Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Hammonds build on golf legacy
Father-daughter combination loom large in area
“My Dad loves coaching and teaching. He always enjoyed being around kids, and now at West Chester it’s a little different. He is taking them and trying to mold their collegiate careers in addition to their golf abilities.” – Laura Hammond on her father, Harry
EAST MARLBOROUGH » With rolling hills and lush landscaping, Pennsylvania’s most affluent county is home to a lot of golf courses. And during his nearly 78 years, Harry Hammond has worked at a bunch of them, taught at even more and played at more still.
You would be hard pressed to find anybody in the business who doesn’t know Harry because he is, undoubtedly, Chester County’s top ambassador to the sport.
“That’s a good and bad issue,” Harry laughed. “It’s not fun to grow old, but to be this age and still be active is quite exciting.”
And when you add his daughter, Laura, to the mix, it’s easy to see why the Hammonds are universally considered this area’s first family when it comes to golf.
Laura, 41, is the Executive Director of the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia. Harry is entering his 11th season as the head coach of the men’s team at West Chester University, in addition to
being part owner and director of golf at Penn Oaks Golf Club in Thornbury.
“My Dad loves coaching and teaching,” said Laura, who lives in Downingtown. “He always enjoyed being around kids, and now at West Chester it’s a little different. He is taking them and trying to mold their collegiate careers in addition to their golf abilities.”
A longtime resident of Unionville, Harry began his career in golf back in 1953, when he started caddying at Kennett Square Golf and Country Club. Sixty four years later, the accolades are been rolling in for his lifetime of service.
Late last year, he became the first PSAC coach to receive the Labron Harris Award, which is presented by the Golf Coaches Association of America. It’s an annual award that is presented to the college or high school coach whose support of the game through teaching, coaching and involvement in the community has helped ensure the continued growth of golf.
“He’s always been a very humble man despite all of the accolades, awards and recognition he has gotten in his PGA career,” said Laura, who won the state title as a senior in the early 1990s at Unionville High School and was a fouryear letter-winner at Penn State. “But this one was different. He had a huge smile on his face when he told me that he got it.
“Having other coaches and PGA professionals acknowledge his hard work, it meant a lot to him.”
At the GCAA’s most recent Convention in Las Vegas, Harry was presented the award. West Chester’s Athletic Director, Ed Matejkovic, was on hand for the ceremony, and so was Edwin Cottrell, who was the golf coach at WCU for 20 years starting in 1959. He is now 95 years young.
“I was very honored to have Dr. Cottrell there as well as (Matejkovic),” Harry said. “Plus there were about 400 coaches there from all levels of college golf, so it was an honor that I hold as one of the most important awards that I have ever received.”
A 53-year member of the PGA of America, Harry started coaching at WCU in 2007 and has guided the Rams to the NCAA’s for the last seven seasons. He was named the PSAC coach of the year twice (2011, 2015).
“He is very soft-spoken and calm,” Laura said. “A lot of people who perceive a person who teaches children think they need to be really animated. But I think kids sometimes respond better to a calmer approach, and he has that.
“Anybody he is teaching knows that he is completely invested in helping them in any way he can. As a daughter, he would call me out if I wasn’t practicing, but at the same time I knew he was always there if I needed help.”
A native of Upland, Harry’s family moved to a house across the street from Kennett Square G&CC when he was a youngster, and soon thereafter he began caddying. He went to Penn State to become an engineer, but when it didn’t work out, his father got him a job shoveling stone into a basement.
“In his mind, he thought: ‘I’ll teach him a lesson to go back to school,’” Harry recalled.
In 1959, he was hired full-time at Kennett Square, and became the head professional at West Chester Golf & Country Club in 1963. Six years later, he left for a similar position at Whitford Country Club, where he remained for the next 38 years.
“You have to understand the business to be able to be successful, and then you have to make the commitment and have the desire to make it grow,” Harry said.
He was the PGA of America’s Golf Professional of the Year in 1991, and the organization named him a Junior Golf Leader four times. In 2001, Harry was elected to the Philadelphia Section PGA Hall of Fame. In 2007, he took on his current position at Penn Oaks.
“A lot of my peers, who I grew up playing with, are now coaches,” Laura said. “In Las Vagas, he got to see a lot of them, plus all of his peers. It just made that time out there more special for him.”
Hammond has been named a U.S. Kids Golf Top 50 Teacher four times and was recognized as U.S. Kids Master Teacher in 2012. He has initiated local pro-ams that have benefitted The First Tee and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and has been heavily involved in charitable organizations like Chester County Food Bank and United Way of Chester County.
In addition to it all, he was the primary swing coach for Laura, who won her first of three Philadelphia Women’s Amateur titles in 1995 while still a student at Penn State. A thyroid cancer survivor, Laura juggled amateur golf and a fruitful teaching career that spanned 15 years and included stops at Hillsdale Elementary and Stetson Middle School.
It all made sense because she was following in the footsteps of her Mom, Sally, who taught high school math at Westtown School for many years until her recent retirement. Sally and Harry have been married for 46 years.
“It’s funny – my mom was a school teacher and I did that for a long time,” Laura pointed out. “And now I am dipping my toe into the golf industry. I’ve learned a lot from both of my parents in the way I want to conduct my life and my career path, obviously.”
In the spring of 2016 while teaching at Stetson, Laura was offered the executive director position at WGAP, which entails running the organization’s 30-plus annual golf tournaments. As expected, she sought out the advice of her parents before making an agonizing decision.
“It was a very difficult decision because of the kids and the people I worked with,” she said. “I didn’t really want to leave teaching, and I can tell you I went back and forth with the decision several times. But in the end, I didn’t know if an opportunity like this would ever present itself again, and I felt I would regret it if I didn’t take it.”
And for the last 16 months, Laura has immersed herself into the job of growing and promoting women’s golf. It was a big adjustment, especially since the summer months are now the busiest, which is quite a change from teaching.
“My favorite part of the job is getting to know all these women golfers of all abilities and all across the region,” she said.
“My Dad definitely helped me with the kinds of questions that I needed to have answered before I made such a big switch. And since I took the job, he is always there if I have a question about anything at all.”
Harry says that he knew his daughter had the playing and administrative background to excel in the position, and he’s heard nothing but praise for her abilities from all of the people he knows in the golf business.
“I am very proud of what she’s accomplished in a short period of time. There is a lot to be done to grow women’s golf and junior golf,” he said.
“It sure helps when I have to work with the local pros in the area because they all know who my Dad is, and they have great respect for him,” Laura added. “It’s been a huge asset for me.”