Senior men’s league a fixture

at Woburn CC

Woburn Country Club head professional Paul Barkhouse simply marvels at the sight. Every Wednesday morning, starting as early as 7 o’clock, a hardy band of golfers begins its weekly adventure around the nine-hole, par-34 course in search of birdies. Well, most likely pars, bogeys and double bogeys. It’s the Woburn CC Senior Men’s Golf League.

“They’re an amazing bunch of guys, an inspiration to everyone who watches them,” says Barkhouse, the Lynn native and former Massachusetts and New England Open champion. “They want to shoot good scores, and often they do, but they’re obviously not out there for that. They’re out there for the finer things in life as a senior golfer.”

No one knows that better than the Pecora brothers, Joe and Tom. Joe turned 91 in May. His kid brother is a strapping 85. Joe is busy seven days a week. He still bowls in a local league and delivers “Meals on Wheels.” Yep, he’s still driving. And he’s riding a cart at Woburn CC for the first time this season. Joe Pecora did not join the league until he was 71.

“We all have a great time, whether we make nine pars or nine triple bogeys, whether it’s raining or sunny,” says John Golden, one of the youngsters in the league of 84 members. John is 68. He’s played in the league for 11 years. The league, started by Bob Corduck, will reach its 30-year mark in 2010. Among the longest standing members is Barney Conboy.

The age breakdown would be uplifting to the American Heart Association. There are 18 players age 80 or older. There are 68 players between the ages of 58 (just 2 at that youthful age) and 79. One player plays out of a golf car, oxygen tank in tow. But the vast majority of players walk every week, and any other time they play the Woburn layout.

“The big draw is we’re all the same age group, most of us the same generation,” says Golden, who jokingly calls himself a carpetbagger, since he did not grow up in the Tanner City. “We all love golf, too, but we don’t take it so seriously that it would hinder our getting along. We want to talk about the same things. We want and need the exercise. We all enjoy getting up early and starting the day, at least Wednesdays, with a golf game. We really enjoy each other’s company on the golf course and off.”

The league includes members from the neighboring communities of Arlington, Lexington and Burlington. The guys often hang out at the club after the league for a sip and bite to eat, but they make a point to organize a monthly luncheon, either at The Fairways restaurant in the Woburn clubhouse or a nearby eatery.

“I’m not quite ready to join them,” says Barkhouse, a former PGA Tour player, “ but some day I’d look forward to it. They’re a terrific group of guys.”

– Gary Larrabee

Home Cooking: O’Neill sets new

standard at Carriage Pines

Jeremiah O’Neill Jr. shows off his record breaking scorecard.

It was only his fourth round of the young season, so Jeremiah O’Neill Jr. had no preconceived notions when he teed it up at Carriage Pines (formerly Rowley Country Club) on that inhospitable final Saturday in May.

“I almost didn’t bother to drive down (from his Windham, N.H., home),” said O’Neill. “The weather didn’t look very good. But when I saw it wasn’t raining, I gave it a shot.”

And what a shot it was. Joining up with members Jake Hoffman, John Bonazoli and Reenie Noone, O’Neill set a course record by carding a two-under par 70, keyed by a hole-in-one on the 210-yard 11th hole (No. 2 the second time around) with a 4-iron. Eclipsing Les York’s 15-year-old course standard of 70 had special meaning for O’Neill, the Lafayette College graduate now working as a structural engineer for Boston-based McNamara Salvia.

He broke the record on the course he grew up on. The nine-hole, 3325-yard layout had been owned by his dad, Jerry, and uncle, Kevin O’Neill, for nearly a quarter of a century before they sold it to Windover Development in 2006.

“I’ve believed for the last five, six years that I was capable of breaking the course record,” said O’Neill, who reached the round of 16 at the 2002 Massachusetts Amateur at Winchester. “I’d been one-under for 15 holes before, but then I fell apart – and that’s when I was playing every day as a teenager and college student. So to put it all together like this, when I’m playing a lot less golf, was shocking.

“I had my game under control the entire round, hit the ball extremely well, and that made the difference since I took 32 putts,” said O’Neill, who is engaged to Jill Mucci of Windham. Equally important, O’Neill didn’t lose an edge in his game despite having the round interrupted by lightning and thunder after eight holes and by two heavy showers later on.

The ace?

“It was strange,” said O’Neill, who has not played competition outside Carriage Pines for a couple of years. “I hit the ball solidly and it had a good line. We saw it bounce near the flag and I said half-heartedly to my partners that, gee, that might have gone in. But we couldn’t quite tell. So we all hit. I went looking for Jake’s ball in the woods, he drove up to the green in the cart and yelled back that it was in the hole. That’s when I jumped. It was a great feeling. Apparently it hit close to the pin, a little off to the right, and kicked in.”

And with it came a historic 18-hole performance.

