Bobby Heins is one of those unique professionals who may qualify for consideration both as a player and for his years of Section service while leading Old Oaks Country Club as their head professional for over a quarter of a century. During that time he has held every Met PGA office except the Presidency and earned the Bill Strausbaugh Award three times (1997, ’98, 2002) for his work with employment and club relations. He also has been honored as the Teacher of the Year in 2008 and was named the 2000 Metropolitan PGA Professional of the Year. His playing record includes career victories in the 2008 and ’09 MGA Senior Open, 2009 and 2001 Met PGA Senior Match Play and the 2008 Met PGA Seniors Championship. He is still competitive outside the senior circles and is a 6-time Westchester Open Champion, two-time Met Open winner and the 1990 NY State Open and Westchester PGA titleholder. He also won the Dodge Open and Nissan Classic. He has twice earned Met PGA Player of the Year honors (1983 and 1990) and is a 6-time Met PGA Senior Player of the Year. He has played in 3 PGA Championships, making 1 cut and 4 PGA Senior Championships, surviving the cut in three of those events.
Ben Hogan is perhaps most notable for his profound influence on the golf swing theory and his legendary ball-striking ability, for which he continues to remain renowned. Hogan became a professional golfer more than six months shy of his eighteenth birthday. Despite finishing 13th on the money list in 1938, Hogan had to take an assistant pro’s job, and was hired that year by Century Country Club. He remained at Century and continued to refine his game until 1941. Between the years of 1938 through 1959, Hogan won 63 professional golf tournaments despite his career being interrupted in its prime by World War II and later on a near-fatal car accident. His nine career professional major championships tie him for fourth all-time. Hogan played on two U.S. Ryder Cup teams, 1947 and 1951, and captained the team three times, 1947, 1949, and 1967. Hogan won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average three times: 1940, 1941, and 1948 and won the Hickok Belt as the top professional athlete of the year in the United States. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. In 1976, Ben Hogan was voted the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. A special room is dedicated to Hogan’s career, comeback, and accomplishments at the United States Golf Association Museum and Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History.
Born and raised in Westchester, Greg would eventually make his mark on Long Island. He started his career at prestigious Whippoorwill, under veteran Harry Montevideo. After the University of Florida, Greg turned professional and was the assistant at Sleepy Hollow CC, under Tommy Murphy. He would be selected as the head professional at North Hempstead CC in the fall of 1987 and will be leaving the club after 31 seasons at the helm of a busy, full service private club. Having been active in the Assistants Association, he was elected to the Met PGA Board of Directors in 1990 and served on various committee assignments. His quietly effective style and get things done skills saw him progress to the positions of Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice President of the Met Section. In 2002, he was elected President of the Met Section, and reelected in 2003 and 2004. His tenure was marked by expansion in our tournament schedule and an increased emphasis on club relations and employment. Always player oriented, Greg still holds the competitive course record of 67 at the Concord Monster and won the Met PGA Team Championship in 1987 and 1988, with his partner Tony Saraceno. Over the years, he has won numerous Pro Ams and particularly loved taking his members to our travel Pro Ams. He won the Horton Smith Award in 1993 and was named the Professional of the Year in 2006. He still serves on the Nominating Committee and is currently the chair of the Grievance Committee. In addition to his service to the governance of the Section Hurd annually hosted a Pro Am, Junior Tour Event, or PGA Member Championship, often multiple events per year, at North Hempstead. His greatest accolade would be his sons, second generation PGA member Matthew Hurd and Christopher Hurd.
Jack “Jock” Hutchison moved to the United States from Scotland and became a U.S. citizen in 1920. He won two major championships, the 1920 PGA Championship and the 1921 Open Championship at St. Andrews. In his career, Hutchison played in seven PGA Championships and boasted an incredible 74% winning percentage in those match play years. In 1937, Hutchison won the inaugural PGA Seniors’ Championship at Augusta National Golf Club by an impressive 8 strokes, and in 1947 he won that event for a second time at PGA National at Dunedin. In fact, only five players in the history of the golf world’s oldest senior major, have won more than Hutchison (Sam Snead won 6 times, Hale Irwin 4 times and three others three times). In fact, Hutchison was runner-up three other times losing in playoffs in 1940, ’46 and ’51). Hutchison was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2010.
