MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA — A day that began with a seven-man playoff to achieve match play and which featured a bushel filled with decrease seeds pulling upsets ended with the cream of the crop nonetheless left within the a hundred and fifteenth Massachusetts Amateur.
Led by high seed John Broderick, the sphere was trimmed from 32 to eight after two thrilling rounds of match play on the Essex County Club.
Broderick’s day was comparatively straightforward in comparison with a few of his rivals as he closed out Frank Vana 3 & 2 within the opening spherical earlier than ousting Brian Higgins on the seventeenth within the Round of 16. For the sophomore at Vanderbilt, who shot a course document 62 on Tuesday, going through a participant the caliber of Vana supplied an opportunity to focus proper again in on the duty at hand.
“A player like Frank can just wear you down. You can’t beat him with pars. I learned that real quick,” Broderick mentioned. “I kind of treated today as I was already playing well so I just wanted to keep it going.”
Broderick’s opponent within the quarterfinals on Thursday can be No. 25 seed Jake Shuman, who upended Collin McMahon-Shea and Collin Fitzpatrick in convincing vogue.
Shuman’s two wins had been a part of a day filled with surprises proper from the get go as seven decrease seeds superior out of the spherical of 32, with the largest shocker coming as Joseph Lenane shocked No. 2 seed James Imai in 20 holes.
Lenane was two down with three holes to play however gained the sixteenth and seventeenth to sq. issues earlier than a par on the twentieth gap bought the job executed.
In all, 10 of the 16 opening spherical matches reached a minimum of the seventeenth gap. With two others, Ethan Whitney’s win over Bill Drohen and Joe Harney’s eliminating Jacob Finard, needing further holes.
Harney and Lenane stored the celebration going for the decrease seeds as they marched into the third spherical after by no means trailing of their matches towards Andrew DiRamio and former Amateur champ Matt Parziale, respectively.
No. 14 C.J. Winchenbaugh and No. 13 Jack Boulger additionally marched into the quarterfinals. Boulder did it in spectacular vogue, eliminating No. 4 Ricky Stimets 7 & 5.
The solely different single digit seeds left within the bracket are No. 5 Matthew Naumec and No. 7 Ryan Downes as each of them needed to go the gap in spherical one earlier than almost doing the identical within the second 18 of the day.
Downes used a chip in on the sixteenth to take a 1 up earlier than Whitney birdies 18 to ship it to a nineteenth gap the place Downes hit a wedge to 10 ft from the appropriate fescue and canned the out to win. Naumec eradicated Weston Jones.
Source: www.bostonherald.com