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DiLisio does it again!

Different course, same result.

For the second straight year, Steven DiLisio captured the Boys Division title at the Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship. The 12-year-old who is a junior member at Salem Country Club and who was featured on the cover of July’s North Shore Golf & Tennis magazine, more than lived up to the billing by posting a two-round total of 11-over par 155 to win by a five-stroke margin at Foxboro CC.

“I am pretty excited,” said DiLisio, who capped off his victory this morning by making birdie on the 502-yard, par 5 18th hole. “It feels good that all of the hard work is finally paying off.”

This past summer, DiLisio, who will be a seventh grader at Swampscott Middle School in the fall, has focused his efforts on improving his overall game by competing in a slew of local, regional and national events. It also helps that he has a supportive family including his mother and grandfather (who followed him all week long) as well as older brother Anthony and father Dana, who captured the 2007 Massachusetts Father & Son Championship.

“My game has been pretty good lately,” said DiLisio, who also credits his coach Tom Patri for his improvement over the years. “I didn’t hit the ball great yesterday, but I made a lot of putts. Today was the opposite. I hit the ball well, but I didn’t make many putts.”

To that point, DiLisio – despite windy conditions – jumped out to a first-round lead on Wednesday thanks to a 4-over par 76 which included several highlight-reel shots including a 20-foot par putt on the 493-yard, par 4 5th hole. Today’s round had its memorable moments as well including a 40-foot eagle putt on the 493-yard, par 5 4th hole. He also – on the 490-yard, par 5 9th hole – watched his fourth shot bounce into the hole and out... just missing what would have been his third birdie of the day and sixth of the championship.

“I felt like if I didn’t win it again or place high it would be a disappointment and it would be more like a one-time thing,” said DiLisio when asked if he felt pressure entering the event as the defending champion. “I was just going out and trying to play the best that I could. I wasn’t worrying about what everyone else was doing or what it would be like if I didn’t win.”

Spoken like a true champion... and one who – if successful in 2011 – will become only the second player in MGA history to capture three straight Boys Division titles. The only other player to accomplish that feat was Peter Uihlein, who captured the title in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Speaking of the 2011 tournament, DiLisio and the rest of the field will have the opportunity of playing one of the top private courses in the area as Renaissance GC in Haverhill plays host to the prestigious event.

-- Becky Blaeser, MGA

Haskell leaves behind
a lengthy legacy

The passing of Dick Haskell, Ipswich native, former Essex County Club member and long-time executive director of the Massachusetts Golf Association (MGA), is the end of an era in Bay State golf history.

Haskell, who died at his Chestnut Hill home on Sunday, July 11 at the age of 84 while working out on his treadmill (and presumably watching Paula Creamer win the U.S. Women’s Open), brought the MGA into the modern generation of golf administration. He created one of the top state organizations for golf administration in the country. The MGA became a national model for how a state golf association should be run for the benefit of its member clubs and golfers.

The former Sports Illustrated sales executive loved everything about golf. As his wife Betty told this writer, “Dick loved his family and he loved golf. He felt he was blessed with the best of both, the golf through the MGA.”

Golf was in his blood from boyhood days growing up in Ipswich. He caddied at the now defunct Labor-in-Vain Country Club, Richard Crane’s nine-hole playground on his Crane Estate, and lost the Ould Newbury club championship to Charley Volpone before moving over to Essex CC, where he was a member for 17years. From there, after moving the family to Brookline, he joined The Country Club, where his family’s connection dates back to the 1800s.

He served in important capacities for the 1988 U.S. Open and 1999 Ryder Cup at The Country Club and played a vital role in the publishing of the MGA’s centennial volume and The Country Club’s golf history.

Joe Sprague, MGA executive director since 2007 and previously the executive director of the Rhode Island Golf Association, knew Haskell from both positions. “Dick was a giant in golf administration throughout the country,” Sprague said, “and within the International Association of Golf Administrators.

“Personally, I was never happier than when Mr. Haskell called me after I got the MGA job and invited me to lunch at The Country Club. That was a sign of his approval which I will always cherish.”

Haskell received special honors in recent years from the MGA (the MGA Player of the Year award is named after him), the United States Golf Association and the Francis Ouimet Fund.
For many years he was MGA executive director while his son, R.D., playing out of The Country Club, contended in many state and regional competitions. Dick had game as a young fellow, but he experienced his finest moments as a player vicariously through his son’s performances.

