DiPetrillo rides break to Ouimet win
Penalty costs foe in playoff
Coming off a back injury that cost most of her senior year at the University of Richmond, Sophie DiPetrillo was not too sure what to expect at the Francis Ouimet Tournament.
The Dover native had enough to get into a playoff yesterday and was the beneficiary of Krystal Knight’s mistake of playing DiPetrillo’s ball from the 17th fairway, which was the first hole of a sudden-death playoff.
“I tore my back in, I don’t know, October maybe, so I didn’t get to play for five months in school and I missed the entire summer and this was my first tournament of the entire summer,” said DiPetrillo, who shot a 5-over-par 220 over the 54 holes contested on the first two days at Boston Golf Club before the traditional finish at Woodland Golf Club including a final-round 74. “To win it is pretty exciting. My goal was to make the cut, so I’m pretty ecstatic with how everything turned out, just unfortunate how it ended.”
DiPetrillo 3-putted the 17th hole while Knight, the Northeast-10 Player of the Year at Merrimack, birdied two of the final four holes to get to 5-over and force a playoff.
Both players hit their balls into the fairway about 10 yards apart. Knight played her second shot first, unknowingly hitting DiPetrillo’s ball.
“I’ve played with her before and we typically hit the same distance,” DiPetrillo said. “She walked up to the ball and started getting ready, so I asked her, ‘Do you mind if I go stand up at my ball’ and get my numbers and stuff like that. So I stood to the side and was getting my numbers and she hit a good shot on the green and everyone clapped and I said nice shot, and then I got my club out and I went to the ball and I looked down and I go, ‘Krystal, are you playing a red Titleist with a yellow spot on it?’ and then she goes, ‘Did I hit the wrong ball?’ and I said, ‘This one has your name on it.’ I felt awful.”
There is a 2-stroke penalty for playing the wrong ball. DiPetrillo made a 4 while Knight made 5.
“I’m very disappointed,” Knight said. “I’m definitely not going to make the same mistake twice, that’s for sure. I usually always check it, but it was on the blank side of the ball and I just figured I was short.”
Megan Buck was third at 8-over while Anne Walsh and Rebecca Skoler tied for fourth at 9-over.
Matt Organisak of Sudbury gave Nashawtuc Country Club a second straight winner in the Championship Division, following up Jack Lang’s performance of a year ago. Organisak compiled a 3-under par 210, closing with a 1-over 72 to hold off Jack Boulger, Nick Cummings and Brett Krekorian by 1 shot.
Having made three bogeys on the back nine, Organisak wasn’t sure where he stood on the leaderboard making his way down 18. He hit the green in 2 and ran his birdie attempt 4 feet by the hole and made the comebacker to seal the victory.
“I really thought I needed that birdie putt to win and I didn’t know that as I blew it 4 feet past, that the par putt coming back was to win, and I thought that was to tie, so that wasn’t great,” he said. “Maybe that was good or bad for my nerves, but I was a little blurry on what the scores were actually.
“I missed a couple short putts on the back nine but I played solid and really hit the ball well all week. The last couple days at Boston I was really pleased with how I hit the ball and putted the ball because that is a hard golf course to make birdies because those green complexes are unbelievable and I made 11 birdies over there.”
He had three more at Woodland, which proved to be just enough as Krekorian and Cummings each matched his 72.
Steve Tasho of North Easton and Thorny Lea GC went wire-to-wire to win the Lowery Division (55 and older) with an 8-shot victory at 4-under par 209.
“Just to finally get my name on it means a lot,” he said.
Tasho got off to a big lead on Wednesday as the only player to post a round under par in a 4-under 67. He closed with a 70.
“I hit it really good all three days, the first day I made a few more putts than the second day, but I hit it just as good – the pins were set up a little more difficult the second day,” he said. “Today, I played steady with three birdies and two bogeys.”