Hey Everyone,

This week, I hit “publish” on Bay State Golf: Volume 1.

It is a digital book with 168 course reviews, including pictures, words, facts, and my opinions on each course I’ve played on the quest.

At the end of every year, I will update the book with new reviews from the past season. Those updates are free for anyone who purchases this copy.

You can purchase it here for $30.

Any annual paid subscribers to the newsletter receive this book for free. Monthly subscribers pay $10 for access.

I hope you’ll consider supporting my work here at Bay State Golf.

The main section of this newsletter is the Introduction I wrote for Bay State Golf.

But first, we have to get to some news and notes, including a college win for a local golf star.

COGNIZANT: Michael Thorbjornsen is already on the course for his second round. He shot a 72 (+1) on Thursday. Davis Chatfield shot 73 in the opening round and tees off at 8:09 am. Live Scoring

ARGENTINA OPEN: Rob Oppenheim shot a 68 in the opening round at the Jocket Club. As I type this, he is -3 in his second round and sits in T22. Chris Francoeur shot an even-par 70 and tees off at 11:29 a.m. for his second round. Scoring Live

HSBC WOMEN'S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: After two rounds at Sentosa in Singapore, Megan Khang is T33. She has clocked a round of 73 and 70. Live Scoring

REYNOLDS LAKE OCONEE INVITATIONAL (W): Boston College finished fourth at Great Waters at Reynolds Lake Oconee in Georgia. Cynthia Zhang led the way for the Eagles with a 14th-place finish. Results

THE SAVANNAH INTERCOLLEGIATE (M): Down at the Club at Savannah Harbor, Sacred Heart finished T7, and Dartmouth placed 18th. Two Massachusetts players teed it up for Lehigh. Matthew Quinn (Holden, Mass.) finished 55th, and Drew Golden (Hingham, Mass.) finished 86th. Results

SPACE COAST CLASSIC (W): Dartmouth won by nine shots. Sacred Heart finished 13th, and Holy Cross finished 14th. Results

BATTLE AT THE BEACH (W): Fairfield had a solid showing with a second-place finish. Stonehill settled into the middle of the pack with a T8 finish. Jaelyn DeBoise (Springfield, Mass.) finished 28th, and Carol Piganto (Foxborough, Mass.) took 38th. Newly minted Division 1 program, New Haven, finished 10th. Results

DORADO BEACH COLLEGIATE (M): Two teams from New England teed it up at TPC Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico. Bryant, Providence finished 13th. Will Spring (Concord, Mass.) finished in 57th and Evan Buddenhagan finished 87th. Bryant was one spot behind Providence. Chad Correia (Norton, Mass.) took 85th for Bryant. Results

BABS STEFFENS INVITATIONAL (W): Bryant finished 13th. Results

BRUIN WAVE INVITATIONAL (W): Yale finished 12th out at Valencia CC in California. Results

EL CAMPEON COLLEGIATE (W): Providence finished 13th. Olivia Arone (W. Newton, Mass.) finished T58. Results

ARCIS HBCU CHAMPIONSHIP(M): Sascha Robinson (Plymouth, Mass.) finished in third. The sophomore at Florida A&M shot 74-73-33 in the 45-hole event. Florida A&M won the team event by 42 shots. Results

ISABEL BROZENA WINS RIO VERDE COLLEGIATE: The 2025 Mass. Women's Amateur champion earned her first college win this week. She shot 69-72-74 (-1) for a one-shot victory Rio Verde CC in Arizona. Result

JONES CUP SENIOR INVITATIONAL: Doug Clapp was the only Bay Stater down in Georgia for the Jones Cup Senior Invitational. finished T37 in the elite senior event… Results

GASPARILLA: Nick Maccario (T10) had another solid performance at the Gasparilla. Matt Parziale also made the cut and finished T15. Ricky Stimets and Herbie Aikens both missed the cut.

Spring is coming… and in this week's YT video, I share some courses worth a splurge this summer.

This is the introduction to the new digital book.

Every time I think about the starting point of my quest to play every course in Massachusetts, the origin of it all moves. It started with the simple answer - I quit teaching in 2019 and had some extra time. A pandemic railroaded a lot of the hopes I had for 2020.

Traveling and exploring were replaced with sitting in my apartment. In that version of this story, the quest became an explosion of frustration with being cooped up for months on end - A wild idea that I verbalized to friends in late May of 2020.

The more I think about the genesis of the idea, the books I read in 2019 and 2020 were full of golfing adventures. Tom Coyne wrote three of those books: A Course Called Ireland, A Course Called America, and Paper Tiger. James Dodson was the other golf author who added some kindling to the fire with Range Bucket List and Final Rounds.

All five of those books highlighted wild ideas, youthful curiosity, golf trips and connections with people and places.

I have often said that golf and drinking culture are one and the same. That is not because you can drink while you play. You can bowl and drink, too. But people love checking out new bars and pubs. They offer an insight into a community. They differ from one to the next an d have their own personalities.

Golf courses are the same. Travel to different courses and you will meet different people and experience the feeling of being in a place. In some cases, you will meet other travelers and in other cases you will meet locals.

Bowling doesn't do that. Pick-up basketball doesn’t do that.

Baseball stadiums offer something that bars and golf courses offer, but no one is saving up money to play whiffle ball in Fenway Park. Golfers, however, can save their cash and tee it up at Pebble Beach.

As I dig a bit deeper into my psyche and try to suss out why I started the quest, I find myself back in 2014, watching my dad, rather quickly, lose a battle with cancer. He was 67 and had reached the point where semi-retirement was suiting him. He was in the part of life where he could take a step back and make plans and dream a little. He wanted to spend more time at home. Hang out with my mom. Play more golf near and far.

In the span of six weeks, those dreams were stripped of any reality.

I quit teaching for the first time in 2015. I was burned out by constantly trying to please the unpleasable - private school parents. Instead of walking away, I was lured back with a new position: Dean of Students.

That new position lasted four more years and in 2019 I drove off campus as an educator for the last time.

I could feel the world shifting - kids were treating each other worse than I ever remembered. Looking back, the anxiety from the work gave me chest pains and sleepless nights.

My dad worked his ass off for his entire life only to die just as he was starting to really enjoy a bit of freedom.

I wasn’t going to let that happen to me.

If COVID-19 doesn’t strike in 2020, I might have found my way back to a normal existence as a teacher. Maybe a new school would have been different. That door is still slightly ajar, I miss the kids and the energy of a school and the rhythm of the school calendar.

Teaching was an easy identity to hold on to, it was an easy one to explain to a stranger at a cocktail party or on the golf course. Now, I bumble through what I “do” when that question arises.

Some of what I’m doing is still teaching, I think. I’m gathering information and trying to share it with others. This project is a big part of that teaching. I know I have a lot of learning left to do, and once this quest is done, there will be more things to learn and courses to play.

But for now, thanks for being here for the ride.

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