Murphy’s Law

Thanks to a positive attitude and his continued involvement in the game of golf, Joe Murphy has more than survived a horrific motorcycle accident

By Gary Larrabee

It would have been the easy way out for Joe Murphy to quit the game of golf, as well as the game of life, back in 1972. Consider his circumstances.

The Salem, Mass., native had just suffered a life-threatening accident while test-riding a motorcycle during some off time from his job as a teaching professional at New Meadows Country Club in Lansing, Michigan. The date was June 21, 1972.

“How could I forget?” Murphy remembers with a smile. “They told me I was so severely injured that they’d called my parents in Salem and suggested they start making arrangements to have my body shipped home for burial.”

Murphy’s remarkable determination, combined with exceptional medical care and maybe a little divine intervention, proved the funeral plans to be premature.

Murphy had experienced serious brain damage that resulted in considerable loss of his speech capabilities and permanent partial paralysis to his right side. But the former Kernwood CC and Salem CC caddie had much more life to live and golf to play. Maybe not in the manner he had hoped, not after nine surgeries, the last coming in 1991, but more nonetheless.

He has evolved into an inspiration to everyone who has met him, particularly those who have been fortunate enough to encounter him at DiLisio Brothers’ Driving Range on Swampscott Road in Salem.

“I’m a very lucky man,” says Murphy, who turned 56 in June. “I’ve had a wonderful wife, Patricia, for 23 years. I’ve gotten amazing support from her and other members of my family and many friends. And the same goes for Al and Vin DiLisio. They gave me a new lease on life ever since that first day they asked me to help them at their range.”

For 30 years, in fact, Murphy has assisted the DiLisios and their staff in the operation of their modest, but quite successful, 70-tee operation. The number of people he has helped with their game ranks in the thousands.

“I was going over there, hitting balls as part of my mental and physical therapy anyway,” recalls Murphy, who communicates with his pupils most effectively, despite the effects of the accident on his speech. “And one day they asked me if I’d lend a hand. I’d been a pretty fair player and instructor. Now, three years after my accident, when I thought I could truly start my long road back, they were kind enough to give me the opportunity I needed.”

“Joe’s mom was driving him every place those days and he walked around with a cradle for support,” Al DiLisio recalls. “The first time I saw him at the range he was just a kid. I didn’t know who he was, but I eventually introduced myself to him and he told me he had been a professional golf instructor before having an accident. Well, Vin and I saw a chance to help Joe and our range at the same time. So I told him, ‘Here’s an open tee. We’ll keep it clear every day for you. The practice balls will be on us. Just spend enough time here to oversee the swingers, maybe develop some students and you can keep the money.’”

“In a way, the DiLisios saved my life,” Murphy confessed. “I had to stay in the game somehow. Otherwise I’d turn into a vegetable. It took a long time to rehab myself. But finally in ’75 my memory was coming back and I was getting better coordinated, so I decided it was time to start hitting balls again and see what happens, one small step at a time.”

“No one was rooting harder for Joe than all of us at the range,” DiLisio recalled. “When he first started, he didn’t hit the ball very far, but he had a nice way with our customers and went up and down the tees giving tips. He was a hit with them and he’s been an important part of our operation ever since.”

Murphy, because of his physical limitations and advancing years, has not played a full round of golf in 13 years, but he’s had his moments, like holes-in-one at Kelley Greens in Nahant in 1982 (No. 1) and Middleton in 1983 (No. 11). He’d made five aces before his accident. Still, not bad for a fellow who had been in a coma for five weeks in a Michigan hospital.

And he still hopes to get back into a routine where he can play nine holes here and there, but for the time being, he’s thrilled to still have a role at DiLisio’s.

“I’m just happy being around the game like I am, thanks to the DiLisios,” says Murphy. “Every day I’m out there if I can. There’s always someone I can give a tip to. Everyone wants to improve, simple as that.”

A powerful tool in his teaching technique is a notebook he keeps with him at all times. The notebook features photographs of legendary players, like Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Annika Sorenstam, at various stages in their swing. “They make quite an impression and help the people I’m giving tips to,” Murphy adds.

Murphy showed promise as a player and instructor when he was a teenager. He followed his two older brothers, Jack and Tom, as a caddie, first at Kernwood and later at Salem. He often served as the late Betty Beckwith’s caddie in the Kernwood women’s club championship, which she won a record 22. One Sunday afternoon, as Murphy was walking up the 18th hole with Beckwith and her husband, Leo, she asked her bag-toter if he’d like to play a rare Monday round with the club’s legendary pro, Eddie Bush.

“I was thrilled to be asked,” Murphy remembers, “and pretty nervous the next day on the first tee, especially when Eddie said we were playing the championship tees. But I held up all right.”

All right? Murphy shot a dazzling 3-under-par 67 to Bush’s 73. It was eight days before his 17th birthday. Murphy decided to turn pro that very afternoon.

He began working as an apprentice to Bush immediately and followed him to his winter assignment at the famous Doral Resort in Miami, where he shot rounds of 65 and 62. After four seasons with Bush, Murphy worked for Tom Creavey for two years at Saratoga Spa and CC, and then took his first head professional job at the Poland Spring resort in Maine for the 1971 season.

His best at Poland Spring is a nifty 60. He once tamed Olde Salem Greens with a 6-under 29.

“I had an adventurous attitude in those days,” Murphy says. That explains why he moved to Michigan in ’72 for a top teaching post at New Meadows. He was also into motorcycles in those youthful days.

So it came on June 21 that he had a chance to test-ride a racing bike on his golf course.

“I loved bikes in those days almost as much as golf,” Murphy offered. He remembers what happened that fateful day all too clearly.

“I was riding the bike along the rough on the eighth hole, probably going too fast, and I hit a log that was partially covered by the grass. The log sent me and the bike flying and I landed on my head.

“Every day has been a challenge, but golf has made it easier every one of those days, whether I was at DiLisio’s or watching golf on television or just thinking about my life in the game. I can never get enough of it. I’ve also gotten incredible support from people like my chiropractor, Dr. Greg Gordon; my personal trainer, Larry Dee; my mother, Blanche Murphy, and, of course, my wife.”

Murphy’s dogged determination has paid dividends for many players who practice at DiLisio’s, including Al Lindsey, the highly regarded senior amateur from Swampscott and Kelley Greens in Nahant.

“A large part of the credit for my improvement as a player the last few years has to go to Joe,” says Lindsey, who has played in the 1996, 2000 and 2003 U.S. Senior Amateurs and hopes to qualify for the 2004 event, slated for the exclusive Bel-Air CC in Los Angeles in October.

Buoyed by the added confidence Murphy’s instruction has developed, Lindsey may expand his tournament schedule this summer. He will try and qualify for the Mass. Amateur, slated for Taconic, the Mass. Open, set for Pleasant Valley, and he’s penciled in for the Mass. Seniors, set for Sankaty Head on Nantucket.

“I’ve come close a few times at the State Senior, but I never seem to be able to beat Jim Holbrook (of Indian Ridge) or Ed Fletcher (from Cape Cod.). But Joe’s given me the motivation to keep trying.”

And the response of gratitude he has received from people like Lindsey and the DiLisios has convinced Joe Murphy that golf needs him as much as he needs the game.