As mentors go, Mike Menery was already set with a legend by the name of Spike Boda. And when it came to passion for golf and the desire to be involved in the game when he grew up, a very young Menery was all set in those departments, too.
Still, a passing comment from a legendary figure in Boston sports sits proudly ingrained in his memory, not because it shaped his career path, but because it galvanizes those two sports that seemingly cannot be separated. Hockey and golf.
What is it that Grant Fuhr said when asked why he played 36 holes of golf the day before the seventh game of the 1987 Stanley Cup final? “Because it was getting too dark to play 54.”
The point isn’t that Fuhr backboned the Oilers’ 3-1 Cup-clinching win in Game 7, it’s that he is not the exception. No, sir. Fuhr is the rule, because one could say that while they are fulltime hockey players by trade, they keep golf very close to the heart, playing once in while during the season, and nearly every day when it’s over.
And being early April with Menery’s beloved Boston Bruins on the outside of the NHL playoff race in the final few games of the 2024-25 season, it reminds him of those flavorful days at Andover Country Club some 25 miles north of Boston. It is where Menery grew from being a caddie to a pro shop rat to a club professional and general manager.
“You could set your calendar by it,” laughed Menery, now the General Manager at Old Marsh Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. “The day after the Bruins’ season was over (whether it was after the final game of a lackluster regular season or after being eliminated from the playoffs) effectively the whole team was up at Andover.”
With great joy, Menery can still remember the players he loved to see in those days . . . from Bobby Orr to Johnny McKenzie to Derek Sanderson to Ray Bourque to Don Marcotte to Marty LaPointe. The owner of Andover CC, Yvon Cormier, was a developer who had pride in his Canadian roots and for many summers would put on a Canadian Open at Andover CC.
“All the Bruins and so many other NHL players would play in it,” said Menery. “I remember Johnny Bucyk (the legendary Bruins’ center who usually spent his summers back in Edmonton) coming back just for that.”
Some points are not open for discussion, at least with yours truly, and most prominently there is this: From a sports-writing point of view hockey players are awesome to deal with, partly because they are the most real and partly perhaps because they are the best golfers.
Forget all that analysis of how shooting a puck is similar to a golf swing, too. “You know why hockey players are the best golfers?” asks Menery. “Because they have summers off.”
Now some of them get onto the course quicker than others, of course, but put that parochial point aside because missing the playoffs is painful. But you better believe that even if it’s a bitter playoff ouster that ends your season, hockey players are quick to find relief on the golf course.
For instance, the Philadelphia Flyers’ disappointing end to the 2001-02 season when Menery fielded a call from his friend Adam Oates. “He was like a little brother,” said Menery, who got to know Oates when he played with the Bruins.
Eliminated in five games by the Ottawa Senators "it was clean-out-your-locker day (for the Flyers) and Adam and Jeremy Roenick asked for help (getting a tee time)"
Menery assumed it was for a foursome, maybe two, but Oates amended the request. “Virtually the whole team wanted to play,” laughed Menery, who came through with tee times for all at Galloway National in New Jersey.
“I grew up as a kid at Andover and was around hockey players a lot,” he said. “They were always so kind to me, so gracious.”
The hockey-players-by-winter, golfers-by-summer thing had been put in motion long before Menery carried bags at Andover.
Bill Ezinicki, the quintessential rough and tumble NHLer of bygone eras, was a champion golfer who played professionally and was the beloved head professional at The International in Bolton, Mass. Cooney Weiland, an iconic Boston Bruin in the 1920s and ‘30s who later became the legendary Harvard coach, worked summers as head golf professional at the Milton Hoosic Club in Canton, Mass. The great Jean Ratelle worked summers for Bob Baldassari at Hillview in North Reading, Mass., and up at Lochmere GC in New Hampshire, the head pro was Vic Stanfield, a former Boston University standout and brother of Fred Stanfield, who played on those Stanley Cup teams in Boston.
Oh, and let’s not forget one of the grandest of them all, Stan Mikita. The famed Blackhawk was a club pro at Kemper Lakes outside of Chicago.
“I remember that the Bruins’ season ended and a day or two later, Ratty (as teammates called Ratelle) was in the pro shop. Members came in with a shocked expression but he was serious about it,” said Bob Baldassari, who would always be around the shop working for his late father, also Bob.
“Jean would open the shop, work the shop, give lessons, clean the carts. He wanted to be a PGA professional.”
Before Andover, Hillview was home for many pro hockey players and it was there that young Bob Baldassari discovered something about these athletes. “They tended to play golf as they played hockey,” he laughed. “Ratty was all style, a good swing, a tidy game, whereas Terry O’Reilly (famed Bruins tough guy) was a slasher who hit it hard and Wayne Gretzky (who came one day with Garnet “Ace” Bailey) had good form but seemed to always get the good bounce.”
But be sure of this: Serious layers of friendship developed between the hockey players and the pros who looked out for them and the members who shared time with them.
“I know when Spike retired, all the (former) Bruins came back to be at his party,” said Menery. “He had formed great friendships with Orr and McKenzie and was instrumental in helping Derek (Sanderson).”
Beloved as a flashy and dynamic on-ice hockey player, “The Turk,” as he was famously called, was wildly irresponsible off the ice and had well-publicized battles with drugs and alcohol. Orr was hugely responsible in getting Sanderson to turn his life around, but Menery knows the role his mentor played, too.
“Spike took him in and sponsored him. He was part of the family (at Andover CC) and Bobby Orr was responsible for getting me a winter job at Jupiter Hills (in Tequesta, Fla.)”
Which brings us back to that comment that is forever played in Menery’s mind.
It was the annual Rogers Tournament, a big deal in the communities around Andover CC and Sanderson often helped out with doing the scoreboard. “One year, Derek was still being Derek, which means he didn’t show for the final round at Andover,” said Menery.
There was a sense of panic and a tournament organizer asked Spike Boda what he was going to do. Boda shrugged, pointed to Menery, a young kid at the time, and said, “you know calligraphy, you can do it.”
And so Menery took charge, artfully writing numbers and coordinating the leaderboard. Of course, Sanderson made a late appearance and when it was suggested he assume his duties, the famed penalty-killer looked at Menery, noted the crisp and splendidly designed numbers and nodded his approval.
“You know what, young man,” said Sanderson. “You’re going to be a great head pro.”
Menery has proven that Sanderson, and most hockey players, are usually spot on.
