Tedesco and Ferncroft Country Clubs, the host sites for the 104th New England PGA championship September 3 to 5, own impressive credentials for conducting major tournaments.
Ferncroft has hosted the most NEPGAs of any course in the region. This will be the ninth NEPGA contested on the challenging Rees Jones design opened in 1969. The course held eight such events between 1973 and 1982.
Surprisingly, this will be the first NEPGA held at the layout located in Middleton, Danvers and Topsfield since ‘82, when Joe Carr shot a seven-under-par 137 to defeat runnersup Dana Quigley and Joe Benevento by three strokes.
Carr, a cancer survivor, also won the 1975 NEPGA at Ferncroft with a 143 total. The previous year Carr had led the tournament at Ferncroft after an opening round 69, only to stagger to a second day 77. That opened the door for Charles Volpone and Ross Coon to finish tied at 143 before Volpone won an 18-hole playoff, 69 to 73. Volpone also won this prestigious event in 1971 at Kernwood.
“Ferncroft always served as an excellent course for our Section championship,” George Wemyss, the long-time NEPGA executive director, told this writer on multiple occasions.
That sentiment is shared by current NEPGA executive director Mike Higgins.
“Ferncroft was not only convenient since our NEPGA headquarters were in the hotel at the top of the hill,” the late Wemyss often pointed out. “But much more than that, we had an outstanding championship course right there, a mere quarter mile down the road; convenient to our players as well since it was situated at the junction of Route 1 and Route 95.”
Ross Coon won the first NEPGA (and third overall) at “The “Croft,” in ’73, edging Volpone by one stroke and becoming the first back-to-back winner since Pawtucket’s Les Kennedy won three straight from 1944 to 1946.
NEPGA tournament chairman Tony Morosco showed he could play as well as he organizes by winning the ’76 championship, after nearly missing his first-round tee time, with a one-under 143, two-putting from 67 feet on the 36th hole to beat PGA Tourist Bob Menne by a single shot.
After Tom McGuirk won the 1977 championship on his home Vesper course, the first player to accomplish that feat since Jerry Gianferante in 1951 at Merrimack Valley, the championship returned to Ferncroft in 1978. Dave Marad of Essex sank a five-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to turn back Mount Snow’s Paul Moran after the pair had tied with that ever-popular aggregate of 143.
Stowe’s Larry Starrtzel, who would later become a prominent rules official for the PGA of America, ventured down from his Green Mountain state locale to win in ’79, thanks to making birdie on the final two holes for a 54-hole total of 215, one under par.
He was followed by Paul Moran’s five-stroke win in 1980 at 213, weeks after the Haverhill native won the Massachusetts Open at nearby Essex and Marad’s second win at Ferncroft in ’81, keyed by three birdies on the final five holes that gave him a 216 score, two shots better than Bob Menne, by then the head pro at Nashawtuc.
Ferncroft also hosted four successive New England Opens in the late 1970s, during which future noted surgeon Bill Mallon won the first two with scores of 139 and 143, followed by Holden Hills assistant Tony Kaloustian’s 142 tally in ’78 after he finished as runnerup to Mallon in ’77, and the aforementioned Moran’s 143 winning score in ’79.
Lastly, Ferncroft served as venue for the LPGA’s Boston Five Classic from 1980 to 1990, among its champions being Amy Alcott, Sandra Palmer and Jane Geddes (the only two-time and only back-to-back winner).
“We’re exceedingly proud to own such an exceptional championship history,” says Ferncroft golf director Phil Leiss. “We’re delighted we can add to that championship tradition by having the New England PGA championship return to Ferncroft in 2024.”
Leiss’s assessment of where a player’s successful round hinges at Ferncroft?
“Two stretches,” he replies. “The first three holes to get out of the starting gate strong where trouble lurks on every swing. Then on our own Amen Corner, the long doglegs on Nos. 13 and 14, where the tee shots have to be exact. Bottom line is that no part of a player’s game can be lacking. The weak part of his game can be quickly exposed.”
If there was any doubt that Tedesco served as an outstanding co-host venue with South Hamilton’s Myopia Hunt Club in 2020 when Shawn Warren won his third NEPGA title, that thought was dispelled when the NEPGA announced plans to return to the Marblehead/Swampscott jewel of a layout a mere four years later, and this time to serve as venue for the climactic third and final round. Myopia served in a similar role in 2020.
Tedesco’s championship pedigree has never been questioned. The club, once a 36-hole complex, had, oddly, never entertained an NEPGA until 2020. But it has hosted five Massachusetts Opens and four Massachusetts Amateurs, as well as two Massachusetts Women’s Amateurs and three Ouimet Memorial Amateurs.
That’s a superb championship resume that ranks with the North Shore’s other venerable championship sites, i.e. Ferncroft, Salem, Essex, Myopia and Kernwood.
Tedesco head pro Ryan Train says Tedesco offers chances to score well on the front nine but can take those good numbers back on the back side.
“Players can go on a little run between the fifth and 10th holes, especially on the back-to-back five-par ninth and 10th,” he related. “But the par-fours on the back, namely Nos. 11 and 12 and especially the 14th to 18th, can cause serious problems.
“The players will not necessarily need to have a long ball, but they need to hit the fairway,” Train added. “Tedesco is a second shot golf course and has always been known for its challenging greens, firm and fast.”
Most recently Tedesco hosted the 2012 Massachusetts Amateur won by Mike Calef (he also won in 2013) and last hosted the Massachusetts Open in 2013, which was won by Brian Quinn, joining brothers Kevin and Fran as the only brother troika to capture the coveted title.