Hey Everyone,

This week, I played course 174 on my quest. Patriot Golf Course in Bedford, Mass. was once only available to service members and veterans. In 2021, it opened to the public, and it’s a solid nine-hole course with a driving range and big practice green.

Next week, I’ll be out at Plymouth CC for the Hornblower on Friday and Saturday for a video project. The field is strong. Here are the tee times.

Let’s get to this week’s new and notes.

CJ Cup Byron Nelson: Michael Thorbjornsen shot a 64 (-7) in the first round at TPC Craig Ranch. Davis Chatfield started on the 10th hole. He shot 31 on his back nine, including an eagle on the par-4 first hole en route to a 68. Taylor Moore leads after a 62 (-9). Live Scoring

It seems that Michael Thojornsen enters every tournament looking to move up the World Golf Rankings and earn a spot in a major. After this week, the Open Championship will invite the top 50 players in the world who aren’t already exempt. Last week, the U.S. Open took the top 60 in the world. Thorbjornsen missed out on the top 60; he’s ranked 70th right now. So he’ll need an excellent week (a win?) to jump into the top 50. The week after the Canadian Open is another top 50 Open Championship cut-off.

Visit Knoxville Open: Chris Francoeur shot 67 (-4), and Rob Oppenheim shot a 69 (-2) in the first round at Holsten Hills CC. Live Scoring

Open de Ecuador: Cole Anderson (Camden, Maine) shot a 70 (-2) in the PGA Americas. Anderson won the Peru Open last week. Live Scoring

Trophy Hassan II: Out in Morocco, Jason Caron shot 71 (-2)… yes, it’s a par 73. Live Scoring

Mass Open Qualifiers:

The final two qualifying events were held for the Mass Open. Here’s who qualified. | MassGolf Recap

Orchards (Par 70): Thomas Hurley (69), Jared Nelson (69), Markus Pierre (70), Carson Erick (70), Julian Ragosa (71), Louis Kelly (71), Paul Pastore (71), John Cammarano (72), Peter Le Gassick (72), Clark Robinson (72), Anthony Cavotta (73), Max McColgan (73), Eddie Lainhart (73), Matthew Costello (73), Evan Harmeling (73), Shaun Powers (73)

CC of Pittsfield: Chris Wiatr (65), James Imai (66), Collin McMahon-Shea (67), Brent Ito (68), Alan Rose (69), Ryan Skae (69), Kyle Gallo (69), Joshua Shepard (70), Braden Kiley (70), Mac Bredahl (70), Garren Poirier (70), Jeremy Bershak (70), Daniel Orourke (70), Jack Simon (70)

NCAA Regionals:

Division 3 Women’s Championship: Middlebury, Amherst, and Williams are all competing in the final round. They have played 54 holes, the field was cut after 36, and and then again after 54 holes. Suffolk missed the 36-hole cut. Mekhala Costello (Canton, Mass.) is in 12th place for Amherst. Live Scoring

Division 3 Men’s Championship: Collin McMahon-Shea (Lexington, Mass.) shot a closing 65 to climb to 12th place in the D3 National Championship. He was competing as an individual for Dickinson after winning the Centennial Conference. He shot 70-73-76-65 (-3). Illiinois Wesleyan won the team title, and Sebi Aliaga of Claremont Mudd Scripps won the individual title at 10-under par. Results

National Golf Invitational: Rhode Island is one of ten teams teeing it up in this post-season event from May 22-24 at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa, Arizona. (Note: I cannot find a link for any scoring).

Norfolk County Classic: Matt Johnson shot 69-69 (-2) to win the NCC at Presidents GC in Quincy by two shots over Brian Higgins. Here is a recap I wrote on Monday.

Mass Senior Four-Ball: Greg Badger and Kevin MacIntyre won the title in a playoff over Bruce Barboza and Jason Cook. | MassGolf Recap

Kingman Cup: In the ISL Championship, Tabor took home the cup with a score of 11-over par. Milton (+14) and Belmont Hill (+15) rounded out the top 3. Pan Piriyaphan of Tabor shot 69 (-3) to win the individual title and the Patty Whitney Award. Donovan Riley from Milton Academy shot 71, and Mike Letendre shot 72.

