Welcome to the Big Leagues

Thanks to an intoxicating blend of escapism, competition and golf-course economics, golf leagues are thriving on the North Shore

Ralph Kramden: “Why should I cut down on my bowling? It’s my only relaxation. Besides, the exercise keeps my weight down.”
Alice: “You don’t need something to keep your weight down. You need something to hold it up.”
– The Honeymooners, 1956

By Chad Konecky

Unlike every other signature sitcom of television’s early years, “The Honeymooners” tackled head-on the tensions in gender relations that characterized the postwar period. Jackie Gleason’s character was forever trying to reassert the male dominance of our culture, whether with a well-placed “To the moon, Alice” or by coveting a status-boosting invite into his boss’s weekly golf foursome or standing up for his right to his bowling league nights.

Yes, overstating the sociological insight of a 50-year-old TV show would be as misguided as suggesting bowling leagues carry the same social relevance they did in the 1950s. Though league bowling has experienced a rebirth since former Microsoft VP Chris Peters bought the PBA, golf leagues are far more bountiful, both nationwide and locally.

But golf leagues couldn’t possibly represent the same escapist outlet from the conformity of daily life that bowling did for guys like Ralph Kramden. Could they?

“Actually, they’re exactly like the old bowling leagues,” says Wenham Country Club head golf pro Peter Collins, 40, now in his sixth year at the club. “It’s somewhere to go at a set time. Maybe it’s an excuse to get out of the house, hang with your buddies and have a couple beers.”

Of course, Collins goes on to point out that these ain’t your father’s golf leagues. Or Ralph Kramden’s. It’s not just men doing the escaping these days. It’s not unusual for courses and clubs hosting leagues to feature couples’ leagues, husband-and-wife leagues and, naturally, ladies’ leagues.

More than a handful of clubs surveyed along the North Shore report the demand for league play is so voracious, every available tee time could be filled with league-affiliated golfers. Wenham, for example, hosts two leagues Monday through Thursday plus a Friday night league for a total of more than 200 golfers.

Leagues enjoy a significant, persistent draw. And for good reasons.

“I think there’s a lot to it,” says Mike Flynn, 45, now serving his 10th year as general manager at Lakeview Golf Club, also in Wenham. “It gets you out and it gets you to make a commitment. There’s a lot of stuff to be done outside of work – mowing the lawn, shopping for groceries – but joining a league forces you to find another time to do those things. It makes you prioritize your golf.”

To say nothing of making golf more accessible.

“Courses are so crowded now,” explains Lynn’s Maynard MacGregor, 61, a longtime member and league organizer at Gannon Golf Club, who also runs the 60-member PlusOne League at Wenham Country Club. “If I’m not in a league, I’ve got to call for a tee time within a specified advance window. Then, maybe I’m going to get [a tee time when I can’t play].”

“If you want to golf on a Saturday morning and you’re not in a league, you’re probably not going to get in anywhere else,” agrees Peabody’s Glenn Jalbert, 49, who runs the 65-member Peabody Elks League at Lakeview.

The Meadow at Peabody hosts seven regular day and evening leagues in addition to a junior league every summer for a total of more than 250 league-affiliated golfers per week. Club manager and golf pro Richard Nagle says he turns down an “overwhelming” number of requests to start new leagues every year.

“This has been a phenomenon of the last 10 or 12 years,” says Nagle, 36. “Leagues have always had a certain level of popularity, but it’s more than it was in the past and that’s partly because more people are playing golf.”

Karl Rullman, co-owner of LeagueScoring.com, a software product of the Michigan-based Golf League Association, reports multitudinous requests for his program, which computes handicaps, awards points and publishes any league’s results on-line, nationwide.

“The main draw of golf leagues can be summed up in one word: escape,” says Rullman. “The phones are turned off – or they should be – the pressures of work and family are lifted for a few hours and to insure the escape is complete, beer usually flows abundantly. Unlike sports such as bowling, there are very few spectators for a golf league. The remoteness of the sport adds to feeling of escape.”

A Tiger in its tank

MacGregor levels responsibility for golf leagues’ growth squarely on the shoulders of a 28-year-old Californian who’s become one of the world’s most recognizable personalities. Tiger Woods receives the lion’s share of recognition or acknowledgment for the most substantive developments in the game of golf over the past decade and golf leagues are no exception.

MacGregor says he ran his first league in Lynn 20 years ago, but the competition for tee times in the early 1980s was nowhere near what it is now. Shortly after Woods was voted Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1996, MacGregor reckons, the genie was out of the bottle.

“Where it’s such a popular sport now, especially since the emergence of Tiger, you’ve gotta be in a golf league, otherwise, it’s a turkey shoot,” he says. “Maybe you wait an hour and a half. Maybe more. People just don’t like that. This way, you know you’re golfing every Tuesday night and the golf course is clearing the way for you.”

Clearing the way. And cashing in. Generally speaking, courses love golf leagues. They provide a prepaid block of tee times and the accompanying bar tabs are usually healthy.

