Cyprian swings big club in development.

• Position: SPORTS

Byline: Bill Doyle

COLUMN: GOLF NOTES

Many honors awarded to golf courses are highly subjective. Whether one course is better than another is a matter of opinion.

But here's an honor that's actually meaningful and good for golf - being recognized by the National Golf Course Owners Association for implementing the most successful player development programs in the previous year.

Every golf club wants the game to grow.

So Cyprian Keyes Golf Club in Boylston has the right to be proud about receiving such an award from the NGCOA. Cyprian joined Los Lagos and Rancho del Pueblo golf courses in California and Carson Valley Golf Course in Carson City, Nev., in being honored with the Player Development Award.

With five sets of tees on its 18-hole championship course and a nine-hole par-3 course, Cyprian welcomes golfers of all ages and skill levels.

"To win the award," Cyprian general manager David Frem said, "you had to have a breath of efforts from kids all the way through adults and have some proven revenue numbers to show that it actually works. One of the problems with all the focus on junior development, which is obviously extremely important, is that there are a lot of adults leaving the game, too. A lot of people forget that you still have to figure out a way to get adults to come into the game."

For juniors, Cyprian offers two memberships, weekly summer tournaments, a travel league, clinics and individual lessons. Brittany Altomare, who played in the Junior Ryder Cup last summer, began golfing as a junior at Cyprian Keyes.

Cyprian also is involved with the Worcester Jewish Community Center, TeamWorks in Auburn, and the YMCA.

For adults, Cyprian offers Nine & Dine, Sunday Family Day, and Ladies Day, which accounted for $7,000 in revenue last year.

Par-3 outings offer businesses the option of including instructional clinics and the club's respected golf school.

"I'll take a little credit for some of the ideas," Frem said, "but basically everything that we won the award for was implemented by Terry (O'Hara, director of golf) and his staff. So it makes me feel good that we made some right decisions in hiring the right people and they believed in what we believed."

Dan Falcucci took over the Nine & Dine program, the Ladies Day, men's league and tournaments this year after Matt Stephens left to become head pro at Blackstone National.

"Matt did a great job for us," Frem said, "and certainly we're happy to see him get a head pro job at Blackstone...