Bryce Baringer started the 2024 Massachusetts Amateur Championship with a solid front 9 at the Framingham Country Club on Monday afternoon. But a tough back 9 led to the New England Patriots punter to be 5-over par after the first round.
He was even par halfway through Round 1 and birdied on the first hole of the afternoon, but struggled the rest of the way. Baringer had four bogies and a double bogey in the final nine holes of the round.
“It was tough today. It was hot, it was humid and not a lot of wind,” Baringer told reporters, per video shared by Daily News Sports. “So we were just getting drenched out there.”
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The punter won the 2024 Massachusetts Amateur Qualifier when he went 1-under par 69 at Stockbridge Golf Club, which qualified him for this month’s event. Baringer sunk a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole at the qualifier.
The Patriots don’t start training camp until next month, so the Massachusetts Amateur Championship won’t interfere with any football-related activities.
A 2023 sixth-round pick by the Patriots, Baringer said that his teammates and coaches encouraged him to play in the qualifier. And even though he elected to make a career out of football, he uses knowledge from golf in order for him to be a better punter.
“Punting seems so monotonous, but if you look around the league, there’s so many ways to punt. Same thing with the way people golf. You have your own swing in football and golf,” Baringer told Patriots.com “At the same time, I hit different types of punts depending on the situation we’re in. It’s the same thing in golf when you’re trying to hit certain types of shots at certain distances. It’s about your touch. It’s very relatable in the way both require you to intentionally understand what you want it all to look like. You have to visualize.
“… Golf forces you to stay in the moment,” he later added. “I could have a good shot or a bad shot — a good punt or a bad punt. All that matters is how you recover and how you come back. I think that’s another big correlation.”
Baringer will try to bounce back in Round 2 when he tees of on Tuesday at 8:47 a.m. EST.
