The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
State Junior Amateur to begin this Monday
The 79th Connecticut Junior Amateur will proceed as scheduled beginning Monday at Watertown Golf Club.
This will be the second championship the Connecticut State Golf Association has operated this year after having a couple others moved later in the calendar year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But unlike the State Amateur, held two weeks ago, the Junior Amateur will maintain its normal schedule beginning with Monday’s stroke-play portion of the event, which will be 18 holes.
The low 32 golfers advance to match play on Tuesday. After four rounds of matches, the two finalists will square off Thursday morning in the 18-hole final.
No carts or caddies are permitted for use. Watertown GC, a par 71, will be playing to approximately 6,400 yards.
Ben James is the defending champion. A Milford resident who plays out of Great River Golf Club, James defeated Gunnar Granito 7 and 6 in last year’s final. That was part of an amazing summer where he won the AJGA Killington (Vt.) Championship, his second consecutive individual titles at both the Northern Junior Championship and the New England Junior and placed third at the Connecticut Open.
James also qualified for the U.S. Junior Presidents Cup team, which defeated the International team last December. Two weeks ago, he reached the quarterfinals of the State Amateur and
was invited to play in the North South Men’s Championship last week in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
While James was en route to North Carolina, Connecticut added North Carolina to its list of states where people coming to Connecticut from there must selfquarantine for 14 days due to the pandemic. So it remains to be seen if James will be able to tee it up Monday — he is scheduled to go off at noon.
Kyle St. Pierre of Shelton, who lost to James in last year’s semifinals, will be trying to take a couple of extra steps this year. Madison’s Matt Doyle, a finalist in 2018, is coming off a 10shot victory at the Connecticut Junior PGA Championship Wednesday.
Also in the field this week includes Jackson Roman, James’ high school teammate at Hamden Hall Country Day; Michael Hanratty, the other semifinalist last year, losing to Granito; and Alex Gu of Darien, the 2019 high school State Open champion.