If you’re thinking a couple of high school seniors are in the deep end at the ongoing U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship, you don’t know the history of this event and you surely don’t know the track record that Joey Lenane (Dedham, Mass.) is compiling.
As for the former, take note that a pair of high school golfers from Florida captured last year’s championship at Chambers Bay in Washington. As for Lenane, a senior at Xaverian Brothers who’ll attend North Carolina State next year, and Aidan O’Donovan, a senior at Somerville (Mass.) High School who is headed to the University of Rhode Island, these are young kids on a fast track.
Lenane is the No. 1-ranked junior by JuniorGolfScoreboard.com, and they announced their presence at the CC of Birmingham with an emphatic start – birdie, birdie, birdie, then an eagle at the par-5 sixth. From there, the scoring continued as rounds of 66-66 – 132 enabled the high school seniors to finish T-15 and get into match play that began Monday.
Unlike Lenane and O’Donovan, the other local team to make it into match play – Mike Calef (West Bridgewater, Mass.) and Nick Maccario (Waltham, Mass.), have plenty of experience and they leaned on it when they bogeyed twice early in the first round.