FALL-WINTER 2020 | VOL 10 NO 3 SNEGOLFER.COM SNE GOLFER PLAYERS OF THE YEAR ISSUE GOLF DOING WELL DURING W EN E GL N A N N D R E G O H L T F U E O R S CONTENTS Southern New England Golfer | SNEGOLFER.COM PAG E 10 PAG E 14 PAG E 26 RISING SUZY MONTCALM STAR WHALEY GOLF CLUB COVER WOMEN’S NEPGA 05 STORY 17 GOLF 22 CHAMPIONSHIP RIGA CENTRAL MASS PAYNE’S 09 NOTEBOOK 19 GOLF 27 VALLEY FUTURE 20 WESTERN MAP 10 STARS MASS 3 0 LISTINGS Editor/Publisher Contributing Writers Account Executives Southern New England Golfer is published 4 times per year: BRUCE VITTNER DAVE ADAMONIS, JR. BUCKY SHEEHAN Spring, June/July, August/September, and fall. Occasional emails [email protected] BRUCE BERLET JAY WHITE will go out to subscribers throughout the year. TODD CAMPBELL Design SCOTT CORDISCHI Web Design Mail all articles, releases and other items to: ROB AREL KATHARINE DYSON blackdoorcreative.com Editor, Southern New England Golfer STEPHANIE MARTINEAU JAY GEARAN P.O. Box 10038, Cranston, RI 02910 TOM GORMAN For advertising Materials will not be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, Staff Photographers BRUCE HUTCHINSON information self-addressed envelope. All rights reserved. JIM CALORIO MIKE KIRBY call BOB LAVALLEE GREG DEWALT 401-464-8445 Southern New England Golfer is not responsible for advertising CHRIS MIRACLE email copy. Corrected advertising will be placed in future issues. Sales Manager DAN VUKELICH [email protected] JIM GRAY © 2020 Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. editorial elcome to our third and last issue of initial scares from the pandemic. Golf is an outdoor sport right? People 2020. Normally we do four issues per keep a six-foot distance between themselves quite easily on a golf course. Wyear, and once in a while there are even For a month and one-half nothing happened in the golf industry. five issues. This year does not quite qualify as Certainly not in the golf publishing industry when course owners and normal. When we started trying to get advertisers retailers didn’t know where their next dollars were coming from. back in March, the world, and certainly southern The end of May and the beginning of June really showed a turn New England, had just started to hear the words around. Courses started filling up their tee sheets. Regular golfers couldn’t “coronavirus and Covid-19. wait to resume their wonderful game. Athletes who couldn’t play their The golf world came to almost a favorite sport, switched to golf because it was allowed. Couples started complete stop. The Masters was postponed, to play golf to get out of the house. Families started to play golf together. golf was not allowed in Massachusetts and People had more disposable income because they couldn’t eat out, go to Rhode Island and golf shops were closed the movies, travel, fly, take a cruise, and many other activities that were in for business. Course owners were panicked, limbo because of this crazy and very serious pandemic. rightfully so! Connecticut was the only beam There are a couple of stories right near the front of this issue that shining as they remained open throughout the I hope you read. Page 5’s cover story highlights the thoughts from the previous paragraph. My favorite quote from an owner was by Glen Bourque of Chemawa G.C. in North Attleboro, Mass.—Covid has been the Vaccine for the Golf Industry. What a true statement. The National Golf Foundation that TRIVIA we quote in this issue raves about how golf is booming; some say back to What College did they Graduate the days of the Tiger Effect. The same holds true for the retail golf industry. from? There are some good comments on page 7 In the 31 years that I have been doing this publication we have never 1. Bryson DeChambeau had a 2,500 word story. Can’t say that anymore after you read Bruce Berlet’s 2. Collin Morikowa story about Connecticut’s Suzy Whaley, who just completed her two years as 3. Jack Nicklaus president of the Professional Golfers’ Assn., a body of 29,000 professionals 4. Arnold Palmer around the country. Bruce said it was one of his favorite columns of all time 5. Billy Andrade because of the person, and also the position that she filled. Hope you enjoy it, and don’t stop for lunch in the middle of reading it. 6. Bubba Watson One of the true joys of this publication is the chance we have to 7. Patrick Reed visit and write about great golf courses. We visited Montcalm G.C. in New 8. Keegan Bradley Hampshire last month and it was an amazing place. Word has it that it will 9. Ricky Fowler turn private within