Conditions of Play

A Look Into The Past…. Men’s Amateurs At Onondaga

Seven Time Amateur's Champion Ray Billows Onondaga Golf & Country Club has long been an exceptional steward for tournament golf in the Central New York region over the decades.

The venerable club has held over ten NYSGA championships since its inception in 1923, including two historic New York State Amateurs.

In 1940, Ray Billows of Poughkeepsie won his third NYS Amateur title at Onondaga, knocking off the 1938 New York State and U.S. Amateur champion Willie Turnesa of Elmsford, 8 and 6.

The two would eventually face off again a decade later, this time for the U.S. Amateur title in 1948, where Turnesa got the better of Billows in the all-Empire State finale. In fact, Billows was unable to capture the U.S.

Amateur title during his impressive amateur career, although he made the finals in 1937, 1938, and 1949 (no tournament was held between 1942-45 due to

WWII).

Billows collected seven titles between his breakout tournament in 1935 at Winged Foot which dubbed him the “Cinderella Kid”, to 1949 when he captured the Ganson Depew Cup one final time at Syracuse

Yacht & Country Club, now Lakeshore in Cicero. (He won in 38 holes versus former NYSGA and

Onondaga G&CC president John Ward, which is the tournament record for longest championship match). In 1961 at Onondaga, Don Allen of Rochester won the first of his six NYS Amateurs between 1961-1973. He was a young recent graduate of Colgate University and had never gotten past the quarterfinals in his previous attempts. His breakthrough came against three-time champion John Konsek, who had won 27 straight matches in state tournament play going into the 1961 Men’s Amateur. By winning the three previous years, Konsek became both the youngest winner in tournament history at 18 (prior to Onondaga member Nick Raasch’s win in ‘66 at age 17) and set a record for longest streak of victories that still stands.

Billows and Allen still rank first and second for most NYS Amateur victories in the championship’s 98 year history. The next most after the duo is Tommy Goodwin at four (1932-1953).