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A
question from Gerrye Wong to me started this.
"Someone asked me how it ever got started and who did it?"
I asked Calvin and he said it originally came from their
foursome of Harvey, James Gate, Calvin – and he couldn’t
remember the fourth of their regular group.
Then
I guess as the idea came out, they recruited Ernie,
Wilson, you? And who
else? He doesn’t remember well –
maybe you do and what year and when? I remember Ernie was
the first president --- and Calvin and Wilson were
the first tournament chairs, I think.
Memory's
blurry after that unless you can write down the history of
the club from your better memory.
Actually,
I was the fourth. We had played Ridgemark down in
Hollister and while driving back I asked if we wanted to
get serious about starting a weekday golf club, especially
for people who were dropping out of the Santa Clara County
Chinese Golf Club (SCCCGC) because they had retired and
wanted to play during the week. We had talked about such a
venture before and my push was sort of to put up or shut
up. The guys all said "yes" and then I asked if anyone had
a good name for the club. Calvin volunteered "Foon Hay"
since it means "Have a good time".
After discussing things on the drive home, we
decided to float the idea to a larger group, so we met at
Harvey's house with Ernie and Wilson and possibly another
person or two. I had asked if Calvin could do the
calligraphy for the club name and he volunteered someone
else that I don't remember. It was a simple two-character
name and I created a logo out of it. I also adapted much
of the website, since I was the webmaster of SCCCGC and
had all of their info on my computer. New name, changes
that I believed would be worthy of our venture, etc.
Another decision was who were going to be the
club leaders. Ernie looked at me and asked if I wanted to
be President and I told him "No. I think you would be the
better choice." I wanted to focus on getting organized and
making the website a good one. Plus someone had to figure
out things like handicaps for people who didn't belong to
NCGA. Harvey volunteered to be the Tournament Chair and I
believe we thought we could get Arthur Tom to be the
Treasurer which he accepted.
The big decision at Harvey's house was
planning a golf tournament and inviting our friends. We
would take a vote at the end to see if they wanted to
have a club. So in July of 2003, 2nd Wednesday as most
of us belonged to the Santa Clara Seniors and they
played the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays, we had the tournament
at Los Lagos. For 48 players! The vote was
successful and Foon Hay was born as a coed club for
senior players. Having the wives and lady friends was
part of our deal.
We had agreed to a number of things. The
first officers would serve for 1 1/2 years through
December of 2004. Time to get things started and
functioning smoothly. We tried some different
tournaments at a variety of courses. I have the schedule
and the results going all the way back to 2003 on my
computer and it's stored in the cloud.
I'm not sure when it came into being, but
we thought we should have a real logo. So we had a
contest within the club to design one, and the winner of
a free round of golf was Ronnie or Joyce Wong, although
I believe it was their daughter who did the actual
design. And that's been our logo ever since.
The Club Annual Dinners began in 2004 and
have essentially continued to this year although we
weren't able to have one during the pandemic. When we
had elections near the end of 2004 the first elected
President was Sylvia Eng. We had also agreed that our
members would join NCGA and Foon Hay became an
associate club of NCGA. That all went into effect that
fall to help out with handicaps and make things more
efficient. The 2005 year we had 4 co-chairs for
tournaments - Wilson Fong, Calvin Wong, Paul Char and
Don Tang. They were able to whittle things down so
each one only did a few tournaments rather than every
one like Harvey had done. But they only served for one
year.
Lots of other memories along the way, but
the crew who created and nurtured the club into what
it was to become really enjoyed the experience. My
biggest thrill was when I first realized how big a
deal Foon Hay was to many of our members. They really
looked forward to the tournaments and all, and I felt
like a proud parent.
Jumping ahead 10 years, here's a photo taken at the
Club Annual Dinner in 2013, 10 years after the
founding of Foon Hay, celebrating the group that
founded the club.
Clarence Bakken, Harvey Tom, James Gate, Wilson
Fong, Ernie Wong and Calvin Wong
Well, 5 years passed. 60 more tournaments, members
being added, others leaving us. But in 2023 we
celebrated our 20th Anniversary. We returned to
Los Lagos, where the club was officially voted on.
After a nice round of golf, we awarded prizes to
the winners and gave everyone a new ball marker
signifying our 20th year. It was kind of like
going home for many of us.
It looks like I'm one of three remaining from the
photo above as we head into our 21st year but the
only one still trying to hit the ball where it's
supposed to go.
Clarence Bakken
Webmaster (for 20 years and counting!)
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