Successfully Shipped Up to Boston - Thanks For the Memories

Nearly eight months ago, Barry McNulty from the PGA Tour made a visit to Golf House in Norton. Joe McCabe, the executive director of The First Tee of Massachusetts and our junior golf leader, had a chance to speak with Barry that day and learned the exciting news.

The  Constellation Senior Players Championship was coming to Boston!

This was exciting news and – quite frankly – news that we did not expect. The buzz through our office was palpable. The PGA Tour was going to host a FedEx Playoff event (the Deutsche Bank Championship – our Labor Day Tradition) and a Constellation Senior Players Championship in our state in 2015.

We later learned that the Symetra Tour would be hosting an event at Thorny Lea GC in August. Such developments earned a feature story in our spring issue of MassGolfer magazine (click here to read that story).

The MGA was fortunate and honored to work with the operations team at the Constellation Seniors Players Championship. As the weeks and months passed, we connected with them to see how we could help. Whether it was securing volunteers, helping to organize the Tuesday kids' clinic or letting the public know that tickets were available… we were able to see first hand how much work and effort go into hosting a major event on our soil.

The end result was something for the record books. The world's top golfers came to Belmont Country Club last week and put on a show. Defending champion Bernard Langer was nothing short of brilliant with his six-shot victory.

In honor of such a monumental event, we would like to highlight just some of the other "winners" from the 2015 Constellation Senior Players Championship.

Belmont Country Club and its membership for opening its doors to a major event and making everyone feel welcome.

Joe Rotellini, executive director of the event, and his entire team for their incredible efforts managing this event. Kudos also go to Katelyn DiCristofano who was responsible for securing and organizing the 600+ volunteers.

Mike Rose, the golf course superintendent at Belmont Country Club, and his entire staff for having the course ready to go and in prime condition even after the challenging winter of 2014-15.

Brad Faxon for giving 6-year-old Ryan McGuire a putting lesson on the eve of day 1 of the event. McGuire is looking to raise money for Golf Fights Cancer at MGA Links on June 17 in memory of his kindergarten friend Danny Nickerson.

The Ouimet Fund caddies who proudly walked stride-for-stride with each professional player during Wednesday's Pro-Am.

Bernard Langer who became the first player since Arnold Palmer (1984-85) to win consecutive Constellation Senior Players titles.

The FANS who came out each day to celebrate professional golf played on a historic layout.

The local, regional and national media that converged on Belmont Country Club last week to cover such an amazing event.

The PGA Tour for making charity a key part of all of their events. The Constellation Senior Players Championship will be making critical donations to many local charities, including The First Tee of Massachusetts.

Although the event will not be returning to the Bay State in 2016 (they are off to Philadelphia), we were honored to be a part of such an incredible experience and we hope that Boston will be a future destination.

In "A Commonwealth of Golfers", John English penned that, "the introduction of golf in Massachusetts apparently took place on July 13, 1728…"

Our state has a history that is matched by few. We hope that major Tours will continue to help us create more memories.

In the meantime, we thank you for Shipping Up to Boston in 2015.

Posted by Becky Blaeser, who is now a Champions Tour fan for life.