Aulenti, Lane and Hermanson Elected to CT Golf Hall of Fame
The three newest members of the Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame earned entry via bags full of achievements on AND off the course.
Bill Hermanson of the Black Hall Club in Old Lyme has won eight Connecticut State Golf Association individual titles and 35 four-ball events with fellow Hall of Famer and close friend Dave Szewczul in between a seemingly non-stop business life in his “silver bullet,” the customized golf shop/van that he has driven from Connecticut to the Canadian border as a manufacturer’s rep selling apparel, headwear and accessories.
Between moderate success as an amateur and LPGA Tour and club professional in the late 1970s and ’80s and a senior player the last six years, Angela Aulenti has made her major mark as an instructor and innovative club pro, most notably since she became the first female head pro in Connecticut at Sterling Farms Golf Club in Stamford in 1994.
Tom Lane was a caddie and competitive amateur growing up across the street from the third green at Race Brook Country Club in Orange and next door to fellow Hall of Famer Robert D. Pryde but has garnered most of his recognition and notoriety as an enthusiastic, behind-the-scenes ambassador of the game.
Hermanson won the 1973 state schoolboy championship while at Old Saybrook High, the Connecticut Amateur Stroke Play Championship in 1983, the CSGA Mid-Amateur five straight years (1990-94) and again in 2001, the CSGA Amateur in 1991 and ’99 and the State Tournament of Champions in 2006, as well as the dozens of four-balls with Szewczul and the 1997 CSGA Mixed Team title with Nicole Faniola, a former state women’s amateur champion.
A 23-time club champion at Black Hall in the last 35 years, Hermanson was CSGA Player of the Year in 1991 and runner-up in 1981-82 and has played on 25 Julius Boros Challenge Cup, including on May 2, 21 Tri-State and three USGA State Team Match teams, competed in the 2006 and ’08 U.S. Mid-Amateur and served as CSGA team captain in 2003-04. In 2009, the trophy awarded to the winners of the CSGA
Though neither of her parents played the game, Aulenti could have qualified for the Hall of Fame in the “distinguished golf achievement” or “distinguished service to golf” category after spending much of her youth around Longshore GC in Westport. While her mother ran the food concessions, Angela designed her own three-hole course around the pro shop at 8 years old and often was escorted off the main course by her father, a policeman, after sneaking on. The gendarmes finally gave up reporting her and let her play when she reached 10.
After winning the Connecticut and Metropolitan (N.Y.) Junior Championships and Southern New England Women’s Golf Association Championship twice in the late 1970s, Aulenti spent several years as a Monday qualifier on the LPGA Tour and played in the U.S. Women’s Open in 1977-79 and LPGA Championship in 1979. Then after 11 years as an assistant to Gene Boerk at Metropolis CC in White Plains, N.Y., she became the head pro at Sterling Farms, running the golf operations there and at cross-town E. Gaynor Brennan GC. She transformed the Sterling Farms shop into a player-friendly place for golf and merchandise while building active programs for men, women and juniors, including a 10-week summer program that attracts about 600 inner-city kids from Stamford. Such endeavors led to her being named LPGA Northeast Section Merchandiser of the Year in 1998, 2003 and ’11, Met Section Merchandiser of the Year (public course) in 1998, LPGA national Professional of the Year in 2003 and 2011 and LPGA national Merchandiser of the Year in 2004 and ’06.
Aulenti won the LPGA Club Pro Senior Championship in 2007 and national Mixed Team Championship with Kammy Maxfeldt in 2009, was runner-up in the LPGA Club Pro Championship in 1988, finished second twice and fifth twice in the Met Women’s Open in the 1990s, won the Met PGA Assistants Championship in 1990 and was named Northeast Section LPGA Senior Player of the Year in 2007-08. She has been LPGA Teaching and Club Pro national chairperson, is serving a two-year term as LPGA Northeast Section president and opened the Aulenti Club Fitting Studio, featuring Trackman technology, in 2010. In 2002, Golf For Women magazine ranked her among the top 50 teachers in the country, and as a breast cancer survivor since 2005, Aulenti has been an honorary chairperson for the Susan G. Komen Rally for a Cure.
The 81-year-old Lane, a member at Race Brook for an astonishing 56 years, won the club championship in 1963 and many best-ball events but has spent most of his time in the game as an administrator. He got involved with the CSGA in 1974 as a member of its executive committee and the New England Golf Association 20 years later. He has been president of his club (1980-81), the CSGA (1993-94) and NEGA (2004), served as the CSGA representative to the NEGA (1997-98) before being elected to the executive committee in 1999 and then moving through the ranks to president in 2004. He has remained active at Race Brook and as a CSGA and NEGA official to this day.
