“Ye friends that weep about my grave Compose your minds to rest Prepare with me for sudden death And be forever blest” That is the chilling epitaph on the forlorn, grey tombstone standing sentinel over wealthy oxen farmer Baltus Roll’s lonely grave in a northern New Jersey Presbyterian burial ground. His was a pioneering family in the region, so...
Forsgate and he Banks Course Ready for 9th Annual Golf Writer Battle Between New York, Philly –Special to AWITP by Correspondent Rodney Zilla MONROE TOWNSHIP, NJ – There’s Giants-Eagles, Mets-Phillies, Rangers-Flyers, and Knicks-Sixers, and each one of them has iconic moments. Remember? “It’s a fumble! Herm Edwards picks it up! Oh no...
We said this was a terrible idea, and each day we are proved more prophetic. If it’s not fecal matter on the water, savage protests, a recession with people starving in he streets, government corruption to make even Hillary Clinton blush, it’s now a mosquito-borne virus that delivers genetic defects to your kids while slowly decaying your brain and blood...
OAKMONT, PA – All week long this was a U.S. Open that begged to be forgotten. From a Thursday washout that declawed the golf course and left everyone wrong-footed and playing catch-up to the rules flap that luckily didn’t turn the tournament into a morality play, this 2016 U.S. Open wasn’t Oakmont or the USGA’s finest hour. Swirling in the...
PITTSBURGH, PA – —The noise afterwards, It rises up like a storm, As if you were the Thunder God himself. Proximo to Maximus the Gladiator— Like a scene from Gladiator, the roar of adulation rang from Erie to Allentown and from Scranton to Akron. No mere coliseum could match it. Conquering heroes were returning home, and this is Pittsburgh. When you...
MAMARONECK, NY – For the first time since 2009 the John G. Anderson Memorial Trophy will spend the year at home, and you can bet that every junior golfer in the club will make a point of stopping by for a little inspiration. Chris Troy and James Nicholas, each junior club champions at storied Winged Foot Golf Club, will have their names up on the grill room...
OAKMONT, PA – We’ve had our ledes written for 17 years, but still haven’t been able to use them. “Phinally Phil!” “Phillin’ Groovy!” “Mickel-slam!” – they all lay useless in a seldom used Microsoft Word file I call “The Well of Lost Plots,” where bits of articles that end up on the cutting...
OAKMONT, PA – They’re called “half-par holes” be cause they play either much easier or much harder than the par on the scorecard states, and they are often the key to winning a golf tournament. Be it stroke play or match play, the ability to negotiate the razor thin edge between a birdie (or even eagle) or a triple bogey is the difference...
—Friends to Jay: “Who’s going to win the U.S. Open this year?” Jay to Friends: “Oakmont, that’s who.”— Of all the major championship venues I’ve seen in my career as a sports writer – and I’ve see everything from Augusta to Pebble and back – Oakmont is my favorite. Cresting the hill of the second...
MAMARONECK, NY – Brian Williams pitched in from perdition to open the day’s play with lightning, while college stars Chris Troy and James Nicholas closed the day with thunder, using gargantuan length and unyielding pressure to pummel their opponents by a combined score of 8&7. Winged Foot members all, along with Williams’s partner Hans...
MAMARONECK, NY – With all the merciless ferocity of the Headless Horseman himself, Sleepy Hollow Country Club’s Cameron Young and Michael Quagliano fired a blistering 8-under 62 on Winged Foot’s formidable West course Friday for a 2-day total of 4-under to claim medalist honors in the 80th Anderson Memorial Tournament at Winged Foot. Meanwhile...
SCOTCH PLAINS, NJ – Raise a glass to 100 years of rousing cheers. Shackamaxon Country club in northwest New Jersey celebrates their centennial this year. It’s another runaway success for the tandem of owner/developer/magnate Chris Schiavone and golf architect Stephen Kay. Finger pressed firmly on the zeitgeist of modern golf architecture, they’ve...
MAMARONECK, NY – One’s called “Sandman,” because he puts opponents in a sleeper hold until they succumb. The other, “Phatty” to his friends, is one of a fourball tandem known as “The Silent Assassins,” that used to go undefeated through state championship caliber fields. Yet this week these former rivals teamed up in...
MAMARONECK, NY – Set your TiVo for Fox Sports 1 this weekend, because you’ll get a rare and wonderful opportunity: Winged Foot’s East Course, in all its majesty and splendor, will finally get the close-up it so richly deserves as the USGA and the television cameras descend on the venerable club – the Yankee Stadium of golf – for the...
Great job by the wonderful folks at GolfCourseTrades.com for running my article on Old Town Club, the last great course of Perry Maxwell. It’s a wonderful course in Winstom-Salem, NC, the home course of mighty Wake Forest! From the article: “It is impossible to understate how important Old Town is to both Maxwell’s legacy and the study of golf...