FITCHBURG, Massachusetts (October 1, 2024) – The calendar turned to October and the weather took a turn with it. Ominous skies and crisper winds made the fall feel a touch sterner. The Super Senior turned to its final day, and that too felt a bit more stern. Less banter, more urgency around Oak Hill Country Club.
Clad in black slacks and a long sleeve black shirt, Don Reycroft (Bayberry Hills/Bass River) had the look of someone ready to bear down and attend to business. The 2021 champion chased down Steven Tasho (Thorny Lea) by playing gritty, thoughtful golf. Aggressive swings to conservative targets. He went 1-over on his last 13 holes on a difficult golf course that got even a touch harder as the winds picked up. Leaves began to fall, the oaks rained acorns with each jostle of breeze, but Reycroft was unswayed.
“It feels great. You know, I came in after Salem last week, I got beat up pretty badly. When I came here, I didn’t come in here with a lot of confidence. I’d never played here before. So, I just basically stayed the basics, you know, and just wanted to hit the ball solid.”
Robert Reni (Country Club of New Bedford) was in the final group with Reycroft and Tasho, and though his charge fizzled out around the turn, he did win the Legends Division title by an impressive three strokes at 8-over, and took fourth place overall.
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Final Leaderboard
1 – Don Reycroft; 71-73 (+4)
2 – Steven Tasho; 69-76 (+5)
3 – Andrew Berman; 75-72 (+7)
4 – Robert Reni; 72-76 (+8)
5 – Douglas Parigian; 76-73 (+9)
Steven Tasho entered the final day with a two shot lead over Reycroft, and the two were joined in the final group by Reni, who started the day three back. After some early volatility, the tournament started afresh when the group stood on the 7th tee, all three men at 2-over par. Perhaps they realized that they had begun to separate from the rest of the field, and it’d be dogfight to see who made it out of their threesome. Each player then birdied the 7th, including a short eagle miss for Reni. The game was afoot.
Reni effectively dropped out of contention with a double on 10 and a bogey on 11, where Tasho went birdie-par to take a one shot lead over Reycroft.
It began to look like two-man match play. Tasho made three straight bogeys on 12,13, and 14, while Reycroft made three pars, giving him a two shot lead with just four to play.
Both players came up short on the par-4 15th, but made impressive up-and-downs to a flag that was perched atop a back shelf on one of the more severe greens on the course. They then made matching bogeys on the 16th, statistically the most difficult hole of the day, playing over a shot above par. The uphill par-4 is demanding, deceiving, and with today’s front pin, a little bit mean. Mirroring long, arching bunkers make it look like the green starts earlier than it does. Tasho came up short, pitched shy of the hole, and pushed his par putt wide. Reycroft, from the back of the green, putted it clear off the front edge, but got it up and in from there.
The 17th was playing just 110 yards, but the flag was tucked only a few paces off the front left corner of the large green. Reycroft, with a 2-shot lead, took an extremely aggressive line. “I had a perfect number for my strong sand wedge. It was a tough pin to get close to, and I got pretty close to it,” said Reycroft.
His low approach came to rest about 6 feet past the hole, then Tasho took more of a conservative line to a fatter part of the green. But like I said, this had turned into something closer to match play, and Tasho flipped the script on Reycroft. “I lipped it out on the high side, but kudos to Steve. I mean, he had about a 23-footer and he knocked it right in the middle for a great birdie that brought it back to a one shot deal, you know, so, you know…it’s typical Tasho,” he said with a grin.
On the uphill 18th, Reycroft hit a drive up the left side of the fairway, leaving himself a perfect angle into the green. Tasho’s ball went thirty yards farther, but it was up the right side in the rough, which spelled trouble. Reycroft, from 165, hit the exact shot he needed to, “I had 153, playing uphill 10, I figured 163, 165. I just wanted to get it past that false front and get it into the middle of the green. I just executed the shot when I had to,” said Reycroft.
A lone tree guards the right side of the hole, forcing Tasho to play a low shot under the branches. The line was a good one, but the steep false front quickly smothered his ball, holding it up on the slope, about five yards short of the green’s front edge. With Reycroft just 15 feet away on the green, Tasho knew he’d have to make it., and he very nearly did. With what looked like a pitching wedge, he played a low skipping chip that checked about 10 feet short and slowed to perfect speed, curling gently towards the cup. But it stayed about 2 inches wide, and came to rest tantalizingly close.
“When I saw him hit it and I saw the first bounce, I said, okay, but it had top spin on it and it started rolling out. And I said, geez, that’s a perfect speed. And then I saw it come a little bit right to left towards the hole. I said, I think he made it, you know, and sure enough, it just rolled past the right edge on the high side. And it was two inches behind the hole. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know how it didn’t go in, to be honest with you,” recounted a clearly relieved Reycroft.
Needing just two putts to win, Reycroft, with a forward press stroke, rolled his birdie bid about two feet short, then brushed it in for his second Massachusetts Super Senior Championship.
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