Over the last twenty-five years I have played in something like 20-25 golf tournaments a year. That adds up to something close to 500 golf tournaments. The list includes USGA National Championships such as the USGA Mid-Amateur, International Championships including the Irish Amateur Open, State Championships and dozens of local events. It has been a pleasure to play in them all.
Still, at some point in time you play in an event that is just something special. Two weeks ago, it was my great honor to do just that. I played in the 100th playing of the Travis Invitational at Garden City Golf Club.
First of all, there are precious few events that have been played 100 times. You just know the event is steeped in the history and traditions of the game. The event is named after the great Walter Travis, who won the event himself nine times when the event was known as the Spring Invitational. After his death in 1927, the event was renamed in his memory. The winner of the tournament is presented with a replica of the famous Schenectady putter that Travis used to win the 1904 British Amateur Championship.
Other favorite former winners of mine include Oswald Kirkby (whose name is misspelled in the invitation, which I recognized from Champion’s boards all over the NY metropolitan section), Max Marston, George Burns III (who held the course record for years), and especially my old friend the late Jeff Thomas. But by far, my favorite listing of champions starts with Mark J. Stuart in 1930, followed by his son Mark J. Stuart, Jr. in 1971 and son Robert W. Stuart in 1972. Bobby Stuart is a friend of mine, and three championships in the family is a remarkable achievement.
Secondly, there are few venues like Garden City Golf Club. What a special place. Not only is Garden City Golf Club a special course, but the people at Garden City make the event one of the best you will ever play.
My two favorite people are simply known as George and Jimmy. George manages the
The staging area next to the first tee.
caddies and the first tee. George is the “out front man outside”. Before you go out, George sets the tone for your day. I have come to the tee feeling awful about my game, and an encouraging word from George has turned my attitude positive on more than one occasion.
Jimmy is the ‘out front man inside”. He is energetic, unfailingly friendly, and always seems happy to see every contestant whether they have been there 20 years or one year. He is impeccably dressed no matter what the weather, and Jimmy is the key reason we all feel like members for the week. It is because he makes it so.
I first earned an invitation to the Travis Invitational 15 years ago. My lovely wife worked at Merrill Lynch for a financial advisor named Tom Sullivan who was also a member at Garden City. I had heard of the Travis Invitational, and when she told me her boss was a member, I asked her to find out how you go about getting an invitation. Usually for an invitational you show them your playing resume and they let you in if it is decent. Not so at the Travis. Tom asked to see my resume, which was pretty good, but then he told me I was going to have to go out and play one round with him and prove that I was worthy of even being considered for an invitation. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what you call a high pressure round of golf. I still recall it like it was yesterday. We were standing in the middle of the seventh fairway, a reasonably long par five, and I had not missed a shot yet. I was about 2 under at the time. I was standing about 250 yards out from the green waiting for the group in front of us when Tom suggested that I go ahead and lay up. I said I would rather wait, and I ripped a 3 wood onto the green. Tom simply said “You can play”. That was music to my ears.
One of the most beautiful aspects of being invited to the Travis is that starting at noon on Mother’s Day the Sunday before the Travis starts, the invitees are conferred the rights of membership for the week. Everyone at the club treats you like you are a member, and goes out of their way to make sure that you have everything you need to feel at home for the tournament. While I was playing a practice round this year, a group of members on the course scattered to get out of my way as if their very presence would somehow be offensive to my enjoyment of the day. Garden City Golf Club is truly steeped in the tradition of honorable gentlemen who play this fine game.
In my first Travis Invitational I made it into Championship Flight. Given the difficulty of the golf course and the quality of the field, that was no mean feat. In my first round match I was tucked into a battle with the fine local amateur Johnny Doppelt. The match was a seesaw affair when we came to the par 4 eleventh hole. The eleventh has a fairway that cants to the right around a fescue covered mound, and if you fail to hit your drive down the right side you can easily have a blind shot into a two tiered green. Doppelt tried to play a three wood so as to place the ball in the correct location, and instead popped it up, barely making the fairway and left himself a good 210 yards away from the green with a totally blind shot. He pulled out a two iron while I am thinking maybe I have a shot to get in front of him here. He nails the two iron and the ball takes off like a heat-seeking missile chasing down a Mig fighter. As the ball screamed past me I said out loud “That’s gonna go in”, and I’ll be damned it hit the green and roll right in like a putt, dead center!
Doppelt collected his ball and stepped up to the 12th tee, a 185 yard par three with the pin cut hard behind a deep bunker on the right side of the green. He floats a cut five iron just over the bunker and leaves it hanging on the lip. He goes two-two and eventually beats me 2&1. We reprised the moment again this year, 15 years after the fact. The Travis is a tournament that inspires powerful, lasting memories.
Any flight can have a match that is a national class match. For instance, one year I played a lower flight match against Graham Cooke. I had no idea who he was. As we played, I marveled at the way he hit his ball low, and how he consistently ran the ball into greens, almost as if he had hit it thin on purpose. It seemed to me that I should have beat him easily, but he just kept thinning it in there and he beat me 2&1. I went into the clubhouse and remarked to someone that I just got beat by a guy I thought I should have handled. They asked me who, and when I told them Graham Cooke they pronounced me fortunate to have lasted 17 holes with the 7-time Canadian Mid-Amateur Champion!
Sunday afternoon in the Travis Invitational is a special time. Since there are just a few flights, by the time you get to Sunday afternoon, it means you’ve won your matches and you are playing a final, and you are one of only 10 or so people that are allowed to play the course that afternoon. I have won my flight at least three times, and I can say with great certainty that the 15th tee at Garden City Gold Club on Sunday afternoon of the Travis is absolutely one of my favorite places to be in this world. You stand near the epicenter of the course and survey all around you the progress of the other matches. The course at that moment could easily be transported to Scotland and no one would be the wiser.
To celebrate the 100th playing of the Travis Invitational, we each received a medallion to commemorate the event, as well as a letter from Tournament Chairman Pat Fogerty and a letter from golf great Ben Crenshaw. The club received a fantastic letter honoring the event from George Bush, who’s family was integral in the foundation of the Walker Cup. To receive attention from a former President of the United States is rare indeed.
These mementoes are welcome and necessary when it comes to any tournament that has been played 100 times. But for me, I have a lifetime worth of memories tied up in my decade and a half there. It was my honor to be there this year. It will be my honor to be there for however long they choose to suffer my presence. I will always be grateful.
To see the letter from George Bush please click on this link: george bush letter
