Phillip Friel

Phillip Friel started as a caddie at Woburn Country Club in Massachusetts and worked his way up and became a golf professional. He went on to be the head professional at Bellevue Country Club in Melrose, Massachusetts, and Nashua Country Club in Nashua, New Hampshire. His accomplishment includes winning the New Hampshire Open and Maine Open in 1954 and The New England PGA Championship in 1957.

Friel was named the New England PGA Professional of the Year in 1971 and competed in seven PGA Championships over the years. In 1996, he was inducted into the New England PGA Hall of Fame.

Friel was also a golf professional at Woburn CC (MA), Bellevue CC (MA), and Nashua CC(NH). in 1961, while he was the head professional at Nashua CC, he designed and built his first golf course. After long discussions about financing with one of his members at Nashua, Phil bought enough property in Hudson, New Hampshire, and made his first own first public golf course, Green Meadow Golf Club, which now has 36 holes and is one of the successful courses in the state. Golf was still a country club for the upper class at the time, and Friel saw the need to create public courses and capitalized on it.

Phil Friel passed away in 2000, but his company, Friel Golf Management, is thriving in that same niche market. The company expanded throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts, with his children dividing up the courses and operating separate businesses in distinct markets.

The current iteration of Friel Golf Management includes the Overlook Golf Club in Hollis, New Hampshire, Cape Cod Country Club, Green Meadow, and the large grass driving range in Hudson. Image courtesy of New Hampshire Golf Hall of Fame