SIASCONSET, MASSACHUSETTS | Mark Costanza’s marriage is off to an auspicious start.
Costanza and his wife, Meredith, got married on Sept. 18, just one week before the U.S. Mid-Amateur started at Sankaty Head Golf Club in Nantucket. Meredith, whose family has been vacationing on the island since she was a young girl, went right into caddie mode for her new husband.
Little did she know, those responsibilities would include nine rounds. Costanza, 32, authored a terrific run to the final match and nearly erased a 7-down deficit against eventual champion Stewart Hagestad.
“We’ve been up here multiple times, and we're going to continue to come here,” Costanza said. “Now for sure it’s got a special place in my heart, too.”
Immediately after the event ended, the newlyweds took a flight to Rome where the non-golf segment of the honeymoon could continue. Stays in Capri and Positano were on the docket for next week.
“I’m happy to be able to fly to Italy tonight and enjoy the next week and not see a golf club for a while,” Costanza said.
This runner-up performance was affirmation for the Morristown, New Jersey, resident coming off of a sensational 2020 where he earned New Jersey and Metropolitan Golf Association Player of the Year. He is now exempt into next year’s U.S. Amateur and the next three U.S. Mid-Ams.
Nick Maccario was the only Massachusetts representative who earned a spot in the U.S. Mid-Amateur match-play bracket. With a supportive Bay State crowd behind him, he came agonizingly close to the ultimate dream of earning a 2022 U.S. Open tee time at The Country Club, which is about 40 miles south of his home in Haverhill.
Maccario got through to match play via a 13-for-7 playoff and then rattled off four victories in a row in which he never saw the 18th hole. The highlight came in the round of 16 when he won four consecutive holes to close out the respected Brad Nurski, 3 and 2.
He appeared to be dead in the water in his semifinals match against Costanza, falling 4 down through eight holes. Maccario cut that deficit in half with a valiant effort on the back nine, but could get no closer.
“When I made the (birdie) putt on 13, I started to hear, ‘Come on, you can do this,’ which is fantastic,” Maccario said. “There were a fair amount of people out there the whole week, telling me, ‘Massachusetts is rooting for you.’ The goal was to try to get to the Country Club next year. The goal is still to do that, but now I have to do it in a little bit harder way.”
Maccario finished third in the Gasparilla Invitational earlier this year and won the Hornblower Memorial last year. He was also the Massachusetts Golf Player of the Year and earned some attention for shooting 56 in a casual round with friends.
With Sankaty Head playing less than 6,700 yards, conditions were ripe for a senior to make some noise against the younger competition.
That noise came courtesy Doug Hanzel, the oldest man in the field at 64 years old. Hanzel reached the round of 32 before a loss to eventual quarterfinalist Christian Sease.
USGA officials said Hanzel is the oldest player to reach match play since at least 2012.
Stewart Hagestad had an unlikely source of help in his U.S. Mid-Am victory.
His caddie was 18-year-old Peter Kiley, a member at Los Angeles Country Club where Hagestad also belongs. Kiley has worked the past four summers at Sankaty Head’s caddie camp, a program that began in 1930 and is now the only remaining camp of its kind in the United States. Participants stay in on-course lodging provided by the club and loop for 10 weeks.
On Tuesday evening, Hagestad and Kiley were hitting balls together on an empty practice range. The chemistry between the two of them was palpable.
“He’s 18, but he’s much more mature than I was at 18,” Hagestad said. “He wasn’t afraid to call me off and tell me no and give me a little sass. I think that he’s learned a couple things from me, and I’ve learned a couple things from him. I owe a tremendous amount of credit to him.”
The win put Hagestad in elite company. Other than Nathan Smith (2003, 2009, 2010, 2012) and Jay Sigel (1983, 1985, 1987), no player has won more than two Mid-Ams as Hagestad has now claimed. Jim Stuart (1990, 1991), Tim Jackson (1994, 2001) and John “Spider” Miller (1996, 1998) are the other two-time winners.
Sean Fairholm