On a personal note, Dick Haskell was an enthusiastic counsel when I began covering golf, first for The Beverly Times, and later during a 25-year career at The Salem News and as a correspondent for Golf World magazine, MassGolfer and North Shore Golf. More recently, as I delved into the game from an historical perspective, Dick was often the first phone call I made to get an opinion or confirmation. His encouragement has continued to be invaluable as I have moved into the realm of writing golf and institutional histories.

We were kindred spirits, Haskell and this ink-stained wretch. He loved golf history as much as I did. That voice, his rare intelligence and insight that I relied on for so many years, has fallen silent. But as long as I am able to continue penning these historical documents, Dick Haskell’s imprint will live on.

Haskell never forgot his local roots. “I’ll always be a North Shore boy,” he told me. But a far more expansive golf community is grateful he spread his wings and served the game like few men have. He leaves a remarkable legacy to the game locally and beyond.

-- Gary Larrabee

Whelan and Salah knocking on door

In making a giant progression in their games, Myopia’s Jack Whelan and Bass Rocks’ Josh Salah have emerged as two of the North Shore’s top players this season, at least as of our publication’s issue deadline in early August. And that’s with a tip of the bucket cap to two-time Massachusetts Golf Association Junior (Boys’ Division, 13 and under) champion Steve DiLisio of Salem Country Club.

Whelan, a senior three-sport ace at Pingree School, had shown promise at the scholastic level and confirmed that promise with a stellar summer campaign to date, including his near miss performance at the MGA Junior Championship (Junior Division, oldest age group). By charging into a three-way playoff for the title, then losing in heartbreaking fashion on the second playoff hole, Whelan, 17, marked himself as a player to watch.

Additionally, the Topsfield resident finished eighth at an American Junior Golf Association event at The Golf Club of Cape Cod (the second best Massachusetts finisher), placed sixth at the Triggs Memorial Junior in Providence, won the Francis Ouimet Junior Invitational at Stow Acres and Maplegate and was named to the Massachusetts team for the New England Junior championship.

“Jack’s got tremendous potential and he’s begun showing it this season,” Bill Safrin, the Myopia head professional, said of Whelan, a third generation MHC member, following his father, Bill Jr., and grandfather, William. “He’s unflappable, a good ball striker, hits it long, keeps the ball in play and is improving with his putting.”

Whelan ignited his encouraging season after making a bitter mistake at the Massachusetts Amateur qualifier at Needham. A double-bogey six on the last hole meant a 74 when a par would have gotten him in the field on his home course, but since then he has played impressively, capped by his showing at the Mass. Junior.

That championship would have been his outright if he’d holed a 15-foot eagle putt on the 54th hole, a putt that lipped out. “That was a bummer,” Jack said, “but the birdie got me into the playoff. I had no reason to complain.”

When Whelan missed a 15-footer on the second extra hole and The Ranch’s Andy Mai sank a three-foot birdie putt after making a spectacular approach shot from the woods, the Myopia hopeful had to settle for second.

“It was an exciting week,” said Whelan, who went 75-72-69 for 216. “I’ll learn from it and move on.”

The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder will focus on his golf throughout the fall school season, then play for Pingree’s title-contending basketball and baseball teams before moving on to college or prep school. He’d like to play Division 1 college golf, possibly in the mid-Atlantic region or the Carolinas.

Josh Salah was hoping to make more headlines as August wound down after making the elite match-play field of 32 at the Mass. Amateur at Myopia and contending all three days at the New England Amateur before shooting a closing 76 and finishing T-12. “I’ve had two great experiences so far this summer,” Josh, a sophomore at Sacred Heart University, said. “I was happy with the two solid rounds in qualifying at Myopia (75-74-149, T-17) and I had a solid chance to beat Ryan (Riley) my first match. I had him two-down after seven could have made it three-down on eight. But I took five shots to get down from 160 yards out on a par-5 and he won the hole with a par. He made a bunch of birdies after that. I birdied 15 and 16, but bogeyed 17 and I was out.”

Josh was 66-68-134 and in second place after two rounds of the New Englands at Yale, and was only one stroke off the lead with six holes to go the final round before staggering in with 76 for 210, six shots off Brian Higgins’ winning score.

“The putter was good the first day, not the other two,” said Josh (whose 68 featured 16 pars). He was one of four players one shot in arrears, behind four others who shared the lead, with six holes remaining. He followed that effort with another poor putting effort at The Ouimet Invitational (73-79-77-229).