Last year’s runner-up at the Massachusetts Amateur, Matthew Naumec is making the most of the 116th version of the event being at Framingham Country Club, where he’s a three-time club champion.
Reaching the 32-player match play via a 4-for-3 playoff on Tuesday afternoon, Naumec ousted medalist Matt Cowgill (4 and 3) and Tyler Dupuis (3 and 2) on Wednesday to reach the final eight. He’s joined there by the other qualifiers from that playoff, with both defending champion Ryan Downes and Danny Frodigh each winning a pair of Wednesday matches as well.
Downes, a Longmeadow High graduate headed to Vanderbilt this fall, beat No. 3 seed Sean Fitzpatrick (6 and 4) and Tyngsborough’s Trevor Drew (4 and 3) to make the quarterfinals. Frodigh rolled in a birdie from the edge of the green on a 19th hole to eliminate No. 2 Shuvam Bhaumik in his morning match, then topped Plymouth’s Jake Ratti, 2 and 1, in the round of 16.
On Thursday morning, Naumec draws Wellesley’s John Broderick in a rematch from last year’s semifinals at Essex County Club; Broderick, who just finished his sophomore season at Vanderbilt, was medalist a year ago after he fired a course-record 62 at the historic club. Downes faces Westminster’s Ethan Whitney, the rising Temple senior whom he knocked out in last year’s round of 16 on his way to becoming the youngest winner in tournament history.
Frodigh draws reigning Massachusetts Mid-Amateur champion Ricky Stimets, who had the highlight of the day when he aced the par-3 11th during his round-of-16 victory over Nashawtuc’s Collin McMahon-Shea.
The fourth quarterfinal will be Brockton native and 2017 Amateur champion Matt Parziale against Somerville’s Aidan O’Donovan, headed into his junior year at Rhode Island. Winners are scheduled to play in the semifinals later Thursday, with the 36-hole final scheduled for Friday.
For the first time this year, the Mass Amateur winner will earn an exemption into the US Amateur.
