For local golf professional Joseph F. Tesori, golf is more than simply a sport. It is life itself.

Tesori has spent the last 26 years at Drumlins Country Club in Syracuse as a club professional and director of golf operations. He was on the PGA Tour in 1980-81 and is a member of the CNY PGA Hall of Fame.

Tesori, 59, was the CNY PGA Senior Player of the Year in 1999, 2000 and 2001. His coaching expertise does not stop at Drumlins. He’s coached Jamesville-DeWitt High School girl’s golf for 12 years, and also coaches the men’s and women’s golf teams at Le Moyne College. Tesori has also coached high school football at J-D.

Tesori loves the challenge of directing golf operations at Drumlin’s, which features both a private and public course. “There is never a day that is boring. We have the world of golf wrapped up in a neat little package,” he said. “I think what keeps me young is the spontaneity of everything,” he said. “I enjoy everything about it.”

Tesori has had his share of success on the golf course. Besides many tournament titles, he has set 13 course records in his career, some of which are still standing. He also has seven holes in one in his career.

He started as a professional at the IBM Country Club in Endicott, where he grew up. He worked as an assistant under Al Morley back in 1972. He went to work at Onondaga Country Club in 1973 and was there for eight years. Tesori came to Drumlin’s in 1982 and has been there ever since. “I’ve been around golf all my life,” Tesori said.

His father, Charlie, operated a golf course south of Cortland when his son was in graduate school. “I cut my eye teeth in the golf business helping him out,” he said. “My major influence obviously was my father, who was also my best friend,” he said.

One of his most memorable golf moments was winning a father-son tourney with his late dad as a 10-year-old. “I was always happiest playing with my dad,” he said. “I was happiest and still am when I get to play with my son and daughter.” He has been playing the game since the age of 6.

His college coaches—Bill O’Leary and Mike Bellow at Le Moyne College—were also instrumental in his development as a golfer. Bellow is in the Syracuse Hall of Fame as well as the CNY PGA Hall of Fame.
“He gave me a lot of guidance when I was young in the golf business,” Tesori said.

He also learned the ropes from his first boss, Earl Maurer at Onondaga. “I’ve been fortunate to have had good people giving me good advice,” he said.

Drumlins—owned by Syracuse University—teaches over 350 people a week with seven professionals on staff. “We have arguably as good a teaching staff as anywhere,” he said.

Tesori said he gets fulfillment “from helping people enjoy the game I have a passion for.”
“How often in this world does a person get the chance to do something and get paid for what he or she loves?” he asked. “I do.”

“I don’t try to impress people with what I know,” he said. “My approach is hands-on, pretty emotional. I want to help people. I don’t care if I go over on time. I’m like an old country doctor. I’m not going to have a buzzer going off when the hour is up. I’m not a take-a-number pro,” he added. “I want them to enjoy and have the passion I have for this great game,” he said.

His favorites—Tesori’s favorite golfer was the late Sam Snead, who was one of the top players in the world for most of four decades. He won a record 82 PGA Tour events and about 70 others worldwide.
Tesori watched him play several times. “I think he was everything,” he said. He said the legendary Jack Nicklaus brought golf to a different level, not only physically but mentally too. “His mental approach had never been seen before,” he said.

Tesori also had the opportunity to spend several days with the legendary Ben Hogan in the early 1980s. Hogan is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the game.
Tesori said Hogan was “very soft spoken” and not verbose. “He thought about everything he was going to say and he was calculated in everything he said,” Tesori said. “From Hogan, I learned that there’s always a plan and don’t rush.”

When Tesori hit the PGA Tour, he rubbed elbows with the likes of Lee Trevino, Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. He’s also met Tiger Woods, considered the top player in the game today.

Teaching philosophy—“I think one of the greatest challenges to teaching golf is that you have to allow the student to be aware of what their expectations should be,” he said. “Too many times people think they should be better than they are for no reason that I can see,” he said. “They have jobs, children, families and obligations. They’re not able to invest a lot of time into this game, yet they want to go out and shoot their best score every time they play,” he said.

