In 2011 Mays Landing Country Club Celebrated 50 Years of Golf , the course was then owned by the Fraser Family, known as the "first family of golf" in NJ. The course has since been sold in September of 2015 to Green Valley Destinations and Resorts, which is a new company whose president says he has no major changes in mind for the roughly 135 acres of Hamilton Township he just bought.
“We are absolutely keeping it a golf course,” said Bill Green, of Voorhees, whose company has a local real-estate office in Galloway Township. “We’re just going to improve it.”
Golf saw a surge in popularity when Eisenhower was president and Arnold Palmer came along, but by the early 1960s, the best Jersey Shore golf courses – Atlantic City, Linwood and Wildwood were private clubs, so Leo Fraser sought to rectify that situation by building a first class public golf course in Mays Landing.
Leo was the son of James “Jolly” Jim Fraser, the Scottish born golf professional at Seaview, and Leo himself became an assistant pro at the age of 16 before joining the Army during World War II. As part of an outfit that saw a lot of combat, Leo rose through the ranks on battlefield promotions and left the service as a Major, which would become his nickname.
After purchasing the Atlantic City Country Club in 1945 from his brother Sonny Fraser, who went on to build the Atlantic City Race Track, Leo introduced championship golf to the Jersey Shore by brining in the US Women’s Open Championship (1948, 1965, 1975) and helped start the PGS Senior’s tour (1980).
As President of the PGA of America, Leo recognized the need to expand the game of golf beyond the private country clubs and allow young people, women and the working class to play the game. To that end Leo and a small group of friends decided to open a public golf club. Leo himself laid out the course in Mays Landing, and convinced two popular touring professionals – Sam Snead and Tony Lema to play the first round of golf there when the course opened in 1962.
The match pitted the upcoming young pro with the aging veteran who won his first PGA Championship at Seaview in 1942, and with his down home folksy style became one of the most popular players on the tour. Lema would later die tragically in a plane crash on the way to a tournament.
They played even until they got to the 18th hole when Snead hit onto the middle of the green while Lima hit his ball 30 yards beyond. Although he chipped back to the green, Snead two-putted while Lima missed an attempt to tie.
As the story goes, when Leo’s son Doug Fraser was driving Lima to the airport and asked him what happened on the 18th, Lima hesitated for awhile before replying, “If Tony Lema beats Sam Snead nobody cares. But if Sam Snead beats Tony Lema, everybody wins, and it’s good for golf.”
And that was Leo Fraser’s idea behind Mays Landing, a good place for golf where anyone could play, a first class course that a blue collar worker could afford. Known as the "Best Birdie for the Buck," Mays Landing was operated for many years by the late Stan Dudas, who accompanied Leo Fraser and Arnold Palmer to the centennial British Open in 1960.
After the Fraser family bought out the interests of the other partners, they upgraded the course and built the Fraser Room for banquets and weddings.
While Doug Fraser handled the Food & Beverage Dept., Jim Fraser handled the course and his sister Bonnie’s husband Don Siok became Director of Golf.
Because their grandfather was one of the first golf professionals at Seaview, and their father owned the Atlantic City Country Club for nearly a half-century, the Frasers are known as “the first family of golf. as they continued to run the Mays Landing Golf and Country Club as a first-class resort that’s open to the public until September of 2015.
Golf saw a surge in popularity when Eisenhower was president and Arnold Palmer came along, but by the early 1960s, the best Jersey Shore golf courses – Atlantic City, Linwood and Wildwood were private clubs, so Leo Fraser sought to rectify that situation by building a first class public golf course in Mays Landing.
Leo was the son of James “Jolly” Jim Fraser, the Scottish born golf professional at Seaview, and Leo himself became an assistant pro at the age of 16 before joining the Army during World War II. As part of an outfit that saw a lot of combat, Leo rose through the ranks on battlefield promotions and left the service as a Major, which would become his nickname.
After purchasing the Atlantic City Country Club in 1945 from his brother Sonny Fraser, who went on to build the Atlantic City Race Track, Leo introduced championship golf to the Jersey Shore by brining in the US Women’s Open Championship (1948, 1965, 1975) and helped start the PGS Senior’s tour (1980).
As President of the PGA of America, Leo recognized the need to expand the game of golf beyond the private country clubs and allow young people, women and the working class to play the game. To that end Leo and a small group of friends decided to open a public golf club. Leo himself laid out the course in Mays Landing, and convinced two popular touring professionals – Sam Snead and Tony Lema to play the first round of golf there when the course opened in 1962.
The match pitted the upcoming young pro with the aging veteran who won his first PGA Championship at Seaview in 1942, and with his down home folksy style became one of the most popular players on the tour. Lema would later die tragically in a plane crash on the way to a tournament.
They played even until they got to the 18th hole when Snead hit onto the middle of the green while Lima hit his ball 30 yards beyond. Although he chipped back to the green, Snead two-putted while Lima missed an attempt to tie.
As the story goes, when Leo’s son Doug Fraser was driving Lima to the airport and asked him what happened on the 18th, Lima hesitated for awhile before replying, “If Tony Lema beats Sam Snead nobody cares. But if Sam Snead beats Tony Lema, everybody wins, and it’s good for golf.”
And that was Leo Fraser’s idea behind Mays Landing, a good place for golf where anyone could play, a first class course that a blue collar worker could afford. Known as the "Best Birdie for the Buck," Mays Landing was operated for many years by the late Stan Dudas, who accompanied Leo Fraser and Arnold Palmer to the centennial British Open in 1960.
After the Fraser family bought out the interests of the other partners, they upgraded the course and built the Fraser Room for banquets and weddings.
While Doug Fraser handled the Food & Beverage Dept., Jim Fraser handled the course and his sister Bonnie’s husband Don Siok became Director of Golf.
Because their grandfather was one of the first golf professionals at Seaview, and their father owned the Atlantic City Country Club for nearly a half-century, the Frasers are known as “the first family of golf. as they continued to run the Mays Landing Golf and Country Club as a first-class resort that’s open to the public until September of 2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment