Headline: Bay State Residents Tommy Parker & Kevin Silva Along With Rhode Island's Tyler Cooke Are Headed to the 2017 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship
For Immediate Release: August 23, 2017
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Tommy Parker |
Pittsfield, MA — The 37th playing of the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship is scheduled to begin the second week of October, and we now know that at least three Massachusetts natives will be in the field, following Wednesday’s sectional qualifier at Berkshire Hills Country Club.
With a 2-under par 70 mark, 30-year-old Tommy Parker, of Thorny Lea Golf Club, earned medalist honors to advance to his first ever U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship.
Click here for complete results from the Berkshire Hills CC qualifier.
New Bedford’s Kevin Silva carded a 1-under par 71, while Tyler Cooke of Rhode Island shot an even par-72 to round out the top three competitors who will advance to the USGA Championship Proper, taking place at Georgia’s Capital City Club from October 7-12.
“It’s very exciting. It was a fun day,” said Parker, a Boston resident who will be making his second appearance in a USGA Championship Proper. “It means a lot, especially when you get the taste of one [USGA Championship Proper], it’s kind of what you think about every year. You just want to get back. The USGA does such a good job with the events and it’s always one of the top goals of the summer to qualify for these. I’m looking forward to it."
In 2008, while a collegiate player at Florida’s Stetson University, Parker finished T129 at the U.S. Amateur Championship with a two-round score of 74-74-148 (+8). That year’s Amateur Championship was held at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club in North Carolina, only a few hundred miles away from where he’ll be returning nine years later.
Parker, who finished 10th at last year’s Massachusetts Mid-Amateur Championship, opened up play with a birdie on the 560-yard, par 5 2nd hole - the longest hole at Berkshire Hills Country Club - which enabled him to get out ahead of the 50 competitors in the field.
"On the front nine, it was pretty simple,” he said. "I made a lot of greens and made one birdie and no real mistakes. Just a lot of pars.”
After making the turn and finding himself still in contention, Parker admits that although the card showed much of the same as the front nine – 8 pars and a birdie - the means to how he got there was in fact different.
"We made the turn and it was a little bit of a different story,” said Parker. “I had some loose shots on the back nine. I had a couple up and downs and a few 10-footers for par that kept the round together and it ended up working out.”
The former First Team All-Scholastic Sun Conference player Parker added a birdie on the 17th hole to increase his count to two on the day and paved the way for him to finish atop the leaderboard.
In addition to Parker, Silva and Cooke, J.C. Guthrie (Shirley, MA) and David Szewczul (Farmington, CT.) netted first and second alternate spots, respectively.
Massachusetts natives Parker and Silva joins 35-year old Mansfield resident Ryan Pelletier of Pawtucket Country Club, who qualified for the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship on Monday at Fairfield Country Club (Connecticut) with a 1-over par 71, which earned him co-medalist honors.
Wednesday’s Championship qualifier was the 17th of 64 scheduled between August 15 and September 14. The MGA will be hosting its second of two U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship qualifiers on Monday, August 28 at Framingham Country Club. Sixty eight of the 84 competitors in that field reside in Massachusetts.
Entries for the US Mid-Amateur Championship are open to amateur golfers who will have reached their twenty-fifth birthday by October 7, 2017 and have an up-to-date Handicap Index® based on ratings for men not exceeding 3.4 under the USGA Handicap System™. A Handicap Index must be issued from a “golf club” (as defined in the USGA Handicap System Manual) which is licensed to use the USGA Handicap System. The USGA accepts an up-to-date handicap issued from the international body of golf that would be equivalent to a USGA Handicap Index® within the prescribed limit for entry into the Championship.
For more information on the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, visit USGA.org.
