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1980-1989: Professional Aspirations, The Mid-Am - An Innovative Solution, Two National Champions Going At It

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Professional Aspirations

A significant change in the makeup of the top players in the NYSGA emerged in the late 1970s then hit flank speed in the 1980s.

Until then, only a handful of State Men’s Amateur champions— for example, Sam Urzetta (‘48), Terry Diehl (’69), George Burns (’74) — made their way to the professional ranks, either as club professionals or as PGA touring professionals. Television, Arnold Palmer and improved access to the game increased the game’s and the golf professional’s life appeal.

In the 1980s, of the nine different NYSGA Men’s State Amateur champions, six turned professional, including Joey Sindelar (1980) and Tim Straub (1987, ’88). Already in the PGA ranks were former champs George Burns (1974) and Jeff Sluman (1978).

Jim Roy of Syracuse won the 1981 NYS Men's Amateur, and went on to win a record four NYS Men's Mid-Am titles (1999-2004)

Sindelar won six PGA Tour events in the decade, while Hulbert took three titles. But it was Sluman who captured the major, the PGA Championship, in 1988. Jeff was to achieve greater success in the ‘90s when he became New York’s leading money winner, eclipsing $7 million.

It wasn’t just the folks winning the gold medal who were turning pro. Joey Sindelar, the 1980 champ, was joined on the PGA Tour by his Horseheads buddy, Mike Hulbert, who lost the state title in 1979 in a playoff. 

Joey Sindelar of Horseheads, won the 1971 NYS Boys' Sub-Junior and went on to win the 1980 NYS Men's Amateur.

Wayne Levi of Herkimer, who played in NYSGA events from 1971-72 while attending Oswego State, turned professional in 1973. He made his way through the mini-tours, eventually earning his PGA Tour card in 1977. Levi won 12 tournaments on the PGA Tour and was named the tour’s Player of the Year in 1990, when he triumphed four times. Levi was the first NYSGA alumnus to take home more than $1 million in a single season.

The women’s game was not immune to the lure of the tour. Future NYSGA Hall of Famer Dottie Pepper from Saratoga Springs won both the New York State Girls’ Junior and Women’s Amateur Championships in 1981, when she was only 15. The only female player to accomplish that dual victory, Pepper earned a golf scholarship to Furman University, where she became an All-American. She then joined the LPGA and became New York’s most decorated woman professional golfer, with 17 tour wins, including two LPGA majors. 

Dottie Pepper of Saratoga Springs won the 1981 NYS Girls' Junior and Women's Amateur, and the 1983 NYS Girls' Junior. In all three photos she is pictured with the NYSGA's Betty Deeley

Mary Anne Widman was Pepper’s successor in the Women’s Amateur in 1982 and ’83. A three time All-American at Duke University, member of the U.S. Curtis Cup squad and considered the country’s top amateur, Widman turned professional and earned non-exempt status on the LPGA in 1985 through qualifying school. She played on the Futures Tour in 1986 and ’87.

By the 1980s, players who had cut their competitive teeth on NYSGA competition were extending their influence beyond the amateur ranks onto the world’s most competitive golf arenas. 

The Mid-Am – An Innovative Solution

By the 1980s and throughout the country, a dissonance emerged in top-level men’s amateur golf. More and more, the names on championship trophies were those of college golfers who spent considerable time every week working on their game, then testing it often under the crucible of intense competition. The amateur who was past his mid-20s typically had to squeeze practice and competitive golf into a schedule that included a full-time job and family life. The golfer who played simply for the love of the game found himself at a distinct competitive disadvantage.

In 1981, the USGA created its Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship for post-college golfers who were not pursuing golf as a career. The NYSGA followed suit, establishing the State Mid-Amateur Championship in 1984, its first new championship in two decades.

Immediately setting a tone that evoked memories of NYSGA mid-century championships, the Mid-Am gained acceptance among the slightly grayer, slightly huskier, over-25 set. The 1984 NYSGA Mid-Am was played at Glens Falls and won by Albany’s Charles Murphy. 

