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Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
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Do IT this week: Layering
By Marla Ridenour
Beacon Journal sports writer
POSTED: 05:36 p.m. EDT, Jul 26, 2009
One more Thanksgiving dinner, that's all Marc Turnesa would need.
One more afternoon around the table, listening to his grandfather Mike retell the tale of his loss to Byron Nelson in a second-round match in the 1945 PGA Championship.
Now 31, Marc would listen more closely, ask more questions. He'd savor the details of how his grandfather was 2-up on Nelson with four holes to play like it was his last morsel of turkey. How Nelson went birdie, birdie, eagle, then halved the 36th hole to win 1-up. How Turnesa gave Nelson his closest match of the tournament at Moraine Country Club in Dayton as Nelson plowed through the field en route to No. 7 in his string of 11 consecutive victories. How his family was part of a record that might never be broken.
''I wish I was smarter then and I would have really picked his brain,'' Marc Turnesa lamented last October, remembering his grandfather's death at age 93. ''He died in 2000. It was so long ago and I was so young.''
But if Marc Turnesa could really turn back the clock, he'd need a banquet-size table and a month full of Thanksgivings.
Competing in his first Bridgestone Invitational Aug. 6-9 after earning his first PGA Tour victory in Las Vegas as a rookie last year, Marc Turnesa brings an unmatched golf legacy to Firestone Country Club.
His grandfather Mike was one of nine children, seven boys, and six played on the PGA Tour. The seventh and youngest, Willie, didn't turn professional but gained the most fame, winning the 1938 and '48 U.S. Amateur Championships and the 1947 British Amateur. In his day, ''Willie the Wedge'' was considered the second-best amateur in the country, behind Bobby Jones.
Both Mike and Willie got to see Marc play as a youth. Willie, the only one of the seven to attend college and a member of Holy Cross' inaugural hall of fame class, died in 2001 at age 87.
''Grandfather Mike and Great Uncle Willie, those were the only two I knew,'' Marc said. ''They drove around with me once when I was a kid playing golf. They were 80 years old. It wasn't like they were in their prime.''
When they were in their prime, everyone in golf knew the name Turnesa (pronounced tur-NESS-uh).
As Marc's father, Mike Jr., points out, ''We've been called the 'First Family of Golf,' and 'America's Royal Family of Golf' in Colliers Magazine in the '50s.'' According to the New York Times, RKO flew the boys to Bermuda in 1938 to make a short film called The Golfing Brothers.
Willie's obituary in the Times said the Turnesa family was ''to golf what the Kennedys were to politics.''
Marc's Great Uncle Jim won the 1952 PGA, beating Chick Harbert 1-up and breaking what the PGA of America media guide still refers to as ''a 26-year family major championship jinx.'' Ten years earlier, Jim had lost in the final match of the PGA to Sam Snead.
Grandfather Mike won six PGA Tour events and finished second to Ben Hogan in the 1948 PGA Championship. He was head pro at Knollwood Country Club in Westchester, N.Y., for 44 years.
Great Uncle Joe won 15 tour events but finished runner-up to Jones in the 1926 U.S. Open and lost in the finals of the 1927 PGA to Walter Hagen.
Great uncles Doug, Frank and Phil became teaching pros.
The seven boys were sons of Vitale and Anna Turnesa, Italian immigrants who settled in Elmsford, N.Y. According to the New York Times, Vitale took a job on the construction crew at Fairview Golf Club and later became head greenskeeper, but never played the game in his 50 years working there.
Marc has seen family photos, kept in the basement at his parents' home and in his father's golf shop at Rockville Links Club in Rockville Center, N.Y., where Mike Jr. has been head pro for 30 years. But Marc insists he doesn't feel the burden of the Turnesa legacy.
''No, not really at all,'' Marc said. ''I don't feel the pressure of the name. I feel pressure from myself. I want to perform well.''
Marc might have been unscathed, but Mike Jr. confesses that he felt it.
''I felt it when I was a junior in amateur golf,'' Mike Jr. said. ''The pressure to perform lasted quite a while, even into my professional career. People would always look to see what Mike Turnesa's son shot.''
Growing up a mile from his father's Rockville course, Marc was golf's version of a gym rat.
''I'd go to school, come home and go to the golf course,'' Marc said. ''I caddied if my parents could get me out of bed. Shagged balls when Dad gave a lesson; we didn't have a range picker. Chip around, practice, play. I'd watch Dad give lessons and we'd stay afterwards to hit balls.''
