2025 Bay State All-Stars

It was an exciting year of competitive amateur golf in Massachusetts. The talent pool is deep, and I think there’s an argument that we’re in a golden generation of Massachusetts Golf.

So let’s celebrate some of the best performers from the 2025 season.

Similar to the NBA, which selects All-NBA teams of five players, I made “teams” of four to highlight some of the best performers from 2025.

How did I make my picks?

I stuck to amateur golfers and used some of the MassGolf Player of the Year points. Then I dug around for results in college and amateur events outside of Massachusetts, which don’t always count towards MassGolf PoY points.

I also liked the idea of mixing men’s and women’s players in the groups.

The First team represents the four best players of 2025, and then we work our way to the fifth team.

So, here are the 20 players who stood out in 2025.

First Team

Matt Parziale (Brockton, Mass.)

Parziale won his tenth MassGolf Player of the Year award in 2025. He won the Ouimet Memorial and also finished T2 in the New England Amateur. The story of Parziale’s career is consistency; his finishes this year highlighted that again. He notched five top-seven finishes (3rd in Worcester County Amateur, T4 Mass. Mid-Amateur and 7th in Invitational). He also qualified for the U.S. Amateur and is exempt for the U.S. Mid-Amateur due to his 2017 victory.

Shannon Johnson (Easton, Mass.)

Johnson put together a strong 2025 season that earned her the 2025 Mass. Women’s Player of the Year and Mass. Women’s Mid-Amateur PoY. She put in an incredible showing at the Mass. Women’s Amateur. She was a medalist and then pushed winner Isabel Brozena to the edge in a stellar 18-hole championship match at Concord CC. That final match went 18 holes, and Isabel Brozena held off Johnson. She backed that up with another runner-up in the Women’s Mass Mid-Amateur. She also reached the Round of 16 in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and joined up with Megan Buck to win their sixth straight Mass. Women’s Four-Ball.

Nick Maccario (Hingham, Mass.)

Maccario moved to Georgia in 2025 but returned to Massachusetts to collect a couple of trophies. He won the Hornblower at Plymouth CC to start the year and took home his second Mass. Mid-Amateur championship at Andover CC. Beyond the Bay State, Maccario continues to make waves, too. He won Joseph Healey Memorial Tournament at Atkinson Resort and then took home the John R. Williams Four-Ball Invitational with Matt Parziale at Oak Hill CC in Rochester, NY. The Lupton Memorial is a new Mid-Amateur event at The Honors Course, and Maccario finished 4th in that event and had a 12th place in the Gasparilla.

Ryan Downes (Longmeadow, Mass.)

Ryan Downes has put his stamp on the amateur game over the last few years. He won his second Mass. Amateur championship in 2025 at GreatHorse. The college sophomore took home his first collegiate win at the Bryson Invitational while competing for Vanderbilt. His strong fall season is part of the reason Vanderbilt is ranked third in the nation. In August, Downes used his U.S. Amateur exemption and reached the Round of 64 at Olympic Club in San Francisco. Downes also made the cut at the Northeast Amateur at Wannamoisett (Rumsford, RI), one of the most prestigious events in Amateur golf.