New Director of Golf at Leatherstocking Golf Course at The Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown

Tim Quirk Replaces Longtime Director of Golf Dan Spooner, Who’s Retiring

(COOPERSTOWN, NY) — PGA Professional Tim Quirk has been hired as the new director of golf at Leatherstocking Golf Course at The Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Quirk replaces longtime Leatherstocking GC Director of Golf Dan Spooner, who has served in the position for 23 years. Spooner will assist the transition by serving as Leatherstocking GC’s Senior Director of Golf before retiring at the end of the 2019 season.

“We’re sad to see Dan leave us after so many years but are thrilled that we’ll have some transition time,” said Jim Miles, General Manager and Chief Operating Officer at The Otesaga. “Dan’s will be big shoes to fill, but we know that Tim’s up to the challenge and look forward to seeing how he leads Leatherstocking into its next chapter.”

The Leatherstocking Golf Course sweeps along the western edge of Lake Otsego in the quintessentially American town of Cooperstown — home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and the historic home of James Fenimore Cooper, author of the legendary Leatherstocking Tales.

The course welcomes guests of The Otesaga; its sister property, The Cooper Inn; local residents; and visitors to the village of Cooperstown.

Spooner said the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Weekend each summer provided some of the most memorable highlights of his more than two decades at Leatherstocking GC. “The highlight of the summer around here is definitely the National Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Weekend,” he said. “We host a golf tournament and it’s a great thing to see all the Hall of Famers that come here to play golf.

“I remember when I first moved here, my first Induction Weekend, my youngest boy was 8 years old, and I see him out playing golf with Jim Palmer and Joe Morgan. I said, ‘Wow, that's amazing.’ I don't think he realized what was happening at the time, but he looks back on it now and feels very fortunate.”

Designed in 1909 by Devereux Emmet and offering panoramic vistas from almost every hole, Leatherstocking GC is considered one of the East’s most scenic and challenging resort golf courses. A prolific course architect in the early 1900s, Emmet also designed former U.S. Open site Congressional Country Club.

Following an upgrade overseen by the late golf course architect Bob Cupp, Leatherstocking GC has been voted No. 3 “Best Golf Course to Play in New York” by Golfweek magazine, while GOLF magazine and Golf Digest have both rated Leatherstocking among New York’s “Best Public Courses in New York” and “Top 50 Most Fun Public Courses.”

“I consider Leatherstocking to be one of the most iconic golf facilities and resorts in the country,” Quirk said. “To be able to look at this lake every day out of the pro shop window is pretty exhilarating.”

A PGA Professional since 1997, Quirk, 51, comes to Leatherstocking GC from Longmeadow Country Club, one of the premier golf clubs in Western Massachusetts, where he was the PGA Head Golf Professional for nine years.

Prior to that, Quirk was the PGA Head Golf Professional at Twin Hills Country Club in Enfield, CT and Tower Ridge Country Club in Simsbury, CT.

Quirk said his family — he and his wife, Erin, have two children, Drew and Ally — has owned a second home in upstate New York, about 20 miles from Cooperstown, for the last decade.

“I just fell in love with Cooperstown,” he said. “Whenever I could get a couple days off, we’d come here and wouldn’t even stay at our house; we would stay at the Otesaga Hotel just because we loved Cooperstown so much. We loved the golf course and we loved the town. This is where we decided we wanted to spend the rest of our days.”