News

By Mark Gaughan

QUEENSBURY, N.Y. - Matthew Lowe of Farmingdale on Thursday staked his claim as the top amateur golfer in New York State. 

Related: Results / Photos / Rd 2 Recap / Championship Central / Preview

The 30-year-old put on a ball-striking and putting clinic in shooting rounds of 67 and 65 to win the 103^rd New York State Amateur Championship at Glens Falls Country Club. 

He started the day eight strokes off the lead, surged to four behind after the morning’s 18 holes, then blitzed the field in the afternoon with a bogey-free, 6-under round, tying the low score of the tournament. Lowe finished at 10-under 274.

Lowe won by three shots over 19-year-old Lucas Rizo-Patron, a 19-year-old from Rye who will be playing his sophomore college season for UCLA in the fall. Chistian Chapman, the 27-year-old former St. Bonaventure standout from Victor, was the leader by four shots at the midway point of the tournament and still led by one entering the final round. But he shot 3-over 74 in the afternoon and finished third at 5 under par.

Lowe, who plays out of Bethpage State Park on Long Island, earns an exemption into the U.S. Amateur Championship, to be played Aug. 10-16 at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa. 

“Incredible,” said Lowe. “That was the goal coming in. I think what the USGA has done with adding the exemption to the State Am winners really increases the strength of field. Yeah, I'm very, very happy.”

Getting his name etched on the New York State Golf Association’s Ganson Depew Trophy seems like a justified next step in Lowe’s golf career. 

Lowe has been knocking on the door of a state title. He was fourth at last year’s NYS Amateur and was runner-up in last fall’s NYS Mid-Amateur. And he has been spectacular in big downstate tournaments. 

Last week, Lowe won the Metropolitan Golf Association’s stroke play title – also known as “the Ike” – for a second time, making a 30-foot birdie putt on the 54^th and final hole. He has won the MGA Public Links title three of the past four years, and he won the New York City Amateur in 2025. Now he’s only the second man to win both the NYS Amateur and the Ike in the same year, joining George Burns, a four-time PGA Tour winner and a 2026 inductee into the NYSGA Hall of Fame. (Burns did it in 1974.)

“He’s just a professional,” said Lowe’s caddy, Marc Coleman. “You watch him hit a 3-iron, and it’s like the best sound ever. He didn’t miss any shots really today.”

After starring at the University of Richmond and graduating in 2018, Lowe, in fact, gave it a shot as a professional golfer. It didn’t work out, and he regained his amateur status in 2021. 

Lowe, who works for his family’s beauty supply distributorship, thinks he’s playing even better now than he was when he was a pro.

“I would say so,” he said. “I would attribute it all to better putting. That's always been an Achilles heel of mine. And I've been putting well as of late, and it's been definite game changer.”

Lowe is 5-foot-7 and 155 pounds, and he has a tight, powerful, compact swing. It breeds consistency. Watch Lowe swing, and you think he could make 500 identical iron swings in a row. 

In fact, Lowe loves making practice swings in front of a mirror – one could say he’s fanatical about it -- to groove the proper positions. It’s not uncommon for him to make 500 swings in front of a mirror in a day. And he makes practice swings in front of a mirror every day.

“It’s all I think about,” Lowe said with a smile. “When you think about how perfect your swing could be, it definitely helps you. . . . I've always been a decent ball striker, right? And when I putt well, that's when I play golf.”

Lowe’s putter got hot early in the afternoon round. He made five birdies in a six-hole stretch on the front nine to take the lead for good. 

It started with a 5-footer on the par-5 fourth hole to get to 5-under-par, after he put his second shot over the green. 

“I felt like that could be a pivotal, pivotal moment from the perspective of gaining some momentum,” Lowe said. “Had I missed that putt, I would have parred both of the first two par fives. That would have been a huge bummer for me.”

On the par-4 sixth, Lowe hit an 8-iron from 164 yards to 1 foot and made birdie. He got to 7-under on the 292-yard seventh, hitting 3-wood to the front edge of the green and two-putting. On the 362-yard eighth, he hit a pitching wedge from 76 yards to 6 feet for birdie. He got to 9-under on the 150-yard ninth, hitting a gap wedge from 112 yards to 15 feet and making the putt. 

At that point, Chapman had fallen back to 5-under. His round was derailed by a double on the par-4 fifth, which is a contender for hardest 340-yard hole in the state. It features a diabolical, one-of-a-kind green from designer Donald Ross with a ledge running along the right and back of the putting surface. Chapman got out of position with a driver well right of the green. 

Rizo-Patron dropped a shot back to 8-under with a bogey on the 11^th then made double on the 368-yard 14^th. He was 60 yards out in the fairway but sent a wedge over the green, then putted back off the front.

Lowe sealed the win with a birdie on the par-5 16^th, a 534-yard dogleg left. Unlike most everyone else in the field, Lowe intentionally hit his drive way left, on the far side of a line of trees, then played his second shot up the left side of the 10^th hole. His 6-iron from 225 hit the green, and he two-putted from 35 feet.

“Yes, it was intentional, all four rounds,” Lowe said. “Anybody who doesn't go left is losing their minds. . . .  It's better in every possible regard, right? There’s no out of bounds (whereas there is OB right), it’s shorter, it’s a better angle at the green.”

Being an elite amateur, as opposed to a pro, suits Lowe just fine. 

“I had reached a point where I was like, I want to continue to improve my game, but I don't want to rely on it financially,” Lowe said. “I have the flexibility to play in events like this and continue to work on my game, and it's great. I'm playing well, I couldn't be happier with where I am now, and I think that I'm in the best spot that I've been.”

While Rizo-Patron relinquished the lead in the final round, he demonstrated the kind of birdie making ability that has to excite the coaches at UCLA, which just finished runner-up in the NCAA Division I Team Championship. 

Rizo-Patron starred last season as a freshman for Richmond, winning the Atlantic 10 Conference title. He entered the transfer portal and picked UCLA last month. Rizo-Patron shot 65 in Round 2 and made five birdies in a six-hole stretch on the front nine in Round 3 with wizardly wedge play. That was despite the fact he battled an upset stomach due to some disagreeable dinner the previous evening.

“I’m bummed . . . it was a long day,” Rizo-Patron said. “But I think that I'm pretty explosive. When I need to, I can kind of make a lot of birdies, and I just gotta be patient.”
Joseph Dolezal, a rising junior at St. John’s University, shot 70-69 and placed fourth at 4-under par. Dolezal plays out of Piping Rock Club, won the Long Island Amateur last summer. 

Dean Muratore, a rising junior at the University of Michigan, placed fifth at 2-under. He shot two even-par 71s Thursday. Muratore plays out of Colonial Springs Golf Club in Farmingdale. In sixth at 2 over was Brayden Dock of Glens Falls CC. He’s a rising junior at Colgate. 

The top 20 finishers receive an exemption into next year’s NYS Amateur.