Meanwhile, John Marion (Norwich GC) was named CSGA president, Peter Kaufmann (Woodway CC-Darien) vice president, Stan MacFarland (Manchester CC) vice president competitions, Jim Healey Jr. (Madison CC) vice president club relations, Ben Briggs (Silvermine GC-New Canaan) secretary, Shelly Guyer (Oak Hills Park GC-Norwalk) treasurer, Jack Bracken (Hartford GC-West Hartford), special advisor and legal counsel and Judy Smith (Orange Hills CC) special advisor. Herb Lyon (Suffield CC) was named Volunteer of the Year, and Wampanoag CC in West Hartford received the Distinguished Club Award.
NOWOBILSKI, NICHOLS ENTER CT SECTION PGA HALL OF FAME
John Nowobilski and famed one-armed golfer Jimmy Nichols were longtime friends until Nichols’ death in 1987, so it was only appropriate that they entered the Connecticut Section PGA Hall of Fame together.
A 34-year member of the PGA of America, Nowobilski has been the head pro at Tallwood CC in Hebron for more than three decades after previously working at Wee Burn CC-Darien, Farmington Woods CC and Pautipaug CC-Baltic. He was a two-time All-American at Central Connecticut State University in his native New Britain, qualified for the 1985 national Club Pro Championship and is the only player in the 61-year history of the PGA Tour’s annual stop in Connecticut to qualify as an amateur, a pro and then a section pro (twice).
Off the course, Nowobilski has won numerous section awards, starting with assistant of the year in 1976 and also including Horton Smith (1982, ’87), Professional of the Year (1986), Public Merchandiser of the Year (1997), Teacher of the Year (1998) and Bill Strausbaugh (2007). It helped lead to John being a three-time recipient of the President’s Award and asked to serve as chairman of the committee celebrating the section’s 75th anniversary in 2008. And since 2002, he has run the Harry Nowobilski Memorial Golf Tournament in memory of his late father that has raised about $170,000 for the Connecticut Section PGA Golf Foundation to support junior golf, his father’s passion.
Nichols was a native of Texas who lost his right arm in a train accident in 1929 at 24. He played with the likes of World Golf Hall of Famers Babe Zaharias, Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen and also conducted countless clinics and instructed many people who were similarly disabled and looked to golf for its therapeutic qualities. The gregarious Nichols was the first pro at Westover GC, the teaching pro at Jabish Brook GC (Mill Valley Golf Links) in Belchertown and Heritage CC in Charlton, all clubs in Massachusetts. He was a Spalding advisory staff member for 41 years, the first one-armed golfer to play in the Masters and PGA Championship, received the Golf Writers Association of America’s Ben Hogan Award (1962) and was named Connecticut Section Professional of the Year (1976).
FOUNDATION HANDS OUT MORE THAN 20 GRANTS
The section foundation handed out nearly $30,000 in financial grants to more than 20 programs, events and organizations. They included The First Tee of Connecticut; the Stan Trojanowski Junior Tournament; SARAH Inc. (Special Olympics Golf Team); Physically Challenged and Special Olympics Golf Clinics at Lyman Orchards GC in Middlefield; Gaylord Hospital Sports Association; Don Miklus LPGA Girls Golf & Disabled Golf; Mount Sinai Golfers in Motion Rehabilitation Program; Special Olympics of Connecticut; Special Olympics of Massachusetts; the Charlie Ormsby Golf Clinic; and several other junior golf tournaments.
The foundation also elected new officers and directors to one-year terms. They included board members Rich Crowe (Rockledge GC-West Hartford), Gary Reynolds (PGA Life Member) and Frank Selva (Orange Hills GC), who have served on the foundation since its inception in 1995. Selva also continued as president, a position that he assumed from Reynolds in 1999. Joe Connerton (Hartford GC) was elected vice president and Jeremy Vitkauskas (CC of Farmington) was named secretary. Crowe, Reynolds, Jim Bedus (PGA Life Member), Jeff Beyer (Willow Brook GC-South Windsor), Tim Gavronski (Shuttle Meadow CC-Kensington) and Timmie Stathers of Tolland were re-elected to the board of directors, while newcomers were Kevin Mahaffy (Pequabuck GC-Bristol), Shaun Maher (Stanley GC-New Britain) and Jim McDonald (Western Massachusetts Family Golf Center-Hadley, Mass.).