Tesori said the key is awareness. “You have to be aware of the time you are putting into it, aware of your limitations, whether they be physical, mental or financial,” he said.

Tesori said a successful instructor must be a good communicator. “You have to have passion. You have to have emotion. You can’t be a eunuch. You can’t be a bookworm. Knowledge in and of itself doesn’t make you a good instructor. You have to be able to understand who’s standing there in front of you,” he said.

Tesori said his approach is tailored to the goals of the student in question. “To be a good instructor, you have to know why that student is there and that’s how you direct them,” he said.

Important role—Tesori also sees himself as a role model for younger students. Oftentimes, he’ll have them caddy for him or take them to tourneys. Tesori wants to see emotion from his students and players, which is a measure of how much they care about the sport. “I don’t really mind if you bang a club. That shows you care,” he said. “When you hit a good shot, I want you to smile,” he said. “When you hit a bad shot, I don’t want you to laugh it off, but instead, try to figure out what you did wrong.”

Tesori said the key to golf lies in preparation. He equated it to preparing for a test. Those who prepare are not surprised when they fare well; conversely, those who don’t shouldn’t be surprised at a dismal outcome.

“You are nothing more than a score. That’s the stark reality,” he said. “This is a game in which a score means where you stand. To be happy in this game, you have to enjoy the journey. It’s the process to get there,” he said. “If I’m getting ready for a tourney, I can’t be so nervous about my score that I forget about work ethic and practicing my shots,” he said. “In golf as in any other activity, you have to understand that pressure is self-imposed. It’s all about building blocks. The more you practice, the more comfortable you are. The more comfortable you are, the more confident you become. And the more confident you become, the more competitive you are.”

Tesori is not one to blow his own horn despite having amassed a stunning array of accomplishments on the golf course. “My greatest accomplishment is that I’ve instructed others to have a passion for the game that my dad had and then passed that along to my children,” he said.

On the golf course, Tesori’s greatest accomplishment was competing on the PGA Tour. “They can’t take that away from you,” he said. He has played on many tours, including the Senior Tour, the Champions Tour, the European Senior Tour, the Nationwide Tour and “mini” tourneys.

Tesori doesn’t keep count of his tourney wins. Instead, he relishes the victories he’s claimed at tourneys that have carried legendary names, such as Bellow, Emmett Kelly and Augie Nordone.
These men are the cream of the crop on the Syracuse regional golf scene. “I consider it an accomplishment to have won tournaments which carried the names of three of the most respected professionals that CNY ever saw,” he said.

Tesori still is a force to reckon with on the course, although the older he gets, “the harder it is to find out what my strengths are,” he said. “My strengths have changed over the years,” he said. “It always used to be the iron game. I was a straight driver of the ball and hit really good irons. I was maybe an average putter at best, but would get on a streak now and then and win something,” he said.

Today, he still drives the ball straight, but short. “I’m a pretty good chipper and maybe a better-than-average putter, although that’s suffered over the last few years,” he said. “Overall, the strength of my game has been patience,” he said. “Hogan said the most important shot in golf is not the one you are hitting, but the next one,” he said. “The shot you are standing over is not life and death.”

Tesori said golf is similar to chess in that a good player will look one or two steps ahead. “You have to have a simple plan. This is a very simple game played by very complex people. Every once is a while there’s a roadblock—a bad shot or bad bounce—and you have to start all over again. Patience is knowing there’s that next shot,” he said.

A microcosm—Golf is a microcosm of life, he said. “There’s a process and it takes time to understand that. If you understand the process, then you’ll enjoy the journey and probably enjoy what’s at the end of the journey and be able to share in that happiness,” he added. “I don’t think that life is a lot different,” he said.

Tesori’s goal is to make the game better for others. “I hope that’s what I have given back to others. It’s how I try to live, trying to do for others. My father said, ‘You only achieve true happiness when you make others happy,’” he said.

What kind of handprint would Tesori like to leave on the game? “I would hope that people would say I cared. That’s about it,” he said.

Tesori said he sees quite a few people starting to play the game of golf, but it’s the retention aspect
that is difficult, particularly in tough economic times. He said action on the driving range has never been busier and people are also taking advantage of lessons at a brisk pace.

