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Another triple bogey for the golf community, including high schools

By Tom King - Staff Writer | May 3, 2020

Scott Anderson remembers the first time he ever went to play golf.

“I was 10 or 11, and my parents took me out to play at Green Meadow,” the Nashua High School North golf coach said. “Probably most everybody in New England started out there. Your grandfather and father played there. It’s a family course. That’s what makes it so special. You don’t have to be a pro.”

But there won’t be any 10 or 11-year-olds getting their starts at Green Meadow next year if the proposed sale of the just under 400-acre property by the renowned Friel family to a national developer that builds warehouse and distribution centers goes through all the municipal and legal hoops it needs to to become final in the coming months.

The closest thing to golf on that Hudson property you’ll get is if the golf clubs you ordered on line are shipped there as a stopover to be then delivered to your house.

Ouch.

For the local golf community, it would be a huge, huge setback. It will be 36 holes wiped off your list. What was your favorite, the Prairie or the Jungle?

“It’s going to be a tough, tough loss,” Nashua South coach Steve Lane said. “It wasn’t just great for the high school kids, but for everyone. The Friels always do it right. They always thought to satisfy every level of golfer.”

Lane and Anderson were asked to weigh in because they spend the bulk of their falls at Green Meadow for the Titans and Panthers teams. Anderson had heard about the transaction through the golf grapevine last week and stunned Nashua athletic director Lisa Gingras with the news. North and South will now likely have to be on the lookout for a new home course for the 2021 season, while they hope to even have a 2020 campaign. The sale proposal reportedly calls for the course to close for good this November 1.

“It’s going to be a shame,” Anderson said. “We had a great situation, especially when you hear what some other high school programs were having to deal with.

“I’ve always said it’s the perfect course for high school kids.”

For the high school players, it has challenged the more dominant players while also giving the beginners and average players hope. Same for the adults.

“It was,” Anderson said, “the perfect course for those players who found it challenging, and for those others at a different level, it made them feel special, too.

“And it’s always packed every single day.”

And as Lane said, part of that was “location, location, location, right on the border of Dracut and Hudson, right next to Nashua, etc. It satisfied a lot of golfers, lot of the businesses around there had their leagues at Green Meadow.

“And for the kids, it happens to be one of those golf courses where they could build confidence and have success.”

As Lane also said, this move was going to happen someday. The property was nearly sold over a decade ago with the idea of turning it into a large retail spot with perhaps condos, etc. The economic downturn helped it fall through, and the golf community breathed a sigh of relief.

But now, that tee shot that looked like it was heading over the pond straight for the flag just caught the edge of the water. Splash.

As Anderson noted, “This is what’s happening to golf these days.” Londonderry Country Club is right near his back yard and he’s wondering when that will disappear. We already told you about Buck Meadow’s sale/closing in Amherst last month.

This is down the road, but the Panthers and Titans may have to go the private course route. Bishop Guertin plays its home matches at Nashua Country Club, and there’s Sky Meadow in Nashua. But can these kids compete as well at these spots? How about the costs? And of course there will be the adult golfer spillover to other local public courses.

When Green Meadow re-opens under the state directive on May 11, you can bet it will see a big turnout. And now with an even bigger significance.

As Lane said, “Everything changes.”

But that doesn’t mean we have to like it.

Tom King can be reached at 594-1251, tking@nashuatelegraph.com., or @Telegraph_TomK.

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