– Gary Larrabee

Turner Hill’s George Goich and

John Sadowski get it going

Turner Hill’s George Goich and John Sadowski get it going

George Goich called it, “one of the best 36-hole putting exhibitions I’ve ever seen in competition.” John Sadowski called it, “one of those days you rarely have, where it seemed that every time I putted, the ball dropped in the hole.”

No wonder the Turner Hill Golf Club combo won the New England PGA Pro-Am Championship at windy Mt. Pleasant Country Club and Cyprian GC. Their 67-67-134 total, 10 under par, edged the Wannamoisett pair of Troy Pare and Charlie Blanchard by a single stroke. Sadowski’s 12-foot birdie on their 36th hole made the difference.

Sadowski, the fifth-year Turner Hill course superintendent, was “the man” in Goich’s estimation from the very first hole, which Sadowski birdied from 30 feet at Cyprian. The Butler, PA, native also swished a 50-footer on the third hole at Mt. Pleasant. “I guess I made between 12 and 14 putts inside 20 feet,” Sadowski said. “I made everything inside 10 feet. Putting is the best part of my game. I use the same Ping Pal I’ve had for 18 years. This was probably the best I’ve ever putted in a tournament.”

Not that it was entirely the John Sadowski Show. Goich dunked a 50-foot pitch for an eagle, canned several testy 4- and 5-footers for par, and was in birdie-making position on several greens, but Sadowski almost always made first. “John’s putting was all the more important,” Goich pointed out, “because he’d never seen either course and I had one of my worst putting days ever. If I’d made just a few makeable putts we could have won by five shots instead of one. ”

Vesper’s Smith heats up

Vesper’s Phil Smith posted his first victory of the season and his fifth in two years when he won the Norfolk County Classic at President GC in Quincy. His 20-foot birdie putt on the second sudden-death playoff hole with the state’s top amateur, Frank Vana Jr., gave him the title after both had finished the regulation 36 with two-under-par 138 totals. Smith shot 67 the first day, Vana the second. Smith forced the overtime by making birdie on the 14th and 15th holes the second round…Golf Country’s Chuck Frithsen won successive New England Senior Tour events.

Hanefeld swims with the “Shark”

Former Beverly resident and Salem CC golf director Kirk Hanefeld may be this close to breaking through and winning his first Champions Tour event. His confidence could only be boosted after his best finish ever, a tie for fifth, at the Principal Charity Classic in West Des Moines. His 67-70-70 return for 207 earned him $57,644. Hanefeld was one shot off the pace after each of the first two rounds. He’d earned $85,644 prior to the Bank of America Classic at Nashawtuc in Concord. He ranks 74th on the money list after West Des Moines.

A chunked second shot from the middle of the fairway on the 54th hole, then a missed par putt of 12 feet cost him $40,000, but Hanefeld took the bogey finish in stride.

“It was a good week,” he said. “I came pretty close to finishing on top. I made five birdies the last day, but the four bogeys killed my chances of winning,when I’d made only one bogey total the first two days. I felt confident and relaxed throughout the tournament, knowing I was in contention. That’s the best I’ve handled that situation in the three, four opportunities I’ve had.”

Hanefeld’s impressive play earned him an exemption into last month’s Bank of America Classic at Nashawtuc in Concord. The one negative from the strong showing at West Des Moines? He couldn’t get a flight out for New York that evening so he could play in the next day’s 36-hole U.S. Open sectional qualifier, so he became a withdrawal.

Previously, he’d enjoyed a mixed bag of a week at the Senior PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Rochester, N.Y. He shared fourth place after the first round with a one-over 71, but followed that with disappointing rounds of 74-77-76 for 298, good for a tie for 34th place and an $8,700 check. His weekend playing partners included Greg Norman and Tom Watson.

“That was the hardest course I’ve ever played under those conditions – 22-yard wide fairways, six-inch rough, fast greens,” Hanefeld told North Shore Golf. “The hardest of the 11 major championships I’ve played on the Champions Tour. Even Watson complained to an official the last day that he always wants a major championship course to be hard, but not this hard; not when seven over par wins.”

And Norman?

“He still hits it a ton and plays on a level of golf higher than I’ve ever played with. He and Watson were terrific to be paired with.” Hanefeld joined Norman and Chris Evert, Norman’s fiancée, for post-round refreshments.

King and Dilisio head to Florida

From the “Generation Next” file, congratulations go out to junior golfers Trenton King of Danvers and Steve Dilisio of Swampscott. Both golfers qualified for the prestigious Optimist International Golf Tournament to be held July 24-29 at PGA National in Palm Beach, Fla.

Pardon the slice!

In last month’s issue we incorrectly stated that Bear Hill in Stoneham had a new super in Robert Johnson. Johnson is, in fact, the club’s new president; Denzil Rice remains the man in charge of the rolling greens at the immaculate nine-hole course.

Make that Andy Wills, not Andy Willis, as the USGTF instructor who sang the praises of the SwingRite in last month’s Golf Gadget feature.

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