Daniel Meehan New NJSGA President; Bernie Samons Wins Gantner Award
Daniel J. Meehan of Spring Brook was installed as the 60th president of the New Jersey State Golf Association at its annual meeting on Thursday, October 8, at the Plainfield Country Club in Edison.
Meehan succeeds H. Frank O’Brien of Plainfield who served as NJSGA president for two years.
The Honey Gantner Volunteer of the Year award was presented to Bernie Samons, former chairman of the NJSGA Course Rating Committee.
“Frank O’Brien has been an outstanding athlete, business man and family man,” Meehan stated in presenting a recognition award to O’Brien. “As a member of the Board, I’ve seen his wisdom, leadership and passion for New Jersey golf and in continuing to lead the NJSGA as one of the premier golf associations in the country.”
Other newly named officers include William Frese of Rock Spring as Vice President, Stephen Hennesey of Ridgewood as Treasurer and Eric Houseknecht of Royce Brook as Secretary.
Kathy Carter of Rumson and John Delaney of Essex County are new members of the Board of Trustees.
“My two-year term as president has come to an end. It has been a tremendous honor for me to serve as the president of the New Jersey State Golf Association,” said O’Brien, also a past president at Plainfield C.C. “To the many individuals, past presidents, staff, volunteers and allied associations who have supported my efforts, thank you so much. Joining the team at the NJSGA has been very meaningful to me.”
Scott Paris, head professional at Plainfield and president of the New Jersey PGA, gave brief welcoming remarks.
“The relationship between the NJSGA and NJPGA is strong and trending toward accomplishing so much more together. I love where we are going with golf in New Jersey .To Frank O’Brien, golf at this club and in the State of New Jersey has gotten better and better and so much of that can be attributed to what you’ve done.”
Mike McFadden provided the Treasurer’s Report: “I am happy to indicate our capital position is strong and we will continue to try to grow it in the best way possible. We are looking at where we need to grow in the future, whether it is in technology or on tournaments.”
The Course Rating Committee rated 14 courses in 2015 with one pending and two postponed until 2016. “We have done eight course assessments, and I see that as a coming trend,” said Jack Luts of the Course Rating Committee.
Luts accepted the Honey Gantner Award on behalf of an ailing Bernie Samons.
Bernie Samons was NJSGA Course Rating chairman from 1999 through 2008, and took course rating to a new level. He trained close to 100 course raters in that nine-year period and many of his innovative ideas are still used today by NJSGA raters.
“Bernie has always thought highly of the NJSGA. He referred to its many accomplishments often and was proud of the Course Rating Committee which he chaired for many years. Bernie also knew Honey Gantner and is well aware of what this aware stands for. Volunteers like Bernie Samons are very, very important to this association and he is a proud recipient,” Luts said.
Meehan represented the Partner Committee and stated: “We realize how important it is to us to be looking at new ways to attract partners. We are in the process of meeting with the USGA and other associations and seeing how they do it. We’d like to be getting into partnerships where the NJSGA and the partner can draw upon each other’s strengths.”
Reports by the representatives of the Members Committee, Women’s Committee and Tournament Committee were all favorable. The Members Committee will have Trump National-Bedminster, Hidden Creek and Ridge at Back Brook among the venues for the highly popular Member Golf Days next summer; two new tournaments were added this year in the Ultimate Team Event and Senior Interclub Matches; in 2015, a partnership with the South Jersey Golf Association was formed.
The Women’s Committee celebrated its eighth year as part of the NJSGA. Tara Fleming, Adrienne MacLean and Ami Gianchandani represented the NJSGA at the U.S. State Team Championship and finished No. 21.
The Tournament Committee announced several sites for 2016: The 115th Amateur at Montammy, June 7-9; the 96th Open at Galloping Hill, July 11-13; The Mid-Amateur in May at Spring Lake; the Four-Ball at North Jersey; the Senior Amateur at Shackamaxon and the Public Links at Mercer Oaks.
The Youth Foundation has donated $160,000 over the past five years. It has raised $100,000 in a capital campaign and the committee is looking at ways to grow the program and move it forward, McFadden said.
The Caddie Scholarship Foundation raised $999,901 and award ed200 scholarships in 2015. The top contributing clubs were Baltrusol at $70,145 and Echo Lake at $47,225. Spring Brook was named CSF Club of the Year with 295 Par Club ($100 donors) members. The average GPA for Caddie Scholars is 3.6 and SAT score was 1232.
Ben Del Vento Jr of the Communications Committee noted that, “Social media is a big component of what we are and we have thousands of followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This is a large asset. Fifty percent of our membership access our website through handheld devices and that is why we should invest in a state-of-the-art website. We have a quality magazine that has a strong appeal to all members, private and public. We are trying to be ‘All Things Golf in New Jersey’ and to report on New Jersey golf and golfers who are playing throughout the country and the world.”
