Mekhala Costello (Mass Golf Photo)
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 matchups. 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).
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 morning's 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.”
View results for Massachusetts Women's Amateur
ABOUT THE
Massachusetts Women's Amateur
18-hole stroke play qualifier for 2 match play flights of
32 players. Must have a current established GHIN
handicap from a Massachusetts Golf Association
member club.
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