Top seeds play on at Mass Am
MARION — It does not matter whether someone has won it before, been a comedalist or the last player to make the cut: the Massachusetts Amateur is a grind and it is tough.
The last two champions were among the last three seeds in the 32-player match play bracket while each of the co-medalists was trailing coming down the stretch of their opening match as the wind swept over The Kittansett Club.
Nobody played the 36 holes of qualifying better than Chris Francoeur and Matt Parziale, as they got around Kittansett and cohost The Bay Club in 3-under par 139. They were both fighting for survival trailing in their matches coming down the stretch.
Francoeur, a four-time Atlantic 10 Player of the Week in the fall before having the spring season of his junior year at Rhode Island wiped out by the coronavirus, was up against 2018 champion Patrick Frodigh, who recently regained his amateur status after a brief foray in professional golf.
Francoeur was 2-down on the 15th hole, but won that after Frodigh hooked his tee shot at the par-5 into the trees and lipped-out his attempt to scramble a par together.
The Amesbury native tied the match for the first time since the start at the 17th hole by draining a putt of about 25 feet and then needed to settle his nerves at the last. Moments after Frodigh made a difficult 18-footer, Francoeur drained a bending 6-footer to extend the match.
“That putt I had on 17, either it was going in or it wasn’t, (the one at 18) I had to make and it was a 6-foot slider with wind, so it was kind of tough,” he said of the nerves standing over the putts.
Francoeur grabbed his only lead of the day on the first playoff hole as his chip from just off the green settled to within 2 feet.
“I kind of just locked in after the start I had,” he said. “I think I was 5-over through six and played bogey-free 3-under coming in.”
The afternoon went much more smoothly as he defeated Andrew DiRamio, 4 and 2.
“I don’t think about (the seeds) anymore,” said Matt Parziale, the 2017 Massachusetts Amateur and U.S. MidAmateur champion.
He was 3 up through 7 holes on Tommy Parker of George Wright Golf Club, jump-started by an eagle 3 at the fifth, only to have Parker claw his way back into the match and take a lead with a birdie at the 15th.
Parker lost his ball on the 16th — the downside of not being allowed to have spectators on the property because of the limit on number of people that can gather in one place — to tie the match.
Parziale grabbed the lead for good at 17, sticking a wedge from about 130 yards to 3 feet for a birdie, and halved the 18th for a 1-up victory.
Since tournaments resumed, Parziale has won the Brockton City Open and the Norfolk County Classic at Presidents Golf Course last weekend.
“I’m playing good. It’s tough to judge your game when you’re not playing competition, so it’s starting to get going these last few weeks,” said Parziale, who is exempt for next month’s U.S. Amateur at Bandon Dunes in Oregon. “It’s nice to be able to see I’m kind of in the spot I want to be in going forward for the rest of the summer.”
Parziale reached the quarterfinals with a 4 and 3 win over fellow Thorny Lea member Christopher Tarallo. He will face Weston Jones, the 2019 Div. 1 high school state champion at Lincoln-Sudbury, in a quarterfinal.
Defending champion Steven
DiLisio started Tuesday morning on the outside looking in with three holes remaining to close out his first two rounds of qualifying and continue the defense of the title he won at The Country Club. He had a birdie-birdie finish to get in on the cut line of 4-over 146 and drew the No. 30 seed.
“I hung in there long enough and rolled one in on 17 that was pretty long and then hit a drive on 18 that just about did it all from here,” DiLisio said of his finish. “It was a little bit of pressure but just trying to treat it like playing the golf course and do the best I can.”
He prevailed in the opening round outlasting Ricky Stimets in 21 holes. DiLisio helped himself with a tremendous shot from the sand that rings the signature par-3 third hole. He also got a bit of luck as Stimets missed a short putt that would have extended the match.
DiLisio’s luck ran out in the afternoon, however, losing 6 and 5 to Nick Maccario. Maccario ripped off birdies at the second, third and fourth holes to start 4 up.
After having his senior season at Duke cut short because of coronavirus, DiLisio was happy to be playing competitively.
“It’s just so fun to compete again,” he said. “I think I’ve been more excited to compete than I have about defending and winning again.”
Rob Owen is making the most of being his own boss and being at a place he knows well. In his first time qualifying for the event, he cracked the quarterfinals with a 2 up win over Anthony Vecchiarelli and 5 and 3 over Xavier Marcoux.
Owen, who played lacrosse and then golf at Princeton, has tried to qualify for the U.S. Mid-Amateur before, but last year was the first time he tried to qualify for the state amateur when it was at The Country Club, his home course. He managed to qualify this year, at a place where he is also a member.
“I just have a familiarity with the course, especially with the wind,” he said. “Hopefully it continues to be windy, I think that’s an advantage to me just knowing where I can leave the ball, where you can’t. That’s definitely been a big help.”
He is two matches away from being in a final but will first have to get through Francoeur.
Matthew Organisak will face Andrew McInerney while Maccario will face Benjamin Spitz.