New PGA Champ Has Muni Golf Roots

The new PGA Champ learned to play on a practice range

New PGA Champion Y.E. Yang, who outdueled Tiger Woods in the final round at Hazeltine on Sunday, has muni golf roots. After a knee injury forced him to give up pursuing a career as a bodybuilder, Yang was introduced to golf at age 19 when he worked picking up golf balls on the practice range at a country club in his native South Korea. He would stay after the golfers had left and work on his swing late into the night. After a mandatory two-year stint in the Korean military, Yang and his self-taught swing moved to New Zealand to pursue a career in professional golf.

Golf Digest Editor Recalls Juniata Days

Golf Digest Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Jerry Tarde, who grew up in the Juniata section of Northeast Philadelphia, recalls in the the days of his youth learning to play golf on the hard scrabble fairways and greens of Juniata Golf Club in the magazine's August issue.

"Par was 63 with nine 3s, nine 4s and nine bunkers -- no rakes or flagsticks. Dried sunflower stalks with empty beer cans stuck on top were placed in the holes, and there was an art to leaning the 'flagstick' on chip shots. The tees had rubber mats except for the ones that didn't, and those were hard-baked dirt that required some of us to carry an ice pick to pierce the ground so a wooden tee could stand up. The price was right: 50 cents for golf all day. I didn't go home till dark every night, and sometimes we even pulled the car lights to the putting green for another round of quarter skins," writes Tarde in his monthly Editor's Letter.

The August issue salutes municipal -- or muni -- golf, and Tarde has not forgotten his public golf course roots. He praises the renaissance that Juniata has enjoyed in recent years under the care of Bob Wheeler, who Tarde selects as #1 on his "Top 5 Heroes of Modern Public Golf."

Bob Wheeler

Tarde concludes his letter: "Thanks go to Bob Wheeler, a retired cop from the neighborhood, who put together a nonprofit foundation to run the course when a succession of management companies and the city had given up hope. Wheeler got the local unions -- carpenters, bricklayers, steamfitters and heavy-equipment operators -- to work on the course pro bono (or at least for the 10 cases of beer they go through a week). 'Great guys, heavy drinkers,' says Bob. He also talked himself into a $200,000 grant from the state. Every cent has gone into course improvements, he says. And now Juniata is among the cheapest, best golf in Philly. Golf fees for seniors, firefighters and police officers are $20; regular play is $32 weekdays and $37 weekends -- all including carts. High schools play for free. I remember those days."

Read Tarde's entire letter here.

Ross is Still the Boss at Jeffersonville

Jeffersonville Golf Club
Jeffersonville, Pa.
Yards: 3012/3138 - 6150
Par: 35/35 - 70
Rating: 69.4, Slope: 124
Score: 50/48 = 98
Date: June 26, 2009

It is always a treat to play a course that was designed by a legendary golf architect. On Friday, I played a round at Jeffersonville Golf Club, which is located just northwest of Norristown in Montgomery County. Jeffersonville is a Par 70 municipal track that was designed in 1931 by renowned golf architect Donald Ross, whose other legendary designs include such notable courses as Aronimink, Pinehurst #2, Oakland Hills, Oak Hill, Interlachen, Inverness and Seminole. The course was purchased by West Norriton Township in 1972 and they spent $2.3 million in 2002 restoring to as close to Ross' original layout as possible. It is a classic example of how a course can be challenging without a lot of gimmicks. There are a lot of holes that dogleg left or right, have double doglegs, play uphill or downhill, bunkers that line fairways and guard greens, as well as devilish greens that have false fronts or slope off on the front, back or sides.

