NORTON, Massachusetts – Earlier this week, Mass Golf released the starting times for the 115th Massachusetts Women’s Amateur Championship, which will be held from July 30 through August 2 at George Wright Golf Course, one of two municipal golf courses owned and operated by the City of Boston.
The week will be a culmination of a historic month in which – for the first time in golf history – that both the Massachusetts Amateur and Massachusetts Women’s Amateur will be staged at public/municipal courses. This year’s Women’s Amateur Championship, the longest tenured amateur competition hosted by Mass Golf and one of the oldest tournaments in the country, comes just two weeks after Westwood’s Patrick Frodigh was crowned the Massachusetts Amateur champion on the same course.
As a way to celebrate and kick off day one of the Massachusetts Women’s Amateur Championship, Mass Golf announced that Anne Marie Tobin, a 2016 inductee into the Massachusetts Golf Hall of Fame, will be on hand to become the first individual to strike a ceremonial first drive at the Massachusetts Women’s Amateur Championship.
The ceremonial first drive will be broadcast on Facebook Live @PlayMassGolf on July 30th beginning at 7:45 a.m.
“I cannot think of a better representative to hit the first drive,” said Dennis Roache, the Director of Administration of Boston Parks & Recreation Department at the City of Boston. “We are excited to welcome Anne Marie and an entire field of exceptional women golfers to our course for a historic week of golf.”
Tobin won the Women’s Amateur Championship a record seven times (1988, ’91, ’92, ’93, ’94, ’95 and 2000), including a string of five-straight victories from 1991 to 1995. Her final victory came in 2000 and — to date — no other golfer has ever won as many Women’s Amateur titles.
The Reading native was the first girl to play on the Reading High School boys’ golf team and went on to capture the 1978 New England Intercollegiate Championship. She won her first Mass Golf event in 1982, when she captured the Grace Keyes Cup, the state’s annual stroke-play championship. She would go on to win that title a total of seven times over a span of 18 years.
“I have always been a proponent of the MGA and WGAM working together to enhance our abilities to promote golf, so I could not have been more pleased when the groups merged and formed Mass Golf,” said Tobin. “My hat is off to the many people who worked to make this happen. They are to be congratulated for seeing the big picture and taking the steps to ensure that Massachusetts will continue to be a leader in the promotion of the game of golf.”
Tobin has also been a force on the regional and national stage. Tobin was a quarterfinalist in the1990 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur as well as the 1991 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, a three-time Massachusetts Women’s Open champion and a four-time selection to Team Massachusetts in the USGA Women’s State Team Championship.
Among numerous honors, the three-time Women’s Player of the Year — in 1994, 1995 and 2000 — was recognized when the state association named its top annual competitive designation the Massachusetts Anne Marie Tobin Player of the Year Award
She stands as the first woman elected outright to what was formerly called the MGA Executive Committee and also was the first woman to complete a full two-year term as president of the Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund. In 2008, she was bestowed the Ouimet Fund’s Richard F. Connolly, Jr. Distinguished Service Award.
“Anne Marie Tobin has been a trailblazer both on and off the course,” said Jesse Menachem, Mass Golf’s Executive Director/CEO. “She has been a driving force in elevating and growing the opportunities that are available for women golfers and to this day she continues to be an incredible ambassador for Mass Golf.”
A graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Suffolk University Law School, Tobin practiced law for 30 years before becoming a sports reporter for the Lynn Item and sports editor of the Lynnfield and weeklies. She also serves as the associate editor of North Shore Golf magazine.
“I’ve played one round of golf – six years ago – in the last 10 years, and still have no idea where my clubs are, but I will find a driver and am honored yet also terrified to have been asked to take part in such a historic event,” said Tobin. “This week will definitely be the icing on the cake of the MGA-WGAM merger. I look forward to a great week of women’s golf watching the best female golfers in the state battle for the most prestigious women’s championship in Massachusetts at George Wright, a true gem if ever there was one.”
