The titans of Long Island golf

BY JEFF WILLIAMS
Newsday Staff Writer

From the beginning of golf in America, Long Island was there. Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, completed in 1890, was the first 18-hole course in America and in 1894, became one of the five founding members of the United States Golf Association. It hosted the second U.S. Open in 1896, and subsequent Opens in 1986 and 1995.

Golf on Long Island burgeoned throughout the next century. During that time, many people who loved the game here played important roles in golf's development and success.

What follows is an attempt to single out the 10 most important people in Long Island golf history. They include the first PGA Tour commissioner, Joe Dey Jr., one of the first great amateur players, Walter Travis, and one of the best women amateurs, Marion Hollins.

Not included here is Robert Moses. The great park builder is responsible for the creation of golf at Bethpage because he is the creator of Bethpage State Park. But he did not spend a lifetime of involvement with golf, not like those who have made Newsday's list of the most influential Long Island golfers.

This is a consensus of a panel of Long Island golf experts who themselves have been passionately involved in the game. Two of the panelists, Joe Donahue and Charles Robson, are themselves named in the top 10 for their career contributions to area golf.

JOE DEY JR.

Joe Dey Jr. loved golf. He loved the game's integrity and its style. For the better part of four decades, Dey was at the very heart of golf in America. Born in Norfolk, Va., he spent time in Philadelphia, and by the time he arrived on Long Island, he was the executive secretary of the United States Golf Association and later its executive director, positions he held from 1934-69. Dey treated the rules of golf religiously, would brook no infringement of the rules or the etiquette of the game. He expected golfers to behave properly.

In the late 1960s, PGA Tour professionals were becoming unhappy with the PGA of America, the ruling body of club professionals, which at the time administered the PGA Tour. There was one man who they felt could execute the breakaway, establish a stand-alone PGA Tour and do it in a manner that was consistent with the tradition of the game. They called on Dey, who became the first PGA Tour commissioner in 1969.

Until his death in 1991, Dey lived in Locust Valley and was a member of the Creek Club. He was one of three Americans elected captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland. He was revered and admired as a giant of the game.

WALTER TRAVIS

Walter Travis was Australian born, but came to New York in 1885, first to Queens, then to Garden City. He didn't take up golf until 1896, at the age of 35. Within four years, he was one of the best amateurs in the United States and one of the most influential players in all of golf.

Travis won the 1900, 1901 and 1903 United States Amateur Championships. He won the 1904 British Amateur Championship. When all the best athletes were in their 20s, Travis defied logic and age by winning major tournaments in his late 30s and early 40s. He was fondly called the Old Man.

His 1900 Amateur Championship was won at Garden City Golf Club, where he was a member. He was so revered at the club for his accomplishments that when he suggested changes to the layout, the membership obliged. He served as greens chairman for 10 years, wrote extensively about golf and became editor and publisher of The American Golfer magazine. He became a golf-course architect with noted designs at Westchester Country Club, Garden City Country Club, Cherry Valley Country Club and Canoe Brook.

MARION HOLLINS

In the first half century of golf in America, women played golf but were not part of its ruling elite. Marion Hollins changed that. Hollins was a great all-around athlete on Long Island, capable of world-class play in many sports, including polo.

But she excelled at golf, and in 1921, she won the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship at Hollywood Golf Club in New Jersey. It was her only national title, but her influence in the game went far beyond competition. At the time, women were often prohibited from playing on weekends at private clubs and were seldom allowed to be full members. So Hollins founded the Women's National Golf and Tennis Club in Glen Head in 1924, for women only. It was an immediate success, but the Depression took its toll and by 1947, the club was sold to members and renamed the Glen Head Country Club.

Hollins had moved west by then and had become close with noted golf-course architect Alister Mackenzie. She helped found two of California's finest courses, the exclusive Cypress Point Golf Club on the Monterey Peninsula and the public Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz. No woman played as great a role in golf at the time as Hollins.

JOE DONAHUE

It would be impossible to calculate the number of hours, days, months and years that Joe Donahue, Garden City resident and member of Garden City Golf Club, has devoted to golf on Long Island and in the metropolitan area.

Donahue has been president of the Metropolitan Golf Association and the Long Island Golf Association and is now the LIGA's executive director. While at the MGA, Donahue was a tireless worker. He was active in fighting tax laws that he thought would overburden clubs. He ensured that the MGA played a major part in the United States Golf Association's handicapping service and because of his encouragement, the MGA became the first golf association to offer its members in-house computerized handicapping services.

Now 76, Donahue oversees the Long Island Golf Association and its 78 member clubs, private and public. He runs the tournaments and has recently overseen a mentoring program for disadvantaged youth. If it has to do with Long Island golf, chances are Donahue has something to do with it.

GEORGE SANDS

George Sands was 5-foot tall. But when he died at age 99 in September 2000, he left behind a tall legacy of service to the game that spanned more than seven decades.

Sands was a past president of the MGA and the LIGA and acted as an official at local events well into his 90s. He was a member of the North Shore Country Club for 80 years. Virtually everywhere he went to officiate golf or watch golf, his wife, Majorie, was by his side.

