Grand Haven Mens Golf Assoc.

I was born in Kansas City, MO the youngest of five (three brothers and a sister).  We moved to Severna Park MD when I was five and became our home for the next ten years.  As you can imagine my parents encouraged a family with four boys to become active in sports, mainly to get us out of the house.  The putt-putt golf course was the only course we ever played growing up.   Lacrosse was a very popular sport in Maryland and the youth leagues encouraged youngsters to participate.  I started playing in the fifth grade for the Green Hornets which was an annual championship team in many age groups.  I had dreams of playing at Division 1 program but those dreams were dashed when my dad was transferred to Freeport, PA before my sophomore year of high school.   Sports were still an important part of my life as I lettered in football, basketball, and track.   It is hard to believe that the sport I had never participated in during my youth became my most successful.  The track team had a successful middle distance program because a former Olympic runner worked for the school system.  He would provide the workout programs and coach us during his lunch hour.   It resulted in us winning the Pennsylvania State Championship Two Mile Relay my junior year and the 4 by 800 meter relay and the individual 800 meter race my senior year.  At one time I was part of three PIAA state records.  The success resulted in my accepting a partial scholarship to St. John’s University in New York.  The jump for high school track to a major Division 1 proved to be difficult at times.  I was lucky enough to have another former Olympian as my coach for two years.  During my junior year, he had me run the mile which resulted in my running of a personal best of 4:04.  Unfortunately, an injury during my senior season resulted in a disappointing season.

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I was an accounting major at St. John’s.  During the summer after my junior year I was able to secure a paid intern with the City of New York to perform audit work for the city owned cemeteries.   It seemed that there were some differences with the city records and some of the funeral homes.  In conjunction with a local CPA firm, I assisted in the audit, including a physical inventory of the grave plots (yes, we measured the actual plot spaces).   The audit experience provided the springboard to my career in banking.  After graduation I accepted a position at Chemical Bank as Auditor in the Trust Division.  Since my brothers were in Baltimore, I found a similar position at First National Bank of Maryland.  I spent the rest of my banking career with the same institution as an auditor, managing the bank’s cash position at the Federal Reserve and finally as a municipal bond trustee. 

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As I said in the beginning, sports have always played an important role in my life.  Why wouldn’t it impact the most important person that I would ever meet?   While at First National we had an interdivision coed softball team.  Our division did not enough female participants, so a co-worker recruited a former employer to our team.  It was the perfect fit, because fourteen months later Cathy and I got married.  Our pre-retirement plan was launched when Cathy was offered a position in Melbourne, FL.   Once our final retirement decision was made we decided to move to Palm Coast.

 

Golfing at Grand Haven has been a rewarding experience.  I thought it was totally private to property owners only.  Thankfully, I did more research to find out that is not the case.  Since August, the members, staff, and maintenance workers have been remarkable.  I have enjoyed the MGA and participating in the different groups during the week.  My golf goal is to become more consistently consistent and to not choke away a chance to win the Shoot Out.  Also to get my wife out on the course some more!  (She had a par on 8 today!)

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See Ya in the 19th Hole.