2016 Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame
TOM GLEETON
Inducted into the Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame for Distinguished Service to Golf
T
he Connecticut Golf Hall of
Fame recognizes two categories
when considering nominees,
“Distinguished Achievement
in Golf ” for an individual’s competitive
accomplishments,
and
“Distinguished
Service to Golf ” for exemplary dedication
to growing and supporting the game. Tom
Gleeton could be considered for induction
into the Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame in
either category, such is the breadth of his
accomplishments in golf.
Tom grew up in Cheshire playing
golf at the Country Club of Waterbury
where he became one of Connecticut’s
best amateurs during the 1970s. He won
the New England Junior, qualified for the
U.S. Amateur, reached the semifinals of the
Connecticut Amateur and became a threetime All American at Florida Southern
College.
In 1979 Tom became the first
player from Connecticut to capture an
NCAA Individual Title in golf while leading
Florida Southern to their first NCAA Team
Championship. Longtime Florida Southern
Head Coach, Charley Matlock often
credited Tom with jumpstarting what would
become one of the nation’s most successful
college golf programs, a program that to date
has won twelve national championships and
produced players such as Lee Janzen, Rocco
Mediate and Marco Dawson. Tom was the
first golfer to be inducted into the Florida
Southern Sports Hall of Fame.
“Tom was the one who really got
us started,” said Matlock. “He proved that
we could be a program that could attract
and develop great players, and win NCAA
individual and team championships. He
helped create a recruiting pipeline for us in
the Northeast that led to bringing in players
like Tom Patri and Steve Sokol and many
more. We are a small school, but what Tom
did for us can’t be overstated. He was to
Florida Southern what Arnold Palmer was
to Wake Forest.”
Tom turned professional after
college and earned full PGA Tour status in
1986. In a playing career that has spanned
more than three decades Tom has won more
than 70 professional events, including the CT
Section PGA Stroke Play Championship five
times. He has won the PGA Section Match
Play, Club Pro Championship
and Section Championship,
finished runner-up in the
Connecticut Open, and been
named CT Section Player of
the Year.
CSGA
Executive
Director, Mike Moraghan
describes Tom as “a great
competitor and an idea man,
always thinking of ways to
improve and ways of helping
others improve.”
“For many years I’ve
been in the habit of calling on
Tom just to find out what he is
thinking and what he’s working
on,” recalls Moraghan. “He has
a wonderful nature about him,
a calmness and reflectiveness
with real world knowledge and
experience. He is a ‘still waters
run deep’ type of guy.”
Tom’s service to golf
as a club professional is as
impressive as his competitive
record. A past president of
the Connecticut Section
PGA, Tom served eight years on regional
and national boards including the PGA’s
Scholarship, Education and Employment
Boards. He has spent many years directing
mentor programs for assistant golf
professionals, and has developed and
personally supported golf programs for the
Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Waterbury.
Tom is currently in his 25th
consecutive year serving as Head Professional
at the Country Club of Waterbury. He is
widely credited with leading a rebuilding
effort when the club’s membership declined
after the 2008 recession, establishing a model
since adopted by other private clubs.
“It is very satisfying to bring new
people in and show them what we have here,”
says Tom. “We walk out onto our first tee
and just look around and it has a real effect
on people. Of course, we think our place is
special, but really every club and every golf
course has so much to offer people. That’s
the message we want to share with everyone
in the golf business, take pri de in what you
are doing and be enthusiastic and willing to
work hard to grow your operation.”
Sharing, whether it be his time, his
ideas, or the golf course that has been his
home for so many years, has always come
naturally to Tom. It is primarily because
of Tom that so many Connecticut state
championships, including the CSGA’s
annual Russell C. Palmer Cup continue to
be held at Waterbury.
The entrance wall at the Connecticut
Section PGA office in Glastonbury is adorned
with four large wooden plaques bearing the
names of Connecticut’s most accomplished
professionals who have earned their place
in state history. Every member of the
Section Hall of Fame, every Section Player
of the Year, every Past President, and every
Section Champion is listed chronologically.
When Tom Gleeton was inducted into the
CT Section PGA Hall of Fame in 2014,
he became the only person in Connecticut
history to have his name inscribed on each
of the four PGA plaques. In 2016 Tom adds
yet another life achievement, as a unanimous
selection into the Connecticut Golf Hall of
Fame.
2016 ANNUAL / CONNECTICUT STATE GOLF ASSOCIATION / 93