GHSC News Item: Fall Hickory Classic – Results (2022)

Reported by: George Supol, GHSC Board Member

Introduction

The GHSC Fall Hickory Classic was held on Saturday, October 1 and Sunday, October 2, 2022. This event was a successor to the well-attended C.B. McDonald tournaments run by Paul Dietz and others at the historical Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Course, in prior years.

Over the two days, players generally played hickory golf using original and replica hickory-shafted clubs from the period 1900 to 1935, in conjunction with modern golf balls and modern rules of golf. This was a “friendly competition” and a Modified Stableford points scoring system was used to record the performance of all players in the event, and to award prizes for both individual and randomly-selected partners in team play.

Whirlpool

On the first day, 32 registered players attended and played 18 holes of hickory golf at Whirlpool Golf Course, situated on the edge of the Niagara Gorge, near the Falls. Forward tees were used so Whirlpool played at about 5,200 yards, lush and soft, with speedy greens.Before the start of the Whirlpool round, players were welcomed by the Society’s Official Bagpiper, Patrick Potter, who played beautiful piping music during a ceremonial walk to the first tee. Click the button on the left to see the video.

After the round, the players enjoyed both hot and frosty beverages on the Whirlpool patio before retiring to their hotel rooms, to get ready for the planned Fall Hickory Classic dinner. The dinner was held at Johnny Rocco’s Italian Eatery in the City of Niagara Falls and was attended by 20 or so of our players and their spouses. During the dinner, a special visitor (the Mayor of the City of Niagara Falls—Jim Diodati) stopped by to say hello and wish us well with our GHSC event. This was a nice touch organized by Allan Lew, GHSC’s Event Coordinator. Jim handed out city pins to all our attendees at the dinner.

Sawmill

On the second day, 34 registered players attended and played 18 holes of hickory golf at Sawmill Golf Course, situated in Fenwick Ontario, a 30-minute drive from Niagara Falls. Sawmill also played at almost 5,200 yards and was also in great shape with its rolling fairways, well-placed fairway bunkers, and large and fast greens.

Both before and after the Sawmill round, a dozen or so collectors’ show tables were provided to those who registered as Collectors and paid $10 to rent a trading/sale table. Attendees to the event could purchase, sell, or trade clubs and other golf-related collectibles. This certainly added to the fun of the two-day event, and again thanks to Allan Lew for organizing it.

Concluding Remarks

Including a few collectors not actually playing, we had a total of 50 registrants for this event. Many players played both days, but some only played one of the two days.

So, we used a new Guestlist Registration website to register everyone for each day’s play, for the dinner, and for the collector’s show tables. In addition, the new system was used to communicate with all attendees before, during and after the event was concluded. From the comments this observer heard, the new system seems to have been a success, so we’ll undoubtedly continue to use it with our larger hickory play and collecting events, in the future.

Below are some really nice pictures from the event, taken by Frank and Donna Collis, GHSC’s official photographers. They help to give a great perspective on what it was like to attend the two days.

Thanks also to Walt Soetens, Dennis Wilkinson and Andrew Biancanciello for their donated prizes.

A special thanks to the Pro Shop Staff at both Whirlpool and Sawmill, and also to George and Jeremy Julie, Sawmill’s owner-managers who have really supported both GHSC and this event in various meaningful ways. 

We look forward to seeing everyone next year for an even better event!