FALMOUTH, Massachusetts – Players needed gloves and hand warmers to help their grips in gusty and chilly conditions during Thursday’s final round at the 6th annual Massachusetts Super Senior Amateur Championship at Woods Hole Golf Club. But Don Foberg (Plymouth CC) rode the hot hand with his putter, making five birdie putts in the final round to finish with a two-day tournament score of 1-under-par 141 and capture his first individual Mass Golf championship by a record eight strokes.
“I’ve played a lot of these, and there are so many good golfers in Massachusetts, it’s hard to snag one, so I’m very happy that I was able to do that,” said Foberg, who turned 65 in May, making this his first Super Senior.
The Super Senior Amateur is the final Mass Golf championship for the 2019 season.
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Foberg, who also won this year’s Hornblower Super Senior Championship on his home course, shot 1-under 70 on Wednesday to take a four-stroke lead over the field into Thursday. In the first round, he played alongside 2017 and 2018 Super Senior champion Dave Houghton (Captains GC), who set the previous tournament record last year with a seven-stroke victory.
Foberg’s putting made the difference Thursday as he sank a long 30-foot birdie putt from the front of the green on the 8th hole to pull back to even par. He also made birdie on the 5th and 7th holes to help cancel out bogies on the 2nd, 4th and 6th. He said just staying in the moment and taking one shot at a time was key to playing well over the past two days.
“You just have to have a little more faith in yourself,” Foberg said. “The ball just rolls so nice on the screens, you can just get the speed, get it going and it goes in.”
He later made a 20-footer for birdie from behind the 16th pin, adding a par on the 17th and finishing out with a birdie on the 18th.
“Just finishing 3,3,3 in a tournament is a good way to finish right,” Foberg said. “Nobody’s going to catch you if you do that.”
Robert Linn (Berkshire Hills CC) had his best finish in a Mass Golf championship by taking second place with a 7-over 149. Jon Fasick (New England Country Club), who sank a hole in one on the par-3, 132-yard 17th hole on Wednesday, finished third with back-to-back 75s.
Linn birdied the 1st and 9th holes to go 1-under on the front nine and pull within four strokes of Foberg. However, he fell off the pace on the 10th, hitting his tee shot off to the right and finishing with a double bogey.
“Yesterday you could shoot a good score, but today it was a challenge,” Linn said. “The wind seemed to always be changing around.”
Still, Linn, 65, said the experience was well worth it.
“I’ve been wanting to play Woods Hole forever, and this is like the only reason I’d want to be 65,” Linn said. “When I saw this on the list for Super Senior this year, I was really excited because it’s my first year being a super senior.”
Rich Monaghan (Cape Cod National), who played alongside Foberg and Dana McCaster (Framingham CC) on Thursday, birdied the 17th to finish tied for fourth with David Pomarico (Poquoy Brook GC). McMaster and Glenn Kelley (Sankaty Head GC) tied for sixth at 11-over, while Jim Doyle (Brookmeadow CC), Paul Murphy (Charles River CC), Dave Dickman (Dennis Pines GC), Don Anderson (Kittansett Club), Gary Palmer (Segregansett CC) and Tom Fox (Farm Neck GC) were 12-over and tied for eighth.
Meanwhile, Houghton finished tied for 25th at 16-over, while 80-year-old Alexander Lindsey (Nahant GC), the oldest player in the field, shot 18-over to finish tied for 33rd.
Up next, Foberg will represent Team Massachusetts at the Tri-State Matches in Mid-October at Kirkbrae Country Club in Lincoln, Rhode Island.
COURSE HISTORY
Founded in 1899, Woods Hole Golf Club started as a nine-hole course designed by Thomas Winton, a Scotsman. It has always featured rolling hills, fescue-lined fairways, and today it offers one of the most scenic views of Buzzards Bay along the Cape Cod coastline. Accuracy is key on a course, as shifting winds and fast greens can make life difficult for any golfer, regardless of handicap.
The original course and clubhouse are across the street from where the current clubhouse and pro shop stand now. The clubhouse side contains holes 1, 9, 10, 16, 17 and 18, while the remaining holes are across the street on Quissett Ave.
The old clubhouse is marked by a granite bench next to the 11th tee that has the course’s centennial logo and a sketch of the old building.
Woods Hole built a new clubhouse where the current one stands in the 1920s and rebuilt it in 2016 after 95 years. Click here for a timelapse video showing the construction of the current clubhouse.
NEWS & NOTES
DID YOU KNOW?: This year marks the 100th anniversary of U.S. Open Champion Francis Ouimet playing the inaugural 18-hole round at Woods Hole Golf Club. He reportedly carded a score of 72, which was even par at the time.
PAST EVENTS: Woods Hole Golf Course has hosted a handful of Mass Golf events over the past decade, but the Massachusetts Super Senior Amateur was its first championship event in the last seven years. In 2014, Woods Hole hosted a qualifier for the Massachusetts Open, and then had member days in 2015 and 2016. On the women’s side, the club hosted the Edith Noblit Baker Trophy in 2014 and 2017.
EXEMPTIONS: There were exactly 70 players who made the cut and played all 36 holes in the tournament. All of them received exemptions into next year’s Massachusetts Super Senior Amateur Championship. The site of next year’s championship is to be determined.
SOCIAL MEDIA: For complete coverage of all Mass Golf events, visit MassGolf.org or follow @PlayMassGolf on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