John Inglis was slight of stature but had an incredible role in the development and evolution of the Metropolitan PGA Section. Inglis was a charter member of the PGA as well as the Golf Course Superintendents Association. He served as the head professional at Fairview Country Club for over 50 years and was the President of the Metropolitan PGA for over 30 years, from 1928 until 1959. While Inglis was noted more for his administrative skills and leadership than his playing, he mentored and helped shape the future of a number of great players in the Met Section including the seven Turnesa brothers, Johnny Farrell and Tony Manero.
For over 25 years the head professional at Southampton Golf Club, Bob has served every Section office including the Presidency. He was the District Director and member of the PGA’s Executive Committee from 1989 to 1991 during which time he chaired committees that included employment and tournaments. In 1996, Bob ran for PGA Secretary, an office won by Jack Connelly of Philadelphia. His campaign and his entire legacy as a leader was driven by his passion for teaching, playing and promoting the game of golf. Bob was also a mentor to a number of professionals who learned the game on the East End of Long Island, including former PGA Club Professional Player of the Year Bruce Zabriski and current head professionals Tom Holdsworth and Dave Gosiewski. Bob was the 1980 Metropolitan PGA Professional of the Year and in 1993 was nominated by the Section as their Teacher of the Year. He also won the 1992 Sam Snead Award for contributions to golf, the PGA and the Met Section.
A former Met PGA Player of the Year and the Glen Oaks head professional for more than 20 years, Tom Joyce has been one of the most consistent performers in the history of the Met Section. His 20 appearances in the National Club Pro Championship ranks him first among all professionals while his 67 rounds is the fourth highest in history. A titleholder in the Met PGA Assistants Championship, Long Island Open, Westchester Open, Met PGA Seniors Open and Seniors Championship as well as being a 3 time runner-up in the Met Open, Tom became one of the finest playing senior club professionals in the nation. Since 1990, his first year of eligibility in the Senior Club Pro Championship, Tom won in 1990 and ’91, was runner-up in 1993 and ’96, finished 4th in 1994 and tied for 19th in 1995. He has also competed in 4 National PGA Championships and 9 Senior PGA Championships with his best showing coming in 1991 when he finished in a tie for 14th. Tom is the youngest of the professional golfing Joyce bothers.
The long time Huntington Country Club head professional followed an outstanding career locally with an impressive decade on the PGA Senior Tour. Joyce won the 1981 Treiber Memorial, the 1982 Long Island Open and the 1983 Long Island PGA Championship. Prior to moving onto the Senior Tour, he captured another LIPGA title in 1988 and the 1989 Met PGA Seniors Championship. His Senior Tour career was launched in 1989, but really thrived in 1991 through 1996 when he averaged almost 20 events a year including his two most successful seasons, 1992 and 1993 when he played 29 and 36 events respectively. In 1992 he became a first time winner on the Senior PGA Tour at the GTE Northwest Classic. That year included 4 top 10 finishes and he followed that in 1993 with two more top 10’s. Michael served as head professional at Huntington for 26 years before moving full time to the Senior Tour in the early 90’s.
