WE REMEMBER
By Michael Arkush
Nearly 3,000 people died on that September day we will never forget.
They died in the twin towers. The grounds of the Pentagon. The fields of Pennsylvania.
Each fatality, as we prepare to mark the 25th anniversary, means the same as another – nothing more, nothing less. But, since this is a publication revolving around golf, it seems appropriate to single out one individual we lost who was in love with the game. His name was Michael Berkeley. He was bigger than life then, according to those who remember him best. Still is 25 years later.
He grew up in New Rochelle, N.Y, the son of a police officer and nurse who nurtured him and guided him, seeing education as the path to success in life.
Berkeley, who had established his own financial-services firm, located on the 79th floor in the north tower, turned 38 on September 11, 2001.
A blessing, as strange as it may sound.
“When the kids (3 and 6 years old at the time the planes hit the towers) were little,” his widow, Lourdes Perez-Berkeley, recalls, “we focused on daddy’s birthday. Kids like birthdays. We sang ‘Happy Birthday,’ and got his favorite cake.”
Michael Berkeley, though, never made a big deal of his birthday, which helps explain why he went to work on that fateful Tuesday morning. It also had to do with the fact that he had been playing golf for much of the week before, including in a member-guest tournament at the Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton, N.Y., where he belonged. (He was also a member at Muirfield Village in Ohio; Hudson National in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.; and Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y.)
“He felt he needed to go into the office,” Perez-Berkeley adds, “because he had been away for two or three working days.”
Clyde Drexler, the Hall of Fame basketball player, was in a group that played with him during the final week. He also accompanied Berkeley and others to the U.S. Open men’s final on Sunday, Sept. 9, to watch Lleyton Hewitt defeat Pete Sampras in straight sets.
Drexler does very few interviews, but when it comes to Michael Berkeley, he doesn’t hesitate.
Even today, Drexler and his buddies still mimic some of Berkeley’s best one-liners. He was known for them.
From 100 yards away, he’d say: “Who is the best player in the world from 100 yards? Watch this.”
Same when he was in a bunker: “Who is the premier bunker player in the world? Watch this.”
How the two met says everything that one needs to know about Berkeley. It was in the mid-1990s at a tournament in Miami organized by Black Enterprise magazine, a valuable resource for African American–owned businesses.
Berkeley, who played guard for the basketball team at Providence College, walked up to Drexler:
“Hey, man, what are you doing here? This ain’t your sport.”
A balsy move, admits another friend, Anthony C. Spikes, “but you can’t help but know that he was jerking your chain.”
Berkeley was a most determined individual, going back as far as people can remember.
“He had a lot of confidence in himself and his abilities,” says his cousin, Kim McLaurin. “He always knew he had a different path.”
As a teenager in the late ’70s/early ’80s, he caddied at Winged Foot. As did Martin Collins, whose father, Patrick, was the caddie manager. “My dad took a real liking to him,” Martin Collins recalls. “He was such a nice young man.”
Winged Foot, where he caddied for eight summers – proved to be very important for Michael Berkeley, an African American, showing him the future he could have if he worked hard enough.
“He learned a lot from caddieing for judges and bankers and lawyers, “Perez-Berkeley says. “He didn’t let the color of his skin detain him. He went for it.”
Berkeley, for all his success in the business world, remained the same person he always was. “He connected with everybody,” says Neil Reynolds, the current police commissioner in New Rochelle. “If he was in a room with a billionaire, he connected with that billionaire, and if someone was a workday guy or gal, he connected with that person, as well. He didn’t talk down to people.”
Reynolds would love to see where Berkeley would be in today’s world.
“He was not a politician,” but “I think (others) would have talked to him about it. He was such a good person at bringing people together.”
Berkeley is still bringing people together.
Every fall, The Berkeley Cup is held on the East End of Long Island. This year on Oct. 7, East Hampton Golf Club will host the event – a one-round, stroke-play competition among the top eight caddies at 10 clubs in the area. The longtime head professional at Altantic Golf Club, Rick Hartmann, started the event in 2000 as the East End Cup to show appreciation for caddies in the area. In 2001, it was renamed The Berkeley Cup to honor Berkeley’s legacy. It’s one of the most treasured traditions for caddies and the participating clubs.
“We want to create more Michael Berkeleys,” Perez-Berkeley says. “We would love for his legacy to be an inspiration to young students and all caddies about the possibilities and the dreams that can be achieved in life.”
She knew of his love for golf when the two started to date in 1987. Which prompted an ultimatum of sorts.
Her husband was no fool. He got her the set of clubs. He played with the guys in the morning, came home, and went out in the afternoon with his wife. She took lessons and he taught her, as well.
As a caddie at Winged Foot, he dreamt of becoming a member one day.
That’s the funny thing about dreams. Sometimes they come true. For Michael Berkeley, his dream came true in 2001.
Perez-Berkeley spends much of her time promoting the game. She’s on the board of the MGA Foundation which oversees the Michael J. Berkeley Legacy Fund. The fund’s main purpose is to support the Berkeley Cup.
“Tragedy happened,” she says. “We can’t undo that. We grieve and we will forever.” But finding a way to make something good come out of it, “is the biggest gift we can give and that is what we should focus on.”
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