BOYLSTON, Mass. — Freshly minted as one of the top 100 golf courses in the world, The Myopia Hunt Club will co-host the 100th New England PGA Championship in August of 2020. Myopia served as the host of the inaugural NEPGA Championship in 1921, and will host the tournament for just the second time. Tedesco Country Club will join Myopia as co-host of the Championship, which will be staged Aug. 17-19, 2020.
Earlier this month, Golf Magazine ranked Myopia as the No. 92 Best Course in the World for 2020-21, setting the stage for a memorable Centennial Section Championship in 2020. Myopia, in South Hamilton, Mass., was designed by Herbert Corey Leeds and plays 6,539 yards at a par of 72. Just 11 miles away in Marblehead, Mass., Tedesco Country Club, measures 6,454 yards and plays to a par of 70. Tedesco underwent a $1.6 million renovation in 2018 designed by architect Ron Forse which included a complete bunker redesign, expansion of greens and the introduction of fescue and naturalized areas.
Tedesco Country Club has never hosted the NEPGA Section Championship, but is no stranger to big events. Five Massachusetts Opens have been contested at Tedesco, along with numerous Massachusetts Amateur Championships and Stage I of PGA and LPGA Qualifying.
The NEPGA Section Championship is open to all PGA Professionals within the New England Section and offers one of the largest professional purses of any golf tournament in New England outside of the PGA TOUR each year. 2019 champion Shawn Warren, PGA, took home a $12,000 winner’s check.
In addition to battling for a payday and a place in NEPGA history, the Section Championship serves as the first step in the path to the PGA Championship for NEPGA Professionals. A select number of top finishers will qualify for the PGA Professional National Championship where they will compete against Professionals from the other 40 PGA Sections around the country. The top 20 finishers from the National Championship will qualify for the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course. At least one New England PGA Professional has qualified for the PGA Championship in each of the last five years.
Gil Nichols, PGA, won the inaugural NEPGA Championship in 1921 at The Myopia Hunt Club. Nichols cashed a $100 winners check after shooting 78-78 in the one-day, 36-hole tournament. Runner-up Louis Tellier set the course record in the first round of the tournament, shooting 72, but eventually lost by a stroke.
Myopia has hosted the U.S. Open four times: 1898, 1901, 1905 and 1908. Willie Anderson’s winning score of 331 in the 1901 U.S. Open still stands as the record for the highest winning score in U.S. Open history.