KINGSTON, N.Y. — Four-time Herdegen champion Justin Lane and longtime starter Pete Stewart will be inducted into the Ulster County Men’s Amateur Golf Championship Hall of Fame following the final round of the 75th annual tournament at Kingston’s Wiltwyck Golf Club on Sunday, June 28.
The first round of the 54-hole stroke-play tournament will start at 11 a.m. at Apple Greens Golf Course in Highland on Friday, June 26. The second round will be held at Kingston’s Twaalfskill Club on Saturday, June 27.
A total of 51 players will compete in the county men’s amateur this year.
Defending champion Jared Miller of The Twaalfskill Club will be seeking his third title when he tees off at 12:20 p.m. at Apple Greens on Friday along with CJ Petawabano of New Paltz Golf Course and Twaalfskill’s Kevin Mackey.
Lane is the last player to have won four Herdegen tournaments in a row from 2016 through 2019. He captured his first title at the age of 16 in 2016.
Herdegen starter Pete Stewart is shown in an undated photograph at Apple Greens Golf Course at Highland, New York.
Photo provided
The only player to have won more county championships in a row was all-time Herdegen championship leader Leon Randall, who won eight in a row from 1974 through 1981. The 1981 title was the 16th and last Herdegen victory for Randall, who has since passed away.
“That was a tremendous accomplishment at such a young age,” said Palen of Lane’s four straight Herdegen titles.
In a phone interview with the Freeman on Wednesday, June 24, Lane said he was looking forward to attending the final round of the Herdegen and the post-round awards ceremony where he will be inducted into the Herdegen Hall of Fame. He said his parents Kevin and Tracy Lane will also be at the awards ceremony.
“It’s very cool and it’s obviously an honor to get,” Lane said of being inducted into the Herdegen Hall of Fame. “The tournament has been very special to me over the years when I was a junior and into college (Binghamton University).”
Lane won his first championship in 2016 with a three-stroke victory. He won his second by eight shots in 2017 and was four strokes better than the field in 2018.
His fourth and final win came in 2019 at the age of 19 when he wiped out a three-stroke deficit to Miller over the final nine holes at Wiltwyck to win by one shot.
Lane said it was finally nice to “break through” and get his first Herdegen title in 2016 after putting together a solid junior career.
“Any of the good players in our area obviously have won the Herdegen once, if not more than once, so it was nice to finally be able to add my name to the list,” Lane said of his first victory.
Lane said one of his most memorable victories came as an Onteora High senior with the final round on his home course — the Woodstock Golf Club.
While Lane said it was nice to celebrate the victory in front of family and friends, he said he didn’t get any sleep the night before.
“After graduation on Saturday, they have a thing called the ‘Belleayre Bash,’ which is at Belleayre,” he said. “You basically stay at the resort the whole night and stay up and watch the sun rise. But the thing is you take a bus up there from the school after graduation and come back Sunday morning. I got permission to have my mother pick me up at 3:30 in the morning at Belleayre. I went home and slept a few hours before my tee time for the final round. So I basically stayed up the whole night and won on Sunday.”
The 26-year-old Lane, who is now a territory manager for Srixon, lives in the Rochester area. His territory for the golf equipment company covers Western and Central New York and the Adirondacks.
Lane said he’s glad he can make the trip to Ulster County to see some familiar faces on Sunday at Wiltwyck.
“Obviously, the Ulster County golf community is a very tight-knit community,” he said. “It was always fun to see everybody at the Herdegen. You saw the Wiltwyck guys, the Rondout guys, the Woodstock guys, the New Paltz guys and the Lazy Swan guys. The main thing was that everybody came together for a weekend to support local golf. All the courses stepped up and gave their courses away for a day so we could play. It meant a lot. Everybody was always very appreciative of that and I’m glad to hear the Herdegen is still going strong.”
Palen said that Stewart has been on the Herdegen Committee for more than 20 years. A member of the Woodstock Golf Club, the 88-year-old Stewart was the CEO of Ametek Rotron in Woodstock before his retirement.
Stewart is known for serving as the Herdegen starter for the past two decades.
“His presence at the first tee sets a positive tone for each competitor,” Palen said. “We’ve had great starters in the past and Pete is certainly one of them. Part of what he does is relax the players, especially the newer ones on the first tee. His overall efforts have been valuable to the committee, the competitors and importantly to the host golf clubs.”
Palen said Stewart has also been involved with the inspection rounds of each course, which the committee does before the start of each Herdegen.
“Pete’s involved in the Herdegen from setup to take down for the four days of the event,” Palen said, which includes the 18-hole qualifier before the three championship rounds.