By Tom Johnson
I was not really considering starting a tournament, just sharing with friends that Foxburg might be an alternate for the National Hickory Championship (NHC) in the event Oakhurst was not available for 2009 or beyond due to a pending ownership change.
I had been fortunate to play Foxburg Country Club many times from 1995 through 2009. My first visit there was on the way to the 1995 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in Long Island, N.Y. I knew the course was there, but was more interested in the American Golf Hall of Fame Museum, which I wanted to check out, along with visiting Golf House in Far Hills, N.J., on my journey to Long Island. During my first few visits I played Foxburg with modern equipment, but in 1999 began playing pre-1900 clubs and the original Oakhurst mesh ball.
Jumping forward to January 2009, I had a conversation with Tad Moore at the Dayton, Ohio winter golf trade show show regarding Oakhurst Links and the NHC. There were again rumors about the availability of Oakhurst for the 2009 event, and I mentioned to Tad that Foxburg would be a perfect venue for Pete Georgiady (the NHC’s host and organizer) to use. Tad made a comment about room for another gutty event on the annual calendar. Subsequent conversations with Bill Engleson and Tad got me excited. They encouraged me to put something together.
When I reflect on those conversations, one of the intriguing points was Tad’s description of gutty player Chris McIntyre’s continued experiments with a synthetic gutta material and the molding of line-cut balls. I was not a fan of the line-cut Oakhurst ball we had been using at the NHC the past several years. I had had trouble with the ball splitting, and did not like the feel of well struck shots, which is an important part of hickory golf.
Shortly after the Dayton show, I contacted the management of the Foxburg Country Club to gauge interest in hosting a pre-1900 tournament. Mike Gardner, who was then general manager, responded that Foxburg’s board had already been discussing an ‘old time’ golf tournament started, and they were more than interested.
That got the ball rolling, and then we got Chris McIntyre’s gutty ball rolling, too. The initial Foxburg Hickory Championship was the first significant event in which the McIntyre gutty was used. We have consistently used the Park ball for the Open Division, with 2014 the only year we deviated to another McIntyre-Brown model.
I am thankful for the support from the Society of Hickory Golfers and the Golf Collectors Society (now the Golf Heritage Society). They have been tremendous influences in hickory collecting and playing competitions. I sincerely appreciate and respect each organization, and recognize them in the information packet we send out.
The event would be nothing without Foxburg Country Club, of course. Their board has been supportive, and their staff has been great. We have been very fortunate with a couple other partnerships that have developed, including great catering, and a modestly priced hotel we have enjoyed for our traveling participants.
But I would not enjoy the Championship as much without the assistance of my wife, Karen. She takes care of entrant registration, meal planning, and keeping everything in line. We do have a number of guests attend our events, I am sure the atmosphere on the “front porch” of the Foxburg club has a lot to do with it. Many friendships have developed over the years.
One last note, our second year (2010), we began to invite and sponsor juniors from the First Tee of Pittsburgh through Dr. Bern Bernacki and Frank Rosenzweig. The positive feedback from the players, as well as the junior participants is very rewarding.
