PLYMOUTH, MASS - Aidan Emmerich (Swampscott, Mass.) shot 4-under par to win the 62nd Hornblower Memorial at Plymouth Country Club by two shots over Drew Golden (Hingham, Mass.) and Patrick O’Leary (Milton, Mass.).
It’s Emmerich’s second Hornblower title, and the two victories were very different. In 2023, Emmerich had to battle horrible weather in the second round. Wind, rain, and near-freezing temperatures were a shock to the system after the first round was played in searing heat.
This year, Emmerich had to sleep on a lead for two nights because Saturday’s round was postponed to Sunday due to high winds and heavy rain that blew through the area on Saturday.
He shot 66 on Friday and was tied for the lead with Adam Friedman.
“Golfwise, 2023 was tougher,” Emmerich said. “But mentally, this was tougher. With the day wait, sitting there with the lead is tough.”
It’s rare to sleep on a lead for two nights during a 36-hole event, but Emmerich hit some balls indoors on Saturday to clear his mind.
Even with those efforts, Emmerich didn’t have a great start on Sunday’s final round. He made bogey on hole Nos. 2, 3, and 5. A birdie on the fourth meant he was standing on the drivable par-4 sixth 1-under par for the tournament.
Emmerich on the sixth hole
“The driver’s been a little weird the past two days, I’ve just put myself in bad spots,” he said.
He didn’t panic.
“I feel like I know this place so well now that you’re never out of it until you kick yourself out of it, and if you don’t make any doubles, you’ve got a good chance.”
The bogey on five was the last bogey or worse he would make the entire round. Birdies on hole Nos. 10, 13, and 14 pushed him to 4-under par. A good swing with the driver on the ninth hole settled him down, and some work on the greens paid off, too.
“I’ve been working hard on my putting, a lot. I struggled this college season,” Emmerich said.
He also credited the greens on his home course, Kernwood CC, another Donald Ross design, with helping him feel comfortable at Plymouth CC.
While he’s not a leaderboard watcher, Emmerich hit an important par putt on the 12th and decided to look at the live scoring to see how things were shaking out.
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Emmerich hits his tee shot on 10 en route to a birdie
He took in the information and, again, didn’t panic. He knew he had some birdie chances in front of him. In the blink of an eye, Emmerich was back at 4-under par with birdies on 13 and 14.
Holes 13 and 14 are interesting in the routing because they are so far from the clubhouse, but once players arrive at the 15th green, the crowds appear, as that green and the 16th tee are in the shadow of the clubhouse.
At that point, before he teed off on 13, Emmerich was battling with a few players.
Josiah Hakala (New Ipswich, NH), who started his round on the 10th hole after an opening-round 72, was 5-under par through 15 holes. But a bogey on the 7th, followed by two birdie putts that burned the edge on eight and nine, left him at 1-under par for the tournament.
Josiah Hakala lines up his birdie putt on the ninth hole
“It could have been a 61,” Hakala said after the round. The New Hampshire resident who won the 2024 Mass. Junior Amateur started with three straight birdies and then rode the par train for the next nine holes. His only missed green was on the seventh, where he made bogey after a vicious lip-out for par.
In the end, Hakala signed for a 65, the lowest score of the tournament. Collin McMahon-Shea (Lexington, Mass.) also fired a 65 to finish T6 at even par.
Lehigh freshman Drew Golden finished runner-up for the second straight year. He finished one shot behind Nick Maccario last year. This year, his tee shot on the par-3 8th hole might be the one that haunts him. He hit his shot long of the green and couldn’t recover and made a double-bogey. That green has dashed many hopes in the past.
Golden showed maturity after the 8th hole, playing the last ten holes in 2-under par, carding birdies on hole Nos. 11, 13, and 16. He dropped a shot on the 14th.
Drew Golden starts his second round
The only two players to beat Golden over the last two years, Maccario and Emmerich, have won four of the last seven Hornblower Memorials. An impressive two-year stretch for Golden. He’ll be one to watch in the coming years.
Patrick O’Leary played incredibly steady golf to also finish runner up with back-to-back rounds of 69. He spent the entire tournament between 1-over par and 2-under par. He was only over par for one hole during the tournament, and he finished with impressive birdies on 15 and 18 to earn a T2 result.
Patrick O’Leary on the first hole
Eli Spaulding also appeared in control of the tournament deep into the second round. Two years ago, Spaulding finished as the low junior in the field and held the outright lead standing on the 13th hole before a string of bogeys tripped him up.
Eli Spaulding on the first hole
This year, Spaulding, who won the New England Amateur in 2025, had a clean card through the first 11 holes. A birdie on the fourth got him to 3-under par and the solo lead, but he left his third shot in the right greenside bunker on 12 and made a double-bogey. He bounced back with birdies on 13 and 16 to climb within one shot of Emmerich, who was in the group behind him.
Emmerich, sitting at 3-under par, had a razor-thin lead. He made a rather easy par on the 16th hole, missing a 10-foot birdie putt on the only par five. But a five on the 16th always feels like a lost opportunity, and he headed to 17 with a one-shot lead over Spaulding.
All the work Emmerich did with his putter paid off on the 17th green. His birdie putt left him with a tricky 6-foot par putt. With his shirt tucked into his left armpit to steady his stroke, Emmerich stepped up, made the putt, collected the ball from the cup, and took a big, deep breath.
Emmerich and Low Junior Jay Sherwood
As he headed to the 18th tee, Spaulding had carded an 8 on the final hole after hitting his tee shot out of bounds. That dropped him to even par and left Emmerich with a two-shot cushion.
An easy par on the 18th for Emmerich was punctuated with a first pump.
After just graduating from college, Emmerich has done what many great players do: he won the Hornblower Memorial to kick off the season. He had a solid summer in 2025, which included a run to the semi-finals of the Mass. Amateur.
“It means a lot,” he said, “This is more people than I’ve played golf in front of in a while. The course is special. It’s not a big golf course, but it shows its teeth. I’m very fortunate to win it twice.”
Notes:
Jay Sherwood shot 69-69 to earn Low Junior honors
The scoring average on Friday was 74.46, and on Saturday it was 73.23
Mark O’Sullivan made a hole-in-one on the 8th hole. It’s his seventh ace; he’s made three in Ireland and four in the United States. It’s his second ace in competition.
Drew Golden and Jay Sherwood made the most birdies in the field. They each made nine.
Steve Tasho finished T14. He believes his first time playing the Hornblower was either 1975 or 1976 because someone had to drive him to the course.
Emmerich, O’Leary, and Golden were the only three players to shoot under par in both rounds.
There were 18 total rounds under par.
Four Plymouth CC members made the cut, and John Stoddard was the low PCC member at T14 with rounds of 73-68.
