Before he left for the course, Chris Fitzpatrick predicted the future.
Fitzpatrick, seconds before heading to Woodland Golf Club for the final round of the 2013 Massachusetts Open, turned to his opponent, friend, and temporary roommate, Evan Harmeling.
“I’ll see you in a playoff, buddy,” Fitzpatrick told the half-asleep Harmeling, then walked out the door.
Hours later, Fitzpatrick saw him in a playoff.
“It was funny how it turned out,” Fitzpatrick said Monday, one day before the three-day 2014 Mass. Open tees off at Weston Golf Club, in the 105th edition of the tournament.
The two golfers were staying at Fitzpatrick’s father’s Wellesley home for the week, and after three days and 54 holes, they were tied at 5-under 211.
So, just as Fitzpatrick joked that morning, they entered a playoff: three holes — 16, 17, and 18 — to decide the winner.
“It felt like any other round of golf,” said Fitzpatrick, who resides in Dedham. “It was pretty comforting . . . Playing in that three-hole playoff just felt like we were playing for your $20 Nassau.”
“We had a lot of fun in the playoff,” said the 25-year-old Harmeling, a Princeton graduate from North Reading who sank an 8-foot birdie putt on the last playoff hole to win the title. “It’s kind of how you dream it up. We felt like we both won.”
His check for winning was $15,000. He kept $0.
Harmeling, whose sisters, Rachel and Ashley, were near the site of the marathon bombings on April 15, 2013, donated all of his winnings to One Fund Boston, a charity formed to help those affected by the tragedy.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I wanted to do something right after [the bombings] happened,” said Harmeling, who was golfing when the bombs went off and had trouble contacting his sisters.
The $15,000 is the most he’s won at a tournament.
“I wanted to help out in some way,” he said.
He decided to donate any winnings the night before the final round and announced it after the playoff.
“A lot of people around us were pretty shocked,” Fitzpatrick said. “It didn’t really surprise me too much. Evan’s such a genuinely nice guy that that’s something I could see him doing.”
“It’s pretty unbelievable what he did,” said Ben Spitz, who won last year’s Commonwealth Cup as the top amateur at the Open. “I don’t know if it’s something that I could do. He’s got a great outlook on golf and life.”
The three golfers, who have all played at Weston at least once, hope to replicate their success on the par-72 course, in a field that features several pros and past champions.
“I’m looking to win,” said Harmeling. “I’m playing really well right now.”
His plan is simple: “My strategy is to not try to do anything,” he said, laughing.
“Pressing, really trying to make putts, really trying to make birdies isn’t really the way I play well. I like to just be hitting good shots and make sure I’m smooth and the birdies seem to come.”
Fitzpatrick’s strategy is more concrete.
“I’m going to be playing for a lot of pars,” he said. “There’s a lot of quirky holes out there. I’m just going to be playing it back, playing it safe, aiming for the middle of the greens. Try to take advantage of the birdie holes out there and not get too aggressive too early.”
Spitz, 30, said his success will depend on his driver — just as it did in 2013 — and his putts on the “fast and undulated greens.”
Harmeling said the course’s greens are its toughest element.
“They’re definitely tricky,” he said. “You have to know where to put it. So I’m definitely going to be a little bit conservative with what I’m doing out there, considering I don’t know the place that well.”
And Fitzpatrick?
“I’d like to win in a playoff this time against him,” he said, laughing.
He’s predicted the future before.
Rob Harms can be reached at robert.harms@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @harms way.