North Shore Golf Magazine Spring 2017

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Links to the past >>>
played an exhibition when
Happy Valley in Lynn celebrated
the opening of its new clubhouse
and second nine in 1934.
In 1963, Jack Nicklaus defeated
Gary Player, 67-71, in an August
exhibition at Essex CC.
• • • •
Mike Busfield, Haverhill native
and graduate of Slippery Rock
College where he played on the
golf team, quit his job at the family
business (Busfield Oil) shortly
after the first Boston Five Classic
at Ferncroft to caddie on the
LPGA Tour. In 1985, he was Andy
North's caddie when he won his
second US Open at Oakland Hills.
Busfield was a lefty who played at
Far Corner and other Merrimack
Valley area courses.
• • • •
Colonial Country Club in
Lynnfield became the first
championship course in the
country to offer night golf. But
the idea was abandoned after
one year, due to the pesky
swarms of insects attracted by
the night lights.
• • • •
Myopia golf members are used to
seeing fox hunts roar past as they
are playing the par-5 second hole.
Members are on horses, of course,
but there is no actual fox.The
hounds follow a laid scent. Of
course, polo and other equestrian
pursuits predated golf, which arrived
at Myopia in 1894.
• • • •
President William Howard
Taft chose Beverly’s Evans Point
(now Lynch Park) as his summer
White House, spending three
seasons as a regular at Myopia
and Essex.
The deep bunker about 50 yards
short of the green on Myopia’s
10th hole is known as the "Taft
Bunker." It seems the plump
27th president had to be helped
from it with ropes during rounds
there in 1915, and reportedly his
thank-you note could be seen in
the pro shop. (Thankfully, there
are now stairs to help players
escape from the bunker.)
• • • •
The North Shore is home to many
“lost courses.” For example:
Baker Island Club was a
60-acre island in Salem Harbor
that housed the Winne-Egan
Hotel, which opened in 1888. It
had 50 guest rooms and catered
to seekers of "health, pleasure and
needed rest." Hotel guests could
sail, fish, swim, play tennis or take
a quick trip around the hotel's
six-hole golf course.
Danvers CC, founded in 1900,
later called Homestead was off
Ferncroft Road on the west side of
Route 1. In 1901, the club moved
to the current site of the Danvers
Reservoir where it operated until
the mid 1940s, at which time the
land became part of Wethersfield
Dairy. In 1952, the land was
flooded for the reservoir.
Delphine Golf Club was shortlived,
setting up shop on the Patch
Farm in Gloucester.
Eastern Point GC was a
nine-hole course open to the
East Gloucester summer colony
patrons. It opened for play
in 1900.
Labor-in-Vain CC was the
brainchild of Richard Crane Jr.,
who built Castle Hill high above
Ipswich Bay. World War II led to
the demise of the 2701-yard,
par-35 Skip Wogan-designed
course.
Misery Island G&CC, visible
from Beverly Farms’ West Beach
and Manchester Harbor, was
accessible only by a boat launch.
There was a casino on the island
from 1913-17, and golf seemed at
the time to be a simpatico pursuit.
The course was described as
being of “rough, rugged contour
along the shore line, with hard,
closely-knit pasture turf inland.
Its hills and dales combine to
make a course at once difficult
and fascinating.” >>>
In 1963,
Jack Nicklaus
defeated
Gary Player,
67-71,
in an August
exhibition at
Essex CC.
Photos courtesy of Gary Larrabee, from his book
“The Green & Gold Coast: The History of Golf on
Boston’s North Shore, 1893-2001.”
NORTH SHORE GOLF