By Steve Derderian
sderderian@massgolf.org
HAMPDEN, Massachusetts (August 20, 2024) – Layered in jackets and quarter zips for the early part of Tuesday’s final round at GreatHorse, players in the New England Junior Amateur Championship got a not-so-subtle nudge that fall is right around the corner.
But summer didn’t end in a shivering fizzle. In fact, quite the opposite.
On the boys side, CJ Winchenbaugh (Weston, MA) saw his lead rise and fade throughout the day. But with one hole to decide it all, he delivered Team Massachusetts its second straight boys team title. After rocketing an iron to the left side of the fairway on the final hole of regulation (par-4 7th), Winchenbaugh stuck his next shot in close and tapped in for birdie to edge Team Connecticut and defending champion Luke Stennett by one. However, his day wasn’t done as Josiah Hakala (New Ipswich, NH) also made birdie on the 7th to finish with an 8-under-par 64 to force a sudden death playoff between the two U.S. Junior Amateur match play qualifiers.
As expected, both stalwarts matched each other shot-for-shot on the first two playoff holes (Nos. 1 and 15). Then, with the entire field and coaches looking on from in front of the towering modern clubhouse accented with its sleek ledge stone, Winchenbaugh sank the winning birdie putt just inside 10 feet on the par-4 18th hole to prevail over Hakala and capped his junior golf days off in style.
“It’s awesome. I’ve been thinking about it all week that I really wanted to end my junior career with a win, especially in a tournament like this. It’s so much fun playing for your state,” said Winchenbaugh, who is off to Georgetown to start college this week. “I’ve played so much golf with Josiah. I know what he’s capable of doing. I told him before the playoff, ‘If I’m going to face anybody, I’d like to have it be you.'”
Carys Fennessy (Dover, NH), who has represented New Hampshire in the New England Junior ever since the girls division was added in 2019, also made things interesting at the end. But with a stellar up and down for par on the 15th and birdies on the 16th and 18th, she earned her first individual title in the event with a winning tally of 2-under 144 (72 both days).
“It feels good to get it done,” said Fennessy, a verbal commit to the College of Charleston. “I came in second last year, so it was something that was on my list of goals for the year, and I played some good golf coming in and got a good run on the first day.”
Another close finish led by a spectacular round of 2-under 71 on Tuesday by Olivia Williams (Cranston, RI) helped rally the Rhode Island girls to their second straight team title. Teammates Lily Dessel and Adriana Eaton shot 77 and 79, respectively, as Rhode Island won the tiebreaker, using the cumulative two-day score from the third player. (Girls’ team results were calculated using two best scores; boys’ best five out of seven).
The Massachusetts boys and Rhode Island girls squads defended their team titles in the New England Junior Amateur Championship at GreatHorse. CJ Winchenbaugh & Carys Fennessy earned the individual titles for the first time.
Team Mass: Gavin Lane, Carson Erick, Gunnar Moore,… pic.twitter.com/47xIP6vXmx
— Mass Golf (@PlayMassGolf) August 20, 2024
Low scores weren’t easy to come by Tuesday, as average scores for the boys were about 1.5 strokes higher on the second day. However, Sascha Robinson (Plymouth, MA), who is heading to Florida A&M this fall, shot Team Massachusetts best score of the day with a 2-under 70, four strokes better than the day prior. Robinson said he hit his driver well through the day despite the swirling winds. Though he started with a bogey on the par-4 5th, he made four birdies, including on the par-5 2nd, to record the best score of the day for his squad. He finished sixth overall (-1, 143) and posed for the winning photo with his teammates Gunnar Moore (Conway, MA), Max McColgan (Lincoln, MA), Carson Erick (Hingham, MA), Reese Jensen (Duxbury, MA), Gavin Lane (Boston, MA), and Winchenbaugh.
“We won it last year, so it was good to follow it up,” Winchenbaugh said. “Even if I didn’t win the individual [title], it’s still nice to win as a team.”
The summer of CJ is complete. CJ Winchenbaugh wins the boys division title of the New England Junior Amateur with this winning birdie putt on the 3rd playoff hole (No. 18.)
He takes home both the New England Amateur & New England Junior titles this year. #MassGolf #NEGA pic.twitter.com/H90BDr83Ip
— Mass Golf (@PlayMassGolf) August 20, 2024
Fennessy, the New Hampshire Women’s Amateur winner, got off to a promising start, shooting a 1-under 35 on the front nine. However, birdies were hard to come by after she made her second of the day on the 6th. Playing the short 15th hole, a 90-yard one-shotter that earlier in the day yielded an ace by Carley Iannetta (Falmouth, ME), Fennessy landed in the front bunker but was able to save par. Following a birdie on the 16th and a near miss on the 17th, she hit a third-quarter wedge about 3 feet below the hole and finished out one last birdie to become the first New Hampshire girls player to win the individual title.
“I definitely got a little ahead of myself,” Fennessy said of the middle portion of her round. “I was in a little bit of a birdie drought, so I went for a few [pins] that I probably shouldn’t have. But I knew coming in there were birdie holes.”
Carys Fennessy pours in one last birdie to capture the New England Junior Amateur title in the girls division. The Rhode Island girls win the team title, edging NH in a tiebreaker. #MassGolf #NEGA
Leaderboard: https://t.co/wIZRqckP1a pic.twitter.com/8NauRxcuIP
— Mass Golf (@PlayMassGolf) August 20, 2024
As for the Rhode Island girls, all three improved their Round 1 scores to deliver a second straight team title to the Ocean State. Olivia Williams, who won the Rhode Island Women’s Amateur and Girls’ Junior Amateur last season, had one of the biggest turnarounds in the tournament. After a 6-over 79 on Monday, she started Round 2 with a birdie on the 18th, played the front nine at even-par 36, and with a birdie on the par-4 16th helped pull Rhode Island into a tie.
Her teammate Lily Dessel (Barrington, RI), who also played in Fennessy’s group, also closed out the round with a birdie on the 18th to finish with a 77, two strokes better than the day prior. Fittingly, Adriana Eaton (Smithfield, R.I.) followed suit with a birdie in the group behind on the 18th, finishing with a 79 to improve by a stroke the day before and deliver the decisive tie-breaking score.
Team Massachusetts finished one stroke behind New Hampshire and Rhode Island but had one of the best collective finishes as a group. Lillian Guleserian (Westwood, MA) took third overall at 6-over 152, while Mya Murphy (Bourne, MA) and Maddie Smith (Westford, MA) both finished T4 overall, four strokes back of their teammate.
The New England Junior Amateur will be back in Western Massachusetts next year, just an hour north of GreatHorse. In December 2023, the New England Golf Association announced that Crumpin-Fox Club in Bernardston, Massachusetts, will host the New England Junior Amateur Championship for three consecutive years beginning in 2025. It will be the first time the event will be anchored in one location for multiple years.
Crumpin-Fox, which takes its name from the area’s old Crump & Fox Soda Company, features several standout holes that weave through dense forest and lots of elevation change. Roger Rulewich completed the first nine working with Robert Trent Jones in 1977 and returned to complete the entire course in 1990.
The club hosted the 2019 Mass Junior Amateur Championship, plus several qualifying events in recent years, but this will be its first New England Golf Association Championship.
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