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Smith legacy: a third Open

Mark Herrmann

June 13, 2004

Anyone lucky enough to have seen a U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club has one enduring image. Maybe it is a venerable Ray Floyd or a youthful Tiger Woods. Possibly it's a triumphant Corey Pavin or a dejected Greg Norman.

In my case, it is Peter Smith.

A major championship is a lot more fun if you have a personal rooting interest. I always rooted for Smith, the head greenskeeper whom I knew for 20 years.

From close range, Smith's story is a very sad one. First he lost his job in 1999, when the club replaced him as course superintendent. Then, in 2002, he lost his life to a heart attack at age 47.

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But in the broader view, Smith was a resounding success. He proudly carried on the work his grandfather and father did before him, for 50 and 34 years, respectively. He was an Ivy League graduate and a single-digit handicap golfer. Twice, he got his course ready for a stellar Open, which, to a superintendent, is like winning the Super Bowl and World Series. "Shinnecock" was practically his family name, and it became a household word under his watch.

His heart belonged to his family and his fellow members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, whom he served as tribal leader. In hiring his crew, he saw potential in people who didn't seem that swift to everyone else. The seeds he planted grew more than rye grass.

As his wife, Diane, said for an article in an issue just like this one nine years ago, "He listens."

To me, he was a fellow eastern Long Islander and golf enthusiast who was the same age as I was. He put a friendly face on a club that could be forbidding and intimidating to a visitor.

Smith was a reminder that even ultraprivate clubs thrive on the work of regular folks who show up, do their jobs and go home (in his case, the commute was about a mile). The U.S. Open thrives on that, too. As much as we all ballyhooed the tournament at Bethpage Black two years ago, the fact is, every year's U.S. Open really is the People's Open. It's because of people like Smith.

I first met him in the early 1980s, shortly after he succeeded his late father, Elmer. I was a reporter for The Southampton Press, interviewing him about the Open. Taking a photo of Smith and the crew that was filled with his brothers and cousins, I couldn't get over how nice the grass looked under their feet.

That time, and when I came back for a Newsday story in 1986, it was neat to hear the stories about Elmer working evenings, lugging hoses and sprinklers because the course had no irrigation system. Another good one was how Elmer was offered a house at the club, but didn't want his children to have to be quiet all the time. So Peter grew up on the reservation, as did his four children.

I loved hearing about how Smith played for the Southampton High golf team, earned a history degree from Dartmouth (helped by a scholarship fund set up by Shinnecock Hills members) and added a degree in turf management from Rutgers (my alma mater).

When I came back before the 1995 Open, Smith had broader horizons. Along with having become tribal leader, he was on the board of directors of Southampton Hospital. He had founded a youth basketball league and had provided a building for the Shinnecock Indian Health Center (the former pro shop).

Did he get a raw deal when the club removed him in 1999? It is impossible to know. Club members are not talking and the overwhelming majority of us never get to see the course between Opens. Golf Digest magazine reported that Smith was offered another job at the same salary, but turned it down.

We do know that superintendents get moved around all the time. Modern pros and club members demand closely mowed grass, which puts stress on the turf -- and the greenskeepers. We also know that Smith left to be superintendent at the Foxwoods course in Connecticut and that he died Dec. 13, 2002.

We know, too, that Shinnecock Hills is in the good hands of superintendent Mark Michaud from Pebble Beach, who is classy enough to credit Smith's legacy. "He was part of this course," Michaud said. "His family is deep in the history here."

Hold the debates for another day. Today is a time to salute the man who never got the send-off he deserved.

Here is a tip of the cap to you, Peter Smith. You made Shinnecock look so good for two Opens that they easily decided to have a third. Many lives, like the Shinnecock Hills fairways, were better because you came across them.

From here, it all looks like an authentic American success story.

At the start of another Open, the place just isn't the same without you. By that, I mean the world, not just the golf course.