His entry into professional golf seemed natural, but it didn't happen quickly for Marc, a quintessential late bloomer.
Marc transferred from the University of South Florida for his final two years at N.C. State, where he roomed with PGA Tour pros Carl Pettersson and Tim Clark. But Marc said he was ''just an average player in college.''
''I made the travel squad, but I was the fourth man on the team, just OK,'' Marc said. ''Even when I turned pro [in 2001], my first two years I didn't do much. But after that, I made enough money to go back out.''
Marc's confidence wavered as he played mini-tours for about six years. His epiphany came in 2006, when he was running out of money on the Gateway Tour.
''I was getting money from a family member, thankfully they helped me out, but it's tough borrowing from somebody,'' he said. ''I was mostly out of money and I didn't feel like asking for any more. I had $10,000 in the bank, just enough to play the winter.
''I played that series, I did really well, so I had enough money to come out for the spring. I played well, so I played the summer. At the end of the year, I was in the top 10 15 times and in the top five a bunch of times. I never won one, which is surprising because I was there every week. In '06, I really stepped it up.''
Then came his fifth trip to PGA Tour qualifying school, where he earned his Nationwide Tour card for 2007.
''His back was up against the wall. He was getting desperate,'' Mike Jr. said of his son. ''He decided to put his nose to the grindstone and get this done or he'd be on the Gateway Tour forever.
''Now keeping it going, that's the hard part.''
Since then, Marc has come on strong at the end of the season for two consecutive years.
In 2007, he won the final full-field Nationwide tournament of the year in Miami. The $103,500 prize took him from No. 43 to No. 13 on the money list, moving him up to the PGA Tour in 2008.
Last October at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, Turnesa went wire-to-wire for a 1-shot victory and a two-year PGA Tour exemption that runs through 2010.
That Sunday, he was asked what it meant to win and carry on the family name.
''Well, it means a lot. I don't really feel like I'm carrying on a name,'' Marc said. ''I guess I am without even thinking about it. I'm just trying to play golf as best I can.''
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her Browns blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/browns/. Follow the Browns on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ABJ_Browns
One more Thanksgiving dinner, that's all Marc Turnesa would need.
One more afternoon around the table, listening to his grandfather Mike retell the tale of his loss to Byron Nelson in a second-round match in the 1945 PGA Championship.
Now 31, Marc would listen more closely, ask more questions. He'd savor the details of how his grandfather was 2-up on Nelson with four holes to play like it was his last morsel of turkey. How Nelson went birdie, birdie, eagle, then halved the 36th hole to win 1-up. How Turnesa gave Nelson his closest match of the tournament at Moraine Country Club in Dayton as Nelson plowed through the field en route to No. 7 in his string of 11 consecutive victories. How his family was part of a record that might never be broken.
''I wish I was smarter then and I would have really picked his brain,'' Marc Turnesa lamented last October, remembering his grandfather's death at age 93. ''He died in 2000. It was so long ago and I was so young.''
But if Marc Turnesa could really turn back the clock, he'd need a banquet-size table and a month full of Thanksgivings.
Competing in his first Bridgestone Invitational Aug. 6-9 after earning his first PGA Tour victory in Las Vegas as a rookie last year, Marc Turnesa brings an unmatched golf legacy to Firestone Country Club.
His grandfather Mike was one of nine children, seven boys, and six played on the PGA Tour. The seventh and youngest, Willie, didn't turn professional but gained the most fame, winning the 1938 and '48 U.S. Amateur Championships and the 1947 British Amateur. In his day, ''Willie the Wedge'' was considered the second-best amateur in the country, behind Bobby Jones.
Both Mike and Willie got to see Marc play as a youth. Willie, the only one of the seven to attend college and a member of Holy Cross' inaugural hall of fame class, died in 2001 at age 87.
''Grandfather Mike and Great Uncle Willie, those were the only two I knew,'' Marc said. ''They drove around with me once when I was a kid playing golf. They were 80 years old. It wasn't like they were in their prime.''
When they were in their prime, everyone in golf knew the name Turnesa (pronounced tur-NESS-uh).
