GolfNewsRI

In a battle of Oxbridge Academy (FL) teammates, AJ Colonna edged Joey Iaciofano to win the Rhode Island Boys Amateur Championship on Friday morning at Pawtucket Country Club. 

Colonna beat Iaciofano one-up on the 18th hole to take the trophy. 

“This means everything. I’ve worked so hard this whole week. Not a lot of sleep obviously, just coming out here and grinding and getting it done means a lot,” said Colonna after the round. 

Colonna and Iaciofano are about eight months removed from helping Oxbridge Academy win the Florida High School State Championship, and now found themselves battling it out for the RI Junior Am title on Friday. 

“Playing against Joey, it’s always awesome. I’ve played with him since I’ve grown up. He is such a great player and I still hope he goes out and wins every tournament he plays,” added Colonna. 

For Colonna, a win at the RI Junior Am also punches him a ticket to the 2026 U.S. Junior Am. 

“That’s awesome. I’m still kind of at a loss for words. I will process that all later, just excited to enjoy this with my family and everyone that came out,” said Colonna. 

This is the first year in which the RI Boys Junior Am winner gets a bid to the U.S. Junior Am. 

RIGA’s Bob Ward says he hopes the Ri Women’s Am and RI Girls Junior will also receive bids to their respective USGA events in the near future. 

Scoring HERE 

Championship Match 

This match was a grind. 

Colonna took a one-up lead after the first hole, and Iaciofano tied the match on the second hole.  

From there, the two players would halve every hole until the 12th. 

Conditions played a role in that as both players tried to adjust to cooler temperatures and a wet golf course. 

“Things that you don’t quite think about. It rained all night last night, and you have thick, wet, rough. It’s tough to get the club through, it kind of grabs the club face and shuts it a little bit. The greens were really receptive, so it is tough to adjust too, but it helped to have my caddie there,” said Colonna.  

On the back side, Iaciofano won the 12th hole, but Colonna got it right back on the 13th hole to once again tie the match. 

Iaciofano won the 16th hole to go one-up with two holes to play. 

However, on 17, Colonna blasted a drive down the middle of the fairway, while Iaciofano put his tee shot in the right trees. 

Iaciofano’s second shot went into the left bunker, while Colonna’s went just over the green, leaving him a short chip. 

Colonna ended up making four, while Iaciofano could not get up and down from the sand. 

As the match shifted to 18, both players hit big drives, leaving them with short chips. 

Playing first, Colonna hit a nifty chip that landed just a few feet below the flag and stopped. 

Iaciofano hit a great chip himself, but his landed a few feet above the flag, leaving him a downhill putt. 

Iaciofano’s putt just slid by the hole, leaving the door open for Colonna to win it with a make – and he did.