He is what we all agree the golf world needs more of – a massive persona with fortitude, patience, and compassion.

Simply put, Bob Beach “is the best dude ever,” said Eddie Carbone, former Executive Director of the New England PGA, who speaks for anyone who has been blessed with knowing Beach.

The name tag is spot-on accurate. Bob Beach's real name may as well be Volunteer Bob and his great friend, Kevin Riordan, is there to help him grow the game on countless evenings.

His is a legacy carved out of 42 years of service to the golf industry, nearly 30 of them as the head professional at Braintree Municipal Golf Course. Since retiring in 2018, however, the passion for what moves him has not waned; it has intensified.

“I knew I wasn’t done,” said Beach. “I had a plan.”

The plan basically is this: Answer the phone and say yes to anyone who wants him to teach, help, or volunteer. “He’s busier than he was when he worked,” laughed Matt Ruxton, vice-president of sports for the Special Olympics of Massachusetts, who admittedly is one of those who does call on Beach.

“He takes joy in the littlest things that make our athletes happy. He’s impacting a lot of people.”

Beach is a veritable Statue of Liberty in the local golf world, a man whose flame to help burns perpetually and whose tablet – if he carried one – would read something like “give me your distinctive, your trusting, your loving masses yearning to swing freely and smile radiantly.”

The golfers who reached out to Beach and told of the gentleman in their foursome whose dementia was preventing him from playing regularly? That man now plays nine holes once a week with Beach.

The dilemma created by the pandemic and precluded interaction with Special Olympians? No worries. Beach set up a camera in his backyard, hit golf balls, and offered lessons via Zoom.

Military veterans who won’t let loss of limbs stop them from playing golf? Beach is there for them.

An Alzheimer’s patient who miraculously reacts joyfully to rolling golf balls on a putting green? Beach patiently assists them.

Assisting blind golfers? Ah, that is something Beach did years ago and with utter delight he is doing it again.

The stroke victim whose wife reached out to see if Beach would help re-teach the game to her husband, a man who was a one-time avid golfer with a good game? Beach had two questions: When? Where?

Put a GPS tracker on him and you’d find him volunteering at a Salute Military Golf Association (SMGA) clinic at Granite Links in Quincy, or working with autistic golfers at Ponkapoag, or teaching volunteers how to conduct a Special Olympics Drive, Chip, and Putt competition, or showing up to help “Golf For All,” a group that uses golf to aid men, women, and children with chronic limitations.

Surely, he’s not capable of being in multiple places at once.

No, but Beach is incomparable at being one man with passion for all.

“The guy is a living saint in a golf shirt,” said Kevin Carroll, an advisor and fundraiser for SMGA.

“I wish we had more Bob Beaches,” said Ruxton.

Spot on as that thought is, let’s be thankful that we have one and that he enriches life for many. You, me, and many of our fellow golfers may talk about the need for the game to be more inclusive, but Bob Beach lives it.

“It’s just something that’s grown out of what I always wanted to specialize in, junior golf,” said Beach, who was blessed to work for two NEPGA legends – his father-in-law, Kenny Campbell, at Newton Commonwealth, and Dick Hanscom at Braintree.

“Working for Kenny, who loved junior golf, was great for me and through him I met Billy Peduto, a really good blind golfer. I started to coach him and that opened so many doors for me.”

At Braintree, Beach and his wife, Cathleen (Kenny Campbell’s daughter), started a summer clinic one night a week for children with Down syndrome.

“I think that first year, 1996, we had six golfers and it was just so rewarding,” said Beach. “My favorite thing about these clinics, all these years later, is that the children know you’re into it and that makes an impact on you.”

One of his first students was Kevin Riordan and more than 25 years later they are still a team. “Kevin is 41 now and he goes with me to a lot of these programs that are always moving around,” said Beach, who adds, laughing, “I know my place. Kevin’s the rock star.”

There is a degree of truth in that (ask anyone who has watched Kevin work with his mentor), but Beach’s brilliant career has earned well-deserved praise. He’s a member of the NEPGA Hall of Fame and in 2013 won the PGA of America’s "Patriot Award," given to a person who personifies patriotism through golf and demonstrates unwavering commitment and dedication to the men and women who have served America.

“I love what I do,” he said. “I love volunteering and helping people. It’s my happy place.”

You would surmise as much, but Kevin Gately can confirm from personal experience that making 10 birdies in a round “was a blast.”

Again, that’s 10 birdies in a round. Not in a season, folks, although quite honestly even that is beyond most of our realities. We’re talking 10 birdies in five hours of pure exhilaration, a morning of rareness in Rhode Island (“We got lucky; we didn’t have much wind,” said Gately) and just one of those days you dream about when everything goes right.

