With the fall growing season right around the corner, the
superintendent at the East Marion Golf Association's course has great hopes that everything will look fresh. He is especially optimistic about how the tiny bent grass seeds will take root and germinate.
This should go well with the elevated tee boxes, the landscaped contoured bunkers, the fescue that lines the fairways and the colorful plants that blossom just beyond the greens that will benefit from overseeding.
Yes, this could be a good season for the club, where the members are appreciative and enthusiastic.
They are also 6, or a little younger.
All of this is in the backyard of Chris Vedder, the former head pro at Island's End Golf Club in Greenport, which is only about a drive and a 3-hybrid away from his new course. This one is composed of two holes, the par-3 first, which is 35 yards, and the longer, tougher second, which is 45. But the yardage doesn't say it all. You have to take the wind into account. There are no big trees to block the breeze.
"It's a links course, obviously," said Vedder, 52, who now is a stay-at-home dad.
It also clearly is a labor of love. He spent more than $1,000, and tapped friends and neighbors for help, in building the course for his son, Christopher, 6, and the neighborhood kids.
One afternoon last week, when Vedder's wife, Deborah, a teacher in Miller Place, was out doing school shopping, the former club pro was giving impromptu lessons to Christopher about his putting stroke. "It's all in the shoulders . . . you just use the big muscles," big Chris was telling little Chris.
"Well, I'm a firm believer in team sports. But just to have him outside and away from the computer is great," Chris Sr. said.
"It's fun," the younger golfer said of having a course in his backyard, a layout that includes regulation holes and flags and that involves local knowledge. Young Chris, in a round with this reporter, cautioned about hitting into the high grass on No. 2: "There are ticks in there," he said.
Chris Sr., meanwhile, presided over the pro shop, which is how he spent much of his professional life - although back then, it was a real pro shop and not his garage.
Vedder grew up in East Williston, playing at Nassau municipal courses and hitchhiking to the East End to be with his buddies whenever he had about $20 to burn.
"My parents retired out here," he said. "I was in the landscaping business at the time. Then my dad talked me into getting an assistant pro job at the club. They kind of knew me because I was out here playing golf three times a week. They called me an assistant pro so they wouldn't have to pay me overtime. Basically, I just worked behind the counter."
He did pass his test and earned PGA membership. After 10 years as an assistant, he worked 13 years as the head pro. He still misses the day-to-day interaction with the people he came to know. But he is excited about watching Chris grow up and about 1-year-old Erin Rose of Guatemala, whom he and Deborah are in the process of adopting.
"It was always a kind of dream of mine to design a par-3 course and landscape it," said the man who used his contacts in golf and landscaping to get the right materials.
The dream starts at the edge of his driveway, with the Leyland cypress, green-eyed susan, butterfly bush and Moerheim spruce that are flourishing by the second green - a green that should be smoother and faster this fall, yet still able to withstand the foot traffic from Christopher, his friends Keegan and Brendan and the rest of the children on the block. They wear T-shirts with a logo that includes the initials EMGA.
Vedder said that within the next 10 years, he wants to spare Deborah the commute, so they might move to the mountains somewhere. If they do, they will leave to the next homeowner one of the most spirited golf courses on Long Island.
