[Patrick_Mucci]

Hackensack, which I hadn't played in a number of years, dating back to before the recent restoration work under the guidance of the Green Chairman at the time, Bill Brightly.

I played with Bill, his brother Bob, who was incredibly loquacious and our 4th was a real moron, Steve Lapper.

The work done at Hackensack was terrific.
Tree clearing and a good deal of restoration of Banks's work.

Hackensack was fortunate to have two assets, photos from the 30's and 40's and Bill Brightly.

Some of the restoration work was very impressive and true to the photos from the 30's and 40's.

The Biarritz was terrific, really terrific.
Westhampton members should see how a Biarritz can be recaptured and how fabulous and diverse it can play.

The bunker separating the 9th and 18th green was also terrific.
As was the Punchbowl, Redan and many other Banks features.

There were so many improvements that it's difficult to list them all.
Hackensack is fun to play.......... Even with Steve Lapper.

What was incredible was how the 14th hole was played by Bill Brightly.
We all hit very good drives in the fairway.
Bob and I hit our approaches to 15 feet.
Bill hit his approach heavy, into the fronting bunker.
On an earlier hole, Bill had left a bunker shot in the bunker, so I told him that, even though he had a relatively short bunker shot, he still had to accelerate through it.

So, I'm up on the green and Bill says, "take the pin out"
I say, "with the wind, the pin is really helping you and there's plenty of room, so I'd leave it in"
Bill says, "No, take it out"
So I say, "Bill, you're much better off if you leave it in."
Bill says, "No, I'm going to hole this out, take out the pin."
So, I take the pin out, Bill hits his bunker shot, and holes it out.
He called it and he executed it......... Amazing

The restoration work done at Hackensack was terrific.
My only two regrets is that Bill is no longer Green Chair.
He gets it and has a love of golf and Hackensack.
Hopefully Hackensack will continue on the path that Bill blazed, as it's a pretty neat golf course.

Ditto for Mike Policano at Ridgewood

My second regret was riding around for 18 holes with that moron, Steve Lapper.

All in all we had a great day and thoroughly enjoyed Hackensack.

Bill was a terrific host and played well as did Bob and that other moron.

There's something inherently fun about playing golf courses by Banks, Raynor and Macdonald, especially when they are true to form.

[Keith OHalloran]

Forget the shot. I am more amazed that he/anyone won an argument with you!  

[Patrick_Mucci]

Forget the shot. I am more amazed that he/anyone won an argument with you!  

Keith,

He was my host, and, I'd like to go back

Now if it was the other moron I was playing with, I'd have left the pin in.

Had the pin been left in, the ball would still have been holed out as it gently rolled into the hole

[Jud_T]

Pat,

You, and Bill, need to check out the punchbowl 11th and biarritz 12th at Tamarack these days...Great to hear about Bill's efforts toward Banks restoration.  His work is definitely overshadowed by his big name partners/predecessors...

[Patrick_Mucci]

Jud T,

Tamarack came up in the discussion at dinner.

I need to go and play it

[Steve Lapper]

Normally, Mr. Lime Green embellishes a wee bit. Not so much this time.

This time, his assessment of Hackensack and the credit due to Bill Brightly was spot on. It's a gem that just gets better every year since Bill did his time running the Greens committee.  With time it'll even get better as they further empower their super to replace previous architectural features with pure Banks elements and recover the original design strategies "Steamshovel" intended to have survive.

His description of his game and ours was fair, however, he neglected to mention that by the time we got to that "Babe Ruth" moment on 14, both Bill and myself had long since given up on listening to anything he had to say (and it was voluminous!). Bill's brother Bob tired quickly trued hard to walk so far head that he'd be out of earshot. We'd already heard how he was responsible for advising everyone from "Charlie Mac" to "Tommy D" and how he alone had started the Internet! The man is clearly delusional and quite scary.

No one was more relieved at the end of the day than the current Greens committee at Hackensack. Once Pat left, they were thrilled to have turned off the little green light by the bag room. Another catastrophe averted!

[Bill Brightly]

The hardest part about the shot was getting Pat to pull the pin. I have a "shot clock" in my head, and I wasn't sure I'd get that swing in before the buzzer sounded... I'm just glad Pat did not tell you all that I 3-putted 18 and cost us a chance for low gross!

Wish I had more time to respond, but about to drive out to Pittsburgh, playing Fox Chapel tomorow!

Here is Hole 16 (Punchbowl)  before





After

[Jeff Taylor]

More importantly, did you lock your lockers?

[Tom_Doak]

Pat:

Was there an architect involved with Hackensack or did they just do everything in house?

[Steve Lapper]

Pat:

Was there an architect involved with Hackensack or did they just do everything in house?

Though Rees Jones remains the "consulting" architect, their very capable Super has done almost all of recent work and all the re-introduction of Banks features.

