Tag: Ridgewood Real estate

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Great Britain sent the triumvirate of Whitcombe brothers — Charles, Ernest and Reg — but they did little to alter the home-course advantage for the Americans, who were boosted by the play of Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen, Paul Runyan and Horton Smith, and the duo of Henry Picard and Johnny Revolta in the opening foursomes. Picard and Revolta turned in the “narrowest” victory for the three sets of U.S. stars, with a 6 and 5 conquest of Percy Alliss and Alf Padgham. Hagen, competing for the final time in his remarkable Ryder Cup career, joined Sarazen for a 7 and 6 romp past Alf Perry and Jack Busson. The heat wasn’t as stifling as it had been four years earlier in Columbus, Ohio, but there was clover on the fairways to distract some players. Britain’s Charles and Ernest Whitcombe combined for the only foursome victory, a 1-up decision over Olin Dutra and Ky Laffoon. However, Captain Charles Whitcombe elected to sit out the singles as he apparently felt all three Whitcombes in the Matches at the same time was unfair to other teammates. But, Hagen did the same and watched happily from the gallery as his team eased to a 6-2 domination of the singles. Hagen retired from competing in an event he had helped launch with a 7-1-1 record.

Great Britain United States
Foursomes
A Perry & J Busson 0 G Sarazen & W Hagen (7 & 6) 1
A H Padgham & P Alliss 0 H Picard & J Revolta (6 & 5) 1
W J Cox & E W Jarman 0 P Runyan & H Smith (9 & 8) 1
C A Whitcombe & E R Whitcombe (1 hole) 1 O Dutra & K Laffoon 0
Singles
J Busson 0 G Sarazen (3 & 2) 1
R Burton 0 P Runyan (5 & 3) 1
R Whitcombe 0 J Revolta (2 & 1) 1
A H Padgham 0 O Dutra (4 & 2) 1
P Alliss (1 hole) 1 C Wood 0
W J Cox (halved) ½ H Smith (halved) ½
E R Whitcombe 0 H Picard (3 & 2) 1
A Perry (halved) ½ S Parks (halved) ½

>Posted: Sunday August 17, 2008 11:11AM ET

In the beginning at Ridgewood Country Club, A.W. Tillinghast designed the short par- 4 known as the “five-and-dime” hole – and it was good. But it was also too long to reach the green with just one shot for players swinging the hickory- shafted clubs of the day at soft-as-oatmeal balls. But that was then and this is now, when 300-yard drives are the norm. The par-4 that now measures 291 yards and will play as The Barclays’ fifth hole (it’s No. 6 on the club’s Center nine) and earn entry into a growing PGA Tour trend: driveable par-4s. From the fans’ point of view, the decision to go for the green in one or lay up and wedge on in two prompts substantial debate (often out loud) and could make the “five-and-dime” (so named because players often used a 5-iron, then a 10-iron, now a wedge, to play it) the most fascinating Barclays hole to watch. There’s apparently far less debate among golf officials, players and architects, many of whom love the concept of driveable par-4s because of the “risk-reward” variables they present. Phil Mickelson agrees. Since becoming involved in course architecture, he said he’s noticed that with par-3s stretching to 250 yards and beyond, and some par-4s now exceeding 500, short-4s have gotten lost in the shuffle. So he loves the five-and-dime, which he tried to reach with both a driver and 3-wood during a June sponsor’s outing.

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By Jessica Cejnar | Peninsula Clarion
His king may be 27 pounds shy of the world record, but after 27 years fishing the Kenai River Martin Quinn is one fish closer to his goal.

Quinn, a resident of Ridgewood, N. J., dreams of taking Les Anderson’s place as the person who caught the biggest king salmon on the Kenai. Every summer, Quinn spends about eight hours a day on the river and has reeled in fish weighing 65 pounds. But on the last Sunday of the king salmon fishery, at 6:32 in the morning, he found himself, with both hands on his rod, struggling to land a 71-pounder.

“I caught the fish right off the boat ramp at River Bend and when the fish hit he started running upstream,” he said.

Quinn’s king took him about 600 yards upstream to Big Eddy before he got the upper hand and hauled him down to the Pillars boat launch. Quinn fought his fish for about 30 minutes with both hands on the rod before he landed it with the help of his daughter Blair Quinn and son-in-law Ben Wullschlager.

