Ray Keyser

IT'S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to think of a place in the United States that better exemplifies the true spirit of Yankee ingenuity than Vermont, with its homespun imagery of maple syrup and covered bridges. And within that state, it's equally difficult to think of anyone who personifies a bit of Yankee ingenuity any better than Ray Keyser of the USGA Green Section Committee.

Keyser, a Vermonter by birth and an attorney by profession, served as governor of his home state during the early 1960s. Just 33 years old at the time of his election, he remains the youngest chief executive in Vermont history. After his term, Keyser forsook elective politics and settled in Proctor, a small town just northwest of Rutland, the state's second most populous city. There, he joined the Vermont Marble Company and later became its president and chief executive officer.

Keyser developed an abiding love for golf during his corporate career. He assumed membership at two facilities: venerable Rutland Country Club and Proctor Pittsford Country Club, a nine-hole public facility located between the two towns that lend their names to the course. He became a proficient player with a 5 handicap but developed another golf-related interest as well: a keen fascination with course architecture.

"Through my business, I had the chance to play some of the nation's finest golf facilities, places such as Spyglass, Cherry Hills, Sea Island and Riviera, to name a few," he contends. "I began to notice how course design affects play, so I became interested in golf course architecture and studied the theories of some of its better known practitioners, especially Donald Ross."

This academic interest evolved into practical application at Proctor Pittsford, a facility founded in the late 1920s through the support of the Vermont Marble Company and its executives. The underlying philosophy of the club has remained that it provide low-cost access to anyone wanting to enjoy the game's benefits. Although membership preference today is extended to residents of the two towns, daily green-fee players are welcomed to a course that customarily accommodates 23,000 rounds annually from about April 15 through October.

About 10 years ago, the club decided to purchase an adjacent 60-acre parcel of land. Their intention: extend their layout to 18 holes. Keyser, with his background in business, law and politics, seemed the ideal person to delve into the arcane worlds of finance, zoning and legal covenants to clear the way for the expansion. But after those hurdles were cleared, Keyser's fantasy became reality when he devised the routing of the new layout himself.

"Since I was a member, I worked for free on the extension of the course because it was something I had always thought I'd like to do," Keyser recalls. "If the membership was smart," he adds with a wink, "they would have forced me to pay them for allowing me to have the chance to do it."

The budget for the expansion was about $500,000: one quarter for the land, with the remainder for the expansion and some redesign work on the original nine. Funding would be generated through three sources: a $250,000 bank loan, a $167,000 bond issue to its membership and the rest from ongoing operations.

Certain considerations were paramount in Keyser's mind. He wanted to maintain conformity between the new and old holes so it wouldn't be readily apparent which were which. Ability to walk the course remained foremost in his mind, as well as providing various tees on each hole to accommodate players of various ages and skills. Keyser also felt it was important to craft a signature hole, one that a golfer will remember long after the round. This was realized at the 13th, a long, slightly uphill par 4 that requires a tricky tee shot over a pond followed by a demanding approach into a small, tree-cloistered green.

Budgetary considerations prohibited the movement of large amounts of soil. The layout, conversely, required utilization of the existing landscape as it wended its way through the verdant ups and downs of the Vermont landscape. The greens, likewise, were subtly contoured to promote good drainage and firmness.

Construction by a local firm began in 1987; Ray's wife, Joan, an engineer, helped by devising drawings for the company to follow. Demonstrating a propensity for Yankee ingenuity, tree stumps chopped out of the forest to clear way for the routing were used as fill at the fourth hole in an area that required some substantial recontouring of the land. Members donated a lot of time throughout the process; they even assisted course superintendent Gary Gallus and his staff gather rocks and help clear brush. Keyser credits Gallus with providing valuable insight and guidance into almost every aspect of the redesign, especially concerning agronomic decisions, such as the use of bentgrass for the greens. Members took a keen interest in environmental aspects as well, erecting and maintaining many bluebird houses.

The full 18 was completed the following year. Today the course plays to a par of 35-35--70 for men and 36-36--72 for women. Its length is respectable, stretching more than 6,000 yards from its back tees. Keyser's routing scheme is imaginative. Rather than simply leaving the original nine holes intact and adding nine more, he integrated old and new. For example, the current first hole is an original, but the next three are new. The remainder of the first nine is largely original (except the par-3 seventh), while the second nine features mostly new holes with three originals completing the round.

While it will never become a host of a U.S. Open, Proctor Pittsford's challenges were substantial enough to have convinced the Vermont Golf Association to hold its Mid-Amateur there last summer. The event attracted a record number of golfers, with the medalist shooting a 3-over-par 73. As further evidence of its worthiness, the 10th hole -- a long, downhill par 4 that doglegs left to a small green bordering a pond that serves as the main water source for the course's irrigation system -- has been selected as one of the state's top 18 holes by Vermont Golf magazine. The completed 18 holes, by any measure, accomplish the club's main goal of providing a low-cost but worthy experience.

The final cost hovered near $370,000, only a few thousand dollars over budget. To date, the entire $167,000 bond issue to members has been retired, while the $250,000 bank loan has been trimmed to $200,000. And all this activity was accomplished while the club continued to invest additional monies into course maintenance and improvements.

On a larger scale, it would be misleading to create the impression that only Proctor Pittsford Country Club has benefited from Keyser's efforts. His chance to fulfill his dream of dabbling in course architecture, in fact, may be largely attributable to his own efforts as an advocate for golf in Vermont through his chairmanship of the Golf Industry Policy Committee of the Vermont Golf Association.

In the early 1970s, legislation was enacted in Vermont designed to control impacts on the natural environment and governmental services. This restriction was eventually used by a small group as a way to oppose and stop course development in the late 1980s. It insinuated that the use of pesticides on courses had harmed the environment, even though golf had been played in the state since before 1900 with no evidence of any pollution. Various golf associations in the state and other interested parties huddled to determine a strategy to deal with the challenge.

"I did not remain silent, an occupational hazard of both politicians and lawyers, and I was both," Keyser recalls. "Remaining silent may have been a better course to follow as I ended up agreeing to chair the five-member ad hoc policy committee charged with the responsibility of determining and implementing a course of action."

The committee, with a good deal of input from others, drafted an alternative set of proposed regulations pertaining to the use of pesticides on golf courses. Those guidelines, which became law in October 1990, seek to strike a balance between responsible golf course development and protection of a sound environment.

The crisis had passed and threats to the game's expansion temporarily were over in Vermont, but Keyser and others warned that future challenges would arise. Thus, he agreed to chair a new, formal Golf Industry Committee comprised of representatives of the major golf associations in the state. Its activities are financed by earmarking up to $1 annually from the charges for each golfer on the USGA's Handicap system.

While continuing to monitor the pesticide issue, the committee has assumed a leading advocacy role. It publishes comprehensive surveys called Golf in Vermont, a compilation of information and statistics that demonstrate the game's economic, environmental and social impact. The committee has also helped establish a groundwater sampling program as well as a number of smaller initiatives.

Keyser, through the activities of the committee, has been recognized as a leader in the game's environmental outreach. Last February, he addressed a large gallery attending the USGA's Educational Conference during the Golf Course Superintendents of America convention in San Francisco.

Ray Keyser and his neighbors in Vermont demonstrate a refreshing notion: that golfers can still control their own destiny by banding together and laboring unselfishly toward a common goal without huge sums of money underwriting these efforts. All it takes, it seems, is a group of committed folks who collectively possess financial, political, legal and course-design expertise. Or just one Ray Keyser.