Westchester Native Brings Championship Golf Back Home

As a teenager, Steve Schoenfeld volunteered as a standard bearer for a major golf tournament held at the Westchester Country Club, in Harrison—walking behind the pros with a sign indicating their name and their scores.

“That was a big thrill to walk with the golfers inside the ropes,” he said.

Now, as executive tournament director of theConstellation Energy Senior Players Championship, the White Plains native is excited to be bringing professional golf back to the club and to Westchester County.

Westchester is a hotbed of golfing. For 41 years, the Harrison club hosted an event last known as the Barclay’s Invitational, which pulled up stakes in 2007. When the Senior Players Championship takes place from August 15-21, it will mark the first time a major championship from any tour has been held at the Westchester Country Club.

Winged Foot in Mamaroneck has hosted the U.S. Open, a major championship on the PGA Tour.

Professional golf features three major leagues or tours: including the Nationwide, a developmental tour for younger players; the PGA Tour, where Tiger Woods and his ilk prowl the links; and the 25-event Champions for golfers aged 50

Though once considered to be an exhibition league, the Champions tour is very competitive, said Schoenfeld.

"These guys come to win,” said Schoenfeld, who is the event’s executive tournament director. “They stay in incredible shape, can hit the ball a mile and they’re like rookies again when they join the tour.”

Players on the Champions circuit: Mark O'Meara, the winner of last year’s event, Fred Couples, Tome Watson and Corey Pavin.

Top finishers will divide a $2.7 million purse and the winner takes home $405,000.

The event came to Westchester after the tour decided to change the date of the event from October to August, which the home club in Maryland could not accommodate.

“If you think the humidity is bad here at that time, it’s even worse in the D.C. area,” said Schoenfeld.

Schoenfeld, who oversees a year-round staff of four from an office in the club’s main building, is charged with recruiting sponsors along with 1,000 volunteers to work the event. About 30 or 40 people will serve as marshals, standing sentry at the ropes and ensuring that the 10,000 or so spectators, expected to attend the tournament each day, behave themselves. Local non-profits can sell tickets and keep the net proceeds.

 “I’m hoping that we can keep it in the area,” he said. “We’re going to need a new title sponsor [since Constellation Energy is pulling out after this year] and this area offers great visibility.”

Schoenfeld—who lives in Maryland, with his wife and son, and travels between his home and White Plains while managing the tour—grew up near the Ridgeway Elementary School and played on public courses, including Maple Moor.

“My father golfed and it was something fun to do and I got to be with my dad,” he said. “But what I really wanted to was drive the cart. After I did that a couple of times, he told me ‘OK, now you have to learn how to play.’”

His family joined the Rye Golf Club, where he developed his skills as a teenager. Schoenfeld played on the golf team at White Plains High School and won two league championships in four years.

“We were pretty good,” he said. “All you need is two or three good players and you can go far with a high school team.”

He attended Clark University in Worcester, Mass., opting to go for a quality education rather than an emphasis on athletics, but he still got to play in the New England regional.

He merged his love of sports with a more practical tack, pursuing his interest in media and marketing. In his first job out of college, he worked in the media relations department for the Boston Celtics, providing reporters with statistics and post-game quotes.

Then he had stints with the United States Tennis Association in White Plains in the communications department and then moved to work with the Bridgeport Bluefish, a minor league baseball team, rising through the ranks to oversee corporate sponsorships minor league baseball as the team’s assistant general manager.

For seven years he worked at the Greater Hartford Open, a stop on the PGA Tour, and took over the Seniors tournament in 2007.

Even though he keeps a golf bag in his office, works at a golf club and deals with golf-related issues all day—he doesn’t get to play much anymore.

“I miss it,” he said. “But I try to get out once in a while with clients.”

Westchester Country Club has a Rye mailing address at: 99 Biltmore Ave.
Rye, NY 10580