101st Amateur Musings

What a week it's been at The Country Club. We started the week on Monday with 144 players extremely excited about the prospect of playing the venerable Brookline course that has hosted US Opens, a Ryder Cup and a host of other USGA Championhips. I had always heard about TCC and watched on TV when Curtis Strange won the US Open there, but I had never been on the property until the '99 Ryder Cup. I was there for the opening ceremonies, but never saw much of the golf course.

I arrived on the property for a second time in 2007 when Dick Haskell, the longtime executive director for the MGA, invited me to lunch shortly after I was named executive director. Mr. Haskell gave me a brief tour and I was amazed at all the history and tradition. I returned to the club later in the '07 season when the club's GM, David Chag, invited me for lunch a a tour of the grounds. This time I got the full tour and behind-the-scenes look of a place that seems like it still partly exists somewhere back in time. Never had I visted a golf facility that also has a curling rink in winter along with a skeet shooting range and a skating pond. Don't play much golf? No problem. There's tennis and other racquet sports as well as a swimming pool. And they even had horse racing at the turn of the last century!

The Country Club is one of a kind, and for the MGA to be playing its 101st Amateur Championship there is very special. I think that most players feel very fortunate to hvae had the opportunity, and late Friday afternoon one player will truly feel special in winning a coveted state championship on such hallowed golf grounds.

With the course having a total of 27 holes, the players played the Championship course in Monday's qualifying round. The Championship Course is a combination of the 18-hole main course and the third nine know as the Primrose nine. This combination course is the same course used for both the US Opens and Ryder Cup. It is an absolute bear and the scores reflected that. The still-difficult but more manageable main course was used for Tuesday's qualifying round and the match play portion.

A combination of youth and experience survived the 36-hole cut to the low-32 for match play. The cut dipped to a score of 150 late Tuesday as a few players turned in great scores late in the day. Most people including me were very surprised that the cut fell at 150. It was looking more like 152 for most of the afternoon. Wednesday's first round of match play also offered a few surprises as the medalist, Brian Higgins, and last year's runner-up, Matt Parziale, went down in the first round. I picked both to go deep into match play. I refereed a Round-of-16 match between John Gilmartin (who took down Parziale in the morning) and Ben Bridgeo who plays out of Cohasse CC. John has been a longtime good player around the state, but I didn't know Ben very well. The match was close all afternoon until Bridgeo pulled away with some clutch putting down the stretch. He's got a beautiful golf swing and he's one of the fastest players I've ever seen. Doesn't wast any time at all. It will be a great finish to the week I'm sure.