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A Secret Santa Without the Suit Phil Hurlbut can't be found on a late-night infomercial or in the phone book under custom clubfitter. But to dozens of youth organizations, the 65-year-old retired high school English teacher is a modern-day Santa Claus of golf clubs. Since the resident of Lady Lake, Fla., turned a fascination into a full-time hobby 18 months ago, he has made some 2,300 clubs for junior programs around the country. From his workshop inside a one-car garage, where a washer and dryer unit acts as a workbench, Hurlbut builds clubs from scratch, constructing them to the exact specifications for each particular organization. Some are looking for teaching aids, perhaps a 5-iron and a putter. Others might require starter sets (3-5-7-9 irons and a driver). Occasionally, he'll do an entire set. "I had always been interested in clubmaking," said Hurlbut, who taught in the Rich Township District outside Chicago before moving to Florida in 1995. "I have a neighbor down the street who owns a golf shop. But I basically picked it up on my own. I looked through some catalogues and got some instructional books." At first, he looked into donating equipment to a couple of high schools, but they already had a surplus. That's when he called the USGA, which put him in touch with Courtney Resch of the USGA Foundation. She then lined Hurlbut up with phone numbers and contacts of organizations that needed clubs, most of which related to junior golf. Many of the initial clubs came via donations, with Hurlbut cutting down and refurbishing them prior to shipment. Once the inventory went dry, he realized that to continue this process he'd have to begin building clubs from scratch. This, of course, took money, which he initially spent out of his own pocket before the USGA Foundation stepped in to help through its grants program. Now a portion of grant money that is earmarked for an organization seeking equipment is targeted to pay for Hurlbut's materials. Hurlbut does not receive any financial compensation; for him, clubbuilding is strictly a way to stay active since his golf game has suffered because of back problems. "I only play once every four or five days," he says. "I used to play all the time." Despite his lack of experience at the start, Hurlbut gradually developed some craftsmanship. For instance, he prefers to work with components than a pre-existing club. He buys a lot of discontinued and miscellaneous materials in order to keep the cost of production down. "Usually, I'll buy my components — shafts, grips and clubs — from three different sources," Hurlbut says. "Right now, almost 100 percent are new clubs. It's easier to build a club from scratch than to cut down an existing one. Old clubs tend to be heavy and stiff. With new ones, I can make the shafts according to the required specs." His latest project calls for him to build 120 clubs for the Canyoncito Band of Navajos in Albuquerque, N.M., an organization headed up by the father of PGA Tour player Notah Begay III. Some of his other major projects included the Boys and Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County, a high school in Bayonne, N.J., 500 clubs for the Indiana Golf Foundation, a group of Sioux Indians in North Dakota and the golf team at Memorial High School in San Antonio, Texas. "I can't thank him enough," said Gene Ebner, the vice principal at Memorial and the former golf coach. "We're an inner-city school and the donations (Hurlbut wasn't the only donor) have enabled us to give clubs to kids who don't normally have them. There are 20 kids in the program right now. If we didn't [have the donations], we'd only have four or five." The Indiana Golf Foundation will break ground in Franklin next spring for The Legends Course as part of a junior golf school. Its clubs are earmarked for underprivileged youths who cannot afford a set. Mike David, the executive director for the Indiana Golf Association, Indiana PGA and IGF, added that some of the clubs will go to high schools just starting programs and to the Indiana chapter of the Special Olympics. In all, the association expects to receive some 30 sets of clubs from Hurlbut. Still, Hurlbut doesn't become too nostalgic at how far his operation has come. "Sometimes I get impatient when I don't get an order," he said. "It's a good feeling to think I'm creating something for them that I would have appreciated when I was that age." All that he is missing is a red suit and white beard. — David Shefter Bellerive, Winged Foot Return to Schedule Two of the country's renowned courses will return to the USGA schedule in 2004. That's the year the U.S. Senior Open will be played at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Mo., and the U.S. Amateur visits Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y. Bellerive was the site of the 1965 U.S. Open, won by Gary Player, and the inaugural U.S. Mid-Amateur in 1981. Winged Foot has been the site of nine USGA events, among them four U.S. Opens, the most recent in 1984 when Fuzzy Zoeller defeated Greg Norman in an 18-hole playoff. Those two sites were selected in late October by the USGA Executive Committee at its fall meeting in Baltimore, Md. In addition, the Committee awarded the 2005 Senior Open to Plainfield (N.J.) Country Club and the 2005 Amateur to Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa. With the selection of Winged Foot and Merion, the Amateur will enjoy a run in which, with one exception, it has been played on a U.S. Open course every year from 1998 through '05. After Oak Hill in '98 and Pebble Beach this year, the Amateur is scheduled for: Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., in 2000, followed by East Lake Country Club in Atlanta, Ga. (the exception), Oakland Hills Country Club in Birmingham, Mich., and Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club. In other action taken at the meeting: >The Executive Committee approved
$1.67 million in direct assistance to state and regional golf associations
during 2000. The bulk of the allocation, more than $1.1 million, will
come in the form of grants for those serving in the P.J. Boatwright Jr.
