Scarsdale Living Spring-Summer 2019

SCARSDALE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

LIVING

SPRING SWING KNOW THE PROS of Scarsdale’s greens scene

BOOK STACKS

Scarsdale bibliophiles select summer reads

HOME WORK

The architects of rooms designed for living SPRING/SUMMER 2019

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SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

As children leave the nest

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»

INSIDE WHAT DESIGN CAN DO “It’s not just about how it looks.

It’s about how you live.”

PRO-FILE

Golf phenom James Nicholas set to turn pro.

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30

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MODERN CLASSIC

Rosamund Young builds a beautiful Scarsdale.

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KNOW THE PROS of Scarsdale’s great golf courses.

THE FAMILY THAT GOLFS TOGETHER

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GREAT SUMMER READS

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The Lee family of Scarsdale bonds on the course.

Scarsdale bibliophiles

stack up their selections.

END PAGE

The lawn and winding road.

Sip ’Dale

of the

MORE

08 SEEN SCENE 46 HOME PAGE

54 SCARSDALE LIVING

Editor LISA COLEMAN BRADLOW • Advertising Sales THOMAS O’HALLORAN, MARILYN PETROSA, FRANCESCA LYNCH Design EILEEN FARRELL • Photograhy JIM MacLEAN • Contributing Writer • DAN PRINCE Publisher DEBORAH WHITE Copyright ©2019 S.I. Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Scarsdale Living is published by S.I. Communications, Inc., publisher of The Scarsdale Inquirer. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden without the publisher’s written permission.

SPRING/SUMMER 2019

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FROM THE EDITOR I am always surprised by the energy of spring. Mostly, surprised by how I inevitably get caught up in it. I am a natural nester, so my enthusiastic zip has accomplished such single-handed home improvements as reflooring an entire third floor of my house (true!), the aligned planting of eight 6-foot arborvitae trees (including a shocking number of large rocks I dug out beforehand), and even, with the help of YouTube, replacing three hardwired electrical lights in my dining room.

I don’t question this warm-weather energy; I’m grateful it returns every year. By March, I begin to wonder what project will possess me.

I never know.

The theme of this issue of Scarsdale Living

is “house and garden.” And Scarsdale has a beautiful wealth of both, best when all are fully in bloom.

We have had the pleasure of interviewing interior designer Gideon Mendelson, raised in Scarsdale by a mom who ran a successful design firm from an office above the Metro Deli. She taught him to study how people live, and how to help them live more beautifully.

Many of his clients are from Scarsdale or live in Scarsdale, and rely on Mendelson’s elegant designs to “make room for living and doing.”

The end result, Mendelson asserts, is “not just about how it looks. It’s about how you want to live.”

Architect Rosamund Young found her way to Edgemont from South Africa, and brought her elitely trained architectural talent with her. Her new homes and existing home renovations are dashing — classic and lively, romantic and daring. And she has a collection of fans who extol her artistry.

Our “garden” section is really all about golf, which is mostly played on cartoonishly perfect landscapes. And some of the most beautiful golf courses are in and around Scarsdale.

For this section, I am so pleased to include Dan Prince as a new writer for Scarsdale Living.

He’s put together our extensive feature about Scarsdale’s golf club pros, detailing their dedicated journeys, as well as some useful tips and their favorite course holes to play. Dan’s stories are a pleasure to read.

Five stellar Scarsdale bibliophiles have also shared their summer reading lists, which include not just new books, but classics, nonfiction, some deeply intense and others simply fun to read and ponder.

As ever, we close with Jack Miller’s hilarious-because-it’s-true essay about the actualities of Scarsdale living, and how he successfully and wholesomely keeps both house and garden.

Reader, I wish you energy and inspiration that lasts through a happy summer. And if you’re moved to take on a new, momentous project, we will all revel in your success and the greater beauty you create in your corner of Scarsdale.

Lisa Coleman Bradlow Editor 6

SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

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HOMEPAGE 

This, that and the goings on

TUDOR SKY Scarsdale resident Jay Cohen is an award-winning

TELL US ABOUT IT

photographer and the author of the photography book “Scarsdale Scenes.”

More of his work

ANTI-SORKIN

can be found at jcimages.zenfolio. com.

THE INTOXICATING MIX

Sip ’Dale

Sapori owner/bartender

of the

Eddie Vujeta has created a summer cocktail especially for Scarsdale — The Scarsdale Mule — an eclectic drink based on

Scarsdale Mule

Figenza vodka brightened

3 oz. Figenza fig vodka

up with ginger beer and pomegranate juice. Cool,

1 oz. fresh lime juice

interesting and tasty, just

Ginger beer to top

like Scarsdale. Sapori of

Pomegranate juice to top

Scarsdale is at 2 Chase Road.

SCARSDALE GETS AROUND! You love to go places, and we want to go with you. Slip Scarsdale Living into your travel bag on your next trip, and when you’re out and about, snap a photo of you with the magazine or the magazine in an exotic, picturesque setting.

Email it to us, and your picture will appear in an upcoming issue.

Send photo to lbradlow@ scarsdaleliving.net.

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AND

ISE ISL

PARAD

Avid poolside Scarsdale readers Suzanne Seiden, Robin Gottlieb, Lauren Kessler and Vivian Sklar.

SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

Thank you for printing Aaron Sorkin’s 2016 vicious and vitriolic anti-Trump letter to his daughter in your last issue of Scarsdale Living (Winter/Spring 2019). I didn’t even know that open letter existed. I was able to forward it to the members of all of my Republican, Conservative and Pro-Israel organizations. (Most of us with advanced degrees and nary a Klansman among us!) As we helped with closing “A Bronx Tale” after De Niro’s profane rant, I hope we can aid in the demise of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Most of the Broadway audience now is made up of out-of-towners.

That’s right, “deplorables” such as we who have a penchant for peace and prosperity!

NORMA SEGAL Scarsdale

Email letters to Lisa Coleman Bradlow at lbradlow@ scarsdaleliving.net

SPRING/SUMMER 2019

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M y Doctor

told me to drink up

“I tell patients to drink at least six to eight glasses of water a day to improve their health.”

- Dr. Michael Finkelstein

Dehydration is one of the human body’s worst nightmares. Save yourself a struggle and switch out that soda for a tall glass of water. By maintaining your hydration, you’ll enjoy all sorts of benefits like improved cardiovascular health, smoother skin and increased joint mobility. That’s why primary care physician Dr. Finkelstein tells patients that along with a healthy diet, exercise and regular preventive screenings, hydration is key to a healthy you.

To hear more from Dr. Finkelstein, visit wphospital.org/water

Make this year your healthiest.

Schedule your annual exam.

Call (914) 849-MyMD or visit wphospital.org to find a primary care physician in Westchester. #healthywestchester

A M E M B E R O F T H E M O N T E F I O R E H E A LT H S Y S T E M

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Interior designer and architect Gideon Mendelson believes design should have purpose: “It’s not just about how it looks. it’s about how you live.”

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SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

HOME | DESIGN

WHAT

DESIGN CAN DO

A DAY WITH GIDEON MENDELSON TALKING ABOUT HOUSES, INTERIOR DESIGN AND CHANGING LIVES ONE THROW PILLOW AT A TIME

T

here is a shelf in Gideon Mendelson’s office on which sits a series of framed magazine pages, pictures of a traditionally chic dining room, a flawless green sofa in a living room, a soothingly white linened four-poster bed surrounded by cheery blue print wallpaper in a bedroom.

“I grew up with an interior designer for a mother,” Mendelson said. “I don’t really remember before interior design was in my brain.”

His mother Mimi’s business was called Spatial Arts and her office was above what’s now Metro Deli on Palmer Avenue.

“Just about every day — and this would never happen today — I would leave the campus as a 9-year-old, walk two blocks from Heathcote School with my best friend to go eat lunch at the Heathcote Deli,” Mendelson said. “I would obviously go up to say hi to my mom, and see what she was doing at that moment. She wasn’t training me, but she was a talker so she would say ‘This is Mark Hampton,’ or ‘This is Billy Baldwin,’ or whoever we were looking at. She was a real traditionalist. That was my initial education, studying interior decorating with traditional designers.”

At Scarsdale High School, Mendelson took a technical drawing class that connected with him.

“Then I really started to understand the problem-solving aspects of what my mother did, which I thought was really interesting, more than color and fabrics and things like that,” Mendelson said. “There are the given restraints, then these people and what their needs are, their idiosyncrasies and how those play into how you solve this puzzle. There’s often multiple ways to put a room together, but what’s the best way for them to live optimally. To someone else, that would be incredibly boring, but I thought it was just awesome.” »

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» DESIGN | MENDELSON

Mendelson was recruited to play tennis for Columbia University where he studied architecture and film. He graduated in 1996, and scored a job in the William Morris mailroom that eventually led him to assisting literary agent Joni Evans, the former head of Simon & Schuster.

