The CSGA Links Volume 6 Issue 4 August 2018 | Page 6

FIRST SHOT
Message from the CSGA Executive Director - Mike Moraghan
Remembering the Great Ones
E

arly one morning during the Connecticut Amateur at the Country Club of Waterbury, while
out on the course setting up tee markers, I discovered something very, very special.
It was a bench at the back of the 16 th tee.

The bench itself was not unusual. In fact, it looked just like all the other benches that can
be found near many of the tee boxes at Waterbury. Wooden, painted brown, a little beaten up
and weathered by the elements.

But on this particular bench was a small, shiny nameplate that read,
In Memory Of Charlie Gibbs

Charlie Gibbs was my father’s best friend. The two of them played hundreds of
rounds together at Waterbury and dozens of other courses. Mostly as partners, although
with the usual rotation among friends like Griff and Conley and Otto and Father O’Dea
and Harold Smith and Judge Elliot they often squared off on opposite sides in friendly
matches.

But mostly they were partners, and a formidable team, Dad (Marty) at a low single
digit and Charlie getting a healthy number of strokes at somewhere between an 8 and a
12. They were men who loved to compete and who loved to bust each other’s chops (and
everyone else’s) at every opportunity. Laughter and groans and little celebrations and constant
banter were fellow com-
panions in all of their
foursomes.

I was lucky to
play a lot of rounds
with my father, Mr.
Gibbs and their many
friends. Dad would say,
“we’ve got Charlie and
the Judge on Saturday,”
or “it’s Charlie and Roy
O’Neill” and I knew it
was going to be a great
day at Waterbury.

Finding
this
bench, in memory of
Charlie, was a wonder-
ful surprise.
6 | CSGA Links // August 2018
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