Internship Program. Ninety-six intern positions at state and regional
associations are projected for the year. Additional funds will cover orientation
to professional staffs and volunteers of state and regional associations,
and computer training and assistance. Holland Nominated as USGA President Trey Holland, an Indiana physician who has served on the USGA Executive Committee since 1991, has been nominated to become the USGA's 56th president. Holland, 50, of Zionsville, Ind., heads the list of 15 persons nominated for the 2000 Committee. He has been an officer the last five years, serving as treasurer in 1995 and as one of two vice-presidents the last four years. Holland is a physician with Associated Urologists Inc., which has offices in Indianapolis and five nearby cities. He is a graduate of Wabash College and the Indiana School of Medicine. Other officers nominated are Reed Mackenzie of Chaska, Minn., and Fred S. Ridley of Tampa, Fla., as vice presidents, Peter W. James of Los Angeles, Calif., as secretary, and Walter W. Driver Jr. of Atlanta, Ga., as treasurer. Two new members of the Committee for 2000 are Jeanne-Marie Boylan of Milton, Mass., and John Suisman of Bloomfield, Conn. Retiring are C. McDonald England III of Huntington, W.Va., after four years of service, and S. Timothy Kilty of Bay Village, Ohio, after five years. John W. Vardaman of Bethesda, Md., has been renominated as general counsel. The other nominations for 2000: >O. Gordon Brewer Jr., Huntingdon
Valley, Pa. Spirit of the Game — Bonnie Blair "My parents had me involved in junior golf — I was about 12 at the time — but golf, to me, at that time, was slow and boring. When I started really playing was after the 1988 Olympics when I started to get involved in charity scramble events, and it didn't matter how good you were because you always had four or five other people on your side to help out. "My parents always loved the sport to where they'd always watch it on TV, and I was there thinking, 'How can you watch that?' When I was younger I didn't have that appreciation. "To me it's much like skating in that it's an individualized sport and for me, in skating, I was going against a clock. In golf, I'm going against a scorecard. I'm always striving to do better. To me, it's written down. You can see it. There's no one else to blame but yourself. It was the same way in skating. "One's very much speed-oriented and the other isn't. You have to have technique in both. To me, you're always challenging yourself. That's what I did on the ice. I was always going up against that clock, trying to do better than I'd ever done before. To me, it's a matter of seeing the result right there and knowing that I'm the one who's always got the control over it. "I definitely know it's a challenge. But that's one of the great things about the game; it's a constant challenge. And something I realized through my parents is that it's something you can do for a long time. It's nice to know you can always have something like that in your life. If you do something else, running or even tennis, at some point you're going to slow quite a bit. With the game of golf, it's something you can do your entire life." Ike Grainger, 1895-1999 Many persons have enjoyed a long relationship with the USGA, but none could ever match Isaac B. Grainger. Most likely, none ever will. Born on Jan. 15, 1895, a mere 24 days after the USGA was founded, Grainger, the Association's 33rd president, died in early October in Wilmington, N.C., at the age of 104. His relationship with the Association lasted more than 50 years; he joined the Executive Committee in 1945, served as president in 1954 and '55 and until just a few years ago remained an active member of the Advisory Committee of Past Presidents. One key moment in his tenure came at the last green of the 18-hole playoff to decide the 1947 U.S. Open at St. Louis (Mo.) Country Club. With Sam Snead and Lew Worsham both facing par putts, Snead was about to putt when Worsham stepped in and inquired whether Snead's ball was further from the hole. Grainger measured the distances, and though Snead was indeed away (by an inch, 30 1Ú2 to 29 1Ú2), the incident has become legendary as a supposed contributing factor in breaking Snead's concentration. Snead missed his putt, Worsham made his and won. "I think it upset Sam so that he missed that putt and lost the tournament," Grainger recalled in 1995. "It was a very sad thing, but Sam was a hell of a good sport about it." Though longevity had long been a family trademark — Grainger's father lived to be 78 and his mother to be 93 — he never expected to live as long as he did. When he was 25, he underwent an operation that resulted in the removal of 32 inches of intestinal tract. The doctor told him he'd recover from the operation but gave him no more than five years to live. "Right up to the five-year anniversary of the operation," he remembered, "I didn't think I was going to make it. Every day after that was a blessing." He joined Chemical Bank in 1924, later became president and stayed until retiring in 1960; but even into his 90s there was an office and a secretary at his disposal in New York. Having lived through so many changes, Grainger was grateful to have been president when he was. "I don't know whether I could be a successful president in the present conditions under which the organization has to do business," he said. In recognition of his service, the USGA in 1995 created the Ike Grainger Award, given to volunteers with 25 years of service. A Shocking Game of Golf The power lines that stretch across the 18th fairway at Stowmarket Golf Club in Suffolk, England, are a familiar site. Since the course was built more than 30 years ago, they've been hit hundreds of times, if not thousands, and each hit weakened the 11,000-volt line a bit more than the time before. Then last month, Tom Rothery's shot not only hit the line but snapped it in two. In a cascading shower of sparks, half of the line fell on Matt Fordham, who was standing nearby, waiting for a group to play through. The other half landed on the opposite side of the fairway, setting fire to a stand of bushes and scorching the grass. Incredibly, Fordham walked away from the incident without as much as a scratch. "It was a terrible mental shock," he told The Daily Mail in London, "but I could not feel any electricity going through me. I was lying on the ground, wondering whether I was alive or dead, then I was aware of people standing over me." Fordham surmises the line sustained a short circuit when it snapped, and officials of Eastern Electricity suspected his theory could be correct. Rothery, for one, expected the worst. "I was aware that the cable was there, but I did not think anything of it," he said. "I thought the guy had been killed. But then he started talking and I realized he was all right." As frightening as the incident was, Fordham was able to keep his sense of humor. "It took me a while to get over the shock," he said, "but I was all right after I'd had a few stiff whiskeys, which were being bought for me left, right and center." |
