KNOW YOUR PRO: ANDREW CAMPBELL
Course: Black Hall Club, Old Lyme
Years as pro there: Andrew is in his 19th year at the private course.
Favorite hole: The third hole, which is the longest par 4 on the course. Yardage is 423 yards from the blue tees. “It also happens to be the most beautifully natural hole out there. There’s a great bunker at the corner of the dogleg. The tree lines are really good. Huge green, which you would see in a long par 4, but a lot of movement on it. It’s a tough par for anyone.”
Best part about working at Black Hall: “It’s just so golf-centric. There’s no other reason to be here except to play golf. We put all our focus into the golf course and people’s experiences and playing golf.”
Favorite course: Cypress Point Club, Pebble Beach, Calif. He played the course during a golf trip. “It was the best. It was awesome.”
Hole-in-ones: Three, each one in a different state. His first ace came during his college years at Mississippi State while his second happened at Colleton River Club in South Carolina and the third when he worked at Merion Golf Club in Haverford, Pa.
Campbell never saw his ball roll into the
cup for his first hole-in-one. “That was definitely cool. What I remember about it was the guy I was playing with also saw one other hole-in-one in his life and it was my brother’s, which is kind of funny.”
He added he’s been on “a 20-year drought” since his last ace.
Best golf advice: “Keep your expectations in check, because bad shots never go away completely.”
Dream foursome: His father, Ken, and two brothers, Jim and Kevin. Jim is a golf pro on Cape Cod. “If I couldn’t have them play, Tiger (Woods) would be in the mix. He’d probably get the next call.”
Fun facts: It’s no surprise that Campbell decided to become a golf pro. He followed in his father’s footsteps.
His father was the pro and general manager at Newton Commonwealth in Newton, Mass., where Andrew spent a great deal of his childhood. “I worked there. You had no choice. I was the youngest of six. You had to work at a golf course. It was great. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”
Campbell played for a highly-successful golf team at Newton North High School. He chose to attend Mississippi State because
of its Professional Golf Management program. “It was something that I knew I wanted to do.”
He loved it in Starkville, Miss., especially the southern hospitality and big time college athletics.
One of his internships turned into a post-graduate job at Sankaty Head Golf Club on Nantucket. He thoroughly enjoyed the island life.
Then he eventually moved on to become an assistant pro at Merion Golf Club and spent five years there.
He heard about the Black Hall job opening from a couple buddies and decided to apply. “I didn’t know anything about Black Hall. I never played a round of golf in the state of Connecticut before I came here. I didn’t know anything about it first-hand. Some friends of mine, other pros, that did know of the place nudged me in that direction. I’m certainly glad they did.”
Nineteen years later, he’s still at Black Hall.
“I’m sure glad I am,” Campbell said. “You know how great this area is. You fall in love with the shoreline. It’s the quality of life, I think.”