golf and Sept. 11

[PThomas]

on this 8th anniversary, 2 stories came to my mind: 
 
1. I think it is at Old Memorial near the 10th green that there is a statue of 2 members who were killed;

2. a friend ( and fellow GCAer) told me he was going to go to Europe with a group, but a bunch of them perished that day

if that day doesnt remind us to keep things in perspective, nothing can

my thoughts and prayers are with all those who lost loved ones that terrible day

[David Amarnek]

I was a marshall at Bellerive that morning for the world championship event.  It was early am and only a few players were out practicing (including Tiger).  We initially heard that a small plane hit the WTC.  Then rumors started flying about attacks on the WTC, Capitol, White House, Camp David, etc.  We had no access to what was going on other than comments from the few spectators, officials and players.  Very disturbing as my brother worked right near the towers and actually witnessed some of the horror.

[Dale Jackson]

I would not mormally post on a thread like this but my experience with 9 11 is golf related so here goes ...

I was walking onto the 17th green at Royal County Down when one of the employees came out in a buggy (cart) to inform us and others of the planes flying into the World Trade Center - he naturally mistook us with our Canadian accents for Americans.  I remember clearly the first words out of my mouth were, "The world has just changed forever".  We finished 17 and 18 in a daze and watched events unfold in a nearby bar over the next several hours.

That night we ate dinner in the Slieve Donard Hotel.  For reasons I do not recall we were put in a room off the main dining room with only the 4 of us and a group of approximately 20 US golfers.  It was one of the strangest meals I have eaten.  We were all on holiday but the day had turned mournful.  We tried to be upbeat but it was impossible, and we felt keenly the pain of the other party in the room.

I returned to Ireland a few years later, played RCD again but the walk to the 17th green was eerie.

While I am Canadian, and perhaps do not feel the lingering pain as do most Americans, everyone who shares a love of freedom and peace will always remember that day.

[Joe Hancock]

Dale,

Thank you for that. Very appropriate.

Joe

[Jason Hines]

Dale,

Well said.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/kcic1/cdnwtc.html

Jason Hines
Olathe, Kansas

[Gene Greco]

           I was on my way to join my hostess at Shinnecock Hills on a most beautiful day.

The drive is less than two minutes from my house but over the radio was mentioned a plane had crashed into the WTC. I assumed someone in a Piper Cub had a heart attack and lost control of the plane and didn't think there was anymore to it.

Once I arrived we greeted one another and quickly headed off as a twoball.

After putting out on #9 which is just below the clubhouse my hostess noticed several people up on the famed porch chatting on cell phones and she marched over to scold them for all violating club rules.

One gentleman putt down his phone for a moment and asked, " I guess you haven't heard ?"

[Ken Moum]

When it happened, I was working for GCSAA, and the association had planned to holed its 75th anniversary in Lawrence that week. It was, obviously, cancelled.

But a couple of days later the managing editor of GCM asked me if I could do a story about the tragedy and it's impact on our members. My first call was to Mark Kuhns at Baltusrol, who told me a story about watching one of the towers collapse from the back of his 6th (?) green. It was Ladies day and there were women at the club whose husbands worked in the Trade Center.

From there, I talked to several others, including a mechanic at Army Navy who heard a plane come over "too low" followed by what sounded like a sonic boom--the plane impacting the Pentagon. One of the assistants there heard a low-flying plane, and looked over to see it partly concealed by trees. He turned his back and immediately heard the explosion.

John Carlone, at Meadow Brook on Long Island had an event scheduled for a 1:00 shotgun, which never took place. He was out on the course that afternoon and noticed "a profound silence." He'd never beenout there when you couldn't hear airplane traffic from three nearby airports. Then he heard a load roar and looked up to see an f-16, the only thing flying on the afternoon of 9/11/01, making a pass around the city.

It ended up being quite a story.

Ken

[Bob Jenkins]

Paul,

Thanks for starting this thread, and Dale, I can imagine what it must have been like over there in Northern Ireland.

I, like Dale, am Canadian and when I realized what was happening that day, I was driving to work at around 6:30 am and heard on the car radio that a plane had struck the WTC. At first I thought it must have been a small plane which was reporting traffic over Manhattan had gone astray but it soon became apparent that it was large commercial jets and something was terribly wrong. I live south of Vancouver which takes me near the airport when driving into downtown and what was so odd was seeing a parade of 747s and Airbus A 330s heading into our airport. I did not realize it at the time but any commercial aircraft that was bound for the US from Asia or elsewhere outside the US had been diverted to Canadian airports just in case any of them had been hijacked.

Many of us went by the airport that day to see what we could do for travellers who were suddenly dropped into our lap as a result of what had happened in NY and Washington and I will never forget the face of many travellers in the airport who were not only terrified at what had happened, but many of them, having had to wait to get off the planes for several hours for security checks, were just totally exhausted and looking around for help and some comfort.

Then a few days later, I recall seeing many buses heading south to the border and Seattle taking more passengers who had been stranded here to board a flight to home. There are many stories of what happened over those days and I for one, wasnot on;y so horrified at what happened but also feel proud that we were able to help out so many Americans who dropped into our lap. It was a very strange few days and hopefully we will never see the like again.

