Golf Club Extension

"It looks like it's the beginning of a long and prosperous relationship between New York State and the club," Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. of Noyac said following the announcement this week that the State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historical Preservation had granted the Sag Harbor Golf Club a three-year lease extension to run the 50-acre nine-hole course off Route 114.

The state, said Mr. Thiele, had cast a hungry look the club's way "ever since 1989 or so, when [coincident with the state's Barcelona Neck purchase], we were almost thrown out on our ears. After that, it seemed that with every new Governor and Parks Commissioner the club's right to exist was threatened."

Mr. Thiele, who learned to play golf at the club, credited its officers, including Jim Schiavoni, Marshall Garypie Jr., and Paul Bailey, with having brought about the thaw in state-club relations.

Better For Everyone

"The key point," said Mr. Thiele, "is that last year we were given a one-year reprieve by the Parks Department," which took over ownership of the course from the State Department of Environmental Conservaton. "And in '97, everything was so positive what with the good weather, the publicity the club received in the media, and because of the Tiger Woods effect, that the club recently turned over $100,000 to the state, which didn't hurt."

"All those things working together helped to convince the state that it was in everybody's interests to have a longer agreement," Mr. Thiele added.

As part of the lease extension, the club has been asked by the state to call its members "annual fee-payers," presumably to underline the fact that visitors may play there (for $10 during the week and $15 on weekends) as well as those paying $240 in annual dues.