CSGA Publications: 2014 Championship Annual | Page 94

NECROLOGY T ONY A MARAL February 22, 1943 ~ December 11, 2013 F rom 1970 to 2004, Tony “T.A.” Amaral served with distinction as the Head Golf Professional at the Country Club of Woodbridge in Woodbridge, Connecticut. The patriarch of a great golf family, Tony often said one of his fondest memories was watching his son Colin develop his game into one of the best in the Connecticut and Metropolitan New York regions. Colin recalls “As I get older, I look back at how he did it for so long (thirty-four years). Almost everything our family has is due to golf and my Dad. If it wasn’t for golf, we wouldn’t be where we are, and nobody loved golf more than my Dad.” 2002 Connecticut Open Champion, Jim St. Pierre served as Tony Amaral’s assistant for six years. “I’ve worked for some good guys and worked at some great clubs,” recalled St. Pierre. “I always go back to Woodbridge and Tony Amaral, not only as one of my favorite clubs to work for, but my favorite pro to work for.” Ten years after he retired in 2004, members at Woodbridge and many in the Woodbridge community were quick to pay tribute to Tony after his passing with the creation of the inaugural Tony Amaral Classic in July of 2014. R ALPH D E N ICOLO February 1, 1944 ~ July 25, 2014 O ne of Connecticut’s most admired golf professionals, Ralph DeNicolo forged a career at Manchester Country Club that spanned more than 50 years. He was hired as an assistant professional in 1963, and became the club’s Head Professional and Director of Golf in 1976, a position he held until his retirement in 2008. An outstanding player, Ralph competed in eight Greater Hartford Open Championships and represented the Connecticut Section PGA fourteen times as a member of the Challenge Cup Team. He was the 1994 CT PGA Player of the Year, the 1995 CT PGA Senior Player of the Year, and was inducted into the CT PGA Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 2008. He was also a member of the Manchester Sports Hall of Fame. According to longtime friend Stan McFarland, “Ralph was very long and he was blessed with a wonderful wedge game. He was gifted and fearless, if it was a par 4 or a par 5 Ralph was pulling driver out of the bag no matter what. There was no lay-up in his game.” Ralph’s wife Rosanna recalled, “Everybody marveled at his ability and his smooth swing. He enjoyed playing in tournaments and he worked long days at the golf course, a labor of love for him.” W ILLAM H. D ETRICK I July 22, 1927 ~ September 19, 2014 n a career that spanned more than fifty years, Bill Detrick was one of the most beloved coaches in Connecticut history. His school record 468 victories as men’s basketball coach at Central Connecticut State University preceded his 23 years as men’s golf coach at Trinity College where he was a three-time NESCAC golf coach of the year. Trinity’s annual invitational golf tournament is named for Detrick, as is Central’s gymnasium in Kaiser Hall. An avid golfer, Detrick was a longtime member of Shuttle Meadow Country Club and Stanley Golf Course. “He showed me how important a passion for life and a passion for coaching is” recalled Matt Greason, a captain on Detrick’s 2003 Trinity golf team who took over as coach when Detrick retired in 2013. “There isn’t a minute of the day when he didn’t bring an inordinate amount of competitive nature to everything he did.” Central Connecticut athletic director, Paul Schlickmann remembers Detrick as “one of those rare guys that all of us hope to encounter in our careers. He had this ability to make you feel really good about who you are and what you’re doing, admonish you on something and leave you with a pearl of wisdom that made you better.” 94 Connecticut State Golf Association 2014 www.csgalinks.org