This started as a story about Bill Hart, now in his fourth year as club pro at Kitsap Golf & Country Club. But there is more going on at the course just off Chico Way besides the good work and dedication Hart has brought.
There is a remake of the course going on that is celebrating its 100th year as a private golf club.
According to a historical account on the club’s website, after incorporating with 20 members in spring of 1924 the club purchased what was known as the Granstrom farm, 47 acres of farmland and orchards. It was felt that a nine-hole golf course could be built at around $10,000, and later in the year KG&CC added some surrounding land, including one tract that came for just $10.
Its first tournament was held July 2, 1924, according to the club’s history. Ice cream and coffee were provided, golfers teed their balls on piles of sand, and the lowest score was 82 for 6 holes. By October the course had been built out, membership had reached 125, including the first woman, and the next July a full nine-hold, 2,500-yard course was ready for play.
A century later, it’s the people that help the place remain special.
Hart has been a valuable addition and quickly integrated himself into the club with his passion for golf and his ability to connect on a personal level with members (he usually plays golf Saturdays with some of them.)
Hart was hired after long-time pro Al Patterson left for Canterwood Golf & Country Club in Gig Harbor so he could be closer to family.
“Bill is a pro’s pro,” says Scott Fenske, who won his fourth Kitsap Am recently. “He’s a breath of fresh air we needed.”
Another key addition is Groundskeeper Superintendent Max Lamas, 39, a New Hampshire native hired in October last year who is a 2008 graduate of Penn State where he acquired a degree in Turfgrass Management and Environmental Soil Studies.
“We have a really great crew,’ says Janet Jones, general manager at Kitsap. “They are doing a phenomenal job getting the course into the shape members have come to expect.”
Fenske, a 16-year member at Kitsap and founding member of the Ridgeway Street Golf Association, is one of the best local amateur golfers around. He has won the Bremerton Am, four times won the Kitsap Am and nine times has won the Kitsap Golf & Country Club championship. Fenske hopes to win his 10th club championship on Aug. 17, which would snap a tie with the late Buzz Edmonds.
More local golf: Buzz Edmonds, known in Kitsap as ‘The Legend,’ dies at 91
“The course is the best he’s seen it,” says Fenske.
He and others were questioning the value of their membership prior to Hart and Lamas showing up.
Hart makes playing golf at KG&CC fun again, and Lamas has the course purring like a satisfied cat. The greens were 13 to 13.5 on the Stimpmeter, which is lightning fast, for the recent Kitsap Am. Most PGA Tour events are played at 12 on the Stimpmeter.
“The greens were firm and fast,” says Fenske. “They were maybe nine or 10 before Lamas and are now on average 11.”
“It’s awesome,” says Randy Hanson, owner of Bremerton’s Hanson Sign Company and a long-time member at Kitsap. “It’s 10 times better than it was, for sure.”
Hart is a lifer. He got the golfing bug when he was just eight years old.
“My dad was a good player and he got me into golf,” says Hart.
Hart played basketball and golf at LaSalle Catholic College Preparatory School in Milwaukie, Oregon, just south of Portland.
A point guard, Hart led LaSalle to third place in the 1991 state tournament as a senior. The same year he was the individual champion in the 3A/2A/1A state golf tournament, shooting 70-75 for 145 in the two-day event to lead LaSalle to the team title.
Being a golf pro was a long-time goal for Hart, who got a business administration degree from Washington State at Vancouver in 2003 and turned pro two years later through a 3-step process that is not only extensive, but stressful.
He has competed in Pro Ams and worked himself into a 2-plus golfer. Hart, then an assistant pro at Tualatin Country Club, tied for 21st in the Northwest open in 2007 at Arnold Palmer’s Running Y Golf Course at Klamath Falls, Oregon, shooting a 72-72-70 for 215. Jeff Coston’s 200 won it.
It’s a tough job being a club pro, but Hart makes it work for him, and he makes it fun for members.
New events he has brought with him when he was hired have created some of the fun, including Glow Golf. The balls glow in the dark and that is when the fun begins – when it’s dark.
Then there are the “horse races.” Each player puts $10 in a cap and there are 10 teams of two. Play is over four holes with teams being eliminated along the way with low scores. The last team standing picks up the money in the cap.
Teams are paired by handicaps – lows and highs are put together to make it more competitive.
There is the Five Nines Challenge. Two-member teams play nine holes on Friday evening, then on Saturday morning and evening, and again on Sunday morning and evening.
“He’s great fun,” Fenske said of Hart. “He’s real successful up here. Last year, everybody wanted to leave. It was a run-down…
