After further review – more than a month’s worth, to be honest – what happened on May 3 in the U.S. Open local qualifier in Lakeville, Massachusetts, deserves more cheers than it received.
The accomplishment of an 18-year-old high school senior from Westford, Massachusetts, named Molly Smith, on a raw spring day – the only woman in a field of 80 competitors – needs to be saluted, not because it validated any sort of political statement, but because it put the game in a brilliant, more inclusive spotlight.
“Good golf is for everyone,” said Matt Parziale. “The more good golf there is, the better it is for the sport.”
Let the record show that Parziale – winner of the 2017 U.S. Mid-Amateur, three Massachusetts Mid-Ams and one Massachusetts Amateur – has a firm grasp on the concept of good golf. He has a firmer perspective, it should also be noted, on events that put golf in a good light.
And that is what took place May 3.
Parziale knows, because he was there in Lakeville, and with a 4-under 68 he secured one of the five spots into final qualifying. But it was what happened just below him in the standings that should be celebrated.
Playing the same tees as every other competitor and navigating a 6,674-yard course, Smith made just one bogey, shot 2-under and came agonizingly close to getting into a playoff for a berth into the U.S. Open final qualifier.
As it was, Jack O’Donnell of Cohasset, Massachusetts, a junior at the University of Michigan, scripted some heroics two groups ahead of Smith, making eagle at his 18th hole, the par-5 ninth, to finish at 3-under to secure the fifth automatic spot.
“I can go out and play golf for practice, but it’s never the same atmosphere. Shots are not the same, decision-making is not the same. It’s super different. When I’m under pressure (in tournament competition) and there are higher stakes, I play better golf.” – Molly Smith
When Smith came along two groups later and could not manage a birdie at that ninth hole, she signed for 70 to get into a five-way playoff for the two alternates. Smith stayed alive by matching par with two others on the first playoff hole but bogeyed it the second time around to come up short.
Disappointing, yes, “but there were a lot of positives,” said Smith, who recently graduated from Westford Academy (Westford, Massachusetts) and will attend the University of Central Florida later this year. “Tournament golf brings out the best in me.”
Unfortunately, situations that aren’t the norm – a woman playing tournament golf in a field of men, for example – often bring out the worst in people. Phil Smith, a longtime competitor on the Massachusetts amateur scene and the father of three daughters (Molly is the middle child between Morgan, 19, and Maddie, 15) thinks people – especially the hideous Twitter trolls – misunderstand his daughter’s reasoning for even being at that U.S. Open local qualifier.
It came a week after the Massachusetts Four-Ball Championship, where Morgan and Molly shot 72-67 to finish 4-under and tied for 68th. The only women in a field of 192 teams, they scored better than 112 two-man entries.
“I was on the chipping green at my own club (Vesper Country Club in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts) and was told the girls shouldn’t be playing,” Smith said. “I kind of get frustrated with that. I was always a big believer that you need to play. You need ‘reps’ to keep the hands and body sharp.”
He explained that the girls had qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-ball Championship in DuPont, Washington, and would be leaving May 10. Opportunities for tournament golf in April and early May in New England are few and far between, so the girls were simply seizing upon what they saw as their only chances to play competitive golf.
“I can go out and play golf for practice, but it’s never the same atmosphere,” Molly said. “Shots are not the same, decision-making is not the same. It’s super different. When I’m under pressure (in tournament competition) and there are higher stakes, I play better golf.”
The decision to enter the U.S. Open local qualifier was hers, and it had nothing to do with a political agenda.
“Honestly, it was a no-brainer,” she said. “It was a (90-minute) drive. People have their assumptions as to why I was there, but to be honest, it was a tournament to me. That’s it.
“I guess it’s cool (to shoot 2-under), but it didn’t feel like a big deal. Some people took it out of proportion. In the end, I didn’t even qualify.”
This was not another Michelle Wie 2006 experience. Then a 16-year-old with a record of chasing big-stage events against the men, Wie was medalist at a U.S. Open local qualifier in her native Hawaii and fully embraced the chance to go to a final qualifier at Canoe Brook in New Jersey.
Her 36-hole day that year drew intense national attention.
But Molly concedes she played at LeBaron Hills Country Club strictly to get in “reps” in advance of the national four-ball tournament. Had she even qualified for the U.S. Open final qualifier June 5, she isn’t sure she would have gone; certainly not if it impacted preparation for what mattered more to her – a June 7 U.S. Women’s Open qualifier (she missed qualifying by three strokes).
In other words, she is firmly fixed to staying in “her lane,” as the saying goes. The U.S. Women’s Amateur, the U.S. Women’s Open, the U.S. Girls’ Junior, the Massachusetts Women’s Amateur… those are the events she has circled on her calendar as she prepares for a summer that is different than in years past.
“You have to have a certain level of confidence to play at the next level. You can’t teach someone that; they have it or they don’t. Molly has it.” – Emily Marron, UCF golf coach
For Molly, college awaits, and the excitement level is high.
“It feels weird right now because in past summers, I was planning a ton of summer golf knowing that come September I would shut it down,” she said. “But in college, September and October are heavy, so I want to be prepared.”
Molly said she will fill in around the USGA and Mass Golf tournaments with some other national women’s events to “help get me ready for college.” That is a prospect that thrills UCF women’s golf coach Emily Marron.
“You have to have a certain level of confidence to play at the next level. You can’t teach someone that; they have it or they don’t. Molly has it,” said Marron.
Even as she prepared her UCF team for the NCAA Regionals, Marron monitored the U.S. Open local qualifying performance by Molly and lauded the effort.
“I was so impressed with her attitude and demeanor on the course when I was recruiting her,” said Marron, who will be getting a powerful golfer with 107 mph clubhead speed and 150 mph ball speed.
“Molly certainly has the distance to play at the next level.”
It’s owed to that power that Phil Smith has never hesitated to let Molly compete against the boys and men when she wanted, such as the club championship at Mt. Pleasant Golf Club in Lowell, Massachusetts, where Molly works part-time. The club wouldn’t allow her to enter in 2021, but in the summer of ’22 the decision was changed and Molly won.
“Real golfers don’t have a problem with that,” insists Smith. “They’re always of the mindset, ‘OK, let’s play. Let’s go.’ ”
But again, the club championship and the U.S. Open local qualifier were round pegs into a round hole – they came at a time when Molly Smith wanted to add another competitive tournament to her schedule. Never was it to make a statement. The focus has always been on the women’s slate, and in that respect one cannot argue with the success the older sisters have had.
Morgan Smith, 19, who recently won individual honors at the Independent School Girls’ Golf Classic while leading Phillips Exeter Academy (Exter, New Hampshire) to the team championship, will attend Georgetown in the fall. Last summer, she won both the New England Women’s Amateur and the Massachusetts Women’s State Amateur.
The sisters are no stranger to USGA championships. They qualified for the 2021 U.S. Girls’ Junior, and Molly has played in each of the last two U.S. Women’s Amateurs.
“I’ve had a blast teaching them,” said Smith. “Honestly, I’d almost rather watch them play than play myself.”
That being said, Phil Smith concedes he didn’t travel to LeBaron Hills May 3 to watch Molly play in that U.S. Open local qualifier because “I thought it was sort of a workout, just her getting in a practice round” ahead of the national four-ball.
But when Molly nearly pulled off the shocker, Phil Smith and Emily Marron were not stunned.
“She has a different gear,” he said. “She’s naturally strong, and Molly is a true golfer, that’s all I can say. She loves competition.”
Marron added: “If you spend a few minutes with Molly, you instantly love her. She has a unique swing with incredible power.”