Early Season Update
Two wins and a ticket punched to the Mass Open ...
Annnnnnnnddd …. we’re off!
After what felt like an extra long winter here on the Cape (not much snow, but very little warmth and sun the past six months), the competitive season has finally kicked off and I have been fortunate to get nine tournament rounds under my belt thus far.
Seven of those rounds have been played in four-ball events, meaning I’ve had a partner to compete alongside and pick me up when I’m struggling. The last two were more traditional qualifying events where the onus was entirely on me. And in both formats, I (we in the case of the Seagulls) have come away with a win.
Perhaps even more importantly, given the subject of this blog, the last two events saw me competing as a professional (finally) for the first time in my career. I took the plunge, checked the box, and as of around 10:40am on May 3rd, can officially call myself a professional golfer.
I don’t have the time or bandwidth right now to give the extremely detailed recaps many of y’all are used to from last year, but I will give the crib notes version of all four events below …
The Seagulls | April 15 - 16, 22nd - 23rd (Hyannisport Golf Club)
What a cool f*ckin event … and not just because my partner Greg and I beat over 100 teams and won the whole damn thing.
This is the first year I’ve played in this (I replaced my buddy Trevor who was playing an event in Texas) and did it ever live up to its reputation.
Hyannisport Golf Club is one of the best courses in New England, and possibly THE BEST on the Cape. It’s right next door to the Kennedy Compound and was once the stomping grounds of JFK and his minions (it still counts the rich and famous as members).
Notably, and especially pertinent in April, is the club’s proximity to the ocean … meaning the wind does nothing but blow (HARD) and rain is always threatening. Part of the magic of playing in the Seagulls is that the human competition is just one aspect of it. The battle against mother nature is the real challenge and success in the tournament directly correlates to grit and toughness. Over the course of the two weeks, Greg and I fought through cold, fog, rain, 30mph winds, lightening fast greens, tricky pins … and we conquered them all.
Quickly on format, the Seagulls starts with a four-ball, stroke play qualifying round to determine the flights where it then turns into a four-ball match play competition.
We played relatively well in the qualifying round and shot a team score of 68 (I shot 69 on my own ball) which seeded us 11th overall and put us into the championship flight and gave us an opportunity to win the overall tournament.
The following day, I got on a bit of heater and we took control of our Round of 16 match right away. We jumped out to a massive lead on the front nine and eventually coasted to a 7&5 victory. After playing out the last five holes, I ended up shooting 4-under, 67, on my own ball and walking away from the first weekend extremely happy with how I played.
The following weekend, we had a bit more of a battle on our hands in the quarterfinals, eventually heading to the 18th hole with a one-up lead. Needing to tie or the win the hole to move on, I made a 40-footer for birdie to clinch the match and get us into the semi-finals. I hadn’t played nearly as well on that Saturday so to make a big putt when it really mattered was a good feeling.
The prize for winning that quarterfinal match was a matchup against one of the best players in New England and the team who would probably have been considered the favorites coming into the event. That Sunday also brought the worst of the weather, with sustained 25mph winds and gusts to 40 all day long.
After having not made a ton of putts the first three rounds, Greg switched putters and came out on fire that morning … carrying us for the first part of the round. We got out ahead early in the match, going three up through eleven and then hanging on for dear life the rest of the way in the tough conditions. We eventually closed them out on the eighteenth (after watching them make a miraculous birdie on 17 to keep the match going) and couldn’t do anything but shake our heads at the fact we had beat THAT team and made it to the finals.
After a quick break for lunch, we headed back to the first hole at about 2:30pm to start the championship match. Our competitors were the fifth overall seed and had upset the number one seed in the semi-finals, but they had been forced to play extra holes in the semis and didn’t have a whole lot of gas left in the tank when it was time for the finals.
We got out to an early lead, but missed at least three opportunities to really grab the match by the balls … and watched as they made a couple of miracle saves to tie or win holes. We knew we were the better team, but found ourselves frustrated as we made the turn. To make things worse, the heavy rain that had held off for most of the day was starting to fall and we were playing right through the middle of a proper spring Nor’easter.
On the 12th tee, two-up at the time, Greg and I looked at each other and said there was no f*ckin way we had come this far, in these conditions, to lose the match. From there on out, we buckled down and did everything we had to do to close out the match and the event. On seventeen, still two up, I hit six-iron to a flag 130 yards away (yes, you read that correctly … I normally hit six-iron about 180 yards) playing dead into the wind and still came up about 20 feet short of the cup. Everyone else in the group missed the green short and all I needed was to lag my putt close to finish things off. Standing there in the rain and the gusting wind, I hammered my putt up the hill and watched as it settled two inches from the hole, securing the win and kicking off the celebration for having survived one of the most grueling golf days of our lives.
To win this thing was awesome, but to win it with Greg, who I had just met and became fast friends with, made it that much better. He and I took turns carrying one another throughout the five rounds and truly couldn’t have ‘ham & egged’ it much better. His consistency gave me the confidence I needed to attack flags and make as many birdies as I did throughout the two weekends.
