KINGSTON, N.Y. — Jack Breno could easily sit back and enjoy retirement like most folks his age.
But the 85-year-old Wiltwyck Golf Club teaching pro would rather share his vast knowledge of the game with students even on hot, steamy summer days. “It keeps me young,” Breno said in a recent interview at the Kingston golf club. The Ellenville resident has worked his magic on golfers young and old.
The oft-heard refrain from those who might need a quick fix to their game is: “I went to see Jack.” And while Breno’s institutional knowledge of the golf swing has aided some of the area’s top professionals and amateurs, many of his students cherish the time spent with the man talking about things other than golf. Three-time Ulster County Men’s Amateur Golf Championship (The Herdegen) winner and reigning Wiltwyck men’s club champ Doug Kleeschulte Jr.
has been seeing Breno long before the veteran PGA member came to teach at Wiltwyck six years ago. “I’ve been going to Jack for the last 20-plus years,” Kleeschulte said. “Although he’s an amazing teacher and I wouldn’t have had the successes I have had throughout the years without him, he is an even better person.
In many ways, he has been an extra grandfather to me and I feel so fortunate my dad brought me to him all those years ago.” Jon Rubinstein, who won the first of four Herdegen titles as an Ellenville High golfer in 1983, feels fortunate to have taken lessons from Breno when he was the head professional at the Nevele Country Club in Ellenville. Breno worked at the Nevele for 34 years.
Rubinstein said he could watch Breno hit golf balls for hours at a time on the range. He first began working with Breno when he was about 10. “He was the first person I got lessons from and he set me up right with the grip, stance and tempo,” Rubinstein recalled.
“My fundamentals have always been phenomenal because of Jack. One thing a lot of people don’t know is that Jack was a revered amateur and professional in his early days.” Breno, a graduate of Union-Endicott High in Endicott in Broome County, got started in the golf business by working in the En-Joie Golf Club pro shop in Endicott for two years.
He worked for several clubs in the Northeast before getting into the sod business. His first area job was at the Nevele, which has been closed for a number of years. Following his long stay at the Nevele, Breno worked at Rondout Country Club in Accord under John DeForest until the course closed in 2017.
Breno also spent several years at the Hudson Valley Resort & Spa at Kerhonkson. Breno feels blessed that he’s been able to work at many clubs and have the opportunity to teach so many fine professionals and amateurs. He said the hardest working player he can remember was former tennis pro Ivan Lendl, who captured nine majors in professional tennis.
“I remember one time he was on the putting green at the Nevele at 10 o’clock in the morning,” Breno said. “At 6 o’clock at night, my daughter asked me, ‘Who’s that guy on the putting green?’ It was Lendl. He hadn’t left the putting green since 10 o’clock in the morning.
” Breno and his wife, Bridget, live in Ellenville. They have three daughters, Vicky, Jackie and Christine, the latter who has followed in her father’s footsteps in the golf business. She runs the golf shop at West Hills Country Club in Middletown, New York.
Breno said he’s had to change how he’s taught over the years to keep up with the times. “You can’t teach anybody to swing nice now,” he said. “You have to teach them to hit it as hard as they can now with the way the clubs and golf balls are.
” Breno isn’t a fan of golf course architects who go to a golf course and remove a lot of trees. “I talked to an architect recently and told him, ‘You guys are claiming the balls are going too far and then you take out a lot of trees,'” Breno said. “Every time they cut down a tree, that’s the only time the ball goes backwards (when it hits a tree).
Winged Foot Golf Club, for instance, is now wide open because they’ve taken down so many trees. And those were beautiful trees.” Breno said he still loves teaching.
He has over 800 golf books at home that offer a wealth of information. Breno said there’s nothing like working on a young person’s game and seeing them develop over the years. “I really get a lot of enjoyment working with the kids,” Breno said.
“That’s my passion. It’s kept me young. Basically, there’s nothing new in golf.
With all the lessons out there and videotapes, and then you see a guy like (Scottie) Scheffler and his leg actions, you wonder how he does that. When I work with good players, I’ll ask them who they think is the greatest ball striker. A lot of them will say Rory (McIlroy) or Tiger (Woods).
And I’ll tell them the best one is Iron Byron, the machine that tests clubs and balls. That machine has no hips, no shoulders, no legs. People will ask me when they’re taking lessons about what they should do with their hips and shoulders and I tell them not to worry about things that just happen.
” DeForest, who played on the PGA Tour and what was then called the European Tour early in his golfing career, said he first began working with Breno in 1990 when DeForest was at Rondout as the head pro and part-owner. “I needed a pair of eyes,” DeForest said. “Someone to watch my swing and help me out.
I heard about Jack and went down to the Nevele to see him. Over the years, I’ve grown to really respect his golf knowledge in every aspect of the game with him having played it himself. It has resulted in a 34-year-old friendship.
“I still work with him on my swing. In my mind, he’s the most respected golf guru in the Hudson Valley. He’s lived golf and promoted it.
The amount of work he’s done with youths is overlooked. He’s always enjoyed teaching the kids and taking on weekly clinics. And the guy doesn’t even get paid half the time.
He just loves the game.”.
