Shepardson Leads Lenox Past Hoosac Valley
LENOX, Mass. -- Lenox golfer Max Shepardson could have let an early mistake get in his head on Wednesday.
But a walk in the woods helped him refocus and dominate.
Shepardson notched two birdies en route to a 1-over-par 38 on the front nine at Wyndhurst to lead the Millionaires to a 175-218 win over Hoosac Valley in Lenox’s Fall 2 season opener.
“On the third hole, I had a good lag putt,” Shepardson said. “The hole before, I three-putted, so it was good for me to get my putting stroke back a little bit.”
In the newly configured course formerly known as Cranwell, the walk from the second green to the third tee is a bit of a hike, and Shepardson appears to have made the most of it.
“Luckily, I had a long walk to forget about [No. 2], right?” he said with a smile. “I’d hit some good shots. I just had some bad putts. Some of those putts are eventually going to go in.”
He dropped in enough putts to finish seven strokes ahead of the field to take medalist honors.
His teammate and playing partner on Wednesday, Ben Haddad, finished second with a 45. Devan Patel and Brady Digrigoli each carded a 46 to round out the scoring for Lenox.
Hoosac Valley got a pair of 48s from Corban Craig and Ian Capiello. Lucas Levesque and Joe Bentz each finished with a 61.
Craig finished his day with a birdie on the 475-yard, par 5 ninth hole.
Shepardson picked up his birdies on the 315-yard, par-4 seventh and the 495-yard, par-5 eighth.
“I hit a 5-iron off the tee [on No. 6] and hit a wedge into the green,” Shepardson said. “I made kind of a lucky putt. I didn't hit a good putt, but it kind of trickled in. It was like 6 feet.
“On 8, I hit a 5-wood onto the fairway and a 7-iron up onto the other part of the fairway. I hit a wedge to like 12 feet and made a putt.”
Shepardson was nonchalant about making a relatively substantial putt for the red number.
“I’ve played that hole like a million times, so I had the putt down,” he said.
With a late season snow in the forecast for Thursday and Friday, players from both teams likely will have an unwelcome break from the golf course the next couple of days before meeting again, they hope, for a planned tri-match with Taconic at Forest Park in Adams on Monday.