Class News

Chris Getman '64 reports on the 2023 Spring golf outing

Our annual Class of 1964 Spring golf outing, organized by Ted Jones ’64, took place on Thursday, June 8, 2023. The venue, as usual, was the beautiful and renowned Yale Golf Course.

The photo at right is from the tee at the dreaded par 3 ninth hole, 190 yards over water to an impossible green. This hole has been ranked among the 100 most difficult holes in the United States.

In 1988, Golf Magazine ranked Yale as the 71st most difficult course in the world. Golfweek ranked Yale at #35 on its 2013 list of best classic courses. In 2011, Golf Magazine ranked the course #71 of the top 100 courses in the United States. In 2010, Golfweek named it the best campus course in the United States.

Our always-reliable reporter, Chris Getman ’64, filed the following story.

Factual Report of the Class of 1964 Outing

The Class of 1964’s golf outing, smoothly organized by Ted Jones, occurred at noon on Thursday, June 8.

It was nice that we had 16 players. The course technically was closed due to the smoke from the fires in Canada, but Peter Palacios, the new Director of Golf, kindly opened the course for us, and we virtually had the course to ourselves. What a treat!

Unsurprisingly, once Jan Truebner finished her cigar, the skies cleared, and conditions could not have been better.

After the group photo, for which the Galvin foursome had been penalized two strokes because Bill showed up on time, we were ready to go.

(left to right) Wickwire, Getman, Post, Hetherington, Tully, Arons, Galvin, Lindsay, Jones,
Jan Truebner, Kalayjian, Capodilupo, Evans, Putzel, Norman, Padley, McFarland

The foursome consisting of Jan Truebner, Larry Capodilupo, Alan McFarland, and Mike Arons went first. We noticed that everyone teed off from the forward tees, which is a perk which anyone over 80 is able to take advantage of with impunity and without snide comments from others who normally played the whites.

Yours truly waited by the second green to make sure that everything moved smoothly.

The second foursome consisted of Steve Norman, Chuck Post, Butch Hetherington, and John Tully. The third foursome was Dave Kalayjian, Ted Jones, John Evans, and Pete Putzel, whose mausoleum at Mory’s buys a brick for every lost ball and will begin construction in the summer. The final foursome consisted of Bill Galvin, Ward Wickwire, Martin Padley, and Dave Lindsay, looking fit and trim despite the fact that everyone at the Cape outing last September thought he was pregnant. He explained that the bulge in his stomach had been a huge tumor. That explanation did not deter Mike Arons from asking whether it was a boy or a girl.

The format was two best balls net, and no gimme putts outside of the leather.

When the first foursome arrived at the second green, things became interesting. After all four balls were on the green, the closest was about 12 feet from the hole, and the farthest about thirty-five feet away. McFarland pulled a club from his bag. The club was like a ball retriever and could be extended.  Only instead of having a ball grabber at the end, it had a strip of leather. McFarland, resplendent in his plus fours, stretched the club out so that all four balls were ”inside the leather,” and told everyone to write down his/her score accordingly. Upon subsequent review, the foursome was disqualified.

I could hear the second foursome asking for scores. Galvin said that he had a five — one in the rough, a practice swing, two out, three on, and two putts. Wickwire corrected him by saying “No! you had a six — one in the rough, a whiff, three out , four on, and two putts for a six.” Galvin responded that it was not a whiff, it was a practice swing,  to which Wicks responded, “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard anyone say ‘shit’ after a practice swing.” When Galvin entered a five, his foursome was also disqualified.

Next up were Norman, Post, Hetherington and Tully. Butch’s approach shot went off of the green to the left, which meant that it was most likely about thirty feet below the green. He was out of sight when the ball came flying up and died about six feet from the pin. Unfortunately the ball that came up was a knuckleball, which was the only pitch Butch had when he was playing for Yale. It was obviously a “hand mashie” which resulted in automatic disqualification for the foursome. 

In addition to the Hetherington transgression, I watched Chuck Post sink a 20-foot putt which rolled toward the pin moving like a sidewinder snake before falling into the cup. When I played with Chuck in Florida, he made two forty footers in a row, both with the same erratic action as the one on two.  Upon further review, the Committee discovered that Chuck’s balls contained a small magnet which drew them to the metal in the hole. Had he been in another foursome, it would have been disqualified, but his foursome was already gone.

The final foursome of Kalayjian, Jones, Putzel, and Evans all arrived in good shape.

People had to ask Ted who he was because he was wearing shorts rather than his plus fours, which are now being featured at the golf Hall of Fame in Florida.
Ted forgot that he was wearing shorts, and when he passed close to each pin, the ball that normally would have dropped unseen through long pants rolled down his leg in plain sight of everyone. Fourth and final disqualification.

Because Getman was the only one who was not involved in a transgression, the Committee ruled that the winner’s trophy go to Getman by default. Getman asked Putzel if he had any bricks to spare because his 1964 trophy case is close to being full.

Most of us adjourned to Mory’s where the room was brightened by the presence of Marcia Kalayjian, Melissa Padley, and Toddie Getman.

Ted had discovered a wine “Ivantu C. a Bear” which could have been honoring the bear that Lindsey had rented from the Bridgeport zoo during last year's Spring golf outing in order to break up the group with which he was stuck. I’m told that it was a great Merlot, but the gluttons at my table had polished it off  before I could give it a try.

Peter Palacios joined us for dinner, and showed us some pictures of the old course and what we can expect from the new one. It’s going to be very exciting when it reopens in 2025. One thing that Peter noted was that the ninth hole currently has a carry over water of about 120 yards. Peter noted that because of all of the golf balls in the lake (many of which came from the Class of 1964), the carry would drop to about 40 yards.

Take out your pens and calendars. Our group, under the leadership of Pete Putzel, is working on setting up an outing on September 28 and 29 in northwestern Connecticut, which will be beautiful at that time of year. We will play Sharon and Hotchkiss, two nine-hole courses, on one day, and hopefully Bull’s Bridge, a challenging eighteen-hole course, on the other. There are some very nice restaurants and accommodations up there. It should be a really fun outing. Hotchkiss was voted the 27th-best nine-hole course in the world and is a fun challenge. I’m told that Sharon is a fun track as well.

Hope to see you then.

Respectfully submitted,

Chris Getman