A Busy July

The heart of the championship season is here, and so far we've had a great July. The 103rd Mass Amateur at Wyantenuck CC could not have gone any better. It was a wonderful week inthe Berkshires and everyone at Wyantenuck treated all the players, officials and MGA staff like family. We only had one weather problem with a brief suspension of play on Wednesday, first day of match play. Other than that it was a perfect week to run a golf tournament.

I think some people were wondering just how the golf course would hold up especially in stroke play. Any doubts were elimated when the players arrived. The course was in pristine condition and played beautifully. Colin Brennan played great golf to earn medalist honors, but nobody ate the place up. The greens and fairways were as perfect as they could be, just outstanding. Peter Bacon, the golf course superintendent, and his crew have been prepping for three years for the Amateur and it showed.

We knew that the golf course would be great for match play and it was. There were many exciting matches and two top players, Ryan Riley and Frank Vana, making the finals. Frank dug himself a hole early y being several down, but hats off to Ryan for his great play and mking 10 birdies in 33 holes in the final in winning his first Amateur.

The New England Amateur last week at Metacomet CC in RI was another good tournament. It's a great old Donald Ross golf course that holds a special place in my heart because it's where I played my high school golf while playing for East Providence High. We used to play 18 hole matches in those days back in the 1970's which was fun. We had great battles with Barrington High who always had a great team which featured one Brad Faxon. I never played Brad head to head but played in the same group several times. Needless to say, EP had a tough time against Barrington in those days, but it was always close. I also played my final RI Junior Amateur at Metacomet in 1979 when I was 17. Faxon actually got beat in the finals that year after having won the previous three years.

The biggest surprise about the New England Amateur this year was that we actually managed to get in 72 holes for the first time in about six years. We've had more weather disasters than I care to remember at that tournament, but this year while hot, we at least got it in. Jeff Heddon from CT played crazy good and shot 13 under par to win by 5.