A Retrospective: Important Dates in New Jersey Golf

Each month, the NJSGA will feature the work of local author Kevin Casey who has compiled a monthly look back at historical moments in golf on a montly basis.

Here are some notable December dates in New Jersey’s rich golf history:

By Kevin Casey

• December 22, 1894 -- Representatives from five American clubs met at the Calumet Club in downtown Manhattan. They officially formed the “Amateur Golf Association of the United States,” which was shortly renamed the United States Golf Association. The USGA headquarters is today in New Jersey, near the intersection of Interstates 78 and 287 in Bernards Township.
• December 12, 1901 – Canoe Brook Country Club, whose 36 holes today straddle Summit and Short Hills, was incorporated. The club’s two courses (North and South) feature a unique architectural lineage populated by design legends Charles Allison, Harry Colt, Rees Jones, Robert Trent Jones, Alister MacKenzie, and Walter Travis. Whatever they did works! The USGA holds its 36-hole Sectional Qualifying over CBCC’s North and South courses every three years.
• December 22, 1918 -- A native of Belleville, Chet Sanok won five NJSGA Amateur Championships (1947, ’50, ’54, ’74, and ’75) over an unprecedented four decades. Sanok was constantly on or around the NJSGA Open podium in the early 1950s, where he won in 1951 and 1956, and placed second in 1952 and 1953. One of New Jersey’s most fearless  amateur golfers, in 1952, Sanok became the first amateur to win the Met Open.