AUBURNDALE, Mass. – Fitting how a 16-year-old kid would do something truly remarkable in a golf tournament that is held annually as a remembrance to a 20-year-old who did something historic more than a century ago.
Heck, you might even say that Ryan Downes of Longmeadow, Mass., studied for the part “because I’ve watched ‘The Greatest Game Ever Played’” countless times.
(That’s the movie of the Mark Frost book that pays homage to Francis Ouimet’s stunning win in the 1913 U.S. Open.)
The junior-to-be at Longmeadow High School had a smile on his face that was owed in part for being asked about the Ouimet story, but in greater part to the way in which he had just stormed to a five-stroke victory in the 55th Ouimet Memorial Tournament at Woodland Golf Club on Friday.