GREENFIELD — A lot has changed since Andy Lesenski and Chris Austin won the 2011 Invitational Four Ball at the Country Club of Greenfield. 

The pair took home the title in the 66th edition of the tournament as some of the younger players in the field, and though they’ve been knocking on the door of a second title in the years since, they have been unable to capture an elusive second championship. 

This week at the 79th Invitational Four Ball, Lesenski and Austin — both now fathers — are among the veterans in the field. After shooting the low qualifying round in the Championship Flight on Thursday, they entered Friday’s match play as the No. 2 seed and faced off against 15th-seeded Clint McCloud and Justin McCloud. 

Lesenski and Austin lived to fight another day, capturing a 5 & 4 win to knock off the McClouds and advance to Saturday’s quarterfinal round. 

“This year, we always have a game plan but now that we’re more experienced — you could say we’re vets — we’ve kind of dialed in the game plan for what works,” Lesenski said. “It’s a matter of if we can stick to it. What’s different is going home to the family and going home to the kids. It makes it easy to leave the golf course.” 

As fathers, the time to prepare and practice prior to the Invitational Four Ball isn’t what it used to be for Lesenski — the five-time reigning Country Club of Greenfield club champion — and Austin. 

They’ve adjusted their expectations and go into the tournament trying to control what they can control, knowing the challenges that come with lifting a title. 

“We have high expectations of ourselves but we also understand we can’t put in the practice time that we’ve put in in the past,” Austin said. “Curving those expectations, knowing you can only control what you can control and not going out of your way to do something in this format or this tournament that you wouldn’t do in your normal play. The worst thing you can do is get out of your normal habits. This tournament tests you in that every year.” 

It was a blistering start for Lesenski and Austin on Friday. Starting their match at No. 10, the pair were 5-Up when they made the turn back to No. 1. They closed out the win on No. 5. 

Wind picking up toward the end of the round made for an obstacle all players on the course had to deal with. 

“The conditions got tough out there and picked up out of nowhere,” Lesenski said. “It was tough to read when it was swirling. We didn’t deal with it for three hours then all of a sudden it threw in a variable. We were able to handle it and still hit some quality shots. It goes back to staying in that one shot at a time mindset. You just have to plug along. You can’t control the match so you just have to let it unfold.” 

Lesenski and Austin finished in second place in 2021 and have reached the tournament’s semifinals the last two years. If they keep playing the way they’ve been to start the tournament, a second title very well could be in the cards. 

“Can we break through?” Austin said. “We can’t get ahead of ourselves and just take care of what’s in front of us. That’s what wins this.”

First, they’ll have to get through seventh-seeded Chris Bourbeau and Cody Booska, who are coming off a win over 10th-seeded Sam Conant and Will Conant in the Round of 16 on Friday. 

Booska won the 2022 Four Ball championship with his dad, Dennis, in addition to the 2014 championship with KC Finley. 

“At the end of the day, if we’re playing the No. 2 seed or the No. 16 seed, everyone is playing the same golf course,” Austin said. “Whoever beats the golf course that day is who wins. You just have to go out there to try to beat the course just like any other round of golf.” 

Lesenski and Austin aren’t the only former champions still in the mix heading into Saturday. 

Defending champions Connor Piecuch and Michael Bechard — who earned the No. 1 seed in the Championship Flight thanks to holding that title — finished with a 2 & 1 win against 16th-seeded Kevin St. Laurent and Thane Shinabeck to advance to the quarterfinals. 

David Kennedy and Nate Burdick are also through. The pair, which won the 2013 and 2015 titles together, earned the No. 4 seed on Friday, where they took on 13th-seeded Matt Matroni and Tom Herzig. 

It was a tight match throughout, with Kennedy and Burdick 1-Up through nine. Matroni and Herzig knotted it up at No. 12, a birdie from Kennedy on 15 gave the former champs back the lead but Herzig countered with a birdie on 16 to tie it back up. 

Kennedy gave them the lead on 17 and closed things out with a big putt on 18 to keep them alive into the quarterfinals via the 2-Up victory.

“We hit it to two feet and made birdie there on 17,” Burdick said. “Matt made a really good second shot from the fescue that gave him a chance but Dave made a putt from 20 feet and didn’t give Matt a chance to answer.” 

It was a birdie-filled back nine for Kennedy and Burdick, who said they are hoping to carry that momentum into the weekend. 

“[Thursday] went well,” Kennedy said. “We played pretty solid. Today was a fun match. A couple holes were ugly for both teams but the backside picked up. There were a lot of birdies coming from 12 in.” 

Having played in the Four Ball for so long — Kennedy holding five championships while Burdick has won it three times — the pair knows what it takes to win. They also know how challenging it is to hoist the title and are taking it one match at a time. 

“Survive and advance,” Burdick said. “I don’t know if there’s any strategy. We just have to play our game. We’re in the mix of it. We just have to see if there’s any tread left on the tires. If I’ve learned anything it’s that in Invitational Four Ball, anything can happen and it usually does.”

“You just go out and try to hit solid shot after solid shot,” Kennedy added. “Nothing that goes on surprises you here with what people can make and what people can do. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap and sometimes it bounces well for you.”

It’ll be a battle of former champions in the quarterfinals, as Kennedy and Burdick will take on fifth-seeded Sam Wolanske and David Donoghue, the 2019 winners. 

Wolanske and Donoghue snagged a 3 & 2 win over 12th-seeded Cam Merrigan and Jason Goodhind, with Wolanske shooting a 59 himself through 16 holes.

The 2020 and 2021 champions are also still alive heading into Saturday. Paul DeNofrio and Matt Grayson didn’t have the tournament they envisioned last summer, but came out and earned the No. 6 seed after qualifying this week. Facing off against 11th-seeded Dylan Archer and Mike Archer, the two-time champions found themselves 1-Up after four holes and were able to ride that to the finish, winning 1-Up.

“[The Archers] played well when it mattered,” Grayson said. “We both hit the ball well today and missed maybe four shots.” 

Winning a close match like that can be a momentum builder, with DeNofrio noting how challenging the first round of match play can be. The pairing will meet 14th-seeded Jamie Crocker and Pat McGuire, who knocked off third-seeded Ryan Cote and Chris Cervini, 2 & 1.

“It was closer than we wanted,” DeNofrio said. “Matt played really well and better than the score indicated today. [The Archers] grinded. Give them credit. We’ve had a lot of tough first matches. Regardless how it ended up, the first match means a lot going forward. I think this one might help us out a little bit. We learned quite a bit today.” 

Ninth-seeded Jacob Willis and Reece McLeod will be looking to dethrone the defending champions in the quarterfinals. Willis and McCloud found themselves 2-Up after nine and turned it on on the back nine to defeat eighth-seeded Jarrod Goss and KC Finley, 4 & 3.

“After a tough start we picked it up,” Willis said. “That set the tone. Back nine we coasted and hit a couple birdies. The course played tough today with the wind.” 

Willis and McLeod will square off with Piecuch and Bechard in the quarterfinals and after a blistering back nine, they’re ready to see what they can do against the defending champions. 

“We bogeyed number two but from there, it was guns blazing,” McLeod said. “We had five, six birdies after that. We’re confident moving forward.”