Golf, which has become a popular American pastime, has this week made a start on the Vineyard, and Mr. B. S.
Why don’t more women play golf? According to the National Golf Foundation, the number of U.S. women playing golf declined from seven million in 2005 to 5.4 million in 2010 to 5.1 million in 2011. There are no figures from 2012 yet. According to a 2010 golf foundation survey, only 20 per cent of players in 2009 were women and girls from the age of six up, and they accounted for just 17 per cent of the rounds played. The foundation’s 2007 golf consumer profile reported that 60 per cent of women were embarrassed that they didn’t play better or know more about golf, and a majority were “intimidated by other players, by the staff or by the environment in general.”
While most of the regional high school’s sports teams have been busy contending with league play and thinking ahead toward their final games of the season, the golf team was quietly securing a place in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletics Association tournament. The team’s season ended Wednesday with a 38-18 match play victory over Cape Cod Regional Tech, but they locked up a tournament spot last Thursday, defeating Falmouth for their 10th win. The golfers finish the regular season with an 11-9 record.
The Vineyard field hockey and golf teams have both qualified for the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association state tournament.
This could be you: Owner of a majestic summer island home with a sweeping vista of Edgartown Harbor, Nantucket Sound and Cape Poge gut; Steward of 18 acres of marsh, cliffs and wooded hills on Chappaquiddick’s North Neck area; and, not least, head of the Royal & Ancient Chappaquiddick Links, a nine-hole golf course cut from the land more than 100 years ago.
To the newly arrived hacker on the Island, Mink Meadows sounds like some kind of luxury fur farm. But Vineyard golfers know better.
For 75 years now, the Mink Meadows Golf Club has welcomed players who appreciate its layout, condition and laid-back culture. The nine-hole track on West Chop — just a drive and a wedge from Lake Tashmoo — has hosted everyone from U.S. presidents and captains of industry to farmers and trades people.
Few people know their way around the Island links like local wunderkind Tony Grillo. As President Obama settles into a vacation in West Tisbury that is almost certain to include a few rounds, Mr. Grillo leaves for Seattle to compete in the U.S. Amateur Championship. Before leaving, though, he spoke with the Gazette at his home course, Farm Neck, about what the duffer-in-chief can expect on Vineyard fairways.
