My dad is Tony VonFricken. If you’ve played a weekend tournament there this year, Dad was your course ranger. He enjoys working for Larry Riley and with guys like Billy McConnell, Ronnie Frazier and Gus Gorman. He served as Chairman of the Rensselaer County Amateur Tournament for 8 years following Col. Bill McGiff. As a founding member of the Frear Park Golf Association he worked to improve the course, serving as Vice-President then President. During his tenure, the FPGA and the RCAT donated 125 Austrian Pines to the city for the course. We went for a ride on his course and he told me how he was hooked on golf as a kid. This is his story, told to me from his unique perspective.
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One day, I was running around the park. John Monahan was giving golf lessons over at the Sunday Tee. He called out to me asking if I’d like to shag balls. Said he’d pay me $.40 a lesson. I’d roundup the balls, put them in a bucket and bring them back to him after each lesson. Shagging balls netted me $4.80 a weekend. Can you imagine how happy I was at 10 to be earning that kind of money to give to my mother? My father was only earning $8.00 a week. As I earned, I learned by listening to Mr. Monahan. Later, I caddied for some of the best players in the area - men like Tony Camprone, Al Serian and Gerald Messier. The mayor’s “Hook a Kid on Golf” program is the best thing I’ve seen up here in a long time. It gives kids a chance to learn the game. I love it. Hope it comes back next year. I’d like to help out with it.
This place is nothing like it was back in 1948 though, when it was a pure links 9-hole course. The tee boxes didn’t have grass just dirt, the greens were hand-mowed using push mowers, and the bunkers were mostly stony sand. These fairways were lined with 2-foot tall hay fields, called heather. Farmers came in and baled it for the city every fall. It was farmland – mostly hay and cornfields. There was a farmhouse near where the 8th fairway is. We used to pump the water up from its well, taking a sip from the tin cup attached to it by a chain. That was great water. The well was capped off years ago though.
The course is in rough shape. Lots of reasons but the staff isn’t one of them. Mark (Yamin) is top notch. So’s his crew. It’s hard work to keep this course playable especially with half the fulltime staff needed. The players aren’t helping either with their disrespectful lack of etiquette. Most don’t follow the 90-degree rule, driving the carts on the fairways instead of the cart paths and they’re not removing their broken tees. Do you know the havoc those things play on the mowers?
Mainly, it’s the drought. There hasn’t been enough rain this year to green anything that isn’t irrigated. The soil is so compacted in the fairways on the front nine that it’s like golfing on concrete. The grounds haven’t been aerated in at least 6 years. The city doesn’t own the right equipment. The tractor used to do it broke down and sat for a few years. They finally fixed it. Once the season ends, Mark will get the course properly aerated. That’ll make a big difference in how the course plays next year.
Water’s the problem on the back 9 too. Only here we’ve got too much and the drainage system isn’t working right. Water from the underground spring isn’t flowing where we need it too. See these ponds. They're supposed to be drainage ponds. Instead they’re algae farms, so stagnant that ducks and geese won’t use them. This pond, built two years ago to drain water from the 13th, 14th and 15th fairways, isn’t finished. The outlet pipe sits 6” above the water line. Neither pond has flowing water. Easily fixed by installing water spray units in there. The request for them apparently was denied.
The 6th tee used to be here (between where the basketball court and the softball fields are now off of North Lake). Lou Anthony had it moved so that playground could be built over there. As far as I'm concerned, the city ruined the best hole on the course doing that. See that port-a-potty? That’s the only bathroom out here. We’ve been told there’s no way to get water and sewer onto the course. That pot sits 100’ from North Lake. Water and sewer lines could be brought in from there without too much trouble and another added near the 13th green/14th tee by running lines in from Humiston Avenue. Bathrooms out here would not only serve the golfers and ballplayers in the summer, they’d serve the sledders in the winter too.
There’s Arcadia Pavilion. Great building, you should see the stone fireplaces in there - magnificent. Dances were held in there back in the 30’s. Now, it’s storage. They move the equipment down here from the buildings up by the 1st green during the summer. It doesn’t make sense. Storage isn’t what the space was meant for. I’ve always thought it would be great to have our Clubhouse and Pro Shop in there; that’d be classy. Wouldn’t it?
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