Celebrating the 100th NJSGA Junior Championship: Looking back with Gerry Barnett
There is an undeniable link between Gerry Barnett of Manasquan River Golf Club and the game of golf.
That link dates all the way back to when Barnett enjoyed a “Tiger Woods moment” – a youngster showing off on television – when he was just 10 years old.
“There was a television program which aired out of Newark in the early 1950s. They had a putting green, a bunker, and a net right in the studio. I just went about my business and made it look like there was nothing to it. The next youngest kid was 17,” he remembered.
Going forward, the love affair between Barnett and golf has never wavered. Just a few years after his TV performance, he claimed two NJSGA Junior Championships, and many years after that, set a Manasquan River course record of 64 when he was 65 years old. He also was runner-up in the 2007 NJSGA Senior Amateur Championship.
And yes, he has been the club champion at Manasquan River – where he learned the game as a kid – a total of seven times.
“I’ve always felt very confident in myself, and golf had a lot to do with it. I never doubted myself when I was playing golf,” said Barnett, who won his Junior Championships in 1957 and 1958 at ages 16 and 17.
At age 14 in 1955, Barnett played in his first NJSGA Junior and fared well. He advanced before falling to Hanse Halligan of Montclair Golf Club, who would go on to defend his championship from 1954.
Barnett skipped the 1956 NJSGA Junior due a prior commitment; the year later, he eliminated Halligan in the 1957 quarterfinal round.
“I remember a tough semifinal match in 1957 against Lloyd Monroe. I beat him with a par on the 19th hole. Then I beat Roger Baron of Shackamaxon in the final, 5 and 4, at Twin Brooks.”
In the 1957 International Jaycees Junior Tournament at The Ohio State University’s Scarlet Golf Course in Columbus, Ohio, Barnett was in fifth place after two rounds of the 72-hole tournament. He found himself paired with leader John Konsek of New York and hometown hero Jack Nicklaus, who would win the event.
“There was a backup on the par-3 eighth-hole, and while we were waiting, a three-wheeled golf cart pulled up. The great Bobby Jones himself drove up because he wanted to say hello to Jack, who the media was pushing as the next Bobby Jones. I got to shake his hand. It was a great day. I finished in the top 10 in the world and had the experience of a lifetime,” Barnett said.
In 1958, Barnett defeated Andy McKechnie of Canoe Brook, 1-up, at Rockaway River Country Club to repeat as NJSGA Junior Champion.
After winning 1958 NJSGA Junior Championship, he qualified for U.S. Junior Amateur at the University of Minnesota Golf Club in St. Paul., Minn., finishing as the qualifying medalist in New Jersey. He lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champ Gordon (Buddy) Baker of South Carolina, 2 and 1.
Barnett was seeking a third straight NJSGA Junior title in 1959 at age 18, and things looked good when he shot a 69 to earn medalist honors at the Montclair Golf Club in West Orange.
According to Barnett, in the first round, he met Leslie Davies of Ridgewood, a youngster who had never broken 75. But that day, his 69 enabled him to oust Barnett on the final hole. Davies went on to win the championship.
It was golf that played a small role in enabling him to gain admission to Duke University. After failing to receive an interview with the dean of admissions, Gerry and his dad went over to the new Duke University Golf Club to hit some balls. An elderly gentleman engaged him in conversation and wanted to know his background. Gerry told him he had won two New Jersey Junior Championships and some other details.
A half-hour later, the gentleman, who turned out to be Duke’s head golf coach and former assistant football coach Dumpy Hagler (Hagler produced 18 conference champions as a golf coach, coaching from 1933 to 1973), had set up an interview with the dean of admissions the next morning. By the time he returned home three days later, a letter of admittance from Duke was in his mailbox.
Barnett, at 6-foot-5, had an excellent high school basketball career as well. He was recruited by schools such as Yale University, his second choice, but he was not on the level to play at Duke. He went out for the freshman team, regardless, and would become the starting center as fate would have it. At that time, freshmen could not play varsity basketball.
His college roommate was star recruit Art Heyman from New York, who would earn three straight All-America honors and play professionally for eight years.
Heyman led Duke to the NCAA finals in 1963 for the first time in the school’s history, losing in the semifinals to eventual champion Loyola of Chicago. Heyman was named Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament and became the first overall NBA draft pick of the New York Knicks.
“I hurt my knee sophomore year, but the school allowed me to remain with the team and fly to the NCAA finals. I was there when we lost to Loyola. The other great part was that I received a $500 scholarship each year that paid one-third of my room and board all four years when tuition was only $1,500 per year,” Barnett said.
Because of his commitment to basketball, collegiate golf became pretty much an afterthought.
“I had been recruited by two of the golf powers at the time, Houston and Oklahoma State. Because the schedule was so demanding, they said it would take five or six years to graduate, and I didn’t want that. Duke only had one full golf scholarship to offer.
“I played a little golf at Duke. I was on the team but not active because I was playing basketball. I didn’t have the knee operated on, so I was finished with basketball. In my last two years, I played golf for Duke, but was I not a contributing member of the team.”
Following graduation, Barnett worked in management for Sears, Roebuck and Co. from 1963 to 1987. He started a real estate consulting business in 1988. That successful venture enabled him to “put three daughters through college,” he said. Next, he headed the real estate area for Woodward and Lothrop department stores, moving to McLean, Va. He retired in 2000.
“I didn’t play much tournament golf until I became a senior,” Barnett said.
“In 1996, I’m on the Board of Directors for the Boy Scouts. They had an outing at Bretton Woods Country Club in Potomac, Md. I had never made a hole in one since I started playing golf in 1949.
“But that day on the ninth hole, I hit a five-iron into a 190-yard, uphill, par-3 and got my hole-in-one. I saw it go in,” recounted Barnett. “Two months later, the National Hole-in-One Association sent me a check for $100,000. After filing my 1099 form for taxes, I ended up with $60,000.”
His good fortune continued. He added a second ace later that summer in the 1996 NJPGA/NJSGA Senior Open at Somerset Hills Country Club in Bernardsville.
“My hole in one came on the 12th hole. Unfortunately for me, the prize for a BMW convertible was on the second hole. I ended up as low amateur in the tournament,” he said.
Barnett won seven Manasquan River Club Championships in the 1970s and 1980s, as he always spent his summers in Brielle. His biggest career highlight, though, was not the club championships. In 2005, at age 65, Barnett went 32-32-64 to establish a course record. 
In 2007, Barnett was runner-up by a stroke to Peter Keller, Sr. of Canoe Brook Country Club in the NJSGA Senior Amateur Championship at Manasquan River.
“My good friend (NJSGA Hall of Famer) Bob Housen, who I know since we played against each other in high school, introduced me to the U.S. Seniors Golf Association, so I’ve been able to play events all over the country for the past 25 years or so. I’ve won a couple of senior division invitationals, including at Metedeconk National and at Huntington Valley Country Club in Pennsylvania.
“Senior golf is a lot of fun. There’s really a lot of good players and a lot of camaraderie, which I enjoy,” Barnett said. “I’m very thankful to have been able to enjoy this great game in so many ways.”
Truly, a testament to a lifelong love affair with the game of golf - and the game for a lifetime.
