WEST NEWTON — There aren’t many amateur golfers that can play the way Michael Thorbjornsen (Wellesley Country Club) can. As a result, the roughly 200 patrons in the gallery Saturday at Brae Burn Country Club got a glimpse at a young man who oozes professional potential.
The 36-hole final match Saturday at the 113th Massachusetts Amateur Championship featured plenty of firepower, as it was the first time two former USGA champions were paired in a state amateur final. But on Saturday, Thorbjornsen shined the brightest as the 2018 U.S. Junior Amateur champion executed one of the most spectacular performances in the history of the Massachusetts Amateur Championship by capturing the title with an 8&6 victory over 2017 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Matt Parziale.
Thorbjornsen, a 19-year-old sophomore at Stanford University, became the first teenager to win the Mass Amateur since Jim Salinetti won the 1997 title, also at the age of 19.
“Just winning the amateur championship of Massachusetts from where I’m from, it means a lot,” said Thorbjornsen, who competed in the Mass Amateur for the first time.
“He’s a world-beater,” Parziale said of Thorbjornsen. “He’s incredible. I met him a few years ago. He’s a great kid. He’s got all the talent in the world. I’m rooting for him, and it’s his to take. He has a bright future if he keeps going at this pace.”
Though he was facing an opponent from Brockton, a city known for its fighting champions, Thorbjornsen landed some heavy punches early on. He made birdie on his first five holes and had another stretch of five straight birdies from holes 12-16, opening up a 6-up lead through the first 18 holes.
“Those first five just came up on me pretty quickly,” Thorbjornsen said. “Just driving the green, two-putting, and then having some tap-ins the next couple of holes just feels really good. And then birdieing the first five, it’s just kind of tough to compete against whoever you’re playing, so I feel like that’s what really set me up well later on.”
The pair also set a torrid pace, only needing 3.5 hours to play the first 18, and capping off their final 12 holes in exactly two hours.
Errors were few and far between for Thorbjornsen. Other than a misfire off the tee on his second crack at hole 9 that landed him in the fescue, Thorbjornsen was within 10-feet of the hole on his approaches more often than not.
In almost any other year, Parziale’s performance would have left him in contention, but there was only so much the 2017 champion could do to keep pace. Despite shooting 5-under-par on the first 18, he still found himself down by six. Of the four holes he did win in the match, all of them were birdies or better.
“I was happy with how I played,” said Parziale, whose father Vic caddied the entire week. “So, if I played poorly then I’d probably feel differently, but I was happy with the way I played. Today is the day where one person is most happy and one person is the most upset. That’s the nature of this tournament. It was great to get here, but you lose, so you’re not happy. At least I played well, and he just played incredibly, so congratulations to him.”
Parziale got it back within five by driving the green on the 15th. He did the same Friday with a 3-wood but decided to use his driver and made the putt for his lone eagle.
“They had the tee back again, so I was fortunate enough to hit a good one there, and then I had a good line on that and hit a solid putt there,” Parziale.
At the end of the day though, there wasn’t much Parziale could do other than tip his cap.
