Fifty years ago this week, Dennis Satyshur was preparing to start his first game as quarterback of the Duke University football team. It was a road game at Florida and Satyshur led the Blue Devils to a 12-6 victory over the Gators. Satyshur and the Blue Devils followed it by beating South Carolina, then winning at Virginia and Stanford before finishing the season 6-5.
A half century later, Satyshur is in his 31st and final year as the only director of golf Caves Valley Golf Club has ever had, the football memories still providing a warm glow as he and the club prepare for a long-awaited moment – hosting the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship, the second of three FedEx Cup playoff events.
Not only is it the first time Caves Valley has hosted a PGA Tour event – the top 70 in the points race qualified to be there – it’s the first time in 60 years the PGA Tour has made a stop in Baltimore, Maryland.
“We’ve had nothing of this magnitude,” Satyshur said by phone earlier this week. “We’ve hosted senior events, the LPGA and USGA events and college national championships, but this is a big deal. Of all the tournaments that are played, the top 70 in the world are coming here. It’s a dream come true. This is what guys talked about when we started this club.”
Since its inception, Caves Valley has distinguished itself. Among designer Tom Fazio’s most admired layouts, the club itself was created to be something special, a national club where the experience is the reason people want to be there. The Baltimore business community had lost out in a bid to land a major corporate headquarters, in part, because the executives had no clubs to join without adding their names to lengthy waiting lists. Local business leaders decided to create Caves Valley, which operates with a different approach.
It was an audacious idea, creating a club built around a national membership in an area of the country where winter golf is an off-and-on proposition at best. Satyshur left the long-established and respected Baltimore Country Club, and was instrumental in creating the Caves Valley experience.
“I feel like I left the Queen Mary – Baltimore Country Club – for the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria,” Satyshur said. “The guys behind this were dreamers.
“From the beginning, we wanted to attract people here.”
When the club asked for 2,000 volunteers to help with the BMW Championship, the list was filled up in three days. There are another 500 names on the waiting list for volunteers.
Among the things that separate Caves Valley is this:
On average, there are 15,000 rounds per year played there. Of those, approximately 10,000 rounds are played by guests.
More guests than members.
That’s one reason the club has 50 overnight rooms on property. And it features an excellent caddie program. The goal is to make every visit memorable.
“We’re just a friendly, kind of old-fashioned club,” Satyshur said. “If you’re here, you’re supposed to be here.”
For a place unaccustomed to crowds – Caves Valley hosted the 2002 U.S. Senior Open, the International Crown in 2014 and the Constellation Senior Players Championship in 2017, among other events – this week is different.
When the club asked for 2,000 volunteers to help with the BMW Championship, the list was filled up in three days. There are another 500 names on the waiting list for volunteers.
Satyshur said the previous record for hospitality sales for this event topped out at $7 million. The number went to $10 million this week.
“This is big for Baltimore,” Satyshur said.
The impact won’t end when the tournament leaves. The event has been run by the Western Golf Association for decades and helps fund the Evans Scholarship program, which provides tuition and housing scholarships to caddies, and has since 1930.
This year, more than 1,000 caddies are on Evans Scholarships at 21 universities, mostly in the Midwest. There are houses for Evans scholars at 15 universities and the proceeds from this BMW Championship will help fund an Evans house on the campus of the University of Maryland at College Park.
“Getting kids educated, getting them to college is so important. It changes their lives,” Satyshur said.
Five years after starting his first game at quarterback for Duke, Satyshur started working in the golf business. Now 71, the time has come to step away. The long-time head professional at Caves Valley, Matt Fuller, will keep alive what Satyshur has nurtured for three decades.
“What a way to go out,” Satyshur said. “I feel good about it. It’s time to take some time, travel a little bit and enjoy it.
“I’m going to ride this wave to the beach and enjoy it.”