Scribe James Finegan, Sr. receives Association’s DSA

Article available in the Winter issue of the GAP Magazine.

By Fred Behringer

Jim Finegan, Sr. (center) and family.

  Finegan spent five years preparing “A Centennial Tribute to GOLF in Philadelphia,” published by the Golf Association in conjunction with the celebration of the Association’s 100th Anniversary in 1997.

  The Distinguished Service Award honors “individuals who through their actions have exemplified the spirit of the game at its highest level, and who have made a substantial contribution to the game at the Philadelphia, national or international level.”

  Said Richard P. Meehan Jr., president of the Golf Association of Philadelphia, “Jim's extensive work in the golf book publishing world, especially ‘A Centennial Tribute to GOLF in Philadelphia,’ makes him an ideal selection for the award.”

  Finegan said he was “astonished” to learn of his DSA selection from John LeBoeuf, a fellow member of Philadelphia Country Club and a member of the GAP Executive Committee.

  “It never crossed my mind that this could be something that I would in any way be eligible for,” he said. “I was really amazed.

  “I think the Philadelphia book is the most important thing I’ll ever do. I really do believe that if anything of mine is to last, it will certainly be the Philadelphia book. I think we are safe in saying, and I don’t mean to be patting myself on the back, that nobody’s going to do it again. If somebody comes along 35 or 40 years from now, they’ll take it and then add on the 35 or 40 years.”

  Finegan recalled that he was responsible for all the research, writing, photo selection, layout and editing involved in producing the golf history.

  “And on top of that,” he said, “I am the world’s slowest writer. I do it on a legal pad by hand and then turn it over to a 55-year-old Underwood typewriter, typing with only one finger. No wonder it was a five-year job.”

  Bill Walsh, a past President of the GAP, a fellow Philadelphia Country Club member and former DSA recipient, said the honor for Finegan is well deserved. Walsh cited “all the things he has done for so many clubs,” especially donating his time to give talks about golf history in the region.

  Jim Sykes, the retired executive director of the Golf Association of Philadelphia, remembered that the book concept started as a modest 15,000-word assignment that grew slightly beyond that target — to more than 500 pages.

  Two thousand books were printed, Sykes said, and sales at $50 each moved so slowly that the Association had to rent space to store them. But gradually the books sold out, and today copies, if they can be found, usually sell for $200 or more.

  The Philadelphia history is only one of Finegan’s major contributions to golf literature. He wrote the official history of Pine Valley Golf Club and currently is completing the history of Aronimink Golf Club. For his coffee table volume on the courses of Scotland and Ireland, he received the 2006 United States Golf Association’s Herbert Warren Wind Book Award. He also wrote guides to the courses of Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales, and he has written frequently for national golf magazines. Finegan is considered the foremost American authority on the golf courses of the United Kingdom and Ireland. He spent 12 summers at St. Andrews in Scotland.

  Finegan, 80, not only writes about golf, he plays it — quite often and quite well. He started to learn the game at the Pennsylvania Railroad Club on the site of what is now Chester Valley Golf Club, practicing while his father was on the course. He became a caddie at Tully-Secane Country Club at age 11 and later joined that club, which subsequently was sold for development. His game developed to the point that he played No. 1 for four years on the then La Salle College team. He is the only golfer in La Salle’s Hall of Athletes.

  A member of Philadelphia Country Club since 1966, Finegan won the club championship there four times, the last victory in 1986, making him the oldest player ever to capture the crown. That same year, he won the Pine Valley Golf Club Senior Club Championship. He has played more than 10,000 rounds at Philadelphia Country Club, a record of endurance that the Wall Street Journal celebrated in an extensive article in August.

  He belonged to both Llanerch Country Club and Overbrook Golf Club. At Llanerch CC, Finegan won a club championship on the 36th hole and at Overbrook GC, ironically, he lost a club title on the 36th hole.

  Finegan served as an advertising agency executive in Philadelphia from 1955 to 1990. He and his wife of 58 years, Harriet, have two sons, James, Jr. and John, and a daughter, Megwin, all Philadelphia Country Club members and, Finegan said, all good golfers. James, Jr. is a seven-time club champion.

  Though its current condition may seem a bit frayed, Finegan feels golf will forever be a prominent fixture.

  “We are clearly not in a growth mode, but I look for a turnabout in which we’ll find the game growing,” said the Villanova, Pa. resident. “I really do. I certainly think that if Tiger comes back to playing that strong role again, winning again, that will significantly propel the game up. Because of the depth of my involvement, it’s so hard for me to believe that the game, particularly in the United Sates, could ever go permanently downhill. To me, that doesn’t seem at all likely.”

  Finegan believes the Golf Association of Philadelphia provides a vital service to the sport.

  “You truly can’t imagine the game here without the GAP. It just stands for the game in every way. I think it’s always been a marvelous organization — the GAP itself and the Women’s GAP,” he said.

  Asked why golf holds such an unyielding appeal for golfers such as Jim Finegan, the GAP Distinguished Service Award honoree replied without hesitation: “It is the complexity of the game, which assures you will never, ever conquer it.”

NOTES–Finegan is the fifth Distinguished Service Award recipient. Past honorees were: Bruce Parkinson of St. Davids GC in 2009; Walsh in 2008; Stan Friedman of Bala GC in 2007 and Victor Mauck, Jr. of St. Davids GC in 2006.

Fred Behringer is a member of the GAP Communications Committee.