By Steve Derderian
sderderian@massgolf.org
FRANKLIN, Massachusetts (August 6, 2025) – You push, or lug, your cart up the hills, legs tiring, bag swaying. It’s an uphill climb, literally and figuratively, and what lies ahead is anything but guaranteed, but you keep moving. That’s junior golf. No caddies. Nobody reading putts. You hold the flag while your opponent lines one up, then step into your own shot without hesitation.
As the format in the 107th Massachusetts Junior Amateur Powered by KOHR Golf turned to match play Wednesday at Franklin Country Club, the pace never slowed. No time to overanalyze the last shot, just right to the next.
Sixteen players teed it up in the morning. By mid-afternoon, just four remained, and they will square off at 8 a.m. Thursday morning to determine a champion.
Among them was Thomas Constantine, who knows every inch of this course and used that knowledge to rally back and eventually close out two tight matches on the 18th hole. Up one in the morning against Peter le Gassick (The Kittansett Club), the six-year Franklin member chipped from just off the front edge, nearly dropping it, to win the match. He returned to that same front tier in the afternoon, reaching the green in two and clinging to a 1-up lead, much to the delight of club members and friends lining the hillside fairways.
All day, their phones were out as cheers followed good shots. The host club had one of their own to follow, and everybody knew it.
“It means a lot to represent my hometown and home course in the same tournament,” said Constantine, who shot 5-under-par 137 in stroke play to earn the No. 2 seed.
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It still wasn’t an easy path for Constantine, who found himself 3 down to Patrick Friel (Oakley Country Club) just six holes into the match. Down by 2 at the turn, he dialed up some aggressive lines to wrestle back control of the match. After tying it on the 13th, Constantine got bold on the par-5 15th, making a birdie to take the lead for good.
“Most people don’t go for that,” Constantine said. “I was able to hit a good hybrid off the tee, and I had about 270 yards, and I put it front edge with a 5 wood.”
Constantine won’t just have familiar faces in the crowd, but in his opponents as well. The Xaverian Brothers High School standout will go up against teammate Michael McCormack (Sacconnesset Golf Club) in the semifinals Thursday morning and could possibly face another, Christopher Morrow (The Milton-Hoosic Club), in the afternoon’s final match.
And then there’s Wellesley’s Aarav Lavu (Nehoiden Golf Club), who continues to take meaningful strides in his game each year. The former Drive, Chip & Putt National Final runner-up won the 2022 Massachusetts Young Golfers’ Amateur and was previously the youngest in the field at the Mass Amateur. This year is his third bid for the Mass Junior Amateur title, and it’s his deepest run yet.
“It’s surreal. My main goal has always been to make match play and just see what happens from there, but I came in this week with some high expectations and playing some good golf and looking to see what happens,” said Lavu, who defeated Michael McGrath (Country Club of Wilbraham), 3&2 and Kyle Harsh (White Cliffs Country Club), 2&1, in his matches to advance.
Lavu’s course management was sharp all day, disciplined off the tee, hitting fairways, and clubbing down when the moment called for it.
“On the corner around 12-13, you just want to hit the fairway and hang on for your life,” Lavu said. “There’s a lot of other ones when you’re in attack mode. This course has a lot of teeth, but you can easily get after it.”
In the semifinals, Lavu will face Morrow, another player who met the moment, not intimidated by the course nor its representatives. He took down Franklin’s Tyson Laviano in the morning with a clutch par save on the final hole, then returned in the afternoon to eliminate Maxx Zides, the 15-year-old home club upstart, who had upset medalist Max McColgan (Nashawtuc Country Club) earlier in the day.
Zides had the crowd, but Morrow held the composure.
“We definitely had a lot more people cheering for the other guy,” Morrow said. “So I just had to stay focused.”
In the morning, Morrow saw his 4-up lead at the turn drop to 1, but he had enough to close it out. That calm mindset carried him through a nervy finish. Needing a par to close out the match on 18, Morrow duffed a chip but regrouped, pulled putter, and it just had enough to trickle downhill to two feet, giving him a short slider for the win.
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This is the first time McCormack has made it to match play, and he’s wasted no time making it count. After a 2&1 comeback win over Cael Duggan (Hopkinton Country Club) in the morning, McCormack carried that momentum into the afternoon, winning five of the last six holes to defeat Colin Gleason (Barnstable Golf). Even though he said he didn’t feel great about his swing at times, it came together when he needed it most.
“I trusted myself and knew something good was gonna happen down the stretch,” McCormack said. “I made a good amount of putts today and a couple good up and downs.”
With teammates Constantine and Morrow also advancing, the semifinal field has a little extra meaning.
“They’re both really good players, and they motivate me to get better as a golfer,” he said. “It’s fun to see us all in the mix right now.”
