MARBLEHEAD – One would think Bob Green would be feeling a little pressure this fall. But think again.
Green, now in his seventh season as Marblehead High golf coach, saw his team have its best season ever in 2023, winning the Northeastern Conference Lynch Division title as well as the the Division 2 North sectional title.
The Magicians finished tied for eighth in the states, making for a truly memorable season. You’d think Green would be thinking of what he and the Magicians can pull out of their hats for an encore.
But Green, who is practically an institution at Tedesco Country Club, as well as throughout the state, for the years he spent as club pro at the course that straddles the Swampscott-Marblehead line, doesn’t see it quite like that.
“Some people focus on the wins and losses,” said Green Monday. “I focus on the golf. I just love the game. It thrills me to see kids we compete against play well too.”
This isn’t to say he completely forgets around his own golfers. He just sees himself as more of a mentor and unofficial ambassador for the sport as he does a typical coach.
“I love what I do,” he said. “I was the club pro and I loved that. But when I retired (in 2018) I took on this, and I love this too. I love being a mentor and I love teaching kids the game of golf.”
Only once in all that time have the Magicians missed that postseason, and that was in 2019. The following year, 2020, there wasn’t a season due to COVID. Since then, the Magicians have been a juggernaut. If that’s the case this year, Green can truly say he did some coaching.
Green will be looking to fill four spots on the varsity. Among those who have moved on are Charlie (graduation) and Toby (transferred out) Grenier. The four returnees are Joy Meshulam, Marty Ryan, Jacob Hershfield and James Bickell.
Ryan, said Green, had his team’s lowest stroke average last fall. Bickell started the season as the No. 7 golfer and improved all the way to fifth by the time it ended.
“He was our most improved golfer last year,” Green said.
Hershfield had a 40.1 stroke average, second to Ryan, in 2023. Meshulam, he said, has been very active this summer in playing in WGAM junior events.
“They all are doing all that they can to improve their games,” Green said. “And that’s what you love to see. They’re really into it.”
Of course, with one of the state’s best golf courses at their fingertips, it should go without saying there is no shortage of applicants for those other spots on the team.
“With the 18 returning JV kids I have coming back, I’m looking to have about 32 kids trying out, if everybody signs up to play,” Green said.
Coaching golf isn’t as cut and dried as it sounds. Green said he has two different objectives with varsity and JV.
“The first time you see your varsity kids is when they start workouts in August,” he said, “so by then, you’re not going to tear apart their games and start over. With them, I want to practice pitching, putting, maneuvering bunkers, stuff like that. And the mental aspect of the game, which is huge. It doesn’t matter what the sport is, you’re not going to win if you lose your cool. You have a bad drive, or a bad shot, get it out of your head and hit the next one. That’s all you can do.”
The JV kids are different. There, where there’s no MIAA restrictions on coaches and players intermingling during the off-season, you can get into a golfer’s overall game, he said.
“They’re largely on their own,” he said. “You kind of hope that all of them spend a lot of their time at the course, entering tournaments, and just getting better.
“And I think I have a great group of kids,” Green said. “They all seem to love the game. They’re into it. You see them every day at the course. That’s what you want to see.”
