The Muddy Middle of my Quest

+ News, Notes, and weekly favorites

Author

Sean Melia
June 06, 2025

Hey Everyone,

Another week in the books. It’s starting to feel a bit like summer. I unleashed my pale legs on the golfing world on Tuesday at Furnace Brook GC for a quick nine with Sean from The Golf Trip Guys.

It’s pretty incredible what they have done to the clubhouse there. It has a new massive restaurant with patio seating that overlooks the first tee. The pro shop is spiffy, and they have a simulator lounge with massive bays for lessons, fittings, and general use in the basement.

I’d imagine it will attract a nine-and-dine crowd. It’s a good model for golf these days. The course was in good shape and the greens were rolling nicely. Once the first tee box is finished off and grown in, it will be a stunning spot with views of the water and planes cruising overhead in and out of Logan Airport.

I also headed down to Seekonk, Mass. to play in the Community Cup at Ledgmemont CC last Saturday. We played a scramble, so the course is a bit scrambled (pardon the pun) as I reflect on the holes and the entire experience.

However, we did play well enough to qualify for the four-team playoff to decide a winner. Sadly, these events have become popular spots for people to shave a few strokes off their score, so Sonny, who organized the event, decided a playoff would be a good deterrent. It was a blast to hit shots in front of a small crowd. After one hole, three teams were still tied, so we headed to the 100-yard marker on the ninth hole and had a closest to the pin because daylight was short and the temperatures were dropping. I was booed for my poor effort, it was the first time I have been booed since college when a Colgate frat heckled players during the Patriot League Championship from their lawn…

News and Notes

Pro Golf

🏌️ Jason Caron and Brett Quigley are teaming up in the American Family Insurance Championship. Caron is a club pro on Long Island but grew up on Cape Cod. He is an incredible story, as he earned full status on PGA Tour Champions. He’s currently 13th in the Charles Schwab Cup standings. Live scoring

🌽 As usual, we’ve got four players in the field on the Korn Ferry Tour. The BMW Charity Pro-Am in North Carolina…live scoring

Amateur Golf

🏆️ Matt Parziale and Shannon Johnson teamed up to win the Mass. Mixed Four-Ball for the Stone Cup. They fired a 63 (-9) at Renaissance in Haverhill. Sue Curtin and Chris Herrick finished runner-up after shooting 66. MassGolf recap.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Hornblower champion Nick Maccario is in Scotland to play the St. Andrews Links Trophy. He’s one of seven players from the USA in the field. Live scoring.

⛳️ Mass. Amateur qualifying started this week at three different venues. The Championship is at GreatHorse from July 7-11.

🇺🇸 In U.S. Amateur Local Qualifying at Blue Hill CC, nine players secured spots in the 18-hole sprint of Final Qualifying in July. Here’s the MassGolf recap.

Plugs

👂️ The Founder of Urban Golf Club, Marcos Baugh, joined me on the podcast to talk about the work he’s doing to teach kids about golf and financial literacy. Listen here.

🎥 I recapped my five rounds in May. A wet month meant not much golf. June is looking to be quite busy, though.

Bay State Golf is fueled by readers’ support. To celebrate reaching 1K subscribers I am offering a discount on the Support Tier and a discount on merchandise if that’s how you would like to support BSG.

🥂 Get $15 off the Supporter Tier ($35) for a year. Link here.

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Getting through the Muddy Middle of the Quest

For the first time during the quest, I feel the tension between trying to play good golf and trying to play many golf courses.

I have not played well this season. My scores are a bit high, and my handicap has climbed above the threshold to qualify for the Mass. Amateur and the Mass. Mid-Amateur. I missed both by .1 strokes at different points in the winter and spring when registration opened.

This feels like a waypoint along this journey. I’ve been eligible for the Mass. Amateur since I was in college, and once I turned 25, my handicap was low enough to qualify for the Mass. Mid-Amateur.

Playing new courses nearly every round is a handicap tax, and that’s fine. It’s a tax I’ve been paying and will continue to pay. Going low is hard on a new course, and it’s also really tough to grind out a score on an unfamiliar course when the game isn’t sharp. Having a home course also generates low scores a couple of times a summer because when the game is humming that groove can lead to birdies and good vibes.

