Dartley Family
Salem Golf Club
Serious on the front and silly on the back is the way the three Dartley boys and their father, Ken, keep everybody interested in the game they play at Salem Golf Club. The boys, 10-year-old Finn and his 9-year-old twin brothers, Liam and Connor, play for real when they tee it up for the first nine holes but are free to use their imagination on the second nine. “Sometimes they’ll play a 7-iron from the tee or a driver from the fairway,” Dartley says, “which they think is hilarious, but it actually helps them learn to hit different shots.”
Dartley introduced the game to the boys four years ago. His own father put a club in his hand at the age of eight. “It’s been a lifelong love for me,” he says, “and I’m hoping to pass that along to my sons.” Summer camps and golf clinics at Salem GC keep them enthused. The boys also love hockey, with all three playing on travel teams.
While “fun” is the byword for every round they play, Dartley says he hopes they will also learn some of the many life lessons golf teaches. “Like not everything works out for you all the time. You have to play the ball where it lands, even if you didn’t hit a good shot.”
Cruikshank Family
Siwanoy Country Club
“We like doing things together as a family and golf at Siwanoy provides a great opportunity to do that,” says Doug Cruikshank. He, his wife, Lisa, and their two kids, Lindsey and Robbie, fit golf together into their busy schedules as often as they can, along with the other sports they also love and play.
“My wife and I are really racket-sports people who took up golf later in our lives,” Cruikshank says. In addition to golf, they all play squash, tennis, platform tennis, and pickleball. Lindsey, 22, picked up golf a few years ago. “Lindsey doesn’t play as much but seems to be a natural,” he says. “I always say I don’t know how she hits the ball as well as she does, but she does.”
Robbie, a 21-year-old student at Fordham University, is the power golfer in the group, according to his father. He got into the game as a young boy through programs at Siwanoy and went on to play on the Bronxville High School team. Today, he plays on the Fordham squash team. He’s an ambidextrous athlete, playing racquet sports right-handed and golf as a lefty.
“The best part of golf is that we can do it together, and we can all enjoy,” Cruikshank says. “And with the handicap system, we really can play together.”
Kang Family
Harrison Meadows Country Club
John and Kelly Kang were among the first to join Harrison Meadows when it opened for membership to residents of the town. Their kids, Anthony and Beverly, are avid golfers, too, and one family member (or more) plays almost every day. “We play as a family at least once a week,” John says. “We see a lot of other folks with their kids all the time, too. Harrison Meadows has a great family golf scene.”
Kelly played golf off and on until the family joined the club. “Now, I meet other friends here all the time and I play with other ladies on Tuesday evening. It’s a lot of fun.”
Beverly, 15, a sophomore at Harrison High School, competes on the school team and can be found at the course almost every day. “My parents forced me to start in the second grade,” she says. “I thought it was an old man’s game, like most people do. But then I started enjoying it.”
Both kids were introduced to the game at the Saxon Woods golf camp. Anthony, now a 20-year-old junior at Brown University, played on the Harrison team as well. In golf, he says, hope springs eternal: “Every day you come out to the course hoping to shoot a better score than the day before. You can get a triple bogey on the first hole and bounce back with a birdie on the second.”
Krinsky Family
Sunningdale Country Club
Simon, Kim, and especially their daughter, Eve, are found quite often in the winner’s circle at Sunningdale. The family, which plays at least 20 rounds each year together and many more individually, loves competition. Even when they’re competing against each other, Simon says, “golf is the best time we spend together.”
Tutelage from head pro Chris Toulson and many practice rounds paid off for 15-year-old Eve last year. Her triumph in the ladies championship made her the youngest champion of either gender in the club’s history. “I was super nervous because this was the first year when I thought I had a chance,” she says. Her initial attempt, when she was 13, started with a first-round match against her mother (whom she defeated after six playoff holes) and ended with a loss in the final round. Eve lost in the semi-finals the following year before closing the deal in 2023.
Eve’s trophies aren’t the only ones on the family’s shelf. Simon and Kim won the club’s husband-wife championship at Sunningdale last year.
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