“I think if I had a 50-pounder on I could handle the rod and net myself,” he said. “It really took two hands to hold onto the rod and my daughter’s netted many fish and she was right there on the net and did an excellent job.”

Quinn began fishing for salmon and steelhead trout in Portland, Ore. where he was president of the Tom McCall Chapter of Northwest Steelheaders and a member of the Oregon State Marine Board. Quinn’s introduction to the Kenai River began in 1981 and he’s been back ever since.

“In the early days I used to go out with guides and I remember the big jet engines on their boats and of course those things are all outlawed these days,” he said. “For the first maybe five or six years we would go out fishing with guides and then we started going to River Bend in Soldotna.”

When his 71-pound king salmon hit on July 27, Quinn said he wasn’t aware how big his fish was until it started swimming upstream.

“I’ve caught 50-pounders and 65-pounders on the Kenai and you always know you have a big fish if he starts the run upstream,” he said, adding that the biggest fish he ever caught up until then was 68 pounds. “Just about every big fish I’ve ever had continues his journey upstream.”

For the last 10 years Quinn, his wife, Ellen, and his daughter and son-in-law have fished for eight hours a day, but back in his Steelheader days Quinn would fish 18 hours a day.

His friends would take turns running the boat and on down times, they would find the time to sleep.

“Now that the ladies in my life are coming along with me I have to do everything,” he said. “I have to run the boat, bait the lures and do all the riggings and what have you. They help out with snacks on the boat, that’s about it.”

Because his fish was about four pounds shy of trophy status, Quinn said he filleted it and froze it.

The 71-pound king yielded 40 pounds of meat, he said, and he plans on serving it up to family and friends at dinner parties.

“You should have seen the fillets in this thing,” he said, “they were almost five inches thick.”

Quinn also has a long way to go toward beating Les Anderson’s record, but he’s confident he will some day.

“You always hear tell that the commercial guys are getting 100-pound salmon every year,” he said.

“I think there’s a lot of truth to that. The fish is out there, you just have to be lucky enough to get it on your line.”

Jessica Cejnar can be reached at [email protected].

>By STEPHEN EDELSON
STAFF WRITER

It’s not often that the spotlight of the golfing universe focuses on New Jersey.

It used to happen every 13 years when the U.S. Open made its traditional stop at Baltusrol, which hosted the PGA Championship three years ago.

But with the arrival of the Barclays Classic at Ridgewood Country Club next week, the PGA Tour will kick off its four-event FedEx Cup playoff format in the Garden State. The Barclays, which had been at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y. since 1967, will be held at Liberty National in Jersey City next year, and will likely be played in New Jersey regularly in the coming years.

And while Tiger Woods won’t be in the field, the Barclays affords area fans with a unique opportunity to see the finest players in the world compete in a lucrative, prestigious tournament on a classic A.W. Tillinghast design.

It should make for an incredible week.

The course will be played over a composite of the 27 holes at Ridgewood, seeking to provide the toughest challenge for the players and the best possible experience for the fans.

Defending champion Steve Stricker is probably the best story in the field. With his emotional victory at Westchester, he ended a six-year winless drought on the PGA Tour. Stricker has been the Comeback Player of the Year in each of the last two seasons, and is now looking for a strong finish to complete his rebirth by earning a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup squad.

“It’ll be a little different coming to a place I’ve never seen before, a course where I didn’t win last year,” he said last week.

“From what I’ve understood from talking to people who live out there and have played Ridgewood, we’re going to a great facility, an old-time, classic course, with some tradition, too. (But) it’ll be kind of weird that it’s not the course (where) I won.”

No one turns up his game in the New York metropolitan area more than Phil Mickelson. His 72nd-hole meltdown at Winged Foot in the U.S. Open two years ago aside, Mickelson plays very well in the region and is embraced by the crowds. He won the PGA at Baltusrol, and was second behind Tiger Woods at the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black.

Mickelson got a look at Ridgewood last month when he played in a sponsors event at the club.

The hope is that the venue switch will help energize the tournament, which suffered from lackluster attendance and television ratings last year.

For fans heading up to Ridgewood, there are several spots on the course that will make for incredible viewing.

