Hey Everyone,
I spent Monday night at the Ouimet Fund dinner. It’s an incredible evening, and I was grateful to be a small part of the proceedings. Kevin Padron was selected as the student speaker. Last fall, the Ouimet Fund asked me to be a part of a video series called “I’m Glad Ouimet.” Kevin caddied for me around the back nine at Wellesley, and he shared his incredible story between shots.
Karrie Webb was the Ouimet Award winner, and Brendan Walsh was given the Richard Connolly Jr. Award. Walsh is the longtime head pro at The Country Club who recently retired. Webb is a seven-time major winner and one of the best female golfers ever. Her record is astounding, and she was somewhat overshadowed in the late 1990s by a guy named Tiger Woods. Ian Baker-Finch and Webb had a 20-minute fireside chat.
Just a great evening overall. You can watch my video with Kevin below. Here’s his speech from the dinner. If you’re inspired to get involved with the fund, here’s their website. They are also running the Ouimet Golf Auction right now with some insane golf course rounds up for grabs.
News and Notes
Pro Golf
Cadillac Championship: Michael Thobjornsen shot 74 (+2) in the first round at The Blue Monster at Doral and is T52. Keegan Bradley shot 72 and sits at T37. Cam Young leads after a 64. Jordan Spieth and Alex Smalley are one shot behind. Live Scoring
Riviera Maya Open: Alexa Pano is T71 after shooting 74 (+2) in the opening round in Mexico. Brianna Do and Melanie Green lead at 6-under par. Live Scoring
PGA Professional Championship: Rich Berberian (Hookset, NH) was the lowest finisher from the New England Section out at Bandon Dunes. He finished T34. He was three shots outside the Top 20. Those players all earned spots in the PGA Championship in two weeks. Results
College Golf - Full Conference Championship Rundown here
Men’s College Results
Ohio Valley Conference Championship: Little Rock dominated with a 45-shot victory. Bryant finished fourth, and Chad Correia (Norton, Mass.) finished T32. Results
Atlantic 10 Championship: Richmond won the A10 title by 10 shots. University of Rhode Island finished fourth, and Aidan O’Donovan (Somerville, Mass.) fired a final round 67 to climb to ninth place. Tyler Bruneau (Concord, Mass.) finished 20th. Results
MAAC Championship: Iona won the title over runner-up Sacred Heart. Fairfield finished in fourth and Merrimack was eighth. Brendan Zinck (Melrose, Mass.) finished 33rd for Merrimack. Results
American Athletic Conference: Charlotte took home the title, which was to be expected as they are the only top-25 team in the conference. Aidan Emmerich (Swampscott, Mass.) finished T45 for Temple. The Owls were 11th in the team portion. Results
Conference USA: Trevor Drew (Tyngsborough, Mass.) finished 25th, and his Western Kentucky team finished 6th in stroke play. They missed out on match play by four shots, as the top four teams qualify. Results
NESCAC Championship (D3): Williams won the D3 NESCAC Mens’ Championship at Fox Hopyard in Connecticut. They leapfrogged Tufts in the final round with a 6-over par score, beating the Jumbos by 15 shots on that day and beating them by 13 for the win.
Individuals from Massachusetts who competed:
Tufts
Brendan Roy (Sterling, Mass.) 4th place
JP Noone (Weston, Mass.) 13th place
Nick McCabe (Hingham, Mass.) 40th place
Trinity
Aidan Monahan (Winchester, Mass.) 11th place
Bates
Sean Resnick (Walpole, Mass.) 48th place
Colby
John Kinsley (Scituate, Mass.) 23rd place
Owen Finnerty (Winchester, Mass.) 49th place
Jeevan Adand (Shrewsbury, Mass.) 50th place
Men’s College Results
Big 12 Championship: Molly Smith finished 44th, and her UCF team took third place. Results
Big East Championship: Isabel Brozena (North Reading, Mass.) helped Xavier win the Big East Championship by 22 shots. She finished second in the individual event behind her teammate Madison Reemsnyder. Reemsnyder was impressive with a 7-under par for a nine-shot win. Providence finished in 7th place to wrap up the program’s first year. Results
NCAA Women’s Regionals Announced - May 11-13
The NCAA Regionals are the final stop before the NCAA Championship. They are held at six sites around the country. 12 teams and six individuals compete at each venue. The top five teams in each region advance to the National Championship. The lowest-scoring individual who isn’t on a qualifying team will also advance to the National Championship to compete for the individual national title. Here’s the full rundown of teams.
New England Connections:
Quinnipiac will play as the 12th seed in the Ann Arbor Regional after winning the MAAC.
Molly Smith (Westford, Mass.) and her UCF Golden Knights are also in the Ann Arbor Regional as the 3 seed.
Isabel Brozena hopes to help 10th-seeded Xavier advance out of the Louisville Regional.
Harvard’s Vanessa Zhang qualified as an individual and is headed to the Tallahassee Regional.
Carys Fennessy (Dover, N.H.) will compete for the College of Charleston in the Louisville Regional.
U.S. Senior Open Qualifying
Fifteen players made it through Local U.S. Senior Qualifying at Salem CC. | Mass Golf Recap
Here are the players who qualified.