When Evans traveled out of town one week, Mendelson asked if he could organize the assemblage of frames cluttering her office floor.

“She didn’t care,” he said. “I didn’t have a plan, but my mother sort of entered my brain, so I hung all these pictures in a salon style. Joni came back and was like, ‘Wow — you need to be doing this.’ And I was like, I think you’re right.”

Mendelson enrolled in New York School of Interior Design, “just to remember what it felt like to hold a pencil again,” he said. At a New Year’s Eve party in the Hamptons, he met interior designer Steven Gambrel and offered to help run his new and growing business if Gambrel agreed to mentor him.

“We spent a year together and had a ball,” Mendelson said. “It was a great entree.”

Mendelson’s parents had moved from Scarsdale to Manhattan after his mother retired. But then a former client con14

tacted his mom about decorating a new house being built in Westchester.

“My mother called me, said, ‘Oh god, just got a call, what am I going to do?’ I said, ‘I dunno — say no if you don’t want to do this,’” Mendelson recalled. “I called her back two minutes later and said, ‘I’m going to quit, and we’re going to start a company together.’”

The two decorated the client’s new home, finishing around 2007; the framed pictures on the shelf in Mendelson’s office are of that project, their first house.

SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

They hired an assistant, Mendelson took on the responsibility of bookkeeping and the other back-office work, and his mom taught him all she knew.

“I loved the work and I was fortunate to make a living and pay my bills doing what I was enjoying” Mendelson said. “I was learning every day.”

The practice grew organically through word of mouth, and their next big gig was for an old friend from Scarsdale High School who wanted to combine two Upper West Side apartments she had purchased.

ON DESIGN “Very quickly I ask what the impact of a design will be. For different people, it can do different things.”

Mendelson’s recent design for a new home in New Rochelle incorporates function with clean lines, geometrics, florals and textures.

“Things don’t have to match,” says Mendelson.

About the same time as those first projects, Mendelson met his husband, Tom Tomeo, an executive with Morgan Stanley. The two bought a house in the Hamptons, which Mendelson decorated.

And then superstar interior designer Jamie Drake stopped by.

“Some friends were coming over for lunch and asked if they could bring a friend,” Mendelson said. Drake snooped around the house, and bluntly told Mendelson: “People need to see this.”

“He emailed me his publicist’s phone number, who I got the courage to call,”

Mendelson said. The publicist, Mike Stohl, saw the Westchester house project and insisted Mendelson get photos shot.

“We submitted it to the former interiors editor for House Beautiful, Doretta Sperduto. They called me two days and said yes,” Mendelson recalled. “That never happens. I was spoiled big time.

And that was the beginning of the brand of Mendelson Group. And I’ve been working with Mike ever since.”

Mendelson’s father died about 10 Continued on page 18 » SPRING/SUMMER 2019

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» DESIGN | MENDELSON

A DAY IN THE

LIFE 7:30 a.m.

“I take my kids to school twice a week, or I go to the gym.

I live in Park Slope, so my commute is lengthy. On the subway, I listen to a few podcasts, like ‘Pod Save America,’ and music, a mix of rock, folk, bluesy stuff, singer-songwriters that have beautiful -ugly voices.”

“IT’S THE TEAM

5:30 p.m.

THAT MAKES IT

“My older sister lives in Westchester, so when I’m there, I’ll try to have dinner with her. If I get home early, I let the nanny go so I feed the kids. My husband is usually home earlier than me, and we will periodically oversee some school work if that’s not done yet — my older son has homework.”

ALL WORTHWHILE. IT CAN BE A LONELY ROAD AS DESIGNER. EVERYBODY IS HARDWORKING AND WE LAUGH A LOT.”

7:30 p.m.

“I started a group a little over two years ago called Design Share. It’s 10-12 designers who are hustlers with working design firms.

We meet the first Wednesday of every month and always have an agenda. Last month, we had a media trainer speak to us about how to not look like jerks in front of a camera.”

“The twins are in bed at 7:30, and Owen at 8:30. We try to read a lot. I’m a big Roald Dahl fan. And Harry Potter has sort of entered the world — it’s not my thing, but Tom really likes it. We sometimes do meditation, which is really cute, with an app called Oak. We’ll all lie down in the twin’s bedroom and do a 10-minute meditation, listen to someone saying ‘relax, let go, and breathe.’ They really like it, and it’s so bizarre.”

10:30 a.m.

9:00 p.m.

9:00 a.m.

“We have a huddle every morning where we all meet as a team. My day is spent assisting my team, meeting with clients, going to job sites, reviewing drawings. It’s a lot of marketing and development. Vendors may come here and present their new lines. I’m still signing every check that walks out the door.”

1:00 p.m.

“In Scarsdale, we have some dining chairs being delivered, wall upholstering going up in the dining room. A mini-installation for a wonderful client we’ve been working with for years.”

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SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

“IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS, WE’RE NOT SAVING LIVES, WE’RE JUST CHANGING THEM.”

“That’s the time that Tom and I have a chance to talk. Being in a marriage and having children is a mini business of its own. We are planning things, making sure everything is scheduled and we’re on top of it. And we kind of check in with each other.”

10:00 p.m.

“I try to go to bed as soon as possible.

It’s very challenging with the kids, and we’re not young parents. I was 36 when our first child was born, and Tom was 46. And he has more energy than I do for sure. Now I’m wiped out at the end of the day.”

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» DESIGN | MENDELSON

years ago, and “it was nice to have that time with my mother,” he said.

Mendelson and his husband moved to Park Slope with their three young children — Owen, now 8, and 6-yearold twins, Leo and Izzy — and recently purchased an apartment for Mimi 10 floors below their own, meant to be her home where the kids would have piano lessons, she could pop up for dinner, and they could all travel together to the Hamptons on weekends.

But as the renovations began, Mimi was diagnosed with cancer. She died last spring before seeing Mendelson’s finished interior design that integrated her collections of majolica and glass decanters, the custom dining room table he had built for her last apartment that she refused to give up, and her hundreds of books.

Mendelson currently works with a

A weekend beach home transformed

by Mendelson Group. “Playful zings of color were inspired by the client’s love of Lilly Pulitzer.”

Photos by Eric Piasecki.

busy, young staff in an office suite on Third Avenue in Manhattan. The workroom is lined with boxes of organized fabric swatches and drawers of tile, rug samples and flooring. At any time, the group juggles about eight projects, including current Scarsdale projects in Heathcote and Greenacres.

“Once you have children, you’re aware of things in a totally different

way,” Mendelson said. “I’m watching them play, watching them eat, watching them swim, help me in the garden, learn to ride bikes. I was like, look at how our home is inspiring them, how it’s impacting their lives, how excited they are to wake up on a Saturday morning, how my daughter just wants to help me cook.

And that’s what design can do — it can bring us together.”

– LCB

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Dawn Knief is a Licensed Real Estate Salesperson affiliated with Compass. Compass is a licensed real estate broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. No statement is made as to the accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footages are approximate. This is not intended to solicit property already listed. Nothing herein shall be construed as legal, accounting or other professional advice outside the realm of real estate brokerage.

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An architect big on context, Young uses the immediate neighborhood as her influence.

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SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

HOME | BUILD

A MODERN CLASSIC ARCHITECT ROSAMUND YOUNG MAKES SCARSDALE HOMES BEAUTIFUL

F

or the last 20 years, Rosamund Young has been designing, renovating and building houses around Scarsdale and Edgemont.

“What has been consistent for me is my passion for houses and gardens. While my work has shifted from traditional styling to a more modern interpretation, I’m crazy about houses, all kinds of houses, all kinds of styles,” Young said. “What I enjoy so much about Scarsdale is the incredible inventory of eclectic styles. Most of the good ones were built in the earlier part of the century. And those houses — and houses in Westchester in general — provide an invaluable inspiration to me on a daily basis. I’m always looking around and seeing how a particular detail might have been done before.”

Young’s work is recognizable: simple, neutral shingles integrating with well-crafted and detailed stonework framing collections of custom windows and French doors, topped with assortments of roof »

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» BUILD | YOUNG

lines. Romantic, picturesque houses with a modern twist. Light, bright, modern and clean. Stately spaces that look elegant but welcoming, places people want to look at and live in.

Her houses and additions are each uniquely beautiful statements. Young is absolute about using what she calls “local reference points,” so her work never looks out of place, but elevates the best qualities of the surrounding neighborhoods.

“As an architect, I’m big on neighborhood context. That’s probably one of my most powerful influences: the immediate neighborhood,” Young explained. “But the back of my houses are always more interesting than the fronts, I think. The front presentation has to fit in with the neighborhood, fit the context. But in the back, you can let loose.”

YOUNG MOVED TO NEW YORK CITY

from her native South Africa in the mid-1980s with a master’s degree in architecture she earned at University of Cape Town.

“I started out in fine art, and then realized I preferred the idea of the art and the science together,” Young said. “I do love to draw and that has helped me a lot in the architecture. Drawing is the art of looking, which is a very important discipline in architecture. When you look at something and you understand it, then you can put it on paper. When you are drawing a house, then you are putting it together.”

