A Retrospective: Important Dates in New Jersey Golf - October Edition

Photo: Leighton Calkins, 2020 NJSGA Hall of Fame Inductee

Each month, the NJSGA features historical moments in New Jersey golf history by Kevin Casey, author of Remarkable Stories of New Jersey Golf. Here is a look at notable October dates:

October 11, 1911 – At a meeting on this date at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, the USGA adopted its first handicap system. The new system applied to all 324 USGA member clubs. Its primary purpose was to provide a basis for accepting entries into our nation’s most important tournament, the U.S. Men’s Amateur. Accordingly, the new system used Montclair Golf Club’s Jerry Travers, the (then) two-time U.S. Amateur champion, as the baseline to which all other golfers would be compared. In another example of New Jersey’s influence in American golf, Leighton Calkins, a member of Plainfield Country Club, created the system adopted in 1911, which unified the best practices of dozens of golf associations and hundreds of clubs that felt that they had the handicap system that worked best for them. Today’s World Handicap System, under which most golfers play and compete, evolved directly from Calkin’s work over a century ago.

October 19, 1910 – Vic Ghezzi was born in Rumson. Arguably the most accomplished golfer born and reared in New Jersey, Ghezzi won eleven times on the PGA Tour, including one major title, the 1941 PGA Championship. Ghezzi, working out of Deal Golf & Country Club, won three State Opens (1937, ’43, and ’44) and two New Jersey PGA Championships (1939 and 1949). Ghezzi was named to three Ryder Cup squads (1939, ’41, and ’43), but each was canceled due to World War II. Ghezzi was elected to the PGA of America’s Hall of Fame in 1965 and the NJSGA Hall of Fame in 2018.