Attleboro’s Chatfield pleased until final five holes
EAST PROVIDENCE – Anyone who stood by the 18th green at Wannamoisett Country Club early Saturday afternoon could tell by the look on Davis Chatfield’s face the pain he felt.
The talented, 19-year-old University of Notre Dame sophomore-to-be and Attleboro resident had strolled to the 18th tee at one-over par after sustaining a bogey six on the 17th, but he seemed poised to birdie his finishing hole on his home links for a fantastic finish at this, the 57th annual Northeast Amateur Invitational Tournament.
After all, he had played the previous 16 at even par to remain in the hunt, perhaps. for a top-five placement at what many consider a “major” for amateurs. He had entered the finale at three under.
Chatfield’s second shot on the par-4 18th sat in the rough, perhaps 20 feet from the cup, and he chose a wedge to pitch it – he hoped – to within two feet to save par. Unfortunately for the 135-pounder, the club’s edge got under the ball, and it traveled perhaps seven feet before rolling back off the green and onto the fringe.
He used his putter to move it to six feet, but slid the next past the right edge and closed with a disappointing double-bogey six.
With that, the Bishop Feehan Shamrock-turned-Fighting Irishman had to settle for a three-over 72 and a final aggregate of evenpar 276. He tied for 15th with five others, one of them Brockton’s own Matt Parziale. The U.S. Mid-Amateur champion just happened to tie for low amateur status at last week’s U.S. Open on Long Island.
“Everything was good until the last five (holes); it didn’t end the way I had hoped, or wanted,” Chatfield stated.
When asked what he will take from the entire week, one in which he fired rounds of 70, 65 and 69, he offered, “I’ll take it. It’s a good week, but ...”
He then was told that he had assembled the best four-day scoring total of any Rhode Islander/area golfer in tournament history. It started with the late Ronnie Quinn, a West Warwick resident who won the 1964 and ‘65 versions at 4-over and 10-over, respectively; and Brett Quigley reigned in 1988, but was a plus six.
In 1999, Cranston’s Mike Capone placed fourth at 7-over and Jim Renner of Plainville – like Chatfield a Feehan graduate – placed in a fourth-place deadlock at two-under 136, but that event was shortened to 36 holes due to vast amounts of rain and wind.
“Really? It’s a nice honor,” Chatfield said, then quickly returned to his disgruntlement. “I was 3-over on the last two. I hit (my tee shot) in the water on 17, and I ended up with bogey.” He didn’t utter a sound about the 18th. “I wanted to be under par for the entire tournament,” he sighed. “After all, I’m a member here. If I’m going to remember anything from this, it will be how my family and friends came out to support me and followed me around. Now that was nice.
“I’d still deem this the worse round of the tournament.”
As for Parziale, he managed a steady 35 on the front side on Saturday, bogeying only the eighth, but he caught fire on the back with birds on the 13th, 14th, 17th and 18th.
He had an up-and-down kind of tourney; in the opening round, he shot 72, but then tamed the links with a four-under 65 before trudging to a 75 on Friday. He seemed destined for another round in the 70s on Day 4, going out in one-over 35, before his late run.