NEWBURY – The annual winter tournament at the Newbury Golf Center is in rare company as one of only three other golf tournaments, led by the 1962 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, that had to postpone their conclusion because of a snow storm.
The Newbury Golf Center’s 10-week tournament, the brainchild of PGA professional and center owner Erik Sorensen, was in its final week when the snow storm of ’26 dumped almost two feet on the golf center. Sorensen and Terry Lavin, tournament manager, were forced to extend the competition another week to accommodate players and allow them time to rack up their final points in the competition.
Being the last week, some competitors, who had finished their rounds with playoff-qualifying scores, were not thrilled at the extension, Lavin said. “At the end, it gets pretty competitive.”
The tournament, which had 110 competitors in various divisions for its second season, is played from the center’s 10 heated and covered bays and 20 uncovered bays. The Top Tracer computers, which provide several dozen courses for players to use at each bay, track the flight of the balls.
The center, which is less than a mile off I-95 on Scotland Road, uses the Stableford Scoring system where the goal is to accumulate the highest total points. Par nets two points; a bogey one; three for a birdie, and four for eagles.
Kelly McInnis of Newburyport, who won the women’s division with her partner, Kathleen Ammon, last year, said, “it’s been a great way to stay connected to golf during the long winter months. Being outdoors and hitting into the range keeps the experience true to the game, and it’s also created a nice opportunity to meet golfers in the community.
“The tracking technology has been especially helpful, particularly in understanding my club distances and improving my consistency.”
What McInnis especially likes about the winter tournament is she can complete the tournament at her own pace. Some players finish one course per week, while she and others complete the 10 rounds in 10 days.
In 1962, a rare snowstorm hit the Monterey Peninsula, CA, forcing the final round of Pebble Beach to be moved to Monday. (Ironically, one of the 10 courses the tournament plays through Top Tracer is Pebble Beach.) In 2011 and 2013, at the WGC-Accenture Match Play championship, winter storms dumped several inches of snow on Dove Mountain in Arizona, forcing the tournament to be suspended.
Sorensen estimated that golfers at the 27-acre Newbury Golf Center, the largest golf practice facility on the North Shore, have hit about 1,000 balls this winter into the snow in front of the heated bays. “When the snow melts, it’s going to look like there is still snow on the ground,” he said.
This year, the tournament added a cell phone app, Golf Genius, which tracks each player’s points and ranks them on a leader board. “That creates a lot of excitement,” Lavin said.
The cost of the tournament is $100 per player plus the fee for the balls. Prizes are awarded to all teams in the playoffs with other prizes during the season.
“It’s been a good tournament,” Lavin said. ♦
