Swampscott native and recent St. Mary’s graduate Christian Emmerich has already accomplished quite a bit in his young golfing career. He won back-to-back individual state championships with the Spartans in 2017 and 2018 and helped lead St. Mary’s to the team championship in consecutive years. He earned a scholarship to play Division I Holy Cross, where he’ll start school this fall, he won multiple tournaments outside of the high school circuit and made a run to the semifinals of the Massachusetts Junior Amateur.
But Emmerich himself would tell you he may have topped all of that with what he accomplished earlier this week when he qualified for the 119th United States Amateur Golf Championship.
Swampscott native and recent St. Mary’s graduate Christian Emmerich has already accomplished quite a bit in his young golfing career. He won back-to-back individual state championships with the Spartans in 2017 and 2018 and helped lead St. Mary’s to the team championship in consecutive years. He earned a scholarship to play Division I Holy Cross, where he’ll start school this fall, he won multiple tournaments outside of the high school circuit and made a run to the semifinals of the Massachusetts Junior Amateur.
But Emmerich himself would tell you he may have topped all of that with what he accomplished last week when he qualified for the 119th United States Amateur Golf Championship.
“It feels really great to qualify, it’s just a huge boost for my confidence out there,” said Emmerich, a member at Salem’s Kernwood Country Club. “It just kind of helps prove to myself and others that all of my hard work lately is starting to pay off and will continue to pay off moving forward.”
It is no easy task qualifying for the US Amateur. The qualifying process consists of a one-day, 36-hole tournament where the lowest three scores of the day qualify for the tournament. Emmerich played his qualifying rounds at Metacomet Country Club in East Providence, R.I., a course he had never played before and a course that didn’t have a driving range for him to warm up on. But that didn’t seem to matter much, as he went on to shoot a 68 and a 67 for a total score of 5-under 135 and grabbed the final qualifying spot.
“It was a tough start, I’m not going to lie,” Emmerich said of his qualifier. “Since they had no range, the first shot I hit was a 5-iron into a 200-yard par three and I made a bogey. But I hung in there and just kept the mindset that I needed to make as many birdies as I could out there, and I was able to play well down the stretch.”
This year’s US Amateur will be played at the historic Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina –on the famous No. 2 and No. 4 courses — from August 12-18. The No. 2 course, designed by Donald Ross in 1907, has hosted the US Amateur twice previously (1962 and 2008) and has hosted the US Open three times (1999, 2005, 2014). In addition to the US Amateur this year, the No. 2 course will host the US Open again in 2024. The No. 4 course, initially designed by Ross in 1919, was redesigned by Gil Hanse in 2018 and is considered one of the best new courses in the United States. The format of the US Amateur consists of two days of 18-hole stroke play followed by a cutdown to the top 64 players before two more days of match play competition to determine the winner.
“I’m really excited to get to play down there, it obviously has a ton of history and is a high-quality, challenging test of golf,” Emmerich said. “To play in a USGA (United States Golf Association) event there will be great because it will be set up in a similar way that the US Open is, so I’ll really get a true test of my game.”
But even before the US Amateur, Emmerich has his sights set on another tournament: the 111th Massachusetts Amateur. The tournament, which will be played at The Country Club in Brookline from July 15-19, is going to serve as both a stern test and great preparation for what Emmerich will find down in North Carolina.
“I played (at The Country Club) a couple of weeks ago, and you really have to drive the ball in the fairway if you want to have a chance there,” said Emmerich. “It’s also going to be great preparation for Pinehurst, because both places have really small, fast greens.”
And make no mistake, Emmerich isn’t going to these tournaments just for the fun of it.
“I’m going to go in there and try to win, there’s no other way,” said Emmerich. “If you go into a tournament thinking that you just want to be able to qualify or hit a certain number, you’ll end up around that number. You’ve got to go at every tournament like you’re going to win.”
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Also qualifying for the 119th US Amateur was Swampscott native Steven DiLisio of Salem Country Club, who earned medalist honors at his qualifier at Longmeadow Country Club. The 21-year-old Duke University senior shot a 66 and a 67 for a total score of 7-under 133.
“It feels really great to qualify, it’s just a huge boost for my confidence out there,” said Emmerich, a member at Salem’s Kernwood Country Club. “It just kind of helps prove to myself and others that all of my hard work lately is starting to pay off and will continue to pay off moving forward.”
It is no easy task qualifying for the US Amateur. The qualifying process consists of a one-day, 36-hole tournament where the lowest three scores of the day qualify for the tournament. Emmerich played his qualifying rounds at Metacomet Country Club in East Providence, R.I., a course he had never played before and a course that didn’t have a driving range for him to warm up on. But that didn’t seem to matter much, as he went on to shoot a 68 and a 67 for a total score of 5-under 135 and grabbed the final qualifying spot.
“It was a tough start, I’m not going to lie,” Emmerich said of his qualifier. “Since they had no range, the first shot I hit was a 5-iron into a 200-yard par three and I made a bogey. But I hung in there and just kept the mindset that I needed to make as many birdies as I could out there, and I was able to play well down the stretch.”
This year’s US Amateur will be played at the historic Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina –on the famous No. 2 and No. 4 courses — from August 12-18. The No. 2 course, designed by Donald Ross in 1907, has hosted the US Amateur twice previously (1962 and 2008) and has hosted the US Open three times (1999, 2005, 2014). In addition to the US Amateur this year, the No. 2 course will host the US Open again in 2024. The No. 4 course, initially designed by Ross in 1919, was redesigned by Gil Hanse in 2018 and is considered one of the best new courses in the United States. The format of the US Amateur consists of two days of 18-hole stroke play followed by a cutdown to the top 64 players before two more days of match play competition to determine the winner.
“I’m really excited to get to play down there, it obviously has a ton of history and is a high-quality, challenging test of golf,” Emmerich said. “To play in a USGA (United States Golf Association) event there will be great because it will be set up in a similar way that the US Open is, so I’ll really get a true test of my game.”
But even before the US Amateur, Emmerich has his sights set on another tournament: the 111th Massachusetts Amateur. The tournament, which will be played at The Country Club in Brookline from July 15-19, is going to serve as both a stern test and great preparation for what Emmerich will find down in North Carolina.
“I played (at The Country Club) a couple of weeks ago, and you really have to drive the ball in the fairway if you want to have a chance there,” said Emmerich. “It’s also going to be great preparation for Pinehurst, because both places have really small, fast greens.”
And make no mistake, Emmerich isn’t going to these tournaments just for the fun of it.
“I’m going to go in there and try to win, there’s no other way,” said Emmerich. “If you go into a tournament thinking that you just want to be able to qualify or hit a certain number, you’ll end up around that number. You’ve got to go at every tournament like you’re going to win.”
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Also qualifying for the 119th US Amateur was Swampscott native Steven DiLisio of Salem Country Club, who earned medalist honors at his qualifier at Longmeadow Country Club. The 21-year-old Duke University senior shot a 66 and a 67 for a total score of 7-under 133.