A Demanding Delight

Since opening its fairways last season, The Meadow at Peabody golf course has provided golfers with the kind of challenge that keeps them coming back.

By Barry Scanlon

It can be as intimidating as an encounter under the basket with Yao Ming. It can be as frustrating as trying to speak fluent Russian in a week. Minutes later, however, after a well-struck shot majestically sails into a large, lush green, it can be as exhilarating as hitting the lottery.

Welcome to The Meadow at Peabody, the North Shore’s newest 18-hole public golf course that has opened its fairways for a second full season.

“I can’t say enough good things about it,” said Ed McCarthy, a 56-year-old retired firefighter from Salem who now plays almost exclusively at Peabody’s prized jewel. “I just think it’s a real good course. I can’t think of a similar public course in the North Shore or north of the Boston area.

“I just love the place. It rewards good shots and it penalizes bad shots. But it’s made me play better golf,” continued the 7-handicapper, who counts the 388-yard, par-4 fifth hole and the tricky 341-yard par-4 17th as his favorite holes. “I just think it’s a great test of golf, as well as a fun place to play. It’s helped round out my game.”

The course isn’t for everybody, especially from its championship tees, where 6,708 testing yards await. In addition to the length, The Meadow presents a myriad of challenges, ranging from rapidly changing elevation, to bending fairways, to terrain that switches from ravines to wetlands to promontories.

McCarthy admits the course wasn’t for him the first time he played it, shortly after the full 18 holes opened last May. (The back nine opened in Sept. of 2001).

“I had no idea where I was going,” he said. “I think the first time I played it I joked that if they ever catch Osama Bin Laden, maybe they should give him a membership. But then I figured it out. Every hole is unique.”

The Meadow, a municipal course that was built at a cost of $6.75 million, rests on 259 acres just three miles from the famed Salem Country Club, which is also in Peabody.

Kevin Gill, a 46-year-old Peabody resident who plays The Meadow three to four times a week, said his favorite holes are back to back – the 15th, a slight dogleg par-4, and the 16th, a 143-yard par-3 where accuracy is vital.

“Those are two real picturesque holes,” Gill said.

For course record-holder Kevin Osborne, a 17-year-old rising Peabody High School junior star, the third hole, a short (324 yards) par-4, gets his adrenaline flowing.

There’s a hazard on the left and a big rock on the right, but there’s a temptation to go for the green on the tee shot, at least for the big hitters. The 5-foot-2 Osborne, on occasion, has reached the green on his tee shot, a reason he was able to post a pair of 65s while running away with The Meadow’s Junior Open Championship last summer. (Yes, he stands 5-foot-2. And, yes, he fired a 65 twice. Neither is a misprint.)

“It’s awesome. It’s the nicest public course around, I think,” said Osborne, who was crowned the Greater Boston League’s individual champion last fall after leading the Tanners to a 10-0 record and a league title. “I didn’t think there was any room up there. I couldn’t believe it was in Peabody. It’s a real nice public course.”

The first hole Steve St. Amand thinks about when The Meadow is mentioned is the 8th, a tricky 173-yard par-3 (from the back tees) that runs through the course’s signature meadow.

Meanwhile, head professional Rich Nagle, when asked for one of his course’s signature holes, mentions the 13th, where golfers are treated to picturesque views of Salem Harbor from the tee box.

Five different golfers. Seven different favorite holes mentioned.

That’s pretty impressive and it may be why, despite an unseasonably cold spring, 12 days above 90 degrees during the summer, and 14 days of rain in the fall, The Meadow came extremely close to reaching its projected round goal of 35,000 for 2002. (For the record, 34,768 rounds of golf were played there last year).

“Considering the weather, we did very well,” said Nagle, a Medford native who was previously the assistant pro at Hillview Golf Course in North Reading and Indian Ridge Country Club in Andover.

St. Amand, a 47-year-old Salem resident and three-time (1989, 1990, 1993) winner of the Mass. Public Links Championship, said, The Meadow is “a good test of golf. I think the pro and his staff did a fine job over there. Once you learn the golf course … it’s not a swing-away golf course. You have to put the ball in certain areas. I enjoy the different type of holes. Every hole is different.

“It’s a test of golf, especially if the wind is blowing and the course is wet,” St. Amand added. “I’m still learning the golf course.”

When work began on The Meadow the area was more a field of screams than a field of dreams.

Taking former Peabody Mayor Peter Torigian’s idea and turning it into reality was an undertaking of epic proportions.

Approximately 17,000 cubic yards of rock had to be blasted away. Then 60,000 cubic yards of solid fill were brought in to cover ledge. And putting down 30,000 yards of sand to cover the fairways wasn’t anybody’s idea of a picnic, certainly not the folks at the golf architect firm of Cornish, Silva & Mungeam, the designers of the course.

For North Shore residents like Gill, however, all the effort was worth it. Gill, who lives less than five minutes from The Meadow, said, “It’s like being in heaven. It’s like being a member of your own little club. If I played there all seven days, it [still] wouldn’t be boring. It’s an enjoyable golf course.”

Gill credited Nagle’s staff with adding a terrific personal touch to go with a challenging layout. For The Meadow’s biggest fans, the only negative they can think of is the fact that, due to its layout and the distance between a couple of greens and the next tee box, walking the course is not an option for most golfers.

“Overall, it’s been very, very positive,” Nagle said of the public’s reaction to the course since it opened. “I think there was a lot of talk early on about the course being a real tough place to play. After a couple of rounds, people say, ‘Gee, that’s not too bad.’”

Nagle reports that golfers from throughout New England enjoyed The Meadow last year. But he seems to take particular pride in the positive comments he has received from North Shore residents.

“People were very enthusiastic about another public course. Now it’s a matter of adding beautification,” he said. “We’re trying to go with an upscale public image.”

After walking off the 18th green, golfers are welcome to grab a bite to eat inside The Grill Room, which seats 70, or, if weather conditions cooperate, outside on a patio. The menu is moderately priced. The course, however, does not have a liquor license.

“It’s a topic of a lot of discussion,” Nagle said. “I can only say that a lot of people are in favor of it.”

The weekend fee at The Meadow for 18 holes is $35; during the week its $33.