“They are part of the revenue stream, there’s no doubt about that,” adds Nagle. “They help fill what would otherwise be dead tee times.”

“[Courses] depend on the leagues; we know they’re going to be here,” says Flynn, noting most clubs will knock a buck or two off standard greens fees for league-affiliated players.

What’s more, booking a league requires only token logistical and staff support from the course itself. At Wenham Country Club participants and the process of participation are on autopilot.

“The pressure for managing falls on the league coordinators,” confirms Collins, who notes that average league attendance runs between 82 and 85 percent per week. “They make them go. Or not.”

Lest we forget, there is an element of competition behind the whole notion of league play. Depending on the depth of organization and formality, there are prizes, pots, take-home trophies and even distinguished, annually engraved cups.

“It’s not just you vs. the course anymore,” Flynn adds. “It’s you vs. your buddies or you amongst all different teams.”

Not that every grip-it-and-rip-it is a white-knuckler.

“The appeal of our league is as a fun league,” MacGregor says. “We have some individual awards like closest to the pin or most over the quota, but it’s nothing really. Not a big deal. Low key.”

But whether playing for keeps or cackles, somebody is always keeping score.

“Our LeagueScoring.com site exists to solve the two main complaints I hear from league managers,” explains Rullman. “[They say] handicaps are too time-consuming to compute and there are too many phone calls about the league scores and tee times. By posting the scores and other information on the Internet, the league manager can direct the players to LeagueScoring.com instead of calling so much.”

Flynn insists the spirit of competition is part of what keeps league golfers coming back, lawn mowing and grocery shopping be damned.

“These leagues usually play a lot of quota points, so if you average it out over 20 weeks, one or two missed weeks will knock that ‘A’ or ‘B’ average down to an ‘F.’”

Dogged demographics

The PlusOne League at The Meadow enjoys pretty good eats every Tuesday after golfing its appointed nine holes. Then again, the offerings of a catering chef and a 22-year veteran of the food service industry taste good anytime. No, PlusOne dues don’t include catered meals. It’s just that league vice president Bill Thorpe, an employee at the Peabody-based machine shop that lead-sponsors the league, used to make his living catering.

In a nutshell, that’s the philosophy of golf leagues. All sorts of folks from all walks of life.

“It was basically created as a friends and co-workers league and as an after-work get-together,” says Thorpe, 42. “It’s about fun and camaraderie at the same time. People come and go. The age range is 20s to 60s and we’re continually growing.”

“You meet all kinds of people in these leagues,” echoes Flynn. “Carpenters are partnered with Middleton jail guards. Office administrators with execs.”

And in Thorpe’s case, it’s equal-opportunity chowtime: Sausage, steak tips, pork ribs and corn on the cob. PlusOne, like many leagues, also stages a monthly league dinner.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone, says Jalbert, that groups like his Peabody Elks league feature a broad demographic and religious attendance. Jalbert reports a 90- to 95-percent weekly turnout. Even bumping membership to 60 hasn’t eliminated the league’s waiting list.

“We’ve got couples, husbands and wives and fathers and sons,” he says. “The oldest guy, Henry Graham, is 80. The youngest guy, my son Bryan, is 28.”

A charming detail, to be sure. But from a national perspective, the Golf League Association’s Rullman figures the future of golf lies with the 40 to 58 age group. The Baby Boom Generation.

“The future of golf leagues will see an influx of baby boomers,” insists Rullman. “Seniors do not want to play tournament golf, they want a social gathering. Most leagues these days are a result of people belonging to an organization. Employees of a company, customers of a restaurant and church members are some examples.  These groups are eager to respond if only someone would say, ‘Let’s start a golf league.’”

Regionally, if you talk to enough people in the know, the feeling emerges that golf leagues are darn near taking over the scene. A scenario that would concern club managers like The Meadow’s Nagle if it went too far.

“You have to try to have a balance,” says Nagle, noting The Meadow limits its evening league play to four nights a week totaling just more than 100 players. “You have to think of the individual who gets out of work and just wants to play a round and doesn’t have an opportunity to join a league. If you book all your tee times with league play, you’re not thinking about all your customers.”

As much as they are about escape, a competitive outlet and a revenue stream for courses, tradition is generally a large part of the golf league equation.

“A lot of these leagues have engraved trophies that go back 30 years and there’s a certain appeal there,” says Flynn.

Mostly, however, leagues remain a case of keeping a de facto appointment with oneself to play golf. Buying into a golf league is a lot like buying into a sports season-ticket package: You’re going to show because you’ve paid the dough.

“At least one day a week, you know you’re going to get away from everything,” says MacGregor.

“I think the No. 1 draw is for people who like to play once a week,” adds Nagle. “League play becomes their opportunity. It helps force them to play once a week despite everything else that’s going on.”

Besides, the exercise keeps folks’ weight down. Unless Thorpe is doing the cooking.