NORTON, Massachusetts – Every summer, Mass Golf’s junior amateur championships showcase a promising pool of young talent 18 years and younger in the final weeks before the academic year begins. For the first time in 2024, the Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship and Massachusetts Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship — both powered by KOHR Golf — will take place simultaneously at the same courses and utilizing an identical competition format.
Bayberry Hills Golf Course & Bass River Golf Course, owned and operated by the town of Yarmouth on Cape Cod, will host these junior championships from August 5-8. The competition will feature two 18-hole rounds of stroke play over the first two days, with the low 16 advancing to match play — the format reintroduced to the Mass Junior Amateur in 2018. Through 2023, the Mass Girls’ Junior Amateur was entirely a stroke play event.
“It’s something that should be pretty fun for the juniors,” said Greg Howell, Mass Golf’s Assistant Director of Rules & Competitions. “The Town of Yarmouth and the entire staff at both courses, especially superintendent Scott Gilmore, have been pretty incredible with offering their assistance and being a true partner in supporting an event when it comes their way. They make sure that it’s well staffed and well covered with volunteers, including members and local people from the community.”
This decision reaffirms Mass Golf’s commitment to offer equitable player experiences in competitions and increase camaraderie among members. Similar efforts include expanding the Mass Women’s Amateur to a 5-day championship and expanding the top division of the Mass Women’s Senior Amateur to a 36-hole championship.
There will also be a new incentive for the winner this year as the respective champions from each event will be exempt into the 2025 playing of the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship & U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship. Howell added that being able to feature match play more frequently may help benefit competitors if they reach the national or collegiate levels.
Added Howell: “From a recruiting standpoint, there’s a handful of college coaches around that have involvement with both their men’s and women’s golf teams at their school, so being able to recruit both at the same time is a benefit all-around.”
Bayberry Hills and Bass River are both standout courses in their own right. Bass River opened in 1900, but Donald Ross redesigned and expanded the course in 1914. The stunning 18-hole layout offers terrific views, small greens, and a challenging layout for all skill levels. Bayberry Hills opened in 1986, and the Championship Course (The Winds & The Sands) — designed by Geoffrey Cornish and Brian Silva — has a healthy mix with four par-5s and four par-3s, playing to a par of 72 and tipping out close to 7,200 yards.
In 2023, Bayberry co-hosted the Mass Four-Ball Championship with Hyannisport Club and was a qualifying site for the 2024 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship. As for individual championships, Bass River held the 2018 Massachusetts Women’s Stroke Play Championship for the Baker Trophy, and Bayberry Hills hosted the 2019 Massachusetts Amateur Public Links Championship.
This week, the New England Golf Association also made a historic announcement by naming Crumpin-Fox Club in Bernardston as the permanent host of the New England Junior Amateur Championship from 2025 to 2027. Crumpin-Fox 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.
“We’re really excited about the commitment they’re making,” Howell said of Crumpin-Fox. “It is a great partnership, and we’re looking to make it a great event that showcases the kids and the club.”
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 signature hole (No. 8) featured an elevated tee shot to a fairway flanked entirely on the left by a lake. The golfer then has the option of laying up, leaving a mid to long iron to the green, or playing the heroic shot of trying to reach the green in two.
2024 Mass Golf Junior Championships
Format: 36 Holes of Stroke play to 16 player match play brackets (2 matches per day)
JUNIOR AMATEUR
Day 1 – 18 Holes of Stroke Play Bass River
Day 2 – 18 Holes of Stroke Play at Bayberry Hills
GIRLS’ JUNIOR AMATEUR
Day 1 – 18 Holes of Stroke Play at Bayberry Hills
Day 2 – 18 Holes of Stroke Play at Bass River
Match Play Schedule (All Matches At Bayberry)
Day 3 – AM Round of 16 (8 Junior Matches, 8 Girls Junior Matches) & PM Quarterfinals (4 Junior Matches & 4 Girls Junior Matches)
Day 4 – AM Semifinals (Semifinal Matches) and PM Championship Matches (Final Matches)
Mass Golf Championships at Bayberry Hills & Bass River
+Bayberry Hills
*Bass River
Mass Golf is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is dedicated to advancing golf in Massachusetts by building an engaged community around the sport.
With a community made up of over 110,000 golf enthusiasts and over 340 member clubs, Mass Golf is one of the largest state golf associations in the country. Members enjoy the benefits of handicapping, engaging golf content, course rating and scoring services along with the opportunity to compete in an array of events for golfers of all ages and abilities.
At the forefront of junior development, Mass Golf is proud to offer programming to youth in the state through First Tee Massachusetts and subsidized rounds of golf by way of Youth on Course.
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