WESTON, Massachusetts – After two days and 36-holes of stroke play at the 116th Massachusetts Women’s Amateur Championship, the starting field of 80 golfers was reduced to the low 32 scorers who will now advance to Match Play on Wednesday. The low 16 participants will advance to the Championship match play bracket, while competitors who finished from 17-32 will advance to the President’s Cup match play bracket. The final spot in the President’s Cup bracket was determined by a three-for-one playoff held this afternoon.
The round of 32 for both the Championship & President’s Cup brackets will be contested on Wednesday at Weston GC. The round of 16 and quarterfinals will take place on Wednesday with the semifinals and finals coming on Thursday. Both the semifinals and finals will be 18-hole matches. In the event of a tied match, the winner shall be decided immediately by a hole-by-hole play-off.
The Championship Flight matches will begin at 7:30 a.m. followed by the start of the President’s Cup 8:50 a.m.
For the second week in a row, Angela Garvin finds herself in an all too familiar position, atop the leader board. The Feeding Hills native took off with the lead group and relinquished the top spot only once throughout the round. Her 1-over par 74 would carry her to a solo first place finish with a total gross score of 145.
“I’m just really excited for match play,” said Garvin. “Obviously it helps being the one seed but I think the fact that I’m at the top is just not in my mind at all.”
After an impressive first round firing one of the only two under par scores on the day, Garvin may not have replicated the six birdies she carded but four on day two suited her final score just fine.
“I was happy that I could make a few more adjustments out there today,” said Garvin. “I had some trouble on 9 yesterday with a double-bogey but today I was able to turn that around and get a birdie so that felt good.”
The 18-year-old will be heading off to the University of Maryland to be a part Terrapin on the Women’s Golf team in just a few weeks. “One of the caddies out there yesterday asked me why I was not wearing any Maryland gear so I thought it would be funny today to wear my Maryland shoes and hat.”
With her recent string of success, Garvin continues to play it cool with the hopes of a lot more golf ahead of her this week.
“I’ve been playing pretty well the last couple weeks,” said Garvin. “I think my confidence is up which always helps me a lot because I sometimes struggle with that.”
When it comes to match play, Garvin is not shying away from the bracket ahead of her. “I like how competitive it is,” said Garvin. “It’s really head to head and you don’t get that a lot in golf versus other sports. I used to play basketball so when you’re playing that you’re against the other team. In golf it’s different. In match play it gets back to that.”
Within striking distance finishing second with even-par rounds of 73 each day for 146 total gross score was Morgan Smith (Vesper CC). The rising sophomore at Westford Academy shot a perfect par 36 on the back side of the course.
“I was just thinking just do better than yesterday,” said Smith when asked about her nine consecutive pars. “There were a lot of long putts and difficult lies that I had to get out of, so not really an easy ending, but I made it work.”
As one of the youngest competitors out there this week, the 15 year old had a strong group of playing partners for round two.
“Since I’m playing with like 18 and 21 year olds I’m nervous because they have more experienced than me,” said Morgan. “Hannah (Ghelfi) is obviously playing in college and Angela (Garvin) will be going this fall and I’m Just gonna be a sophomore in high school. So that was a little intimidating. They also hit it a lot further than I do but my dad always tells me straight is long so I just try and do that.”
Rounding out the top five performers on the two rounds of stroke play were 1-over par 147were Hannah Ghelfi (Pocasset GC), Jennifer Keim (Cummaquid GC) with a 3-over par 149, and Pam Kuong (Charles River CC) and Megan Buck (Thorny Lea GC) with 4-over par 150.
With match play is set to begin on Wednesday morning 32 woman have advanced to the next round of the championship. But before closing the books on stroke play the top performers from the first two rounds were honored in a ceremony recognizing the stroke-play medalist and the Osgood Memorial Cup recipients.
The Osgood Memorial Cup, which is presented to the competitor with the low net qualifying score, was first presented in 1930 in memory of Fanny Osgood, a cornerstone of women’s golf in Massachusetts. A past president of the Women’s Golf Association of Boston, later named the Women’s Golf Association of Massachusetts and subsequently merged to form Mass Golf, Osgood was also a decorated Association champion (1903, 1904, 1910, 1911). Osgood was not only known for her playing ability but for her dedication and service to the statewide association.
This year, Mary Boyle (Weston GC), would finish T21 with a gross score of 23-over par 169 to net a 7-under par 139 and receive the Osgood Memorial Cup at her home course. Making a one stroke improvement upon her first round, Boyle birdied the difficult 502-yard par 2nd hole.
This is Boyle’s first Mass Golf Championship appearance and she will be advancing to the President’s Cup bracket on Wednesday.
At the 116th Massachusetts Women’s Amateur Championship, one of the strongest fields in the region boasts some elite junior golfers. 21 of them to be exact, are 18 years of age or younger, making up around a quarter of the players in this year’s Championship Proper. Among them, players such as 13-year-old Sofie Robinson, the youngest competitor in the field, who calls Weston Golf Club home. In attendance as well are players such as 18-year-old Angela Garvin, who’s fresh off a Girls Junior Championship last week at The Ridge Club in Sandwich.
There are also multiple competitors who competed on Team Massachusetts in various junior events the last few years including 18-year-old Abby Jaye , 18-year-old Alia Godek, 17-year-old Gabrielle Shieh, and 17-year-old Tate Hadges are all at Weston. Shieh, the 2019 Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association individual champion has also played in the 2019 USGA Women’s Four-Ball and made the Round of 16 in the 2018 Massachusetts Women’s Amateur.
The sisters, Morgan Smith and Molly Smith, who are just a year apart have been competing at Mass Golf events for several years and this year is no different as they both look to advance through match play for a chance to compete against one another and take home some hardware.
Morgan, a 15-year-old freshman at Westford Academy, became the first female player ever to qualify to play in the Lowell City Tournament, this past June. A humble trailblazer among young female golfers in the state. When asked about her best piece of advice for junior golfers out there she replied “just try your hardest and trust your game going into it because as long as you trust your game, you’ll do good.”
Also among the junior stars of the field is 18-year-old Emily Nash, who was the Girls Medalist at the 2018 New England Junior PGA Championship. She has also competed in two USGA events thus far, playing in the 2018 U.S. Women’s Four-Ball alongside 17-year-old Anne Walsh, and competing in the 2018 U.S. Girls Junior Championship. 17-year-old Rebecca Skoler, the 2018 Mass Junior Girls Champion and U.S. Women’s Four-Ball qualifier rounds out the elite junior group.
For complete coverage of the Massachusetts Amateur Championship, visit MassGolf.org or follow Mass Golf on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @PlayMassGolf and by using the hashtag, #MassWomensAm.
