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Long Island's got 2 PGA Tour pros for 2009

Mark Herrmann

October 23, 2008

Larry DellAquila, the Nassau Community College golf coach, was following the tournament from Chattanooga over the Internet. "When he made double bogey, I went crazy," he said, referring to his former star player, Arjun Atwal.

The coach didn't stay fazed long. He remembered what Atwal had told him during the week, about a poor finish the previous weekend. "He said, 'Coach, I've never been so embarrassed. I'm hitting it well, I just lost concentration. I'm going to do better this week,'" DellAquila said.

Sure enough, Atwal didn't flinch over squandering a two-stroke lead on the 16th hole. He won the Nationwide Tour's Chattanooga Classic Sunday in a playoff and earned his way back to the PGA Tour.

Couple that with what DellAquila watched live on TV Sunday and it was far from a double bogey. Marc Turnesa of Rockville Centre won the PGA Tour's Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas the same afternoon, making the day a Long Island double triumph.

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Both players earned 2009 PGA Tour cards, meaning Long Island will have two members on that tour for the first time in recent memory. George Burns of Port Washington was there by himself for many years and a few local players were on the then-Senior PGA Tour together, but it is rare for more than one Long Islander on the prime-time circuit. Thus, Long Island golfers have new reason to believe you can get there from here.

"I think it's a tremendous step to show young golfers here that if they're persistent enough, they can do it," DellAquila said. "You've just really got to work hard at it. Both of those guys worked hard at it. And those two men are real Long Islanders."

Turnesa went to South Side High School and learned golf from his father, Mike Jr., the head pro at Rockville Links. Atwal was born in India, but moved with relatives to Long Island when he was a teenager for educational opportunities. He went to Clarke High School before Nassau CC, eventually made the PGA Tour but lost his card and has been playing on the Nationwide Tour.

Both really had to step up at the end of their seasons to save their jobs (see last week's LI Golfbeat). That they did was a double shot in the arm. Despite hosting a bunch of U.S. Opens in recent years, Long Island has spawned fewer tour careers than wintry New England and Wisconsin. Now the possibilities seem fresh.

"I think it's great and I think it shows kids they can be from around here and still win. They don't have to go down to Florida to play," said Tim McAleer, coach at Adelphi University, whose team has entered six tournaments this fall and won five of them (placing second by one shot in the other).

McAleer mentioned that Long Island did launch the careers of Len Mattiace and Chris DiMarco, each of whom made it to a playoff in the Masters this decade, but both had moved to Florida when they were in school. "We don't get the credit for them," he said.

"This," McAleer said of the Turnesa-Atwal double play, "is going to help us in recruiting."

It could remind players who don't live here - Adelphi's No. 1 golfer, Brant Kummerfeld, is from Wyoming - and those who do that it is worth playing here. Adelphi practices at the Cherry Valley and Garden City Country Clubs, a privilege most colleges can't match. Adelphi's success this fall (the Div. II team beat three Div. I schools at the Hofstra Invitational) has been built with a good share of local talent - Oliver Hudesman (Syosset), Matt DeMeo and Josh Hamlett (Connetquot) and Jason Doppelt (Great Neck).

"If you want to learn to play golf, the Met section is the one to be in," Mike Turnesa said yesterday, having returned from his surprise visit to Las Vegas Saturday to the club where members recall Marc caddying and shagging balls during his dad's teaching sessions. "You're surrounded by great courses, great pros."

So why haven't there been more tour players from here? "Considering that competition is fierce all over the country," the elder Turnesa said, "if you get one or two, that's a lot."