After a long week of driving, chipping and putting, Swampscott native Aidan Emmerich dominated the final round of the 2026 Massachusetts Amateur Golf Championship on July 11, claiming the prestigious title with six holes left to play.

“It was a good feeling,” said Emmerich. “Obviously it’s something you dream about as a kid. It was a big deal to have it so close to home too.”

On his way to victory, Emmerich took down two past winners of the Massachusetts Amateur Championship head-to-head. The tournament is open to any golfers who don’t play professionally. The tournament was held at Winchester Country Club, just a 16 mile trek from Swampscott Town Hall. Emmerich said many other tournaments he played recently were held on Cape Cod, so it “was cool” to play in a familiar location.

Emmerich graduated from Temple University in the spring, where he starred on the golf team for three years. He attended St. Mary’s in Lynn for high school. He said that during his senior season, he noticed that his putting had been uncharacteristically off.

“I realized I needed to work on it,” said Emmerich, who is always looking at statistics to analyze his play.

What followed was a lot of hard work behind the scenes that Emmerich said doesn’t always get noticed.

“It was a lot of four and five hour days on the putting green,” said Emmerich. “There was a mental blockade I had to get through, and it felt great to get back into the zone.”

He said the biggest strength he has is in his short game, hitting the ball onto the green precisely to set himself up for short range putts.

One focus going forward will be to get stronger, as he noted the game of golf is heading in a direction where balls are getting driven further and further.

But that didn’t stop Emmerich on July 11, a day he said he won’t forget anytime soon. Emmerich said lifting the trophy took a big weight off of his shoulders.

“It’s a sign that the work I’ve been putting in is translating to tournament play,” Emmerich said.

It wasn’t the first prestigious tournament that Emmerich won. He took home first place in the 2023 Junior Hornblower tournament held in Plymouth.

The next step in Emmerich’s golf career is more hard work. He plans to head down to Naples, Florida in October to spend the winter caddying and spending a lot of time on the golf course, continuing to work on his game.

Emmerich plans to enter more tournaments in Florida over the winter and spring to continue to monitor the level his skills are at, before turning professional at some point in the near future.

“I believe I can go pretty far in this game,” said Emmerich.