By Richard Rapp
rrapp@massgolf.org
HINGHAM, Massachusetts (September 24, 2024) – Sure, you might look at the abbreviated tee sheet and think, “I like our chances.” But just one guaranteed spot in the 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball was on offer. In this format, where birdies are an absolute must, ten two-woman sides geared up for a sprint.
Shannon Johnson and Megan Buck (North Easton, MA), winners of the last five Massachusetts Women’s Four-Balls, are as safe as safe bets get in this format. As the first group out, you’d expect them to set the tone. But they stumbled off the block, playing their first six holes at one over par. You wondered, for an hour or so anyway, if the window might be opening for a new generation.
Maddie Smith (Westford, MA) teamed up with Lillian Guleserian (Westwood, MA), and they came flying out of the gates, playing their first four holes in 2-under and looking like an extremely formidable threat. But they faded down the stretch, bogeying three of the last four holes to finish at even par. Good enough for an alternate spot, but not quite enough for an assured ticket.
Playing alongside Buck and Johnson were Alexis Florio (Boston, MA) and Phoebe Brinker (Wilmington, DE), sporting impressive collegiate stand bags (Indiana & Duke, respectively). Perhaps the recent grads could challenge the old guard? They gave it a go. Brinker made her third birdie of the day on the 17th to get them to 3-under, two shots back.
Johnson and Buck found trouble with wayward approach shots on 18, and it looked like some late drama could be in the offing. But the groups matched bogey fives, ensuring a fourth appearance in the championship for Johnson and Buck, while Florio and Brinker locked in first alternate status with their 2-under total.
While this format can often require a barrage of birdies, Johnson and Buck won the day with unrelentingly steady play from both players, fit to outlast the rest of the field.
“I think there were definitely some holes that weren’t going to be birdied by many people. I think it’s just trying to dissect the course a little bit and play it as you see it. But I think for us, most of the holes we both had some birdie looks, so it’s a little less stressful when you can do that versus one person out of the hole, which we’ve done in the past. It’s not as fun,” said Johnson.
For Buck, today’s result is further evidence of the excellent form she’s found late this season. Early this month, she made a run into the round of 32 at the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am. Six days ago, she finished off a dominant victory at the Massachusetts Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, posting rounds of 71-69 en route to a 9 shot victory.
Today, she and Johnson appeared to be stuck in neutral, sitting at a disappointing 1-over par through six holes. Buck then kicked it into gear, posting three consecutive birdies. “Megan played some great holes on 7, 8, 9. I was just kind of sitting back, watching her make birdies, and I had a couple good looks out there too, which was nice, so I’m sure that freed her up a little bit,” said Johnson.
With the lid quite apparently removed, they went on the offensive. Johnson birdied the difficult par-4 11th, doing well to keep her downhill, downwind approach on the front tier of the green, where the flag was perched precariously near the verge of a large swale. Buck added her fourth birdie of the day two holes later, on the short par-4 13th. Johnson then notched another with a two on the par-3 15th, establishing a commanding lead for the veteran pair.
“The number I had in my mind was six-under, thinking you need to be there. But I think this format, you really are just trying to essentially birdie every hole. I didn’t even look at the leaderboard until we walked off 17,” said Buck. “And even then, I was like, ‘maybe I shouldn’t look.’ I mean, you really are just trying to do your best and birdie every hole, that’s what makes it so fun.”
The final three hole stretch at Black Rock is a demanding one, and as Buck and Johnson turned homeward from the 15th green, the stately red USGA flags went from gently flitting about, to stiffly pulling on their black and white striped poles, four corners in the air.
Johnson was first to play from the fairway on 16, and her approach fell short in the hazard. But Buck stepped in and picked up her teammate, cooly knocking it on the green and two-putting for par. The roles were reversed on the 17th, when Buck’s approach found the front bunker. No bother, as Johnson two-putted to keep them at 5-under.
The 18th was a different story, which I will lay out and let Megan Buck tell:
“I think on the tee we said, ‘let’s go get a good par and finish strong here,’ and we both hit good drives and then I led us astray with my approach shot going way right. And then Shannon kind of followed me. But we got lucky that her’s stayed in play, so for Shannon to just really make what was actually a solid bogey there…which, now looking back, a bogey wasn’t a bad score. I mean it played really long and tough into the wind, right?”
Right. Neither of the two groups in close pursuit were able to secure a par on the daunting finishing hole, so while you never want to see a square on a four-ball scorecard, it was no harm, no foul. Buck and Johnson had built up enough equity with six circles.
So, it’s on to Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plains rather than off Massachusetts Bay. And with three appearances already under their belts, perhaps they can make a little noise in 2025.
“It is one that we always show up and, especially last year, I think even more than ever, we felt really old,” said Buck.
Johnson cut in (laughing), with a hard truth: “Well, I was the oldest person in the field, being called the elder stateswoman, so that was a little frustrating.”
But they’re not ready to concede to the youngsters just yet. “I think we put a little undue pressure on ourselves at times too, going into it, where we like, have to be perfect. Where, I don’t think we necessarily, once we get to the tournament, have to be. We can make birdies. Just as many birdies as those college kids out there,” said Johnson.
“Now, we’ve learned our lesson. We’ll be better next year,” Buck added.
QUALIFIERS (Names; Cities)
Megan Buck (North Easton, MA) & Shannon Johnson (North Easton, MA); 67 (-4)
ALTERNATES (In Order)
Alexis Florio (Boston, MA) & Phoebe Brinker (Wilmington, DE); 69 (-2)
Maddie Smith (Westford, MA) & Lillian Guleserian (Westwood, MA); 71 (E)
Black Rock Country Club was designed by Massachusetts native Brian Silva and opened for play in 2003. The land operated as a rock quarry all the way up until 1999, when it was purchased by the group that would develop the golf course. As such, there are ample fascinating rock formations to ogle throughout the round, most notably on the par-4 16th, where a towering wall frames the right side of the fairway.
Silva described the unique challenges of laying out a golf course on the rugged property: “At Black Rock, I knew we wanted to work with the rock faces that came to line the 7th and 16th holes. With a proposed clubhouse location at the edge of the rock crushing plant, a number of golf holes would fill this large open area. I was pretty sure of the “corridors” for 1 and 10 and there were endpoints – wetlands – that defined how long these holes would play. On one side of 1 and 10, there was a hole-width corridor that would form the second half of the 18th hole. And there would be another hole corridor or two that were bounded by 1 and 10 on one side and a road on the other. Past that road, there was room for a golf hole that would be bounded by a wetland on its other side. The landforms on this hole – to be #4 would not allow two individual golf holes. A par four worked up to a huge ledge but a less than 100 yard par three could be jammed from the other side of the ledge to a proposed road. The hole had to be a par five but how could a five be built without an excruciating amount of blasting – well, how about a punch bowl? And with those early-on thoughts driving the routing, maybe the blanks can be filled in.
As for the competitive golf landscape, the club is perhaps best known for Richard Rapp’s medalist finish at the 2023 Mass Golf Staff Outing. Given his current form, there is little expectation of a title defense in 2024. Which is fine.
The championship will be held May 10-14, 2025, at Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club, a 1921 Perry Maxwell design. 64 sides will contend in 36 holes of stroke play, before the field is cut in half and folded into a match play bracket. Each member of the side cannot have a Handicap Index® exceeding 14.4. The USGA accepted 375 entries.
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