Hey Everyone,

I’ve spent more time this week thinking about Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics than anything else.

I’ve been to hundreds of games since nabbing season tickets in the summer of 2016 before they signed Al Horford and drafted Jaylen Brown. I’ve watched Jaylen Brown and Tatum play together and navigate a flood of success and failure (maddening failure in some cases) over the years.

Never once did I think that the partnership would end this decade. Never once did I think that one of them would suffer a monumental injury that could alter the trajectory of a franchise.

Ugh.

Over the years, I have made a point to go to as many games as possible and rode the entire ride to the championship in 2024. I didn’t sell tickets to cash in. I didn’t take any of it for granted, but what I did take for granted was that it was going to last a lot longer.

Wednesday night’s win over the Knicks was unlike any game I’ve ever attended. On the walk over, Tiff said, “It feels like we’re going to a funeral.” A Knicks fan in Charlestown mumbled under his breath to us, “Knicks in six” which might be the most cowardly taunt in sports history that could come true.

Anyway, the Celtics showed a lot of guts on Wednesday night to stay alive. We’ll see what happens next, but never underestimate the heart of a champion.

News and Notes

Pro Golf

🏌️ Michael Thorbjornsen and Keegan Bradley both shot 68 in the opening round of the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. They are both T9 and four shots behind the leader Jhonattan Vegas. Leaderboard

🖊️ Shoutout to reader Eric Schlapak for pointing me in the direction of Bob Menne, who was a pro golfer from Gardner, Mass. He won the 1974 Kemper Open at Quail Hollow. Menne passed away in 2023, and here’s how the PGA Tour remembered Menne.

🌽 The Korn Ferry Tour hums along in the shadow of a major this week at Blue Hills Country Club in Kansas City, Missouri. The usual suspects are in the field from the Bay State. Leaderboard

College Golf

⚓️ Ryan Downes and John Broderick helped Vanderbilt finish in second place in the Regional Championship in Virginia; the Commodores will head to La Costa for the National Championship next week. Gordon Sargent, who already has his PGA Tour card and is a former No. 1 amateur in the world, didn’t make this roster. Downes finished in 6th place individually with rounds of 70-69-68 and Broderick shot 75-77-71 for a 64th place finish. We’ll see how the roster shakes out for Vandy heading into the National Championship.

🟣 Nolan Schuermann of Holy Cross shot 74-74-71 and finished T49 while competing as an individual following his Patriot League Championship.

🏌️‍♂️ Emil Neilsen finished his first year at Santa Clara with rounds of 77-78-79 to finish T66. His Broncos team was 12th in the Reno Regional… Joey Lenane and his NC State team finished in 13th place in the Urbana Regional in Illinois. He shot 74-73-76 and finished T56 to wrap up his junior year.

🏌️‍♀️ The 2023 Mass. Women’s Amateur Champion, Rebecca Skoler, tees it up for Virginia in the National Championship. The event runs from May 16-21.

Amateur Golf

🏆️ Ben Knott and Ben Balter won the Massachusetts Four-Ball by a shot over a trio of teams. The Four-Ball always has the awkward setup where teams aren’t repaired, so the winner can come from literally anywhere on the second day. In the case of Knott and Balter, they finished on the ninth hole at Marlborough CC. Balter stuffed a nine iron to about 18 inches, and that birdie made all the difference. Knott and Balter both play out of Weston Golf Club and have very different paths to this victory. Balter played in college at Wake Forest (pretty good!), while Knott was a baseball and football player growing up. That’s what makes team events so great. The leaders after the first round were firefighters Andrew Donovan and Peter Eleey. Here’s MassGolf with the full story on the 36-hole event.

🏌️ Shannon Johnson and Megan Buck reached the Round of 16 in the U.S. Women’s Four-Ball at Oklahoma City Golf and CC. They shot 68-70 to make matchplay as the No. 7 seed. They won their Round of 32 match 2&1 over Isabella Fernandez and Michaela Fernandez. Their run ended at the hands of Bella Dovhey and Sophia Dyer. Johnson and Buck were 1-up after 11 holes, and Dovhey and Dyer won hole Nos. 12, 13, and 16 to flip the match.

Qualifiers

🇺🇸 Jimmy Hervol, Kevin Blaser, Rich Berberian, Bryson Richards, and amateur Dylan Gallagher all shot 68 at Kirkbrae CC (Lincoln, RI) to nab the five available spots for U.S. Open Final Qualifying. Results

⛳️ 14 players locked up a spot in the Mass Open on Thursday at Pittsfield CC. Canadian professional Eric Banks earned medalist honors with a 5-under-par 66. Three amateurs were part of the group: rising Georgetown sophomore Alan Rose (Weston, Mass.), Eric Boulger (Walpole, Mass.), Garren Poirier (Vermont). Results

I am partnering with Red Rooster to give away one glove every week. This week’s post is about how to improve the PGA Championship. Freshest comment gets a fresh glove and a new Bay State Golf hat!

Click here and get involved….

Plugs

😑 I played Crystal Lake GC (Haverhill, Mass.) this week. It was… not my favorite. Premium Subscribers get to read the review before I post it on Instagram. They also get access to additional thoughts about each course. You can upgrade here (I have added a monthly option if you’d like to dip your toes into the experience). You can read my review Crystal Lake review here.

⛳️ It’s PGA Championship week, so Paul Burke and I made some very quick picks during halftime of the disastrous Celtics game four disaster. The back end of that podcast was recorded a couple of weeks ago because Burke spent a week on the Korn Ferry Tour as a caddie for his friend Evan Harmeling. Listen here.

I spent a morning at CC of New Bedford with golf course architect John Sanford. He took me around to see the extensive renovation of the course, which is slated to reopen in June.