Young worked for eight years at Robert A.M. Stern Architects, part of architectural teams designing houses all over the world.

After marrying her husband, John, and having their first child, Young started her own architectural practice with small renovation projects, mostly in New York City, New Jersey and the Hamptons.

After her second child arrived, Young and her family started looking for a place with “good public schools and a little 24

patch of green in the backyard,” she said.

They found a 1906 Craftsman-style house in Edgemont, where they still live today.

“The odd thing with me is that my personal style default is usually vintage,” Young said. “From the street I could tell: this was the house for us. Nothing had been done to it at all. It was completely in its original state, and every single piece of hardware was intact, every molding, each pane of crinkled glass, every piece was in position. Even the original porch railings that had been destroyed in a storm when one of the big trees fell on the porch, all those railings were stacked in the basement. I pulled them out, replicated them and ultimately rebuilt the original two-story porch.

“I think I love it because someone else created it, and I inherited it and I’m the custodian of it. I can’t take credit for the design because it was all here,” she said.

“All I did was restore it and try to make those decisions that are consistent with the house and what the house called for.”

Her first Westchester client lived right up the road in a one-story ranch. Young was hired to build a second-floor addition and renovate the porch. Several years later, that same neighbor bought another property in Edgemont and Young collaborated with them to create her first complete new house in Westchester.

“I’m so proud of what we created back in 2004,” Young said. “It is still my favorite house and property, hands down!”

SOME OF YOUNG’S HOUSES appear

traditional on the outside, with only discreet clues to the modernity within — perhaps a modern front door or a sharp lantern — but the interiors of her houses have a new philosophy, with airy floor plans and unexpected details. She is thrilled to work within the modern design language, but incorporates natural materials: “It’s important to hold onto the organic aspect to maintain a warmth and comfort in the contemporary environment,” she said.

SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

“The interior is no longer a series of rectangles and boxes connected with a center hall,” Young said. “And there are no more fussy moldings to disguise intersections.”

A favorite recent project of Young’s is an old Tudor house in Fox Meadow. The owners initially considered demolition, but shifted gears to an extensive renovation after Young showed them options for a modern transformation.

“We found the original drawings from the architect in the 1920s, accessible at village hall,” Young said, “and discovered there had been a whole wing on the right side that had either been damaged by fire

Opposite page, Before: The back of the original ranch home on Sheldrake Road.

After: At left, Young’s dramatic re-creation.

Below, the airy interior.

or replaced with an awkward, flat-roof garage addition in the ’50s.”

The house took 10 months to rebuild once designs were finalized and various approvals granted. Young stripped out inappropriate detailing, recreated the previously removed wing, and made contemporary additions and a pool in the rear to suit the young family.

“They had a strong vision, but they didn’t know how to make that happen within the home’s old spooky shell — that’s really my job, to weave that vision into the existing structure, the existing site, existing neighborhood, plus comply with zoning restraints,” Young said.

“The great thing about a Tudor is that its simple, powerful, vintage lines provide a perfect backdrop to whimsical organic modern furnishings and interior design.

The juxtaposition is often dynamic.”

Young’s clients are “friends of friends of friends,” she said, and her practice has grown tremendously.

“It’s a very personal relationship,” Young said. “Many of my friends have become clients, and many of my clients have become close friends. When I finish a project, I have withdrawal. I miss the intensity of the process, and I miss seeing the family three times a week. That’s what it takes to build a house or do a

project. It’s an intense relationship.”

AT ANY TIME, her magic number of

projects in her office is about 10. She currently has three houses under construction — two in Scarsdale and one in White Plains, along with other variously sized renovations and additions.

“The discipline in creating a home has not changed. But what is exciting and has changed is the tremendous movement back to modern architecture and design,” Young said. “Back in the ’80s, our houses were often derivative. We were re-creating those beautiful American Shingle-style mansions or colonial »

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» BUILD | YOUNG

Left, the original Tudor house on Olmsted Road; and below, the renovated home.

homes; re-creating that formality and layered detail.

“And in the last few years, that’s shifted completely. Now people want the modern architecture that was once prevalent in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s. And I think it’s a fine thing to have that new house type. Scarsdale by nature has a tremendous mix of eclectic homes. And this will be just yet another type of home in Scarsdale.”

YOUNG FOLLOWS THE WORK of other contemporary architects, including Shope Reno Wharton and McAlpine Tankersly — “masters of the classic romantic” — Joeb Moore and Amanda Martocchio — “masters of the modern idiom,” she noted.

“One of the most important aspects of the design process is developing a series of decisions that are consistent, a series of edits that are always consistent with one strong vision,” Young said. “Whether choosing a door handle, or a window, or carpet, or a kitchen cabinet, you always try to make those choices that are consistent with the overall vibe of the project.

“The aesthetic decisions are very easy,” Young continued, “because you are looking and listening, and the house sort of tells you what to do. The house develops its own energy and its own character, and helps you make those decisions.”

The part of her work she finds challenging are the almost daily technical and mechanical resolutions, “ironically, the invisible aspects of a project seem to demand the most energy,” Young said.

“Part of what drives my daily schedule is trying to streamline the building process,” she said, “making sure the contractor has decisions from the client, answers or details from myself, paperwork from the building department, coordination with the many, many consultants and vendors that are involved in building a home. It’s critical to keep all the conversations going, and staying ahead of the next line on the agenda.”

Young works alongside two architects 26

Young’s original sketch of the home’s back exterior, and below, the realized home.

on her team, and routinely collaborates with interior and landscape designers.

But Young’s most crucial collaborators are the contractors, tradesmen and cabinetmakers, many of whom she’s known since the beginning of her practice.

“These are huge relationships based on trust and shared technical expertise,” Young said. “It’s remarkable to watch an artisan create something that was once a scribble on paper.”

Young is also grateful for Scarsdale’s

SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

Board of Architectural Review, “which does a tremendous job providing a strong set of values,” Young said. “Overall, that board has made a tremendous difference in the construction work in and around Scarsdale. And you can look around at other towns that don’t have a board and see the sad hodgepodge that results.”

Despite creating and recreating some of the village’s most beautiful homes, Young doesn’t experience house envy: “I’m happy to have made my own choices long ago,” she said.

“The work that I do is kind of a fantasy,” Young said. “And I love it, I embrace it, I’m passionate about it.”

— LCB

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SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

WITH THE MANY TALENTS AND TRUEHEARTS OF SCARSDALE Scarsdale is surrounded by ravishing, roller-coaster golf course greens, dotted with devoted players, striving to become better, aiming to be great. These courses are the gardens of our village, blooming every spring, lasting until the winter sun shortens the days of play. Next year — and for the sixth time — the U.S. Open will be played at Winged Foot Golf Club, making it the third most-visited course for the Open. And our “village in a park” will again add brilliance to our greens.

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PRO-FILE

James Nicholas is goin

Dr. Stephen Nicholas often caddies for his son, James.

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g pro

“GOLF IS BY FAR THE HARDEST SPORT THERE IS.” BUT NICHOLAS IS READY TO MAKE IT HIS CAREER

A

fter he graduates Yale University in May, James Nicholas will start his career as a professional golfer.

“My dream is to be on the PGA tour and win a couple of events. But my biggest dream is to represent Team USA at the Olympics,” Nicholas said. “That’s a long ways away. I have to get my game in shape and be in the top two in the country at the time of Olympics. That’s been my long — term goal always.”

His short — term goals have been achieved. As captain of his school’s golf team, Nicholas recently helped Yale take a third — place finish at the 2019 Ivy League Championship, and was named the 2019 Ivy League Player of the Year after posting the best scoring average this season at 69.09 through 23 rounds. That award added to his individual victories at the Borsodi Student Championship, The Doc Gimmler and Macdonald Cup. Nicholas is studying biology at Yale and has completed the necessary coursework for medical school, a hedge to his pro career. His father, Stephen Nicholas, is an orthopedic surgeon in Scarsdale who has served as the team physician for the New York Jets, the New York Islanders and the athletes at Hofstra University, as well as a former member of the mayor’s New York City Sports Commission. James’ grandfather, also named James Nicholas, founded the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and helped develop one of the first athletic derotation knee braces — specifically for his patient Joe Namath during his NFL career — to protect unstable and surgically repaired knees.

“I grew up around medicine. I loved math and science, and at Yale I knew I wanted to do something in the science field, and chose biology,” Nicholas said. “I definitely do » SPRING/SUMMER 2019

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» LINKED IN | PRO-FILE

not see myself going to med school in the near future, but down the road I have that to fall back on.”

NICHOLAS IS THE OLDEST of five

kids. His youngest brother, Brian, is in middle school. His twin brother and sister are both juniors at Franklin and Marshall College, where Steve is captain of the school’s Division III golf team and recently placed first to lead his school to a fourth-place finish at the Hershey Cup. Michaela is the captain of the field hockey team. And Nicholas’ other sister, Erin, is a sophomore at Middlebury, where she plays on both the field hockey and lacrosse teams.