Bob J

[Doug Ralston]

I was working on 9-11-01. I was in a group home, taking care of disabled adults.

There was a wonderful little lady there. She was 3'11" and albino, with pink eyes and white hair. She was MR, but though mute, she was very aware. While we watched events unfold that day, she crawled up into my lap. She was shaking, and cried a little. Eventually she went to sleep there. Since no one else was home, I sat there for four hours, holding her and trying to digest the meaning of what was happening. She has since passed away.

It is on days like this that those moments of closeness take on their full impact. Life can be appreciated in so many ways.

Doug

[Doug Wright]

The Trans-Mississippi Championship had just started at my club, Denver CC. John Elway was in the first group, which had reached the 3rd green when word arrived of the attacks in NYC. The event of course was immediately called off.  Jack Nicklaus was scheduled to speak that evening; of course that didn't happen. My brother in law is a firefighter. I always think of him on 9/11 along with the victims and their families.

[Pat Burke]

Was still playing and struggling with the after effects of my wrist injury.  My career was definitely headed towards its end. 
had the great fortune to play with a lifelong friend in a pro am and was introduced to his friend who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald.  The day went well enough that shortly after, I was offered an endorsement deal with Cantor in the hopes of being able to play some customer golf (which I enjoy) and still give me a chance to recover from my surgery.  We agreed to a deal.
On 9-11, my wife woke me up crying, and I remember thinking something was wrong with our baby daughter.  It took a second for the words "we're being attacked" to register/  I live in CA, but my brothers both lived in the NY/NJ area, not to mention my friends who work in the financial districts.  Isat numbly watching as the 2nd plane hit the towers.  My phone rang, it was my agent, who in a rare bit of fortune, is a good friend.  I was supposed to be flying to Oregon that morning, but decided to go a day later (thank you up there), and he was checking to see that I was safe.  He then asked me to turn on FOX news, where they had a Cantor Fitzgerald employee on the phone who could not get out.  I then realized that CF was above the damage.  My already sunken heart totally broke.  There were definitely people I knew in grave danger, and all I could do was watch and pray.  I had called my friends office from a cell and got through, and having lived through earthquakes, knew an out of town number could be useful.  They let me know he and his family were safe.  About an hour after the 2nd tower fell, my doorbell rang.  UPS Next Day with an envelope from 1 World Trade Center and Cantor.  My contracts were delivered 9-11.  I still have the UPS packaging with that address on it.  The man who offered me the deal was actually playing golf that day and survived, but virtually all of his department and people he worked with perished. 
I saw ground zero for the first time 3 weeks ago.  As we approached in a cab I saw the hole in the sky, and could not stop crying.  As I walked around the site, the feeling of sadness, anger and amazement was overwhelming.  It made me feel a bit selfish that I had become so little effected until I was actually there.  over a thousand children lost a parent in Cantor Fitzgerald alone.  they have done a miraculous job (with a lot of help) of recovering, and one of the keys to their turnaround was the man who I played golf with in that pro-am. 

[Michael Robin]

Doug Wright -

I was a contestant in the Trans 4-Ball that day. I was off at 10:30 and woke up at 7:00am and turned on the Today show shortly after the first plane. My partner Michael Moore who is a caddie at Pebble Beach and I drove over to Denver CC from our hotel to be around some people we knew. Play had just been suspended when we arrived and the Trans Directors were meeting to decide what to do. All of the players gathered in the grill room watching TV. Your staff there continued to take care of everyone who were mostly from out of town, while I'm sure they would rather have been home with their families. About an hour later word came down that the tournament was canceled, but that everyone from out of town who could not get home was welcome to use the club's facilities until they could get back, specifically the restaurants. I was fortunate to have a rental car as a bunch of players did not, so Michael and I checked out of our hotel rooms where the management was thrilled to have them back, as their lobby was full of people who were arriving back from the airport looking for a place to stay. One of the people in that lobby was Tony Bennett. We headed out of town in convoy with another team from Pebble Beach, Casey Boyns and his partner and drove I70 through western Colorado on one of the most beautiful days I have ever seen listening to CNN's feed over the radio of one of the worst days that the planet has ever seen. We stopped in Richfield, Utah for the night, drove to Barstow the next day where Michael then jumped into Casey's car, and headed up to Pebble as I headed back home to LA. I talked to several players in the tournament weeks later who did not have rental cars that said that your club took them in and made them feel at home until they could find there way to their real home. I will always appreciate the kindness extended to all of us from everybody at Denver CC in the most trying of circumstances.