The 15th hole, a 155-yard, par-3, will be transformed into a “stadium hole,” much like the 16th hole at the TPC-Scottsdale, where fans spend much of the day cheering and booing shots. It could also end up being one of the decisive holes on Sunday.

Another is the fifth hole, a 291-yard, par-4 known as “five-and-dime,” which dates back to the days when players would hit a 5-iron off the tee and a 10-iron up the hill to the green. But players next week will be tempted to drive the ball onto the tiny putting surface, while seating will enable fans to watch the entire drama unfold.

On Tuesday at 1 p.m., PGA Tour player Jim McGovern from Oradell will join Nets guard Devin Harris to co-host a clinic for local youth.

Tickets for the Barclays will be available at the gate. General admission on Tuesday and Wednesday is $35 in advance and $45 at the gate. On the tournament dates, Thursday through Sunday, admission is $45 in advance and $55 at the gate. A weekly general advance ticket, good for the entire week and available in advance only, is $100.

For ticket information, call (800) 765-4742 or visit www.thebarclaysgolf.com.

>After passing an new ordinance that severely limits smoking within the Village Hall and Public Library complex, Village Council members agreed to consider extending the smoking restrictions to Graydon Pool and other Village owned properties. It is anticipated that this topic will be discussed during an upcoming Village Council Work Session.

>Because some of you still(?) read the NY Times….

By Sarah Rabil

Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) — New York Times Co. faces increased financial pressure to cut its dividend as credit quality deteriorates amid record advertising declines.

Bondholders are paying for the Sulzberger family’s decision last year to raise the quarterly dividend 31 percent to 23 cents a share. The extra yield investors demand to own New York Times bonds instead of U.S. Treasuries has more than doubled in 2008. The cost to protect the debt against default has climbed 27 basis points since the newspaper publisher posted earnings July 23, meaning investors are betting that credit quality will weaken further.

Moody’s Investors Service says one way for New York Times to save its rating, a step above junk and in danger of being cut, would be to reduce the dividend costing $132 million a year.

“They’d have potentially more cash available to fund investments and debt reduction,” Moody’s analyst John Puchalla in New York said in an interview. “Depending on how they use that cash that’s freed up, that could be beneficial to the rating.”

Shareholders also are losing out with a 39 percent drop in the stock since March 2007, when the New York-based company’s controlling Ochs-Sulzberger family raised the dividend the most in a decade to appease investors. The payout, coupled with an accelerated 16 percent drop in June ad sales, has contributed to higher borrowing costs while failing to support the stock. The Class A shares rose 6 cents to $14.15 at 6.33 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Like Junk

Credit-default swaps used to speculate on New York Times’ creditworthiness or to hedge against losses are trading as if the company already was rated junk, according to data from Moody’s credit strategy group.

The contracts, costing $397,000 a year to protect $10 million in debt for five years, trade as if the company had a Ba3 rating from Moody’s, three levels below its actual Baa3 rating, the data show. Moody’s on July 29 changed its credit- rating outlook to negative on concern the advertising slump will worsen.

Standard & Poor’s BBB- rating, on watch for a downgrade, already reflects the dividend’s cost, analyst Emile Courtney said in an interview. Faster print-ad declines in the industry’s worst slump on record could trigger a junk rating, the New York- based analyst said.

A rating cut to junk may increase the spread, or extra yield, on 5 percent New York Times bonds maturing in 2015 by at least 73 basis points to 551 basis points, according to the Merrill Lynch BB Bond Index. That indicates the bond’s price may fall 3.1 cents on the dollar to 80.3 cents.

Those bonds have fallen to 83.4 cents on the dollar from 94.2 cents in late 2007, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The spread more than doubled to 478 basis points. The bondholders are primarily insurance companies, including State Farm Life Insurance Co. Bank lenders include Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Rivals Retreat

Competitors are abandoning the strategy of using the dividend to retain investors, said Ken Doctor, an analyst at Outsell Inc. in Burlingame, California.

In the past month, Miami Herald publisher McClatchy Co. put its dividend policy on review; GateHouse Media Inc., publisher of 97 dailies, suspended its payout; E.W. Scripps Co. declared a smaller dividend than it forecast before splitting off cable-TV channels; and Gannett Co., owner of USA Today, skipped its annual increase for the second time in 41 years.

Each saw a drop in newspaper advertising in the second quarter, following the industry’s 14 percent skid in the first.

