Thanks for posting. I can't imagine a better portrayal of civic pride surrounding the game of golf. Here's his ending:
No one better understands the breadth of golf in the City of Brotherly Love than my friend Jim Finegan, a retired Philadelphia advertising man who wrote a seven-pound book about the history of golf in our city and its suburbs that admirably scratches the surface of this important subject. Jim is a former club champion at Philadelphia Country Club, where Sam Snead didn’t win the 1939 U.S. Open. (Byron Nelson did.) Jim has recorded many, many scrambling pars on the 45 holes at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, site of two early U.S. Opens. He has been the winner of the Father-Son members’ event at Pine Valley, where the 1986 Walker Cup was played. Jim knows every water hazard on Cobb’s Creek, a public course within the city limits designed by Wilson, where the U.S. Amateur Public Links was played in 1928. As for his knowledge of another Wilson course, the East at Merion, it’s staggering. In 2000, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Ben Hogan’s aching victory, Jim spoke to the Merion membership, from deep within his unbridled passion, about some of the many USGA championships that have been played in Philadelphia and its suburbs.
His point: No city has a stronger link to the USGA than Philadelphia. Trust me, on this subject, you do not want to argue with Jim Finegan.