After knocking on the door several times, St. John’s Prep alum Nick Maccario finally grabbed his first win of the summer after battling from behind to capture the title at the 56th annual Hornblower Memorial Invitational at Plymouth Country Club Tuesday afternoon.
Over the past month, Maccario has placed second at the 112th Massachusetts Amateur, the 91st New England Amateur and the 53rd Francis Ouimet Memorial Tournament in three successive weeks.
Maccario (Bradford CC) shot a score of 3-under 66 on Tuesday in order to come from behind for the win, besting fellow St. John’s Prep alum and last week’s Ouimet Memorial champion Chris Francoeur (Amesbury G&CC) as well as Elon University senior Max Ferrari (Framingham CC). Maccario’s total score for the tournament was 69-66-135, good for a one-stroke victory.
Things got off to a solid start for Maccario, who made four birdies in the first round en route to a score of 69. Birdies on both the par-4 second hole and par-4 seventh hole got him off on the right foot before a bogey on the eighth hole led him to make the turn in 33 strokes. Two more bogeys on the 12th and 15th holes threatened to derail the round, but a birdie on the 16th hole helped him finish the first day with an even-par 69. The second day was nearly flawless, with only one bogey on the card. Maccario started Tuesday with four straight pars before making birdie on the fifth, sixth and eighth holes to make the turn in 31 strokes. Things remained hot on the back nine, with four more pars and then a birdie on the 14th hole to continue pushing Maccario up the leaderboard. The lone bogey of the day came on the 17th hole, but a par on the 18th hole gave him a second-round score of 66 and turned out to be the difference in his victory.
Finishing runner-up to Maccario was Francoeur, a fellow Prep alum who currently plays at the University of Rhode Island. Francoeur lit the course on fire in Monday’s first round, setting the course record with a 6-under 63. Birdies on the first and second holes got things started off great before the lone hiccup of the day came in the form of a bogey on the fifth hole. Four straight pars followed after that to finish the front nine in 33 strokes, then Francoeur really opened it up on the back nine. Birdies on the 10th, 11th, 14th, 16th and 18th holes led to a back-nine score of 30 and a total score of 63. Unfortunately, that fire didn’t quite carry over to the final round. After five pars and a bogey over the opening six holes, Francoeur appeared to get things going a bit with a birdie on the seventh hole. But the eighth hole saw him make a double-bogey to hurt his momentum, and even though he made birdie on the ninth to make the turn in 35 strokes, he never really got the momentum going again. Francoeur made four bogeys on the back nine en route to shooting 38, finishing the day with a 4-over 73. His total score for the tournament was 63-73-136.
