FIRST-RATE
CAREER
Tony Caggiano , an indispensable VSGA contractor , is retiring after more than 30 years and 1,000-plus course ratings
by LEONARD SHAPIRO
ONY CAGGIANO has been around the game of golf for most of his 90 years . As a teenager , he began his involvement in golf as a caddie in the mid-1940s , earning $ 1.50 a bag at the famous Engineers Club on Long Island , not far from where he grew up .
That money went to a good cause : he and his two brothers contributed most of their earnings to help their father , a gardener on a large estate , to help make the family ’ s monthly mortgage payment . He still remembers the day his dad walked into their own modest house in Glen Cove , “ it cost $ 10,000 and change when we got it ,” he said — his father proudly announced to his sons , “ boys , we ’ ve paid off the mortgage .”
Young Tony didn ’ t play a lot back then , but at age 17 he recalled going out on the infamous Black Course at nearby Bethpage State Park , considered by many one of the toughest public courses in the world , and shot a respectable 78 . These days , he still plays an equally respectable game , shooting his age when he was 85 and doing it a few more times on his way to turning 90 in December 2022 .
Other numbers are equally impressive . Over the last 32 years , Caggiano , the course rating coordinator for the Virginia State Golf Association , has been doing just that at courses all around the state of Virginia . He ’ s done over 1,000 ratings since he first volunteered after attending a USGA meeting representing his home course , Springfield Golf and Country Club . In recent years he ’ s been a paid VSGA independent contractor .
Caggiano graduated from Bryant College ( now Bryant University ) in Providence , R . I ., served stateside in the Army during the Korean War and moved to Northern Virginia in 1966 when he went to work for the Lerner family as they began developing Tysons Corner . He rose to become general manager of the original Tysons Corner shopping mall and later held the same position at Wheaton Plaza and Springfield Mall .
RIGHT : Tony Caggiano turned a love for golf into a long career as a course rater . BELOW : Caggiano chats with volunteer Felicia Wilson while observing a course rating at Springfield Golf & Country Club .
22 V IRGINIA G OLFER | N OVEMBER / D ECEMBER 2022
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