24 H E GOLFER MET THE T photographers who were as much disciples as they were counterparts. asmuchdisciplestheywere photographers whowere mediacenter, thecavernous pass through hewasstoppedoftenbyother When Alexander, fitatage80,would andremarkably stillimpeccablydressed “JulesAlexander, (itread USGA”). allowed himthesameaccessasUSGAstaff collection ofhis work. keeps anexpansive Alexander, athomeinRye, meant more tohimthanBenHogan meant more than45years,andnone ofthegameformore greats the Photographer JulesAlexanderhaschronicled Focus A Legendin Up Close meant more tohimthanBenHogan meant more than45years,andnone ofthegameformore greats the Photographer JulesAlexanderhaschronicled Focus A Legendin Up Close cial credential bytheUnitedStatesGolfAssociationthat cial credential assignment,hewasissuedaspe- Though hehadnoformal Alexander wasgrantedaparkingspotclosetotheclubhouse. milesaway, shuttledinfrom While othermediamemberswere Jules Alexanderwasnotjustanyphotographer.was apparent Foot,it U.S.OpenatWinged themostrecent hroughout AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2006 rapher, buthewasanovice whenitcameto York photog- City asafashionandcommercial der hadbeenmakingagood livinginNew earlier.nearly ahalf-century In1959, Alexan- FootOpen year tothatofanotherWinged Compare theexperienceforAlexanderthis Compare the striking figure ofBenHogan,then 47but the strikingfigure eyesettledon thathisperceptive It wasthere hisneck. coursewithhiscameraaround ontothe hesimplywandered credential, formal any station.Without theMamaroneck from GrandCentralandthenwalked train from andthensome. off, Tuesday andWednesday.” The“practice”paid Sundaybutyoupracticeon Thursday through motioning tothedrivingrange.“You play “It’s likepracticing assignment,” which theaction.Alexandercallsita“self- chronicle Footand,onalark,decidedto ing toWinged abouttheOpencom- shooting golf.Heread To Foot,Alexander tookthe gettoWinged YSMWEINMANBY SAM Y SMWEINMANBY SAM out there,” Alex out there,” he stillgiveshimselftoday. WWW.MGAGOLF.ORG ander said,

JEFF WEINER PHOTOGRAPHY still a formidable presence. Impressed by ed a studio he couldn’t afford, but because of Hogan’s swing, captivated by his steely it, was able to land advertising work for the likes demeanor and stylish attire, Alexander soon of Eastern Airlines and Camel cigarettes. “From began snapping photos: Hogan at address. there,” he said, “I was on my way.” Hogan past impact. Hogan on the green, put- Though a natural athlete – he still swims ter at his side, gazing off into the distance. regularly – Alexander didn’t start playing golf From that week alone, Alexander came away until after the war, when he used to go to with dozens of photos of the nine-time major Mosholu and Van Cortlandt Park and play for champion – furthering the legend of one of the a quarter. To watch him swing today, it is game’s most intriguing characters; and in the apparent that Alexander is as much a natural process, helping to create a legend of his own. with a golf club in his hands as he is with a cam- era. He’s been as low as a 5-handicap and is now closer to a 9 or 10 at Westchester Country “The Hogan images from 1959 elevated Club, where he has been a member since 1971. He plays a couple of times a week here, and is Alexander into the highest tier of golf still capable of shooting his age. “We call him photographers, and many of the game’s biggest the best golfing photographer in the world,” son Paul said. “I think he plays so well because names can be counted among his fans.” he’s got such a good eye.” Alexander’s somewhat accidental entry into Alexander grew up in the Bronx, and his the golf world makes it even more remarkable father used to take thousands of pictures of him to view the arc of his career. Even now, it is dif- and his brother, as well as 16-millimeter home ficult to overstate the influence the late Hogan movies. Intrigued by photography, Alexander had on Alexander. Though the photos Alexan- said he knew he wanted to do it for a living as der took at the ’59 Open sat mostly untouched early as age 12. He entered the service in 1944, for more than two decades (it took the and was charged with taking aerial photographs prompting of his two sons to share them with during World War II. Professionally, he got his the world), they eventually made their way into start shooting actors and musicians, even shoot- advertisements for the Company. ing Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington for Down They were the inspiration for a vastly popular Beat magazine when he was just a teenager. coffee-table book, “The Hogan Mystique.” After the war, he came back to New York, rent- And they elevated him into the highest tier of golf photographers, and many of the game’s Golf: An Alexander Family Affair biggest names can be counted among his fans. “Every time I go to Winged Foot, I get the t would be rare for any father creepies because I could almost feel him there. to claim two sons who are He was such a strong influence, such a strong Iamong the area’s leading club professionals. And yet in personality,” Alexander said from his Rye, New the case of Paul and Carl York home overlooking the Westchester Coun- Alexander, you might say it was try Club driving range. “I would know where inevitable. he was on certain shots, on certain holes, how Growing up as members of he overcame the golf course. I would get all Westchester Country Club, the these funny feelings just because he meant so two sons of Jules Alexander much to my career.” had the club’s practice range literally outside their kitchen Though the Hogan photos are his trade- window. Because of their Jules and his wife Danna, with sons Paul mark work, they were in many ways just the father’s status as a leading and Carl. beginning for Alexander. He would go on to golf photographer, they had a shoot countless covers for golf publications, steady stream of Tour players stopping 41, is in his third season as the head including one for this magazine’s April/May pro at Brae Burn Country Club in by the house. Throw in the singular 1990 issue that featured , Arnold influence of Jim McLean, now one of Purchase, while Carl, 40, is in his the game’s premier teachers but then second season as the director of golf at Palmer, and Lee Trevino – together, an ambitious young Westchester the Golf Club of Purchase. “For me and in one photo. He has done landscapes, por- assistant, and the two Alexander boys Carl, obviously growing up at the end of traits, not to mention thousands of photos of were able to immerse themselves in the the driving range was a huge influence,” the game’s greatest champions in action. His game from an early age. Paul said. “So was having Jim McLean work is so respected, several top players have Decades later, both have grown into as a teaching pro. And so was having a actually solicited him. He has been commis- dad who was really supportive and impressive players and teachers at sioned by Tour pros such as Brad Faxon, Ben clubs less than two miles apart. Paul, loved golf.” Crenshaw, and Tom Lehman to photograph

