2009 TKI Preview

HANOVER – Dartmouth College reunions are held each year in June.

Hanover Country Club’s version of a reunion takes place annually on the last full weekend in July when 100 or so amateur golfers from around the Upper Valley, the region, and in some cases the country return to the venerable Dartmouth course to renew acquaintances, pair up with traditional teammates and oh, by the way, play some pretty good golf.

It’s called the Tommy Keane Invitational and it’s been going on every year since 1975, save for 2001 when Hanover Country Club was closed for renovations. The tournament honors the memory of legendary Hanover pro and Dartmouth golf coach Tommy Keane, a fixture on Rope Ferry Road from 1922-66.

“There’s a lot of history and tradition with the Tommy Keane,” said Alex Kirk, Hanover’s head professional. “So many people come back year after year and even people who can’t make it one year because life gets in the way want to be kept on the list for the future. If you ask me, it’s the biggest event we host.”

Two-man teams kick off play Friday with an 18-hole qualifying round that will determine flights for matches that begin Saturday morning. The format is better ball with the lower of two scores on each hole counting for the team. Winning teams in each flight continue play through Sunday afternoon when the champions will be crowned.

Hanover’s Peter Williamson, who would go on to capture this year’s Ivy League championship as a Dartmouth freshman, teamed up with his father, Doug, to win last July’s TKI with a 3&2 victory over the team of Dean Cashman and Mike Pollard.

“This is a special event for a lot of reasons,” said Kirk. “One is because it is a traditional gross event. But each of the flights is very competitive and each team gets to play in their own league, even though it’s straight-up, gross match. It’s true golf.”

Kirk, who celebrated his first TKI in 2006, is a relative newcomer to Hanover Country Club by the standards of two of the giants who preceded him – Keane and Bill Johnson, who ran the show for 34 years – but he’s fit right in among the many friends of the tournament who work hard to make it run smoothly each year.

“The support the tournament has had from Bill Johnson down to Alex Kirk and his staff has been second-to-none,” said Lebanon’s Jim Keane, grandson of the tournament’s namesake. “It’s been remarkable how much they care about this tournament and making sure it is a first-class event.”

Only the importance of giving a nod to those who deserve it can overcome Keane’s natural instinct to let the tournament speak for itself.

“For 34 years people like Seaver Peters and Fred Kelley, their wives and other volunteers have worked hard,” he said. “The first few years Kathy Slattery (Phillips) was making sandwiches in our kitchen to feed people. There can’t be enough said about the voluneers. They are the reason this continues to be a strong and successful tournament.”

While he continues to offer sage advice as a member of the TKI committee, Seaver Peters has ceded the head chair to son Scott, a move that nicely symbolizes the direction being taken by what is thought by many to be one of the best – if not best – four-ball tournaments in northern New England.

Scott Peters, who has won the tournament with brother Mike six times, is one of a good number of “second-generation” players in the field. Hanover High School golf coach John Donnelly is the son of the 1977 and ‘80 champion of the same name (and grandson of the former UVM golf coach who was a good friend of Tommy Keane). TKI veteran Jay Leonard’s son TJ plays with him while Jim Jankowski’s son Andrew tees it up with his dad. The list goes on.

And the theme doesn’t appear to be winding down anytime soon with a few more sons – including a pair named Peters and Keane – nearing the age of 18, the cutoff for playing in the event.

“It’s going to be passed from generation to generation and that’s a neat thing,” Jim Keane said.