seagate country club - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T06:11:58Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/seagate+country+clubTennis: Doubles, in sport and travel, the right choice for Poisthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/tennis-doubles-in-sport-and-travel-the-right-choice-for-poist2014-12-03T15:39:55.000Z2014-12-03T15:39:55.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960545279,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960545279,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="277" alt="7960545279?profile=original" /></a><em>Nick Ourusoff (l-r), Bill Poist, John Powless and Don Mathais at the finals in San Isidro, Agentina.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Photo provided</strong><br /><br /></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>By Steve Pike</strong><br /><br /> Ocean Ridge resident Bill Poist is finishing 2014 on a high note. Poist and his doubles partner, Donald Mathias of St. Petersburg, recently won the Alfredo Trullenque ITF Seniors tournament in Santiago, Chile, that propelled him to the International Tennis Federation world No.1 ranking in the age 75-plus division. <br /> The victory in Santiago continued a strong summer/fall run for Poist and Mathias. The duo won the 31st Nautico San Isidro (Argentina) International tournament, as well as tournaments in Cognac and Bordeaux, France. He also finished second with Tom Brunkow of Washington, D.C., this past October at the ITF World Championships in Antalya, Turkey.<br /> As a team, Poist and Mathias are ranked No. 2 by the USTA, having won three Category II events this year in Florida, along with the Atlanta Invitational, as well as runner-up finish at the Clay Court Nationals in Virginia Beach.<br /> In singles events this past summer, Poist was runner-up in ITF events in the Czech Republic and England, but doubles is the 75-year-old’s forte.<br /> “I don’t work out,’’ said Poist, who with his wife, Ann Alexander, moved to Ocean Ridge four years ago. “Doubles is less strenuous because it’s played on a smaller court, so I’m able to manage that.<br /> “This year I played around 15 tournaments — many more than in previous years.’’<br /> One reason for the increase, Poist said, was that this is his “rookie’’ season in the 75-up division.<br /> “One of the beauties of the ITF and USTA (U.S. Tennis Association) is the five-year categories,’’ Poist said. “It’s allowed people to play in their age brackets and skill levels. The first year — in any age bracket — you’re the youngest person in that five-year slot. So everybody, theoretically, is slower than you. Once you get to the third and fourth years, the younger players are quicker and better.’’<br /> Poist, a member of the Ohio Wesleyan Athletic Hall of Fame, plays locally with tennis professionals Dennis Grainger (at Seagate Country Club) and Paul Cranis, as well as top players Howard Klinnert and Garrett Bornstein.<br /> “They deserve a lot of credit for helping me,’’ said Poist, who also is a regular in the 10 o’clock Club at the Delray Beach Tennis Center.<br /> Competition has always been a staple in Poist’s life. Now a retired business consultant who spent the bulk of his professional life in Washington, D.C., Poist was a standout basketball and tennis player at Hanover (Pa.) High School and led Ohio Wesleyan tennis teams to successive conference and NCAA regional titles from 1960-62. <br /> Poist was tennis professional at Corinthian YC in Marblehead, Mass., from 1960-61 and at Eastern YC in Marblehead from 1962-66. When Poist began his business life, he cut down on tennis, but started playing seriously again about 30 years ago.<br /> Since then he’s combined his competitive spirit for tennis and his adventurous spirit for travel to succeed on the court and see the world with Ann, who volunteers at various tournaments at the Delray Beach Tennis Center.<br /> “Tennis and travel,’’ Poist said with a smile. “When I played golf in the ’70s, we traveled to places like Canada and Scotland and played all the great courses. Tennis is the same way. I enjoy seeing all the different places.<br /> “I especially enjoy going to Frinton on the North Sea about 100 miles from London. It’s a lovely old club. It’s more than 100 years old and is an ‘old shoe’ kind of place because you feel comfortable there.’’</p></div>Golf: Golfers look forward to LPGA event at homehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/golf-golfers-look-forward-to-lpga-event-at-home2014-10-01T13:20:09.000Z2014-10-01T13:20:09.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960529269,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960529269,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="181" alt="7960529269?profile=original" /></a><em>Meg Mallon and Beth Daniel</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>File photo/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>By Steve Pike<br /><br /></strong> For athletes in any sport, there is nothing like a home game. The comfort level of playing in familiar surroundings and sleeping in your own bed is almost incalculable in regard to a competitive advantage. <br /> That’s one reason why Beth Daniel is looking forward to playing in the LPGA Legends Walgreens Charity Championship, Nov. 6-9, at the Seagate Country Club in Delray Beach.<br /> “It’s right in our back yard,’’ Daniel said, referring to herself and fellow Delray Beach resident Meg Mallon. “It’s only appropriate that we play. I wish they were all that way.’’<br /> Daniel, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, and Mallon, captain of the 2013 U.S. Solheim Cup team, headline the field in the event. World Golf Hall of Famers Nancy Lopez and Laura Davies also are expected to compete.<br /> “I think it’s kind of cool that we’re coming to Seagate Country Club,’’ said Daniel, a 33-time winner on the LPGA Tour. “It gives me a chance to show off Delray Beach a little, which is nice.’’