John Kennedy’s contributions to the game of golf, the PGA, and the Met Section are innumerable. Kennedy spent the majority of his 45-year career as the Director of Golf at Westchester Country Club, a position that thrust him into a leadership role of one of the largest, most active clubs in the United States while hosting 18 PGA Tour events and the inaugural KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Kennedy took advantage of his status as a PGA Professional emulated by his peers, making it his mission to elevate the status of the club he served and the golf professionals in the Met Section. Where it is viewed as a career defining moment for a PGA Professional to be recognized for contributions in a specific area, Kennedy has won every major Section award (some multiple times) for impacting all aspects of the golf profession in the Met Section. For his work with education, mentorship, governance, junior golf, military veterans, and so much more, Kennedy was recognized by the Section with: 1983 & 1991 Merchandiser of the Year Awards, 1985, 1988, & 2009 Horton Smith Award, 1997 PGA Professional of the Year Award, 2005 & 2014 Bill Strausbaugh Award, and the 2012 Patriot Award. Additionally, Kennedy was honored by the PGA of America as the National recipient of the: 2010 Horton Smith, 2012 Patriot, and 2017 Bill Strausbaugh Awards. Kennedy’s contributions also included: serving three terms on the Section’s Board of Directors, over 20 years as a member (many as chairman) of the Education Committee, over 20 years as a member of the Employment & Club Relations Committee, host of Junior Golf Schools, annual Girls to the Tee Clinic, as well as a wide variety of events that have supported the Section, women professionals, juniors and various golf related charities and programs. Starting in 2009, Kennedy led a project that amassed a wealth of materials and resources in the creation of the “Head Professional Handbook,” an undertaking intended to assist recently appointed head professionals with the transition to a new position. John is also the author of two books about golf and life lessons that can be learned through the game. In 2014, Westchester Country Club named their newly constructed learning center the John Kennedy Learning Center – a lasting honor for their long time professional.
For 32 years from 1925 until 1957, Willie Klein served the membership of Wheatley Hills as their head professional. He was a 3 time winner of the Long Island Open including the inaugural in 1922 and then successfully defended that title in 1923. In 1932 he captured the Metropolitan PGA Championship as well. But it was in national championships that his record is perhaps most remarkable. He qualified for 7 National PGA Championships and held a 3-6 record in this match play format. He also qualified for 11 United States Open Championships, making a remarkable 10 cuts and recorded two top 25 finishes. His top finish was a tie for 9th in the 1926 US Open. The New York State Golf Association which was the last of the State associations to be launched in 1923 held their inaugural Open Championship at Onondaga in 1928 and gained notoriety by having Willie Klein as their first champion.
Ted Kroll was born in New Hartford, New York. He served in the United States Army during World War II and earned three Purple Hearts after being wounded four times. He began a 34 year PGA Tour career in 1949. He won nine times on the tour, including three wins in 1956, when he topped the money list. That same year he lost the final of the PGA Championship. Kroll played in a total of 16 PGA Championships, 8 at match play and 8 at stroke play, that included a 4th place finish in 1961. He also finished in the top 10 at the US Open in six out of seven years and competed in 14 US Open Championships in total. He also played in 3 Senior Opens (best finish T-8th in 1980) and 17 PGA Senior Championships (with six top 25 finishes). Kroll played on three Ryder Cup teams: 1953, 1955, and 1957, and though he only played in 4 matches, won three times. After his playing career, Kroll succeeded Ron Letellier as the head professional at Cold Spring Country Club.
In a career cut tragically short by cancer, Ron Letellier certainly left his mark on the Met Section. With forearms like Popeye and an easygoing style that masked his love to compete, Ron had a brief but impressive playing career. He won the 1971 Met Open Championship at Fresh Meadow Country Club and was runner-up twice at that prestigious event including 1967 when Jerry Courville Sr. topped five area club professionals at Winged Foot (West) and again in 1972 when Don Massengale prevented him from successfully defending his title in a playoff at Stanwich Club. Letellier also qualified for two PGA Championships, making the cut both times. It was at the National Club Pro Championship that he really left his mark. In four events, he enjoyed three top 20 finishes including being tied for 2nd in 1971 to the winner, Sam Snead, and was 4th in 1974 and tied for 17th in 1975. He also played on the victorious 1975 PGA Cup Team in Pinehurst and was 2-0-1. Letellier was the Section Treasurer in the early 70’s while at North Hills Country Club. Shortly after that he moved to Cold Spring CC and was named the Met PGA Professional of the Year in 1976. He was also named the National PGA Professional of the Year in 1976, one of only two Met PGA professionals to win the association’s highest honor.
