When Bob Bernstein became director of the Flint Junior Golf Association in 1985, it was already the nation’s largest such program. Attendance the year before Bernstein took over was 1,074. Under his direction, the FJGA’s enrollment not only increased, it exploded. By 1998, the nation’s oldest junior golf program was home to a whopping 2,299 youngsters.
Yet to hear Bernstein talk about it, he really didn’t do anything special. He was simply doing his job. The Greater Flint Area Sports Hall of Fame disagrees, which is why it is honoring him tonight. Bernstein’s enormous contributions to the FJGA have earned him the GFASHF Special Service Award. I’m obviously honored,” said Bernstein, 56. “It’s very nice. I’m amazed. But I don’t really think I deserve it. l have four boys who played football and soccer and all those things, and I saw all the coaches doing things for them. l was just trying to do my job.
Plus, I felt I should do my thing to give back to the people who did for me. People like Vera Glidden, Don Jarrard, Audrey Smith and Steve Braun.” Bernstein spent 10 years as the FJGA’s assistant director under Braun, his longtime friend and former high school teammate at Flint Southwestern. When Braun resigned in the fall of 1985 to take a post with the American Junior Golf Association, Bernstein was the obvious choice to succeed him.
The program soon became so big that there weren’t enough courses for all of the youngsters to play on Mondays. So, for a couple of years, some groups played on Tuesdays. Bernstein kept the top job until turning over the reins to longtime supervisor Judy Hamilton last year. And even then, he was always available to help out behind the scenes.
“It was always my feeling that the heroes of the program were the golf courses and the supervisors,” Bernstein said. “The main thing was keeping the cost of the program down. During my tenure it reached a high of $20. Other programs with 1,000 kids were charging $200. Can you imagine if we tried to charge that here?” Enrollment has since dropped below 2,000, allowing the FJGA to return to its one-day-a-week schedule.
But it’s nobody’s fault enrollment as decreased. In fact, the FJGA probably could have continued to climb except it got so big that officials couldn’t handle all of the other details it takes to run such a large program. We tried to help people out on carpooling,” Bernstein said. We couldn’t do that anymore and that’s why the numbers started to come down.”
Bernstein also coached golf at Mott Community College, founded the Atlas Two-Man Championship; helped bring the Buick Junior Open to Flint; served as Channel 12’s Buick Open analyst when it televised the tournament, and was a committee member for the Genesee All-Star Classic, the area’s most prestigious amateur tournament.
As a player, Bernstein helped Southwestern win State Class titles in 1962 and 1973. He also captured the 1973 City Amateur Championship. These days, Bernstein and his wife, Julie, a former FJGA supervisor, split their time between Harbor Springs and Naples, Fla.
Both retired as teachers in the Flint school system, but both also wanted to continue working. What they couldn’t find satisfactory employment near Harbor Springs they decided to head south ant now spend their winters working at East Naples Middle School where Bob teaches math and Julie teaches English.
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