[Michael Ryan]

I recall September 11, 2001 as one of the most gorgeous weather days in the Northeast and had me seriously contemplating "calling in sick" to sneak a round in as I walked to the 7:03 am train in Harriman, NY to Hoboken.  I thought better of it and the PATH from Hoboken took me to my office in building #5 of the World Trade Center at 8:40 am.  While signing onto my computer a noise that I still struggle to describe shook us to the core, and my location near the windows overlooking the plaza allowed me to catch the mushroom cloud exit the south side of Tower 1 from what I now know was a plane ripping into the north side of the building.  Our office made a panic filled run to the stairwells and the rest of the morning was filled with images and stories that all of you have heard countless times and I assure you stick with me to this day.  My immediate co-workers were all safe, but our colleauges at Morgan Stanley in Tower 2 were not so lucky.  The actions of the head of corporate security for Morgan, Rick Rescorla saved over 1000 employees that day before he perished doing one last search of the offices.

Golf has a way of connecting me back to 9/11 a few times a year.  Whether it's walking to the 17th tee at Westhampton and seeing the plaque dedicated to the four members of that club who perished or the too numerous lockers at a number of clubs in the NYC area that have not been touched since that member died in the attacks. 

Since that time, I've found a job in an industry that I truly enjoy, married a wonderful woman and strived to treat each day with the respect it deserves knowing that folks like me commuted down that day and didn't come home. 

I spent a wonderful day with a good friend at Merion yesterday watching the Walker Cup matches.  On days like that where I'm truly enjoying this game I'm very thankful.  I hope that on your next encounter with a triple bogey or soggy course conditions that get in the way of our love of "firm and fast" you can keep the perspective that every day is to be enjoyed for the opportunity to live it.

[Steve Pozaric]

The actions of the head of corporate security for Morgan, Rick Rescorla saved over 1000 employees that day before he perished doing one last search of the offices.

I came across this story about Mr. Rescorla and thought I would share. 
http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/000307.html

An amazing man.  From the Ia Drang Valley (the Mel Gibson Movie "We were soldiers once and young") to to actions at the WTC.  Very much a hero.

As for me on 9/11, I was on my way to the World Golf Championships at Bellerieve when I heard about the first plane crash.  I thought it was a joke then remembered the B-25 that crashed into the Empire State Building back in the 40's and thought it was a tragic mistake.  Then everything else happened and we knew it was no mistake.  We stayed at the course because we couldn't imagine going in to work.  We had access to our company's tent so we could watch the news which we did most of the day.

[Doug Wright]

Doug Wright -

I was a contestant in the Trans 4-Ball that day. I was off at 10:30 and woke up at 7:00am and turned on the Today show shortly after the first plane. My partner Michael Moore who is a caddie at Pebble Beach and I drove over to Denver CC from our hotel to be around some people we knew. Play had just been suspended when we arrived and the Trans Directors were meeting to decide what to do. All of the players gathered in the grill room watching TV. Your staff there continued to take care of everyone who were mostly from out of town, while I'm sure they would rather have been home with their families. About an hour later word came down that the tournament was canceled, but that everyone from out of town who could not get home was welcome to use the club's facilities until they could get back, specifically the restaurants. I was fortunate to have a rental car as a bunch of players did not, so Michael and I checked out of our hotel rooms where the management was thrilled to have them back, as their lobby was full of people who were arriving back from the airport looking for a place to stay. One of the people in that lobby was Tony Bennett. We headed out of town in convoy with another team from Pebble Beach, Casey Boyns and his partner and drove I70 through western Colorado on one of the most beautiful days I have ever seen listening to CNN's feed over the radio of one of the worst days that the planet has ever seen. We stopped in Richfield, Utah for the night, drove to Barstow the next day where Michael then jumped into Casey's car, and headed up to Pebble as I headed back home to LA. I talked to several players in the tournament weeks later who did not have rental cars that said that your club took them in and made them feel at home until they could find there way to their real home. I will always appreciate the kindness extended to all of us from everybody at Denver CC in the most trying of circumstances.

Michael,

Thanks for letting me know about this. I'm glad to hear--though not surprised--that our club helped the TransMiss players through that difficult time.

[hick]

I had just fedexed my tickets to the ryder cup at the belfry the night before and woke the next morning and was on my way to play a round of golf at triggs memorial in providence when the plane hit the tower. I got a call from my wife and then my mother who was crying as my sister,  worked at one liberty for Deucthe Bank and thankfully had just got of the subway when the first plane hit the tower.

[Michael Ryan]

Steve,

Thanks for posting the story of Rick Rescorla.  I have heard numerous times that Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins have bought the rights to turn his life story into a feature movie...have not heard anything substantial on that however. 

Mike

[Joel Zuckerman]

Although I wasn't a member at that time, Secession Club in Beaufort SC lost two very active and popular members that were working in the Trade Center that terrible day.  Over the ensuing years, thanks to the generosity and deep pockets of members and those who knew the deceased, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised to fund the educations of area locals with a love or connection to golf--turning a horrible negative into an amazing positive.   Here's the website and a few details for those who would like to know more:


http://www.leveenroach.com/ 

The LeVeen-Roach Scholarship Fund was founded in memory of two members of Secession Golf Club who lost their lives in the World Trade Center during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

The scholarship was created to remember their love for golf and commitment to Secession by funding the higher education ambitions of students who display academic potential, share a connection to the game of golf and to the Beaufort, SC, area, and demonstrate financial need.