By Richard Rapp
rrapp@massgolf.org
WILLIAMSTOWN, Massachusetts — One of the pleasant oddities of these Wednesdays, when the rounds of 32 and 16 are contested, is in the frenetic overlap. The early finishers from the morning wave snag a quick lunch and embark on their sweet sixteen showdowns. The hungry to advance, and perhaps hungry for lunch, are in grind mode.
At Taconic, the 1st green abuts the 17th tee, and players walking off of one lingered to cast a casual, but curious glance at those battling out the conclusions of their first round match ups. After all, with the field rapidly shrinking, any remaining players could soon be opponents.
The three-hole closing stretch, which essentially wraps itself around the first hole on all sides (a hairpin turn, if you will), provided a tremendous stage for tight morning matches. 9 out of 16 ended on 16 or later, two required extra holes, and the final three tee times were decided on the 18th, meaning there was plenty of overlap. Then, once the round of 32 had fully concluded, the congestion broke. Suddenly, with just 8 matches on the course, there was a feeling of quiet purpose. A competitive intimacy took hold, as old friends squared off, newer faces found their match play footing, and stalwart sisters remained on a collision course.
Perhaps the most intriguing matchup was the one between Megan Buck and Shannon Johnson, fellow Thorny Lea Golf Club members, not to mention winners of five consecutive Massachusetts Women’s Four-Balls as a dynamic duo. They knew coming into the day that mutual morning success would beget an afternoon meeting.
“This afternoon was tough,” said Buck. “When we saw at dinner last night that if we both won in the morning, it’d be me and Shannon in the afternoon, I mean, that was a bummer. We wanted to be in the finals if we had to meet, but, yeah, it’s hard to play your friend.”
It is indeed hard to play your friend, especially if the friend in question is a past U.S. Women’s Mid-Am (2018) and Mass Women’s Am (2018) champion. But Buck played the type of game required to take down a player of Johnson’s caliber, steady to the extent that it starts to take your opponent out of themselves.
“Yeah, so overall it was, golf-wise, a very good day. I just played pretty steady, hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens, which in match play is good. Just never giving any holes away. I did play pretty well this afternoon, hit a lot of good shots at the right times and stayed out of trouble,” said Buck.
Both players birdied the opening hole, setting the tone for a hotly contested match. Buck carried her strong start across the first five holes, staking an early 2-up lead, which she maintained with a steady diet of pars. By the 9th hole, it looked like Johnson was beginning to try to force the issue. Golf is rarely a game that rewards forcing. An uncharacteristically loose tee shot sailed over the boundary fence, and more of those right misses would follow.
Buck, for her part, was relentlessly consistent, leaving herself frequent, modest birdie looks from safe positions. A tremendous approach, hole high, to the back tier of the 13th green got her to 5-up with 5 to play. A poor tee shot on the 14th led to a double, an outlier on this day, and gave Johnson a sliver of hope. But the two matched pars on the 15th, securing Buck a place in the final eight, where she’ll take on top-seeded Mekhala Costello (Blue Hill Country Club).
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Morgan Smith (Mount Pleasant Golf Club) is the lone past champion standing, and she needed only 28 holes to get through her two matches on Wednesday.
Smith acknowledged that it wasn’t a particularly stressful day at the golf course. “I kind of got up early in both matches, which was nice. And then this morning I kind of fizzled a little bit and then got my lead back again, and then I won. And then in the afternoon, I played pretty steady the whole way. The only hole I lost was to a birdie and I almost made birdie there too.”
Annie Dai (Student Member) didn’t have her best stuff in the afternoon contest with Smith, and with Smith humming right along, the result was quick and decisive. Smith shot 1-under on the opening nine, winning 7 of 9 holes. The players halved the difficult 10th with doubles, and the rest was meerly a formality.
