Short Grass, Big Decisions

+ News, Notes, and weekly favorites

Author

Sean Melia
May 09, 2025

Hey Everyone,

A lot to get to this week. Golf is humming in the Bay State. Tons of results to share, so let’s skip the pleasantries and get into it.

News and Notes

Pro Golf

🏌️ I wrote about Michael Thorbjornsen’s tough spring last month; you can read it here. Since then, he’s ripped off some powerful performances (I think I might need to write 2k words on the Celtics 3FG struggles, maybe that will help?) Thorbjornsen earned a spot in this week’s Truist Championship at Philadelphia Cricket Club through the Aon Swing Five. It’s his first Signature Event, and he shot one-under par in the first round and sits T55. Leaderboard

🗽 The LPGA is playing Liberty National this week. Megan Khang shot 73 (+1) and Alexa Pano shot 74 (+2). Leaderboard

College Golf

🧀 Julia Imai (Brookline, Mass.), who is a freshman at Wisconsin-Stout, shot 78, 77, 83 to finish eighth in the PGA Works Championship at Whistling Straits. Results

🏆️ Rebecca Skoler helped the University of Virginia reach the National Championship. Virginia finished third in the Charlottesville Regional, and Skoler finished 32nd.

Molly Smith (UCF) and Isabel Brozena (Xavier) will not play in the National Championship. UCF finished seventh in the Charlottesville Regional, and Xavier finished 10th in the Columbus Regional. Brozena had an incredible opening 65 and finished in 18th place. Smith finished in ninth place individually.

After winning the Ivy League Championship, Vanessa Zhang (Harvard) finished 14th as an individual in the Columbus Regional.

Amateur Golf

🥇 Three Mass Open Qualifiers happened this week.

Kernwood CC: Professional Matt Baran shot 69 (-1) to earn medalist honors. 13 players in all earned a spot in the Mass Open. 11 amateurs, including Kernwood member Christian Emmerich and Holy Cross junior Matt Williams, booked their spot at Sacconnesset Golf Club. Results

Charter Oak CC: 18 players earned spots in the Mass Open at Charter Oak CC. JR Robinson (Whitinsville, Mass.), Ferdinand Mueller (Storrs, Conn.), and Clark Robinson (S. Winsor, Conn.) tied for medalist with even-par 71. Results

Ocean’s Edge: High School Senior Max McColgan (Lincoln, Mass.) made nine birdies and shot 65 to win the Mass Open qualifier at Ocean’s Edge. Sean Magarian, a URI Gradute Student, and professional Brendan Hunter, the 2016 Mass. Amateur champion, shot 66. In all, 17 players made it through. Results

🇺🇸 USGA Qualifiers

🏌️ Peter French (Franklin, Mass.) and his two new hips are 36 holes away from a spot in the U.S. Open. He shot 70 to earn medalist honors at GreatHorse. Scott Kalamar (Bethlehem, Penn.), Christian Emmerich (Swampscott, Mass.), and Diego Saavedra (Puerto Rico) all survived a 5-for-3 playoff. Quite a week for Emmerich; he (as stated above) also qualified for the Mass Open. MassGolf has the recap.

🧹 Salem CC hosted a 36-hole U.S. Women’s Open qualifier on Monday, May 5. Canadian Celeste Dao nabbed the lone spot with rounds of 72-71. It was a comfortable final few holes for Dao who was four shots clear of second place. It’s the fourth time Dao has come to Massachusetts and earned a U.S. Women’s Open berth. Very impressive. Kaitlyn Doe (Waban, Mass.) was the low finisher among the Massachusetts golfers. She shot 78-75 to finish in fifth place. MassGolf recap.

Looking Ahead

🏌️ Two Massachusetts teams will tee it up in the U.S. Women’s Four-Ball this week at Oklahoma City Golf and CC: Shannon Johnson (North Easton, Mass.) and Megan Buck (North Easton, Mass.) along with Maddie Smith (Westford, Mass) and Lillian Guleserian (Westwood, Mass.). Tee Times

🏆️ The Mass Four-Ball is this week at Shaker Hills CC and Marlborough CC. Marlborough CC has never hosted this event. Shaker Hills CC co-hosted with Mount Pleasant in 2007. Colin Brennan and Evan Harmeling won as teenagers. Harmeling is now a pro, and Brennan will tee it up with Tommy Parker this week. Tee times.

