Get ready for the 116th Mass Am at Framingham CC July 8-12, 2024!
We’ve got all the details on players to watch, holes to see, and Stephen Hanjack’s Picks and Takes on who will take home the trophy!
Welcome to the Massachusetts Amateur Championship Preview Show presented Titleist and FootJoy. I’m Nia Fredrich with Mass Golf. Joining me today is once again Stephen Hanjack. We’re going to cover all there is to know about the 116th Massachusetts Amateur Championship, set to take place at Framingham Country Club July 8th to the 12th. Are you excited? I’m ecstatic. This is my favorite championship on the schedule. Especially the Amateur and Women’s Amateur. There’s something about match play that is just a little bit different than all the other events we cover, and I can’t wait to get into it with you today. Yeah. For the first time, Framingham Country Club will be hosting the Massachusetts Amateur Championship. We’ve got a lot on the schedule this week, starting with Monday and Tuesday. Each day will have 18 holes of stroke play, and the cut will be made to the low 32 players. Match play will then start on Wednesday, July 10th with rounds of 32 and 16 taking place in the morning and afternoon, respectively. July 11th will have the quarterfinals and the semifinal matches, and July 12th will have 36 holes of finals matches between our two finalists. That’s what’s on the docket. A very exciting addition to this championship this year, as at the 2024 Mass Am Champion will receive an exemption in the 2024 U.S. Amateur Championship. All semifinalists in 2024 will also be exempt through U.S. Am Local qualifying in 2025. So that’s super exciting with the USGA. This is the first one, I believe, that we have on the schedule for exemptions taking place as well. That’s right. And just to look back at some of the recent history, too. Of course, these players didn’t get those same exemptions. But last year we had Ryan Downes, the youngest ever winner of this championship. up at Essex. The year before that, Downes was in the final, but he lost to Conner Willett in one of the most unbelievable stories this championship has ever seen at Concord Country Club. And the year before that, we had the show between Michael Thorbjornsen and Matt Parziale, over at Brae Burn of course, Thorbjornsen won, he made 18 birdies over 30 holes, something this championship just simply has never seen. So, we’ve really seen some exciting finishes here at the Mass Am in the last three years. And the other thing that I kind of notice from this, we’ve seen a lot of young winners in this championship. The last time we’ve seen someone in their 30s win this event was back in 2017, when Matt Parziale took home the championship. Yeah. I would also like to note that in history we’ve got ten back to back champions, most recently in 2012 and 2013. Mike Calef took both those championships home. But I mean, also to note, some of those gaps are about ten, 11 years between the back to back champions. So it might be time for another run that we’ll see this year. And with Ryan Downes, you can say his game has only gotten better from last year. He’s still, what, 19 years old? I don’t know exactly how old, but he’s the younger 18. He won it as a youngest at 17 years old. previously it was at 18 years old. So he’ll kind of get in the mix with 18 year olds who previously won it many, many years ago. So, very good chance that that could happen this year. Very good chance. Okay, let’s talk about the golf course, last year, historical grounds of Essex County Club. It was a beautiful week. We had, you know, that marine layer fog set in on the first day? Kind of a little unexpected, but also so North Shore of Massachusetts to do. So what are we looking at with Framingham? Yeah. So I think this golf course is a lot different. But one of the things that people always ask, you know, what do you think the scores are going to be? What’s it going to be the first two days? But the big thing is we’ve got 144 players. We’ve got July heat, we’ve got thunderstorms that pop up all the time. It’s important to get these players through so that we can get it down to the match play. So yes, it’ll be a stern test, but it’s not going to be a U.S. Open tricked out. Per se or over the top with the set up. So I think the scoring will be relatively fair. but the big thing again, is getting all those players through, testing them the right way. But having been over at the golf course, I think that the five players that are members at Framingham, specifically in the match play portion of this event, are going to have a huge advantage. So Victor Galvani, Matthew Naumec, Lawrence Dorr, Kyle Tibbits and Jesse Zorfas all will be, I think, in the mix to make it through, to match play. I mean, between them, there’s dozens maybe not dozens but a bunch of club championships. and their names all up on the wall inside there. And of course Naumec was the runner up back in 2023. So, I think the course is going to lend itself well to those that know it. the other thing I think match play is going to be electric. This golf course has a lot of half par holes. It gives you a lot of different options on some of the tees as well. So the par fives will be gettable for sure, for the guys of this length. But holes 2, 3, 13, 14, 16, 18 these players are going to have to make a decision on the tee. And when you get to match play, you get these opportunities to perhaps get a little bit more aggressive. Or if you have a big lead, you can play it back and force your competitor to try and take on a corner or something like that. So I think this golf course is going to lend itself well there and then the closing hole, the 18th, that’s exactly what you dream for in a match play. You’ve got a stream that kind of runs its way along water along the side of the 18th hole, with a shaved down, perhaps we could see the rough shaved down even more. Some balls fall in, but I think you’re going to see a lot of excitement coming down that final stretch. Yeah. Okay. So let’s talk about the players that are in the field. We hosted 11 state qualifiers this year. And we’ve got a list of exempt players. 