Belmont Hill and Tabor shared the regular season ISL title, and Donovan Riley earned Globe All-Scholastic honors.

ISL All-League goes to the top 9 and ties in the Kingman Cup, along with two players, Cole Daniello (Thayer) and Lucy Wang (Middlesex), who were selected by a coach’s vote:

Kingswood-Oxford Invitational: 28 teams from Massachusetts and Connecticut teed it up in the KIT at the CC of Farmington. Hotchkiss won the team event with a total score of 17-over par. Salisbury and Taft both shot 30-over par to finish T2. St. Lukes (+33) and Deerfield (+34) round out the top five. Walker Sventy from Hotchkiss earned the double, he shot 69 (-2) to win the individual title. Will Lord, who will play at UConn in the fall, shot 70. Former Connecticut Amateur champion Austin Perkins, who is heading to play for Florida in the fall, shot 71 for a third-place finish.

The Mass Four-Ball Champions Shane Walsh and Chris Gatcomb joined me for a podcast to talk about their win. Listen here | Watch here

I also made a Gift Guide of Golf Courses.

This week, another drip of information was leaked about the PGA Tour’s 2028 schedule. Big markets are back in the discussion as the tour tries to figure out a way to build out a meaningful schedule that can attract big crowds in places like Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, Nashville, San Francisco, and Seattle according to Sports Business Journal.

Of course, seeing Boston on the list sparks the imagination, until it becomes clear that TPC Boston is the only suitable venue. It hosted the PGA Tour from 2003-2020. It has the space, the parking, and the course, while not really my cup of tea, is at least battle tested in recent years.

The truth is the ball goes too far, and the required infrastructure is too vast to visit another course. Even The Country Club needed another golf course, Brookline GC, for parking and media trucks.

The men’s game has outgrown nearly every course in Massachusetts.

But here’s what I’m more interested in.

Where could the women go if TPC Boston doesn’t want to host two professional events a year?

Craig Kessler, the new LPGA Tour Commissioner, talked about the importance of venues on the No Laying Up Podcast in March.

If Kessler really wants to go to great venues, there are dozens of courses that would be incredible to watch Megan Khang and Nelly Korda play instead of TPC Boston.

Last week, Lottie Woad won the Queen City Classic with a score of 12-under par on a 6400-yard golf course. Most venues are 6,300-6,500 yards.

There are a lot of courses that could be considered at that distance, and there are plenty of people who would want to walk the grounds of a private course that they’ve never had access to.

Kessler also knows that interesting courses can boost TV viewership, too. “What we also know from all the research we've done on viewership is that fans tune in not just to see players, but to see courses,” he said.

One thing I noticed while attending the FM Global Championship at TPC Boston was how spread out everything was. The holes are in their own little sections, but the walks from greens to tees for the women were also long. There wasn’t anywhere to hang out and watch multiple holes. You either had to keep moving or wait and watch one group play a hole at a time.

At some older courses, the women could play tees that allow for better viewing because they’d be close to the previous greens. Fans could hang out at the back of a green and watch putting and tee shots.

The challenge of convincing a club's membership to relinquish their course in the summer is a big ask, though. They don’t just lose it for a week. The women’s game is a little less intrusive as far as tents and grandstands and overall intrusion, but it’s still a strain on the course.

It’s all part of the calculus of finding a venue and a sponsor and all the stuff that we don’t think about when we plop down on the couch to watch golf on a Sunday. The TPC system is the turnkey option, but Kessler has clearly stated the LPGA wants to deliver a different experience.

Kessler also discussed the noise in big media markets, noting that there is always something else to do. And in Massachusetts, summer days and weekends are gold. So, how do you attract people and make it worth their time to spend a day at an event? A cool venue might be one way.

This will all be worth keeping tabs on in the coming years. Will the PGA Tour pick Boston as a city it wants to visit annually or biannually, and what does that mean for the LPGA Tour’s use of TPC Boston, and what other doors could it open?

Kessler seems keen on the idea, “So it (venues) for sure makes a difference, and it's why we're going to spend a lot of time in the coming years on course selection and course setup.”

Here’s hoping he’s able to follow through on those goals and bring the LPGA to a more interesting and dynamic course than TPC Boston.

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