2024 Mass Junior Amateur & Mass Girls' Junior Amateur - Round 2 Highlights - MASSGOLF

Rainy Day On The Cape Ends With Long Playoff; Brackets Now Set For Match Play

By Steve Derderian
sderderian@massgolf.org

SOUTH YARMOUTH, Massachusetts (August 6, 2024) – Looking out at the panorama at Bass River Golf Course and Bayberry Hills Golf Course, a colorful array of umbrellas could be seen at a distance like kites in the breeze at a nearby beach. With cloudy skies and looming rain, days like this on Cape Cod make vacationers balk at their intended daily plans.

But Tuesday, the mission was clear for those competing in the 106th Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship and Massachusetts 91st Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship — show up and play well enough to make it to match play. After two days of stroke play, Carson Erick (Boston Golf Club) and Lillian Guleserian (Blue Hill Country Club) locked up their respective top seeds. They will lead off the matches that begin Wednesday morning as all play shifts to Bayberry Hills. 

However, Tuesday required playoffs for the final spots in match play. While the 3-for-1 playoff in the Girls’ Junior was over in one hole, the evening saw 12 players competing for three spots in the Junior Amateur, just finishing before darkness. (Highlights on each below).

The 18-hole matches in the Girls’ Junior Amateur will begin at 8 a.m., and the Junior Amateur matchups will begin at 9:20 a.m. First round and quarterfinal matches will be played Wednesday, followed by the semifinal and final matches on Thursday.

Scroll down for complete highlights of each event, plus notes and video highlights from Day 2.

Online: Junior Results | Girls’ Junior Results | Junior Photos | Girls’ Junior Photos | Mass Golf Home

A lone gull flies over the 18th green Tuesday at Bass River Golf Course in South Yarmouth. (Mass Golf)

Girls’ Junior Amateur Highlights

It took some adapting to the elements, and it certainly wasn’t perfect, but Tuesday’s effort enabled Lillian Guleserian to capture a share of medalist honors in the Girls’ Junior Amateur for the first time.

Guleserian, a Penn State verbal commit who will soon begin her senior year at Westwood High School, shot 1-under-par 71 for a two-day total of 8-under 136. Guleserian made birdie on the first hole of the day and sank some clutch clean-up putts down the stretch, finishing with the same score as Isabel Brozena (Indian Ridge Country Club), who was playing the group behind. Guleserian gets the top seed since she finished playing before Brozena.

“It means a lot,” said Guleserian, who hopes to add more match play memories after making an ace en route to her quarterfinal win over Brozena during last year’s Mass Women’s Amateur at Dedham Country & Polo Club.

“My game is feeling really good right now and to be able to see that on the leaderboard and put up some good numbers feels really good.”

Lillian Guleserian is the No. 1 seed in the first year the Mass Girls’ Junior Amateur is using match play. (David Colt)

Even in pressure situations, Guleserian never seemed to waver or show a lack of composure. Despite chunking her tee shot on the signature par-3 18th over the marshland way short of the green, Guleserian got her pitch to the front of the green, leaving her in a safe spot to putt uphill. While she made bogey to leave the door open, Brozena’s well-struck shot got caught in the wind, found the left bunker, and she wasn’t able to get up and down.

Despite making four birdies on the front, Brozena had to rally after a bogey and double-bogey on holes 11 and 12. With Brozena and Guleserian neck-and-neck for the second consecutive day, Guleserian took notice and was able to 2-putt her way to birdie on the reachable par-5 17th (460 yards).

“I was 100% sure Isabel was going to birdie that one, so I knew I had to make something happen,” Guleserian said. “The first couple holes, I knew I could take advantage of because there are back-to-back par-5s, which I just did not play my best on, so I learned after that I have to adjust to the wind, definitely club down on a few shots, and I saw the improvement on the back nine.”

After the leaders finished, the race was on to see who would clinch the remaining spots in match play. Amanda Adams held the No. 16 seed. However, she wasn’t able to clean up a par putt on the 18th, forcing a 3-for-1 playoff with Bowdoin College commit Katherine Ing (Nehoiden Golf Club) and Adriana Eaton (KOHR). Eaton was the only player to find the fairway on the short par-4 1st hole, and she finished the playoff by making a birdie putt inside 8 feet to earn a first-round matchup with medalist Guleserian.

Other match play qualifiers include Julia Imai (KOHR Golf), who holed out on the par-4 8th from 100 yards using a 45-degree wedge to shoot 3-under 69, tied for the low score of the day. Annie Dai (Student Member/MIAA), the 2021 champion, did the same on the par-3 16th from behind the green to finish 5-over and earn a matchup with Kaitlyn Doe (Student Member/MIAA), who also shot 3-under 69 on Tuesday. Skylar Kotzen (Belmont Country Club) also turned on the jets late with birdies on holes 15-17, earning a first-round match with Jillian Johnson, daughter of Hatherly Country Club head golf professional Chip Johnson and Pamela Kerrigan-Johnson, former LPGA tour pro turned teaching professional.

There were also some division prizes to award for those just competing in the stroke play portion. Concord’s Nathalie Redmond (Student Member/MIAA) made birdie on the final hole to win the Junior-Mite Division (Ages 13 & under) with a two-day total score of even-par 74. She also won the Most Improved Award.

