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FAMILY AFFAIR
Warren’s Antonelli brothers linked by their longtime love of golf
By Greg Gulas
WARREN
When the Antonelli family gathers today at Columbiana’s Arrowhead Lake for a reunion, stories will be swapped.
Expecting in excess of 200 for the reunion, the family’s three golfing brothers got a jump on the gathering by staging a reunion of their own Thursday at the Avalon Golf and Country Club’s Squaw Creek Course.
Ed (77), Michael (75) and Carl (73) have had a love affair with the game for seven decades and continue to play together, when possible, after beginning as caddies at the Trumbull Country Club.
It’s a choice they’ve never regretted for they’ve continued to stay close because of golf. Each has enjoyed memorable moments along the way, including six total holes-in-one — two by each brother.
“My father, Carl, was an excellent golfer and he was the one who taught us the game and its etiquette,” Carl said. “He also said that we had to work, so what better way than to start out as a caddie for the club’s members with an opportunity to play the course for free on certain days.”
The brothers played golf for and graduated from St. Mary’s High School (now Warren JFK) with Ed (Class of 1956) a member of the school’s very first golf team in 1954. He was part of a group that won three straight Trumbull County championships.
Baseball, not golf, was his first love.
“I didn’t want to play golf, I just wanted to play Little League Baseball but my friend, Jim Ryan, was responsible for getting me interested in the game,” Ed said. “He told me we should go out, caddie and make a few bucks and I just got hooked.
“You make a new group of friends and they have become lifelong friends for all three of us.”
The first person Ed caddied for was Warren native Halsey Taylor, developer of the Puritan Sanitary Fountain.
Upon graduation, Ed became a four-year starter on the Youngstown University golf team, learning under the tutelage of Bill Carson.
Winner of four of the last five “Greatest Golfer of the Valley” Super Seniors titles, Ed also was a card-carrying member on the PGA Tour.
Retired since 1997 after 27 years of service with Packard Electric, Ed counts playing a round with college football’s first Heisman Trophy recipient, Jay Berwanger, among his many precious memories.
“It was 1968 and we were paired together at the Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey,” Ed said. “The course has been ranked as the number one course in both the United States and world for many years, and Jay Berwanger proved to be as classy as the course ranking.”
Middle brother, Michael, is the key to a family threesome in that he left home at 19 after spending two years at YU, later playing two years on the highly-ranked San Jose State golf team.
He remained on the Pacific Coast after graduation and settled in Little River, Calif., retiring after 31 years in food distribution services with the H.J. Heinz Company.
A gifted photographer, he recently has pulled back on his assignments.
“We had three players off that team make the PGA Tour and while I was 10th man, I felt every bit as important as the other members of the team,” Michael said. “Those years remain a very special time of my life.”
An NEO sectional qualifier with St. Mary’s, Michael’s 66 during the practice round tied future golf legend Jack Nicklaus for tops in the state.
In 1977, he played 50 times and with no handicap his 10 lowest scores came out to a 68 average.
Carl retired in 1998 after 30 years of teaching with the Warren City Schools.
He boasts of aces on the number three hole at old Avalon in 1961. In 1990, heearned his second hole-in-one on the number nine hole at Northwood.
“Both holes-in-one remain very special to me, it’s just that the third one has taken entirely too, too long,” Carl said.
“The last time all three of us were able to play together was at Avalon Lakes in 2004, which is why this week is so very special for all of us,” Carl said.