“My mom always says we got all our athletic skills from her,” Nicholas said.

“The girls all have great swings.”

His family belongs to both Winged Foot and Westchester Country Club,

where Nicholas was first taught golf by his grandfather.

“There’s nothing better than playing with my dad and brothers,” Nicholas said.

“They are always the people I want to be on the course with, playing matches with or just playing a quick nine holes at sunset. And they are always a big part of my golf career. I can have just one caddy, and sometimes it’s my dad or one of my brothers, sometimes my girlfriend will come out and caddy.”

Nicholas didn’t play competitively until about eight years ago when he was a freshman at Scarsdale High School.

“I played junior varsity football and broke my collarbone with two weeks left in the season,” Nicholas said. “So then I missed the first part of hockey season.

My first time back, I broke my collarbone again. So I was out a full 16 weeks with a broken collarbone, then made the clear

choice to give my body a break.”

He skipped lacrosse season and played golf instead, made States and fell in love with the game.

“I played hockey and football growing up, and loved the team aspect of those sports more than anything else,” he said.

Nicholas continued all three in high school, made State Team in football, First Team All State three times in hockey and remains the sixth all — time leading scorer in New York high school hockey history.

“But playing golf, it’s all on you,” Nicholas said. “Golf is by far the hardest sport there is. If you’re good, it doesn’t mean you’ll always play well and won’t have a bad day. And so you can beat someone really good who’s having a bad day. It’s a really humbling sport.

“There is no perfect in golf, though

Continued on page 53 »

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TEE TIME

Not very par away The six golf courses in and around Scarsdale are led by golf professionals who bring a range of experiences to our neighborhood. All have vastly difference perspectives. But they share the same, deep-rooted passion — that only golfers understand — for a heart-breaking, breathtaking, joyous game that calls us back to the green, time and time again.

By DAN PRINCE

HOLE 2 WEST COURSE  490 YDS  PAR 4  #9 HANDICAP

MICHAEL GILMORE

PRO TIP “I’m a big Ben Hogan fan. So my favorite tip is to keep your elbows in and connected to your body.”

WINGED FOOT GOLF CLUB SINCE 2010 “THIS GAME IS REALLY all about people.

“My dad was an Irish immigrant, and like a lot of his friends who came over on the boat, he became a New York City cop. He had caddied at the Royal Dublin Golf Club as a kid, so he found his way to Deepdale in Manhasset and caddied there to supplement his income. He tried to get me involved in the game at an early age, but as a Queens kid, it was more about basketball, baseball and » SPRING/SUMMER 2019

FAVORITE HOLE #2 It’s called the elm hole because of a beautiful, majestic elm tree that sits on the left side of the green. It’s a dogleg right with a bunker on the left. It is set up for a fade off the tee for a righty, and the approach shot sometimes needs to be flighted with a back left pin position because that elm canopies around a quarter of the green.  SCARSDALE LIVING

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» LINKED IN | TEE TIME

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SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

914 723 5800 747 White Plains Road Scarsdale, NY 10583 (Across from Lord and Taylor)

football.

“When I was 14, my dad brought me out to Deepdale and put me to work. I caddied, like he did, and took on an assortment of jobs: I did the dishes in the kitchen, picked up the range balls, cleaned up the shop, helped out in the locker room and whatever else they needed.

“I fell in love with the game and the course.

As a city kid, our parks were mostly asphalt. All of a sudden, I’m outside — the grass and the trees, meeting nice people and getting paid — while a lot of my friends were working at McDonald’s. So I was pretty happy. I worked my way up the chain there and eventually became an assistant in the golf shop.

“I thought about college and wanted to play, but that route just wasn’t available to me. So Jim Delich, the head pro at Deepdale, encouraged me to stay in the PGA apprentice program and become a club pro. He saw, when I was 18, that I was ready for a more driving experience, so he helped me land at Seawane Club in Hewlett Harbor. Thankfully, Rick Rarick, the head professional there, also mentored me to become a better player and a better teacher.

“My next stop was Stanwich for 11 years, where I met another outstanding individual, Billy Farrell. He was a great inspiration and helped me get the head professional job at Wheatley Hills Golf Club where I stayed for five years. I moved to Piping Rock for seven years, and then it was on to Winged Foot. Coincidentally, Tom Nieporte, the retiring head pro at Winged Foot, had also been at Piping Rock. He was incredibly helpful in my landing here and is a wonderful, gracious man.

I certainly had the dream to play on the PGA tour — I went to Q-school three times — but I’m pretty happy with how things have turned out. I get to work and play in Yankee Stadium.”

Favorite Hole #15 It’s our signature hole: An uphill, dogleg left with an amazing creative green. It’s small — an hourglass — with bunkers on both sides, and is steep, back to front. Short doesn’t mean easy. You can play it one day and put up a 2, and play it the next day and put up a 6.

HOLE 15  305 YDS  PAR 4  #13 HANDICAP

HEATH WASSUM

FENWAY GOLF CLUB SINCE 1999 “GROWING UP AS a military brat, I played football, basketball and baseball during the school year, and golf in the summer. My dad’s last assignment was Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio; that’s when golf became a big part of my life. There was a 27-hole facility, and when my dad would go out with his friends and play 18, I’d go around the nine-hole course two or three times.

“I really loved football and was the quarterback at Beaver Creek High School, but I was kinda short and was getting beat up. I made a pact with myself: grow 3 inches and gain 30 pounds to keep playing football, or go for the golf team. I didn’t grow the 3 inches and my passes kept hitting my offensive linemen in the back of their helmets, so I joined the golf team where I was the No. 1 man for a few years.

“Heading to college, I opted for a local school in Dayton: Wright State University, that had just started a Division I golf team. I was able to walk on, and earned a partial scholarship. After graduation, I got in my car and drove to Florida to play on the mini tours. I wanted to make it on the PGA tour. I got a job at Palm Beach Country Club, which allowed me to keep working on my game and play on the mini tour.

“My last hurrah was birdieing three of the last four holes at Q-school to force a playoff.

PRO TIP

“Practice putting technique and mechanics to control speed. It can eilminate 3-putts and knock strokes off your score.”

But when I lost on the second hole, I knew it was time. I had been though Q-school six times, got into a few Nike Tour events, qualified for a few PGA events, so I got a taste of what I was after, but I just didn’t want to keep running into the competitive disappointment.

“I dedicated myself to teaching, was working at Palm Beach Country Club in the winter and Atlantic Golf Club in the Hamptons in the summer. It was a great combination. I learned about the job here at Fenway, and at 29 years old, was fortunate to make that final cut.”

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Favorite Hole #13 The hole and land make a perfect fit.

It’s a secluded part of the course and land is relatively untouched. Standing on the tee box, the mounding of the fairway looks like an oceanscape with waves coming at you. There’s a three-tier green that’s naturally set into a slight hill. It’s just beautiful.

HOLE 13  465 YDS  PAR 4  #2 HANDICAP

CHRISTOPHER TOULSON

SUNNINGDALE COUNTRY CLUB SINCE 2013 “GOLF WASN’T JUST A CHOICE for me — it was a family thing. My dad was the head pro at Cherokee Country Club in Knoxville, Tennessee for 35 years. So as early as 7 years old, I was doing odd jobs — arranging the pull carts, vacuuming the pro shop, picking up golf balls. And the faster I got those chores done, the sooner I could go out and play. So I was a pretty motivated kid.

“Fast forward a few years and I got a scholarship to the University of Florida where I had the good fortune to play under Buddy Alexander, one of the best college coaches of all time. The highlight was our winning the SEC Division I Championship in 1989.

Coming in second in the overall NCAA tournament in 1990 wasn’t so bad since we lost to Phil Mickelson and the Arizona Sun Devils.

“After college I tried to make the PGA tour and qualified for a few events on what was then the Ben Hogan Tour — the minor leagues of golf. I couldn’t quite make a living at it, but loved golf so while I still wanted the game to be a central part of my life, I had to change my goals. I followed in my dad’s footsteps to be a top head professional.

“I had an assistant role at Doral in Florida, working in the pro shop and giving some lessons, and met Jim McLean, who was just starting to build his golf school business. I 36

SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

PRO TIP

“Work on the 30-to 40-yard pitch shot. For most golfers, during a typical round, they’re going to face 12 or 13 pitch situations.”

actually bumped into him at a copy machine, and that chance encounter led to a 20-year job with Jim, where I eventually became the director of instruction.

“In 2012, I learned that the head pro here at Sunningdale was retiring. And when I found out that Jim McLean had been the head pro there in 1980-82, I knew it was the right place for me.”

PRO TIP

“The grip is so fundamental — it’s the only connection point we have with the tools of the game to make the ball go where we want it to.”

