Working With Younger Golfers Brings Out the Best in Troy Head Pro Mike Kucera
 
By Mike Dyer
 
BRUNSWICK, May 28....Veteran Country Club of Troy head pro Mike Kucera says he never tires of watching young golfers growing up. He has helped many younger players with their golf games.

"You see them first as kids and then they become adults and good people," Kucera said. "The game of golf is an endless struggle to get better." Kucera, head pro at Troy since 1986, has seen amateur golfers like David Mooradian, Matt Young, Jimmy O'Connell and Jason DeVito become stars in the area. Now he sees Greg Burns, Chris Lang, Jay Cardish and Steve Quillinan Jr. arriving as budding standouts.

The 49-year-old Kucera, a graduate of Saratoga Springs High School and SUNY-Plattsburgh, has been one of the Northeast New York PGA's top players for a long time. Twice Kucera finished in the section's top five in stroke play and in 1992 Kucera went all the way to the finals before losing to Sagamore Resort's Tom Smack for the section's match play title.

In a few months Kucera will turn 50 and he promises to compete in senior events. He's already done just about everything else in golf. The father of two was voted the NENY PGA's Sportsman of the Year in 2000, named the Pro of the Year in 2004 and last year Kucera was voted the Golf Teacher of the Year. He works with more 70 amateur players in an average summer at the par-71 Country Club of Troy layout. Kucera was a Troy assistant pro from 1981 to 1983 and the head pro at Pinehaven Country Club in Guilderland in 1984 and '85.
He started playing the game at the age of 3. Kucera's early moments as a golfer came at McGregor Links Country Club in Wilton.

He has posted five career holes-in-one and he's had an amazing two double eagles. In his best round at Troy, Kucera carved out a six-under-par 65. He was only two strokes away from the course record set in 1933.
In three weeks he'll be the center of attention as the three-day Troy Invitational unfolds at CC of Troy.