Buying my first golf club

+ News, Notes, and Weekly Favorites

Author

Sean Melia
November 15, 2024

Hey Everyone,

This week, I interviewed Hunter Hamrick, Nick Dunlap’s caddie. Dunlap was the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour in 33 years, and Phil Mickelson was the last to do it in 1991.

He told some great stories about his own golf career. He played for Alabama in the 2012 National Championship and won his final match, but the Crimson Tide lost to Jordan Speith and Texas. Justin Thomas was a freshman on that Alabama team. You can listen to the episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

I posted two new course reviews this week: Pine Meadows (Lexington, Mass.) and Whaling City GC (New Bedford, Mass.). Supporters and Founders of the newsletter get early access and additional thoughts that go beyond my IG review. If you’d like to support my work you can upgrade here.

Looking for some help with college golf:

Starting this week, high school seniors can sign letters of intent with colleges. I plan to put together a list of players who have signed letters. If you know of any, you can email [email protected] with the player’s name, high school, and college. Or you can respond to this email. Would love to highlight the kids making the leap into college golf!

Alright, let’s get into it.

News and Notes:

Stimets nearly earns PGA Tour spot: A closing 66 in the Devil’s Elbow Invitational left Stimets one shot short of forcing a playoff. The Mid-Amateur tournament, incredibly, gives out a spot in the PGA Tour’s Corales Puntacana Championship in April. Stimets left his 18th hole birdie putt on the lip. It marks his third runner-up finish this summer. He lost in the Mass. Amateur final and then was nipped by Jake Ratti in the Mass. Mid-Amateur. Matt Parziale shot 72-67-73 and finished in fifth place. Results

PGA Tour Champions season wraps up: Jason Caron capped off an incredible year with a 34th-place finish in the Charles Schwab Championship. He earned $634,243 in 10 events.

Megan Khang and Alexa Pano playing this week: Khang is safely inside the cut for the LPGA Tour Championship. Pano needs a strong performance to jump into the top 60 and secure a spot.

Broadway Golf Club is opening in Southie: Just in time for winter, Southie will have a new spot to play indoor golf. According to their Instagram, it’s slated to open on Nov. 18. It's located at 129 F St. Website.

Saving up for my first golf club

When I was growing up in Acton, there was an independent golf store that I would frequent, even though I had no money to spend. If memory serves, it was called Golf Masters. It was a small spot; the owner was a club builder. He didn’t have a lot of name-brand equipment in stock, but he did have the holy grail—a Callaway Big Bertha Warbird.

The clubhead is the size of a modern-day 7-wood. This is the point when titanium was starting to break through. Bernhard Langer won the 1993 Masters with a persimmon driver. This was about three years after that historic win, and prior to some kid named Tiger arriving on the professional scene.

As a kid, my godmother, a lovely Irish woman named Maura Sweeney, would write me a $25 check for my birthday and Christmas. I would stick the checks in my bank account and leave it, saving up for a rainy day.

That Big Bertha became the rainy day I was saving up for.

Golf Masters was located in a building that also had a Second-Hand Store that my mom liked. So, I was able to visit this Big Bertha any time my mom wanted to peruse housewares. It was the perfect combination. I imagine the Golf Masters owner thought he might capture husbands trying to avoid picking through dishes and silverware. Instead, he got some freckle-faced kid who had no money to spend and was just waiting on his godmother’s checks to clear.

Time makes things fuzzy, but I think the driver's price was $150. That’ll get you half a driver shaft these days… maybe.

To fully understand the urgency of this purchase, you have to understand the clubs I was playing with at the time. My dad arrived home one night with a red Ping carry bag (very sick) and a set of clubs with… pink shafts. They were mildly embarrassing for a middle school boy, but they were an upgrade from my Wilson half-set. Beggars can’t be choosers and all that.

Was the Big Bertha going to replace all my clubs? No. But it was at least going to give me some cache on the first tee.

