The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Connecticut State Amateur will crown new champ at this year’s tournament
There will be a new champion at this week's Connecticut Amateur, which will be held at Ridgewood Country Club in Danbury.
Chris Fosdick, a former standout at Xavier High School in Middletown, won the last two State Amateur championships, the first at Shorehaven GC in Norwalk in 2020 and last year's event at Hartford GC. Both times, the championship match went to the 36th hole and both times Fosdick defeated Cody Paladino.
Both Fosdick, a rising junior for the University of Virginia men's golf team, and Paladino, who won the CSGA's first major of the season, the Palmer Cup last month, have been invited to play in the Northeast Amateur, which is also being held this coming week.
So who will contend for the title this year? Adam Friedman could. A member at Great River GC, Friedman reached the semifinals in this event last year and contended at the 2020 Connecticut Open.
Richard Dowling (Golf Performance Center) was the last Amateur champ before Fosdick in 2019. He also won the title in 2017. Jackson Fretty (Greenwich CC) and Anthony Guerrera (Watertown GC) both advanced to U.S. Open sectional qualifying earlier this month.
The field also includes Ben Carpenter, a rising sophomore at Yale and a member at CC of Darien who led at the Connecticut Open last year; Ben Conroy (New Haven CC), a semifinalist in 2020; Connor Goode (Glastonbury Hills CC), the reigning state Junior Amateur champion; and Alex Elia, who just graduated from Wilton High and made a pair of aces in the same round at Ridgewood CC last week in preparation for this event.
It's been 22 months since the Connecticut Open was held at Ridgewood CC. The par-71 Danbury course will play to approximately 6,750 yards. Ridgewood CC pro Justin Foster said the only change was extending the back right portion of the fifth green to provide another hole location.
“If you are right of the fairway by even a yard it'll be a challenge to hit a shot that holds on that back right shelf and very much a risk-reward scenario,” Foster said.
After two rounds of stroke play on Monday and Tuesday, the field is reduced to 32 players for match play. The two golfers who survive four rounds of matches, two each Wednesday and Thursday, advance to Friday's 36-hole championship match.
“A player with just average length will have a bunch of wedges (into greens) over the course of the round,” Foster said. “But even with a lofted club in your hands, it can be challenging to hit the correct quadrant of the green and leave the ball below the hole. Sprinkle in some on-course creativity and a knack for pouring in seven footers and the grounds at Ridgewood will treat you well.”
NORTHEAST AMATEUR
The Northeast Amateur Invitational Golf Tournament will be held Wednesday through Sunday at Wannamoissett CC in Rumford, Rhode Island. The list of past champions include plenty of household names.
Among the former PGA Tour pros who won the amateur title are: Ben Crenshaw (1973), John Cook (1978 and 1979), Hal Sutton (1980), David Duval (1992), Luke Donald (2000 and 2001), Dustin Johnson (2007) and Collin Morikawa (2017). All but Cook and Donald have won at least one major championship.
Fosdick and Paladino accepted invitations, as did Bradford Tilley of Easton. Ben James of Milford, who is headed to play at Virginia in the fall, and Michael Thorbjornsen of Massachusetts had also accepted invitations, but both have since withdrawn after receiving exemptions into next week's Travelers Championship, the PGA Tour stop in Cromwell.
Amateurs from across the country will try to be among the 60 and ties advancing to Saturday's final round.
TRAVELERS 4-SPOT QUALIFIER
The final four spots into the Travelers Championship field will be determined by the Monday qualifier held at Ellington Ridge CC.
The Connecticut Section PGA held a pair of pre-qualifiers last week, both of which were also held at Ellington Ridge CC. Among Wednesday's top 16 and ties advancing to Monday included Kyle Gallo, the fourtime Connecticut Open champion.
Among Thursday's qualifiers were Mike Ballo Jr. of Stamford and William Street, the head pro at Whitney Farms GC in Monroe.
Former full-time PGA Tour pros Robert Garrigus, Aaron Baddeley, Brian Davis, Arjun Atwal, Spencer Levin and Kevin Stadler are among those expected to be in Monday's field.