I believe I’ve reached the “Muddy Middle” of this massive project. The excitement of starting something new tends to fade, but the prospect of finishing is so far off that it feels like it might never happen.

I remember when this would happen with my students. An idea would spark enthusiasm, but many times, they’d hit a wall and want to start over with a new idea that sparks that passion again.

It’s such an easy reset button to hit.

I’m not hitting a reset button.

Could I bowl in every bowling alley in Massachusetts?

Bay State Bowling has a nice ring to it, actually…

No! Of course not.

Could I visit every brewery in Massachusetts because Bay State Booze Bag could be kind of interesting…

Nope. My liver couldn’t handle it.

I’ve played 146 courses and have 200(ish) left on my quest. It was never going to happen quickly, but I am very much in the middle right now. Checking off a new course is a small step in this marathon. Course 147 might not feel much different than course 193.

There are still little moments of inspiration.

Last Sunday, I returned to Pine Meadows (Lexington, Mass.) to play with my childhood friend Phil and his son, Dylan. We hadn’t played together in a couple of years; they had joined me for a rainy day at Maynard CG to check off the 100th course on the quest.

After we finished the round in the setting sun, I sat in my car and put together my post-round gratitudes. Rarely do I write about my score or birdies or the shots I hit. Usually they cover the people I’m with, the weather we had, the conditions of the course, and health. They always make me realize how lucky I am to have this silly game in my life.

Over the last five years, I have reconnected with friends, made new friends, and passed through people’s lives whom I might never meet again.

I have had old memories dredged up as I walk a course I hadn’t played in 20 years, and made new memories with total strangers.

So while I am in the “Muddy Middle” right now, feeling so far away from the beginning and very far from the end, I need to remind myself that putting my head down and trudging through this project isn’t good. It isn’t the right way to do it, and it isn’t the way I want to remember it when I’m done.

So I’ll continue to write those gratitudes, and I’ll continue to look around and soak up this wild experience that has helped me meet new people and made me realize the kindness of others through invites and phone calls and encouraging words.

Sure, the handicap is going up, and I can’t play in some events. But I can still play golf. I can still walk with friends. And I can share this game with people in a meaningful way because I’m experiencing it in a new way.

And I’m looking forward to bringing you all along for the ride.

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When I’m not golfing…

I’m reading…

🇮🇪 My mom grew up in Mayo, Ireland. It’s not a place many consider integral to the D-Day invasion, but it was. This story about Maureen Flavin and her weather report from Black Sod Lighthouse in northwest Ireland might have shifted World War II.

  • “That same day, Eisenhower and his advisers were meeting at their base in England. James Stagg, a British military meteorologist, reported that, based on Ms. Flavin’s readings, bad weather was expected. He advised Eisenhower to postpone the invasion by a day.” - NYTimes

🤑 It seems amateurism is dead, at least how most sports fan have understood it… 8th graders trying to make a million bucks before high school? Sheesh.

  • “Ms. Coleman declined to say how much money her son had received so far, but she’s clear about her aspirations for him. ‘I’ll tell you what the goal is,’ said Ms. Coleman, a counselor in the District of Columbia’s public school system. ‘The goal is for him to reach a million dollars his freshman year of high school.’” NYTimes (Gift Article)

⛓️ Gen Z likes the idea of Chain Restaurants until they actually have to commit to eating at them on a regular basis or at all, really. Can Gen Z’s Nostalgia Save Chain Restaurants?

I’m listening to…

🎶 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is one of my favorite albums. It’s by this band called The Beatles.

🎙️ Bill Simmons and Pablo Torre go head-to-head about the Bill Belichick fiasco. Simmons called out Torre for taking the story a little too far. An interesting discussion. Listen here.

I’m eating…

😋 Nutella makes an incredible biscuit.

🦞 We cashed in a gift card at Prima in Charlestown and attended a Rosé dinner with a pre-fix menu. We had some insanely delicious dishes, including lobster carpaccio and a Cascatta strawberry cake.

I’m watching…

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 We started Dept Q on Netflix. A cold case show set in Edinburgh.

🏀 What a Game 1 of the NBA Finals… It seems that playing for the entire 48 minutes of a game is an actual skill.

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