ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Rom Emmons playing in the first day of competition of the Tedesco Cup at Tedesco Country Club on Friday.
By STEVE KRAUSE
MARBLEHEAD — Bob Green likes to think the allure of competing in the Tedesco Cup speaks for itself.
“Look at this,” he said, gazing out from the first tee at the Tedesco Country Club.
As The Beatles once said, “it is the proverbial sea of green.”
“And,” he said, “it’s a beautiful day too. Picture perfect.”
The 52nd Tedesco Cup got underway Friday, with 110 twosomes participating. For sheer numbers, it is not only largest tournament at the venerable country club, but might be the largest on the North Shore, Green said.
“There aren’t many courses,” said Green, the club pro, “that have 220 people going through in a tournament.”
After Day 1 in the member-guest, best ball-format, John Barnes Jr. and Steve Glowacz (Kelley Greens), were first with a team gross score of 68. Beyond that, they were all bunched up. Winners are crowned for best team gross and team net, but the overall victor goes to the lowest net score.
The net score factors in the handicaps of the players. Anyone over an eight-handicap is not eligible.
Lots of toil and sweat goes into getting Tedesco ready for the event, Green said, though this year was a little less frenetic.
“We came out of the winter in good shape,” he said. “It wasn’t a bad winter.”
But, Green said, the cool, damp and — in the beginning — snowy spring set the workers on the course back.
“It wasn’t a really good growing season,” he said. “The ground wasn’t warm enough.
“Then, all of a sudden, the first week or two of June, everything kicked in,” he said. “We got some rain, and then the sun came out, and the ground was finally warm. And things started to grow.”
Getting the course in shape is only half the battle. The other half involves preparing the field.
“It takes a full effort from all of our staff,” Green said. “We have to research handicaps, there are pairing requests, time requests, and we try to put all of that together.”
Green says his only nightmares come with things he cannot control.
“I won’t be sleeping if there’s a bad weather forecast,” he said, adding that even a brief thunderstorm can set the tournament back at least an hour.
“You have to get everybody off, and then get everyone back on again,” he said. “That takes time.”
He recalls one year, within the past decade, where the entire tournament was rained out.
“We had rain anyway,” he said, “and then thunderstorms moved through. It rained through the night and by the next morning, the course was unplayable. We had to call it off.”
He doesn’t worry about the things he can control.
“I have a great staff,” he said. “They always come through.”
The tournament concludes today. For a complete list of Day 1 results, see Page B3.