Jeffersonville Golf Club Scorecard

Jeffersonville has decent length, measuring 6150 yards from the white tees and just over 6400 from the tips. The opening hole is a 434-yard Par 4 that plays across a small valley to an uphill fairway that doglegs left. The second hole, which plays downhill at 333 yards isn't any easier, with the green sitting on a plateau that has a creek crossing the front and right and out-of-bounds left and behind. There are two Par 5s: the 557-yard 6th hole, which doglegs right and features an almost blind second shot, and the 516-yard 18th Hole which doglegs left off the tee and then right back towards the green. One of the unique things at Jeffersonville is the pinsheet that is given out with scorecards in the proshop. With each green broken into thirds numbered 1, 2 and 3, it tells in what portion of the green the hole is located on that day. During our round, the pins were in #3.

Jeffersonville Golf Club Pinsheet

Usually, to play a course designed by such a legend, you would expect to pay $75 or more. But Jeffersonville's rates are truly in the spirit of municipal golf. To walk costs $26/35 during weekdays/weekends and to ride costs $42/51. The conditions of the course were excellent for a public facility. In fact, Jeffersonville is so respected, it is playing host to the Philadelphia Publinks Championship on June 29.

The 2nd Green is surrounded by a creek and OB

As for my round, my goal was to better the 100 I had shot at Jeffersonville two years ago. I felt pretty confident coming off last week's 90 at Mainland Golf Course. Although I was forced to hit Driver a few more times at Jeffersonville than Mainland, I still used my 3-Wood and 2-Hybrid off the tee a great deal. Unfortunately, I was back to fading or slicing the ball off the tee again. This put me some difficult spots to try and go at the green on my approach shots. My short game was either good or bad, depending on the hole. I did have success from the bunkers, which I found more than my share of, and my putting was again fairly consistent. I was disappointed to have five 7s on my card, although two of them came on the Par 5--I made an 8 on both last time. I did take some confidence away from the fact that I hit the ball solid, had a putts for par on the last five holes, and did break 100.

The blind approach shot at the Par 5 6th Hole

I would strongly recommend putting Jeffersonville on your must play list. It is a wonderful opportunity to experience golf as envisioned by one of the great golf architects, and at a price that can't be beat!

The Par 5 18th Hole doglegs left off the tee

Additional photos of Jeffersonville Golf Club:

The 3rd Hole, a short Par 4 which plays uphill

The Par 3 4th Hole

The straightaway 5th Hole

The 8th Hole, a downhill Par 3 with a creek in front

The approach to the 10th Green

The long 13th Hole doglegs left

with a creek in front of an elevated green

The long uphill Par 3 15th Hole

The Par 4 16th Hole

The approach to the 18th Green

Photos by The Muni Golfer

All Hail Muni Golf!!

A great story about the joys of playing muni golf has been posted on golfdigest.com. "A Man of the Munys Celebrates the Soul of American Golf" by Steve Rushin, which will be published in the August issue of the magazine, even gives an example of Golf Digest Editor-in Chief Jerry Tarde playing on a muni golf course while growing up in Philadelphia:

"Golf Digest Editor-in-Chief Jerry Tarde often played at a Philadelphia muny with an elderly gentleman who put Elmer's Glue on his grips and then shook coffee grounds over them to increase the tackiness. (In every sense of that word.) When Tarde passed him in the parking lot after one round, the guy was on his knees, spray-painting his own Cadillac."

Of course, Tarde grew up in Juniata and the Philadelphia muni that Tarde was playing was our beloved Juniata Golf Club!

The 1st Hole, a downhill Par 3, at Juniata Golf Club

A sidebar piece also ranks the best muni course in each of the 50 states. In Pennsylvania, that honor was bestowed upon Cranberry Highlands Golf Course, which is owned by Cranberry Township in Northwestern Pennsylvania. But I would argue that it is hard to beat Jeffersonville Golf Club, which is owned by West Norriton Township in Montgomery County. Jeffersonville was originally designed by the legendary golf architect Donald Ross, whose others works include Pinehurst #2, Oakland Hills, Oak Hill, Interlachen, Inverness and Seminole. I think it is hard to find another muni course designed by such a world renowned architect. Lucky for me, I will have the privilege of playing Jeffersonville tomorrow.