New York Times’ dividend yields 6.5 percent, second-highest after Gannett among media companies in the S&P 500 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The family’s 19 percent equity stake, according to filings, entitles members to about $25.1 million in payments this year. A family trust holds 89 percent of Class B shares that elect 70 percent of board members.

Newsroom Cuts

The family has historically sought to preserve New York Times’ access to cash and has limited its borrowing, said Fitch Ratings media analyst Mike Simonton in Chicago, who doesn’t rate the debt. “It’s possible that their risk-tolerance has increased,” which would lessen the chances of a dividend cut.

New York Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said the company and Chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. declined to comment. The company balances shareholder value with borrowing costs and expects to keep its investment-grade rating, Chief Financial Officer James Follo said on a July 23 conference call.

Chief Executive Officer Janet Robinson has accelerated cost cuts and projects annual savings will surpass a target of $230 million by the end of 2009. In May, the New York Times said it eliminated 100 newsroom jobs.

Reducing debt, stabilizing revenue and an improving advertising market could also help the company maintain its credit rating, Moody’s Puchalla said.

Cash Flow

The dividend this year will exceed New York Times’ cash flow from operations minus capital expenses, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Peter Appert estimates. Next year it will eat up about 75 percent of estimated free cash flow as capital spending is reduced, he said.

“That’s probably too high,” said Appert, in San Francisco, who recommends selling the stock. “It doesn’t give them an awful lot of flexibility in terms of preserving cash for other uses.”

Chairman Sulzberger fended off shareholders last year who challenged the family’s voting control. The company’s largest investor is now Harbinger Capital Partners. The New York-based hedge fund placed two nominees on the board this year and raised its stake to almost 20 percent as of Aug. 1. Tripp Kyle, an outside spokesman for Harbinger, said the firm declined to comment.

The need to refinance a $400 million credit agreement, part of the company’s $1.1 billion in total debt, by May 2009 may force cash-freeing moves.

A downgrade “makes it potentially hard to refinance,” said Barclays Capital analyst Hale Holden in New York, who recommends a short credit position. “That’s complicated if you’re burning cash by paying the dividend.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Rabil in New York at [email protected]

Last Updated: August 12, 2008 09:38 EDT

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And now for the real story

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Washington, D.C., August 7, 2008 — New Jersey taxpayers bear the heaviest state-local tax burden in 2008, and Alaskans have the lightest tax burden, according to a new report from the Tax Foundation.

In Tax Foundation Special Report, No. 163, “State-Local Tax Burdens Dip As Income Growth Outpaces Tax Growth,” senior economist Gerald Prante computes each state’s combined state-local tax burden, accounting for taxes paid out of state.

The nation as a whole paid 9.7% of its income in state-local taxes, down from 9.9% in 2007 primarily because income grew faster than tax collections between 2007 and 2008.

New Jersey residents paid 11.8%, topping the charts. New Yorkers were close behind, paying 11.7%, and Connecticut was third at 11.1%. The top ten were rounded out by Maryland (10.8%), Hawaii (10.6%), California (10.5%), Ohio (10.4%), Vermont (10.3%), Wisconsin (10.2%) and Rhode Island (10.2%).

Alaskans pay the least, 6.4 percent in 2008, but Nevada is close at 6.6 percent. In four states the residents pay between 7 and 8 percent of their income in state-local taxes: Wyoming (7.0%), Florida (7.4%), New Hampshire (7.6%) and South Dakota (7.9%). Four other states round out the bottom ten: Tennessee (8.3%), Texas (8.4%), Louisiana (8.4%) and Arizona (8.5%).

Tax Foundation rankings are sometimes confused with rankings based on Census Bureau’s tallies of state and local tax collections. The difference is out-of-state tax payments. When state and local governments collect large amounts from non-residents, whether as tourists, commuters, businesses or property owners, Census counts those payments in the collections of the taxing state; the Tax Foundation study counts them in the residential state of the taxpayer.

The most recent estimates are for fiscal year 2008 which ended June 30, and the historical burden data cover the 32 years starting with 1977.

Historical data and rankings, sorted by year and by state, are available at https://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/336.html and https://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/335.html.

Click here to read the new report, “State-Local Tax Burdens Dip As Income Growth Outpaces Tax Growth,” https://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/22320.html.

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