Celebration Of Golf Concludes Season

By Rick Jenkins

The New Jersey competitive golf season came to an official close on October 20th with the Celebration of Golf awards dinner. This is a chance for the NJSGA and NJPGA to review the highlights of their golf seasons and recognize various award winners and those who have made special contributions to the game of golf in New Jersey. Always a well-attended and fun evening with Bill Raftery at the helm as master of ceremonies, this year’s event was again hosted by Crestmont Country Club.

In the major NJSGA award category, the Player of the Year title was captured by Mike Stamberger of Spring Lake Golf Club. Stamberger finished high in a number of NJSGA majors this year, including the State Open (also low amateur), the State Amateur and the Mid-Amateur. He also had a good showing at the MGA’s Ike Championship and advanced to the quarterfinal match of the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship in Houston. Sponsored by Donnelly Construction, Player of the Year is a year-long points accumulation contest that rewards top finishes in a number of NJSGA, MGA, and USGA championships and club invitationals.

In the Club category, Baltusrol Golf Club was recognized as the Club of the Year. For the last two seasons, Baltusrol has helped raise funds for the New Jersey Golf Foundation, the charitable arm of the NJPGA. In accepting the award, head professional Doug Steffen emphasized Baltusrol’s commitment to supporting local and regional golf and their related programs. Ridgewood Country Club was recognized as the Caddie Scholarship Club of the Year for its long history in supporting the program. This year, eleven caddies from Ridgewood received scholarship grants from the NJSGA Caddie Scholarship Foundation.

In the major PGA Professional award categories, Dan Pasternak of Panther Valley was honored as Golf Professional of the Year and Brian Gaffney as NJPGA Player of the Year.

The final presentation of the evening was the Distinguished Service Award, granted jointly by the NJSGA and NJPGA. This year, it was awarded to Ed Batta of Essex Fells Country Club. Batta has been involved in caddie scholarship at the NJSGA since 1981, and has been an integral leader of its growth since then. He is a past president of the NJSGA and has served as chairman of the Caddie Scholarship Foundation since 2001. In his acceptance speech, he noted that 65 caddies received about $65,000 in grants in 1981; thirty years later, the number of recipients has grown to nearly 200 and they received $662,000 in grants this year. Batta has worked tirelessly to raise awareness and funds for deserving young men and women around the state, all the time preaching to keep the caddie in golf. His story will be documented in the upcoming issue of NJSGA GOLF.