2 Westchester Country Club Members Earn Top MGA Awards

James Nicholas named 2017 Player of the Year while WCC Exec Director Bob James honored with Distinguished Service Award.

Westchester Country Club will occupy two spots on the dais at the Metropolitan Golf Association’s annual dinner this year. Scarsdale native and WCC member James Nicholas will be honored as the MGA Jerry Courville Sr. Player of the Year for 2017 while retiring WCC Executive Director Robert James will receive the MGA Distinguished Service Award.

Nicholas, a junior at Yale, accumulated points as an amateur through high finishes in particular local, national, and international championships. Early in the season, he made it to the semifinals in the Westchester Amateur, then tied for third at the Hochster Memorial and fifth in the 62^nd Ike before winning the Arcola Cup in early July. He was low amateur in the Westchester Open and third low am in the NYS Open.

As the season wound down, Nicholas played to a place in the semifinals in the 115^th Met Amateur Championship before appearing for the first time in the US Amateur in Los Angeles, where he advanced to match play. He finished his stellar season with a tie for low amateur in the Met Open.

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Nicholas credits work with WCC director of instruction Gary Weir as a major factor in his successful 2017 season. “This past winter marked the first winter that I was able to actually work on my game,” he says. “This allowed me to come into the golf season prepared and already in summer form.”

Robert James, MGA Distinguished Service Award winner.

The MGA Distinguished Service Award to be presented to WCC Executive Director Robert James honors someone who has a record of “distinguished service to golf and its related activities, consistent with the valued standards and honorable traditions of the game.”

James, began his career at The Philadelphia Country Club after graduating from Cornell and earning an MBA from Pace University. He served as General Manager at The Stanwich Club in Greenwich and held the same position at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Scarboroughbefore ultimately joining Westchester Country Club as Executive Director in 1991.

Among many other volunteer leaderships roles, James is a Founding Director of the Metropolitan Club Foundation and served as president of Club Managers Association of America.

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Both men will be honored at the MGA’s 120^th Annual Meeting and Dinner on December 6, fittingly held at Westchester Country Club.