The following year, a familiar name topped the leaderboard — Don Allen. Rochester's most prolific amateur, captured the Mid-Am in both 1985 at Drumlins (East) and 1987 at his beloved CC of Rochester. Allen’s embrace of the Mid-Am sealed the deal, making the event one of the NYSGA’s most popular events.

Two National Champions Going at It

1988 was a special year in New York golf.  That was the last year that two players who had national championships on their resumes faced off in the final round of the NYSGA Men’s Amateur at Yahnundasis.

Ralph Howe, a left-hander from Long Island, was the reigning U.S. Public Links champion, a quarterfinalist in the British Amateur, and the Middle Atlantic Amateur titleist. His stated goal for the year was to earn an invitation to compete in The Masters the following year. His 1988 U.S. Public Links title, won in Wyoming the week before the State Am, just about ensured the invite.

Howe’s biggest threat was Tim Straub, the defending 1987 NYSGA Men’s Amateur Champion who had the 1983 U.S. Junior Amateur title under his belt.  He was an Arnold Palmer Scholarship recipient at Wake Forest University and the top player on one of the top squads in the NCAA. 

The two obviously brilliant players were at their playing peaks. In fact, Straub and Howe had finished 1-2 respectively in the State Am in 1987.  Straub prevailed again in 1988, winning on the first playoff hole after the two finished on top at 290, six-over par on the always-tough Yahnundasis.  

Tim Straub of East Aurora won the 1987-88 NYS Men's Amateur (runner-up in '89). He also won the 1983 U.S. Junior Amateur.

Familiar Faces:

• Frances Stearns, from Poughkeepsie, captured four of the ‘80s Women’s Senior Amateur Championships: 1984, ’85, ’86, and ’88. She recorded a double hat trick with wins five and six in 1990 and ’91.

• Of the 10 State Senior Amateur Championships in the 1980s, only four didn’t have the last name “Hoff” or “Perkins.” Bob Hoff won the NYSGA Men’s Senior Championship in 1982, ’84 and ’87. Brother Jack Hoff crashed the party in 1986, giving the two, playing out of Rochester’s Oak Hill, the event’s only sibling, consecutive-year champions. Gerald Perkins, from LeRoy and playing out of Stafford, won four championships, the first two in 1988 and ’89 and then two more ‘91 and ‘92.

• George Zahringer was the most notable exception to the amateur-to-pro pipeline that emerged among the 1980s NYSGA Amateur champions. The 1984 winner from Sands Point is one our region’s most decorated amateur golfers. In addition to the State Am, the stockbroker won one Metropolitan Open, five Metropolitan Amateurs and – at the national level – won the 2002 U.S. Mid-Am Championship and a spot on the 2003 U.S. Walker Cup team.

• Bill Bogle of Dutchess, a past NYSGA president, won three Senior Amateur championships in 1979, 1980 and 1983. 

• E.J. Pfister of East Aurora, winner of the 1980 NYSGA Boys’ Sub-Junior championship, captured the 1988 individual NCAA Division I championship playing for Oklahoma State.

• Skaneateles’ Tom Scherrer gave notice for great things to come when he won the 1986 NYSGA Boy’s Junior Amateur at Winding Brook. Scherrer went on to play for the University of North Carolina. His superb play in the national amateur ranks (including a win at the 1990 North and South Amateur) earned Scherrer a spot on the 1991 Walker Cup squad. He validated that selection as a finalist in the 1992 U.S. Amateur Championship. After turning professional, Scherrer won the 2000 Kemper Open on the PGA Tour along with three Nationwide Tour events.

Tom Scherrer of Skaneateles, won the 1986 NYS Boys' Junior Amateur (right), he was also the 1992 U.S. Amateur runner-up. 

Written by freelance golf writer Kevin Casey, author of Remarkable Stories of NJ Golf