2016 Summary ~ Connecticut Section of the PGA of America
Both City of Hartford Golf Course Properties Now
Open - Hosts Two Major Events This Summer
I
n 2014, the Connecticut Section PGA and the City of Hartford
entered into a Golf Course Consulting agreement with the
Section acting as a consultant for the operation of the City’s
Goodwin Park and Keney Park Golf Courses. The City Council
approved funds to improve the courses, including a $5.8 million
comprehensive restoration of Keney Park. Additional improvements
will continue to be made over the next three to four years at both
courses. PGA Professional Patrick Aldrich was hired as Golf
Properties Consultant to serve the City of Hartford as its Director
of Operations.
Under the supervision of PGA Professional Kevin Cloud,
Goodwin Park was able to remain open during renovations and is
fully operational. Now, following a two-year restoration, Keney Park
officially re-opened to the public on May 1, 2016. PGA Professional
Peter Seaman was retained as the head golf professional to monitor
the overhaul and to manage the golf business. The classically designed
layout of original golf course architects Devereux Emmet and Robert
Jack Ross was carefully studied and additional golden age features
were added in the restoration by Matt Dusenberry. Since reopening,
the course has been garnering accolades, including being named the
co-winner of the country’s public golf course classic restoration of the
year by Golf Inc. Magazine. The Keney Park clubhouse, condemned
by the City in 2013, is currently undergoing extensive renovations
with plans to reopen in the spring of 2017.
As a result of these improvements, both Goodwin Park
and Keney Park hosted the inaugural Hartford Women’s Open in
80 / CONNECTICUT STATE GOLF ASSOCIATION / 2016 ANNUAL
June. Operated by the Connecticut Section PGA, this event aligned
with the Association’s Diversity and Inclusion tenets, and also served
to bolster their commitment to growing the game and making
it welcoming to women. It provided an additional competitive
opportunity for professional and amateur woman golfers as well as
girls age 18 and under. The introductory event was held over two
days and had a field of 56 competitors, ranging in age from 11 to
71, from 11 different states. Dani Mullen, West Islip, NY, won the
event and in the process, set the women’s course records of 65 at
Goodwin and 68 at Keney Park. Mullen is pictured below with
City of Hartford Department of Public Works representatives, Tom
Baptist, Superintendent, and Marilynn Cruz-Aponte, Director.
In August, the 85th edition of the state’s oldest and longest
running professional golf tournament, the Connecticut PGA
Championship, was hosted at Keney Park. The championship itself
dates back to 1929 and has never been contested at either of the
City’s golf courses that are among the country’s oldest municipal golf
operations. A field of 71 took on the challenging course with a back
9 that includes deep bunkers, false fronts, and a meandering stream
that runs across or along seven of the nine holes. The professionals
were up to the task and three, Marc Bayram, Timberlin Golf Course;
Brent Paladino, Connecticut State Golf Association; and Adam
Rainaud, Black Hall Club; established the new course record, 67,
3-under par over 6,442 yards. Plans to return next year are in place
when more established turf and green conditions could make it even
more challenging to win the Hartford Times Trophy (pictured left).