By: Steve Derderian
sderderian@massgolf.org
FALMOUTH, Massachusetts (June 12, 2025) – Steven DiLisio made the kind of putt you dream about, the kind that changes everything.
As golden hour settled over Sacconnesset Golf Club on Thursday, co-leader Xavier Marcoux stood 180 yards away, watching across the water. DiLisio was on the 16th green, staring down a slippery 50-footer that crept back toward the hazard. He left the flagstick in, just for good measure. Good call. To his amazement the ball caught the pin and dropped to the bottom of the cup, giving DiLisio the lead for good in the 115th Massachusetts Open and, with it, his first professional victory.
While Marcoux had a chance to force a playoff with a 12-foot birdie bid breaking right to left on the 18th, it just missed the edge, and DiLisio got the nod with a final-round 3-under-par 69 for a scoreline of 69-73-69—211 (-5).
Six years after winning the Massachusetts Amateur at The Country Club in Brookline, the Swampscott native became the first Massachusetts player since West Roxbury’s Joe Harney (2015) to win the Massachusetts Open. He also added his name to an elite list, becoming just the eighth golfer ever to win both state titles.
“That’s really cool,” said DiLisio, a 27-year-old former Duke University standout. “Somebody told me that walking up to get the trophy. It’s a cool honor, joining some pretty special names, and it’s really exciting, kind of just taking it all in right now.”
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Before the final round got started, DiLisio had 10 holes of golf to play Thursday morning to finish out Round 2. He was three strokes off the lead (-6) set by Marcoux and playing in the group ahead of him.
Though he was incredulous after a pair of putts on the 9th and 10th sat right on the edge and didn’t drop, he finally got them to go at the right time. After a clutch up-and-down from the bunker on the long par-3 13th, DiLisio clawed into contention with an 8-foot birdie on 14, then the huge breakthrough two holes later with his dramatic bomb on 16. He called it “a little bit of luck” but admitted it came after a week of steady putting that had finally started to pay off.
“I hit a lot of good putts that just missed,” he said. “But I feel like I had a really good sense of speed… I kind of kept telling myself they were going to fall. Then they did.”
The win didn’t come easy, DiLisio played 54 holes over three weather-rattled days. He said he stayed grounded by focusing on whatever stretch he was in, trying to keep each one under par. He nearly let it slip with a miss on 18 he thought might cost him. It didn’t.
“I think the difference today for me was just putting,” he said. “I think it’s just a few putts went my way. And 54 holes with all this weather, it very easily could have gone Xavier’s way too. It’s one shot, and I’ve had it go that way for me too.”
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Marcoux spoke candidly about his career to this point following his round Wednesday, saying the early returns of being a pro weren’t what he had aspired to. While he kept that same candor after the conclusion Thursday, he couldn’t have viewed the outcome more positively.
“I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction,” said Marcoux, who graduated Rutgers last year, placed T3 in the 2024 Mass Open, and earned a stint on the PGA Tour Americas. “Golf’s been beating me up pretty good recently, and just having some success and knowing that I can have success without my A game, and I don’t need to be perfect, it’s huge going forward, and take this stuff and move forward.”
And one thing’s for certain: he knows how to fight. Even as the competition closed in, Marcoux finished the day with 13 consecutive pars. Even if his tee shots found the rough or fescue as often as the fairway, he faced a bevy of par saves between 3-10 feet, and he made all of them.
“I think my short game has really turned a corner recently,” said Marcoux, who credited an equipment change inspired by the world’s No. 1. “I just switched to that putter, maybe, like three weeks ago, I was playing with a blade. I saw Scottie Scheffler switch to that exact putter [Taylormade Spider], and it seems like I can’t miss anything inside 10 feet. I leave myself in good spots, thinking my way around, and not feeling like I’m forcing anything.”
Reigning Massachusetts Junior Amateur winner Josiah Hakala (Northern Spy Country Club) played his way into the final group, thanks in part to a bogey-free opening round of 68. Being three strokes off the lead, he not only had a chance to win the low amateur but take home the title outright. However, chip-in on the par-4 12th was his lone birdie of the afternoon, giving the rest of the field a chance to catch him.
Teeing off on the 10th hole one hour prior, 2024 Massachusetts Mid-Amateur champion Jake Ratti (Wollaston Golf Club) got a dream start to his round, with a tap-in birdie on the 10th and hole-out for eagle from 115 yards on the par-5 11th for a closing round of 3-under 69 and his best finish in a Mass Open (T8 overall, 72-76-69–217).
“That was a good jump start to the round, and then just held on from there because the wind only got stronger,” said Ratti, 27, a Plymouth native and a longtime caddie at Boston Golf Club. “It was tough. It just feels really good to be able to put some really solid rounds together and actually place well in tournaments.”
For complete coverage of the Massachusetts Open Championship, visit MassGolf.org or follow Mass Golf on Facebook, X, and Instagram at @PlayMassGolf and by using the hashtag, #MassOpen
