It was a miserable day in the seaside town of Marblehead, Massachusetts. A soggy Tedesco Country Club took on all the rain it could handle, and more. By early afternoon a handful players from the Boston Bruins, still celebrating the franchise’s first Stanley Cup Championship in nearly three decades, along with the rest of the Tedesco Cup participants, were forced off the soupy course. It was June of 1970, and it was Bob Green’s first day of work as the Assistant Golf Professional at Tedesco Country Club.
Despite approaching his last day at Tedesco Country Club almost 50 years later, Bob remembers his first like it was yesterday.
“I came to work as an assistant for Les Dunn,” he recalled. “It was actually the first day of our Tedesco Cup. I didn’t know what to expect at all. That day was a horrible weather day, the round got cancelled around 1:30 in the afternoon. There were several Bruins that played that day as guests of members. It was a very memorable day.”
WATCH: Bob Green Is The 2019 NEPGA Golf Professional Of The Year
Green, who worked as the assistant under Les Dunn, PGA, for his first eight years at Tedesco before spending the last 41 years as the head professional, will retire at the end of the 2019 golf season. On his way out, he’ll collect the 2019 New England PGA Golf Professional of the Year award, a small token in comparison to all that Bob has done for his profession and those who have benefited from his mentorship over the last half-century.
“I just think it’s extremely well-deserved,” said Tedesco General Manager Michael McGillicuddy, PGA. “It’s kind of like winning the Super Bowl and then retiring.”
Bob’s history with Tedesco Country Club goes even further than that first day of work as an assistant in 1970. In the 1960s, Green caddied at Tedesco CC, and before that, he can remember taking his first on-course golf shot right there on Tedesco’s 16th hole as a 12-year old.
“My association with Tedesco goes back about 58 years now,” he said. “The years have flown by and it never entered my mind that I’d be here for the rest of my life, but it never entered my mind that I wouldn’t be. I just came back every year and worked.”
Of course, since Bob’s career at Tedesco CC began, a lot has changed at the club. He has overseen two course renovations, first in 1995 and again in 2017. A new clubhouse was completed in 2011. The membership has grown from somewhere the low 200s, to “a waiting list that’s several years long,” as Green puts it. The Tedesco CC staff has grown from one assistant and four outside operations workers, to four assistants and an outdoor operations staff of 16.
Out of the club’s growth, the professional awards, and the many playing accomplishments, it’s the successful staff that Green is most proud of as he reflects on his achievements of the last five decades.
“The greatest things are my staffs,” he said. “I’ve had 16 of my assistants go on to be Head Professionals or Directors of Golf. I’ve had so many others who have been recruited by members to go work in their companies, and they’ve been very successful. The pride I have that I could have played a small part in their success, and that Tedesco had such a tremendous influence in their life that they’re able to find a career, whether it be golf or otherwise, that they’re happy with and can support a family for the rest of their lives.”
Jake Leech, PGA, gets to experience Green’s mentorship every day as the Assistant Professional at Tedesco.
“He’s just done so many things for other people,” Leech said. “He mentors and has mentored so many younger professionals who have gone on to their own careers, it’s unbelievable. Besides mentoring, he’s obviously had lasting power here. Forty-nine years is incredible.”
With the end of the 2019 golf season in sight, so is Green’s incredible tenure at Tedesco. While he says he’s ready for retirement, Bob admits it may take some getting used to.
“The only other job I’ve ever had was a paper route when I was 13, 14, 15 years old,” he said. “I’ve never been anything but the golf professional at Tedesco Country Club in my adult years, so it’s going to be an adjustment. It probably won’t sink in until sometime in April when I don’t come home from Florida to start the year.”
Even though Green’s professional relationship at Tedesco will come to an end, he will still be part of the club, which offered him an honorary membership. Bob, of course, is also willing to offer any mentorship needed by whoever is selected as his successor.
“I’m in full support of whoever the new golf professional is,” he said. “It’s going to be impossible to come up with 41 years of experience in the first year. I’m more than willing to help out in any ways that I can.”
Like his career at Tedesco Country Club, Green’s playing accomplishments span five decades, starting in 1965 when he was the Mass Golf Association Junior Amateur Runner up. Green won several New England PGA Championships, including the Senior-Junior (1978), Pro-Pro Stroke Play (1978), Pro-Assistant (1984), Pro-Pro Match Play (1999, 2000, ’01), and Senior Chapter Championship (T1, 2007). He took medalist honors in qualifying to advance to the 2000 US Senior Open and competed in the Champions Tour’s Fleet Boston Classic in 2000.
Off the course, Bob has been honored as the 2003 NEPGA Eastern Mass Chapter Horton Smith Award recipient for his contributions to PGA education, the 2006 NEPGA Bill Strausbaugh Award recipient, commending his mentorship of other PGA Professionals, and the 2017 Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund Professional of the Year. On November 2, Green will add New England PGA Golf Professional of the Year to his long list of career accolades at the annual NEPGA Awards Dinner, held at Cyprian Keyes Golf Course in Boylston, Mass.
“I can’t think of a better way to write a script for a life. I’m doing what I wanted to do, where I wanted to do it, and I was able to it my whole life. I’ve been pretty fortunate.”