26 THE MET GOLFER AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2006 WWW.MGAGOLF.ORG forward, then tapped the table to tell him to sit down. “He looked at me for like 10 seconds, and then he waved at me,” Alexander said. “And I said to myself, ‘Oh please, don’t say anything stupid to this guy.’” Apparently they hit it off. The meet- ing was no more than 10 minutes long, and went well enough for the two to have a picture taken together. But it wasn’t until after the golfer’s death that Alexan- der learned of the impression he left. “Jules was one of my husband’s favorite people,” Hogan’s widow Valerie would say later. “He really admired Jules as a photographer, but even more as a gentleman.” Perhaps it’s because Hogan saw a bit of himself, both men meticulous in He just turned 80, but their children. their appearance, and in their Alexander still spends invited himself over to the devotion to their craft. Even most days working in his Alexander home to study the now, Alexander will spend studio (above). A 1990 photographer’s work. During a hours following a single cover shot (right) united four of the game’s greats. recent outing at the Golf Club golfer, studying their ten- of Purchase, the two-time U.S. dencies so as to know where Open champion Curtis Strange he can capture them up recalled the time when Jules close. Walk around the office came to his Virginia home to in his home, and the walls photograph him for GOLF are literally covered with Magazine. indelible images of golf’s “You know you’ve made it when Jules major figures: Woods, Palmer, and Nicklaus. Alexander calls you and says he’s coming down And, of course, Hogan. to photograph you,” Strange said that day. One of Alexander’s favorite photos hangs Said his son Carl: “That’s where those on the wall opposite his desk. It is from a Hogan photos changed things. When my Dad practice round at Winged Foot in ’59, a half- said he’d want to shoot you, it commanded a smile across Hogan’s face, a ball near his feet. lot more respect… It was a defining moment (Valerie Hogan would say it was her favorite for him, like a golfer who won a major.” photo of her husband as well, and the author If his photographs of Hogan were his most James Dodson chose it for the cover of renowned works, it was his lone face-to-face his 2004 Hogan biography). Even now, meeting with the great man that remains Alexander thinks about the genesis of that among the photographer’s most cherished photo, how Hogan never said a word to him, memories. Bear in mind that Alexander had but still reached out to the photographer in his been in Hogan’s presence on several occasions, own subtle way. photographing him not only at Winged Foot, “I sit at my desk and I can see the picture but the next year in the U.S. Open at Cherry every day, and just recently I began to think, Hills, and even more than a decade later when ‘Why did he stand there just long enough for Hogan played Westchester. But the two men me to take all these frames with three different never spoke until an afternoon in 1992, when cameras?’” Alexander asked. “You can’t do Alexander was in Hogan’s hometown of Fort that in two minutes. But he’s looking across Worth, for a photo shoot, and he finally the green at Claude Harmon. And I’m going worked up the nerve to meet his idol. to have the temerity to think that he posed for Fourteen years later, the details of that visit me by saying to himself, ‘I’m going to give this are etched in Alexander’s memory. Hogan was guy a shot.’” ■ in the grill room at Shady Oaks Country Club, Sam Weinman is a golf writer for The Journal News eating lunch with his back to Alexander. When in Westchester County and contributes frequent he saw the photographer, he summoned him articles to The Met Golfer. JEFF WEINER PHOTOGRAPHY WEINER JEFF

28 THE MET GOLFER AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2006 WWW.MGAGOLF.ORG