2024 Favorites, Bests, and Worsts

Author

Sean Melia
December 27, 2024

Whitinsville Golf Club

Hey Everyone,

I hope you’re all enjoying a bit of rest and relaxation this week.

The final newsletter of 2024 recaps some of my favorites, bests, and worsts from my year on and off the golf course.

2024 Favorites from off the golf course

It was a great year on and off the golf course. I played golf in four different states (Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Missouri). I was fortunate to walk courses like Pine Valley and Newport CC to cover events. I hit some horrendous shots and a few that were pretty good. I qualified in my first MassGolf Championship and battled the shanks in another event. I bought a pushcart because I’m getting old. I checked off 24 new courses in my quest to play every course in Massachusetts.

All along the way, I met a bunch of new people and reconnected with old friends. Golf tends to have that power.

Here are some of my favorites, bests, and worst from on and off the golf course in 2024.

Best Read(s)

🤫 Say Nothing was my favorite non-fiction book of this year. It’s not an uplifting tale, as it dives deep into The Troubles in Ireland. There’s an FX show based on the book that was released this fall, too.

🇮🇪 The Hunter by Tana French was the best fiction I read this year.

🏒 Loved this article about the theft, and recovery, of a truckload of Jaromir Jagr bobbleheads. Read here.

📰 Some newsletters I always make time to read: Letters From an American by Heather Cox-Richardson and Normal Sport by Kyle Porter

Best Listen

🧛 Vampire Weekend’s Only God was Above Us got a lot of play this year.

🎸 I loved this Rick Ruben interview with John Mayer. So many interesting thoughts and ideas.

Best Eat

🇬🇷 Go eat at Kava in the South End. It was the best meal of the year for me. Everything we had was delicious; the zucchini chips and lamb meatballs are must-orders.

A few recipes I loved from NYTimes Cooking (all gift links)…

🥣 Lecsó (Paprika-Packed Pepper Stew)

Best Watch

📷️ The short documentary How Being an Influencer Became a New American Dream was outstanding.

🦘 I popped No Laying Up’s Australia Tourist Sauce on this week. Superb stuff.

Golf Best, Worst, Favorites

Best Day on the Course

🏌️ It’s hard to beat the Double Dip at Franklin Park/George Wright. For the fourth straight year, I’ve teed it up with Jed, Kevin, and Sampson at the two Boston Munis. It’s an incredible day of golf.

I made this video two years ago about the Double Dip.

Best Walk

🌲 For the second time in three years, I was able to spend a Sunday at Pine Valley covering the Crump Cup. Always a thrill to walk that course and watch some of the best mid-amateur golfers in the world compete.

Best Massachusetts Course

Salem’s par-3 12th Hole

🧹 Of the new courses I played this year in the quest, Salem CC was the best. A relentless hum of great holes. The floor is so high at Salem CC, and it’s no surprise why the USGA comes to the course every 15 years or so.

Best Massachusetts Public Course

⛴️ It was all downhill after I played Miacomet in April, my first round of the year. What an awesome public golf course. Massachusetts mainland standouts were The Ranch, and for value, The Ledges is excellent.

Best Non-Massachusetts Course

Lancaster CC

🚗 I was lucky enough to play Lancaster CC in Pennsylvania this April during U.S. Women’s Open Media Day. The course was excellent, although it was a bummer to hit off mats on certain spots of the course.

🦊 Shoutout to Fox Run GC in Okemo, Vermont. One of the best public courses I’ve played in New England… ever.

✈️ Second shoutout to Ozarks National at Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri.

Lowest Score

🔽 I shot a 70 (-1) at Juniper Hills - Lakeside in early May. My aggregate score at the two Juniper Hills courses on my quest was 141 (-1). Not sure I’ll better that total on any 36-hole facility…

Highest Score

The Ledges is a great value in W. Massachusetts

🔼 Leveling up to a MassGolf Championship was a thrill. Then I shot 87 at The Ledges in the Public Links. It was a great day, nevertheless. I was paired with a college senior and a senior golfer (who is also a Donald Ross historian). I wrote about it here.

Best Hole

⛳️ The fourth at Hyannisport Club is spectacular for both the setting and the strategy. It’s a tough, semi-blind tee shot. Players can take on the dogleg or veer right and have a longer shot into the well-protected green set close to the water.

Worst shot

Yes, my nine iron went off the Arccos map…

🥴 I hit a cold shank on the 8th hole at Garnder Muni in my Mid-Am qualifier this August. Diabolical stuff. The 8th hole is a short par-3, and I hit a handful of shanks this year (six in this round alone). But this one buzzed past the group behind us as they were putting on the 7th green. Somehow, I managed to steel my nerves and hit an 80-yard lob wedge onto the green and make a 30-foot putt for par. Golf is wild, man.

Best shot

👊 Sometimes, the best shots are ones that come after the lingering stink of a bad shot. On the 15th hole at Cyprian Keyes, I chunked a 5-iron into the hazard and made a double bogey in my Mass Public Links qualifier. It put me at 6-over par and right on the cut line. 45 minutes later, after making a par on 16 and birdie on 17, I found myself standing on the fairway of the par-5 18th with, you guessed it, a five-iron. The shot required me to fly it over a cross-hazard. I hit the best shot of the year with that five iron. It landed pin-high; I got up and down for birdie to qualify for my first Mass Golf Championship.

Favorite pro event

🏆️ I found myself pacing the living room while watching the final round of the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 - The perfect storm of course and competitors. I was rooting for McIlroy, so the end was disappointing, but it was the only golf event this year that elicited any real sports-watching emotion.

Favorite Amateur Event

🏌️‍♀️ The Curtis Cup in September was another great viewing experience. Team Great Britain and Ireland upset Team USA. It was on an awesome course, Sunningdale, and featured 20 excellent golfers.

If you would like to support my work, you can upgrade your subscription.

Bay State Archives

Reply

or to participate.