Capital Region Scrapbook: It’s tee time!

PHOTOGRAPHER: Jeff Wilkin

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Danny Kelly was a big man on the golf course.

The Schenectady restaurateur was a man of generous proportion in real life, too. But he was stingy on strokes at places like Mohawk Golf Club in Niskayuna — he generally finished a round in the low 70s.

“I quit when it gets any warmer,” Kelly said with a laugh, “because I can’t stand the heat.”

The heat hasn’t shown up yet. While some golfers have already hooked and sliced their first shots of the season during March expeditions, others will wait until snow and chilly temperatures are no longer in the forecast.

Kelly’s first threesome during the spring of 1957 included Schenectady Gazette reporter Kathy Muller and photographer Charles B. Sellers Jr. Danny was the star as the newspaper illustrated rights and wrongs on fields of green.

Kelly played courteous golf at Mohawk, the current site of the Mohawk Commons shopping center on Balltown Road near Route 5. He didn’t drop candy wrappers, golf ball packages or broken tees all over the place. And he watched where he rolled his caddy cart — experienced sportsmen never put wheel marks on the greens.

Muller also knew the game. “One form of the irksome golfer is the pusher,” she wrote. “And he carries a threat of danger in his habit of driving off before the golfers in front have hit their first fairway shots. Of course, there is something to his argument that slowpokes ahead inspire his attitude.”

Golfers who did not replace divots, and left deep footprints in sand traps, were no friends of Kelly.

Danny had better manners. He had a big yell when he cried “Fore!” during his round. And he probably had a big tip waiting for caddy Nick Celenza at the end of the day.