Where did the time go?

By Gary Larrabee

Gary Larrabee

Can you imagine? With this issue we begin the 10th year of North Shore Golf and Tennis magazine. And in this space I begin my 10th year privileged to provide my opinion or share a story about someone or something that I believe makes North Shore golf special.
In my first column I wrote about the remarkable Anne Marie Tobin, the modern queen of women’s golf, not just on the North Shore but in Massachusetts. Four years later I wrote a column about the amazing comeback from a near-fatal golf cart accident of her husband, Jim, the long-time head professional at Bellevue Golf Club in Melrose.
It’s been a grand – and humbling – ride for me, working for publisher Richard Ayer, the heart and soul of this publication, and his two editors over this decade span, Gary Trask and Bob Albright. We have had a great time, and pray we’ll be scribbling the same type of message ten years hence.
Personally, I’ve been gratified with the first class product we have delivered and the overwhelmingly positive response we’ve received in feedback from golfers near and far, from my next-door neighbors in Wenham to old chums now living in Ireland (thanks to the power of the internet).
I’ve loved every one of our “people” covers, from the Bill Flynn clan (Year 1, Issue 2), to the bittersweet Bill Flynn tribute (Year 9, Issue 4). I’ve disliked, and made my opinion perfectly clear to the decision makers, all of our generic covers, no matter how clever the actual story concept. I want people on the cover – always.
That second issue in 2003 also advanced the upcoming Massachusetts Open at one of our finest championship layouts, Tedesco, which, coincidentally, is the venue for another regional major, the Massachusetts Amateur, this July.
I had a ball interviewing the likes of John Updike, Gerry Callahan, Mark Bavaro, JoJo White and Doc Rivers for our “18 Questions” feature, of which I hope we will run more in future issues.
We’ve chronicled the progress and setbacks of our courses, as well as the sustained examples of excellence of our timeless, classic tracks, like Salem, Essex, Myopia, Kernwood and Tedesco.
We have saluted the North Shore’s golfing leaders, from players such as professional Frank Dully and juniors Nick McLaughlin and Steven DiLisio, to our underrated course superintendents (like Dick Duggan, Kip Tyler and Steve Murphy in Year 3, Issue 3), to our acclaimed course architects (Ron Kirby, Brian Silva, Phil Wogan, Year 4, Issue 3), to the local folks who run our forty public courses (see the Stavros clan, Year 6, Issue 2).
We’ve celebrated the North Shore’s extraordinary place in the game’s local, state and national history books. We’ve given a shout-out to local businesses involved in the golf industry (see Danvers-based Tournament Solutions, which works with the three majors that are played in the U.S.). We’ve often paid tribute to the men and women club professionals who serve us golfers from dawn to dusk.
We’ve offered our “Best” lists, including the authors of our best hole-in-one and course record stories and the best clubhouse food. Bottom line: We’re tried to share with you, our loyal reader, everything golf about the North Shore, including some tough issues, like the effects the struggling economy has had on the game in recent years.
But for whatever reason, we are in a blessed golfing neighborhood here on the North Shore; loads of terrific public courses and private clubs, driving ranges, merchandise-rich pro shops and golf stores. And, best of all, a golfing community from Winthrop to Amesbury that loves the game, supports the game and supports our humble magazine. Enjoy Year 10. Three more terrific issues to come.
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Salem Country Club, venue for five previous United States Golf Association championships and long considered a favorite venue by the USGA leadership, has extended an invitation to the USGA to serve as the site for the 2017 U.S. Senior Open, the same event the Peabody club hosted with great success in 2001.
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Our condolences to the families and friends of some special members of our North Shore golf clan who passed since last fall: Tedesco and Peabody’s Ken Feeney, Tedesco’s Bruce Boal and Dudley Clark, Swampscott and Salem CC’s Mike DiLisio, Dan Busa of Salem and Bass Rocks, and Beverly Golf and Tennis’ Hugh Nelson.
Golf course architect Geoffrey Cornish also died, at 97, but not before designing in part or whole several solid layouts hereabouts, i.e. Middleton, Thomson, Bradford, Crystal Lake, Haverhill, Indian Ridge and Trull Brook.
An official welcome back to the North Shore to Kirk Hanefeld, the new director of instruction at Renaissance in Haverhill and head of the soon-to-be established Golf Academy at the same address. The former Salem CC director of golf and Beverly resident will be a tremendous asset for Renaissance and its parent company, Southworth Golf Management.

Gary Larrabee has been covering golf on the North Shore for better than four decades. Email Gary at gary@garylarrabee.com