By Steve Derderian
sderderian@massgolf.org
YARMOUTH PORT, Massachusetts (June 5, 2024) – When the Women’s Stroke Play Championship for the Baker Trophy was last held at Cummaquid Golf Club in 1972, the beloved Edith Noblit Baker, aka ‘The Boss’, beamed with pride, looking out down the 18th fairway. Her enormous presence loomed there as groups finished up play in a tournament named in her honor.
Baker, a past president of the Women’s Golf Association of Massachusetts and a five-time Mass Women’s Amateur champion, surely would be impressed by the collective acumen and accomplishment of the players in the 74th playing the championship played in her honor. She’d also have to be clinging tightly to her hat as the breezy Wednesday marked the event’s long-awaited return to Cape Cod’s oldest organized private golf club.
Georgetown University standout Morgan Smith (Vesper Country Club) played her first event back in Massachusetts this year to take a two-stroke lead at even-par 71 in the Championship Division (5,750 yards). Meanwhile, it’s a two-way tie in the Tournament Division (5,250 yards) between 2022 division winner Joanne Catlin (Oak Hill Country Club) and first-time Baker competitor Irene Haley (Ferncroft Country Club).
Smith’s last appearance in the Women’s Stroke Play came in the fall of 2020, just as she was an emerging star for Westford Academy’s golf team. Now coming off a stellar first college season, the Big East Freshman of the Year said she was excited to be back playing with friends in a Mass Golf event.
She showed flashes of brilliance early with a birdie on holes 6, 7, and 9. With an increasingly roaring wind as the day went on, she minimized the damage and walked away with a two-stroke lead.
“I think the front nine, in general, was a little bit easier,” said Smith, seeking her first victory in the event. “The wind picked for the last stretch, so my first six holes were pretty solid. “And then kind of the last six holes were probably just like more of a grind and make sure to hit better shots, but I just didn’t get anything.”
Smith traded the lead early on with Harvard University’s Catie Schernecker. The 2021 Mass Women’s Amateur winner has been limited in competition due to injuries but looked to be in prime form in the beginning. She made birdies on three of the first four holes and finished the round at 2-over 73 for a four-way tie for second with 5-time champion Shannon Johnson, 7-time winner Tara-Joy Connelly, and junior standout Amanda Adams.
“I think I had very low expectations today. I haven’t been able to play much recently, so I just enjoyed being out here,” Schernecker said. “I think putting felt good all day. I hit a few irons close early on that kind of fell off later in the round.”
She’s Catie Schernecker. She goes to Hahvahd. She’s Wicked Smahht. And Wicked good at golf. #MassGolf pic.twitter.com/NnVbMXloYq
— Mass Golf (@PlayMassGolf) June 5, 2024
Irene Haley made it a memorable first Women’s Stroke Play Championship. Haley tied Catlin with a score of 79, hitting the green in two to set up a two-putt birdie on the par-5 14th and adding another birdie on the par-3 16th.
“I just tried to stay calm,” said Haley, who is married to national-recognized LPGA Instructor Cathy MacPherson. “A lot of times in these events, I tried to do too much, so I just tried to have a good routine, take calm swings, and get some luck.”
As for experiencing the event the first time, “It’s a wonderful group of ladies in all the divisions. It’s a lot of fun. I know it’s going to be fun competition. A little tense, but still fun.”
Round 2 resumes at 7:30 a.m. Groups will be paired based on their Round 1 scores.
Cummaquid Golf Club is part of the early fabric of golf in Massachusetts, and has long been a club built exclusively for the purposes of golf.
Formed in 1895 along the scenic Route 6A byway that snakes through Cape Cod’s northern shore, Cummaquid is the oldest private golf club on Cape Cod and among the first 100 clubs in the U.S. that are still in existence today. Herbert C. Leeds, who laid out the course at Myopia Hunt Club and Joe Lloyd, the first golf professional at Essex County Club and the 1897 U.S. Open winner, are both credited with laying out the first nine holes, stretching about 3,000 along previously untamed land.
“The land … was very rough and uncultivated with plenty of blackberry vines and the outlook for fairways and putting greens was not very promising. Different lots were enclosed by stone walls,” described one report in 1899.
The name Cummaquid comes from a tribe that was a sub-group of Wampanoags. The name roughly translates to land on the other side, a reference to Sandy Point, the nearby 6.5-mile-long barrier beach with 4,700 acres of dunes, maritime forests, and marshes. The club’s arrowhead logo supposedly is a reference to arrowheads discovered along the beach.
The club remained 9-holes until 1970 when Henry Mitchell (also designed Dennis Pines) was brought in to add 9 more and give the club a layout of about 6,300 yards. In 2015, the club debuted a new 14,200-square-foot clubhouse, creating a new backdrop overlooking the 18th fairway. This replaced the old clubhouse which opened in 1945 and was about 5,000 square feet shorter than the new one.
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