HOLE 16  155 YDS  PAR 3  #18 HANDICAP

CHARLIE MEOLA

SAXON WOODS GOLF CLUB SINCE 2010 “I WAS A BASEBALL KID — shortstop and second base — through middle school and I was in pretty deep. In eighth grade, I was playing on the Mamaroneck High School varsity team.

At the same time, my father played golf and every now and then I would go with him to hit balls at the old Cherry Lawn driving range.

“The big chance came one morning when my father and uncles had an opening for a fourth and took me. It was my first time on a golf course and it was here at Saxon Woods.

“The golf boom was in full swing with Tiger Woods coming onto the scene and it was cool to be playing golf, so I played on the Mamaroneck High School team and caddied at Brae Burn Country Club. I did pretty well — even set a few course records.

“I had the defining moment of my golf career in 1995. One of my uncles, Corky Russell, worked at Maple Moor, helping out in the

pro shop. When Corky was diagnosed with cancer, Rick Paonessa, the pro there, needed help, so I stepped in. And when my uncle passed away, Rick asked me to stay on and I figured it was a great way to tribute Corky.

“After graduating from college in 1997, I played in my first professional event. I finished dead last, but I got a check for $300 and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

“Finishing last made me work harder, but it was a rough journeyman experience grinding it out. Up and back from Florida to Westchester, playing and practicing year-round, giving lessons whenever I could to make money to pour back into my passion.

“I remember walking to the driving range to warm up for the Greater Hartford Open in 2003 and a golf fan who clearly thought I was someone else asked me for my autograph.

I was floored. I looked around to see if there was someone famous around who he was talking to, but it was me. The absurdity of that moment was matched by my being back to back on the driving range with Phil Mickelson.

It was surreal.

“I never had any dreams of becoming a golf pro — I didn’t think I was good enough — but when my uncle died in 1995, I decided to pursue it as a career. Out of a terrible tragedy, I started down a path that has given me the opportunity to meet people I would never have had the chance to meet and travel to places I would never have gone.

SPRING/SUMMER 2019

Favorite Hole #16 With a lot of par 3’s, you can relax a bit and just take an easy swing with an iron and you’ll do reasonably well. Not with this hole. It’s a downhill shot that always seems to play the distance. It’s a tiny, well-guarded green with a creek in strong and bunkers on either side.

The hole rewards a good tee shot with a birdie opportunity since it’s a small green. But hit a poor tee shot, and you’re going to struggle to make par.

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Favorite Hole #11 The key to this hole is placing your tee shot. There’s a big tulip tree that hangs over the fairway, so if you’re left-center or left, you’ve got to deal with the tree.

So while the fairway is 40 yards wide, you’re really hitting to a 10- to 15-yardwide area on the right. Getting home for most players is only a mid to short iron, but there’s a creek that runs down the left side of the hole all the way down and then cuts across the front of the green. You can hit a good ball, but if you’re a little off, you can easily find the creek.

HOLE 11  406 YDS  PAR 4  #10 HANDICAP

MARIO GUERRA

QUAKER RIDGE GOLF CLUB SINCE 2018 “I’M THE GUY who defies the whole rule about starting as young as possible.

“In 1995 when I was 11 years old, my parents, sister and I got political asylum to come to the U.S. from Cuba. In my world, golf was nonexistent. Plenty of baseball and basketball, but no golf. We settled in Atlanta, Georgia, and my first exposure to golf was playing the Tiger Woods Electronic Arts video game in my dorm room at Valdosta State University in southern Georgia; I was 20 years old.

“I took an interest, went to WalMart and bought my first set of clubs: $25 for the complete set of Northwestern clubs. I went down the street from Valdosta to Moody Air Force Base and played my first round of golf in March of 2004. I didn’t get many balls in the air — I topped a lot and hit a lot out of bounds — but on one shot with an 8-iron, I thought I had missed the ball completely and was amazed when I saw the ball in the air going reasonably straight. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I wasn’t quite sure what that feeling was, but I was hooked.

“From then on, I was all about golf. I arranged my class schedule to play golf, read teaching and swing books, watched the Golf

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PRO TIP

“People are too tense on the golf course.

You have to let go of stress and tension — and take easy, deep breaths on the course. Be more relaxed.”

Channel and made the team my senior year.

I graduated with a marketing degree and got a job with a local company, but my passion was calling so I moved home to Miami and sent out hundreds of emails. This was in 2008, so with the financial crisis, I don’t think I got one reply.

“One day I went out to a local course and happened to meet a gentleman who was the head of volunteers for a Nationwide Tour event that was in town the following weekend. He introduced me to the field director of

the Golf Channel for that event and she gave me a job as a runner — putting up signs and filling their water coolers around the course. When I told her of my dream to become a golf professional, she made the introduction that changed my life. She introduced me to Michael Breed who was the on-course analyst for the Golf Channel and the head pro at Sunningdale Country Club here in Scarsdale.

“I spent that tournament with Michael and on Sunday he offered me a job as the bag room manager. He took me under his wing and pushed me, encouraged me, and really taught me the game.

He helped me become a better player and a better teacher. I eventually moved out of the bag room to become his first assistant.

“I had played at Quaker Ridge Golf Club once and thought it was the greatest golf course I had ever seen. When I learned Quaker Ridge had an assistant pro opening, I jumped at the chance and landed here in 2015.

“I wonder where I’d be if I had started playing at a young age like most of my counterparts, but I really can’t complain. For me, being the head golf professional at Quaker Ridge is the best job in the world!”

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Favorite Hole #17 Number 17 is representative of our course in that the architect, A.W. Tillinghast, once said that Scarsdale Golf gave him the worst piece of land to design a golf course on.

Seventeen is a blind tee shot, over a hill that wraps to the left, around an outcropping of rocks.

The approach shot is even more challenging — with the fairway falling away from you, the ball is below your feet and you’re hitting downhill. It is a very uncomfortable approach shot.

HOLE 17  365 YDS  PAR 4  #12 HANDICAP

TYLER GOSSELIN

SCARSDALE GOLF CLUB SINCE 2019 “I’M THE KID who had a golf club in my crib.

While most toddlers learn to walk by balancing themselves on the living room coffee table, I got my balance with a golf club.

“I grew up in Waterbury, Vermont, where my family owned a bed-and-breakfast. My dad had been in the club and hotel management business his entire career — in fact my parents met while they were working in the same hotel.

Given my family’s work history, I knew hospitality would be part of my future. As luck would have it, we had a little nine-hole course right across the street, Blush Hill Country Club, so not only did I start playing at a very young age, but my mother, who at one point was a 2-handicap, was my first teacher.

“I played growing up and with the course right across the street, I would get in 45 or 54 holes during the summer, staying out until it was too dark to see where the ball went. I kept up with golf through high school and made a conscious decision to combine my love of golf, hospitality and a great school by enrolling in the golf management program at Clemson University.

“I had two great internships while at Clemson, both in the Washington, D.C., area; one at Woodmont Country Club and one at Congres40

SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

PRO TIP

“If I had a magic wand, I’d give every golfer a great grip. Many other swing flaws are often compensations for a poor grip.”

sional. When I graduated and was a certified member of the PGA, I was offered an assistant professional position at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, a storied club — the oldest in the country — and one of the founding members of the USGA. I was there until 2016 and was then fortunate enough to come to Scarsdale Golf.”

PRO’S PICKS

GOLF GADGETS Perfection may not exist on the golf course, but tools and tricks can help a player get close.

SWING EASY

Michael Gilmore/Winged Foot Golf Club “My favorite teaching aid is related to keeping your arms connected to your body and having everything moving together.

Swing Easy by Callaway is essentially an elastic band with arm loops at both ends. This simple device promotes a one-piece takeaway and helps keep the arms and body in sync during the swing.”

IMPACT TAPE

Chris Toulson/ Sunningdale Country Club “All great golfers have one thing in common — they strike the ball with the center of the club face. Using impact tape shows you exactly where you’re making contact with the ball, so getting that feedback and improving that aspect of your game will add distance and accuracy.”

TRACKMAN 4 LAUNCH MONITOR

Heath Wassum/Fenway Golf Club “A common challenge among amateurs is fully understanding how far they hit the ball — how far they carry their ball.

Using a launch monitor to know how far you hit the ball with each club gives you great intel to bring onto the course.”

Tyler Gosselin/Scarsdale Golf Club “I love using technology in our lessons.

Trackman is great for fitting and teaching. You can see your swing on video and we measure every component so you can understand why the ball goes where it does.”

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CHALK LINE

Charlie Meola/Saxon Woods Golf Club “A simple teaching drill is a chalk line on the practice putting green. A 1-foot putt counts the same as a 300yard drive, so if you can learn to hit a 4-foot putt, it’ll take a lot of strokes off your game.”

As a lifelong Scarsdale resident now living in Florida, Alicia understands the New York to Florida transition. She was a consistent top producer in Westchester County and is now part of the top producing Koolik Group of Boca Raton/Delray Beach.