OK, not everything, because Gately and his teammate, Sam Jenkins, combined to bogey the 198-yard, par-3 third at Newport National Golf Club. “But that didn’t really bother us because we had birdied the first and Sam made a great birdie at the second (a beefy, 440-yard, par 4),” said Gately.

Just to make sure the memories of that third-hole bogey were wiped clean, Gately and Jenkins birdied all but five of the next 15 holes, including each of the last seven in as emphatic a performance as a team can have in a four-ball test. Shooting 11-under 61, Gately and Jenkins (who chipped in with a pair of birdies), just a pair of golf-happy guys from Pembroke and Hingham, respectively, breezed through a qualifier and will play next spring in their second straight U.S. Amateur Four-ball Championship.

“Last year we shot 5-under and were lucky to get through the qualifier,” said Gately. “But we were just finding out how to play as a team.”

In May at Chambers Bay outside of Tacoma, Wash., Gately and Jenkins shot 72-65 in the national four-ball event and finished just two strokes out of a playoff to secure one of 32 spots into match play. They’ll get another shot at this wildly popular championship next May at the Country Club of Birmingham (Ala.)

Spirited stuff for a couple of guys whose partnership was galvanized through their day job as caddies at Boston Golf Club in Hingham. (Note to those who entrust their golf bags to Gately and Jenkins: Listen to them.)

Though their backgrounds differ in golf – Gately played at St. Thomas Aquinas, gave pro golf a shot for a few years, and got his amateur status back in late 2019; Jenkins played club golf at Elon “but in his last two years he got really, really good,” said Gately – they are unified in their passion for the game.

When he’s not working at Boston Golf Club, Gately is usually at the Harmon Club in Rockland where he’s been a member for years, or playing Pembroke CC. Clearly, all the time has paid off, because Gately finished tied for second earlier this summer in the Ouimet Memorial and he shot 73-73 at Brae Burn CC to finish T-19 in the Massachusetts Amateur, then lost in Round 1 to Matt Parziale.

As for Jenkins, he’s an analyst for DraftKings (he might be able to tell you what the odds were for Gately making birdie on 10 of 18 holes, including six in a row) and recently moved to Charlotte.

Little warmer down there, Gately noted, then he added that Jenkins had recently shot 65-71 to finished joint second in the Charlotte City Amateur. There was a scent of glee in his voice. Teammates are like that.

BU's Hanako Kawasaki: Ties for 2nd.

There was plenty for tournament host Boston College to feel good about, ditto for Boston University, but in the end the women golfers from Yale took home the greatest amount of joy after two days of brilliant sun-splashed weather at Blue Hill Country Club in Canton.

Led by the individual winner, Ami Gianchandani, Yale held on to edge the Eagles in the Boston College Intercollegiate, scoring 884 to BC’s 887. BU finished third at 899, while Penn State was fourth in the 15-team tournament, at 903.

Gianchandani’s 73-68-75 for level-par 216 was good for the individual title, but a pair of Terriers – senior Hanako Kawasaki of Vietnam (72-76-72) and FLair Kuan of China (73-71-76) finished in a three-way tie for second, at 4-over 220 with Yale’s Alexis Kim (71-76-73).

Then came a small parade of Eagles as coach Drew Kayser’s team placed four in the top 10. Bibilani Liu of Cupertino, Calif., had the low third round, a 3-under 69, to finished in a share of fifth at 221, while Canice Screene of England (72-78-73) and Nathalie Irlbacher of Germany (74-74-75) were in a tie for eighth and Angel Lin of British Columbia (74-77-73) was T-10.

Ada Pan, a freshman from China, was the leading scorer (231) for Merrimack, which finished 11th, while Tate Hadges (228), a sophomore from North Easton, led Holy Cross, which was 12th.

Annual Crump Cup

As spirited and coveted amateur tournaments go, the Crump Cup at vaunted Pine Valley continues to shine brightest. After being sidelined by the pandemic in 2020, it was held for the 96th time last week and both Matt Parziale of Thorny Lea GC and Bobby Leopold of Coventry just missed qualifying for the first flight. After shooting 78-74 to settle into the second flight, Parziale beat Will Davenport, 2 and 1, before losing in the second round to Bill Williamson, 3 and 1. Leopold won three games to make it to the final of the third flight, but got beaten by Charles Waddell, 1 up. Herbie Aikens of Kingston competed but did not make it into match play. In the championship flight, Mike Muehr started as the last of 16 seeds, but plowed through the medalist and three other foes to win the Crump Cup for the fourth time.

Falling short in Q School

A trio of locals failed to make it out of a first-stage test in the annual Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament at Kinderlou Forest in Valdosta, Ga. Nick Pandelena of Atkinson, N.H., and Ian Thimble of Hyde Park each shot 295 and Owen Quinn of Holden was at 302.

