He is what we all agree the golf world needs more of – a massive persona with fortitude, patience, and compassion.
Simply put, Bob Beach “is the best dude ever,” said Eddie Carbone, former Executive Director of the New England PGA, who speaks for anyone who has been blessed with knowing Beach.
The name tag is spot-on accurate. Bob Beach’s real name may as well be Volunteer Bob and his great friend, Kevin Riordan, is there to help him grow the game on countless evenings.
His is a legacy carved out of 42 years of service to the golf industry, nearly 30 of them as the head professional at Braintree Municipal Golf Course. Since retiring in 2018, however, the passion for what moves him has not waned; it has intensified.
“I knew I wasn’t done,” said Beach. “I had a plan.”
The plan basically is this: Answer the phone and say yes to anyone who wants him to teach, help, or volunteer. “He’s busier than he was when he worked,” laughed Matt Ruxton, vice-president of sports for the Special Olympics of Massachusetts, who admittedly is one of those who does call on Beach.
“He takes joy in the littlest things that make our athletes happy. He’s impacting a lot of people.”
Beach is a veritable Statue of Liberty in the local golf world, a man whose flame to help burns perpetually and whose tablet – if he carried one – would read something like “give me your distinctive, your trusting, your loving masses yearning to swing freely and smile radiantly.”
The golfers who reached out to Beach and told of the gentleman in their foursome whose dementia was preventing him from playing regularly? That man now plays nine holes once a week with Beach.
The dilemma created by the pandemic and precluded interaction with Special Olympians? No worries. Beach set up a camera in his backyard, hit golf balls, and offered lessons via Zoom.
Military veterans who won’t let loss of limbs stop them from playing golf? Beach is there for them.
An Alzheimer’s patient who miraculously reacts joyfully to rolling golf balls on a putting green? Beach patiently assists them.
Assisting blind golfers? Ah, that is something Beach did years ago and with utter delight he is doing it again.
The stroke victim whose wife reached out to see if Beach would help re-teach the game to her husband, a man who was a one-time avid golfer with a good game? Beach had two questions: When? Where?
Put a GPS tracker on him and you’d find him volunteering at a Salute Military Golf Association (SMGA) clinic at Granite Links in Quincy, or working with autistic golfers at Ponkapoag, or teaching volunteers how to conduct a Special Olympics Drive, Chip, and Putt competition, or showing up to help “Golf For All,” a group that uses golf to aid men, women, and children with chronic limitations.
Surely, he’s not capable of being in multiple places at once.
No, but Beach is incomparable at being one man with passion for all.
“The guy is a living saint in a golf shirt,” said Kevin Carroll, an advisor and fundraiser for SMGA.
“I wish we had more Bob Beaches,” said Ruxton.
This article originally appeared on PowerFades.com.
Bob is always generous with his time, council and humor as the standard bearer for Adaptive Golf in the United States. “ A man for others”!