Summing it up, I couldn’t ask for a better start to the year. Getting a win, playing really well for long stretches (from tee to green), and making a really good friend in the process.
Mass Four-Ball | April 25 - 26th (Hyannisport Golf Club & Bayberry Hills)
A mere two days after grinding out the victory in the Seagulls, I was back at it in another four-ball event, this time playing with Trevor, back from Texas, as my teammate. Ironically enough, Hyannisport just so happened to be one of the host sites this year for the Four-Ball so I couldn’t blame a lack of course knowledge on my performance, having just played the place five times in two weeks. The second course was Bayberry Hills, another Cape Cod course that I’ve played a handful of times, including the US Mid-Am qualifier in 2021.
We showed up to HyPort for round one and it honestly could have been on another planet from the place I had played just two days prior. The sun was shining, the wind was down, and the course had softened up and slowed down to an unbelievable degree. Putts that you just had to breath on to get to the hole during the Seagulls were coming up three or four feet short during the Four-Ball.
I could use the different conditions and the fact that I was still tired from the grind of playing 35 holes on Sunday as an excuse for my poor play, but the truth is that I just played like sh*t. Trevor carried us for the vast majority of the first round (I contributed a bit more on our back nine) and even then we were only able to manage a one-under par 70, leaving us way back in the pack heading into day two.
Day two was always destined to be better with Trevor returning to his old home course (where he is a five time club champion) and my game having nowhere to go but up after the disappointing first day. I kicked off our round with a birdie on one and made a handful of other clutch putts through the middle of the round to keep our momentum going. We found our rhythm early on the back nine, with both of us getting good looks for birdie on nearly every hole from the tenth onwards. We didn’t make a ton, but put together a respectable four-under 68 and finished 48th in the field. I shot 71 on my own ball for the day and felt a (small) sense of pride in getting my sh*t together after the disappointing day prior.
US Open Local Qualifier | May 3rd (LeBaron Hills Country Club)
Of the four events I’ve played thus far, the US Open Local Qualifier ended as the most disappointing, but carried the most meaning.
When I was putting my schedule together this year, I was really pleased to see the USGA coming back to LeBaron Hills for qualifying. Not just because it was my home course for years and where I learned to play the game, but because it almost always plays difficult (wind is always blowing) and I thrive in those kinds of conditions. I figured I had a good chance of getting through if things went well.
I also figured it would be the perfect place to take the plunge and play my first event as a professional. I had hoped the stress of making a monumental decision (‘monumental’ is a relative term of course) would be balanced out by my comfort level at LeBaron. To add to that comfort, I was paired with the head professional at LeBaron, Tom Rooney, a (great) man I’ve known since I was kid. I really couldn’t have asked for a better situation.
Unfortunately, the weather was eerily calm, the course was soft, and the scores were low … except mine.
After bogeying the first (lots of nerves), I birdied two and three to get to one-under before just missing a great opportunity on the fourth hole to make another birdie. Standing on the fifth tee, I felt really good about how things were going and figured something special was in the works.
That feeling disappeared after a sloppy bogey on five and a triple (!!!) on six (hit one in the water left), bringing me to three-over and effectively removing me from contention. I fought back a little bit, made a few birdies, and kept things respectable until the seventeenth hole where I just got f*cked with a bad lie in a bunker and made double. In the end, I missed qualifying by more than a handful of shots.
Not the result we wanted in my first professional event, but it was nice to get that out of the way before the Mass Open qualifier the following week. You always expect to play well, but qualifying for the US Open is a long shot and slightly lower expectations means slightly less heartbreak after a performance like that. I bounced back pretty quickly mentally and as you’ll see in a minute, set myself up for success the following week …
Mass Open Qualifier | May 9th (The Ridge Club)
It’s not common that you get to play two USGA or Mass Golf events at places you consider “home” courses. I was very fortunate to tag along on the family membership at LeBaron for well over a decade and have been even more fortunate to be a current member at The Ridge with my wife and children. The place is literally three minutes down the road from our house and it’s been my happy place for the last couple of years. If y’all follow my hazardsascent instagram, you’ll have seen countless photos and videos of me on the range there working to get better.
Despite having played poorly the week prior, I came into the Mass Open qualifier with really high expectations. I knew I was playing well, I knew the weather was going to be pretty good, and I knew that I was going to have a massive advantage at The Ridge having played there a bunch. It’s one of those courses that doesn’t look terribly difficult on the scorecard, but the opportunity for big numbers is looming over you on every single hole, and patience is absolutely required to score well there.
After a great warm up, I walked to the first tee with a really good feeling about what was to come. It’s hard to explain, but sometimes in golf you just know you’re truly ready for a competitive round of golf. There is no “searching” for anything on the range or putting green, you’re just getting yourself into performance mode and hoping to carry that to the first tee.
