The City of Lowell Golf Tournament celebrates it’s 100th anniversary this year.  “The Cities” as it is more commonly known, started in 1923 and is the oldest known local amateur golf tournament in the country.  Members from Mount Pleasant Golf Club, Long Meadow Golf Club, Nabnasset Lake Country Club and Vesper Country Club qualify at their home courses to play in this unique 54-hole medal play event.  Each club fields a team of 12 golfers and three alternates who compete in both a team and individual competition. Eleven of the top twelve scores count each day for each team. The 2023 tournament will begin at Mount Pleasant Golf Club on Wednesday, June 21. Round 2 will be Friday, June 23 at Long Meadow Golf Club. The final round will be played Saturday, June 24 at Vesper Country Club.

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Yup, here we go again. One hundred, baby! Happy birthday Lowell City Golf Tournament!  The ultimate Lowell extravaganza year in and year out for a century (minus those silly WWII years when real men were real men, of course).

Buckle up, soak it in and enjoy.  Strap on your heaviest Massholian accent and crack that 15^th Bud Light.  It’s go time.

Ah, The Cities.  A right of passage.  The illegal time to start drinking.  The inaugural start to Summer.  The end of innocence for Mill City youth.  Go get ‘em, kids!

A wonderful three-day tradition of talking about 11^th grade study hall, the time you passed out in Timmy’s driveway after the Haaaaaavest, and the Friday night you and “Sully” smoked weed from an apple before making out with a girl from SENTAVILLE at The Tracks!

It’s Lowell Nostalgia 101 in your syllabus, people.

Here are a few footnotes from long time Cities lovers and tournament players…I will not disclose the names to protect the names of the guilty.

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I’m 42 years old, and I have been going to a golf tournament every year since I could walk. Many may ask, is your dad a pro? Do you live on a golf course? Are you a coyote? The answer is, it’s just what we do in Lowell in June. It’s a tournament that brings the city together. Golfers of all kinds -amateurs, weekend warriors, rich, poor, teenagers, and dads of 5. I was lucky growing up, my grandfather who taught me the game helped to run the tournament. I remember feeling so privileged to go see him under that yellow scoring tent, while he slid the names and scores up into the wooden scoreboard. It was like the us open to me, and to this day, it still is. 

It was a big deal to go to the cities as a kid. “Go get your collared shirt and khakis on or you’re not going” …..”Your grandfather will not stand for shorts at the course, real golfers wear pants” . This is what we did, and it was awesome, local legends were gods to me as a kid, Larry Martin, Gene Manley, Phil Smith, Kenny Gys, and of course Dougie! It sounds silly to people not from around here but you don’t understand until you do.

For years I tried to make that tournament and fail after fail I kept at it. I played in high school and college but for some reason just couldn’t get into the most important tournament that I wanted to play in. Then one year, I finally put it all together. I said to myself before qualifying “You’re not going to care this year. You’re going to get 3 beers at 7am, and you’re going to play how you play golf” . Long story short I made the team. 

My first call would have been to my grandfather Bernie Nangle but he had long passed, so the next was to the other person who loved the tournament more than me, my sister. We sat on the 4th hole every year since I was 14. I called and she said “No fucking way dude, I’m so proud of you. I will Follow you the whole time except at the Mount cause I’m sitting on the fourth hole I can’t break tradition” I didn’t win the tournament that year but I played and as they say, once a city player, always a city player. I’ll be on the fourth hole at the Mount again this year, like me and my sister have done for 30 years, she has since passed but she would be pissed if I wasn’t there, can’t break tradition .

PS – When I played the tourney I doubled the 4th hole at the Mount on both sides, my sister still clapped when I putted out

So many memories! 

1-At age 7 watching Joe Reinhardt whiff, I said Mr Reinhardt, did you just whiff , he said why don’t you go follow Mr Mulligan on the other hole! 

2- 1973 playoff Joe Miller and Mark Lamond. Playoffs used to be 18 holes. 

Miller won. Long Meadow had the 4 top finishers that year. Jack Courtney 3rd and me 4^th

3- The crowds and the parties after each round. The tournament used to be played Wednesday-Friday-Wednesday. Pressure built up all week from great articles in the Lowell Sun newspaper.

Good luck 

And here is a dated article I penned many moons ago as an homage to the beloved Lowell City Golf Tournament, originally published June 25, 2015

Enjoy folks!

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To quote CBS golf analyst, Jim Nance, ‘A tradition like no other.  Of course, Nance is referencing the famed Masters  not the nearly 100 year old Lowell City tournament.  But for my money (which is about $2.75/beer), The Cities is far more entertaining.  Local golfers play in three competitive rounds in June each year from 4 local clubs.  And while these players are considered “amateurs,” The Cities has spawned the golf lives of many players that went on to professional careers.  In my opinion, this is one of the greatest traditions in this city and it continues to thrive almost a century later.

OK, that is the history lesson of the Cities, now let’s talk about what’s really happening here.

The Cities – for all those NOT playing – is a 3-day party.

The Cities is an excuse to leave work at lunch time.

The Cities is a place where Lowellians go who have never played or watched (or can even spell the word) ‘golf’.

The Cities is a reason to walk at a snail’s pace around a golf course, Irish whispering  to the guy you sat next to in 9th grade home room while pounding Bud Lights for no reason other than it is 1PM on Wednesday.

The Cities’ crowd is like a scene out of Happy Gilmore, minus Bob Barker

The Cities is the unofficial Lowell High School reunion for every graduating class since 1960.

The Cities is a rite of passage for high school kids to sneak a few warm Miller High Life’s they stashed in the woods and responsible adults simply turn a blind eye.

The word ‘kid’ is used more times during The Cities than any other time in history. Ever.

The Cities rule…KID!

My wife is non-Lowellian so naturally had no clue of The Cities experience until she was blessed with meeting me.  “Yeah, Aim, we are heading over to this golf tournament….at Mt Pleasant…on a Friday….to WATCH.”  What that?  “No, it’s really fun, trust me.”  Think of how insane that must sound to someone who has never been before?  Next thing you know I am stuffing beers in her purse, and we are following around some 20 year old from Pelham whom I have never met in my life, in 90 degree heat, just because he shot a 69 at Long Meadow.  It is effin crazy if you step back.

I may sound like an insane high school hero here but The Cities is an institution and whether you like golf or not, this event is a desperate but legit argument to stand outside, whack cocktails and pretend you have even a vague interest in golf.

Who’s in?

See ya there, kid.