Frank O'brien Named New NJSGA President; Vic Bacile Honored
The New Jersey State Golf Association on Thursday installed Frank O’Brien of Plainfield as its new president, along with three new Board of Trustees members, elected its slate of officers, and also honored Victor Bacile of Spring Brook as winner of the Honey Gantner Award as its top volunteer at its Annual Meeting at the Hackensack Golf Club.
New Board members include William Frese of Rock Spring, Daniel Meehan of Spring Brook and Terri Kirk of Beacon Hill. The new officers, besides O’Brien, are Evan Broadbelt of Manasquan River, vice-president; Michael McFadden of Fairmount, treasurer, and Steve Hennesey of Ridgewood, secretary.
O’Brien, a resident of Warren, ascends from secretary to president. Outgoing Board members include Paul Coulter of Canoe Brook, Dr. Albert Kuchler of High Mountain and Jay McLaughlin of Trenton.
NJSGA representative teams won the USGA Women’s State Team event and championships of both the Compher Cup and Stoddard Trophy team matches.
Bacile, a long-time tournament official and chairman of the tournament committee, was honored for “his outstanding service and contributions to the NJSGA. He has made golf in New Jersey a better place to be and a better place to play,” said outgoing NJSGA president Tom McGovern of Hackensack, whose two-year term expired on Thursday.
“The Honey Gantner Award symbolizes a volunteer who has gone above and beyond what is required and Vic Bacile is at the same level as Honey Gantner was – an outstanding volunteer for this organization,” McGovern said.
Bacile thanked his family, with wife Joyce and son Doug in attendance.
“I loved going to tournaments,” Bacile said. “I loved giving penalties. The more penalties you gave, the more they appreciated you,” he kidded. “I suffer from muscular dystrophy, but I’m not out of it.”
Over the past two years, McGovern was instrumental in overseeing the NJSGA’s move to its new headquarters this spring to Galloping Hill Golf Course in Kenilworth, for upgrading the NJSGA.org website and NJSGA GOLF magazine, for improving member benefits, and for enhancing fund-raising efforts for both the NJSGA’s Caddie Scholarship Foundation and Youth Foundation, among other duties.
“We would like to thank Tom for his time and effort. Tom is a very humble man who would never take credit for his accomplishments,” said O’Brien while presenting a plaque of appreciation to McGovern. “He gives credit to the Board, volunteers and staff. It shows the type of leader he is. His enthusiasm set the tone for us as we move forward in coming years.”
McGovern oversaw Thursday’s meeting and thanked attending sponsors, representatives from the USGA, MGA, WMGA, NJPGA, New Jersey Senior Golf Association and Golf Course Superintendents of N.J., who were in attendance.
New Jersey PGA executive director Chris Bauer noted that two New Jersey professionals, Scott Paris of Plainfield and Dan Pasternak of Panther Valley, will be recognized this year for national awards. Paris won Merchandiser of the Year Award for Private Facilities and Pasternak won the Bill Strausbaugh Award for Employment and Club Relations.
Broadbelt, in his treasurer’s report, noted that “the NJSGA’s resources remain in good financial condition.”
Jack Luts, captain of the course rating committee, noted that 17 courses had been rated with three more on line by the end of the year. “We went from Mays Landing to High Point, so we visited every corner of the state,” Luts said.
The NJSGA Women’s Committee will receive the prestigious Judy Bell Award from the MGA for support of women’s and junior girls’ golf in the metropolitan area, announced Ms. Luker.
Kevin Purcell of the Partnership and Member Services Committee said the NJSGA is seeking new sponsorships, particularly one to replace Prudential, which had been a co-sponsor of the State Open along with Lincoln Motor Cars.
“We are looking for a fitness company or bank to come aboard,” Purcell said. “We are very happy with our Member Golf Days. Four of our six days were complete sellouts and we will have a great schedule next year.”
Broadbelt announced the tournament committee administered 23 tournaments from May through October, plus two USGA qualifying events. He thanked the 95 members of the tournament committee and NJSGA staff. He stated that participation was about the same as in 2012.
Broadbelt said the State Amateur will take place next June 3-5 at Knickerbocker Country Club in Tenafly and the State Open will be conducted July 15-17 at Essex County Country Club in West Orange. The Mid-Amateur will be played in September at Laurel Creek Country Club in Mount Laurel.
O’Brien, as co-chairman of the Youth Foundation, said this past July’s Pro-Am at Hackensack had the largest field ever and that more raffle tickets were sold than ever before. “Between the two, it was our largest one-day fund-raiser and we were able to give away $36,000 to deserving charities,” he said. “We are moving forward to help as many deserving youth in the state as we can.”
Ed Batta, chairman of the Caddie Scholarship Foundation, was proud to announce that the CSF has managed to donate more than $10 million since it was founded in 1947. This past year, 192 scholarships were awarded at a total of $815,000.
“Tom Paluck has raised over $330,000 for the Chick Evans Scholarship and this year we had our second recipient, Thomas Marcus of Tenafly, who received full room and board to the University of Michigan, worth $160,000 over four years.”
He also said the first Jay Petersen Scholarship was awarded to George Levitt of Plainfield, a full scholarship to Rutgers University. Batta said the Mary Stackhouse Foundation has raised its scholarship to $6,000 per year and benefits 20 caddie scholars. The new Vincent Gilligan Scholarship at Echo Lake was awarded to Janeclair McCann, who attends Catholic University.
The GPA of freshman caddie scholars is at 3.59 while incoming caddie scholars average 1199 on their SATs, Batta said.
Johanna Gavin, director of the Caddie Scholarship program, said an on-line donation page on NJSGA.org is reaching many more donors. She also said a CSF Alumni Association has strengthened and that many former and current caddie scholars are participating in NJSGA social media.
