Tuesday turned into quite the memorable day for Cody Booska.
The Turners Falls resident and Country Club of Greenfield member put it all together. In Massachusetts Golf Association (MGA) local qualifying for the 109th Massachusetts Amateur Championship, Booska fired a course-record round of 64 at the Country Club of Wilbraham. The 8-under par broke the old mark by two strokes en route to a first-place finish that allowed Booska to breeze into next month’s MassAm.
“Needless to say, I had pretty much everything going for me,” offered Booska, who graduated from Franklin County Technical School in 2014 “I told myself just to hit greens and give myself chances for birdies. I’ve been hitting the ball great lately but I’ve been struggling with my putter a bit. I got a quick fix in and everything felt good going into (Tuesday).”
Booska advanced to compete in his fourth Massachusetts Amateur Championship, scheduled for July 10 through 14 at Charles River Country Club in Boston. The annual five-day tournament will begin with stroke play on July 10 to 11 before the top 32 in the field move on to three days of match play, concluding with a 36-hole contest with the remaining two players to crown the 2017 champion.
“My goal is obviously to make match play, that’s my goal every time I’ve stepped out there,” Booska explained of the event. “I’ve only done it once and I didn’t play very well my other times there.”
In Tuesday’s round, Booska played even-par golf until the sixth hole. He birdied No. 6 and 7, made a nice par save on No. 8, and put his tee shot on the par 3 9th hole to just about a foot. His tap-in birdie had him 3-under at the turn.
“I started hitting centers of greens the first six holes but I wasn’t really making any putts,” said Booska. “I left a couple shots out there. But after that, I was able to start making putts and got things really rolling.”
He birdied No. 10 and hit a 3-wood to about four feet on the par 5 11th hole. His eagle put him to 6-under through 11, and despite giving a shot back with a bogey on No. 13, he closed quite well. Booska birdied 15, 17 and 18, getting to the 8-under 64 that put him easily into first place. Alejandro Soto of Blue Hills Country Club was the runner-up with a 68, as just three players in the field wound up under par.
“There are a lot of holes out there with big risk/reward potential but I just told myself to stick to the game plan,” Booska said. “Once I got into the round deep, I thought my nerves might kick in a bit but I was able to control them and finish strong. I think I missed two greens and one fairway all day.”
It was the second straight year that Booska excelled at Wilbraham. In last year’s qualifier, he tied for first place with an even-par round of 72 to advance to the Mass. Amateur Championship. There, he put together rounds of 79 and 77, missing the cut at Taconic Golf Club.
“I went up for a practice round (Monday at Wilbraham) to familiarize myself again,” said Booksa. “I haven’t played it for a year and last year was the first time I played it. I remembered most of it but took some notes in the practice round and that ended up helping me a lot.”
The 64 was the lowest round in Booska’s career. His previous low of 66 came at his home course Country Club of Greenfield, but that wasn’t in a tournament.
Booska has two years of collegiate eligibility remaining at Johnson & Wales University in North Miami, Fla. He helped the Wildcats to an eighth-place finish at the NAIA Men’s Golf Championship in May at the TPC at Deere Run in Illinois.
“I love it down there,” he said of Miami. “We’re spoiled down there. We get to play some awesome courses. I’ve been able to use a lot of that experience up here.”
Booska will be in action before the Amateur Championship, as he’ll compete in the New England Amateur qualifier June 29 at CC of G. The New England Amateur is set to be played at Rhode Island’s Metacomet Country Club July 18-20.