BERNARDSTON — The course at Crumpin-Fox Club gave just about every competitor in the 2025 New England Junior Amateur Invitational Individual Championship fits on Monday and Tuesday.
The first two rounds of the tournament took place on Monday, and just one competitor on the boys side was able to finish under par in both.
That would be Connecticut’s North Chery. Chery opened the tournament by shooting a 3-under 69 and evidently got a good read on the course, as he came back for his second round and fired a 10-under 62 which was six strokes better than any round posted on Monday from the 42 competitors.
Holding a nine-stroke lead at 13-under going into the final round on Tuesday, and despite dealing with an injury, Chery closed with a 78 to finish 7-under for the tournament to take first place.
Massachusetts’ Zac Georgantas placed second with a score of 4-under while New Hampshire’s Josiah Hakala came in third with an even-par score.
Chery and Team Connecticut cruised to a team title, besting runner-up Massachusetts by 31 strokes. New Hampshire was third, followed by Rhode Island, Maine and Vermont.
“This is an awesome event,” Chery said. “It feels awesome to win it, especially where this is my last junior golf event before going off to college.”
Chery, from East Haven, Conn., is heading to DePaul in the fall where he’ll play on the Blue Demons’ golf team.
“I was just feeling it,” Chery said. “It was awesome. This is a really nice course. The greens were good, tee shots were tough but it’s a nice course to play.”
Boys champion North Chery on Crumpin-Fox Club
Chery’s opening round saw him even through nine holes before scoring three birdies on the back nine to finish with a 3-under 69.
His second round is when he turned it on. He was bogey free on the front nine with four birdies and after a birdie on 12, Chery proceeded to sink birdies on 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 to finish 10-under with a bogey-free round.
“I was just feeling it,” Chery said. “It was awesome. This is a really nice course. The greens were good, tee shots were tough but it’s a nice course to play.”
While his knee began to swell on Tuesday, Chery battled through and with his sizable lead, was able to hang on for the victory.
He said he enjoyed playing at Crump and the challenge it presented.
“It was pretty tough out there,” Cherry said. “The tee shots were really demanding and having to do two rounds in one day was tough. I made some putts. My tee shots were really good [Monday] but today I was battling a random knee injury and I could barely walk throughout the round. Somehow I made it through.”
Jack Carew placed fourth (1-over) while Michael Madden and Alex Halpert tied for fifth (2-over. Brody DiBeneditto, Will Lord and Robby Rosati tied for seventh (3-over) while Drew MacLeod, Caden Piselli and Austin Perkins tied for 10th (5-over).
It came down to a playoff to determine the individual champion on the girls side on Tuesday. Maddy Smith — this year’s New England Women’s Amateur champion who is committed to play golf at Memphis in the fall — fired scores of 1-over in both her rounds on Monday to finish 2-over on the day and in first place with a three-stroke lead over Olivia Williams and Mady Savary.
It didn’t go to plan for Smith in her third round at Crump, shooting an 80 to finish 10-over. Meanwhile, Jun Xi Guo shot a 73 which put her in a tie with Smith while Savary’s score of 77 also put her 10-over, leading to a three-way playoff to determine the champion.
After a tie on the first hole, Smith recovered and won the second to lift the championship.
Sophie Redmond placed fourth (16-over), Williams took fifth (17-over), Adrianna Eaton came in sixth (18-over), Hanley Correia took seventh (20-over) while Granby’s Ryley Regan took eighth with a score of 23-over.
Regan shot a 4-over 76 in her opening round, fired a 7-over 79 in the second round but couldn’t find a rhythm on Tuesday, closing with an 84.
“It was a little bit disappointing today that I couldn’t perform as well,” Regan said.
Regan has been busy throughout the summer. She competed in the Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship at Crumpin-Fox over the summer, played in the 2025 Massachusetts Women’s Amateur Championship at Concord Country Club last week and added a top-10 finish on Tuesday.
“It’s been a good summer,” Regan said. ” Lots of traveling and good tournaments. Today was another to add to the list.”
Shawna Aurora, Champa Visetsin and Zorah Williams rounded out the top 10 finishers on the girls’ side with scores of 25-over.
Massachusetts won the team title on the girls side, besting Connecticut by 17 strokes. Rhode Island was two shots back in third place.