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TEES

Mario Guerra/Quaker Ridge Golf Club “I’ve got a low-tech teaching aid. The obvious is to tee up the ball for a driver, and even for an iron, to give someone confidence to get the ball in the air. But I’ll put a tee in front of the ball and tell people to swing through that second tee. It helps to keep your arms extended and gives you the proper path. ”

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LEE FAMILY

Out early on the green A FAMILY AFFAIR WITH GOLF

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MOST SUNDAYS, the Lee family wakes up early to be first on the golf course — Westchester Country Club or Winged Foot Golf Club, they belong to both — and play a round together.

“When you go first thing, nobody’s on the course, you just own it. It’s very serene,” Dr. Linda Lee said. “It’s hard to get up, but once you go on the course, you’re there and it’s just beautiful. The sun is just coming up, everything’s fresh, you can see you have the first steps in the dew.”

Linda and her husband, Dr. Steve Lee, golf with their three children, Kaitlyn age 17, Steven 15, and Emma 11. Scarsdale residents for 20 years, she and her husband both grew up in golfing families, and the two played golf together when they were dating.

“I remember we were driving up to Centennial,

SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

probably 45 minutes from here, and we wanted to be the first tee,” Steve said. “So we were driving and it was literally dark out. I’m looking at my wife, and I’m like, I have a pretty cool wife! She got up in the dark to play golf so we could be the first tee.”

Linda is a gynecologist practicing in Great Neck, and Steve is an orthopedic surgeon in Scarsdale.

Their new puppy is named Pebble after Steve’s favorite golf course, Pebble Beach.

“It’s literally the greatest sport. It’s all about what you do with the golf ball,” Steve said. “There are literally millions of life lessons you get on the golf course that you don’t even realize as you’re playing, but later on you realize it as lessons that you learned. Perseverance is one of them: bad things happen on the golf course that are nobody’s

Room for the whole family, in the cart and on the course: Emma, Steven, Dr. Linda Lee, Kaitlyn and Dr. Steve Lee.

fault. You hit a really bad shot and some people will crumble from that, and other people will look at that and say, ‘Well that’s a new challenge for me.’”

THE LEES’ DAUGHTER KAITLYN is one of the best golfers to have come through Scarsdale High School. Coached since she was very young by Gary Weir at Winged Foot, Kaitlyn has made states three times, won Section I as a junior and earned three All-State honors, placing in the top 6 each time. In 2016, Kaitlyn and her father won the World Invitational Father & Daughter Tournament at Ireland’s Waterville Golf Links with a six-under gross total over 36 holes. Last year, she won the Girls Metropolitan Junior PGA Player of the Year and was awarded Sportsmanship of the Year. She has been recruited to play for Yale as a member of its class of 2023.

“She was our experiment child and she tried everything,” Linda said. “Softball, soccer, lacrosse, swim team, tennis — everything you could imagine. She tried it all.

But if she didn’t have interest, I wasn’t going to push it.

At least with golf, my husband was really interested in making it fun. That kept her interest in it, and then the competitiveness came later.”

“You hear a ton of golf people say, ‘I wish I started golf earlier, I wish I could get my kids into golf,’ but it always seems after the fact,” Steve said. “We spent a lot of time trying to figure our how to get kids into golf — a lot of bribing, candy — they love driving the golf carts. The big part of golf for kids in the beginning is just trying to make it fun.”

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ALL THREE OF THE LEE KIDS started learning to golf

as early as 3 years old, and by age 5, started instruction under Weir.

“We always thought it was important for them to get lessons early because it’s a really hard game. Compared to a lot of sports, there’s not an immediate gratification,” Steve said. “If the kids hit one good shot out of 10, then you can’t hold their interest. But if they hit four or five good shots out of 10, you can hold their interest and all of a sudden, they can play.”

The Lee kids rapidly got better.

“It was the only type of lessons I wanted to go to,” Steven said. “And we did a lot of sports growing up — tennis, squash, even taekwondo and baseball.”

In fact, Kaitlyn and Steven are each second-degree black belts in taekwondo. Emma is a first-degree. »

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» LINKED IN | LEE FAMILY “When you go first thing, nobody’s on the course, you just own it. It’s very serene,” Dr. Linda Lee said, surrounded by her husband, Dr. Steve Lee, and her children, Emma, Steven and Kaitlyn.

“Whenever our parents would call us and say let’s go, I would kind of groan inside or sigh. But with golf it was always different. I always wanted to practice, I would go into our basement and hit into a net all the time,” Steven said. “I think I’ve made just as many friends on the golf course as I have anywhere else. And when I’m out on the golf course, nothing else matters. I have to focus on the next shot and I forget about all the stress, whether it’s school or SATs, I feel like it’s a great escape on a certain level.”

Steven has quit all other sports to focus on golf, and plays on Scarsdale High School’s golf team, like his older sister.

This summer, he’s planning on playing one or two tournaments every week, upping his exposure and preparing for college recruitment.

“It’s a different story for me,” Kaitlyn said. “When I was younger, I wasn’t as interested in golf, and I had to be dragged to the golf course, to the practice range.

But then once I started high school golf, I got into the game a lot more because the team environment made the sport more fun. I made more friends as I got older, who I can play with.”

Emma also plays golf, but her preferred 44

LAST YEAR, STEVE AND STEVEN WON THE WORLD INVITATIONAL FATHER & SON TOURNAMENT, OUT OF 98 ALL-AGED TEAMS FROM NINE COUNTRIES.

sport is squash, and she currently ranks 19th in the country. She was previously No. 1 of the under-11 players, but moved up the next year.

“Every time you age-up, you start again because you have to play people who are older and stronger,” her father said. “But she’s actually a better golfer, believe it or not, than she is a squash player, which sounds weird because she was No. 1, but she probably has more talent in golf than in squash.”

“I want to try to go another way, see where it goes,” Emma said. “And if it doesn’t work out, I’ll switch over to golf.”

LAST YEAR, STEVE AND STEVEN won

the World Invitational Father & Son Tour-

SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

nament, out of 98 all-aged teams from nine countries, with a total of 104 points, even beating Steve’s medical partner, Dr. Stephen Nicholas, and his son James.

“The best part of the Father & Son was the third day,” Steve said. “We were in the lead, and at the 15th hole. It’s a pretty treacherous day — rainy, windy — very tough conditions. I hit my drive out of bounds, and my ball was lost. So I looked to my son and said, ‘Hey bud, sorry, I’m out, it’s all up to you.’

“You’re always the father figure, whatever, and I was sitting there helpless.

I couldn’t do anything for this team. He looked at me, only 15 at the time, and he goes, ‘Dad, I got you.’ A lot of times you say that, you just kind of say it. But he said it in a super-confident voice, which was kind of cool. And then he proceeded to hit a nice, beautiful iron shot onto the green, and that sealed the deal. It was a big moment actually for us — well, for me, it was a very big moment.

“Emma was really upset when I came home, and said, ‘It’s not fair — you’re going to be too old to win it when I’m old enough to play in it’,” Steve said. “The reality is those guys play really great, and I just happen to be there.”

— LCB

MINI HISTORY

A SMALL PAR-TEE John Ledbetter lived in Scarsdale, worked in real estate and enjoyed golfing with his friend, Drake Delanoy.

One winter, the two thought of having a small indoor golf course where they could play a few rounds for fun.

“We built that first indoor golf course in New York City in 1927,” Ledbetter said in a 1930 interview with The Scarsdale Inquirer. “Our idea was to amuse ourselves and our friends who were interested.

Several persons liked the game and we were asked to construct other courses.”

Ledbetter and Delanoy soon founded Miniature Golf Courses of America and their idea of a small-scale round of golf spread like crabgrass. They soon had factories in California, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and upstate New York, and were selling mini-golf courses internationally, from Europe to New Zealand.

By the winter of 1930, Ledbetter and his partner had built more than 3,000 of the country’s 50,000 outdoor mini

Books that celebrate the pleasures of summer

courses, and about 500 indoor ones. In New York City alone, the partners built more than 150 rooftop courses.

“We make the mural paintings, the artificial shrubbery, the waterfalls, provide all the equipment and supervise

the entire construction,” Ledbetter said.

“Some of the courses even have goldfish in the brooks.”

Crushed cottonseed hulls, dyed green, were used for making springy putting surfaces, a proprietary technology for which Ledbetter had to pay.

“One of the finest things about this business,” Ledbetter said, “is that everyone gets a share of the profits. So far, the proprietors have gotten back every nickel they’ve put in within 30 to 60 days after the course is opened. After that, they have made an income of $1,000 to $3,000 a month ($45,665 in 2019 dollars).

“You see, it’s a game everyone can play — men, women, children, almost anyone of any age. It requires no special training, no particular clothes or equipment, and no great amount of time.”

When asked in his 1930 interview if he thought the game would become a permanent institution, Ledbetter responded, “Your guess is as good as mine.”

