CLASS OF 2021

The 2021 class will be officially inducted into the Massachusetts Golf Hall of Fame via a virtual induction ceremony on October 13, 2021. The official announcement about the celebration was delivered back in May 2021.

The Class of 2021, which represents iconic players, organization builders, and an innovator, includes: Tara Joy-Connelly, Allen Doyle, Jesse Guilford, Richard D. Haskell, Harry B. McCracken, Jr., and Phil E. Young.

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WATCH THE FULL 2021 INDUCTION VIDEO:

TARA JOY CONNELLY

Hometown

DUXBURY, MA

Induction Category

PLAYER

Birthdate

JANUARY 1973

Tara Joy-Connelly, is among the winningest Massachusetts amateur golfers in history, with more than 30 statewide and New England regional titles to her name. A Duxbury native, Joy-Connelly earned the Anne Marie Tobin Women’s Player of the Year honor nine times, a record that stands today.

Developing her game at Marshfield Country Club, Joy-Connelly won three Mass Girls’ Junior Amateur titles, and in college led the University of South Carolina to a 12th place finish at the NCAA National Championships. During that time, she also won consecutive New England Women’s Amateur titles in 1995 & 1996.

After a brief stint on the LPGA Futures Tour, she regained her amateur status and had a tremendous amount of success in Massachusetts, New England, and United States Golf Association events. Joy-Connelly was a two-time winner of the Mass Women’s Amateur (2003, 2013) and won the 2009 Mass Women’s Open as an amateur.

From 2006-2021, she has qualified for every U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, making the semifinals in 2011 and 2014. She was praised for her integrity during the 2007 Championship Proper when she signed for an incorrect scorecard and returned to alert a USGA official about the error. Though it was too late for officials to reseed for match play, she accepted a default in her first-round match.

ALLEN DOYLE

Hometown

NORWOOD, MA

Induction Category

PLAYER

Birthdate

JULY 26, 1948

Allen Doyle not only had one of the most unique golf careers, but he also had an unorthodox short golf swing, which he developed as a youth hockey player. Raised in Norwood, Doyle spent his early days as a caddie at Spring Valley Country Club (now the Cape Club of Sharon), and he used a scholarship he earned from the Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund to attend Norwich University in Vermont. While in college, Doyle was runner-up in the 1969 Mass Amateur.

Doyle found extraordinary success in his 30s and 40s, making three U.S. Walker Cup teams (1989, 1991 & 1993), and three World Amateur teams. He also earned stroke-play medalist honors in the 1991 U.S. Amateur.

At age 46, he made the unusual decision to join the Nike Tour as a professional, and he earned his PGA Tour card for the 1996 season. He won the 1999 PGA Senior Championship and won consecutive U.S. Senior Opens (2005 & 2006). In 2001, he led the money list on the Champions Tour (PGA Senior Tour) and donated the entire $1 million annuity prize to charity, including the Ouimet Fund.

JESSE GUILFORD

Hometown

MANCHESTER, NH/ NEWTON, MA

Induction Category

PLAYER

Birthdate

MARCH 2, 1895

Jesse Guilford was one of the most successful amateur golfers from Massachusetts during the 1920s. Nicknamed ‘The Siege Gun’ for his extraordinary long drive abilities, Guilford moved to Newton to join Woodland Golf Club and was close friends and playing partners with Francis Ouimet, the 1913 U.S. Open champion and fellow inductee into the Massachusetts Golf Hall of Fame.

Guilford won the Mass Amateur three times (1916, 1921 & 1924). In 1919, Guilford became the first amateur to win the Massachusetts Open, a feat he repeated in 1929. Guilford made national headlines by winning the 1921 U.S. Amateur Championship at St. Louis Country Club defeating Robert Gardner, 7 & 6, in the 36-hole final match. Ouimet and Ted Bishop are fellow Woodland members and Mass Golf Hall Of Fame Inductees who have won the U.S. Amateur Championship.

