2022 President's Letter: Henry Fust

January 31, 2022

JAMESVILLE, N.Y. -- As the NYSGA begins 2022 and looks towards the upcoming golf season, our new President Henry Fust expressed his thoughts in the following message to association members:

Dear NYSGA Members,

As the new president of the New York State Golf Association, let me thank you all for giving me the opportunity to serve in this capacity. I have spent the past 30 years as a member of the various NYSGA committees and as an officer. Hopefully the experience I’ve had in these many roles will enable me to appropriately serve the organization and reflect the same leadership qualities as the previous presidents I have had the pleasure to work with.

I need to thank Joe Enright, our outgoing president. I can’t imagine that any previous president faced as many issues as he did during his tenure. Yet in spite of these, Joe stood tall and executed his responsibilities in stellar fashion. We all owe him a tremendous thank you for his service to the NYSGA.

Looking back for a moment to last year, let’s remember the accomplishments of note. Golf continues its resurgence, demonstrated by tremendous growth in our GHIN membership and the rounds played at clubs in New York. The NYSGA entered into a new Allied Golf Association agreement with the USGA, renewing our commitment to shared programs supporting golfers in our region. We also entered into a new agreement with the Rochester District Golf Association, similar to those already entered with other partner associations in NYS, the result of which is that every golfer in New York State with a GHIN handicap is now a NYSGA member. But most importantly, we returned to conducting a full schedule of tournaments after the 2020 season was canceled due to the pandemic. A very large thank you is owed to Joe Enright, the entire NYSGA family of volunteers and staff for a great season.

Looking forward to 2022, a renewal of our BDGA agreement is on the agenda as well as a formalization of the verbal agreement we have had with the SDGA for many years. The NYSGA has initiated an effort to re-create a golf association in the Capital Region. We believe that this effort will enhance the competition opportunities for our members in the region. Andrew Hickey is heading up this effort. Beyond these projects, I hope it will be business as usual for a whole year without any significant interruptions or situations like those recently faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. I think we all need a year in which we are able to simply enjoy the game of golf. Hopefully that will be the case.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the NYSGA Foundation and our Scholarship program. In 2022, we intend to change our approach to fundraising for scholarships with the goal of supporting more deserving students each academic year. Additional information will be forthcoming in the near term.

Again, thank you for allowing me to serve as your president. Let’s all enjoy a great year of golf in 2022.

Best regards,

Henry Fust
President, NYSGA

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