A performance for the ages

By Gary Larrabee

I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of observing some amazing golf history over the years.

• Jack Nicklaus’ only appearance at Pleasant Valley during the 1965 Carling World Open.

• Paul Harney’s competitive course record 65 (which stands to this day) that won the 1970 Massachusetts Open playoff at Salem over 56-year-old Jim Browning before a gallery of 7,000.

• Charley Volpone’s epic 18-hole, New England PGA playoff victory over Ross Coon at Ferncroft in 1974.

• Hollis Stacey and Bruce Fleisher’s U.S. Open victories at Salem.

• Nicklaus’ gallant bid, at 61, to wrest the title from Fleisher in 2001.

• Gary Player’s final-round 64 that earned his third green jacket at the 1978 Masters.

• James Driscoll’s “debut” Mass. Golf Association Junior Championship victory, at age 13, at Kernwood in 1993 and his epic Mass. Amateur triumph over John Curley three years later at Myopia.

• Flynt Lincoln’s 40th hole victory over Jason Kissel at Essex in the longest Mass. Amateur final in history in 1993.

But the greatest competitive golfing performance I have seen at any level does not even relate to a trophy-winning reward.

Twenty-five years ago, Jack McNiff was a 62-year-old Salem Country Club member, Peabody attorney, Salem Willows husband and father, and a cancer survivor wearing a colostomy bag. He rarely played competitive golf outside the confines of his cherished Donald Ross-designed course. But 1980 was an exception.

The Massachusetts Amateur was coming to Salem, so he entered. He made it through the local qualifier at Tedesco, no surprise to him or his golf chums, since he remained a solid ball-striker.

But what he accomplished in the championship proper on his home course, as the oldest participant among the 128 qualifiers, evolved into the story of the week and merited a permanent chapter in Salem Country Club and MGA history.

Privately given no chance by his fellow competitors to advance beyond the two-day stroke play qualifier as championship week began, McNiff stunned everyone by shooting 75-71-146 and tied Haverhill’s Paul Cortese for medal honors.

“I kept my swing together and made a few putts,” McNiff told me after the match that day as he modestly assessed his success.

But virtually no one gave him a chance in match play, especially when he’d have to play – and walk – two matches a day to keep going.

As his opponents drove 35-yards past his tee shots, the scrappy McNiff fooled us all, beating the 1979 runner-up, 23-year-old Joe Henley, 2 and 1, in the first morning of match play, then 20-year-old Bill Martin, son of the legendary Ed Martin, 1-up, in the afternoon.

“Frankly, I didn’t expect to beat Joe, but I kept scratching and got a few breaks,” McNiff said. “Against Billy, well, I did feel old because I grew up in his dad’s generation (and beat Ed Martin while winning the 1937 State Junior). But once the match got going, it was a different perspective. I struggled down the stretch but held on.”

McNiff’s best dramatics were yet to come. Trailing 30-year-old Ray Richard, 2-down with two to go in the quarterfinals, McNiff won 17 and 18 with pars, then the first extra hole with another par, and he was in the semifinals against three youngsters whose combined ages did not match Jack’s 62. But that’s where McNiff’s magical ride came to an emotional end.

Fall River’s Jim McDermott enjoyed a red-hot putter on the back nine and staved off McNiff, 3 and 2, and went on to win his first of three Mass. Amateur titles the next day over Kevin Klier, 5 and 3. No matter. It had been a week for the ages at Salem Country Club.

“Jack gave us one of the most exciting Amateurs in the last 20, 30 years,” says retired MGA executive director Dick Haskell, an Ipswich native. And he made history besides. In all my years at the MGA we’d never had a medalist or semifinalist that old.”

Ollie Cook, Salem’s president at the time and one of McNiff’s Peabody law partners, marvels to this day of friend’s unforgettable performance.

“It was exciting enough that I was club president at the time and that my brother, Cal, qualified to play at Salem,” Cook says. “But then to have Jack steal the show from everyone, well, it made all of us at Salem incredibly proud. Jack was seemingly in his own element, making all the key shots and staying cool in the hot weather.”

McNiff died four years ago at the age of 83 while on a golf holiday in Ireland, only a few weeks before his home club hosted the U.S. Senior Open. He has been missed by many ever since. Moreover, he will never be forgotten within his expansive golf fraternity, in large part because of his amazing week at the 1980 Massachusetts Amateur.