Women’s Golf Tour Comes to Concord

by Rebecca Lavoie

Photographs by Kevin Flynn

Each summer, greatness arrives at Beaver Meadow Golf Course, and for fans of the sport, it comes with the chance to see golf at a world-class level, as close up as it gets. The USI Championship, which benefits the Havenwood Heritage Heights Trust Fund, is the 12th of 17 Tournaments on the Duramed Futures tour. It is taking place this July 24 through 26, just minutes from the golden dome of our state capitol, at the course locals lovingly call “The Beav.”

Dreams of the LPGA

The women of the Duramed Futures Golf Tour have their eyes on the prize. For the top 10 money finishers, the end of the season brings every golfer’s ultimate bounty: a spot on the LPGA tour. Duramed is the LPGA’s Developmental Tour, a chance for talented players to earn their tour cards or eventually to “graduate” to the major leagues. But the play isn’t amateurish; as any spectator of the Beaver Meadow event can attest, these women are as driven and skilled as any on the LPGA, or the PGA, for that matter. A purse of $90,000 is at stake this year. But to say the players are also accessible is an understatement. At the USI, the gallery walks alongside the golfers and can plainly see each stroke. It’s the ultimate experience for fans of the game; a chance to virtually be in a tournament as exciting as any one could see on television. Even better, the small crowd is peppered with some of the player’s enthusiastic parents, many of whom are watching daughters fulfill lifelong dreams built on years of hard work, in sunshine and in rain.

Friendly Fans & Volunteers

For Duramed tour players, the friendly crowds that accompany them during play are a part of the package. Some joke with fans, responding heartily to the admiration they receive after a soaring drive or miraculous putt. Some focus solely on their game, their concentration palpable and every thought they utter audible to the breathless gallery standing just feet away. But most amazing are the interactions spectators witness between the golfers during play. You wouldn’t know just by watching that these women are engaged in fierce competition. With each great shot the women are bold in their adulation for one another, even in the final Sunday pairings. And it’s this camaraderie that makes watching this event glorious. At the USI Championship, love of the game trumps the success it can bring. Long-time USI fan and Beaver Meadow member Duckie Phillips may have summed it up best. “These girls aren’t interested in easy wins…they want each other to play well so they can rise to the occasion. They also truly like and respect each other. It’s just not something you typically see in the pros.” Duramed players are housed with host families, many of whom build strong bonds with the young women whose careers they then follow year after year. The USI is staffed by dozens of ebullient volunteers— extraordinarily friendly, mostly local seniors who love the game, but more importantly, who cherish being ambassadors of their home course and local tour guides to the players and families visiting from around the world. Bob Molway, a Beaver Meadow member who was assigned the critical task of carrying the leader’s score sign on the final day of play in 2008, called volunteering for USI “the greatest job I’ve ever done for nothing!” For spectators, the volunteers provide almost as much entertainment as the golf itself; these sign-holders and cart drivers are some of the funniest folks around.

Concord’s Home Course

The other main event at the USI is the course itself. Beaver Meadow, the oldest golf course in the state of New Hampshire, is a public, city-owned facility, an almost unheard-of venue for professional play. Duffers and aficionados flock to “The Beav” all season long to take advantage of its reasonable greens fees and welcoming 19th hole terrace. For residents of the area, the course is home turf, an ideal place to spend a long Sunday afternoon or dart to after work to hit a bucket of balls on the driving range. For many of Concord’s golfers, Beaver Meadow is where they first learned to play. But for a busy and affordable public course located in the heart of Concord’s residential North End, Beaver Meadow’s conditions are excellent. Even the most jaded players acknowledge the course is an accessible gem. For the USI, the staff at Beaver Meadow rolls out the green carpet. According to Ed Deshaies, Beaver Meadow’s PGA Golf Pro of 27 years, the championship is The Beav’s crown jewel event. “For weeks leading up to it, it’s all the members talk about, all the staff works for.” Tournament week means the course is in the best shape of the summer, something Futures Tour players praise from the first day of practice to the final day of play. After her victory speech in 2008, Mo Martin fondly invoked “The Beav,” laughing that the mineral water sprayed on her by her fellow players after her closing putt on the 18th green was a “glorious shower,” but that the beauty and hospitality surrounding her all week at Beaver Meadow was her “energizing force.” Lee Brown, a long-time fan of the Duramed Futures Tour, travels each year from Pittsburgh to Concord to watch the ladies battle it out for glory at the USI Championship at Beaver Meadow. Like many in the crowd who cheered as Mo Martin held her 2008 trophy aloft, he felt the thrill of her hard-won win first hand, and the wistfulness of yet another USI coming to a close. “Anyone who complains that they can’t get tickets to PGA events has no idea what they’re missing right here in New Hampshire,” he said, clapping enthusiastically for the victor. “It’s simple. This is great golf. Up close.  End of story.”