Let’s hear it for ‘The Babe’

By Gary Larrabee

I make no apologies, as I exercise this editorial privilege. I am an unabashed historian of the game. I understand we mustn’t dwell on the past; that we should focus on the present and unceasingly look to the future; at least when it comes to tee times and our annual quest to play 100 rounds of golf in a season for the first time. That’s routine for some, but a dream to most of us. At the same time, we must always respect the past, hopefully learn from it, and, in the case of our remarkable golf heritage on the North Shore, savor it.

I was moved to address this topic after being contacted by the United States Golf Association, who asked for my input as it prepared an exhibit on Babe Zaharias and her legendary victory 50 years ago in the U.S. Women’s Open at Salem Country Club in Peabody.

The presentation: “Let Me Play Again – Babe Didrikson Zaharias, An Athlete’s Battle with Cancer and her Comeback at the 1954 U.S. Women’s Open,” debuted May 22 at the USGA Museum in Far Hills, N.J. The exhibit, which is free to the public, runs through March 31, 2005. Suffice to say, Guy Bytof, general manager at Salem, and his membership were instrumental in the USGA’s compilation of data and materials for this exhibit.

In a nutshell, Babe had already been acclaimed the greatest woman athlete in the history of sport, but her life was now nearing an end, as she was waging a gallant but losing battle with colon cancer. Fourteen months after undergoing radical surgery, she was determined to play in one more Women’s Open, so she came to Salem.

My first sports editor at The Salem News, the late Tony Romano, covered the Open at Salem and developed a close friendship that week with Zaharias and her husband, former professional wrestler George Zaharias.

“It was an amazing performance,” Romano told me. “You could tell she wasn’t feeling 100 percent. She was even slimmer than before she became ill, but she still had that fabulous swing, a superb touch with the wedge and putter, and a wonderful smile.”

Not to mention the same powerful golf game that made her the greatest player of her time. Fighting hot weather and a 36-hole final day, Zaharias shot a 72-hole total of 291 and blew away the field by 12 shots, the second-highest winning margin in Open history. The Babe played in five U.S. Opens and won three of them.

Two years later she was dead from cancer at the age of 45.

“She was a wonder of the athletic world,” the late Lionel MacDuff, 1954 Open chairman, told me years later. “There has never been anyone like her before or since.”

Zaharias was an Olympic champion, an All-American basketball player and a top-rated softball, billiards and tennis player to boot. She excelled at virtually every sport she tried, but her greatest legacy stems from her golf career; a legacy ensured with her stirring victory at Salem. Moreover, her remarkable feat in ’54 ensured Salem’s special place in American golf history.

Zaharias’ accomplishment is only one of many which have graced the North Shore golf scene and become part of this region’s unique tournament history in the last half-century. A few of the others:

Charley Volpone’s victory, at the age of 19, in the Massachusetts Amateur in 1956. The Ould Newbury product, the second youngest champion, defeated the oldest finalist, Fred Wright, 58, the event’s only seven-time champion.

Thomson pro Bill Flynn’s stirring win at the 1963 Massachusetts Open at Kernwood. Arguably the greatest finish by a winner in Open history, the lefthander from Danvers, made three birdies and an eagle (6-iron second shot on 16) in a closing 66.

Paul Harney’s course record 65, witnessed by a gallery estimated at 5000, shot while defeating Jim Browning by 11 strokes for his fourth straight Massachusetts Open at Salem in 1970.

The LPGA Tour’s 11-year run at Ferncroft in Danvers starting in 1980 in the form of the Boston Five Classic. The inaugural, which attracts 41,000 for the week, is won by Dale Lundquist.

Hollis Stacy’s third U.S. Women’s Open victory in 1984 at Salem.

Lynnfield’s Anne Marie Tobin wins a record seventh Women’s Golf Association of Massachusetts championship at Oakley CC in 2000.

Here’s hoping our family of players makes more North Shore golf history in 2004. In fact, I challenge our fine array of players, young and old, male and female, to make it happen. That’s an order.