My earliest childhood habit that I can recall is going on family picnics out to Chenango Valley State Park. It was a daylong affair of playing games, swimming and satisfying the hunger created by exercise by eating spiedies. I can remember the routine of hunting for wood, starting the fire, adding the charcoal and lovingly cooking the spiedies in the special spiedie sauce. I readily admit that I became addicted to spiedies at a relatively young age.
Spiedies give me tremendous energy and this week is just another example of their spirited effect on me. My first day here was Monday and I started off with a visit to Ely Park Municipal Golf Course. Not to golf but to have a spiedie salad for lunch up in the bar restaurant now referred to as cafe bar. The spiedie salad was delicious as you can see in the picture.
Maybe I should do a food column? Thanks to Lupo’s on the 14th tee here at En Joie I am now eating spiedies three times a day—late breakfast compliments of the
Media Center, late lunch at the 14th compliments of Lupo’s and this evening a spiedie BBQ celebrating a dog’s birthday.
So is my life when home and addicted to spiedies. Throw in the tasty Filet Mignon sandwich at Lampy’s that always hits the spot and Mario’s Pizza onsite for the Wednesday (sausage sandwiches) and Thursday (meatball subs) Pro-Ams and here you have a food column for the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open. Oh I almost forgot the gnocchi and meatballs on Wednesday at the Oaks Inn. So far I have managed to stay clear of the reportedly exceptionally tasty french fries but it is still only Saturday.
No this is a golf tournament, a very important one as the Champions Tour winds down to the final Charles Schwab Cup stretch. Only five more events after the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open (DSGO) this week to see if close pursuers Jeff Maggert and Bernard Langer or someone else can overtake Charles Schwab Cup Points leader Colin Montgomerie.
In Round 1 on Friday Gene Sauers opened up with matching 6-under 66s. They were trumped by the consistent 68-66 play of Rod Spittle in Round 2 on Saturday which earned him a one-stroke lead going into Sunday’s final round. A sensational holed-out pitch on the 17th for eagle provided Spittle with the lift to keep ahead of the young Scott McCarron (71-64) and long hitting John Huston (67-68). With a historic 59 recorded here last year by Kevin Sutherland, another 64 on Saturday by Stephen Ames (72-64, two strokes back) and a firm and fast golf course, the final round promises to be a spectacular Sunday shootout. There are 20 golfers within five strokes of Spittle with a chance to go low and win the ninth consecutive DSGO.
While high on spiedies this has been a whirlwind week in the Valley of Opportunity, Hart & Faith—a.k.a. as the Triple Cities of Binghamton, Johnson City and Endicott.
Champion amateur golfer Ray Linsky, who has won the most club championship titles of anyone up at Ely Park, surprised me with the original 9-hole course layouts from 1925 and 1933. In 1907, S. Mills Ely tendered to the City of Binghamton a 140 acre tract of land on Mount Prospect for park purposes. I had always assumed the golf course idea was tied to the Civilian Conservation Corps initiative after the Great Depression of 1929 which tied to the documented 1933 opening date of the golf course. With Ray’s discovery, the idea of golf in Binghamton has as much to do with the growth of the game in the Roaring Twenties as it does as a project to create jobs.
If you ever get a chance, go play Ely Park, perched high above the Chenango and Susquehanna River valleys on Mount Prospect. The view includes downtown Binghamton and the confluence of the two rivers that led to the development and prosperity of the area way back in 1802. Close to Heaven, Golfing Atop Mount Prospect is quite the golfing and spiritual experience. Jim Maggiore, a retired IBMer, and Mike McCann, a 20-year veteran of the Johnson City Fire Department, just came out with Golf in Broome County, a great book about professional golf at the B.C. Open and the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.
Time to head out to the 14th far another spieidie fixing so here is the rest of the story in pictures.
For the record, per Wikipedia, a spiedie consists of cubes of chicken, pork, lamb, veal, venison or beef. The meat cubes are marinated overnight or longer in a special marinade, then grilled on spits over a charcoal pit. The traditional method involves serving freshly prepared cubes of lamb, chicken, or beef on soft Italian bread, and occasionally drizzled with fresh marinade.
I am drooling now. Gotta go.
I am admittedly addicted to spiedies during the week of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.