Hey Everyone,

This past weekend, we were out in Williamstown, staying in an Airbnb just steps from Taconic - one of my favorite courses in any state. I didn’t play it. Instead, I poked around for a new course to play, and I found Forest Park in Adams.

It’s a nine-holer in the shadow of Mt. Greylock with tiny greens, blind shots, and quirk. While not playing Taconic hurt my heart a little bit, considering I walked past it every morning during my morning walk with Murphy, paying $20 to find a new course that was a delight, it solidified my belief that you can make a worthwhile trip to Williamstown for 45 holes of golf between Taconic GC, Waubeeka, and Forest Park.

I also played Segregansett Country Club on Wednesday, more on that club in the meat of this newsletter.

Have a great weekend.

Michael Thorbjornsen shot 70 (E) and sits T39 after the first round. Keegan Bradley shot 69 (-1) and is T24. Peter Uihlein shot 73 (+3). | Live Scoring

Corales Puntacana Championship

Davis Chatfield shot 69 (-3) and sits T29. It’s been a good run of form for Chatfield, as he finished T5 in the ISCO Championship last week.

Aidan Emmerich won the Mass Amateur championship match 8&6 over Zac Georgantas. | Here is a recap of the day and week in general.

Here are the five other state amateur winners in New England:

Eli Spaulding successfully defended his title with a wire-to-wire victory at GreatHorse. He shot 64-73-68 (-11) and held off a charge from Caden Piselli that included a six-under-par stretch from holes 10-15. Spaulding stemmed the tide with three straight birdies on holes 14-16. Emil Neilsen also finished T2. | Results

Dan Boisvert joined me to talk about his day out at GreatHorse following the final group. | Listen here

Ryan Downes is in Atlanta competing in the Elite Amateur Series event. He shot 71-73 in the first two rounds. Play was suspended on Thursday, as of right now, Downes is one shot outside the cut line. There is a chance the line moves and he gets to play more golf. | Live Scoring

At Old Chatham Golf Club, Maddie Smith shot 88-81 and missed the cut for match play. This is Smith’s final summer as a junior. She will head to Memphis in the fall. | Live Scoring

Katie Cullen shot 73-74 at Tatnuck CC to beat defending champion Erin Sullivan. | Results

Matthew Cornuet (69), Matthew Bailey (70), Joseph Iacona (71), Malachy Maloney (71), Mark Dwyer (73), Jeremy Hurst (74), John Taggart (74), David Garber (74), Kyle Manni (75), Tim Healy (75), Michael Murphy (75), Mike Hellinger (75), Harvey Ford (75), Jacob Raye (76), Brian Williams (76), Jim Forsgard (76), Brian Faherty (76), Brian Cannata (76), Brendan Brazel (76), Jon Nahas (76), Mitchell Barrington (76), Jake Donovan (76), Nicholas Beati (76), Micheal Decosta (76), David McCowan (76), Max Feeley (76)

16 players from Massachusetts will tee it up in the 18-hole final qualifying at Boston Golf Club on Monday, July 20.

Matthew Naumec (Boston), Matt Williams (Hingham), Emil Nielsen (Wellesley), Joseph Lenane (Dedham), Ryan Scollins (Wrentham), Hunter Stone (Marblehead), John Broderick (Wellesley), Patrick Kilcoyne (Belmont), Matt Parziale (Brockton), Mike Calef (West Bridgewater), Aidan O'Donovan (Somerville), Danny Frodigh (Westwood), Ryan Kelley (Shrewsbury), Matthew Johnson (Boston), Patrick O'Leary (Milton), Matthew Cowgill (Weston)

Six New Englanders are in the field at Saucon Valley CC in Pennsylvania. The tournament starts on July 20. 64 players make match play after 36 holes of stroke qualifying.

The golf boom that started in 2020 with the pandemic is often connected to public golf. More people took up the game, and people who already had the bug were playing even more.

Suddenly, locking up a tee time required planning, an alarm, and a little bit of luck. In some cases, public tee times became so valuable that public courses started offering memberships for golfers looking for an inside track on weekend mornings.

Any discussion about private golf and the pandemic typically goes to bloated waiting lists and exorbitant initiation fees.

However, there is another set of private courses that were on the ropes through the 2010s as golf participation waned.

Cohasse CC in Southbridge, Mass. was a nine-hole gem that saw members flee as the course conditions dipped. It’s now a semi-private course that is being rehabbed by new ownership.

Segregansett Country Club in Taunton, Mass. is another course that was living on the edge. At one point, they had 79 paying members, and their Membership Board was paying all their dues upfront to keep the lights on. During 2020, Segregansett opened its tee sheet for public play to fill the course and make a bit of money.

I played Segregansett this week with the club’s treasurer, Jonathan Langfield, president, Paul Riendeau, and longtime member Carlos Costa. They are incredibly proud of the course and the club in general. Over the last six years, they have rehabbed the club, brought new members into the fold to make the club viable, and made meaningful changes to the course.

As I posted some pictures to my Instagram Story during the round, three trends popped up:

When one thinks of Taunton, golf does not immediately come to mind. It’s the same with Southbridge and Cohasse CC. They are industrial, blue-collar towns. Segregansett considers itself a blue-collar club.

Brae Burn, Woodland, The Country Club, Charles River, Essex, and Myopia have history and a captive audience, and they also have decades-long waiting lists.

Segregansett just completed a $1.6 million irrigation project, which has enabled Superintendent Tate Asselin to focus on other tasks. The course is in excellent shape this season.

The course’s history dates back to 1893, the club opened a course in another location before opening nine holes on the present property in 1908 then it expanded to 18 holes in 1965. It’s obviously seen the ebbs and flows of the game’s popularity and has had to make do during hard times.

The course doesn’t have any non-golf activities. The members are there to play golf, enjoy a few drinks, and maybe exchange a bit of cash after the round. There’s something different about clubs that only have golf. Every member joined the club for the golf. It makes it easier to pump money into the course when times are good and more manageable when money gets tight.

Of course, not having other activities can make it hard to attract families looking for a pool, tennis courts, and other amenities. So the only people interested in a membership are golfers looking to escape the public golf carousel at a reasonable price, with a very small waitlist.

As I played Segregansett, other courses crossed my mind. The ones that feel tired and overgrown and, frankly, ignored by the owners or membership. Those clubs are losing members, and their reputations are slipping. In some cases, those courses have been lost.

However, at Segregansett, they have survived the fallow seasons and have a leadership and membership that care.

Now the club is on an upswing, and the members, new and old, see a bright future.

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