<br /> The event also will be an opportunity to area residents to see some of the greatest players in the history of women’s golf, including Daniel and Lopez, the latter of whom was the face of the LPGA in the 1970s and ’80s when she won 42 times on the LPGA Tour.<br /> Lopez, now 57, remains among the more popular and recognizable female golfers in the world, but neither she nor Daniel play a lot of competitive golf these days.<br /> “Two to three times per year on the Legends Tour,’’ said Daniel, who will be 58 this month. “And I do some corporate outings and charity outings.”<br /> Daniel’s competitive fire, however, still burns, but she has to temper that fire with the knowledge that lack of practice means inconsistent results.<br /> “The hardest thing for me to do is lower my expectations,’’ Daniel said. “I don’t practice as much so my game is not going to be as sharp. <br /> “I’ve worked hard on trying to lower my expectations, but it’s difficult. You come across shots that you used to be able to hit and you can’t hit them because you don’t practice them. So the more I can just get out there and enjoy myself, the better off I am.’’<br /> The tournament itself will be held on Nov. 8 and 9 at Seagate Country Club, which is part of the Seagate Hotel & Spa in Delray Beach. A morning and afternoon pro-am tournament will be Nov. 6 and an open-to-the-public practice round will be Nov. 7. Tickets for the tournament will be $15 at the gate and $10 at area Walgreens stores.<br /> The Jane Blalock Co., which is managing the event, expects as many as 5,000 people to attend, but Darren Panks, director of golf at Seagate Country Club, said he believes that number is conservative.<br /> “I think it might be close to 3,000 to 4,000 people per day because of the energy in golf around here,’’ Panks said. “It’s going to be in ‘season’ and people are just beginning to get settled down here. The timing is perfect.’’</p></div>Meet The Pros: Golf pro settles again in The Hamlethttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/meet-the-pros-golf-pro-settles-again-in-the-hamlet2013-01-30T16:11:52.000Z2013-01-30T16:11:52.000ZDeborah Hartz-Seeleyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/DeborahHartzSeeley<div><p><span><b><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960427661,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960427661,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="322" class="align-center" alt="7960427661?profile=original" /></a></b></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Darren Panks is director of golf at the Seagate Country Club at The Hamlet. </em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span><b>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</b></span></p>
<p><span><b>By Steve Pike</b></span></p>
<p></p>
<p>Darren Panks came a long way to come 360 degrees.</p>
<p>Panks, the new director of golf at Seagate Country Club at The Hamlet in Delray Beach, first saw The Hamlet golf community in 1996, shortly after he arrived in the U.S. from his hometown of Worksop, Nottingham, England, on the northern edge of Sherwood Forest.</p>
<p>Like many aspiring young golf professionals, Panks needed a job to help pay (and play) his way on the professional tours. </p>
<p>He had heard about The Hamlet while working at Lindrick Golf Club (site of the 1957 Ryder Cup Matches) as an assistant to professional legend Peter Cowen, whose students included Lee Westwood, now one of the world’s top players.</p>
<p>So after a brief try at living in Orlando, Panks headed south to Delray Beach and The Hamlet, where in exchange for giving lessons to members, the club agreed to let him use the course as his base of operations.</p>
<p>Panks bought a townhouse in The Hamlet in 1998 and continued to give lessons and play the professional golf tours, including the Nationwide Tour, until 2008 when the economy soured and sponsorship money for non-PGA Tour players began to dry up. Panks that year took a job as director of instruction at Polo Trace Golf Club west of Delray Beach and became the director of golf a couple of months later following the resignation of the previous director.</p>
<p>He remained at Polo Trace until this past October, when he took the director’s job at The Hamlet, which was transitioning to the new ownership of the Seagate Hotel & Spa in Delray Beach. Seagate’s ownership group purchased the club, including its Joe Lee-designed course, for $11 million with the intent of making it a premium amenity to the hotel and its beach residences.</p>
<p>“I think the club will do well for Seagate as a hotel and a corporation,” Panks said. “We have it all now. I don’t think anywhere else, except maybe The Breakers and the Boca Raton Resort & Club, have anything like we have here.</p>
<p>“But it’s early and we still have to establish ourselves and get our feet in the water. We hope to get a lot of business from the hotel. We’re getting three or four groups a week from the hotel, which at this stage is pretty good response.</p>
<p>That response should increase as the Seagate Hotel & Spa is offering a series of “stay and play” packages throughout 2013. </p>
<p>Those packages range from a one-night stay with a round of golf beginning at $524 per person to a “Grand Golf Getaway” that includes a two-night stay, dinner for two at the hotel’s Atlantic Grille, two tickets to the hotel’s Gary Wiren collection of golf memorabilia at the Delray Beach Center for the Arts and two rounds of golf for $1,148 per person.</p>
<p>“We’ve got about 150 members but only about 48 are true active golfers. We’ve got to make this place a little more unique. Going forward, I think we need to get more family-oriented. I think that’s the next generation for us.”</p>
<p>To attract the next generation, the club has eliminated its mandatory membership policy for property owners and is charging new members a $25,000 initiation fee and a $12,000 annual dues, the latter of which is per couple.</p>
<p>“If we can get the 40- to 60-year-olds in here to here to drive the energy, that will give people from the outside the opportunity to see us as a re-energized place,” Panks said. <span>Ú</span></p></div>