144 in the field this year. I’d like to note Molly Smith, once again the only female in the field. Last year she became the first female to play in the Mass Am on top of qualifying for it. And I anticipate to see another incredible performance from her coming off her All American year. first year in the Big 12 Conference. and we’ve also got Mass Golf’s former Boatwright intern, Carter Nunez. He’s making his first Mass Am appearance in the field. Where last year at Essex County Club. He was determined to be in the field this year, work hard on his golf game and qualify instead of just following with the camera. So I’m really excited to see what he does inside of the field. and where his golf journey takes him this year. And like you said, five Framingham Country Club members in the field, including Matt Naumec, 2023 runner up. The People’s Golfer, Jesse Zorfas, he never lets us down with a good cameo on camera, so it’ll be exciting. Yeah, he’s certainly got a fan in me. some other names that came to mind for me. Weston Jones just had a really good showing at the Worcester County Amateur. he seems to be in really good form, and he seems to play well at all of our events. Ethan Whitney, he’s made some deep runs in this event over the past few years, and he, of course, jumped on the bag for Conner Willett in the final few rounds. I forget how many exactly. the Concord year. So he’s no stranger to the environment at least. Ben Spitz, who hasn’t played in this event in a few years. He was the champion back in 2006. The last time he played in this was in ‘21, the Thorbjornsen year, and he was the stroke play medalist then. So I’d like to think he’ll be playing well. CJ Winchenbaugh, He recently qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur. He was a runner up at the Mass Junior Amateur. He had a deep run in the Mass Am last year. So he seems to be, someone that plays really well in match play situation, so that, that should lend itself here. I brought up Christian Emmerich during our Mass Open Preview Show. Again, I think that, his the way about him will be even more successful in a match play situation. You get to have, like I said, that tenacity that’s only going to show more when you’re one on one versus playing a whole field of players. Perhaps not even in your group. And then the last one on my list is Jake Shuman, quarterfinal last year or I’m sorry, quarterfinal a few years ago, round of 16. he just plays really good golf. He’s a heck of a player, and I’d be shocked if he wasn’t in at least the quarterfinals again this year. Yeah, I’m very excited to see what happens. You never know who’s going to come out from the bottom I don’t know. so for our spectators or anybody watching from home, Framingham is just 25 miles from Boston, easily accessible from 4.95. If you happen to find yourself out in that way, we’d be happy to have you out on the course. spectators are obviously welcome to join us all week. for this spectacular event. There will be limited parking on Monday and Tuesday, so we are providing overflow parking lots of Framingham State University in the Maple Street lot. where a shuttle service will be provided. So we’ve got all the ground covered. We’ve got room for you to park. We want you on course. We want you on site. We want you cheering on these Massachusetts players. Food and beverage services will also be available in the clubhouse all week. cash only. So on top of that, we’ve also got a ton of coverage planned for our social media @PlayMassGolf and we’d love to have you follow along there if you can’t make it out in person. So now it’s time for the exciting part. Well, a few more things on the spectator front. don’t forget we’ve got Championship Central, so that’ll have the information on parking. Where to go, a bunch of things about the players in the field, the golf course itself. and then a few areas of the, the golf course that I wanted to point out. If you’ve never been to Framingham, I was trying to think through it and I think up by the 7th green is a really good spot. It’s a really cool green complex. It’s up on a hill. You could also see the next hole, which is a par three, the 8th that’s got a false front. It’s a drop shot. So potential for hole in one. You could see a lot from up there. And you can even kind of make your way over to the 1st green, which is a very short par five. so you should see a bunch of excitement in that side. on the front of the course, on the back, I personally would make my way up to the 14th hole, the highest point of the property. Really cool green up there. And again, you can see down to a whole bunch of the golf course. You can see things that are happening maybe not exactly. You know, what’s going on on the green down on 13, but you can at least make out a bunch of, a bunch of what’s going on. and then the last spot would be the 18th green. I just talked about it a little bit ago, but, you’re going to see fireworks on the 18th. You’re going to see water balls, you’re going to see eagles, you’re going to see birdies. it’s going to be a good spot to see some matches finish up. Yeah. I’ll never forget last year Matt Naumec hitting his shot through the tree on 18 to make one heck of a finish. So I, I mean I think I might camp out on 18. That’s going to be a good spot okay. Now it’s time for the exciting stuff! Stephen Hanjack’s Picks and Takes. What do you got? Who’s going to take it home? What’s going to happen? Just just to reiterate, last time we did this, your picks and takes didn’t make it as the exact. But we were close. We had the right idea. I mean, we had an amateur on the final hole have a chance to win it, but it was the professional who made an eagle, hit it, you know, so it’s ten feet. Knocked home an eagle putt that took it home. So we were close. It wasn’t exactly. We were not that exact. But some of the names were a little bit out there. So what have we got this time? All right. This time, here’s what I think’s going to happen again. I think the Framingham members are going to have a huge advantage in match play. I think eventually, as players make their way through and get 2 or 3 competitive rounds under their belt, some of these tee shots will feel a little bit more comfortable. But, I think we’re going to see three Framingham players make it through to the round of 32 of match play. I think the semifinals are going to be made up of all players that are either 24 years or younger. it’s just been it’s a grind. This event, it’s 18 holes on Monday, 18 on Tuesday, 32 on our 36, sorry, 36 on Wednesday, 36 on Thursday and then 36 Friday. So I think the younger players are just going to be in a better situation to succeed in that. and that has been the case over the past few years as well. I think we’re going to see Ryan Downes make it back to the final again this year. Like I mentioned, I think he’s only getting better and, he’s our defending champ. So it’s it’s really not that big of a surprise. But I think in the end I think we’re going to see a new champion. And I think it’s going to be Ethan Whitney. He’s been close. He’s been in that that world. he’s seen it firsthand. And I just think, I think it’s time. I think it’s time for Ethan Whitney. Need to take home the Mass Am Championship. We love to hear it. Thank you, everybody, for joining us for the Massachusetts Amateur Preview Show presented by Titleist and FootJoy. We hope you enjoyed and we hope you join us out at Framingham next week. 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