The name of the game is golf and many young Israelis were puttering around this week preparing to tee off at the Caesarea golf course at the forthcoming first annual Sam Sharrow Open Tournament Sharrow, who resides in Florida, is instrumental in helping to win international prominence for the Caesarea Country Club, not far from Tel Aviv, Israel’s first and only golf course. Before moving to Florida he spent more than 50 years in Massachusetts and in New York as a golf pro.
As a result of the splendid work and effort he has put into the Caesar club, he is being honored with the tournament which will run annually at the Israeli course. The spectacular Caesarea layout is constructed on the site of the ruins of one of civilization’s oldest cities.
It’s quite obvious that the majority of Israelis feel that they have more important problems than developing a good game of golf. In fact, the average Israel wouldn’t know the difference between a putter and a latke, and couldn’t care less. Sharrow set about correcting this situation and began working on the younger generation by giving dozens of clinics and checking on Caesarea pro Charlie Mandelstam’s progress with the Israeli Junior Golf Program.
Sharrow contends, "The best golfers in Israel are the South Africans. There is quite a colony of them who have immigrated to the Holy Land from Soutl Africa where they played the game."
Sharrow believes that youthful Israel’s have what it takes to become a top flight golfer — the basic game, total dedication and the proper mental attitude. However, most Israelis, according to Sharrow, happen to be realists who recognize priorities which makes golf something of a minor sport. Nevertheless, Sharrow is firmly convinced that ultimately golf, like tennis which produced a Shlomo Glickstein, will produce an international type linksman.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
