50 Years Ago This Week A Club Pro Won On The PGA Tour

Granted, he was the legendary Tom Nieporte of Winged Foot, but as Tom Cunneff writes for Golf.com, he is believed to be the last legitimate sweater-folder to beat the flatbellies.

Cunneff writes of the 1967 Bob Hope Classic:

After all, Nieporte wasn’t even a tour pro when he won the Hope at age 37. He was the head pro at Piping Rock Golf Club on Long Island when he outplayed the likes of Palmer, Nicklaus, and Floyd at La Quinta Country Club. After opening with a 76 that left him 10 shots off the lead, Nieporte carded three 68s to trail defending champ Doug Sanders by one shot heading into the fifth and final round. With an estimated 30,000 spectators on hand enjoying a perfect day in the desert, Sanders was still a stroke ahead after nine, but Nieporte’s 25-foot birdie putt on 11 pulled him even. Another birdie on 18 from 12 feet gave him a one-shot lead at 11 under par. Playing a hole behind Nieporte, Sanders had a chance to tie him on 18 and force a playoff, but his long birdie attempt just missed.

Comments

[ol Harv]

Really nice man who made you feel welcome in the pro shop. Great player, great family man.

[Lynn S.]

ol Harv

You must really be ol(d).

[Pro From Dover]

Never knew Mr. Nieporte, but always heard nice things about him. However, I do remember watching this event on the tele as a young lad ( I hope I am younger than Ol' Harv) - ironically, Doug telephone me just this week. Wish I had seen this prior to speaking with him.

[OB]

Very cool story. I read his book and he was of that great generation of club pros. It seems like there are fewer venerable old sweater folders who would make you a good deal, give great lesson and listen to war stories. Why is this?

[Easingwold]

@ OB- probably due to the golf discount shops and the internet. Hard for the club pro to compete with those, I'm afraid.

[Pro From Dover]

OB It all changed when "golf'" became a business at the club level. Prior to that, at the private clubs, and many of the privately owned courses, it was a life-style for the members. Now, it has to "make money"..... Management companies for the most part changed a lot of that in the USA. The bottom is more important than building relationships with clients and members for some operations / companies. You will see fewer of the "classic club professionals" like Chico and many of my ol' colleagues, and friends, and former mentors who were part of the fabric of the game.......so many courses today are more concerned with the bottom line. For the most part, I would be hard pressed today, to advise a young man or lady (20-something) that a career in golf as a club professional (in the USA) would be a good decision.

Easingwold "probably due to the golf discount shops and the internet. Hard for the club pro to compete with those, I'm afraid." At the normal day-to-day course, you are correct. Good clubs such as Chico's will always recognize the value of a quality club professional and what he provides to their membership and their families. Sadly, that role is getting smaller in my rear-view mirror as I roll down the road and look back a lot of old golf facilities. The classic old private clubs will retain that tradition more than the cash-hungry management companies will.

[Mark]

Would make a cool tin cup style movie! I wonder ihow many head pros can even get the time off to play an event niw

[Easingwold]

@ Pro- agree 100%. Anytime I travel around the UK with my clubs one of the things I like is meeting up with the club pro and have a chat about the course, etc. It's usually very informative, friendly and sometimes the odd story about golf in general. Or, like when I met David Huish, former club pro at the West Course in North Berwick and we had a chat about a programe he made with Peter Alliss. Contrast that with a new golf facility in Norfolk last year when I went into the shop to get some range tokens the two assistants had music playing in their headphones ( I had to all but rip out their headphones to get their attention ) had no consideration for other customers waiting for help. It seemed to me it was all about profit.

[Jamaal]

Reader "Lynn S", aka Lynn Shackleford, why not use your full name? Is nepotism a deleteable offense?

[jim beckner]

please - leave "Lynn S" alone!!! LOL

jb

[ol Harv]

Lynn, Tom Nieporte was the head professional at Winged Foot from 1978 to sometime in the early 2000's. When I was a junior player in the 80's we played a two-day junior tournament out on Long Island. My friend drove and I think we stayed in member housing. We met a couple of other juniors who needed a lift home the next day and they happened to be members at Winged Foot. Our gift for giving them a lift was lunch and a round of golf at Winged Foot (East Course that day). Later was lucky enough to play the West several times. Unlike some pros back then, Nieporte was extremely nice and accommodating to juniors. Am I older than you?

[Pro From Dover]

Easingwold Love the David Huish story. He was a fine man. I met him numerous times at NB, but can't claim that I "knew" him. I knew who he was however. His son Martyn is HP at NB now. Sure Chico knows both David and Martyn well. Escorting a group over in September and North Berwick is on our itinerary, as it is anytime we are in East Lothian area.

Re: Norfolk....a lot of our 'young Americangolf professionals" think it is all about glitz and neon, and dressing pretty. Half of them can't break 82 in competition. But we are going to "grow the game" with them alright. LOL

[Lynn S.]

ol Harv
Thanks for the clarification. Makes sense. No, you probably are not older than me. Few are these days.

Jamaal
I suppose one plus is if I used my last name there is a chance you might learn to spell it correctly.

[Easingwold]

Pro, Martyn was running the shop when I played the course. David was there at the time, both nice to chat to. Love it there, the town and East Lothian, almost as much as St Andrews.

You described those two assistants perfectly !

[smooth]

The urban dictionary describes you both perfectly ........Name Dropper - `Someone who constantly mentions celebrities, politicians, executives, or popular individuals in conversation with others in an attempt to seem cooler or more elite than average. Name droppers salivate at the opportunity to mention they have met/known/seen a famous person, and will insert a famous name into any conversation possible, despite how obscure or irrelevant the celebrity is`

Don't worry though there are a few others who do the same. You know the type. Must say `Mr` before someone you believe is important, take your hat off while shaking your playing partners hand at the end of the round. Gotta wear knee high socks on the course and elbow pads on your jackets.

You guys do make me laugh though.

[smooth]

@Pro from Dover @old Harv

The above comment is meant for.

[Frank]

Or you could be a loser who sits around his house all day after waking at 11am and not know anybody in the world because you have anxiety and are too scared to meet any new people in life. In that case, like Smooth, you could never drop a name because you are, well, a loser.

[smooth]

@Frank

I wake up at 12. Not 11.

[Lateral Hazard]

I enjoy the remembrance comments by Pro, ol Harv, Chico, Easing, et al. And perhaps, just perhaps, they are being courteous because being so is a mark of a decent being.

@smooth: now, get off my lawn!

[ol Harv]

Honored to be lumped together with Pro. Thanks smooth.

[KLG]

Well, damn. Lynn just dropped a left-handed bomb on Jamaal from deep in the corner; would definitely have been a 3-pointer in this day and age.

[Tom Ierubino]

+1 KLG

[In the grip of the game]

You know you're getting old when
1 policemen look like teenagers
2 you discover that you're older than ol Harv

[Lip Out]

What an odd, out of place attack by smooth!

[Pro From Dover]

And as well with you Harv....btw, I AM older than dirt! LMAO

Thanks Lateral H2O

[HOK]

Had the pleasure of playing 9 at WF West with Mr. Nieporte a decade ago. Felt like I was golfing with royalty, a truly classy man.

[spoiling a good walk]

Sorta related, and in the category of long-shot winners, when the Chinese kid was contending at the Masters, First Tee kids were chattering like ducks that they too had a shot at winning the Masters, saying things like, "he's 14 and I'm thirteen now so by next year I could qualify too." What they didn't realize was that the Chinese kid had a doctor for a father who probably paid for about $10,000 of golf lessons from the age of five, nor did they understand that he was using an extreme one-plane golf swing.