Amateur Golf
U.S. Women’s Four-Ball: Shannon Johnson (N. Easton, Mass.) and Megan Buck (N. Easton, Mass.) will compete this week at Daniel Island Club in Charleston, S.C. from May 2-6, 2026. The duo has won the last six Mass. Women’s Four-Ball. They shot 70 at Weston GC to qualify. Also in the field from Massachusetts is Maya Palanza Gaudin (East Falmouth, Mass.). Gaudin is a former Drive, Chip, and Putt winner. She’s 16 and the older person in her pairing. She’s playing with Alexa Phung from New York, who is a two-time Drive, Chip, and Putt champion. | Tee Times
Other upcoming events:
Big East Championship: May 2-4 | Providence, UConn | CJ Winchenbaugh, Carson Erick, Alan Rose III (Georgetown), Max McColgan (St. John’s) | Live Scoring
Computer Merchant Cup: May 2-3 | Wintonbury Hills GC | Bloomfield, Conn. | Tee Times
Hendricken Invitational: May 4 | Warwick CC | Warwick, RI | Information
Mass Open Qualifying: Four sites host Mass Open Q this week. | Information
Plugs
A little behind-the-scenes video of my Titleist ball fitting at Vanguard Golf last week.
Mass Four-Ball Delivers Drama
Chris Gatcomb and Shane Walsh shocked the world with a playoff victory over Matt Parziale and Herbie Aikens. Both teams played stunning golf over two chilly, windy days at Waverly Oaks and Indian Pond. They each shot 12-under par, two shots better than Alex Jeffers and DJ Hynes.
Gatcomb and Walsh teed off at Indian Pond at 7:52 am for the second round and posted their 12-under total before Parziale and Aikens teed off at Waverly Oak at 12:30 pm. It seems like the target score was set, so Parziale and Aikens went hunting.
They finished birdie-birdie to card a 63. Parziale shot a bogey-free 64 on his own ball (yes, a four-ball 64 is a little different than a stroke play 64, but still…)
A competitor in the field texted me to say that Parziale’s round might be one of the best in the state’s history, given the winds, brisk temperature, and what was required. The final birdie on the 9th hole stands out. It played as the hardest hole on the course, relinquishing just six birdies over the course of the two days.
Gatcomb notched a bit of his own history; he made a hole-in-one on the 13th at Indian Pond in the second round.
In their post-round interview, Gatcomb said that he and Walsh “zigged and zagged.” That seems to be the case; looking at their cards, it was a pretty balanced attack. The hole-in-one and the birdie on 18 by Walsh, along with the steady pars on 14 and 15 with the excitement that had preceded it, were crucial to getting into the clubhouse at 12-under par.
The teams met on the 18th tee at Waverly Oaks for a playoff. It was interesting to see Parziale posting Grass League content on his IG Story. He’s been out in Arizona competing and will head back to the southwest to continue playing in the league.
Given the fact that Walsh and Gatcomb had been waiting around, Parziale and Aikens likely wanted to warm up in the clubhouse as their opponents hit a few shots to loosen up after their long wait.
They tied the hole with pars the first time, but on the second playoff hole, after Parziale just missed a long birdie putt, Gatcomb knocked in an 8-foot birdie putt in the dying light to clinch the win.
It was the second playoff loss in this event for Parziale and Aikens in the last three years. They lost to Nick Maccario and Andrew DiRamio at New Seabury in 2024.
On the flip side, Gatcomb had never played in a MassGolf Championship before. He and Walsh started playing together a few years ago and decided to sign up this year.
With a little googling, a stunning story about Gatcomb emerged. He’s from Connecticut and joined the Coast Guard. He played some golf representing the Coast Guard. According to the Patriot All-America website, “in January 2017, Chris suffered a sudden cardiac arrest, and would not be here today without the fast efforts of his fellow coasties, and an AED that delivered the shock to defibrillate his heart.”
Feels like that might make an 8-foot birdie putt to win a tournament feel a little less stressful.
The winning team made quite an impression; they set the tone for an exciting year of MassGolf Championships. Shane Walsh is back on the course this Monday at Kernwood in a Mass Open Qualifier. He’ll tee off at 11:40 am.
Some other thoughts as I followed the Four-Ball from home:
Gotta give the first round leaders, Michael McCormack and Zachary Georgantas, a shoutout. They shot 64 at Waverly Oaks and had people wondering if they might do what Weston Jones and John Broderick did in 2021 - win as junior golfers. They shot 75 in the second round, but a fun overnight leader.
Ben Balter and Ben Knott had a solid defense of their 2025 title. They shot 68-69 (-6) to finish T16.
St. John’s Prep always seems to pump out competitive athletes, and Terry Manning and AJ Bodnar teamed up for a solid T10. Bodnar is a member of the class of 2027, and Manning was named the 2023 Salem News Golfer of the Year and graduated in 2024 from The Prep.
Granite Links (13) and George Wright (12) were the most represented clubs in the Four-Ball.
The average score at Waverly Oaks was 74.63. Indian Pond was almost three shots harder at 77.14. The ninth played as the hardest hole at Indian Pond. It’s a 432-yard par 4, and it only gave up six birdies as compared to 111 bogeys. It played to a stroke average of 4.6. At Waverly Oaks, the par-5 13th played as the toughest hole with a stroke average of 5.44. There were just 27 birdies carded on the 13th over the two days. A true par 5! You can find the course stats here.
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When I’m not golfing…
I’m reading…
Very much enjoying The Keeper by Tana French.
I’m listening to…
I saw an interview with Guster this week, so I decided to give them a listen this week. Loved them in college. You can just start with Parachute, hit play, and rip through all their albums.
I really enjoyed this No Laying Up episode where Tron makes his Dream 18.
I’m eating…
Gochujang Buttered Noodles is one of my favorite things to make. Easy and delicious.
I’m watching…
We finished Trust Me: The False Prophet on Netflix. Incredible, haunting stuff.
