By Aidan McLaughlin
SALEM, Massachusetts (May 18, 2026) – Mid-May marks the arrival of the Massachusetts Senior Four-Ball Championship, with this year marking the first time it is taking place at three historic North Shore Courses. This tournament places 176 teams (352 players) across this trifecta of courses and lets them go head-to-head, team style for two days.
Round 1 proved to be a treat, as blue skies and temperatures in the mid-70s was the setting for Flight A, representing the best 88 teams in the field by combined Handicap Index® teeing off at Kernwood Country Club. The remaining field competed at Flight B, down the road at Tedesco Country Club in Marblehead. Round 2 will begin as scheduled at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, with the A Flight playing the final 18 holes at Tedesco, and the B Flight competing at Indian Ridge Country Club.
Flight A was action-packed all day as the top four pairings were split between the morning and afternoon. Leaders in the clubhouse after their morning tee-time were Bruce Barboza and Jason Cook, of Segregansett Country Club, after posting a 4-under-par 66. Although it’s four-ball format, Cook was cheffing it up, carding a 3-under 67 that included four birdies on the back nine. After being asked what it’s gonna take to win this one, Cook said the pair will look for more of the same, predicting a round of 4-under or 5-under needed to be in position, to which Barbosa added, “I gotta give him more help tomorrow.”
Coming in right on their heels would be last year’s champions Frank Vana (Marlborough Country Club) and Jack Kearney (Westover Golf Course), who wrapped up their morning with a 3-under 67. On the outward nine, they would combine for a 1-under 34 that included two birdies from Kearney. As for the back of the card, Vana was asked about his birdie on the 11th hole. “Actually, we had a lot of birdie opportunities today. I didn’t really sniff them for whatever reason, but you know I was happy to make that one, and you know Jack made a few others, which was great.”
Tying the leaders from the afternoon wave were Greg Badger and Kevin MacIntyre, of Salem Country Club, who stumbled at times, but were able to finish with a 66. After a bogey on their second hole, they would go on to birdie the next three, and then finish the front nine with another two birdies on holes eight and nine. The duo would begin the back nine with a bogey on the 10th but would once again rifle off back-to-back birdies on the 12th and 13th holes. Even though they were 5-under at one after the 13th, they would bogey the par-4 15th, finishing the back with an even 35 and 4-under 66 on the afternoon.
Afterward, they said members at Salem and playing a bunch on the North Shore proved helpful. “I think I had a few putts that I was saying to Greg that we were trained well at Salem, where there’s big undulation, and you have to stop it on a flat, so it definitely worked in our favor,” MacIntyre said.
Looking to Tuesday’s final round, MacIntyre added they should be comfortable at Tedesco given their experience playing the course through the Winslow Cup and Met League Golf. “We know if we don’t play well, it’s not because we don’t know the golf course,” Badger said.
Rounding out the top four were Randy Daniels and Rob Hartwell, of Blackstone National Golf Club, who came in at a 3-under for T-3, with Daniels carrying the team with a 70 on his own ball. Daniels made three birdies on the first 11 holes, adding his last on the uphill par-3 4th.
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Kernwood Country Club’s history dates to 1914, when Louis Edward Kirstein and a group of Jewish businessmen from Greater Boston founded the Salem club at a time when many of the area’s established country clubs were closed to Jewish members. What began as a place to call their own soon took shape on the former Peabody estate along the Danvers River, with Donald Ross designing the original nine-hole course in 1915 before another nine holes were added three years later.
More than a century later, architect Robert McNeil of Northeast Golf Company led long-term renovation work aimed at recapturing the Donald Ross feel that had been softened over time by tree growth, shifting mowing lines and lost course features. More than 800 trees were removed to reopen sightlines across the property and along the Danvers River, while expanded fairways, restored Ross-style bunkers, widened green perimeters, tightly mown pitch areas, new tees, a new first tee complex and a new putting green have helped return Kernwood closer to its earliest playing identity.
And what’s the deal with the iconic stone arch? We’re glad you asked. Kernwood was once the estate of Francis Peabody, whose Gothic Revival mansion, built in 1840, gave Salem one of its closest resemblances to the castle-like summer homes found elsewhere on the North Shore. The mansion is gone, but a surviving stone rustic arch near the entrance still hints at that earlier estate life, while making for one unique club logo and photo op.