the next couple of years, so make it a point to play it 10. Brad Faxon Furman 10. before you can’t. We also have a story written by two of my friends from Oklahoma State Oklahoma 9. the golf industry. They went to Payne’s Valley near Branson, Missouri to St. Johns St. 8. write about this wonderful course designed by Tiger Woods in the Ozark Georgia 7. Mountains to memorialize the late Payne Stewart who came from that area. Georgia 6. Thank you to all my writers who continue to do a fine job telling Wake Forest Wake 5. stories that you probably would not see anywhere else. We will be back with Wake Forest Wake 4. the next issue in April 2021. Let’s hope that things are better and the golf Ohio State Ohio 3. industry continues to shine. Keep your head down and swing easy. Oklahoma State Oklahoma 2. SMU 1. BRUCE VITTNER Answers Bruce Vittner is the publisher/editor of snegolfer.com and can be reached at [email protected]. 3 If we didn’t tre t our customers right, our owners would be mad. Because they’re the same people. Our customers are our owners. Federally insured by NCUA COVER STORY By Bruce Vittner GOLF IS THRIVIng DURIng THE PAndeMIC “ The Pandemic was a Vaccine for the Golf Industry. ” espite the pandemic and spring shutdowns with any owner of a public course was with to people have more time to visit different golf of golf courses in our area, the rounds of Glen Bourque of Chemawa G.C. in No. Attleboro, courses when they don’t have to go into work. Dgolf in 2020 are outpacing rounds in 2019 Mass., the pretty 18-holer that draws players Being outdoors is certainly a positive trait for golf. in both June and July. This news comes from the from both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Many gyms and fitness centers were closed for National Golf Foundation that is considered the “Our golf rounds are almost back to a normal a long time, and people still wanted to exercise. bible of golf statistics. year after having lost seven weeks of no playing What better way than walking around a beautiful We did our own survey of golf courses in the in Massachusetts in April and May, but our food parklike setting like a golf course! southern New England area to get their feel for and beverage income is almost non-existent,” said Alan Rustici who owns the fine 27-hole what has been happening in this unprecedented Bourque. facility, Elmridge Country Club, in Pawcatuck, year where so much of our lives have been turned Here are more of Bourque’s quotes. “The Conn. spoke of how is business is up 20 upside down by this Covid 19 pandemic. Many Pandemic was a Vaccine for the Golf Industry.” I percent from previous years. “We were fortunate didn’t want to reveal their percentages, but some wanted to use that as a headline to the story. He that Connecticut kept the golf courses open offered us some information for this article. went on to add that he is seeing many new players throughout the pandemic, as it is very easy to “The tee sheets have been mostly full,” said at his course. “We are seeing many couples socially distance on the golf course. We saw Tom Palmer, manager at Cranston C.C. “We have playing, and also entire families. There are way many new golfers come in off the street that had lost a great many of our tournaments, but some more people in their twenties playing golf during never been here before. Our tournament business have been rescheduled and others have already the day. I think that many people are working from has suffered with many cancelled in the spring, promised that they will be back next year. We home, and decide to play golf in the middle of the but now they are being held and most are happy struggled to keep up with the cart situation when day to get away from the home office, as you can just to get a box lunch after the round.” players were limited to one in a cart, but that has choose to work any part of the day at home,” said Rustici quoted the National Golf Foundation, ended. We have seen so many new people and Bourque. saying that many people have shown interest in many of them are young,” he added. Many course owners talked about new playing golf, but just weren’t doing it over the last The most interesting conversation I had players at their golf course. This might be due ten years. “This year’s pandemic has proven that 6 on Page Continues Story GET FIT BY OUR EXPERTS IN-STORE FOR FREE! EXPERTS + TECHNOLOGY = THE PERFECT FIT MAVRIK SIM SPEEDZONE UTILIZING THE BEST TECHNOLOGY IN THE RETAIL GOLF INDUSTRY! 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