[Bill Brightly]

Rees Jones is the architect. We are fortunate to have found all if Banks drawings and also have many excellent aerial photographs. One actually shows golfers in the bunkers, which us really helpful in understandung the scale. We also have all of Gordon's drawings, including what he removed. (So sad to look at this!)  

As Steve said, our very talented superintendent is doing the shaping, and he really has five an amazing job, imo.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Tom Doak,

I think Hackensack was fortunate to have an abundance of aerial and ground photos and the service and devotion of Bill Brightly.

Bill formulated the vision to restore Banks, he researched numerous sources, including contemporary newspaper accounts dating back to the 20's.
He assembled a body of documents and photos that provided irrefutable evidence with respect to what Banks left in the ground.

He educated and convinced the club that a restoration was the goal to pursue.

Then, he supervised the project, never taking his eye off that goal.

When I look at various clubs that embark on successful projects, there's usually someone Who is the guiding light and the whip.
People like Mike Policano, Mark Studer, Bill Brightly and the fellow from Fox Chapel.
They are dedicated members who are smart, willing to devote the time, who love their golf course.

I'm not diminishing anyone's efforts, but when you have people like this who initiate and orchestrate these projects, the results are usually outstanding.

Bill created a mission statement and supervised it's implementation.

What's frustrating to these individuals, and I'm sure you've experienced it, is when members and others, question, criticize and undermine their motives and efforts.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Jeff,

I did not lock my locker.

As to Steve Lapper, the Caddy Master intuitively put his bag on the passenger side of the cart.
I promised the Caddy Master that I would not let Steve get behind the wheel.
Unfortunately, while I was still putting on the 15th green he somehow found the cart, which I had hidden in some Pine trees near the green and began to drive it.   However, he started to drive it toward the 11th tee, which we had already played.
Bill was yelling, "No, this way, turn around, the 16th tee is over here".  So Steve turns around and instead of driving to the 16th tee, he spots a cart girl under a lightening shelter, and drives over some curbs, through some bushes and crashes into her cart.  Fortunately, she heard and then saw him coming through the bushes and had abandoned her cart just prior to the collision.  After ordering four large cups of beer, one for each cup holder in the cart, he gets back behind the wheel and attempts to navigate his way to the 16th tee.   However, he is presented with a dilemma.
The cart path forks.   One path leads to the 8th tee, the other to the 16th tee.   What to do ?   The cart girl says to me, "should he be driving ?"
I say, "absolutely not, but are you going to chase him and take the keys from him ?"

She says, "you know, we had another incident on the front nine earlier today, when a guest got in someone else's cart and drove through a bunker and into a ball washer just trying to get to the cart girl on the third hole."

So I said to her, "if anyone ever tells you that lightening doesn't strike twice in the same place, don't believe them.
You just met exhibit "A".

She then asks me, how is he getting home ?

And I answer, "he's really not sure he remembers where home is, and besides,,nobody cares."

After golf we had a great dinner and discussed how terrific Hackensack was and a number of our favorite topics.

It was a terrific day and Bill was a wonderful host.

[Keith OHalloran]

Pat,
According to Twitter, Lapper is playing with Stephanie Wei today, after playing with you on Thursday. An upgrade like that has me questioning his moron status! 

[Bill Brightly]

Pat,

While I appreciate the kind words, the true credit goes to two former club presidents would had the vision and dedication to get the restoration plan passed by our membership. I served as head cheerleader, perhaps. Plus our superintendent has displayed tremendous talent in the shaping.

[Dan Herrmann]

Bill - Congratulations!  It's great to hear about tree clearing, which will allow the real Banks to shine through

[Steve Lapper]

Pat,
According to Twitter, Lapper is playing with Stephanie Wei today, after playing with you on Thursday. An upgrade like that has me questioning his moron status!  

A marvelous day at Paramount with the lovely Ms. Wei, the always venerable Tom Dunne, and the  inimitable George Blunt....all without the incessant green ink blather of one chattering Patrick Mucci.

 Let me see ??  A wrinkly old Italian /wannabe Irishman with chronic case of verbal diarrhea vs. a throughly enjoyable and attractive young lass.....hmmmmm??

PS...Keith, I'm still a moron!  

[Patrick_Mucci]

Pat,
According to Twitter, Lapper is playing with Stephanie Wei today, after playing with you on Thursday.

An upgrade like that has me questioning his moron status! 

Keith,

It's true that Steve suffered a let down today.
Think of it as "withdrawal" pains.
What did you expect after Wednesday, the highlight of his golfing year.

I played Shorehaven today, with my son and two delightful fellows.

I don't think I would trade rounds or playing companions.

Sunday, my son will be introduced to Yale.

As to Steve Lapper, they had a golf raffle the other day.

The winner got to play a round at Trump with Steve Lapper.
The runner-up got to play three rounds at Trump with Steve Lapper.

By the way, Steve is right about one thing.
He's still a moron.

Bill, I'm sure those fellows were instrumental in shepherding the project through the membership, but, you were the pathfinder and guide for the vision and the construction.

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