As Marc's father, Mike Jr., points out, ''We've been called the 'First Family of Golf,' and 'America's Royal Family of Golf' in Colliers Magazine in the '50s.'' According to the New York Times, RKO flew the boys to Bermuda in 1938 to make a short film called The Golfing Brothers.
Willie's obituary in the Times said the Turnesa family was ''to golf what the Kennedys were to politics.''
Marc's Great Uncle Jim won the 1952 PGA, beating Chick Harbert 1-up and breaking what the PGA of America media guide still refers to as ''a 26-year family major championship jinx.'' Ten years earlier, Jim had lost in the final match of the PGA to Sam Snead.
Grandfather Mike won six PGA Tour events and finished second to Ben Hogan in the 1948 PGA Championship. He was head pro at Knollwood Country Club in Westchester, N.Y., for 44 years.
Great Uncle Joe won 15 tour events but finished runner-up to Jones in the 1926 U.S. Open and lost in the finals of the 1927 PGA to Walter Hagen.
Great uncles Doug, Frank and Phil became teaching pros.
The seven boys were sons of Vitale and Anna Turnesa, Italian immigrants who settled in Elmsford, N.Y. According to the New York Times, Vitale took a job on the construction crew at Fairview Golf Club and later became head greenskeeper, but never played the game in his 50 years working there.
Marc has seen family photos, kept in the basement at his parents' home and in his father's golf shop at Rockville Links Club in Rockville Center, N.Y., where Mike Jr. has been head pro for 30 years. But Marc insists he doesn't feel the burden of the Turnesa legacy.
''No, not really at all,'' Marc said. ''I don't feel the pressure of the name. I feel pressure from myself. I want to perform well.''
Marc might have been unscathed, but Mike Jr. confesses that he felt it.
''I felt it when I was a junior in amateur golf,'' Mike Jr. said. ''The pressure to perform lasted quite a while, even into my professional career. People would always look to see what Mike Turnesa's son shot.''
Growing up a mile from his father's Rockville course, Marc was golf's version of a gym rat.
''I'd go to school, come home and go to the golf course,'' Marc said. ''I caddied if my parents could get me out of bed. Shagged balls when Dad gave a lesson; we didn't have a range picker. Chip around, practice, play. I'd watch Dad give lessons and we'd stay afterwards to hit balls.''
His entry into professional golf seemed natural, but it didn't happen quickly for Marc, a quintessential late bloomer.
Marc transferred from the University of South Florida for his final two years at N.C. State, where he roomed with PGA Tour pros Carl Pettersson and Tim Clark. But Marc said he was ''just an average player in college.''
''I made the travel squad, but I was the fourth man on the team, just OK,'' Marc said. ''Even when I turned pro [in 2001], my first two years I didn't do much. But after that, I made enough money to go back out.''
Marc's confidence wavered as he played mini-tours for about six years. His epiphany came in 2006, when he was running out of money on the Gateway Tour.
''I was getting money from a family member, thankfully they helped me out, but it's tough borrowing from somebody,'' he said. ''I was mostly out of money and I didn't feel like asking for any more. I had $10,000 in the bank, just enough to play the winter.
''I played that series, I did really well, so I had enough money to come out for the spring. I played well, so I played the summer. At the end of the year, I was in the top 10 15 times and in the top five a bunch of times. I never won one, which is surprising because I was there every week. In '06, I really stepped it up.''
Then came his fifth trip to PGA Tour qualifying school, where he earned his Nationwide Tour card for 2007.
''His back was up against the wall. He was getting desperate,'' Mike Jr. said of his son. ''He decided to put his nose to the grindstone and get this done or he'd be on the Gateway Tour forever.
''Now keeping it going, that's the hard part.''
Since then, Marc has come on strong at the end of the season for two consecutive years.
In 2007, he won the final full-field Nationwide tournament of the year in Miami. The $103,500 prize took him from No. 43 to No. 13 on the money list, moving him up to the PGA Tour in 2008.
Last October at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, Turnesa went wire-to-wire for a 1-shot victory and a two-year PGA Tour exemption that runs through 2010.
That Sunday, he was asked what it meant to win and carry on the family name.
''Well, it means a lot. I don't really feel like I'm carrying on a name,'' Marc said. ''I guess I am without even thinking about it. I'm just trying to play golf as best I can.''
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her Browns blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/browns/. Follow the Browns on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ABJ_Browns
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Canton, OH
Posted 12:12 AM, 07/27/2009
WHO ???????????