My premonition turned out to be accurate, because I birdied two of the first three holes and just missed two more chances at the fourth and fifth. I made bogey on six after a really unlucky bounce on the green, but got it right back after stuffing a six-iron to ten feet on the par-3 seventh and draining the putt. A par on eight and a bogey on nine (again, one I’d chalk up to being a bit unlucky) had me at one-under after nine holes.
To put things in context, nearly every other qualifier held at the Ridge in the past few years has had a much higher-than-usual qualifying score. I came into it thinking that three-over might have had a chance at making it through (I actually qualified in 2022 shooting four-over, ironically enough at LeBaron). So at the turn, I felt pretty strongly that I had some shots to play with and I was on track to getting into the Mass Open proper.
What came next was as solid of a nine holes as you could possibly ask for given the circumstances …
I hit a spectacular second shot on ten from a bit of a hairy lie in the rough that allowed me to make an easy par. I got up and down on eleven from a tricky spot (after making the only bad-ish swing of the day). I hit three solid shots on the par-five twelfth … and two more on the thirteenth, both resulting in ho-hum pars.
On fourteen, I hit an awesome tee shot into the par-3 but carried it just a hair long, leaving me a crazy side-winding putt down the hill, which I executed to perfection and walked away with another par. On fifteen, I pulled my tee shot into a fairway bunker but played a smart recovery shot and then a good wedge to set up a birdie opportunity (missed, but easy par).
The fun started on sixteen … the beginning of a really difficult stretch of holes to close out the round. Depending on how the wind is blowing, I’d argue there isn’t a three hole stretch quite as tricky on the Cape (maybe in Massachusetts) as sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen at The Ridge (ok, I might be biased … but you wouldn’t admit me to a mental hospital for suggesting it).
After a perfect drive to the corner of the dogleg, I came up just a tiny bit short with my approach but still had a putt at it after it settled on the fringe. The problem was that my ball settled down into a tiny little depression, and subconsciously I felt like I needed to hit the putt a bit harder than I really needed to. I blew it about ten feet past the hole, leaving myself a tricky comebacker for par.
I was still one-under as I looked over that putt and I figured I was well within the cut line. For a second, I nearly gave myself permission to miss it knowing I could still make par on the last two holes and get through. Old Colin may have succumbed to that thought and hit a weak, defensive putt. Thankfully it was new Colin playing this round because I f*ckin drained it, right in the heart at perfect speed and walked confidently over to the par-3, island green, seventeenth hole.
Yup, that’s right … the Ridge has a hole that is sorta-kinda modeled after the seventeenth at TPC Sawgrass (at least in that it is a true island green with water surrounding it). On this day, it was playing 142 yards with the wind blowing left to right. It’s a mentally challenging shot with no wind in a practice round … but as the second to last hole in a tournament with a decent breeze blowing, it becomes pretty daunting. One bad swing here and you can make a big number VERY quickly.
But not me, not today … I stepped up and hit possibly the best shot of the day, dropping a nine-iron to ten feet and setting up another birdie opportunity. My pitch mark was about six inches from the flag and only the firmness of the greens allowed it to trickle out to anywhere but a kick-in. As soon as I hit my putt, I thought I had made it, but halfway to the hole it hit an aeration mark and kicked a touch left. One of my playing partners audibly gasped as the putt jumped an inch sideways out of nowhere and dropped a “wow, you just got f*cked” after it settled six inches away. It was disappointing to hit two perfect shots and not get rewarded, but I was happy to have gotten that hole behind me and finish things off at the par-five eighteenth.
A good drive and a ballsy six-iron over water into the peninsula green on eighteen left me with about 50-feet for eagle. Two putts later, I had closed my round with another birdie and finished off a two-under, 69 … good enough for a tie for 1st and a qualification for the Mass Open. I was the low professional (the two guys I tied with are really good college players at URI and UConn) and one of only five guys to break par on the day. As it turns out, +1 ended up being the qualifying number, meaning I was only one really bad swing from not making it through. I walked off the course that day really proud of not only the result, but the way I handled myself all day long, staying patient and keeping a clean scorecard over the last nine holes.
I can’t wait to get a crack at TPC Boston next month (June 12-14th) and hopefully can make a little noise on a PGA Tour course and a proper big-boy track. I have played the course once, way back in the day, as part of a corporate outing. The highlight of that day was getting to play nine holes with the one and only Gary Player … and then watching as he stole half my french fries straight from plate at lunch afterwards (a story for another day!).
A team win, turning pro, qualifying for the Mass Open, and doing it all while managing work and two children. All in all, I’m really pleased with the first part of the season.
I wish I had the time to write a bit more, but I’ve been choosing to use the late evenings (when I used to write) to practice in the garage on the simulator or work out. Hopefully I can keep posting the occasional update here and there. For the bigger events (Mass Open, NH Open, RI Open), I’ll do my best to give some daily updates, however short they may end up being.
I hope y’all out there are doing well and enjoying your own climbs, whatever they may be. I miss the connection I have made with many of you … so don’t hesitate to reach out, even if you aren’t hearing from me quite as often.
Keep climbing y’all!