[Tom Bagley]

The Mass Am is underway at Longmeadow CC beginning today with 36 holes of stroke play today and tomorrow, with matches beginning Wednesday and ending Friday with the 36-hole finale.  GCA contributor Brad Tufts is in the field, although probably not thrilled with his first-round 77. 

Scoring is relatively high through the first half of today's round, but Brad will need to improve on his opening round to make the match play field of 32.

You can follow the action at www.mgalinks.org, or better yet, stop by to see some good golf on a very good golf course.

[Joel Zuckerman]

In my hometown of Longmeadow for the first time in a long while as I read this.....but down the road tomorrow....

Great course, one of the best in the area.  The irony is I was in Brad's hometown of Marblehead MA the other day...visiting (but not playing) his home course, Tedesco.

[Brad Tufts]

Thanks for the shout-out, not very fired up about 77.

Course is playing tough at 6750, par 70.  Day one was muggy...high of 88, realfeel of about 100 with nary a breeze.

The leader so far shot 68, with a couple 69s posted as well along with about 6 70s.  One of my playing partners, LCC member Michael Ryan, shot 71, and the other has been DQ'ed for some reason, that should be interesting to hear about tomorrow.

Pretty severe T-storms coming through the Springfield-Hartford corridor as we speak...should be wet tomorrow.

LCC is a great layout, with many long par fours (#s 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, and 17 are all 425-450).  Today's course featured a tee way forward on #4 to create a 114y par 3, and a few nasty pin locations like back left on #2, way back left on #5, front right on #6, front right on #13, and just over the fronting bunker on #14.

[Pete Blaisdell]

Brad

  Best of luck today--make a few putts and get into match play and scare the hell out of a higher seed. Match play is the best!

  I have to be in Hartford early morning but plan on stopping by Longmeadow to spectate in the afternoon.Hope to see you play. Longmeadow is one of my favorites. Worked the USGA Junior a few years back . Great greens.Tee shots DEMAND the best and accurate play.

[Mike Sweeney]

Mr Moore (Michael) tees off today at 1:10 pm in the Maine Amateur at the 9 hole Stiles and 9 hole Ross Augusta CC today:

http://www.mesga.org/club/scripts/library/view_document.asp?CLNK=1&GRP=3158&NS=PUBLIC&DID=133878&APP=80

[Dan_Callahan]

The #1 golfer on the high school team I coach is T4 after the first day. Had it to -2 for a little bit but dropped some shots coming in. Longmeadow is a perfect setup for him. He can bomb it off the tee, so he's hitting short irons into the long par 4s. And he very rarely makes dumb mistakes or follows a bad shot with another bad shot. Very smart, level-headed player. One of his few bogies was on the 318-yard 5th. I'll be interested to hear what happened. I don't remember that hole being all that tricky. If it's the hole I'm thinking of, kind of an awkward tee shot but lots of room.

[Jason Topp]

I am sure it is difficult for Brad to focus in such a minor competition compared to the Tequila Cup.

[Dan_Callahan]

According to the MGA website, seven players are in a playoff for the last five spots. That must suck.

[Bill Shamleffer]

I caught the playoff this evening.  The two worst drives (behind a group of pines in the left rough) resulted in doubles and being the two out of match play.

I was VERY surprised to see that the players were allowed to use yardage finders.  Is this now commonly allowed at even state am championships?  If so this is a very sad development in golf.  MUCH worse than anchored putters.

[BHoover]

I was VERY surprised to see that the players were allowed to use yardage finders.  Is this now commonly allowed at even state am championships?  If so this is a very sad development in golf.  MUCH worse than anchored putters.

The Ohio Am allows range finders. I don't have a problem with range finders being used in competition. First, they speed up play in my opinion. I'm more troubled by a player and his/her caddie spending an inordinate amount of time debating yardages, which seems all too common in tournament golf. Second, it's not as if it advantages any one player. The entire field can use them. I guess I just don't see the problem.

And for the record, I don't have a problem with anchored putting (even though I don't use it myself). A putter or a range finder does not render a course obsolete or defenseless...the juiced up golf ball, however, is another story.

[Brad Tufts]

Sucked today...wasn't my year.

Course was in great shape as usual...despite the wet overnight.  Another hot day in Longmeadow.

Only tee funkiness was #16 playing from a short tee to a short pin at 104y.

A bit tougher set of pins today....back center on #1, front right on #3, back on #4, barely on the top tier on #7, back right on #8, front right on #9 (whoa hard)....front left on #10, front right on #15, on the slope at front right on #17.

[Dan_Callahan]

The kid I coach finished T10. He just graduated from high school. In the first round of match play, he's facing the 2010 Mass Senior Am champ. Is there any other sport that could possibly have that big an age discrepancy between two contestants and still have it be completely fair? Pretty cool.

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