Among Sands' friends were Bobby Jones and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1953, he helped found the Ike Tournament, one of the premier amateur events in the metropolitan area. In 1962, he helped found the Long Island Caddie Scholarship fund and was tireless in his promotion of it. Nearly 500 caddies have received college scholarships through the fund. He created the MGA's Presidents Council, an educational forum.

Sands was never a great player himself, but treated the game as both a competitive institution and a great social gathering. He was famed for telling stories, recalling events in minute detail even if they had occurred a lifetime before. He was a small man who was a big part of the game.

JOE CANTWELL

If there is a competitive golf event of any stature anywhere on Long Island or the New York Metropolitan area, Joe Cantwell will be there. If there is any USGA event of any stature anywhere in the country, chances are Cantwell will be there. Everyone knows that he knows the rules of golf.

Cantwell is a Rockville Centre resident and has been a member of Hempstead Golf and Country Club since 1978. He has been president of both the LIGA and MGA. He gives seminars on the rules and is an official at such USGA events as the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Senior Open.

He became the 54th president of the MGA in 1998 and launched a major organizational review and laid the groundwork for major fund-raising for the MGA Foundation, its public-service wing. As an administrator, he had an impact, but as a rules official he does what he loves to do, vowing that anywhere people gather to play the game, he will be there. Somehow, he always is.

CHARLES BLAIR MACDONALD

Born and raised in Chicago, Macdonald was one of the founding fathers of golf in America. He was sent to college in St. Andrews, Scotland in 1872, discovered golf while there, and brought his passion back to America. After founding and designing the Chicago Golf Club, Macdonald moved to New York, where he was instrumental in the founding of the USGA and became the winner of its first amateur championship in 1895.

Macdonald made an indelible mark on Long Island with his National Golf Links of America in Southampton. The National was the first true championship course in the country and was the product of Macdonald's robust passion for the game. He was a bombastic man, either loved or hated, but his impact was profound.

The National's club was founded by Macdonald in 1904, but it took trips to the United Kingdom, where he sketched the classic golf holes, and a further search of properties on the East Coast before Macdonald settled on a 205-acre site fronting Peconic Bay. It was there he fashioned a classic of American golf, opened in 1911 and still one of America's most exclusive clubs. He also designed Piping Rock Golf Club and Lido Golf Club, a spectacular links course started one week before World War I broke out.

MICHAEL HEBRON

Michael Hebron has devoted a lifetime to teaching golf on Long Island, and in a very real sense, he has devoted a lifetime to teaching people about discovering themselves.

Hebron is the director of golf, head teaching professional, general manager and all around major domo of Smithtown Landing Country Club. From there, he holds forth on the game of golf on a national and international basis. He gives lessons at the club, but his reach goes way beyond Smithtown. The basis for his instruction is providing a learning environment for golf, and not just giving "how-to" advice. He has written four books, instructional articles for major magazines and has lectured on his learning techniques in Europe, Japan, Canada and all over this country. He is regularly mentioned as one of the top teaching professionals in the United States. Junior golf has been particularly close to Hebron's heart. He sponsors the MetPGA's Junior Tour on Long Island.

DEVEREAUX EMMET

Devereaux Emmet's name is not one that often comes up in casual conversation about golf on Long Island, but his mark is everywhere.

Emmet was a socially and financially prominent man who enjoyed the finer things in life, such as hunting and hunting dogs. When his attention turned to golf, he became one of most prominent course designers of the early 20th century.

As a founding member of Garden City Golf Club, then known as Island Golf Links, Emmet was given the job of designing the original course. He became a proficient player, reaching the quarterfinals of the British Amateur Championship. But his talent lay more in course design than playing.

Among his designs are the Red Course at Eisenhower Park, then known as Salisbury Park. He laid out Lenox Hills Country Club (now the Green Course at Bethpage State Park), Huntington Country Club, Huntington Crescent Club, Glen Head Country Club, Rockville Links, Lawrence Golf Club, Seawane Club, St. George's Golf Club and Wheatley Hills Country Club.

CHARLES ROBSON

More than 25 years ago, Charles Robson sat at a small desk in a small room upstairs at Wykagyl Country Club in New Rochelle, the newly appointed executive director of the Metropolitan PGA Section. He had his desk, a phone, and a typewriter.

Robson was very much at the center of the Met PGA because he was the organization's sole employee, in charge of everything from conducting the MET PGA's tournaments to organizing medical benefits to obtaining sponsors.

Today, Robson has his own office, a staff, and oversees one of the biggest and most admired PGA sections in the United States. Under Robson's leadership, the tournament roster has multiplied, prize money has been raised and innovative programs have been established, such as "Golf in Schools" for inner-city youth.

Robson is a member of Garden City Golf Club. The strength of the Met PGA, as it stands today, is his legacy to the game on Long Island.

Who Picked 'Em

Joe Donahue, executive director of Long Island Golf Association.

Charles Robson, executive director of the Metropolitan PGA Section.

Rick Hartmann, head professional of Atlantic Golf Club.

James Tingley, historian.

Al Falussy, reigning Long Island Amateur champion.

Ann Enstine, longtime top player in Met area.

Dr. William Quirin, golf historian and author.

Bill Edwards, longtime top amateur.

This story was originally published in Newsday on May 19, 2002.

Copyright 2008 Newsday Inc.