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theSEEN SCENE  CASINO NIGHT FRIENDS OF THE SCARSDALE PUBLIC LIBRARY

BIG NIGHT OUT JUNIOR LEAGUE OF CENTRAL WESTCHESTER The JLCW annual fundraiser to support its many community programs was held at Kanopi at the RitzCarlton in White Plains March 29.

Top: JLCW Board: Jenny Choi, Audrey Sims, Sherry Hsu, Valerie Phillips, Sandra Katz, Nathalie Daniel, Jill Mickol, Allison Weiss, Lisa Berman and Felice Wyloge

Friends gatherered March 8 at Fenway Golf Club to raise library funds

Center: Big Night Out Co-chairs: Suzanne Arinsburg, Kim Naclerio, Dorathy Sunshine, and Dana Miele

Top: Kevin Reed, Marc Greenwald and Barry Klayman

Left: Jordan and Lisa Copeland

Center: Betty Forcheimer, Michelle Lichtenberg and Susan Kessler Ross Left: Jim and Mary Blum

SEAN FRIEDMAN PHOTOGRAPHY

LIFLANDER PHOTOGRAPHY

MARDI GRAS ST. JAMES THE LESS Revelers at the annual Mardi Gras Benefit Gala held Feb. 9 at Scarsdale Golf Club to support various church charity programs.

Far left: James and Andrea West with Ocean and Tom Finlan Left: Lisa Han, Lorraine Hansen and Kathy Cutlip COURTESY ST. JAMES THE LESS

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SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

CHILLAX | BOOKLISTS

Great summer reads Start planning for loungy, dreamy days on the beach or in the backyard hammock swaying with a good book. On the following pages, some of Scarsdale's most voracious readers stack up their selections.

Markus Dohle CEO OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE

PHOTO COURTESY PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE

Markus Dohle is CEO of Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade book publisher. He oversees the company’s worldwide publishing divisions, whose nearly 275 editorially independent imprints publish over 15,000 new adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction titles annually and sell more than 600 million print, audio- and e-books across the globe. Dohle is a member of Bertelsmann’s Executive Board, serves as Executive Vice President of the PEN America Board of Trustees and is a member of the board of directors of the National Book Foundation. Originally from Germany, he lives in Scarsdale with his family.

FURIOUS HOURS: MURDER, FRAUD, AND THE LAST TRIAL OF HARPER LEE Casey Cep “The best narrative nonfiction delivers all the same pleasures as a good novel, including great characters and storytelling. This is the story of the true-crime book that Harper Lee worked on obsessively after ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ and the author is already being compared to David Grann and Erik Larson.”

CITY OF GIRLS Elizabeth Gilbert

SONGS OF AMERICA: PATRIOTISM, PROTEST, AND THE MUSIC THAT MADE A NATION Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw

“Historical fiction is such a hot publishing trend now, so you can imagine how thrilled we were when Liz Gilbert told us she wanted to set her next novel in 1940s New York. Liz can write brilliantly about anything — fiction, memoir, inspiration, she is truly amazing. This big, smart, sexy novel is perfect summer reading.”

“What an amazing combination: our Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham and country music star Tim McGraw. They’re friends in Nashville, and this book grew out of their conversations.

Terrific stuff — from the Revolutionary War to the civil rights movement to Bruce Springsteen, America is revealed through its music.”

THE NICKEL BOYS Colson Whitehead

THE PARIS DIVERSION Chris Pavone “Who doesn’t love a good thriller in the summer? Chris Pavone is one of my favorite suspense writers, and his new book is unputdownable. Chris really captures what Paris is like now, not just the food and the art and the culture, but also the feeling of the city and the mood of the people in an age of terrorism.”

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“We have published Colson Whitehead for his entire career, from his debut novel through ‘The Underground Railroad,’ which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. His new novel is set in the South during the civil rights movement, and is based on a true story of a Florida reform school in the 1960s. A powerful book — one of America’s most important authors, writing at the top of his game.”  SCARSDALE LIVING

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CHILLAX | BOOKLISTS

Lisa and Mark Bezos WHAT’S DOWNLOADED ON THEIR AMAZON KINDLES?

Lisa Bezos is a private ADHD consultant who grew up in Scarsdale. Mark is a volunteer firefighter and serves on the board of the Scarsdale Schools Education Foundation.

They have lived together in Scarsdale with their children since 2005.

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HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND Michael Pollan

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING Delia Owens

SHOOT FOR THE MOON — THE SPACE RACE AND THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE OF APOLLO 11 James Donovan

Lisa: “I’m a fan of Michael Pollan’s nonjudgmental, journalistic approach to his subjects. I’m looking forward to his objective journey into the scientific history, the societal rejection and recent resurgence of psychedelic experimentation.”

Lisa: “I enjoy books that expose me to a completely different place and culture — this murder mystery/ coming-of-age story is set in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I’m looking forward to being transported there through Delia Owens’ skillful writing.”

Mark: “July 20, 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, which will stand as humanity’s crowning achievement for generations to come. Can’t wait to learn more about the heroes — known and unknown — who made it possible.”

SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

FALL; OR, DODGE IN HELL: A NOVEL Neal Stephenson Mark: “I’m a big science fiction fan and Neal Stephenson is at the top of my list of favorite sci-fi authors. His last book, ‘Seveneves,’ instantly made my deserted-island book list. Can’t wait to tear into this one when it comes out.”

CADDYSHACK: THE MAKING OF A HOLLYWOOD CINDERELLA STORY Chris Nashawaty Mark: “This classic, right-of-passage movie turns 40 (!) years old next year. Nashawaty’s book digs deep to provide the hilarious story behind the cinematic classic. Can’t wait to get the real scoop on Bill Murray’s improvisations and the offscreen shenanigans.”

MOBY DICK Herman Melville “Every summer, I read or reread a classic, and much to my family’s chagrin, I sometimes sneak it into a road trip as an audiobook. Two summers ago, they had to endure listening to a very dour narrator reading ‘Paradise Lost’ as we drove through the mountains of Wyoming. This summer we’re driving West again, and the audio book of choice will be Moby Dick.”

NOTHING PERSONAL James Baldwin and Richard Avedon

LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE Valeria Luiselli “I started this novel as Lent was beginning, and will finish it this summer. It’s by a Mexican American author and is about a family that takes a road trip to the Southwest to survey the situation at the border, particularly with the children coming to the U.S. alone after a perilous journey. It weaves in the narrator’s own children’s stories with those of these migrant children.”

THE HOBBIT J.R.R. Tolkien “I really wanted to put something frivolous here, but I guess there’s a reason I’m a priest. I am, though, going to read ‘The Hobbit’ aloud to my kids — 8 and 4 — this summer. I plan to buy an old vintage glider to put on our big porch and spend as much time as I can on it with a book. Thankfully, I’m my own boss and can say that.”

“I’ve recently gotten active in the Diocese of New York’s Reparations Committee, and I’m immersed in Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Michelle Alexander.

They’re all incredible writers and thinkers, but I can’t believe how amazing Baldwin is.

I’ve splurged on his intro-essay to a collaborative project he did with Richard Avedon. I had checked it out from the library, but realized I couldn’t borrow this book for just two weeks.

IN MEMORIAM A.H.H. Lord Alfred Tennyson “I guess my reading is a bit intense, but I am going to teach this poem for the Scarsdale Adult School in the fall and so will spend much of my summer tackling it.

Tennyson wrote it over many years to process the death of his good friend Arthur Hallam. Some sections are breathtaking. It’s tragic, but in a way that makes you want to cling to life more dearly.”

The Rev. Astrid Storm WRITER/SCARSDALE ADULT SCHOOL LITERATURE TEACHER

Astrid Storm has served as the Rector of St. James the Less since 2016. A graduate of Yale Divinity School, she lives in Scarsdale with her husband, Andrew Wood, and their two children, Inigo and Naomi. She has written for Slate, Salon, Huffington Post, Nerve as well as various church sites and papers, and periodically teaches literature at Scarsdale Adult School.

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CHILLAX | BOOKLISTS

Dara Gruenberg PRESIDENT, FRIENDS OF THE SCARSDALE LIBRARY

CIRCE Madeline Miller “As a classics major and lover of all things Greek and Roman mythology, I can’t wait to read the retelling of the story of one of the most infamous female figures from the ‘Odyssey’ but with her cast as the protagonist.”

THE PERFECT COUPLE Elin Hilderbrand “Who doesn’t love a beach read filled with wedding drama, eccentric characters and a murder mystery?”

Dara Gruenberg is the president of the Friends of the Scarsdale Library and was a co-chair of the library’s capital campaign. She is also a board member and a vice president-elect at Westchester Reform Temple, serves as the village-appointed chair of the Advisory Council on Communications, is a member of the Board of Ethics and Scarsdale’s Citizens Nominating Committee. She is an active member of the following boards: Scarsdale Forum, The League of Women Voters of Scarsdale, and White Plains Hospital Foundation. Before moving to Scarsdale with her family, she was a Latin teacher and admissions officer at an independent girls’ school in Manhattan.