🧑‍🎓 The Men’s NCAA Regionals are next week from May 12-14. Ryan Downes (Longmeadow, Mass.) and John Broderick (Wellesley, Mass.) are both part of the Vanderbilt roster. They are the No. 3 seed in the Amherst Regional at Poplar Grove….

Holy Cross senior Nolan Schuermann (Ohio) won the Patriot League individual title and will compete as an individual at Poplar Grove. So will Big East Individual Champion Alex Heard (Boca Raton, Florida) from UConn… Joey LeNane (Dedham, Mass.) will tee it up for NC State; they are the No. 11 seed in the – Urbana (Ilinois) Regional at Atkins Golf Club… Emil Nielsen (Wellesley, Mass.) was part of the Santa Clara team that reached the WAC Semi-Final. They are the No. 8 seed in the Reno Regional at Montreux Golf and Country Club.

Plugs

👂️ I recapped my trip with The Golf Trip Guys. They organized their inaugural trip to Hilton Head with 16 players. Listen here and Watch Here.

🏝️ I created a video about my visit to Farm Neck GC in early April.

Short Grass, Big Decisions

I watched my ball roll up to the edge of the green, stop, and roll down to my feet. I was 35 minutes into my 2024 Mass. Mid-Am qualifier at Gannon GC, and suddenly things were moving quickly.

The ball settled back into the grass bunker near where it had just started its short journey on the right side of the 11th green.

I looked at my bag, thought about grabbing a wedge, and decided the putter was still the optimal choice.

My putter swing was bigger than the first attempt, but not big enough. The ball took a glimpse at the green and decided to return, once again, to my feet.

One more big swing, the ball crested the slope and tumbled onto the green. Two putts later, and my head was spinning. A triple-bogey seven on the 11th hole, my second of the day, put me in a blender.

That train-wreck triple stuck with me — and it came rushing back to mind when I started talking short grass with two architects: Mark Mungeam and John Sanford.

In early April, I walked Farm Neck GC with Mungeam as he worked on redesigning portions of the course’s back nine.

Sanford showed me around the CC of New Bedford as the club undergoes a big project this spring.

Short grass was a theme in both of my visits, and it sparked the memory of my Gannon GC malfunction last summer.

If Gannon’s 11th green was protected by rough instead of that deep bunker with short grass, I might have plopped a wedge onto the green and had a chance at par. Instead, my wedge weakness (at the time…I’m getting better!) was exposed. And instead of exposing the leading edge to the middle of the ball, I elected to putt.

Short grass creates both options and the possibility of disaster. Long rough can be challenging, but it’s one-dimensional.

Mungeam and Sanford are trying to utilize short grass around the greens.

On the 14th hole at Farm Neck, a bunker sits in front of the green. It used to have rough on the left side of it, and now, it’s all cut short. Mungeam also removed a bunker from the back left.

14th green at Farm Neck

In addition, Mungeam took away a bunker on the left side of the 15th hole and replaced it with a chipping area. It leaves players with a bailout area now when the wind is blowing hard off the left and there’s a pond on the right side.

At CC of New Bedford, Sanford added a cool feature in the back of the first green. We’ll leave the cart path on the right side for another day.

CC of New Bedford’s first green with a chipping area long left.

From ground level, the chipping area is below the putting surface, and I’d imagine most players will putt from there.

The view from the back of the first green.

The strategy of these spots on the golf course makes for better golf and allows the better players to hit a variety of shots while the higher handicapper can roll it, use a hybrid, or try and be a hero.

Even after the triple that launched me into the sun, I’ll take that grass bunker over shaggy rough any day. At least it gave me options — even if I used one of them three times.

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When I’m not golfing…

I’m reading…

🏀 I love that “Roundball Rock” is coming back. Love that John Tesh came up with the melody, called his home phone, and hummed it into his voicemail so he wouldn’t forget it. ‘Roundball Rock,’ NBC’s beloved sports anthem, returning to network’s NBA coverage next season

🏈 Tom Brady says he regrets doing the Netflix Roast… I guess that means Tiger Woods won’t do one…

I’m listening to…

🎶 Haim has a new album coming out called I Quit. A few singles have been released. They’re a fun group.

I’m eating…

🍲 We’re about to start a kitchen renovation, so we’re working through pantry items and stuff in the freezer. We’ve deployed ChatGPT to help with recipes. We made a delicious lamb stew kinda thing. It’s great to plug in our ingredients and get a recipe.

I’m watching…

🏡 Go check out Your Friends and Neighbors on Apple TV.

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