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Hun Headmaster Byer Stays the Course In Fifth Decade of Golf Tournament Play
By Bill Alden
With the school year fast approaching, it would have been understandable if Hun School headmaster Dr. James Byer had taken it easy this Labor Day weekend.
Instead, the 59-year-old Byer headed over to the Doylestown Country Club last Friday to test his golf skills against some of the area's top players as he competed in the Trenton District Golf Association's J. William Hoffman Amateur Championship.
Showing that he still has game, the 13th seeded Byer topped a much younger foe, fourth seed Justin Van Hyning, to reach the quarterfinal where he lost No. 12 seed Alan Roatche.
The fine showing was just another bright chapter in Byer's distinguished history at the event which has seen him win it a record five times including an unprecedented four times in a row (1965-1968, 1972).
For Byer, a 1962 graduate of Hun, devoting his Labor Day weekend to a golf tournament wasn't anything out of the ordinary considering his love of sports.
"Athletics has always been a big part of my life," said the tall, silver-haired Byer, who played basketball and rowed at Hun and later at Marietta College. "When I was at the Hun School as a kid and as a teacher (1966-72), it was just part of the culture. It's been part of me for a long time, I have a very competitive nature."
Byer's introduction to golf, however, wasn't a product of his prep school education. "My mother played golf, she got me into the sport during my latter years of high school," recalls the genial Byer with a smile.
"After work in the summer it gave us something to do together. My father played with us periodically but it was my mother who was really into it."
During his time at Marietta, Byer had little time for golf as he focused on crew. "Rowing became a big part of my life," said Byer, who was inducted into Marietta's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996 for his stellar crew career which saw him row on two small college national championship boats.
"I rowed on the varsity boat all four years and was the captain of the team in my senior year. My rowing career was really a highlight for me athletically."
Yet all the time Byer spent on the water during the school year didn't sink his golf game when summer rolled around. "Rowing is a big team sport, if you don't do things in unison, if you don't train together, you don't win," explained Byer.
"Two weeks after I was done rowing, I would come back to this area and start work and playing in golf tournaments. It was something totally individual compared to the total team effort of crew."
Ironically, Byer had some of his greatest golf success right after arriving home from college. "I played better when I hadn't practiced," he said with a chuckle. "I got progressively worse through the summer. I hardly ever won anything in June or July."
Indeed, Byer's halycon days as a golfer came in the mid-1960s when he put together that four-year stretch of Trenton Amateur crowns, a feat which helped make him the Trentonian newspaper's pick as the local golfer of the decade for the 60s.
Byer then took his game south as he moved to the Fort Lauderdale area in 1972 to pursue professional opportunities there. His game thrived in the climate, as he took second in the Broward County amateur and won two club championships.
In 1994, Byer got the opportunity to come back as Hun's headmaster, a move that excited him on several levels.
"I had served as a headmaster for a school down there and had gotten my doctorate and some great leadership experience," said Byer. "When Hun invited me to come back as headmaster, I was thrilled. I was also thrilled to rejoin the Trenton District Golf Association."
Although Byer hasn't quite matched his previous exploits upon his return to the Mercer County golfing scene, he has more than held his own.
"In the mid-60s, I had a one handicap or zero, I was scratch," explained Byer, who nearly added to his Trenton amateur title haul in 2000 when he made the finals only to lose to college star Matt Davidson. "I'm a three or four handicap now. I shoot in the low 70s now, anywhere between 70-78 is where I'm at now."
Byer, who is a member at the Springdale Golf Club, has also excelled recently in better-ball competitions with partner John Gianacaci and in two-man scramble tournaments with Jim Litvack.
While Byer can still drive the ball 280-300 yards, he hasn't mastered the nemesis of many a golfer-putting.
"The weak part of my game is my putting," said Byers with a rueful grin. "I think I would've tried the regular tour or the senior tour but my putting is very questionable, it always has been. I've tried everything, I have 26 putters and they all work the same way so obviously it's not the equipment."
Byer, however, doesn't have any regrets about the path he has taken. "I love my life, I love being in education and seeing how the kids grow and develop from year to year," he asserted.
"Athletics are important but there is so much more out there. Kids need to be exposed to arts and to the culture of the world while at the same time respecting their physical well-being. I think what I have brought to the school is a respect for the athletic culture and a recognition of the need to balance that with so many areas in which kids should participate and develop themselves."
It sounds like Byer is more than ready to start the school year.
