Indian Ridge’s Durkin puts it all in perspective

By Gary Larrabee

Gary Larrabee

Indian Ridge Country Club’s Ryan Durkin is my one millionth – and most recent – reason I love and support the game of golf.

Durkin, a recent award-winning graduate of UMass-Amherst (he accumulated a 3.9 GPA out of a possible 4.0 and was also a track/cross country captain and posted a 4:14 mile) was the Ouimet Scholar speaker at the 59th annual Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund dinner in Boston in May. He brought the house down.

It was billed as a night for the 1500 attendees, a “Who’s Who” of Massachusetts golf, to honor primarily nine-time major champion Gary Player, the globe-trotting recipient of the 13th annual Francis Ouimet Award for Lifelong Contributions to Golf. He was the perfect honoree after his dear friends, Jack and Barbara Nicklaus, were so honored a year ago.

But for all of the legendary Player’s inspiring eloquence, his enthusiastically received address could not capture the hearts of those sitting before him. Why? Because those hearts had already been stolen minutes earlier by the extraordinary speech given by Andover resident Durkin.

“It was an honor to be at the same (head) table with Mr. Player,” the humbled Durkin told North Shore Golf magazine as he accepted congratulations all around from well-wishers once the dinner had broken up. But Player topped him by declaring, “I was honored to come to Boston to receive this special award. But after listening to that young man (Durkin), I’m doubly honored to have been here. I’ll cherish forever the honor I received tonight, but in the big picture, Ryan and all his fellow scholarship recipients are the real reason I gladly flew here from South Africa yesterday and will fly right back to South Africa tomorrow.”

Durkin, whose father, Walter, died of cancer when he was five, started hawking golf balls at Andover CC and Indian Ridge when he was 6. He began caddying at “The Ridge” when he was 10 and later worked in the bag room as a member of the pro shop staff. “The Ridge” was the place for him to go. Ryan’s dad had been an executive with Market Basket Supermarkets owned by the DeMoulas family. Arthur DeMoulas invited Ryan to come out to Indian Ridge, which is owned by the DeMoulas family, and the rest is history.

“I learned what it meant to be a man from my mother, fathers of friends and members from Indian Ridge,” Durkin said in his Ouimet speech. “My mom did an awesome job raising us three children, but what I learned while caddying for the many successful members at ‘The Ridge’ helped shape me, too, into a young man; such as instilling in me the belief that when you help others, good things will often happen to you; that there is power in friendship. Everything I’ve accomplished thus far in my life can be traced back to this principle: I could never have made it alone.”

Durkin double-majored at UMass (Finance and Management), became president of the Isenberg Real Estate Club, ran his own tee-shirt business out of his dorm, and kept playing the piano, an instrument he began when he was 7. His career as an entrepreneur seems guaranteed.

“I can’t imagine where I’d be without golf all these years,” Durkin, 22, said. “Indian Ridge has always been my second home. I worked there. The pros let me play there. My brother Brad worked there.”

Ryan was shooting in the 80s before running became his top athletic passion. Golf will remain on Ryan’s backburner for the next few years, as will his plans to become a successful entrepreneur. He will be enlisting in the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in the fall and hopes to follow his brother, who is already in Iraq serving with the Marines.

“Spending a few years defending the nation that has given me so much already is no sacrifice at all,” Ryan told the Ouimet Dinner crowd. “I see it as an immense opportunity. I’ll return to the business world some day.”

No wonder the proudest people in the banquet room had to be those sitting at Ryan’s designated table: mom Nancy, step-dad David Calkins, Indian Ridge pro Mike Miller, and two of his best friends, Indian Ridge members Chris Doherty and Joey Catalano, and his uncle, David Pollard.

Ryan Durkin represents the best in our North Shore caddies. He is the kind of young man the great game of golf breeds – with the help of you and the Francis Ouimet Fund.

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 35 years. He has written centennial histories for Salem, Winchester and Wenham Country Clubs. His latest book project, the 100-year history of St. John's Prep, was published last summer.