NORTON, Massachusetts – After a 33-year run as the trusted, award-winning golf magazine for Massachusetts, MassGolfer is being retired. Members will still find value through this member benefit by way of a new, reimagined publication, to be announced in the coming months. To allow for a Spring 2024 launch of the new publication, the scheduled MassGolfer Online Winter 2023-24 issue has been canceled.
In the Summer 1990 debut issue of MassGolfer, folks at Mass Golf asked me to write an introductory piece for its new member magazine (originally called The Massachusetts Golfer). The first paragraph in my role as publisher and executive editor ran in our Playing Through department under the one-word headline: “Welcome.”
“An editor’s most important job is to know his [or her] readers. We know you define yourself in part — or in the many extreme cases, in whole — as a Massachusetts golfer. A warm welcome, then, from the magazine that is respectfully named in your honor.”
Since then, Mass Golf and my little publishing company have collaborated on a total of 131 issues of MassGolfer with the goal of helping you enjoy the game more.
Fast forwarding some 34 years, the current Mass Golf leadership team asked me if I’d like to write a piece about its plan for “sunsetting” MassGolfer. For those not familiar with that term, “sunsetting” is commonly used throughout the business world for discontinuing a product or service, though often times it is replaced with a “new and improved” version while carrying on the same brand name.
For a moment there, I thought the magazine was fated to dip below the horizon for the last time. Ye of little faith. Instead, I learned a “new and improved” MassGolfer members publication will be introduced ‘from scratch’ in 2024. More of a “sunrising” to a new day if you will. Brilliant.
Mass Golf folks will announce all those details, but here’s a little context on the growth of golf.
Our first feature story in 1990 was headlined BOOM! It covered the rapid growth and expansion to a roster of 60,000+ Mass Golf members, a robust 60% increase since the start of the 1980s.
Come 2024, a stunning recent upsurge in the game’s popularity has tallied record totals of 123,000 Mass Golf members. With that comes a mandate to find new ways to engage and immerse these players into our golf community.
The hardest tasks for Mass Golf and me is to thank each of the people — live or departed — who helped to produce those 131 issues over the years. Starting a list off the top of my head, I quickly came up with more than 120 names, too many to run here, but a big shoutout to :
For more on MassGolfer’s history, read our Spring 2020 issue HERE.
It’s been a privilege to help caretake MassGolfer all these years… and I can’t wait to hold the new and improved ‘sunrising’ version in my hands.
To longtime Mass Golf members, thanks. And to new Mass Golf members, I say welcome.
Cheers,
Rick Dunfey
As one of the many Member Benefits for Mass Golf Members, a printed publication will remain part of the membership offering. The publication will remain free of charge and sent to all members with a mailing address on file – one per household. Taking inspiration from other popular journals and publications, this new venture will allow Mass Golf to tell stories of golf in Massachusetts in a new, artful way.
Mass Golf looks forward to continuing its relationship with Rick Dunfey, a treasured historian of golf in Massachusetts, in preparation of the organization’s 125th celebration in 2025.
Mass Golf is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is dedicated to advancing golf in Massachusetts by building an engaged community around the sport.
With a community made up of over 120,000 golf enthusiasts and over 360 member clubs, Mass Golf is one of the largest state golf associations in the country. Members enjoy the benefits of handicapping, engaging golf content, course rating and scoring services along with the opportunity to compete in an array of events for golfers of all ages and abilities.
At the forefront of junior development, Mass Golf is proud to offer programming to youth in the state through First Tee Massachusetts and subsidized rounds of golf by way of Youth on Course.
For more news about Mass Golf, follow along on Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