Shaker Hills CC’s Par Fives Make an Impact

The beauty of playing in a four-ball format is that the risks are a little easier to take with a partner. Par fives are typically one area where a team can plan out an aggressive line of attack, which can lead to birdies and eagles.

Those holes can make the difference at the top of the leaderboard when the margins get slim and every shot really matters.

Over the years, par fives tend to play as the easiest holes on the course. This year, Marlborough’s three par fives, hole Nos. 8, 11, and 13, ranked 16th, 15th, and 17th, respectively.

Here’s what par-five scoring looked like in 2023 at Hyannisport Club/Bayberry Hills and in 2024 at New Seabury.

Since 2019, when these stats were first available, only four holes have ranked in the top 6 hardest holes on their respective course.

The Turner Hill/Ipswich CC event was an absolute bloodbath. The scoring average at Turner Hill was 80.91, and it was 79.27 at Ipswich CC. It was cold, dry, and very windy. A nightmare combo on those two courses.

Shaker Hills packs a punch

Shaker Hills is the first course since 2019 to have two par fives among the hardest 11 holes on its course.

The monstrous 5th hole had a scoring average of 5.29 and was the 11th hardest hole at Shaker Hills over the two days.

The 15th hole was the 6th hardest hole on the course. The stroke average was 5.46; it yielded just one eagle and 27 birdies. The field also made 25 double bogeys on the 15th this week.

The only hole with a higher stroke average was the 11th at Turner Hill (5.62). I’d imagine if players had lovely weather at Turner Hill, that hole would not have played as difficult. That week, there were 33 birdies on the 11th and 45 double bogeys.

Scoring conditions at Shaker Hills were pretty ideal.

So what makes the 15th so hard?

The tee shot is blind, and the landing area is tiny, especially for longer players. Miss a little bit right and the ball can easily disappear, never to be seen again. I’d imagine some pairings might have lost both tee shots, thinking the first one was safe.

The lay-up is not easy either because it’s tight and slopes hard from right to left, and a lot of players have the ball above their feet. The green is guarded by a hazard, so trying to reach the green is two is rather perilous.

Again, a team could very easily make the mistake of thinking a lay-up was safe when it wasn’t, and the teammate took a risk that ended in disaster.

In 2007, when Colin Brennan and Evan Harmeling won the Mass. Four-Ball, they made an eagle on the 15th hole at Shaker Hills.

Brennan said that he was “in his pocket.” He and Harmeling chatted about what Harmeling should do. He was 250 yards out, and Brennan walked away thinking Harmeling was going to lay up until he heard the ball fizz past his ear and end up on the green. One shot later, and the teenagers were celebrating an eagle.

Once again, the beauty of four-ball exists in the risk and reward.

On the flip side, the first round leaders, Andrew Donovan and Peter Eleey, arrived at the 15th hole at four-under par. They shot 65 (-6) in the first round at Marlborough CC. They were leaking some oil, but were still in the hunt. They had two par 5s remaining along with a scorable par 4 (17th). An eagle like Harmeling’s 18 years ago might have gone a long way.

Instead, they made a 10.

Over the course of the two rounds, there were 96 bogeys, 25 double bogeys, and 12 “others” on the 15th hole.

That’s staggering.

Ben Knott and Ben Balter played the 5th and 15th in nine total shots.

“15 was one of the most critical holes for us,” Knott wrote in a text message. “Balter hit two in the hazard, once trying to lay up and then with a wedge shot. I went for it, landed on the bank, and bounced into the hazard. Getting up and down to save par was massive. Our foursome went combined five over and lost five golf balls on the hole.”

It took Christian Jensen and Mike Roulic eight shots to complete those two holes.

The other runner-ups, Mark Turner and Colby Mitchell, played it in even par, while Conor O’Brien and Rob Linehan played it in one-under par.

Pulling back a bit, the winning score this year was 133, the highest since Matt Parziale and Herbie Aikens shot 134 in 2016 at Framingham CC and Hopkinton CC. In 2011, Ryan Riley & Herbie Aikens shot 134 at Cohasset GC and Hatherly CC.

The trend, especially since MassGolf changed how they filled their field in 2023, was that scores were getting lower, even when the weather stunk. Tommy Harrison and Steve Tasho Jr. shot 126 in 2023, and Nick Maccario and Andrew DiRamio shot 128 in 2024 at New Seabury.

Those two par fives at Shaker Hills are probably related to the higher winning score. All four par fours at Shaker Hills had a scoring average over par, which is also a rarity.

It’s hard to say whether a hole or a couple of holes make or break a tournament outcome, but in a format built for bold plays and bold personalities, it’s only fitting that the par fives stood their ground.

WORMBURNER COMICS

When I’m not golfing…

I’m reading…

🌶️ Jalapeno in your white wine? It might be the drink of the summer. It probably won’t be mine… NYTimes.

🧠 It’s insane to think how quickly A.I. has become part of our lives. As a former teacher I often think about how I might have used it and how I would have had to fight it. A.I. Will Destroy Critical Thinking in K-12.

I’m listening to…

👂️ Plain English tackled pop culture last week: “Is Pop Culture Worse Than Ever?”

I’m eating…

🌮 Grilled Steak tacos.

🍕 We had Domino’s after the Celtics game on Wednesday. Their thin crust Hawaiian is awesome.

I’m watching…

🚘️ We started the Karen Read documentary on Max. I have consumed very little of this case. Have a general sense, but have no real opinion. I know she paid for this doc., so…

🕵️ Missing You on Netflix is a good English thriller.

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Bay State Archives

• 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

   

• "On Course" New England Journal Podcast

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• Amateur Golf Podcast

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