QUECHEE, Vermont – Less than a week after advancing to the opening round of match play at the Massachusetts Amateur Championship, North Palm Beach, Florida’s Charlie Dubiel once again finds himself in the mix of top competition on the leaderboard of a major regional tournament. The 20-year old Dubiel, a rising junior on the Cornell University men’s golf team, carded a 5-under 67 in the opening round of the 90th New England Golf Association’s Amateur Championship Tuesday at The Quechee Club’s Highland Course to hold a one-stroke lead ahead of Wednesday’s second round. The Old Sandwich Golf Club member tallied six birdies on the day to edge Wannamoisett Country Club’s Jeffrey Giguere for the leaderboard’s top-spot.
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Opening his play on Quechee’s back-nine Tuesday morning, the former Phillip Exeter standout Dubiel carded par on each of his first four holes before carding his first birdie of the day on the par-5 14th hole. After a setback on the subsequent 15th hole that saw him move back to even, Dubiel rebounded with a second birdie on the par-4 16th hole to move back to under par for the round – a position he would hold for the remainder of the round.
After making the turn at 1-under, Dubiel tallied an additional four birdies on his second nine to continue building on his lead, including on the par-5 second and fifth holes, the par-3 eighth hole and the par-4 ninth hole, respectively.
Dubiel looks to become the first Massachusetts-based competitor since 2016 to win the New England Amateur Championship, when Gloucester’s James Turner earned the feat at Connecticut’s Hartford Golf Club. Since the inaugural tournament in 1926, 35 competitors from Massachusetts have been crowned an NEGA champion.
Giguere, of Providence, Rhode Island and a rising senior on the Middlebury College men’s golf team, registered six birdies to two bogeys to finish his first round at 4-under 68, including a streak of four straight birdies from Holes 3-6 on the Highland course.
2017 NEGA Amateur champion Bobby Leopold, of Rhode Island, completed his first round T3 on the leaderboard with Weston’s Nick Cummings, who will play collegiately for Boston College beginning this fall. Both sit at 3-under par 69.
Bryston Richards (VT), Jason Liu (Conn.), Jordan Burke (Mass.), Drake Hull (Conn.), Tyler Cooke (R.I.), Xavier Marcoux (Mass.) and Caleb Manuel (Maine) round out the top-10 spots on the leaderboard.
Round 2 of competition will begin Wednesday morning beginning at 8:00 a.m. Following the completion of Wednesday’s second round, the top-40 competitors and ties will advance to Thursday’s third and fourth rounds.
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