WEST BOYLSTON — Sean Magarian and Shawn Amari shared a few similarities on Sunday.
Both are local left-handed golfers, both rode in the same golf cart in the same group, and both were vying for the same championship.
After holding a two-stroke lead going into the final 18 holes, Magarian managed to outlast a surging Amari on Sunday to win the 40th edition of the Worcester County Amateur in a sudden-death playoff.
The victory marks Magarian’s second straight title and third overall in the prestigious local event.
“Being from Worcester, I love this tournament,” said Magarian, who is 24 and graduated from West Boylston High. “It means a lot to be a three-time champ and I’m happy to be able to defend.”
Magarian, a Pleasant Valley Country Club member, fired a 6-under par 66 on Saturday at Kettle Brook Golf Club in Paxton to take a two-stroke advantage over Joseph MacAulay (Cyprian Keyes) and Amari (Northern Spy Golf Club) heading into the final round of the two-day, 36-hole tournament that featured nearly 100 players.
Magarian held a one-shot lead going into the 14th hole on Sunday at Wachusett Country Club in West Boylston before Amari made a lengthy birdie putt to tie things up at 6-under.
“My putter was good,” said Amari, who is a 19-year-old rising sophomore at the University of Hartford and lives in Townsend. “So, I was kind of just using that to my advantage. I was just trying to do my thing and a couple putts started falling.”
A bogey on hole No. 15 by Magarian and a par from Amari gave the latter his first lead of the day.
“That one stung,” said Magarian, who graduated from Assumption University in 2024.
Both players, riding together in the same cart with Magarian driving and Amari riding shotgun, then made par on 16 and birdie on 17 to set up a tense final tee shot on the par-3 18th hole for the dueling lefties.
Amari, who hit first, chunked his 7-iron left and short of a green-side bunker.
“I just mishit my iron shot and hit a bad chip,” said Amari, who finished the hole with a bogey and set Magarian up with a putt to secure the tournament.
Magarian, who stuck a 7-iron pin high and had an 18-foot putt to win, just missed his birdie attempt on No. 18 — but his par was good enough to force a sudden-death playoff with Amari as both players finished their 36-hole tourney with matching 6-under par scores.
Townsend’s Shawn Amari finished the Worcester County Amateur at 6-under, tied with Sean Magarian for the lead in the prestigious 2-day tournament held at Kettle Brook and Wachusett.
Here’s a compilation of big-time putts from Amari that forced a 3-hole sudden-death playoff. pic.twitter.com/bVcExXzWim
— Worcester T&G Sports (@tgsports) June 28, 2026
“I took a lot from the past coming into today,” said Magarian, who won the Worcester County Amateur in 2022 and then again last year. “I wasn’t very nervous and I knew if I played good golf that my game would show up and to just go out and have fun and see what happens, and I felt like I did a good job at that.”
The sparring southpaws then tied the first playoff hole (No. 1) and second playoff hole (No. 2) with pars.
“Definitely nerve-racking,” added Amari, who was a two-time T&G Hometeam All-Star during his time at North Middlesex Regional High School and played in the Worcester County Amateur for the first time this weekend.
Amari proceeded to stick a nifty iron shot from the rough onto the green on the par-4 third hole that finished roughly 15 feet away from the cup. Magarian managed to get his second shot out of the fairway bunker and onto the green roughly 45 feet from the hole.
After Magarian lagged his lengthy putt within a few feet, Amari had a chance to win the playoff and tournament — but Amari sped his downhill birdie attempt past the hole, off the green and into the fairway. He then got up and down for bogey.
Worcester’s Sean Magarian sinks this putt on the third playoff hole to secure his third Worcester County Amateur title.
The former West Boylston and Assumption golfer out-dueled fellow lefty Shawn Amari to secure his second straight Worcester County Amateur championship. pic.twitter.com/1iI3fxRlxi
— Worcester T&G Sports (@tgsports) June 28, 2026
With the championship on the line, Magarian drilled his 4-footer into the back of the cup for par and collected his third Worcester County Amateur title.
The savvy vet won the match of lookalike lefties with the same first name.
“Shawn played great today,” Magarian said. “Unfortunately, (he had a) tough putt but I’m very happy to get the win. He was a good kid. Really good player.”
“I was trying to win and I hit it a little too hard,” Amari said. “But I’m happy with the result and not too down on myself. … All I wanted to do was give myself a chance and I’d say I did that. So I’m happy with it.”
Jake Berkio (-3), Sam Russell (-3) and Connor Willett (-2) rounded out the top five on the leaderboard, but the tourney belonged to the 5-foot-5 lefty golfer from Worcester.
Magarian becomes the first three-time winner of the Worcester County Amateur since Owen Quinn of Holden won three years in a row — from 2019 to 2021.
“Good company,” Magarian said. “Owen did it a little more fashionable and kind of ran away with it. It means a lot.”
—Contact Tommy Cassell at tcassell@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tommycassell44.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: ‘It means a lot to be a three-time champ’: Worcester’s Sean Magarian wins Worcester Amateur title again
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