Trio remains dry atop board
River, rain a factor in first-round play
STOCKBRIDGE - The Housatonic River winds around the Stockbridge Golf Club like a snake, curling back on itself to sidle up against 14 of the 18 holes on the 113-year-old course tucked amid the Berkshires. On a few holes, a tee shot that misses left will find the Housatonic, and a tee shot that misses right also will find the Housatonic.
In this rustic water park, three players finished at 2-under-par 68 in the first round of the Massachusetts Open yesterday to lead the pack, but only half the field finished before a series of thunderstorms halted play at 4:30. None of the afternoon starters finished their rounds, leaving 75 to return this morning to finish the first round, then proceed with the second.
Mark Alizzeo, a 35-year-old Shrewsbury native, ground out a 68 to share the clubhouse lead with Matthew Donovan of Pittsfield and Andrew DiBitetto of Rochester, N.Y., who just graduated from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and turned pro on the first tee, handing over a check that bumped up his status from amateur.
Last year's runner-up Frank Dully II, the pro at Kernwood Golf Club, and amateur Brian Higgins of Franklin followed with 69s. Six-time winner Geoff Sisk is not in the field.
By late afternoon, there was water, water everywhere - sloshing down from the sky, and lying in wait in the river. Stockbridge is laid out on a high flood plain, and more than 60 floods have swamped the course in the last 18 years.
This is the first State Open hosted by Stockbridge, and the MGA has set up the course with narrow fairways and raggedy rough to complement the small greens.
"There's a lot of doglegs, fairly tight fairways, there's not a lot of room to land the ball," said Higgins. "So you really have to shape a lot of shots. You can't really hit a straight ball out here. It's not a particularly long course, but it's a position golf course."
Alizzeo, who won the qualifier at Oyster Harbor by four strokes, had never seen the course before he arrived yesterday morning.
"I left my place at 5 in the morning, never been here," said Higgins, who brought along a high school pal to caddy for him. "I pull into town at 6:30-7 o'clock and, it was cool - old school, nice mansions, couldn't find the course. Then they told us we couldn't hit balls, which I didn't know. [There is no driving range.] I took a shower here and we went and hit balls at Cranwell [Resort], came back, and we teed off. It worked out perfect."
Alizzeo had a conversation last week with golfer Billy Cosgrove, who was familiar with the course. "He told me exactly what to do off the tees, and it came to fruition," said Alizzeo. "We kept it in front of us; if you can hit it where you can see it, you can play it again. I really didn't hit it that good but I kept the ball right in front of me."
Alizzeo was unaware of the river's omnipresence.
"I don't want to know anything about that," Alizzeo said. "I hope I don't ever find that out. I didn't see it and I don't want to see it. I hit it and I chase it. It's perfect for me. I'm not very long. I hit it pretty straight and I chip and putt decent. I missed the last five greens in a row but I got up and down on all five, and that's because I left it in the right spot. Short, you've got to be short; my longest par putt was 4 1/2 feet."
Alizzeo spent a decade as a rep for Spalding, then "resigned from my dream job to live my dream," as he explained it, and for the last five years, he has been a professional, slogging along on the mini-tours. It's not easy. In fact, said Alizzeo, it's brutal, trying to play pro golf with your own money. It's a lot of sleeping on couches and floors.
He has been to Q School twice, and after cutting back his schedule last year following the death of his mother, he has decided to give the pro life one more year and take one more run at Q School.
But first, he's taking a run at Stockbridge, hitting the ball where he can see it and then hitting it again.
He wants to take a path straight to victory.
"The Mass Open's my big one," he said.