Guilford also played on the first three of the first four U.S. Walker Cup teams, leading the Americans to victory over Great Britain & Ireland in 1922, 1924, and 1926. He partnered with Ouimet in three of those matches and won two of them.

RICHARD D. HASKELL

Hometown

IPSWICH, MA

Induction Category

BUILDER

Birthdate

BORN 1926

Richard D. Haskell had his “finger on the pulse” on golf in Massachusetts for more than four decades. Haskell served as executive director of what was then known as the Massachusetts Golf Association (MGA) from 1969-1997. During his tenure, he oversaw the addition of nearly 200 members clubs to the MGA, added six statewide amateur championships to the schedule, and also introduced the computerized GHIN Handicap system and the USGA Slope systems to Massachusetts. He also introduced the Player of the Year Award, which is now named after him.

Haskell joined The Country Club in 1960 where he won 11 club championships. A media liaison and coordinator during the 1988 US Open and 1999 Ryder Cup matches at The Country Club, Haskell helped publicize the MGA’s activities through the establishment of MassGolfer Magazine. His research led to the publication of “The Story of Golf at The Country Club,’’ which won the Herbert Warren Wind Book Award, the USGA’s highest literary honor.

Haskell also earned the Frank H. Sellman Distinguished Service Award for the MGA’s Centennial Book, published in 2003, and for his role as chairman of the Centennial Committee.

HARRY B. MCCRACKEN, JR.

Hometown

NORWOOD, MA

Induction Category

BUILDER

Birthdate

BORN 1925

Harry B. McCracken, Jr. New England’s most decorated and longest-tenured golf representative. For 50 years, more than half his life, the Norwood native was an exemplary volunteer for what was then the Massachusetts Golf Association (MGA) and the New England Golf Association. In 1969, he joined the Mass Golf Executive Committee, served as MGA President from 1984-85. He was also executive secretary/treasurer of the New England Golf Association from 1987-2019.

What elevated McCracken’s service to the game was his wit and personality. With a gruff exterior, he had specific expectations for how golf events should be organized, but he always looked out for others and made sure everybody’s time and efforts were respected and valued.

McCracken joined Charles River Country Club in 1936 as a junior golfer and later in life, served three terms on the Board of Governors, including 10 years as vice president and treasurer. Since 1996, the club has annually held the McCracken Cup, a tournament named in his honor that brings together some of New England’s best low-handicap golfers.

McCracken joined the USGA Regional Affairs Committee in 1989 and was awarded the 2007 Joe Dey Award for meritorious service to the game and the Ike Grainger Award for 25 years of service.

PHILIP E. YOUNG

Hometown

NEW BEDFORD, MA

Induction Category

INNOVATOR

Birthdate

DECEMBER 1, 1885

Philip Young was the founder of Titleist, an industry leader in golf balls, equipment, and apparel. He founded the brand in 1932 as a subsidiary of the Acushnet Company, a precision molded rubber company that Young also founded in 1910. He was the inventor of the process that created the original Titleist golf ball.

Young got the inspiration during a golf match in 1932 at The Country Club in New Bedford. On the 18th green a putt veered way off-line, and he thought there must be an issue with the ball. He had a friend at a local hospital put the balls under an x-ray, and he discovered that though the balls were fairly round, they had oblong-shaped cores that were off-center.

Young partnered with Dr. Fred Bommer, a fellow MIT graduate and rubber specialist to create the “most consistent and high-quality golf ball ever created.” One that was uniform and consistent in quality. They perfected their creation in 1935 and for the two decades traversed the country to market their creation. In 1949, Titleist became the most used ball at the U.S. Open, a distinction that still stands to this day.

Nearly a century later, Titleist golf balls are made in the Greater New Bedford area. Many of Young’s practices, including x-raying every ball, are still active today in every one of Titleist’s Ball Plants.