Hey Everyone,

What a week! I am teeing it up in the Dawson Cup at Concord CC this Friday and Saturday, a highlight of every summer. It’s a best-ball event that I play with my friend Eliot. It's an incredible field, and we just hope to make the cut and get a third round at one of the most underrated courses in the state.

The MassGolf Public Links didn’t go quite as planned. Thrilled to have played in my first MassGolf event.

I also played nine holes on Nantucket last week at Siasconset GC, a throwback course dripping with simplicity and charm. I wrote up my review on Instagram. 

I also recapped the six courses I played in July. You can listen here on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

News and Notes:

• Mass Public Links: Joey Lenane boat raced the field in the MassGolf Public Links by 11 shots. Dominant stuff from the NC State golfer. He shot 64-67 (-13). MassGolf

• Ouimet Memorial: Jack O’Donnell won the Ouimet Memorial last Friday.

• U.S. Women’s Amateur: There will be three Smith sisters playing in the U.S. Women’s Amateur next week at Southern Hills. Molly was exempt, Morgan qualified after winning a 3-for-1 playoff, Maddie got off the alternate list on Thursday. Incredibly, Maddie was one of the two players that Morgan beat in that playoff. Rebecca Skoler, the Mass. Women’s Am champion will also play this week.

• U.S. Senior Amateur Q: Jayne Pardus, Sue Curtin, and Natalie Galligan all earned spots at Broadmoor CC in Washington for the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur. MassGolf.

Golf Three Ways

Dan Jacobs is a tall and lanky rising senior at Sienna College.

Cob Carlson is a short and bald different kind of senior.

They were my playing partners this week at the MassGolf Public Links Championship at The Ledges. MassGolf was kind enough to capture the three hit our opening tee shots for their IG page.

It was an incredible contrast in styles, which is what makes golf such an awesome game. Two golfers separated by 40 years competing in the same arena in totally different ways.

Jacobs played the game as you might expect. He was powerful, hitting his Titleist T-200 iron 270 yards on a string. He had a nice wedge game and made a slew of birdies to take advantage of his length on the 6,500-yard course.

Carlson, who filled in as an alternate in our group, rolled up in a cart ice cold. No range session because it was too far from the clubhouse and required a car ride. He hit his driver 220, and it seemed to collect mud on every fairway.

The day didn’t start great for Carlson. He made four bogeys on the opening four holes. We started on the tenth, and that stretch of 10-13 is tough, but then he settled down on a few of the short holes and made some birdies.

There were holes when Jacobs was 50-80 yards ahead of Carlson off the tee. While Jacobs flipped wedges like pancakes into the greens, Carlson lashed at a bevy of hybrids and then scrambled for par.

I was keeping Jacobs’ score. He had it cooking for a bit and then had a few tough holes at the end of the round that sent his score above par for the day.

However, I had no idea what Carlson was shooting. As we sat at the scoring table and read out our scores, I was shocked to hear that Carlson had shot a 77. Jacobs shot a 73. I shot an 87 (tough day… I won’t bore you with the gory details…).

I thought the Ledges was a cool course; it has a few tragic holes and some odd long walks because of environmental areas. Overall, the course was enjoyable and one I’d visit a lot if I lived out in the South Hadley area. I also think having two players at such opposite ends of the spectrum make the cut in the PubLinks reflects well on the course. It has some length that Carlson had to contend with, but it had some short holes that Carlson could take advantage of, too.

For having such a bad day personally on the course, it was a joy watching my two partners play the game in such different ways. It proves, once again, that golf is the best.

Double Click(s)

1. Sam Reinhart with an incredible Stanley Cup flex. In high school, we lost a match because the other team’s coach penalized one of our players for marking his ball with something other than a coin or ball marker. That was more than half my life ago and I still remember how incredibly stupid that was.

2. Justin Rose has a recovery trailer that he travels with. It’s insane. Claire Rogers gets a tour from the Englishman.

3. I learned about Carys Fennessy in 2022 while playing golf at Pinehurst. I was paired with a father and daughter from New Hampshire. The daughter played high school golf, and they started raving about Fennessy. She had been hit in the head with a golf ball at the U.S. Open at The Country Club. She had to take most of that summer off, it was a pretty scary scene and she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to play golf again. Last year she won the NH Women’s Amateur by 15 shots. This year… she won by 18 shots. She’ll try to win her fourth New Hampshire HS championship in the fall. She’s committed to playing her golf at the College of Charleston in the fall.

4. This was a cool video from MassGolf showing every shot of the Mass Amateur final match.

When I’m not golfing…

I’m reading…

• Great story about a couple who were rescued in the Gulf of Mexico while scuba diving. First stop after the rescue? A Houston deli for a sandwich. NYTimes.

• Finished Tana French’s The Hunter. Excellent book. One of my favorite writers.

I’m listening to…

• I always like when Derek Thompson joins Bill Simmons to talk about “The Future of Everything.” Worth a listen.

• If you enjoy people diving into musical theory, Switched on Pop is great. They look at what has made Chappell Roan so popular.

I’m eating…

• We went to The Nautilus for our last meal on Nantucket last week. Everything there is incredible. Fried oyster tacos, tuna poke bowl, and beef tataki were the stars. They also have a restaurant in the Seaport, so you don’t have to get on a ferry to enjoy their food.

I’m watching…

• We watched Speed and Gone in 60 Seconds last weekend. Speed… kinda stunk. Just too long. Like 35 minutes too long. However, I thought Gone in 60 Seconds was really good - super tight with some great scenes.

New here? Reached the bottom?

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Bay State Archives

I'm (shamelessly) plugging...

• A list of golf courses open in the winter.

• Bay State Picks: Best courses you can walk for less than $60.

• Bay State Picks: Nine-hole courses to play before or after work

• Bay State Picks: 18 public golf that is worth your time

• Bay State Picks: Easy 18-hole public walks

• Bay State Deep Dive: Myopia Hunt Club

   

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