WESTFIELD, Mass. - Westfield State junior Mike Sarkis (East Longmeadow, Mass.) won the 2017 Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference men's golf individual title, carding a 3-over 75 in the victory at the Blackstone National Golf Club in Sutton, Mass., on Tuesday afternoon.
"I wasn't sure how I would play," said Sarkis. "I hadn't really played well for the two weeks before the tournament, and I had been switching putters around. I was a little shaky with the putter early, but then I one-putted holes 8-12, and chipped in for birdie on 13. It turned out pretty well."
Golf has been a shaky proposition this spring with the mid-March blizzard that dropped 17 inches of snow on Westfield, then a diet of steady rains last week.
"In the last five days I only played one round," said Sarkis. "I've just been hitting balls at a range in Connecticut, chipping in my yard, and putting on the practice green at Tekoa [Country Club, the Owls home course]. The putting practice paid off."
The teams got perfect weather at Blackstone on Tuesday, with temperatures in the 80s.
"It was a great day to play," said Sarkis, who was playing the course for the third time. "I think that is a course you really have to know to play well, so having seen it before really helped out."
Westfield State (332) finished third as a team, 10 strokes behind team champion Salem State (322), which won for the second straight year. Worcester State (327) finished second.
For Westfield, Kris Houda and Ryan Koczela tied for 10th with scores of 85, Nick Eliopoulos (87) was 13th and , Cam Stanton (89) was 15th.
Tournament Results