Meanwhile, Isabella Arone (Brae Burn Country Club) earned the Silver Division (Handicaps 10.2 & over) with scores of 79-81–160. Kylie Yoon (Student Member/MIAA) was most improved, tallying eight strokes fewer than the day prior.

Junior Amateur Highlights

Carson Erick’s group was held up before the start of play thanks to torrential rain that fell in the early afternoon. When play resumed, Erick missed the first green of the day. However, he chipped in for birdie and proceeded to make birdie on two of the next three holes to kickstart his second round. That put the defending champion in the driver’s seat throughout the day as he earned medalist honors for the first time.

“It was a great start to the day,” Erick said. “A little tough when you miss the first green, but I was super grateful to chip that in to start the day and keep the momentum going throughout the round.”

Erick, who has committed to Georgetown University, also made eagle on the 15th, putting him two strokes ahead of Josiah Hakala (Northern Spy Golf Club), who made it to the Round of 32 at the U.S. Junior Amateur and finished second overall in stroke play this week.

“I’m just grateful for how the week went,” Erick said. “I felt solid about my game going into it. Going to match play, anything can happen, it doesn’t matter who you’re matched up against. I’m just going to keep the same mentality.”

Hakala is looking to add another notch to a stellar season. In addition to his U.S. Junior Amateur run and victory in the PGA National Junior Championship, Hakala has sprouted up since two years ago when he made it to the semifinals of the Mass Junior Amateur at his home course and is now as significant a threat as anybody in the field.

“I like the golf course, first look at it today, wasn’t too shabby,” Hakala said. “The course is in good shape. It fits my eye nice, so I don’t think I’ll do anything different from today.”

Reese Jensen (Duxbury Yacht Club) recorded the best round Tuesday with a 5-under 67 to catapult himself into the third seed for match play. Jensen, who played on the 2023 New England Junior Amateur squad, grabbed a temporary share of the lead in the morning by making three birdies on the front nine, followed by three more on the back.

As stroke play was concluding Tuesday, the putting green at Bayberry Hills was more occupied than you would usually see in the 5 and 6 p.m. hours on a Tuesday. Several were lingering to see whether they’d be in the playoff or just to watch the ensuing action. What resulted was a massive 12-for-3 playoff to determine the final three spots advancing to Wednesday. It took three playoff holes (holes 10, 18, 10), but Sascha Robinson (Plymouth Country Club), CJ Winchenbaugh (Oyster Harbors Club), and Christopher Morrow (The Milton-Hoosic Club) prevailed.

Though he was playing in the third wave, Robinson earned the first spot by making the only birdie on the first playoff hole. He took driver over the trees on the right side, and though he was in the rough, he hit a perfect pitch inside 5 feet below the hole.

Winchenbaugh, the New England Amateur champion much more work to do, especially after leading through Round 1. Facing a must-make birdie putt up the hill on the 18th, he went through his routine and sent in right into the middle of the cup to move on with MacLeod and Morrow. With daylight fading, the trio went back to the 10th, where MacLeod found the trees and made bogey, opening the door for Winchenbaugh and Morrow to finish the playoff with pars.

Notes & Notable

  • Erick’s score of 11-under is the lowest stroke play since match play was reintroduced in 2018.
  • The cutline score of even-par is the lowest at the Mass Junior Amateur dating back to 2018. Last year’s 36-hole cutline at GreatHorse was 3-over-par.
  • Nathalie Redmond, the Junior Mite-winner, is one of three sisters who have competed over the past two days. Erika Redmond and Sophie Redmond, who are older by five and three years, respectively, played in the Championship Division. Sophie earned the No. 15 seed and will play Isabel Brozena in the first round.
  • Amanda Adams competed in the Girls’ Junior Amateur the week following her mother, Tracy Welch, who competed in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open. In June, Welch and Adams played in qualifying for the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Senior Women’s Open the same day at Captains Golf Course, just down the road in Brewster.

5 Big Things Video Recap

About Bayberry Hills Golf Course

Bayberry Hills is a popular municipal golf course set in the middle of Cape Cod in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, a stone’s throw from Route 6. The Geoffrey Cornish and Brian Silva designed golf course opened in 1986 and is operated by the town of Yarmouth in conjunction with Bass River Golf Course.

The Championship Course (The Winds & The Sands) has a healthy mix with four par-5s and four par-3s, playing to a par of 72 and stretching close to 7,200 yards (6,616 yards on Tuesday). On the east side of the property is the Old Tom Morris-inspired 9-hole Links course, which recently underwent a renovation (irrigation, bunkers, etc.). (More on that Wednesday).

This week, golfers in the field will face only one hole with water at Bayberry: the par-4 4th, 385 yards. After the tee shot, golfers must either go for the green or lay up to a small landing area on the left.

Bayberry has hosted several Mass Golf and USGA qualifying events over the years, including the 2023 Mass Four-Ball Championship and 2019 Mass Amateur Public Links, but this is the first time the course has hosted either the Junior Amateur or Girls’ Junior Amateur.

A look from the back of the 9th green on Monday at Bayberry Hills Golf Course. (David Colt)

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