She’ll play Christine Mandile (Winchester Country Club) on Thursday morning. It’s best not to look too far ahead in matters of match play, but there will be plenty of interest in the mornings results of Morgan and Molly Smith. If Morgan gets past Mandile, and Molly can take down Katherine Ng (Nehoiden Golf Club), the uber-talented sisters will face off in the semis. Molly looked plenty dangerous on Wednesday, winning 4&3 in the morning, before a dominant 7&6 performance in the afternoon.
Regardless of the opponent, Morgan Smith will look to keep things simple tomorrow: “I’m just gonna continue playing my game and then see where that puts me.”
1-Mekhala Costello def. 17-Erika Redmond, 4&2
Costello kept her dream week rolling right along, even if she didn’t quite have her A game in the afternoon. She grabbed an early 2-up lead, which Redmond was able to erase with wins on 6 and 8. But Costello won 9 and 10 with pars and didn’t look back from there.
9-Megan Buck def. 8-Shannon Johnson, 4&3
It was all Buck in the battle of best friends. A hot start, 2-under through the first five holes, staked her with a 2-up lead. As Buck stayed remarkably consistent, Johnson struggled to find her swing. Buck faltered on the 14th, fanning her tee shot and losing with a double, but locked it up with halved 4s on the 15th.
29-Amy Lyon def. 20-Jaelyn DeBoise, 6&4
With a commanding 4-up lead coming to the 13th, Lyon hit one of the most impressive approach shots of the day, flying it all the way to the back of the three-tiered green, where it settled about 5 feet from the cup. She proceeded to bury it to put DeBoise dormie and made a 10-foot par putt on the 14th to end it.
12-Julia Imai def. 5-Allison Paik, 2&1
Shockingly, Imai made her first birdie of the week on the first hole of the match. From there, she never trailed, though Paik did square the match on the 10th. Entering the critical stretch of 16 and 17 with a 1-up lead, Imai made two key pars to clinch the match.
2-Morgan Smith def. 15-Annie Dai, 7&5
Smith played a nearly flawless front, winning 7 of the opening 9 while dropping one to Dai’s birdie on the 8th. Her next few holes weren’t quite as clean, but they didn’t need to be. Dai’s fate was sealed when her approach shot on the 13th sailed out of bounds.
10-Christine Mandile def. 26-Charlotte Cute, 2&1
Mandile made a birdie on the 12th hole to go 5-up with just 6 to play, but Cute kept things interesting, clawing back to 2 down with three consecutive wins. But Mandile steadied, parring 16 and 17 to close it.
3-Molly Smith def. 19-Jillian Johnson, 7&6
Square through four, Smith closed out the front by winning the next five holes. The exclamation point was a dart to 3 feet for a conceded birdie on the par-3 9th. Pars on 10, 11, and 12 were enough for an early victory.
22-Katherine Ng def. 6-Mackenzie Whitney, 4&3
Ng hit a tremendous approach into the uphill par-4 6th, buried the putt to go 2-up, and made it back-to-back with another birdie on the 7th. She didn’t stop there. Granted, a score to par in match play isn’t necessarily 100% accurate, but her card read 2-under for the 15 holes she played before closing out Whitney. That’ll do.
1-Mekhala Costello def. 32-Samantha Leary, 4&2
It was a back-and-forth front nine that ended tied when Leary won the 9th with a par. Costello made a mess of the 10th, and an upset seemed to be brewing. But Costello won five of the next six holes to close it out on the 16th.
17-Erika Redmond def. 16-Maddie Smith, 2&1
A tight match all the way through, Redmond and Smith weren’t separated by more than one hole until Redmond took the 17th with a par on the difficult par-3, closing out the match 2&1.
8-Shannon Johnson def. 25-Grace Farland, 2&1
It was all knotted up going into the 9th hole, when Johnson made her move. She played the next five holes in 1-under, building a 4-up lead. Farland fought valiantly, winning 14 & 16 to stay alive, but matching bogeys on 17 ended her charge.
9-Megan Buck def. 24-Mya Murphy, 5&3
This match went 15 holes and only two of those holes were halved. Buck charged out of the gate with three straight wins. Leading 2 up at the turn, Buck went on another three-hole tear, opening an insurmountable 5-up lead.