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8-Christopher Morrow def. 16-Maxx Zides, 3&2
Christopher Morrow set the tone with birdies on the first couple of holes and never trailed against Franklin standout Maxx Zides. After a birdie on the 10th to return to 2-up, both players played par golf through the par-3 14th, but Morrow hit his approach with close range on the 15th, while Zides made bogey. On the par-3 16th, Zides was unable to make his 12-foot birdie putt, and Morrow two-putted for the victory.
13-Aarav Lavu vs. 5-Kyle Harsh, 2&1
Aarav Lavu made four birdies on the front nine (3, 4, 7, and 9) for a 32 as he led by as much as 4 up in the quarterfinal matchup. Kyle Harsh got a couple back with birdies on holes 12 and 13, and despite a clutch two-putt to tie the hole on the par-5 15th, Lavu matched him the rest of the way with par, getting the final concession on the 17th hole to prevail.
2-Thomas Constantine vs. 7-Patrick Friel, 2-up
After trading double bogeys to open the match, Friel pulled ahead with birdies on holes 5, 6, and 8. Thomas Constantine got it back to 1-up with a birdie on the 10th, and a pair of bogeys by Patrick Friel on 12 and 13 opened the door for Constantine. With 270 into the green, Constantine got to the front edge with his second shot and made birdie to take the lead.
14-Michael McCormack vs. 6-Colin Gleason, 5&4
Michael McCormack made a birdie on the par-3 4th to take the early lead and took the 9th with a par to go 1-up again at the turn. McCormack moved to 3-up with a birdie on the par-4 12th and closed out the match on the long par-3 14th by the pond when Gleason was unable to save par and extend the match.
16-Maxx Zides def. 1-Max McColgan, 4&3
Franklin member Maxx Zides knocked off the top-seeded Max McColgan, a St. John’s commit, tying the match with his first birdie on the 6th hole and going 2-up on the 10th with a birdie. McColgan hit into the water on his opening tee shot but won the next two holes to take the lead. After losing the 3rd with a bogey, Zides made par or better the rest of the way. The match ended on the 15th when McColgan had to take an unplayable off on his tee shot. After his fourth shot landed in the penalty area, and with Zides just 110 yards out about to play his third shot, he conceded the match.
8-Christopher Morrow def. 9-Tyson Laviano, 1-up
Christopher Morrow made a nervy par save on the final hole to hold off Franklin member Tyson Laviano. After hitting his second shot to the pin high left just off the green on the 18th, Morrow proceeded to flub his chip. Refocusing on his next shot, his put from just off the green just snuck over the ridge to about 3 feet, and pumped his fist as his par putt dropped to end the match. Laviano made birdie on the 10th to get within 3 and was 1 down with three to play, but he wasn’t able to tie the match.
13-Aarav Lavu def. 4-Michael McGrath, 3&2
Aarav Lavu, a former Massachusetts Young Golfers’ Amateur champion, won the fifth and sixth holes with birdies and won the 8th and 9th to take a 3-up lead into the turn. Despite a double bogey on the 13th, Lavu made par on all three par-3s, giving him the edge over Michael McGrath, who qualified for match play at this year’s Massachusetts Amateur.
5-Kyle Harsh def. 12-Trey Hanson, 5&4
Kyle Harsh won the first hole with a birdie and never looked back to earn his first Mass Junior Amateur match play victory. Harsh, who played in the 2024 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship with fellow match play qualifier Patrick Friel, also knocked down a birdie on the par-3 8th, taking a 5-up lead into the turn.
2-Thomas Constantine def. 15-Peter le Gassick, 1-up
In a matchup featuring steady play throughout, Franklin member Thomas Constantine held off Kittansett standout Peter le Gassick, with Constantine nearly chipping in for eagle on the par-5 18th to close out the match. Despite being down by 2 on the 17th, le Gassick made a 4-foot birdie putt to bring it to the 18th. Constantine got a lucky break on the 17th tee as his tee shot rebounded off the stone wall into the fairway, but his approach was short of the green.
7-Patrick Friel def. 10-Gray West, 3&1
Despite being down by 1 at the turn, Patrick Friel won the next five holes, including a birdie on the 11th, to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time. Friel, who played in the 2024 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship with fellow match play qualifier Kyle Harsh, also took the early lead with a birdie on the par-4 2nd hole.
14-Michael McCormack def. 3-Cael Duggan, 2&1
Sacconnesset member Michael McCormack made a 15-foot birdie on the par-4 17th to complete his comeback against Cael Duggan, a 16-year-old rising senior at St. John’s High School. Duggan took a 2-up lead on the 5th hole with a birdie, but McCormack’s birdies on the 7th and 9th helped him surge. McCormack sealed the match 2&1.
6-Colin Gleason def. 11-James Crispi, 2&1
Colin Gleason, a Barnstable High School standout, reached the quarterfinals for the second straight year, tying the match with a birdie on the par-3 14th and winning the next two with pars before closing out the match with a conceded par on the par-4 17th. Crispi, a Boston native, took his first lead of the day with a par on the par-5 6th.
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