Orange Tree vibes lift Renner, Kim

Give Christina Kim some serious credit. At 37 she could have stayed close to her Orlando home and taken on a U.S. Women’s Open qualifier in warmer, cozier conditions. Instead, channeling her love of Seth Raynor designs, the lively and animated Kim flew to the northeast and played Dedham Country & Polo Club in a cold, raw rain.

The challenge invigorated her, especially after shooting an afternoon 66 to earn co-medalist honors at 3-under, but even greater excitement was displayed when she talked about her friend from Orange Tree Golf Club – Plainville native Jim Renner. “I love playing golf with him. He’s got so much game,” said Kim, who perhaps didn’t quite grasp the irony of her words. Almost concurrent to Kim second round at Dedham, Renner was completing a round of 68 at Orange Tree to advance through a local qualifier for the U.S. Open. “She inspires me,” laughed Renner, whose former caddie on the PGA Tour, Pat Loper, worked the qualifier at Dedham for Kim.

While Kim can reserve her travel plans to the Olympic Club in San Francisco for the U.S. Women’s Open (June 3-6), Renner has the final qualifier between him and a possible spot in the field at Torrey Pines (June 17-20).

On a more immediate front, Renner is focused on the three starts he has coming to him on a Korn Ferry Tour medical exemption. He said he’ll play in Raleigh, N.C., June 3-6, then re-assess. “It’s been a tough road,” said Renner, who had surgery on an elbow and has battled a bad hip and torn labrum. “But I’m starting to feel pretty good and I’m giving myself a chance to play well.”

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Bentley coach steadies Ethier

Never can you over-rate the voice of experience when it comes to this roller-coaster game of golf. Latest example: Bentley golf coach Mickey Herron, who on Monday, May 3 stood in the frosty spring air at Eastward Ho! in Chatham and refused to let one of his golfers, Tommy Ethier, get too down about a score that was too high.

Ethier, a senior from Manchester, N.H., had just signed for 82 in a U.S. Open qualifier. He was dejected and wanted to wallow in misery. Herron wanted to change the mood, so he interjected how Ethier had just been voted Bentley’s most outstanding male athlete.

“And,” reminded Herron, “I should add that he’s the former State Junior champion in New Hampshire.”

Herron’s message to Ethier – put the 82 behind you, focus on the opportunity ahead in the NCAA Div. 2 East Atlantic Regional.

Score one for the coach, because five days later, Ethier was being handed the trophy for being medalist in that regional and being told he had qualified for the NCAA Div. 2 national championship.

Such a beautiful game, this golf, especially when drenched in perspective.

Ethier shot 74-75-74 – 223 at Lake View CC in North East, Penn., then defeated Jack Angelucci of Mercyhurst on the second playoff hole to take medalist honors. It earned Ethier a spot in the national championship May 17-21 at PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Bentley wasn’t so fortunate in the team competition. Tied for fourth, the Falcons lost a tiebreaker with Fayetteville State and failed to qualify for the national championship.

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Sizzling start at Mass. Four-ball

There was a mix of the very familiar (two-time champs Matt Parziale and Herbie Aikens; defending champions Mike Calef and Nick Maccario) and the very young (John Broderick and Weston Jones) in Tuesday’s opening round of the 40th Massachusetts Four-ball Championship.

Parziale (Thorny Lea GC) and Aikens (Old Sandwich GC) combined for nine birdies in an 8-under 64 at Ipswich CC to share the lead with a pair of teenagers, Broderick (Dedham Country & Polo) and Jones (Charter Oak CC).

Calef (Pine Oaks) and Maccario (Bradford CC), who won this event in 2019, the last time it was played, are next, at 66 tied with Andrew DiRamio (North Hill CC) and Andy Luther (Boston GC).

Those four teams will move over to play the Golf Club at Turner Hill in today’s closing round.

While nothing could surprise you about the Parziale-Aikens and Calef-Maccario performances, Broderick and Jones are 17-year-olds who have already experienced some success. Broderick won last summer’s New England Amateur, while Jones just a week ago got through a U.S. Open local qualifier at Eastward Ho!

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Moving to final qualifying

Ben Spitz, the onetime Massachusetts State Amateur and State Junior champion, shot level-par 71 to share medalist honors with Billy Walthouse of Longmeadow in a U.S. Open local qualifier Tuesday at Ledgemont CC in Seekonk . . . . . Matthew Paradis of Hooksett, N.H., shot 69, then prevailed on the fifth hole of a three-way playoff to advance out of a U.S. Open local qualifier at Bear’s Paw CC in Naples, Fla.

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Carbone pitches in at Walker Cup

It will be a small footnote to this year’s dramatic Walker Cup competition at Seminole GC in Juno Beach, Fla., but Cape Cod native Michael Carbone got into the action in a pinch-hitter’s role on Day 1. When a stomach bug swept through the locker rooms Thursday and Friday, Mac Meissner – the first alternate for Team USA – got a call from team captain Nathaniel Crosby and was told to suit up for the opening foursomes Saturday. That meant Carbone, a veteran caddie at Seminole in the winter and Old Sandwich in the summer, was in action on Meissner’s bag. Their one game was a good one, a 2 up triumph that went a long way in helping the Americans win by a 14-12 score.

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Remembering a true character

Rhode Island born and Harvard educated, Stan Abrams was never more at home than on those warm April days when gathered beneath the sprawling oak tree behind the Augusta National clubhouse during Masters week. There, invariably, he would be standing among Masters champions such as Sam Snead, Doug Ford and Bob Goalby, just listening to the tales about how Green Jackets were won and lost when, for levity, Stan would remind these titans that none of them had won two Rhode Island State Amateurs as had he.

It would ignite a round of biting humor, more good cheer, and no one appreciated it more than Abrams, who did win the Rhode Island State Amateur in 1972 and 1975 (and go on to earn induction into the Rhode Island Golf Hall of Fame). He was, above all, a character who had great charm and a passion for laughter.

That his life ended peacefully April 28 at his home in Pittsboro, N.C., surrounded by family members he adored was reason to shed a tear. Abrams, 79, was simply a pleasure to be around.

That his life will be celebrated July 8 at Granite Links Golf Course in Quincy will be fitting since it was one in line of golf properties Abrams’ company, Senior Tour Players, Inc., developed.