One time, while playing at Maynard CC, a beefy German man asked me, in his Arnold Schwarzenegger accent, “Are those your mother’s clubs?”

He wasn’t even trying to be mean! It was an honest question.

“No,” I answered meekly.

After multiple visits to my golf club crush, I was finally ready to pull the trigger.

Believe it or not, I still have that driver (I also have the pink-shafted clubs). It served valiantly in the fight against my massive slice through middle school. A couple of years ago, I brought it with me to Richmond, Virginia, and gave it to my friend’s son. It was too long for him, so it was returned to me a few weeks later.

There is something special about saving up for a big purchase as a kid. I remember feeling so excited to have it in my bag. I felt the same thing about the Scotty Cameron that I purchased off Ebay when I made the golf team at Holy Cross.

There’s also something about the late 90s era of golf clubs. This might be a bit of nostalgia on my part, but with the transition from persimmon to titanium, clubs still had a classic look to them. There were no screws or bolts or weights. Just hunks of metal that promised extra yardage and hope.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across one of those golf clubs from the late 90s or early 2000s. I pulled a TaylorMade Ti-Bubble 2 out of the trash can on Hillview CC’s 8th tee box. The shaft was broken, either out of anger or old age. I decided to keep it, and it’s sitting in my trunk, waiting to be resuscitated. I also bought a Titleist 975D two years ago for $50 on Ebay. Little did I know that I would need to use it in a Mass. Public Links qualifier when my clubs were stuck in Scotland last summer.

I often think about that middle school version of myself who would peruse Golf Masters and pull every club off the rack and wiggle it around to feel its weight and imagine what it might feel like to hit the sweet spot. I used to peer into the case that held golf balls in Maynard CC’s tiny pro shop, trying to figure out if I wanted to risk buying a sleeve of balata golf balls that might last two holes before I destroy it with a bladed wedge shot. Sometimes, I was deciding between a sleeve of balls and chicken fingers at the bar.

Those were the good old days when golf seeped into my blood and bones. I’m glad it did, and I’m glad I still have that Callaway driver kicking around as a reminder of who I used to be. He hasn’t changed all that much.

When I’m not golfing…

I’m reading…

  • This week, high school seniors could sign college national letters of intent. Unfortunately, some kids lost spots before they could sign because college programs have been forced to shrink their rosters. Cameron Jourdan has the story for Golfweek.

  • Lindsay Vonn, who just turned 40 and had a knee replacement, is making a skiing comeback in hopes of an Olympic return.

  • While one 40-something makes a comeback in her original sport, Diego Forlan, a Uruguian soccer star, is giving pro tennis a try at 45.

  • And if we’re talking about old athletes seeking the fountain of youth… how Mike Tyson be left off the list. He’ll fight YouTuber Jake Paul on Saturday on Netflix. A big deal because, well, Tyson is 58 and Netflix is dipping it’s toe into more live sports action. NYTimes with their own Tale of the Tape… I’ll be rooting for Tyson…

    • “Paul, who was raised in Ohio and has more than 27 million Instagram followers, first became known for short videos on the now-defunct social platform Vine before switching to YouTube. In the videos he would re-enact movie scenes, eat spaghetti with a fork attached to a power drill and follow trendy dance moves, among other things.”

I’m listening to…

  • This No Laying Up episode about Golf Feuds was excellent. It’s amazing how long the 1999 Ryder Cup impacted the Europeans and the European golf writers. Some very funny bits of info in this one.

I’m eating…

  • Johnny Pomodoro’s in Charlestown has an incredible meatball sub. It paired nicely with college football on Saturday.

I’m drinking…

  • Made a couple of Manhattans this week. Hadn’t had brown booze in the house for a while.

I’m watching…

  • After reading the book, I am excited to watch Say Nothing on FX.

  • Outer Banks and The Great British Baking Challenge are still humming along in my life.

  • I enjoyed this Fried Egg Golf video about Sweetens Cove.

New here? Reached the bottom?

Hell Yeah.

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