Tom Mullins has kept a record of every golfer on every southern golf trip he has organized nearly every spring since 1993.
But he doesn’t keep this information on a laptop. He’s old school. The 77-year-old retired neurologist writes the names of each golfer, the year and the courses on 8½-by-11-inch sheets of cardboard, which he keeps in a folder. In 1993, eight golfers played four Myrtle Beach courses. The following year, 16 golfers took part, and up to 28 golfers have played some years.
The group of golfers didn’t go south in 2020 or 2021 because of the pandemic, but they traveled last year to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Paul Cummings78, of Worcester assists Mullins by emailing the itinerary to the golfers each year.
You’d never know Mullins was a doctor judging by his excellent penmanship.
“One of the guys said he was going to put it on a computer, and I’m still waiting,” the West Boylston resident said. “My computer skills are minimal.”
Mullins said his typing skills are weak because he took fourth-year Latin instead of typing at St. John’s High School. Asked if taking Latin helped him as a neurologist, he admitted it didn’t.
For nearly three decades, Mullins has organized spring golf trips down south, primarily to Myrtle Beach. Last year, they played the Legends, Heritage and Orchard Bay. They’ve also been to North Carolina, Florida and Alabama.
“Unfortunately, a lot of courses we like have closed,” he said.
When they first started playing down south, they’d fly out in the morning, play that afternoon and golf two rounds a day for three days. These days, 18 holes a day is enough.
Mullins has found flying has become more of a headache so this fall he’s organizing a trip within driving distance to Cape Cod to play at Cranberry Valley in Harwich, Falmouth CC and another course or two instead of heading south.
Mullins also runs a group of 12-20 men who play mostly for fun on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoons at various courses from early April until late November. The golfers range in age from 67-80.
“The remarkable thing about this group is that everybody likes each other,” Mullins said.
The group started out as a number of Fallon Clinic doctors getting together to play golf. Mullins was a practicing neurologist for 36 years before retiring in 2014, and he’s one of a handful of retired doctors in the group. They call themselves, “Mullins Golf,” and used to wear golf caps saying that.
Cummings is a retired engineer, but he is Mullins’ brother-in-law, so he was absorbed into the group as a courtesy, as he put it. He has played on southern trips since 1995.
“It’s always been the event of the spring,” Cummings said. “You could go down south to play golf before you could play up north.”
In the winter, a handful of the golfers attend HC men’s and women’s home basketball games.
The golf season began on April 11 at Green Hill Municipal. They usually also play at Ellinwood CC in Athol and Gardner Municipal, Westminster CC, Templewood, Poquoy Brook in Lakeville, Norton CC, Blissful Meadows, Kettle Brook, Beverly CC and Triggs in Providence. Mullins likes to point out that at another of their regular stops, Campbell Scottish Highlands in Salem, New Hampshire, served as the site of a scene for the 1968 Steve McQueen movie, “The Thomas Crown Affair.”
Some of the lasting memories have nothing to do with hitting golf shots.
George Kelley of Worcester went on a few southern golf trips many years ago. One round, he developed severe back pain and used his golf club as a cane. He made it through 18 holes before the guys stopped for lunch. When Mullins asked if anyone wanted to play another nine, Kelley raised his hand. Mullins believes the other golfers finally talked him out of it.
At Indian Wells in Myrtle Beach, not long after residents instructed the golfers not to mess with the ducks, Mullins had to duck when a duck flew right at him when he was standing on a tee.
Alligators are common in Myrtle Beach, but residents insisted that alligators don’t bother the golfers. They did admit, however, that the gators enjoy it when people walk dogs too close to them.
Mullins never had a golf lesson. Instead, he copied the swings of golfers he caddied for at Worcester CC and Wachusett CC when he was young.
One of his patients was Frank Hickeywho caddied for Ted Ray during the inaugural Ryder Cup at Worcester CC in 1927. One of Hickey’s duties as caddy was to keep Ray’s tobacco dry.
Mullins said Hickey told him that the US Ryder Cup captain Walter Hagen arrived at the first tee on the first day of competition at Worcester CC in a yellow convertible Ford Model-T Roadster. Two women were in the front seat, and Hagen was in the back seat. He apologized for arriving later than he should have, and he hit his first tee shot in his dress shoes before returning to the Roadster to put on his golf shoes.
Mullins began playing golf at Green Hill in 1959 when he was a student at St. John’s. His handicap was once as low as 10, but it’s nearly twice that much now.
“A couple of times a round I’ll hit a very decent shot,” Mullins said. “Nothing equals hitting a good shot.”
His best shot came while he was attending medical school in Philadelphia and carded a hole-in-one at Valley Forge Golf Course on a hot day. He remembers seeing Sixers players Darrall Imhoff spirit Hal Green on the course, but his hole-in-one was even more memorable. He carded his second ace at Wachusett CC at what was the first hole and now is the fourth hole.
When Mullins was in high school, he walked 40 holes at Green Hill one day and then walked four miles to his home. He doesn’t have quite that stamina now. “Mullins Golf” golfers used to walk, but now they ride.
“We play from the senior tees and you have to adapt to what your abilities are,” he said. “Always looking for the good shot and enjoying the company you’re with.”
Mullins and Cummings went to St. John’s together. Then Mullins graduated from Holy Cross, and Cummings from Notre Dame, both in 1967. Cummings pins a Notre Dame ball marker on his wide brimmed golf hat.
A few years ago, Cummings’ doctor told him there was a possibility that he had whooping cough, pending the results of more tests. He was instructed not to fly to Pine Needles, North Carolina, for a golf trip so others on the plane wouldn’t catch it from him. By the time he received a call stating he didn’t have whooping cough after all, he had already started driving, and he had reached New Jersey, so he kept driving. But he didn’t mind.
“I wasn’t sick, it was warm, and you could play golf,” he said.
Cummings still has his father’s putter with a wooden shaft and lead head from the 1930s, but he doesn’t use it any more.
Cummings enjoys golf, no matter what he shoots.
“If I break 100, it’s a good day,” he said.
He had his second knee replacement surgery in November, two years after having the other knee done.
“Your main opponent is yourself,” Cummings said. “Your real opponent is you against the golf course. That way you can’t blame anybody else for what you do right or wrong. It’s all on you.”
Ideas welcome
You can suggest story ideas for this golf column by reaching me at the email listed below. Comments are also welcome.
—Contact Bill Doyle at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Senior golfers Tom Mullins, Paul Cummings bring group, game all around South