Menante makes 'waves' with Northeast Amateur victory

Pepperdine sophomore claims title, bests chasers including Wannamoisett's Chatfield

By Mike Rego
Posted 6/26/21

EAST PROVIDENCE — Dylan Menante, fresh off helping the Pepperdine University men’s golf team claim the 2021 NCAA championship, added another prestigious trophy to his case last week when he …

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Menante makes 'waves' with Northeast Amateur victory

Pepperdine sophomore claims title, bests chasers including Wannamoisett's Chatfield

Posted

EAST PROVIDENCE — Dylan Menante, fresh off helping the Pepperdine University men’s golf team claim the 2021 NCAA championship, added another prestigious trophy to his case last week when he won the 59th playing of the Northeast Amateur Invitational Saturday, June 26, at Wannamoisett Country Club.

Menante, a sophomore who helped the Waves win the school’s second national title in May at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., backed up a 3-under 66 in Round 3 to take the lead with a solid 2-under 67 in the final round to secure the victory at 9-under, 267 total.

Menante managed his game and the renowned Ross-designed Wannamoisett to near perfection last Saturday en route to the win. He made all pars on the front nine and another on the 10th then made back-to-back birdies at the par 4 11th and par 3 12th holes before coming in with six more pars.

Menante, 38th in the latest World Amateur Golf Rankings, shot 68 in his opening round, the shot his first 66 of the tournament on Day 2 to move into contention.

Jerry, a sophomore at the University of Illinois from The Netherlands, finished solo second at 7-under, 269. His final round 64 Saturday helped him race up the leaderboard, though it wasn’t enough to catch Menante.

Connor Howe of Georgia Tech and Joseph Weiler of Purdue shared third place at 6-under, 270.

Local product and Wannamoisett member Davis Chatfield, an Attleboro resident and University of Notre Dame player, gave the large home gallery following him each day reason to cheer all week as he vaulted into the chase with a 4-under 65 in Round 3. He slowed to a 1-over 70 on Saturday, though, settling for a share of fifth at 4-under 272 with Kelly Chinn, headed to Duke in the fall, and Garrett Barber of Louisiana State.

Bryce Lewis, of Tennessee, and the 36-hole leader at 132, stalled in the final two rounds to finish in a share of 11th at 2-under, 274 along with another area player, Michael Thorbjornsen of Wellesley, Mass. and Stanford.

Lewis fired a six-under, 63 during Round 1 on June 23, then shot level par 69 to hold a two-stroke lead over Menante.

Three other Wannamoisett members, former state amateur champs Bobby Leopold (+11) and Billy Forcier (+24) along with Chris Roloff (+11), missed the 54-hole cut, which fell at 6-over. So, too, did former Metacomet member and University of Oklahoma player Patrick Welch (+20) and the remaining Rhode Islander in the field reigning state am champ Jamie Lukowicz of Newport (+8)

Aces
Ji was among three players to make a hole-in-one during the week, doing so on with the pin at 186 yards on the eighth hole in the second round.

Chatfield’s Notre Dame teammate Andrew O’Leary also made an ace on the eighth during Round 3, when it was set at 202 yards.

And Ohio State’s Maxwell Moldovan aced the acclaimed short third hole along Hoyt Avenue during the first round at 138.

Rambunctious return
The 59th edition of the Northeast Am marked a return for the tournament after it was postponed along with so many other activities in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year was the first interruption of event since it began in 1962. An enthusiastic and significant amount of spectators, following especially club member Chatfield, were on hand each day.

Menante’s 9-under performance placed him in the top 10 all-time at the event. Sebastian Crampton was the last player to finish with the 267 total in 2018, though it unfortunately came as Justin Suh matched the tournament record 15-under total to win that year’s event. Suh shares the mark with 2011 winner Peter Uihlein.

The win was the first outright victory of Menante's career as a collegiate. Before the Northeast, he shared first place atop the solo standings with teammate Clay Feagler to help lead Pepperdine to the West Coast Conference tournament team title prior to the NCAA championships, where he finished 17th during the stroke play individual portion of the event.

59th Annual Northeast Amateur Invitational
June 23-26
Wannamoisett Country Club, Rumford, R.I.
Final results, Top 10
1 Dylan Menante, Carlsbad, CA -9 68 66 66 67 267
2 Jerry Ji, Netherlands -7 70 68 67 64 269
T3 Connor Howe, Ogden, UT -6 70 68 67 65 270
T3 Joseph Weiler, W. Lfytte, IN -6 71 65 66 68 270
T5 Garrett Barber, Stuart, FL -4 72 68 65 67 272
T5 Kelly Chinn, Great Falls, VA -4 69 66 66 71 272
T5 Davis Chatfield, Attlbro, MA -4 68 69 65 70 272
T8 Ben Smith, Novi, MI -3 70 68 69 66 273
T8 Hunter Wolcott, Burns, TN -3 68 67 69 69 273
T8 Noah Norton, Chico, CA -3 68 68 65 72 273

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