The Jurgens family has owned and operated the Middle Island, N.Y., golf course since the 1960s. “All three generations have worked hard at making a good product, a consistent product,” said General Manager Rick Jurgens. “We all could have probably gone off and done bigger, grander things. But this is where we are.”
Charles Jurgens converted his family from cabbage farmers to golf course entrepreneurs in the early 1960s, the Long Island, N.Y., Newsday reported.
Jurgens is principal owner of Spring Lake Golf Club in Middle Island, N.Y., a family operation into its third generation. The public course is celebrating its 50th anniversary, a considerable feat in an era that has seen other layouts close after having barely made it to 10 years, Newsday reported.
“I’m kind of proud of the place,” Jurgens said, a half-century after he and his brothers Fred and Herman as well as designer/partner Charles K. Martin opened the gates. “I think it’s a damned good public course. It could be a private course, probably. But I don’t know, I’m a worker, not a thinker.”
Jurgens’ life’s work involved putting in the original irrigation system and outlining the fairways, pacing off yardages from Martin’s intricate pencil drawings (which still exist). His nephew Rick started working at Spring Lake as a teenager and is now the manager. Rick’s son Tyler is a key member of superintendent Don Amsler’s greens staff and is married to the head pro, the former Cristy Grzymala. Their two children, five and one, are well known to the golfers who keep showing up, Newsday reported.
“Being a family business, it becomes personal,” Cristy said. “They look forward to hearing about our lives and what’s going on.”
The Jurgenses have built and/or owned other courses, including Indian Hills Golf Course in Painted Post, N.Y., Heatherwood Golf Club in Centereach, N.Y., Swan Lake Golf Club in Manorville, N.Y., and Cherry Creek Golf Links in Riverhead, N.Y. But Spring Lake—with its 18- and nine-hole courses—is the flagship, still doing 50,000 rounds a year despite a national decrease in golf participation, Newsday reported.
Rick could not wait to get his driver’s license in 1969 so he could work full-time in the summer, leaving from his home in Northport at 3:30 a.m. He convinced Amsler to come along. He remembers traipsing around the property to manually turn sprinklers on and off, Newsday reported.
“I think it was a 22-mile trip we would do in the Toyota, back and forth—in the dark,” Rick said. “We’ve always taken a lot of pride in the condition of the golf course and trying to make it the best it could be. In the last 10 or 15 years, the business has gotten very competitive, so we have tried really hard to reach out to golfers and make it a pleasant experience to play at Spring Lake.”
In the past five years, they have addressed what they saw as the big flaw: the speed of the greens. They invested in a sophisticated drainage system, Newsday reported.
“The course is in the best shape it has ever been in,” Rick said. “The greens are a lot quicker than they’ve been, a lot smoother than they’ve been in the past.”
No gala party is scheduled to mark 50 years. They figure that being open for business is celebration enough. Plus, every day is a family reunion, Newsday reported.
“All three generations have worked hard at making a good product, a consistent product,” Rick said. “We all could have probably gone off and done bigger, grander things. But this is where we are.”
Rick and his uncle confessed that they aren’t all that great as golfers. “Mediocre,” Charles said. “I’m more of a worker.”
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