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EDUCATED Tara Westover “I know I am late to the party on this one, but I think this has been the most recommended book by all of my friends. I am looking forward to reading this memoir about a young woman whose quest for knowledge compels her to sacrifice everything she has known and demonstrates the power of education and life’s hard choices.”

THE LIBRARY BOOK Susan Orlean

NINE PERFECT STRANGERS Liane Moriarty “I have been waiting to find time to read this book all year! I think Liane Moriarty is a fabulous storyteller and I loved ‘Little Big Lies.’”

“A mystery and a love letter to libraries! How can I resist? This book is about the evolution of libraries and how they still remain central to our lives today woven into the story and investigation into the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire that destroyed hundreds of thousands of books and burned at over 2,000 degrees.”

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CHILLAX | BOOKLISTS

Harriet Sobol

AUTHOR/SCARSDALE ADULT SCHOOL TEACHER Scarsdale resident Harriet Sobol regularly teaches Book Talk at Scarsdale Adult School, which reads and discusses a list of novels Sobol curates. She has also taught writing at White Plains Adult School and College of New Resources in New Rochelle. Sobol is the author of 12 children and young adult books, including “Your Child in School” and “Grandpa, a Young Man Grown Old,” and has been published in The New York Times.

SHORTEST WAY HOME: ONE MAYOR’S CHALLENGE AND A MODEL FOR AMERICA’S FUTURE Pete Buttigieg

THE PARISIAN Isabella Hammad THE GENE: AN INTIMATE HISTORY Siddhartha Mukherjee “Mukherjee skillfully presents the story of those who search for the secrets of heredity, starting with a story from his own family.

Mukherjee, a Pulitzer winner for ‘The Emperor of all Maladies,’ is a biologist, an oncologist and an assistant professor at Columbia. He writes beautifully and clearly. His characters, who work to understand the genetic code, come alive on the pages of his book.”

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“Inspired by her great-grandfather’s life, Hammad has written an historical epic and a love story.

Midhat Kamal leaves Nablus, Palestine, in 1914 to study in France and later returns and starts a family. The British are in charge while the Palestinians battle for independence. Midhat never feels at home, neither in France nor in home country. Publishers Weekly calls ‘The Parisian,’ ‘an immensely rewarding novel that readers will sink into and savor.’”

SCARSDALE LIVING  SPRING/SUMMER 2019

HOUSE OF BROKEN ANGELS Luis Alberto Urrea “NPR calls Urrea a ‘master storyteller with a rock ‘n’ roll heart.’

His book, a generational saga, is reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude,’ with less magical realism. The central character, Big Angel del Cruz, and his family are exuberant, appealing and unforgettable.”

“A few months ago, if someone mentioned the name of the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, I might have answered, ‘Budda-what?’ In his new book, Buttigieg tells his story well. He’s a veteran, and taught himself Norwegian because he likes to read a Norwegian writer’s books. He’s happily married to a man, won a Rhodes scholarship and wants to be president. I want to read what he says whether I vote for him or not.”

TELL ME HOW IT ENDS: AN ESSAY IN FORTY QUESTIONS Valeria Luiselli “In a taut 108 pages, Luiselli, a novelist, translator and essayist, writes of her experience as a volunteer interpreter and translator for undocumented, unaccompanied immigrant children. The questions, which serve as the framework for the essay, are hers, her children’s and those she finds in official U.S. interview documents.

‘Lost Children Archive,’ her new novel, brilliantly fictionalizes Luiselli’s nonfiction, ‘Tell Me How It Ends,’ published two years ago.”

» LINKED IN | PRO-FILE you’re always trying to achieve perfect,” Nicholas said. “In golf, there are so many diff ways to have your best round, to play your best.”

For ready income, Nicholas has also been directing and producing videos, regularly creating product shoots for Callaway, Grayson and Chelsea Piers.

“While I’m at school, it’s a good way to keep busy,” Nicholas said. “I started a couple of years ago, filming family trips. One video caught the attention of a music artist named Bunt, and I made a music video.”

His YouTube page — JamesNicholas55 — has almost 24,000 subscribers and features his quickly cut, dynamic images of trips to Antigua, Iceland and Banff National Park that are supremely beautiful. His Instagram page, of the same name, is also luxurious landscape poetry. Along with himself, he features, but mostly obscures, his longtime companion, America Richmond, his girlfriend since high school.

IN OCTOBER, Nicholas will go to either European

Tour Qualifying School in France or Q-school in Florida, both annual, multistage golf tournaments

COURTESY JAMES NICHOLAS

that enable golfers to earn a spot on pro tours. If he doesn’t finish one of these tournaments as a top-25 player and earn a tour card right away, Nicholas plans to move somewhere warm and spend the year training for the next qualifying tournament.

“I want to be able to reach my highest level,” Nicholas said. “Having a younger brother who’s 14 and looks up to me, I want him to know if he works hard he can reach his highest levels. That’s really what gets me up in the morning.”

— LCB

What growth challenges are you trying to solve?

From Iceland, above, to Antigua, Nicholas directs the shoots for his popular YouTube and Instagram accounts.

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ENDPAGE

By Jack Scott Miller to Scarsdale’s nongas-powered blower ordinance. Many seasons ago, I realized this law was conceived by people who don’t pick up their own leaves.

The lawn and winding road WHEN I LIVED in South Florida, I worked for a large development company. We built new communities where everyone had an identical zero-lot-line home that included an alligator-filled creek in their rear yard and a small plot of grass on their front, each about 10 feet wide and 20 feet long. On any given Saturday, you could walk through these neighborhoods and see the homeowners cutting the grass of their front patch and taking care of their property with pride. People laughed, children played, and it was something truly special.

When we moved to Scarsdale, I learned that very few people take care of their own property, and gardeners are hired to do everything from cutting grass to cleaning gutters. Indeed, I have a great friendship with our gardener: know his kids and way too much about his personal life, especially his mother-in-law.

For the past 15 years, Frank has charged a flat rate to care for my fraction-of-an-acre lot with only small periodic price hikes. But, like most things in life, it’s the extras that getcha.

His monthly bill often reads like a build sheet for a new car. There are the familiar annual charges like lime spreading and aeration. Then there are additional charges I swear he is making up.

I’ve stopped Google-searching the phan54

tom gardening chores he lists, but I’ve taken to opening a bottle of wine right before I read his bill just to take some of the sting out of where the comma falls in the final monthly tally.

TO MODERATE THE IMPACT of

Frank’s charges, my wife and I do some yard work on our own. Half the fun is watching our neighbors react to seeing us perform manual labor. We resemble a suburban version of Grant Wood’s painting “American Gothic,” with my farming wife hatted, gloved and covered head to toe in SPF 100 clothing. And I proudly stand beside her bearing a shovel or a rake, sporting an old stretched T-shirt from a rib joint that shut down long ago, ripped cargo shorts and sandals that let the fungus on my toes get some sunlight.

We must be an eyeful for our wellheeled neighbors who flit back and forth in their tennis whites. I strike up conversations just to get a rise out of them, waving my rubberized orange weeding gloves and wiping my sweat with the hem of my torn T-shirt.

In autumn, I like to rake a few leaves, sometimes even breaking out an old electric leaf blower. The cord and plug are frayed, patched with electrical tape, and the wattage is barely more than a hair dryer, but like a good neighbor, I adhere

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AS I TOUR our neighborhood, the various lawns run the gamut of conditions.

There is the woman on the corner whose lawn is immaculate. On most days she can be found sitting cross-legged and meditating on her grass, slowly pulling weeds out and putting them in a box.

This type of lawn keeping seems therapeutically relaxing and Zen-like.

On the opposite end of the block is the guy with several dogs who seemingly live underneath his deck. These hellhounds eat dirt and like to bark at any passerby, as well as the sun, the moon and floating clouds. The only thing that would make his yard worse would be a lawn scultpure of a rusted-out Ford F-150 pickup truck stacked on cinder blocks.

During the summer, a green yard is a suburban badge of honor. And if there isn’t a lot of rain, you need to irrigate.

For the first few years in our home, I irrigated the old-fashioned way. Yup: running a hose to a rotating sprinkler head. My kids loved to run around and dance in the spray on hot, dry days, but the sprinklers required tending to, moving and timing. Obviously, there is nothing worse than getting up at 2 o’clock in the morning to walk onto your soggy lawn and turn off the hose bib.

Eventually we invested in a bona fide sprinkler system, with a timer, multiple zones and varying types of spray heads.

Yet no matter how much I care for our sprinkler system, it always needs biannual maintenance. The lines have to be blown out in the fall so they don’t freeze and crack, and then a mystical winter force moves all the heads so they require readjusting every spring.

Luckily, whatever goes wrong with anything on my property, my old friend Frank is happy to take care of it ... and work it into the extras of our monthly bill. Cheers!

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