Leopold Leads Medal Play Portion After Round 1 of RI Amateur
Defending Rhode Island Amateur champion Bobby Leopold kicked off his title defense with a four-under 65 on Monday at Warwick Country Club.
Leopold leads the medal play portion of the tournament by one shot over Bennett Masterson with one round of medal play left to go on Tuesday.
“I hit it really well today. The fairways are tight, the brought the fairways in to make it harder for us, the rough is up, there is no first cut, which makes it that much harder. You have to be really precise and I’m sure these greens will firm up and there is going to be a premium on hitting fairways,” Leopold told RIGA after the round.
Leopold cruised through the medal play portion of the tournament last year, and then cruised through the rest of the tournament.
Prior to the tournament, Leopold joined GolfNewsRI TV – WATCH HERE
The winner of the medal play portion gets the number one overall seed once match play begins.
Leopold’s Round
All players teed off of the first hole during Monday’s opening round and they will do the same on Tuesday.
Leopold opened with five straight pars, before making his first birdie on the sixth hole.
He parred out the rest of the way to turn at one-under.
On the back side, Leopold parred the first four holes to stay at the one-under number.
The defending champ then went to work.
Leopold dropped birdies on the 14th and 15th holes, then rolled in about a 20-footer for birdie from below the hole on 18 to finish at four-under.
GNRI Insights
GolfNewsRI was at the State Amateur for multiple hours on Monday and walked with a handful of players from guys near the top of the leaderboard to guys near the bottom.
Four-time champion Brad Valois is one-under for the tournament after making five-bogeys against six birdies on Monday.
“This is a real golf course, I like it. This might be the toughest course in the state,” Valois told GNRI.
There are only five players under par for the tournament, and three of those are just one-under.
This comes on a day when there was not a ton of wind to contend with.
Multiple players told GNRI about how brutal the rough is, and Leopold hints at that above.
Other players had trouble adjusting to the green speeds, some even saying the greens were on the “slower” side.
Cut Down Day Tuesday
Following Tuesday’s round, the top 32 players will advance to the match play portion of the tournament.
There will be a playoff for the final spots, if necessary.
As of Monday evening, three-over is the cut, but obviously a long way to go.
Former La Salle star Max Jackson and 2024 High School State Champion Rocco Capalbo are two-over for the tournament.
While Mike Hamilton, RI Legend George Pirie and 2023 Stroke Play Champ Harry Dessel are sitting right on the cut line.
Past Amateur champions Jamie Lukowicz, Bill Forcier and Tom McCormick all sit one shot outside the cut line going into Tuesday.
“Crappy start today, but it’s a long week. Work to do tomorrow,” Lukowicz told GNRI.
Triggs legend Jay Amado is two-shots off the cut, while La Salle star Drew MacLeod is three-shots back.