Fun, Fun, Fun at BCC!

What a treat, what fun to play. Binghamton Country Club today! Especially with my two good Hobart & William Smith College friends Professor Chip who teaches a golf architecture course and Ken the Statesmen Golf Coach!

The golf course is in incredible shape benefiting from recently completed tree removal and bunker restoration programs! The course conditions have historically been impeccable and they were no different today! The greens, the course’s main defense, along with the engaging high shot value A.W. Tillinghast design, were rolling at an 11.3 on the Stimpmeter today!

The long & difficult par-3 18th home hole at BCC!

Binghamton Country Club is the bedrock, the history, the origin of golf in the Greater Binghamton area and all of Broome County and somewhat beyond! The club dates bank to 1889 with the first course on the flat lands near the Susquehanna River. The famous and tremendously skilled golf course architect A.W. Tillinghast designed the current golf course and it opened in 1921.

George F. Johnson in line with his workers ringing out on the Time Recording Clock Machine! (Picture Credit: Bundy Museum)

George F. Johnson was a charter resident member of BCC and such a big proponent of golf he built his Endicott-Johnson shoe workers a golf course of their own. Originally called the En-Joie Health Golf Club, the workers’ golf course opened in 1927. George F. influenced Thomas J. Watson not only in business but also in golf. Watson, who also became a BCC member was the man who built International Business Machines (IBM). He also built a golf course for his workers; the IBM Country Club which opened in 1938. The En-Joie Golf Club has brought the world of professional golf to the Triple Cities (Endicott, Johnson City, and Binghamton) since 1971 (Credit source of this information to BCC Club Historian Louis R. Panigrosso, Esq. and his 3-part series ‘E-J, Big Blue, & BCC.’)

Binghamton University Campus from the 15th green at BCC.

With views across the Susquehanna Valley to Vestal in the South direction one can easily see the Binghamton University campus from the 15th green near the clubhouse. There are even better views from the 17th green all the way east up the Susquehanna River to Downtown Binghamton and my beloved Ely Park Golf Course on the western slope of Mount Prospect!

Great golf history, hometown views, and great camaraderie made for an exception day! While my buddies had to head north and home to Geneva after lunch in the grill room I ventured back out on the golf course for a second 18 holes! I had to make up for the round lost after being cut after two rounds in the TCGA Amateur Championship Keith Chesk! For those of you who know me and the TROML/SSS process I am always joyous and rejoicing so why not play and replay this beauty?

View from the 6th green at BCC!

A Heartfelt Thank You to Hobart and William Smith Colleges

http://www.andygolftraveldiary.com/a-heartfelt-thank-you-t…/

Today also brought back memories of being selected as the 2015 John Henry Hobart Fellow in Residence! What a great on-campus experience with the freshman class which just now graduated four years later! Time indeed flies! I hope they learned as much from my share as I learned from them! TROML Baby (an exclamation of Joy and Gratitude!)

(Andy Reistetter; 7/27/19; Facebook Post with 30 Pics)

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2019 ECGJ: En-Joie-ing Endicott. New York’s En-Joie Golf Club Twice in One Week!

Fortunate to enjoy En Joie two out of the last four days! Great golf course design, great golf course conditions but not enough golfing talent on my part! LOL, watch where the pros play and then playing it is always so much more difficult! They make it look easier! What a Broome County Treasure! Hats off to PGA Golf Professional Mike Deuel and GCSAA Superintendent Anthony Chapman for making it all happen so that we can enjoy En Joie!

Wednesday practice round with my buddy The Greek, aka John Yianni Koutsaris and Saturday’s Round Two of the TCGA Amateur Championship with former Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan!

Too many DSGO stories to write about The Greek (yes that is him in the bunker on No.2 but it is not his drive), but here is one on our 2-term Mayor Ryan: his first hole-in-one came on December 26th at Endwell Greens (proof positive for global warming) just in time to be the very first member of the Golf Channel Hole-In-One Club when they first went on the air on January 17th, 1995! Wouldn’t that be an interesting feature on this year’s DSGO broadcast?

So once again, the golf course that Ernie Smith designed and George F. Johnson built for his workers in 1927; home to the B.C. Open for 36 years and immortalized by local cartoon artist Johnny Hart; where Butch Harmon won the inaugural event in 1971; where EJ Assistant Pro Richie Karl beat Bruce Crampton in a playoff; where local favorite Joey Sindelar was the first to win two times; where Brad Faxon was the first to win back-to-back titles; where Palmer, Watson and Couples have played; where the PGA TOUR Champions’ DICK’S Sporting Goods Open has been played since 2007; where Bart Bryant became the first to win two times last year; and where Jack Nicklaus is coming this year… IS nearly perfect for the upcoming 2019 DICK’S Sporting Goods Open… only 4 more weeks and it is Keith Urban party time!

I hope you enjoy En Joie as much as I do!

Thank you to Mike Deuel for hosting Andy’s Golf & Travel Diary; The Greek, aka John Yianni Koutsaris, for having fun no matter what I shoot and Keith Chesk and the TCGA for recording what I shot and cutting me (deservingly so as I was not so deserving) and carrying on with the final round at Binghamton Country Club! Play well fellow amateurs!

(Andy Reistetter; Facebook Post with 30 Pics; 7-14-19)

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