Chet Sanok (1919-1996)

(Inaugural Class of 2018)

A native of Belleville, Sanok worked as a caddie at Forest Hill Field Club in the 1930s and finished runner-up in the 1938 State Junior Championship at Echo Lake. Winning five State Amateurs, Sanok also won the State Open in 1951 and 1956. In 1952, he became the first amateur to win the Met Open.

While most of his success came in the 1950s (playing out of Upper Montclair Country Club), he remained a threat on any golf course well into the 1970s. In 1974, he became the only man to win both the State Amateur and the State Senior Open in the same year. In 1975, he won both the Ike and his final State Amateur.

Sanok defeated Ben Hogan in an exhibition match at Forsgate in 1953, the same year Hogan won the Masters, the U.S. Open and the British Open. Sanok defeated him by two strokes.

 

Accomplishments:

• NJSGA Amateur Champion 1947, 50, 54, 74, 75; Runner up 1948
• NJSGA Open Champion 1951, 56; Runner up 1952, 53
• MGA Open Champion 1952, first amateur winner
• MGA IKE Champion 1975