Two honored by New England PGA

BEVERLY, Mass. -- A local amateur golfer and a pair of golf professionals were honored with prestigious awards this week as both the Massachusetts Golf Association and New England Professional Golf Association announced their annual awards in separate ceremonies.

St. John's Prep graduate and current senior golfer at the University of Virginia Nick McLaughlin received the Richard D. Haskell MGA Player of the Year after a sensational summer of competition.

Danvers native Joanne Flynn was honored with the Bill Strausbaugh Award at the NEPGA Awards Dinner, held at The Haven Country Club in Boylston on Saturday night. Flynn, the head PGA Professional at Wyndham Country Club, was recognized for mentoring fellow PGA Professionals in improving their employment status. She was also saluted for her service to the community.

Don Lyons, head PGA Professional at Reedy Meadow Golf Course in Lynnfield and Settlers Crossing Golf Course in Lunenberg, was inducted into the NEPGA Hall of Fame. Lyons is a Peabody native.

McLaughlin, who plays out of Boxford's Far Corner Golf Course, captured five titles this golf season and accumulated 1,050 points in the MGA Player of the Year standings, 115 points more than runner-up Matt Parziale of Thorny Lea.

McLaughlin is only the third player in MGA history to surpass 1,000 points, and his total ranks second all-time. Frank Vana, Jr. of Marlborough Country Club has the top all-time total with 1,250, set in 2004.

"It is a really cool award to win because it shows the level of consistency that I had the whole summer, which is nice to see," McLaughlin said in an MGA press release. "I honestly didn't think that it would be possible to accumulate enough points in the short period of time that I had to play this summer, so to get it done even surprised myself a little bit."

After capturing both the Hornblower Memorial Invitational at Plymouth in May and The Invitational at New England Country Club in June, McLaughlin caught fire in July. He won the Massachusetts Amateur Championship at Oak Hill Country Club, then a week later beat the field in the New England Amateur Championship at Baker Hill Golf Club in Newbury, New Hampshire.

McLaughlin became just the fourth Massachusetts golfer to win both the Massachusetts Amateur and New England Amateur in the same season.

McLaughlin capped his summer by taking first in the Massachusetts Amateur Public Links Championship in August.

This article was written by Matt Jenkins from The Salem News and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.