From Norwich to En-Joie: How a Small-Town Kid's Love Affair with the B.C. Open Shaped a Golf Career

Yahoo

14-07-2025

From Norwich to En-Joie: How a Small-Town Kid's Love Affair with the B.C. Open Shaped a Golf Career originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
How a small-town kid from Norwich, NY, turned childhood memories of the B.C. Open into a PGA Professional career, from En-Joie spectator to golf coach and writer.
The Dick's Open tees off this week at En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott, New York, and for me, it's more than just another Champions Tour event. It's a memory of where my love affair with professional golf began forty-five years ago, when I was five years old, growing up in Norwich, about an hour north of Binghamton.
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The Magic of Small-Town Golf
Norwich, New York, isn't the kind of place that produces many PGA Professionals. It's a quiet town in the rolling hills of Central New York, where Friday night high school football draws bigger crowds than most sporting events. But it was there, at age five, that I first picked up a golf club and felt something I couldn't explain — a connection to this beautiful, maddening game that would become my life's work.
My earliest golf memories are tied to the now-defunct Riverbend Golf Course in nearby New Berlin — a modest nine-hole layout that to a young kid might as well have been Augusta National. When I moved to Canasawacta Country Club in Norwich before my teenage years, my passion for golf truly ignited. Canasawacta taught me that golf wasn't just about hitting a ball around — it was about precision, patience, mental toughness, and the endless pursuit of improvement.
The Annual Pilgrimage to En-Joie
But if Canasawacta was where I learned to play golf, En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott was where I learned to dream about it. The B.C. Open, which ran from 1971 to 2006 as a PGA Tour event, became an annual pilgrimage for my family. I attended my first B.C. Open when I was eight years old, and from that moment forward, it became a tradition I shared every year with my brother and dad.
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The B.C. Open wasn't just a tournament for our family — it was a cornerstone experience that defined my relationship with golf and my understanding of what professional golf could mean to a community. There was something special about watching the world's best golfers navigate the same fairways and greens that I could actually play myself. En-Joie wasn't some exclusive, members-only fortress like many PGA Tour venues. It was accessible, welcoming, and felt like it belonged to all of us in the Southern Tier.
My brother Graham and I with Freddy "Boom-Boom" Couples at the 1983 B.C. Open
My father served as a scorekeeper for many years, walking alongside legends like Hal Sutton, John Daly, and many other players who graced En-Joie's fairways. Through his stories and my own observations as a young golf enthusiast, the B.C. Open became more than just a sporting event — it became a formative influence that shaped who I am today.
I'll never forget watching Hal Sutton shoot that incredible final-round 61 in 1995 to claim his first PGA Tour win in over nine years, or John Daly's dominant six-shot victory in 1992. These weren't just golf tournaments I was watching on television — these were real moments happening right in front of me, on a course I knew intimately, featuring players who suddenly seemed more human and accessible than they ever could on TV.
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Walking in the Footsteps of Champions
As a junior golfer, I had the privilege of playing En-Joie Golf Club on multiple occasions. Those rounds were special beyond measure — I was able to walk the same fairways and play the same holes where my golf heroes had competed. Every time I stepped onto those grounds, I felt connected to something larger than myself — to the history of the game, to the community that supported it, and to the dreams that golf could inspire.
The B.C. Open Legacy: More Than Just Golf
The B.C. Open's impact on the Southern Tier extended far beyond four days of tournament play each July. From 1971 through 2006, the tournament became woven into the fabric of the community. The event was operated by Broome County Community Charities, Inc., and by 2003, it had contributed over $7.4 million to local charities, proving that professional golf could be a force for good in small communities.
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The tournament's connection to local culture was evident in its partial naming after the comic strip "B.C.," created by Johnny Hart, who was born and raised in Endicott. This wasn't some corporate-sponsored event that happened to land in upstate New York — this was our tournament, created by our community, for our community.
The Transition: From B.C. Open to Dick's Open
When the PGA Tour announced its schedule revamp based on the introduction of the FedEx Cup, the B.C. Open was eliminated after the 2006 season. But the story didn't end there. Broome County Community Charities wasn't ready to give up. In 2007, they launched the Dick's Sporting Goods Open (now simply the Dick's Open) as a Champions Tour event, bringing professional golf back to En-Joie Golf Club.
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The transition from a PGA Tour event to a Champions Tour event might have seemed like a step down to some, but for those of us who understood what En-Joie and professional golf meant to this region, it was a triumph.
The Dick's Open has thrived since its inception, becoming a two-time recipient of the prestigious President's Award, the highest honor on PGA Tour Champions. The tournament has maintained its commitment to charitable giving, with Broome County Community Charities contributing over $21 million to local causes since the organization's inception.
Champions Tour Magic at En-Joie
The Champions Tour format has brought its own special magic to En-Joie. Watching legends like Bernhard Langer, Fred Couples and, more recently, Pádraig Harrington compete on the same course where I learned to love professional golf has been incredibly meaningful. Harrington's recent dominance at the Dick's Open — winning three times in the last three years (2022, 2023, and 2024) — has created new memories and storylines that rival the best moments from the B.C. Open era.
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The Dick's Open has also maintained one of the most beloved traditions from the B.C. Open era: The Concert on the Green. From Maroon 5 and Luke Bryan to Kenny Chesney and Bon Jovi, this concert series has transformed the tournament into a community celebration, blending golf with music.
The Personal Impact: From Fan to Professional
After graduating from SUNY Delhi in 1996, I decided to pursue my golf career by moving to Orlando, Florida. While I've now called Florida home for nearly three decades—longer than I lived in Norwich — my roots in Central New York and the Southern Tier remain deeply embedded in who I am.
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Today, I serve the golf community as a PGA Professional with my own academy here in Orlando, where I pass on my love for the game to the next generation of golfers. In addition to coaching, I've built a career as a freelance golf writer, contributing to numerous respected outlets throughout the golf industry. My work appears regularly on PGA.com and in PGA Magazine, and I write extensively for GolfWRX and MyGolfSpy.
Most recently, I've joined Athlon Sports as their senior golf writer.
Every article I write, every lesson I teach, and every conversation I have about golf is influenced by those formative years spent at En-Joie. The B.C. Open taught me that golf could be more than just a game — it could be a community builder, a charitable force, and a source of dreams and inspiration.
The Enduring Legacy
When the Dick's Open tees off this week, I'll be watching with the same excitement I felt as an eight-year-old at my first B.C. Open. Different names, older players, but the magic of professional golf at En-Joie hasn't changed.
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The tournament represents something increasingly rare in professional sports: a genuine connection between an event and its community. En-Joie Golf Club isn't just hosting a golf tournament — it's continuing a tradition that's been part of the Southern Tier's identity for more than five decades. The Dick's Open isn't just a golf tournament — it's a celebration of everything that makes golf special, and a reminder that sometimes the most important victories happen not on the PGA Tour, but in the hearts and minds of young people who dare to dream.
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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 11, 2025, where it first appeared.