New section officers include president Mike Grady (Lake Waramaug CC-New Preston), vice president Bill Flood (Rock Ridge CC-Newtown) and secretary Ian Marshall (Watertown). New board members are Jason Waters (Hop Meadow CC-Simsbury) and Andrew Campbell (Black Hall Club). … PGA Life Members Bob Rogers and Walter Lowell, the national Professional of the Year in 1978, have reached 50 years of membership in the PGA of America, while section executive director Tom Hantke, Rob Barbeau (Old Lyme CC), Mike Carney (Watertown GC), Bob Geambazi (Ridgewood CC-Danbury), John Klug (Mill River CC-Stratford), Joe McLaughlin (Dick’s Sporting Goods), Dan Malarney (PGA Retired Member) and Jim McMahon (Wethersfield CC) reached 25 years.
TRAVELERS EARNS THREE PGA TOUR AWARDS
The Travelers Championship received three of the PGA Tour’s “Best of” Awards for “Most Fan Friendly Event,” “Best Use of Players” and “Best Title Sponsor Integration” for the 2012 tournament, which Marc Leishman won at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell. Tour officials and tournament directors from around the country presented the awards at the tour’s tournament meetings after a selection process.
“We are so fortunate to have Travelers as our title sponsor since 2007,” tournament director Nathan Grube said. “Their commitment to making the tournament better each year has made the difference in the popularity of our event. We are thrilled to receive recognition in these categories because it represents how much this tournament means to our title sponsor and the community that supports the Travelers Championship every year.”
In the area of “Most Fan Friendly Event,” the tournament has continually improved its Subway Fan Zone between the first and 18th holes that includes a kid’s area, concert stage and Travelers Chipping Challenge as well as Military Appreciation presented by Saint Francis Care, Women’s Day presented by Travelers, the Golf Digest Junior Pro-Am and numerous other activities. For “Best Use of Players,” the tournament created eight events with 14 players that involved charity, fans, sponsors and volunteers. For the “Best Title Sponsor Integration” Award, there were a number of activities throughout the year that included the title sponsor providing cultural training for employee volunteers and tournament staff, an integrated marketing plan with Travelers tagging national ads with broadcast tune-in information and supplementing tournament buys with additional media spends in outlying markets and a Travelers Championship Employee Day in dozens of field offices across the U.S. and internationally that included a number of golf-related activities.
“On behalf of the PGA Tour, I am pleased to acknowledge and congratulate the outstanding job and special recognition the Travelers Championship has received for its efforts,” PGA Tour executive vice president and chief of operations Andy Pazdar said. “The tournament should be extremely proud for being recognized as the best among their peers on the tour.” It also raised $1,154,000 in 2012, a record since Travelers became the title sponsor. This year’s $6 million event is June 20-23. … LPGA teaching pro Suzy Whaley will host a day of golf activities for girls 5-18 on May 11 at her home course, TPC River Highlands. Whaley made history in 2002 when she became the first woman to win a section championship and qualified for the Travelers Championship. A list of the day’s events and registration are available at www.suzywhaleygolf.com.
Key dates on the 2013 Connecticut golf calendar:
May 2: Julius Boros Challenge Cup Matches (Connecticut Section PGA vs. Connecticut State Golf Association), New Haven CC, Hamden
May 20-21: CSGA Russell C. Palmer Cup, CC of Waterbury
May 28-29: Connecticut Women’s Open, Tumble Brook CC, Bloomfield
June 11-14: Conn. Women’s Golf Association Championship, Hartford GC, West Hartford
June 17-21: CSGA Amateur Championship, New Haven CC
June 20-23: Travelers Championship, TPC River Highlands, Cromwell
July 8-11: CSGA Junior Championship, Watertown GC
July 9-11: New England Women’s Golf Association Championship, Renaissance GC, Haverhill, Mass.
July 15-16: Connecticut Senior Open, Shennecossett GC, Groton
July 23-24: Southern New England Women’s Golf Association Individual Championships, Indian Hill CC, Newington
July 29-31: Connecticut Open, Torrington CC
Aug. 12-13: Connecticut PGA Professional Championship, Crestview CC, Agawam, Mass.
Aug. 12-14: Connecticut State Women’s Amateur Championship, Rockledge GC, West Hartford
Aug. 20-21: CSGA Mid-Amateur Championship, Fairview Farm GC, Harwinton
Sept. 3: Connecticut PGA Assistant Championship, Black Hall Club, Old Lyme
Sept. 30-Oct. 1: CSGA Public Links Championship, Manchester CC
Sept. 30-Oct 2: Endicott Cup/Tri-State Matches (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island amateur women), Ellington Ridge CC
Oct. 10-11: Tri-State Matches (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island amateur men), Warwick (R.I.) CC
Oct. 15-17: Conn. Section PGA Match Play Championship, Indian Hill CC
Bruce Berlet is a long-time member of the Golf Writers Assn. of America and the retired golf writer for the Hartford Courant and writes a Connecticut Notebook column in each issue of Southern New England Golfer. He can be reached at golfwrtr@aol.com.
