GREENFIELD — Getting older isn’t always easy, especially for amateur golfers who play competitively.
Thankfully, Nate Burdick and Dave Kennedy have been able to put their previous ailments behind them and will go after a third championship in four years during the 71st Invitational Four-Ball this weekend at the Country Club of Greenfield.
Burdick and Kennedy, from the host club, will enjoy a relaxing qualifying day on Thursday and enter Friday’s first round of match play as the No. 1 seeds as defending champion. Because of an influx of teams entering this year, the field has reached the 96-team limit for the first time in close to a decade. That means 31 teams will qualify for the 15 remaining spots in the Championship Flight.
Kennedy, 50, said his health continues to improve after being forced to step away from his duties as head golf coach at Turners Falls High School.
“I’ve been battling my Crohn’s colitis coming up on six years now, and finally in February, I had surgery and it seemed to hopefully correct it, knock on wood,” said Kennedy.
Burdick, who turned 42 on July 18, has been able to return to his usual steady form on the course after dealing with what was believed to be a compression fracture in his back, as well as a torn Supraspinatus tendon in his right shoulder injury in recent years.
“This has been the healthiest I’ve been in like three or four years’” said Burdick. “Between the back and shoulder, it finally feels like the earth is finally beneath me again. I’m just happy to feel healthy again.”
Both players have been playing well in tournament competition — Kennedy captured the CCG Senior Club Championship in his first year of eligibility, tied for fourth in the Men’s Club Championship to qualify for the Franklin Cup squad, and teamed up with Gary Roy good for second place in the annual member guest.
Burdick, who said he’s been scaling back his play each year, tied for fifth in the Greenfield Open and tied for fourth in the CCG Men’s Club Championship to earn his spot on the Franklin Cup team.
Kennedy said both he and Burdick are coming into the Four-Ball at the right time.
“I think we’ve been playing pretty good all year,” he said. “Nate had a nine-birdie, nine-par round recently, and his birdie production is like six birdies per round in the Tuesday league. I’ve been playing pretty solid since I started back up in the spring.”
Burdick and Kennedy will attempt to defend their crown in what may prove to be one of the toughest Championship Flight fields in a least a decade. That led Burdick to quip, “The teams coming in this week are like the ’27 Yankees — it’s Murderers’ Row. From top to bottom the lineup is deep.”
That lineup includes such notable tandems as Joe Groth and Jared Goss (their 2015 finals opponents), and 2014 champions Cody Booska of Crumpin-Fox Club — the reigning Greenfield Open champ (4-under 68) — and eight-time CCG club champion KC Finley, who has two Four-Ball crowns to his credit.
Burdick and Kennedy will tee it up with Finley and Booska Thurday at 11:21 a.m.
Two other former champions are in the field with different partners — Chris Austin (who won in 2011 with Andy Lesenski) is playing with Chris Stoddard in a pairing of former pros who regained their amateur status (Austin tied for third in the Greenfield Open), and Mike Johnson (who teamed with Max Wolanske to win in 2010) is playing with Four-Ball veteran Dennis Sullivan.
A pair of teams that could make a serious run to the crown include Chris Ferriter and Joe Wilson from the The Orchards Golf Club in South Hadley and Jeremiah Bayer of CCG and Greenfield resident Jay Spofford.
Ferriter and Wilson tied for first in the CCG’s Mac Sennett Two-Ball in early June, where Wilson shot a “Wet Course” record 7-under 63 (ongoing course maintenance reduced No. 8 to a 360-yard par 4 and No. 9 to a 120-yard par 3) — a record Burdick broke later in the month with a 9-under 61. Ferriter tied for eighth in the Greenfield Open.
Although Bayer and Spofford will be a tough out in match play as a team, Bayer could singlehandedly put the pressure on most opponents — the former Boston Red Sox farmhand has been the talk of the club this summer with his titanic blasts off the tee — in recent rounds, he hit his tee shot over the green on the 421-yard third hole; he drove the green on the 380-yard ninth hole; and he came within a foot of driving the green on the 387-yard 17th hole, according to multiple eyewitnesses.
Another team that can’t be counted out is David Donoghue of CCG and his uncle, Rick Kendrew. Donoghue has been playing stellar golf in recent months, and was the Greenfield Open runner-up with a 3-under 69.
Other teams to watch include Jason Kelton and Jamie Crocker of CCG, Brandon Bete and James Elliott of Crumpin-Fox, Greenfield native Paul DeNofrio and Ron Laverdiere of Crumpin-Fox, Patrick McGuire of CCG and Aaron Wheeler of Newington (Conn.) Golf Club, and Scott Serwa of The Bayou Club in Largo, Fla., and Troy Miller of Crumpin-Fox.
There are other teams who could surprise and make their own run at the crown. That’s the main reason Kennedy believes this field is as tough to handicap as any Four-Ball in the state.
“You can’t really pick any team as a favorite, because I don’t think anybody would have picked Joe and Jared to go to the finals last year,” he said.
“The reality is that it’s the Invitational 4-Ball; anything can happen and anything usually does,” added Burdick.
The 16 teams in the Championship Flight will return Friday for the first round of match play, with tee times starting at noon and running through 1:12 p.m.
Saturday’s quarterfinal tee times will run from 7:21 to 7:48 a.m., and the semifinals are scheduled for 1:38 and 1:47 p.m. The final match is set for Sunday at 1:36 p.m.
(A complete list of Thursday’s tee times are available on today’s Scoreboard Page.)