The incomparable John Updike:
A golf aficionado both
as a player and a writer

By Gary Larrabee

Gary Larrabee

He will be remembered as American’s greatest author from the past sixty years. But John Updike might have traded his legacy in literature to become the first Tiger Woods. Updike, the North Shore’s most famous golfer since Donald Ross left Essex County Club for the sand hills of Pinehurst in 1914, wrote about his frustrations playing his beloved sport as brilliantly as he wrote about Rabbit Angstrom, his most famous fictional character.

Only problem was, for all the joy the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner reaped from the complete golfing experience, whether he broke 80 or eclipsed 100, whether he played his beloved home course, Myopia, or two of his favorite public layouts, Cape Ann and Candlewood, that joy never remotely approached the gratification he derived from expressing himself in print. He mastered the novel, poem, essay, critique and short story, but never the game he loved. None of us do, of course, not even Tiger. That probably explains why his musings on golf, most prominently displayed in Golf Dreams (Fawcett Columbine, 1996), rank among the finest golf journalism of our time. No one, quite frankly, has ever captured the mental and physical nuances of the game like the Beverly Farms resident.

John Updike

Thus, following his death from lung cancer, at 76, on January 27, those of us who shared Updike’s passion for the game carry a heavy heart into the 2009 season. We’ll miss John Updike the golf aficionado as much as John Updike the wordsmith.

My interactions with the man were few but memorable: a couple of brief chats during Labor Day weekends long past when I scurried under the tent at Myopia collecting scores and quotes from the Friday action at the Myopia Fourball for The Salem Evening News; serving as the executive editor of the 2001 U.S. Senior Open magazine, within which Updike penned a delightful rumination “On Being Senior”; a round of golf at Salem as the guest of member Hank Ramini; an interview and photo session at Lakeview that John granted for an “18 Questions” feature we ran in this publication in 2003; and the occasional exchange via the U.S. Postal Service of observations, golf and otherwise, in recent years. They’re moments that I will always treasure.

But the most exhilarating moment of our “golf association,” for me, occurred in the spring of 2001, after he had glanced through my first commercial book, The Green and Gold Coast: The History of Golf on Boston’s North Shore, 1893-2001 (Commonwealth Editions). He sent me one of his trademark postcards, his return address stamped in blue in the top left corner, the mailing address beginning, “Mr. Gary Larrabee.” On the back were 15 manually typewritten lines, including four edits in blue pen, his scribbled signature crammed on the bottom of the card. The message began: “Fantastic job! I can’t stop poking around in it, finding so many treasures.” For a moment, only for a moment, I felt my heart come to a stop and I pondered, with a grin as wide as a favored fairway, if my journalistic career had reached its apex.

We will never see his likes again, but he’ll always be with us, thanks to his incomparable gift to the written word, especially his Golf Dreams.

Among other members of our ever-expanding North Shore golf family whom we lost since we last published are Buzz Martin, Ernie Santin, Jack McLean, Dr. Bob Lundberg, Ernie Doherty, Marie Mulcahy and Adele McKinnon. None were Pulitzer Prize winning authors but all left an indelible mark on the rich North Shore golf landscape.

Belated congratulations to: Bill Kipouras, a major booster of golf during his 35 years at The Salem News, on his induction to the Peabody High Hall of Fame; Kirk Hanefeld, the former Salem CC golf director, for winning the 2008 Senior PGA Professional National Championship and for being named Senior PGA Professional of the Year; former Ferncroft member and North Shore Golf Magazine women’s No. 1 player, Dana Harrity, for winning the Women’s Eastern Amateur in Aiken, S.C.; Mayor Bill Scanlon and commission chairman Jeff Klein for leading the approval of a $1.5 million budget for improvements to Beverly Golf & Tennis Club; Kernwood and Middlebury’s Harry Bane for being named New England Intercollegiate Player of the Year last October; Lynnfield’s Bob Kalinowski for capturing the New England Open at Lake Winnepesaukee CC; Ed and Mary Rae Whalley on the celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary; Jeff Monteleone as the new head professional at The Renaissance Club; professional extraordinaire Paul Barkhouse and wife Nancy as they embark on their 36th season working side by side in America’s pro shops, currently at Woburn CC; and Jim McCabe, the illustrious former golf editor at The Boston Globe on his new assignment as senior writer for Golf Week.

Gary Larrabee, the author of The Green and Gold Coast: The History of Golf on Boston's North Shore, 1893-2001, has been covering the North Shore/Greater Boston golf scene for 40 years. He has written centennial histories for Salem, Winchester and Wenham Country Clubs. Catch his golf segment every Saturday morning on the North Shore Sports Desk (104.9 FM) from 8 to 9 a.m.