ELMSFORD, N.Y. (April 10, 2025) – Not often does a high school student get first-hand experience with a significant golf course renovation. However, that was the case for MGACSF Caddie Scholar Luke Zebelman, who works on the superintendent’s crew at Hudson National Golf Club and was on staff when renovation work was done in 2023. Now finishing his freshman year at the University of Buffalo, Zebelman has seen how that unique experience has translated into his other passions, robotics and the tenor saxophone.
There are so many moving parts when renovating a golf course; starting from dirt, you must stay on schedule. The biggest obstacle was the weather. Every time it rained, it created a potential problem.
"After every time it rained, that was a huge thing,” recalls Luke. “And that's an issue when you cannot hold the dirt together. So, we would seed, and then out of nowhere, it was like, 'Oh, we're going to get two inches of rain tonight.’ So, it was a time crunch to move hay bales around. Sometimes, we would do a 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. day. It was amazing to see all of that come together."
Since developing essential skills such as building, processing, adjusting, and learning on the fly during his time on the superintendent’s staff, Luke has been able to apply those lessons in other areas.
Luke started robotics in high school and developed a love for it.
Robotics is where robots compete to do various tasks as a team. Each year, the First Robotics Competition (FRC) releases the rules for that year's competition. Last year, when Luke was a senior in high school, the robots had to get to the other side of the field, pick up foam rings the size of a frisbee, come back across the field, and shoot them into an elevated shoot. For bonus points, your robot had to climb onto a cane that was four feet in the air.
"You're teamed up with random people every time,” explains Luke. “A big part of this kind of competition is teamwork because in every match you compete, you might be competing with a robot that can do all those
Luke's other passion is the tenor saxophone, which he played in his high school's jazz and concert bands. Outside of high school, he was in a Westchester-wide concert band, a Westchester jazz band, and a New York State Band Directors Association (NYSBDA) band based in Syracuse.
To help him get into the NYSBDA band, Luke needed to play different pieces of music for a judge and get graded. From ninth to 12th grade, Luke got 99 on all his performances and played up to an all-state level—the highest level.
The NYSBDA band is a big band for jazz. One of the highlights of the program is having guest conductors.
Luke noted, "We had Roxy Cos, a tenor saxophone player, who is one of the best [players]. And it was great, because, for three days, she's just our conductor. [We have] super difficult charts to play, all 10 minutes. We have five of them, and on the first count-off, it sounds amazing from the start. It is mind-blowing to be able to play with these groups. It’s so fulfilling to be in them because it just shows you, wow, I can be a part of something like this. It sounds just amazing, and you get to meet so many new people."
One of Luke's bandmates from the NYSBDA jazz band is also attending the University of Buffalo, allowing the two of them get together regularly and play music.
At Buffalo, Luke will be majoring in industrial engineering and pursuing his MBA. Luke’s goal is to work in a factory setting and help companies be more efficient in the production process.
“You have full reign to kind of redesign the production process for a product to make it more efficient in terms of time, even if you can take a second off the production time of a product,” says Luke.