MARBLEHEAD — By the time Cy Kilgore is done playing competitive golf at Tedesco Country Club, his list of accomplishments could very well be as long as one of the championship course’s par fours.
Kilgore added to that list again over the weekend, winning the Tedesco Senior Men’s Club Championship for the second time. When you add to that his 18 Tedesco Men’s Club Championship victories, Kilgore has clearly cemented himself as one of the best amateur golfers that the club — and the area — has ever seen.
“It feels a little different now that I’m not competing for the regular men’s championship, but this is still a lot of fun and it’s still an honor to win,” said Kilgore, who has been a dues-paying member at Tedesco since 1977. “I’ve played for the last three years and haven’t been able to win it, and I even blew a four-shot lead last year, so to get the win is very satisfying.”
Kilgore put up scores of 76 and 79 for a total score of 155 for the tournament, easily winning the event.
“I actually started strong and finished off slow both days, which isn’t exactly what you want,” said Kilgore. “I was one-over on the 12th hole Saturday and made five bogeys coming in, then on Sunday I bogeyed out from the 15th in. But at the same time, I didn’t make any double bogeys in the tournament and I managed to keep it together. My putting saved me because I made a few really key putts to keep my round alive each day. As someone who’s very competitive with himself, it wasn’t what I wanted, but it was enough to get the job done.”
As someone who has been playing competitive golf for over 40 years, Kilgore has certainly earned the option to stop competing if he wants to. But he doesn’t want to.
“My desire to stay competitive is always there,” Kilgore said. “I love the game, I love hitting golf balls and I love practicing. I’ve used it as an outlet for my mental health. I’ve used it as an excuse to play as much golf as I can.
“I’ve never been super talented as a ball striker,” Kilgore added. “I can hit it straight and all that, but I’m one of the shortest hitters out there and I tend to come up long or short at times on approaches. But I know how to score. I know how to get the ball in the hole, and that’s what’s kept me in the mix all these years.”
In addition to his accomplishments at the club championships, Kilgore also holds a number of quirky statistics and unofficial records at the club. He once shot a 5-under 31 on the ferocious back nine (he’s not sure if anyone else has done it), he once made seven straight 3’s on the card from holes two through eight (“to be fair, three of those are par threes,” he says) and he’s made a hole-in-one on every par three on the course, the final and most recent of which came on the 13th hole in 2018.
“Those are all really fun, cool little things to be proud of,” Kilgore said. “The hole-in-ones may have been mostly lucky, but being able to accomplish those kinds of things is great.”
