Round of Golf at Tedesco Country Club with 2003 Club Champ



Tedesco Country Club in Marblehead, MA was designed in the 1920s by Skip Wogan, father of Phil Wogan. It is situated on the North Shore area of Boston, and its players annually play a Ryder Cup-style match against rival Salem Country Club. It is named for the bark Tedesco, a ship that broke up along the rocks of nearby Swampscott in the early nineteenth century. The club opened in 1903, but not in its current location. Six holes were staked out along the rocky shore of Phillips Beach in Swampscott, but those who viewed the grounds as potentially lucrative real estate soon bought out the golfers. The club was then moved to its current site, straddling Salem St., where parts of the course lay in Swampscott and Marblehead.



The course plays at about 6500 yards from the tips to a stern par of 70, and has hosted many tournaments, mostly for the Massachusetts Golf Association. Most recently held at the club have been the 1993 Massachusetts Open (a tournament that returns for the centennial in 2003), the Mass. Senior Amateur in 1998, and numerous MGA amateur qualifying rounds.

The course is routed like many other New England tracks, with the majority of the front nine routed over former pastureland, and most of the back nine routed through a thick forest. The front nine, relatively flat in nature, plays to a par of 34, while the back nine, much hillier, plays to a par of 36. The back nine is obviously much more difficult than the front, as it often plays more difficult than the two shots afforded by the nines par.

Tedescos main defense from the long hitters of today is the lightning-fast greens that magnify every contour on each surface, as they are well known throughout the area. Architectural oddities include the two back-to-back par 3s on the front nine, and the fact that the only two par 5s come back-to-back at 9 and 10. The course is also well-known for its tough finish, as hole 15 is the narrowest on the course at 385, and 16, 17, and 18 are all par 4s that play to 440, 430, and 450 respectively.