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Westford’s Morgan Smith, shown working on her putting stroke at Mt. Pleasant, qualified this week for the 123rd U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, which will be held in August in Los Angeles. (Barry Scanlon/Lowell Sun)
A pair of young local standouts showed nerves of steel this week in qualifying for prestigious national events later this summer.
On Tuesday, Westford’s Morgan Smith qualified for the 123rd U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship with a clutch performance at Renaissance Golf Club in Haverhill.
Mia Sessa and Sawyer Brockestedt took the first two spots after 18-hole stroke play. Then it was down to four players for one spot – Smith, her sister, Molly, Ashley Chow (Canada) and Phoebe Brinker (Wilmington, Del.). Brinker was eliminated after bogeying the par 3 17th.
The final spot came down to the Smith sisters on the par 5 18th. Molly Smith nearly drained a birdie putt, but it just missed, leaving her a par tap in. Morgan Smith, who is headed to Georgetown University after a post-grad year at Phillips Exeter Academy, sank a clutch birdie pass to grab the final spot.
“I feel great. I’ve been close in this the last two years but to finally get it done, especially in a 4-for-1 playoff, I’m happy to pull through,” she told Mass Golf. “I’ve been putting really well. A lot of it is just confidence and trying to make a lot of the putts I’m looking at.”
The Smith sisters both shot a 1-under par 71 to advance to the playoff.
The U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship will begin Aug. 7 at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles.
The previous day, Tyngsboro’s Trevor Drew punched his ticket to the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, set to begin July 24 at the Daniel Island Club in Charleston, S.C.
Drew teed it up at a qualifier at Veterans Memorial Golf Course in Springfield. He was one of four players who shot 3-under or better to qualify, joining Tyler Bruneau (Nashawtuc CC), Sascha Robinson (Plymouth CC) and Jia Hao Poon of Malaysia.
Playing in the final group, Drew knew he had to birdie the final two holes to qualify. He accomplished his first birdie when he drove the 300-yard par 4 eighth hole. Needing one more birdie on the closing hole, the par 5 ninth, Drew faced adversity when he hit his approach shot into a bunker and got a terrible lie.
Undaunted, the recent Tyngsboro High graduate and Long Meadow member responded with a clutch up and down to record the birdie and finish 3-under.
Scottie Scheffler won the U.S. Junior Amateur in 2013.
Four Oaks
Bob Ricciardi recently joined the hole-in-one club. The golfer landed his memorable shot on the fourth hole on June 22 at the Dracut layout.
Meanwhile, Mark Maille and Bob Sylvester finished first in a classic Member Fourball battle. Mike Andre and Dean Joyce took second, with Kevin Jean and Mike Plansky placing third. … Four Oaks will host the Lions Open Golf Tournament on Aug. 14. The tournament is a fundraiser to benefit Chelmsford High athletics. The entry fee is $150 per golfer, $600 for foursomes. For dinner only, the fee is $50.
The tournament tees off at noon.
Northern Spy
Speaking of holes-in-one, Northern Spy has been on a run that would match most golf seasons for other courses. As of Tuesday there had been seven for the season.
The magnificent seven consists of Darrin Ohanasian, Cathy Walmsley, Ashton Bosch, Ryan MacDonald, Mike Dembowski, Michael Babineau and Ron Wihtelin.
To go along with that, the course has also had a pair of 3s earned the hard way. The first was by Kevin Burns, the other by Kay Salo. Both golfers hit their third shots into the hole after losing their first ball off the tee.
Are there magnets at the bottom of the par 3 cups at the Townsend course?
Cities holdover
It’s been reported that Mt. Pleasant broke Vesper’s stranglehold over the team competition at the Lowell City Golf Tournament.
But here are the final results: 1. Mt. Pleasant (2,488 strokes). 2. Vesper (2,494). 3. Nabnasset (2,550). 4. Long Meadow (2,629).
Long Meadow won the team title in 2003, then Vesper won it every year until this year, an impressive streak. Rumor has it that Mt. Pleasant’s bar stayed open for a couple of extra minutes following Saturday’s tourney finale.
Overlook
The second annual Groton-Dunstable Golf Tournament, a fundraiser for the school’s football team, will be held at the Overlook Golf Club in Hollis, N.H., on July 24.
The $125 entry fee entitles golfers to 18 holes, a car, breakfast, lunch, contest, raffles and prizes. Tee off is at 8 a.m.
Trull Brook
Happy 60th anniversary wishes go out to the 18-hole layout along the Merrimack River in Tewksbury. The grounds are historic as well as scenic.
The course sits on land once belonging to John Trull, the captain of the Tewksbury Minutemen during the Revolutionary War. Trull lived on the land in a farmhouse. Trull Brook opened in 1963 and was designed by the legendary Geoffrey Cornish, whose input on the game can be witnessed all over New England.
(The Sun is bringing back its weekly golf column. Submissions can be sent to [email protected] or [email protected])
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