Giuliani eyes tour card, future venues

Andrew Giuliani, the controversial son of Rudolph, himself the controversial former mayor of New York and presidential candidate, has made a solid start to his professional golf career. Taking some time off from suing his alma mater Duke University over being dismissed from the golf team, Giuliani notched his first pro victory in the Met Open on August 27, an event that is hotly contested among New York-area pros.

The win earned him $27,500. Then just two weeks ago he pre-qualified for PGA Tour Q-School in Dade City, Fla. He begins the long battle through Q School in pursuit of a PGA Tour card later this month.

But this weekend Giuliani learns that -- to paraphrase Tip O'Neill -- all golf is local. On Oct. 10 he tees it up in the Champions Cup against some of the best amateurs from New Jersey's most storied clubs. Though billed as a friendly matchplay event, the tournament comes with a PGA Tour subplot.

The Champions Cup lineup includes Ridgewood Country Club (which hosted The Barclays, the first leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs, in 2008 and will do so again in 2010); Plainfield Country Club (which will host in 2011); and Essex County Country Club, an underrated gem that bears the design imprints of A.W. Tillinghast, Seth Raynor and Charles Banks. Essex County CC recently underwent major improvements with an eye to snagging The Barclays in the future.

Noticeably absent from the lineup is Liberty National, the upscale private club that hosted this year's Barclay's, and which was almost universally panned by the pros.

Giuliani's opponents are Mike Stamberger (a two-time club champion at Plainfield), David Rahal (last year's champ at Ridgewood) and Greg Stebbins (the reigning Essex County club champion).

Andrew Giuliani meets the press at the driving range

Andrew Giuliani and his mother, Donna Hanover, met with reporters on Thursday at the driving range at Randall's Island. As he beat balls off a mat, he talked about his lawsuit against Duke, which accuses the university of dismissing him from the team without just cause and of dashing his hopes of becoming a pro. But it also emerged that he's seeking lifetime playing privileges at Duke's facilities. According to The Times:

In the suit, Andrew Giuliani is asking for damages and for the right to use Duke’s golf center for the rest of his life, as he said he was promised when he was recruited to play for the school.

While it looked like a very nice range at Randall's Island, especially by New York City standards, losing out on a neverending pass to the spread at Duke (above right) definitely seems worth going to court over. The school's Web site describes the practice facilities this way:

The practice and chipping greens total over 20,000 square feet of putting surface and are carefully maintained to match the speed of the greens on the course. You can really give your "short game" a great workout here! 

The driving range is also enormous, with more than 40 hitting stations. The Duke men's and women's golf teams have their own practice areas, so don't worry about being crowded!

(Photo: golf.duke.edu)