“Instead of playing 18 holes of golf, people would rather hit a bucket or two of balls or take a lesson in lieu of a lengthy time commitment,” he said.

The key for golf course operators, according to Tesori, is to price golf properly. “We have to make their recreational time as enjoyable as possible or they are not going to come back,” he said.

Tesori said he has seen more women golf commensurate with their rise in the business world. Junior golf, meanwhile, has also increased thanks to programs such as “First Tee” and “Play Golf America.”

Golf is also a great chance for senior citizens to spend time with their friends, Tesori noted. “You can make it as social as you want or as competitive as you want,” he said.

Back to alma mater—Tesori, a graduate of Le Moyne who also played golf there, took over the reins
of the Dolphins’ men’s and women’s golf teams. He was inducted into the Le Moyne College Hall of Fame in 1990. Tesori led the Dolphins to the 1971 NCAA Championships in his senior year.

He had the opportunity to coach his son last year, who was a senior. “Who in their right mind would not want that opportunity?” he asked. Meanwhile, he approached athletic director Matt Bassett in regard to starting up a women’s golf program at Le Moyne. The club team participated in several tourneys last year and Tesori’s goal is to field an NCAA team in a couple of years. “The time is right for Le Moyne to start women’s golf,” he said.

Tesori said team golf differs from individual play, where if things don’t go right, one can simply fold and “go in the tank and give up. With a team, you can’t give up
because it’s not about you anymore. There’s a synergism,” he said.

The benefits of golf are plenty, Tesori said. “You’re going to learn a lot about yourself,” he said. “You clearly will learn how you react to adversity and reacting to intangibles such as lousy weather, playing with someone you don’t like, playing after a bad day at work, or after arguing with your wife or screaming at your kids. You learn how to cope,” he said.

Golf pro Hal Irwin called it the “only-ness” of golf. “You learn a lot about yourself, and sometimes you don’t like what you learn but at least you learned it,” Tesori noted.

Here are some of golf player Joe Tesori’s philosophical snippets on the game of golf and life itself.
On teaching the game of golf:

• “We market teaching. That’s what we’re in the business of doing. We want to coach the game and make people happier.”

• “When I was the first one in the area who went from half-hour lessons to one-hour lessons, somebody asked, ‘why an hour?’ I said I have a lot of stories to tell people.”

• “I’m probably never on time for a lesson, but people understand it because they know the extra time is because someone is having trouble or I have a few extra stories to tell. They know when it’s their turn that I’m not shortchanging them either.”

• “We have to get across to them that this isn’t a game where you add water and have instant food.”

On coaching:

• “You want your students to see what the game means to you as a coach. You want them to see how much you care about it and you want them to care,” he said.

• “Parents will call and ask, ‘What does my kid need to do to qualify for the team next year?’” “I reply, ‘He has to score in the top-10.’ They ask, ‘What does that entail?’ ‘It means not being 11th.’”

• “One of my students said, ‘I never get a break.’ I said to him, ‘the only break I got growing up was when my father said, ‘You hit him, Ann, my arm is getting tired.’”

• “There’s never any dishonor in failing. There’s only dishonor in failing to try.”

On playing on the PGA Tour:

• “I studied everybody. I was there with the best players in the world. Something’s got to rub off on
you.”

• “I always joke that I was probably the worst player out there in 1981, but I was there.”

On the game itself:

• “This is a living, breathing organism, this game. You have to nurture it, caress it and be patient
with it.”

• “You just have to make people aware that it’s a great game. It can be competitive, it can be social, it can be relaxing, but if you allow it to be, it can also be destructive, because you won’t get it, and you’ll get ticked off.”

• “The goal in golf is to have the best score possible. You can only get that if you prepare properly. There is no entitlement. You are not entitled to that good score, you have to work for it.”

On people’s time constraints:

• “There’s so much stuff going on that people have to do. We may need another hour or two on every day.”

On high-tech golf equipment:

• “The same variables that affected you with old equipment still affects you now. If it didn’t, scores
would be three times lower.”