By: Richard Rapp
rrapp@massgolf.org
You can’t do much better than the back patio at Oyster Harbors Club. With an eye on Cotuit Harbor’s gentle current and tethered boats bobbing on anchor, order a dark pint and give it plenty of time to properly settle, leaving a nice clean frothy cap.
The scenery from the front patio of the clubhouse is pretty good, too. A narrow practice green, which was jammed with players jockeying to get a few more nervous reps in before commencing the afternoon wave, spills down a dip of tightly mown grass to the back of the 18th green.
At around 12:30 p.m., a trio of shots came in from the right side of the fairway to a left pin and settled within a 10-foot circle around the hole. First was 2023 champion David Pastore (Stamford, CT), who left his putt one rotation short, right in the jaws. He tapped in for a 6-under round of 66, good enough for a two-shot lead at 8-under. Next was Steven DiLisio (Salem Country Club), whose approach checked up neatly, leaving a 7-footer up the slope, which he calmly brushed in for a 2-under round of 70. The defending champion is tied for fifth at 3-under. Finally, three-time champion Jason Thresher (West Suffield, CT) guided home his downhill 4-footer to match Pastore’s 66 and stay in the hunt at 2-under overall.
It felt like a statement from the past champions to their onlooking afternoon competition, who had a firmer and windier course to look forward to. On a golf course that hasn’t yielded many low scores, they got around in a combined 14-under on Wednesday morning, tallying 19 birdies.
The cream, if my opening metaphor didn’t fully land, was rising to the top.
One more 66 was posted later in the afternoon, and that came from yet another past champion, as 2013 winner Evan Harmeling (TPC Boston) propelled himself into a tie for third (5-under), notching seven birdies, to one bogey.
Pastore put together an unflashy, but clinical round of 66 by taking advantage of the par 5s (he birdied all four of them) and avoiding bogeys (none of those). He’s found the challenging set-up at Oyster Harbors to be a refreshing contrast to the distance-focused setups he faces on the PGA Tour Americas. The strategic element, it seems, unlocks something in Pastore’s game.
“I usually play well in windy conditions like this. It’s just more of a grind. Difficult, tougher course where you’ve really got to think about every shot, how the ball is bouncing…I like a course where you have to really think about every shot.”
Donald Ross’ much lauded putting surfaces can get downright mean in championship conditions, with the greens growing ever faster and firmer throughout the windswept days. Stroll around the grounds for a few holes and you’ll watch uncommitted chips roll meekly back down slopes, overly aggressive approaches bound away down steep backside runoffs, and downwind putts speed to unsettling comeback distances.
As Pastore describes it, conquering the greens starts all the way back at the tee. “All the greens kind of have these run-offs and just every green is almost half the effective size of the total size of it. So, really puts a lot of premium on your second shots because you got to be in the right spot on the green. And if you’re not, the ball can roll off, and then you’ve got these difficult chips and sand shots that you can easily, make bogey or worse. That goes back to the tee shot. So, just it’s nice to play a course with a little bit of firmness because it really makes the tee shot more difficult, which makes the second shot, and then, you know, putting is also difficult on these sloped greens that are pretty fast. So, it tests everything in your game.”
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There are plenty of paths to 66, and Evan Harmeling went the carefree, joie de vivre route. “So, the par-5, what was that, 14? Sometimes you just have to like hit a shot to get things going. Like, I decided to hit a slice 3 wood into that hole that probably wasn’t the smart play, but just to have some fun with it. And didn’t hit that great of a shot, but that kind of thing. And even on 18, trying to, like, slice the driver around the corner, just… trying to have a little fun out there.”
Harmeling isn’t grinding it out on mini tours like many members of the field. The key has been keeping it light with his friend and caddie Chris LoDolce, talking about things besides golf. When asked about the game plan for tomorrow, he deferred to Chris. “I mean, straight vibes,” reported Chris.
Pastore holds a two-shot lead entering Thursday’s final round. He will be joined in the last group by Ryan Celano (The International). The former Florida Gator posted rounds of 70 and 68, finishing off round two with a birdie on the difficult par-3 10th. Jared Nelson (Rutland, VT) sits at 5-under after rounds of 69-70. Nelson, a former UConn Husky, won the New England Amateur in 2022, and will join Harmeling in the penultimate group. Four players finished the day at 3-under, 5 shots off the pace.
The race for low amateur is a tight one, with Oyster Harbors’ Alan Rose at 1-under along with Alex Jamieson (Marshfield Country Club) and Matthew Costello (Segregansett Country Club), and three more at even par. The last amateur to win the Mass Open was Kevin Quinn in 1999, a streak that looks likely to continue.
The 116th Playing of the Massachusetts Open returns to Oyster Harbors, a course the Open hasn’t been played at since 1942. Although that is impressive in itself, there are many factors that make these tournaments possible, especially host site staff.
Weston Neff is the Superintendent at the Oyster Harbors Club, and his resume is quite impressive. Growing up in Vermont and eventually earning his Associate’s in Turfgrass Management and Bachelor’s in Environmental Design at UMass-Amherst, he is no stranger to golf in the Northeast. Upon graduation, he went on to become the Assistant Superintendent at Wheatley Hills Golf Club in East Williston, New York, a par-72 Devereux Emmet design on Long Island.
From there, Neff would follow his boss Steve Rabideau to Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, NY, to host some of the game’s highest-level golfers. In 2016, he would have his hand in the execution of the 2nd U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, and just four years later, the 2020 U.S. Open, which was planned and played out during the COVID-19 pandemic. That tournament was won by Bryson DeChambeau, who was the first and only player to complete a major championship at Winged Foot under par.
If it isn’t obvious by now, Neff is no stranger to championship golf, and in-fact loves it “I love championship golf. This is just another notch in the belt, so it’s exciting to be a part of it,” he said. “What drew me here [to Oyster Harbors] was the excitement of what golf is, you know, it’s a championship golf course with the aspirations of bringing back the Mass Open, and you know, my career has led here, it’s a very special place.”
**USGA Boatwright Intern Aidan McLaughlin authored this report.
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