29-Amy Lyon def. 4-Carys Fennessy, 2up
Tightly contested all the way, this was a match of proper golf. On the difficult closing stretch, Fennessy birdied the uphill 16th to square things up, but Lyon answered with a birdie 2 on the 17th, then coolly dropped a 10-footer for birdie on 18 to win 2-up.
20-Jaelyn DeBoise def. 13-Tori Adams, 20 holes
There was little to separate DeBoise and Adams, in fact so little that they took 20 holes to settle this one. Neither player led by more than 1up all day. After matching pars on the first extra hole, DeBoise advanced with a par on the 2nd.
5-Allison Paik def. 28-Georgia Beland, 6&5
Beland squared the match on the 6th and from there, it was all Paik. Paik reeled off five consecutive wins with a hot putter, then put it away with a par on the 13th.
12-Julia Imai def. 21-Jacqueline Gonzalez, 22 holes
There wasn’t much daylight to separate Imai and Gonzalez. Imai never trailed and she took a 1-up lead on three separate occasions during regulation. Both had several chances to win it with par putts, but Imai hit the green in two on the fourth playoff hole, and won the match after Gonzalez was unable to get up and down from a tight spot in the rough pin high.
2-Morgan Smith def. 31-Lorelai Flanagan, 4&3
Smith took command early, notching birdies on the 1st, 2nd, and 4th holes. Underdog Flanagan played some impressive golf in her own right and managed to trim the lead to one on the 11th. But Smith put her foot down and won three of the next four, closing it out in style on 15.
15-Annie Dai def. 18-Lauren Connor, 6&5
On a day when Connor didn’t have her best stuff, Dai took care of business with steady golf. Dai held a 2-up lead at the turn, then won four consecutive holes, beginning with an impressive birdie on 10, and closing with a less spectacular 6 to beat a 7 on the 13th.
26-Charlotte Cute def. 7-Lillian Guleserian, 5&3
Guleserian was battling herself off the tee, in addition to Charlotte Cute, who was keen on dropping birdie putts. Tied through five, Cute won four of the next five to take a commanding lead. She poured in a birdie on the downhill 15th to close it out with aplomb.
10-Christine Mandile def. 23-Saddie Cumming, 7&5
Mandile won the first hole and kept a vice grip on this match all the way through. She did not lose a single hole and won the 12th, followed by the 13th after Cumming was unable to escape a greenside bunker.
3-Molly Smith def. 30-Cecily Henshon, 4&3
Proverbial favorite Molly Smith found herself in a surprising one down hole through six, as Henshon got off to a solid start. But Smith played the 7th through the 11th in two-under and built a 4-up lead. They halved the next four holes with pars, concluding the match on 15.
19-Jillian Johnson def. 14-Emma Abramson, 1up
Johnson came to the 18th with a 1-up lead, but extra holes looked like a distinct possibility when her approach bounded long, and Abramson hit the green in regulation. But Johnson hit a nifty chip to about 4 feet and made the putt to advance.
6-Mackenzie Whitney def. 27-Sophie Redmond, 1up
Whitney looked to be in control early, but Redmond mounted a back nine comeback, winning 10, 11, and 12 to go 1 up. Whitney battled back, and they went to 18 tied. Whitney hit a perfect drive and then hit the green in two, hitting a 3-wood from 220 yards to leave herself about 20 feet for eagle. Redmond was rejected by a tree on her third shot, leaving Whitney with a comfortable three putt par to win.
22-Katherine Ng def. 11-Keira Joshi, 1up
In an all-NESCAC matchup, future Bowdoin College golfer Katherine Ng made birdie on the 16th to tie it and won the 17th with a par to hold the lead on the 18th, reaching the green safely in three. After Hamilton College’s Joshi missed her birdie bid from the back of the green, Ng closed it out with a narrow miss on her birdie putt.
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