besides Hogan, other players caught Alexander s attention and camera. I get asked a lot who were my favorites to shoot, and I say Peter Jacobsen, Chip Beck, Ben Crenshaw, guys like that. Phil Mickelson, too. The U.S. Open is my favorite tournament to shoot, and I was there this year at Congressional, following Rory. That was really exciting, because he was just a young guy taking over. He knows that taking a good picture is often a matter of taking advantage of opportunity. It happens quickly. You come upon a scene, and you re lucky to be there. An example is the photo I took of Payne Stewart where it looks like he s standing on the green all alone and yet there were eight people besides him. That was an opportunity that just presented itself, and obviously I was in the right position and the fact that he was on a green and I was in a collection area and the lens was low enough so that it was equal to the sole of his shoes. If I was lower, you wouldn t see his ankles, and too high and you d see the background and all the people. You have to be lucky a lot of the time. 40 THE MET GOLFER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER THE MET GOLFER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

Brandt, if we can just get some opening comments on the round and what keyed you to the 59.

Brandt, if we can just get some opening comments on the round and what keyed you to the 59. ROUND 1 INTERVIEW August 16, 2018 BRANDT SNEDEKER ( -11) JACK RYAN: We're joined by Brandt Snedeker -- BRANDT SNEDEKER: Say it, please say it. JACK RYAN: -- after an opening 59 -- BRANDT SNEDEKER: Thank