Warren off to solid start

Several other first-stage sites are under way in the KFT Qualifying Tournament and Shawn Warren shot 69 Tuesday to get into a positive mood at Winter Garden, Fla. The Falmouth, Maine, professional is presently in a tie for 25th . . . . . At Mobile, Ala., former University of Hartford golfer Paul Pastore is tied for second after an opening 65. Cape Cod native Jon Mayer will need to post some low rounds after opening with 73 . . . . . In St. George, Utah, Max Theodorakis of Danbury, Conn., opened with 67, Matthew Paradis of Hooksett, N.H., had 75.

Men’s college golf: Welch is solid

Patrick Welch, a senior from Providence, continued his resurgence with rounds of 74-72-71 to finish T-11 and help Oklahoma to a team win in the Maridoe Collegiate Invitational in Carrollton, Texas. The Sooners won the title by closing with a 7-under team score to finish at 3-under, one better than Texas. Welch struggled with his game at the end of last season but has played nicely in the early phase of the 2021-22 schedule . . . . . At the Fighting Illini Invitational at Olympia Fields CC in Illinois, Stanford finished fourth. Sophomore standout Michael Thorbjornsen (71-70-69 – 210) was joint seventh for the Cardinal.

Men’s college golf: Whitney shines

Playing 36 holes with splendid consistency – an eagle, four birdies, four bogeys – freshman Ethan Whitney of Westminster finished at 2-under 140 to finish fourth and help Temple win the Cornell Invitational in Watchung, N.J. Siena College finished seventh but got solid efforts from Jack Tobin of Southborough (76-70, T-17) and Brody Yates of Essex County, Vt. (71-70, T-5).

Fast start before the storm rolls in

John McNeill, 60, won the weather-shortened New England Senior Amateur at Manchester CC in Manchester Center, Vt. His 4-under 68 in Round 1 held up when dangerous weather dominated the second day. A trio of Connecticut golfers – Bob Murphy of Brownson, Bill Hermanson of the Black Hall Club, and Dave Jones of Mohegan Sun GC – shared second at level par.

U.S. Mid-Amateur an island affair

Should you be on Nantucket later this week, or perhaps in an adventurous mood for a high-speed ferry ride, spectators will be admitted free of charge to watch the 40th U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. Rounds 1 and 2 will be held Saturday and Sunday at both Sankaty Head Golf Club and Miacomet Golf Course. After those two rounds of stroke-play qualifying are held, the low 64 will move on to match play, strictly at Sankaty Head.

A field of 264 competitors, 15 of them with New England ties, will be teeing it up: Doug Clapp, Billy Fourcier, Joe Harney, Michael Harrington, Nick Maccario, Cam Moniz, Ross Nicholson, Danny Oh, Matt Parziale, James Pleat, Stephen Quararone, Sam Russell, Glendon Sutton, Kyle Vincze, and Arthur Zelmati.

It’s the first time the Mid-Am has been held in Massachusetts, but it’s the 58thUSGA championship here. We won’t have to wait too long for championships 59 and 60, either, because next year both the U.S. Open (The Country Club) and Senior Amateur (The Kittansett Club) will be in our neighborhood.

1 – It’ll likely be net happiness

Never underestimate the value of a stress-free bogey.

2 – Silly numbers game

The Official World Golf Ranking are necessary for bookkeeping means but should be totally ignored by fans.

3 – And you know the recent history

This marks the 43rd time that the Americans had a decided edge in the Ryder Cup – on paper. Coincidentally, it’s the 43rd Ryder Cup.

4 – What does that tell you?

Good players make bogeys trying to make birdies; we make doubles trying to make pars.

5 – Ol’ Walter Hagen didn’t need ‘em

The Ryder Cup, like laundry, is better without pods.

6 – One is fine, two is plenty

The three-day member-guest was created by someone who had no life.

7 – Low side, my friend

Learning how to enter and exit a bunker should not be difficult.

8 – Lighten your load

When you can’t hit your wedges, why carry four?

9 – They are a must

You’ve got your winter golf gloves, correct?

You wouldn’t be surprised to hear that 3-year-old Cora maintains a “don’t worry, be happy” personality. After all, she’s from the islands – specifically, a Potcake from Turks and Caicos.

But, go figure, Cora isn’t really a huge fan of the tropics. “She loves the snow and hates the hot weather, despite being from the islands,” said Michael Rose, the superintendent at Belmont CC who got Cora from a rescue.

Given her meteorological preferences, Cora is like us – she enjoys her down time in the summer. She’ll report to duty at Belmont CC when needed, of course, in the warmer weather, but it’s when fall and winter settle in that that she is at her post more often.

Have a great photo of your golf course dog? We’d love to include it in “Power Fades.” Email jim@powerfades.com