Playing through the local golf links

By Gary Larrabee

Gary Larrabee

Shanking and duck-hooking around the North Shore golf scene as the pristine time of the season — late May and June — kicks in, and wondering if another James Driscoll will emerge at the 104th Massachusetts Amateur at Myopia July 12-16. Maybe local favorites Nick McLaughlin or Anthony DiLisio will comply.

Driscoll, you may recall, was little known until he won his first two major championships, both on the North Shore: the 1993 Massachusetts Junior at Kernwood and the 1996 Massachusetts Amateur at these same Myopia “links.” From there the Charles River product starred at the University of Virginia and lost an epic 39-hole final to Jeff Quinney at Baltusrol in the 2000 U.S. Amateur. He is back on the PGA Tour in 2010 trying for a breakthrough.

The very same week the New Hampshire Amateur will be played for the first time at Eastman Golf Links in East Grantham, where a large group of transplanted North Shore types will be proudly displaying their revamped layout. Locals have been golfing (and skiing) at the recreational/residential development for a half century. I confess a shameful plug is coming as my kid brother, Mark, is serving as host professional for the championship (his fifth year in charge) and Salem native Bob Mielcarz will be pointing to win an unprecedented tenth state title.

Belated congratulations to long-time Tedesco member and Fidelity legend Peter Lynch on his receiving the Richard F. Connelly Jr. Distinguished Service Award at the annual Ouimet Fund gala in Boston May 10. There may be no man in Greater Boston who has been blessed more and, in return, blessed so many others less fortunate with his gifts, financially and personally, than Peter Lynch.

Yes, that’s Peabody attorney and long-time Salem Country Club USGA liaison Ollie Cook on the cover of the 2010-2011 USGA Rules of Golf booklet. He is the second chap from the left (white shirt and black Bermudas) watching Arnold Palmer hit off a tree stump on the 11th hole during the 1963 U.S. Open at The Country Club. Arnie made triple bogey seven and still got into the three-man 18-hole playoff, only to lose to Julius Boros.

Salem officials reportedly have had contact in recent weeks with the USGA seeking to work out the contractual details so they can lock in the 2016 United States Senior Open for the West Peabody layout. The announcement may have been made before you read this, or it could be made before or during the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach June 17-20. Log on to the North Shore Golf Blog (www.northshoremassgolf.com/wordpress) for all the latest.

It will not be the same this season without the presence of a golfing Frithsen in the neighborhood. The patriarch of the Gloucester-based clan, John, passed away last year, and son Chuck, most recently the teaching pro at Golf Country in Middleton, died after a two-year bout with cancer.

Great to see Ken Whalley, member of another prominent golf family, fully recovered from a serious heart condition that had sidelined him several times the last couple of years.

Tiger just doesn’t get it. Would not play in the Wednesday afternoon par-3 contest at Augusta and, as always, refused to give an ounce of credit to those who outplayed him on the weekend to deprive him of major championship No. 15, ignoring most of all Phil Mickelson. To give him his due, Tiger played extraordinary golf at Augusta National for someone whose personal approval ratings rank below Congress’s, but, fact is, fans still admire Tiger the golfer.

A personal tip of the fedora to recently-retired Salem News sportswriter Bill Kipouras, responsible with the late great Cy Newbegin for allowing me to write a trillion words on golf while at The News, including the privilege of covering the Masters six times between 1978 and 1990. Every time I attended, The News was the smallest newspaper outside the South on the scene. I was proud of that. Kipper, a tennis buff, never got around to trying the game of golf until his bad back made it impossible to make a smooth swing. But his support of the game through this agent’s zealous coverage put the publication on the Greater Boston golf map for a quarter of a century. For that I will always be grateful to the hardest working and most dedicated journalist I have ever known.

Another strong showing by the three top “gems,” among our many outstanding courses in the region, in GolfWeek’s 2010 “Best 100 Classic Courses in America” rankings: Myopia – 32, Salem – 46, Essex – 63. I repeat my challenge for anybody to provide me with a better “triple play” of inland golf in a 10-mile radius of each other. Pebble Beach, Cypress Point and Spyglass, of course, don’t count because they are on the ocean.

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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.