PROVIDENCE, RI – A packed white event tent set up about 25 yards down the driving range was just about all that could stop the action on this perfect summer Tuesday evening at Button Hole Golf Course.
The sweeping green hills, rippling ponds and smattering of bunkers make for a sharp contrast to the surrounding city landscape. This former gravel pit has been a gem for 25 years, the vision of area businessman Ed Mauro and a group of trusted lieutenants.
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A learning center in Mauro’s name was dedicated on this night, with honorary co-chairmen Billy Andrade and Brad Faxon back in their home state. Their extensive charitable work over three decades came in part with Mauro as an inspiration, and he celebrated with friends and family during a scheduled 90-minute speaking program on Aug. 4.
“This night is so special for me,” Mauro said. “And it’s special because of the people as I look around.”
More: These public golf courses are the best you can play in Rhode Island
Founder Ed Mauro poses with Billy Andrade.
Button Hole came of age around the same time the PGA Tour started its First Tee program. The mission of both organizations is similar – to help kids from urban areas gain easier access to golf. Button Hole has welcomed some 25,000 participants to its lesson programs since its formal opening in 2001.
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“Not every kid grows up with a mom and dad who have a lot of money who can join a club you can play,” Andrade said. “How are you going to get into the game? You get into the game with places like this.
“You have great teachers. You can hit balls. You can go play. You can learn the game. And then you can take it from here.”
Button Hole 25th. Brad Faxon joins celebration
Megan Khang is one such player – she was a toddler when Button Hole opened and practically grew up on the property. Her father, Lee, was a mechanic in the city who would drop his daughter off at the course on his way to work and pick her up on the way back to their Massachusetts home in Brockton. Khang is an LPGA Tour winner, a former top-15 player in the world and a four-time Solheim Cup team member for the United States.
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“She’s a Solheim Cup player – one of the best players in the world – coming out of this little place,” Faxon said. “It’s beautiful.”
Mauro used his connections in business and with the state to develop the 26-acre parcel, a process that started in the late 1990s. It’s grown into a nine-hole par-3 course with two putting greens, a sand bunker and chipping area, multiple simulators and office space for the Rhode Island Golf Association. Benefactors include former CVS president Tom Ryan, who partnered with Andrade and Faxon for their Charity Classic and raised more than $25 million for local organizations over a two-decade run.
“I don’t think you ever would have wanted to come in here unless you were riding your dirt bike,” Faxon said. “I don’t even think Ed envisioned what was going to happen – to see the amount of kids who have come through here and how it’s changed the lives of these kids.”
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Last week’s Junior Amateur at Pawtucket Country Club offered an example of how Button Hole continues to grow the game. Ishaan Catone finished runner-up, a Cranston native with fellow Button Hole member Kailer Louangxay on his bag. Johnston sisters Elizabeth Kue and Kamryn Kue were among the top three stroke play qualifiers in the girls field after All-State spring seasons with the Panthers.
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“It’s not my Button Hole,” Mauro said. “It’s the Button Hole of a lot of people – particularly the kids who came here.”
bkoch@providencejournal.com. On X: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Brad Faxon, Billy Andrade helped this Rhode Island golf course celebrate 25 years
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