Nobody loves his golf more than Bob McCoy.
The former Manchester-by-The-Sea summer resident has proven the point in several ways, but nothing matches his accomplishment of playing the world’s top 100 courses in 100 days. He was the very first person to achieve that feat.
Yes, you read that correctly. McCoy played 100 courses around the world in 100 days. And when he pulled off the feat he was a member of five of those world-renowned courses: Pine Valley, Baltusrol, Oakmont, Royal St. George’s and The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. Those are,of course, among the crème de la crème of golf layouts in the world.
This author was naturally impressed with McCoy’s achievement, but I was impressed even more with his embracing personality when I interviewed him for a Salem News golf column a decade ago. That conversation led to my suggestion that he write a memoir on his “100 in 100” exploit.
Now, in 2024, he has done just that. “A Golf Odyssey with the Real McCoy,” a 283-page, self-published hardcover book, with a foreword by golf course architect Gil Hanse, is the result.
“I was more than a little proud of myself when I (initially) completed a trip around the world playing Golf Magazine’s world top 100 courses,” McCoy, who pulled off that feat in the 1980s, wrote in the front of the book.
“During that long, long trip, I was interviewed in Tokyo by a golf writer who asked me what I would do for an encore. I’d never thought of doing this kind of golf trip again, but my response was, ‘Play the top 100 courses in 100 consecutive days.’”
One can only imagine how aghast the golf scribe was with that response. But McCoy wasn’t joking.
“Over the next few years I looked at the World 100 list, and one of those times I realized it could be done,” McCoy continued. “Some of the courses were close enough to each other to be played the same day.”
One might compare it to the famous response for why someone wants to climb Mount Everest — because it’s there.
McCoy also had in the back of his mind for many years the desire to write a book on his unique golf journeys, encouraged by his first wife Hetsy and, after he became a widower, second wife Elaine, former owner of the downtown Manchester landmark store The Stock Exchange.
For several years the couple lived in Manchester summers and Florida during the winter. They now live winters in Pinehurst, N.C. and summer in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.
When I received in the mail a copy of McCoy’s book with the handwritten note, “Thank you for getting the book rolling,” I was not surprised with its thoroughness, exceptional writing quality and humanity.
After all, McCoy never did anything halfway. The former Melrose High and Harvard hockey player was ambitious and talented, a combination that took him to great heights in the world of financial services after his two-year stint at Harvard Business School. He was a bright star spanning 20 years on Wall Street performing analyst duties for Kidder, Peabody and UBS Securities, which led to his forming his own firm, McCoy Power Reports (MPR).
His phenomenally successful firm tracked every power plant in the world that burned some kind of fuel to generate electricity. Said success allowed McCoy the opportunity to play lots of golf, whenever and wherever he wanted to play, and to become a golf course rater first for Golf Digest and later for Golf Magazine.
The rest is golf history — and the envy of every golfer who ever lived.
“I have lived a blessed life, (one) that’s allowed me to embrace the game of golf like few people I know,” the 84-year-old wrote to start off Chapter 1 of his book.
A few lines later he wrote, “It did not take long (in my professional life) for me to recognize the opportunity to combine my business trips with my passion for golf.”
That passion led to a remarkable life in golf and his “Golf Odyssey,” a dream that would never come true for any of us, but which for Bob McCoy became a reality.