Author’s Note: In a first for Golf Course Trades, we are publishing a two-part piece on Marblehead, Massachusetts’ Tedesco Country Club, a course designed and redesigned by many hands, including Wayne Stiles, Jon Van Kleek, and Donald Ross, and most recently renovated by Ron Forse. The course is named after one of the most famous shipwrecks in New England, the cargo bark Tedesco, which sank in a blizzard offshore over 160 years ago. To stretch my legs as a bit as a writer, the magazine encouraged me to write a short piece of historical fiction about the sinking of the ship and the naming of the club – something completely different from bunkers and drainage, soils and supers. Next month, we’ll meet Peter Hasak the super, Ron Forse the renovation architect, and explore the course in-depth. But for this month, sit back and allow us at GCT to spin you a yarn of wooden ships on the water, a fictional account of the sinking of the Tedesco, along with the true story of the naming of the club…
From the article:
It had been a glorious day, but as the sun set, black clouds had begun to roil, obscuring the night sky. The swell was increasing as was the wind. When the wind blows and the clouds gather in the forties latitudes, a storm could intensify with extraordinary speed, and a seemingly sweet day could turn into a boiling darkness in mere minutes, as this one did, full of racing water and mountainous waves.
In the cabin, the barometer glass had sunk frighteningly low, and the green water swelled to a white curl. The howl in the rigging grew higher and louder by far, a banshee shriek. A grey-black haze descended like a curtain, then a whirlwind of white snow.
“The Ghost Ships a-comin'” Old Joe warned van der Meer. “You better hold fast.”
