Sheperdson, DiGrigoli Lead Lenox to Opening Day Win
LENOX, Mass. -- The Lenox golf team Thursday gave maximum effort in its season opener.
Emphasis on the "max."
Max Shepherdson and Max Digrigoli carded rounds of 36 and 37, respectively on the par-34 back nine at Cranwell to lead the Millionaires to a 158-184 win over Mount Greylock.
Shepherdson, who started the eighth grade on Wednesday morning, started his second season on the Lenox varsity with his best nine holes ever on the home course.
But his medalist day did not start out perfectly.
"I got off to a slow start," Shepherdson said. "I was three over after the first hole. ... But my putter started to get hot at the end."
Shepherdson birdied the 315-yard, par-4 15th hole and finished his day with an 6-foot birdie putt on the 369-yard, par-4 18th.
His approach shot uphill into No. 18 was the best of any of the 12 competitors, and he cashed in before a growing gallery to cap a solid afternoon.
"I had like 145 [yards] and hit a 9 iron," Shepherdson said. "It took a good kick for me right off that slope."
All six Millionaires were within 10 strokes of par in the season opener.
After Degrigoli on the leaderboard were Cliff Flynn (42), Brendan Hayden and Ben Haddad (43) and Devin Patel (44).
Flynn had the day's only other birdie, notching a four on the 484-yard, par-5 11th hole.
Mount Greylock was led by Brayden Smith and Alexander Axt, who each carded a 42.
Owen Petropulos (49) and Paul Roeder (51) rounded out the scoring for the Mounties (0-1).
Mount Greylock coach Mitchell Spooner knew going into the opener that Lenox was going to be tough to be on the scoreboard. But he was happy with the way his team played in the loss.
"We lost a standout [the graduated Ben Gilooly] from last year, but we have potential," Spooner said. "We do have six or seven guys who can shoot in the 40s, and that's a luxury we haven't ha before. I think it's going to serve us well going forward.
"I would say for three or four of these guys, it was their first time seeing this course, and for everybody else, it was their first time seeing four or five of these holes."
Spooner was glad to see sophomore Axt battle to a team-best 42 with a round that included a run of three pars in four holes from No. 13 to No. 16.
"Zander stepped up huge in the leadership as a younger guy on the team who came out and played in the No. 1-2 spot with [eighth-grader Petropulos], and they both did great.
"They were held with kids who were hitting every green, making every putt, and they stayed right with them to the end. It was fun to see them play."