WILLIAMSTOWN — For only the second time in the Massachusetts Women’s Amateur Championship’s 123-year tournament history, the Berkshires will host the state’s best female amateur golfers when a field of 62 tees off at Taconic Golf Club on Monday morning. The five-day tournament will begin with two rounds of medal play with the top 32 finishers qualifying for match play. It then will take five match-play wins to claim the title on Friday.
WHERE: Taconic Golf Club in Williamstown. WHEN: Monday-Friday. COURSE SETUP: 5,879 yards, par 71.
THE FIELD: 62 players with an average age of 22.85 and an average Handicap Index of 2.60.
FORMAT: 36 holes of medal play. Top 32 move to match play. SCHEDULE: Mon and Tue — medal-play tee times between 8 a.
m. and 11:30 a.m.
Wednesday — Match-play Round-of-32 and Round-of-16. Thursday — Quarterfinals and semifinals. Friday — 18-hole championship match in the afternoon.
SPECTATORS: Open to the public. TACONIC AND MASS GOLF: Taconic has hosted 10 Mass Golf championships, the first the Mass Amateur in 1979 and the most recent the Mass Super Senior in 2022. The long-awaited Berkshires visit — Wyantenuck Country Club hosted the tournament in 2002 — comes at a time when women’s golf in the state is as strong as it has ever been, led by the combination of talented teens, college standouts and seasoned veterans.
The average Handicap Index is an impressive 2.60. The average age of the golfers is 22.
85 years old with the youngest qualifier, Billerica’s Reva Machanavahula, just 14 years, 8 months and 8 days old. She is more than 50 years younger than the oldest competitor, Concord’s Danielle Lee (65 years, 5 months and 20 days). Taconic head professional and Williams College men’s coach Josh Hillman believes the visitors will enjoy the challenge that the Wayne Stiles-designed gem will provide, along with the beauty that surrounds the course.
Mass Golf is setting the par-71 course up at about 5,789 yards. “We’re really excited to have the state’s best coming out here,” said Hillman. “I think it’ll be a good test and I think the ladies will be amazed by the views and the quality of the course, It’s a great setting.
The golfers will be playing from a variety of tees (red, blue, etc.) and that should make for a good variety of holes.” Taconic’s tournament history, its challenging layout and the high stakes suggest that the match-play portion of the tournament will be compelling.
The back nine is several hundred yards longer than the front and features arguably the toughest stretch on the course (holes 15, 16 and 17), making for an unpredictable finish. The course’s extensive tournament history, Hillman said, has proven that it “is an ideal match-play course.” There are two golfers — Williams College’s Emma Abramson and Taconic member Kaylie Porter — who will have an advantage in terms of course knowledge considering not many others in the field have played the Williamstown course.
Abramson, a native of Sandwich and a member at the Ridge Club, had an outstanding freshman season for the Ephs, earning NESCAC Rookie of the Year honors. The 18-year-old was the medalist in the Jekyll Island Intercollegiate and finished second in the conference championships. She has also made the semifinals and round-of-16 in the Mass Women’s Amateur in recent years.
“Emma has had a nice rookie season and she’s out here working a lot” said Hillman. “She really knows how to play the game. She thinks her way around the course very well.
” Porter, a 19-year-old who lives in Manchester, Vt., became a Taconic member recently, She won the Junior Division of the Vermont Women’s Golf Association Amateur Championship in 2023. While there is no shortage of potential champions, much of the attention will be focused on Westford’s sensational Smith sisters, Morgan (20-years old), Molly (19) and Maddie (16).
Morgan, a member of the University of Georgia golf team after playing at Georgetown in her freshman year, captured the 2022 Massachusetts Women’s Amateur and Molly reached last year’s championship match, falling to Rebecca Skoler 2-and-1, Meanwhile, Maddie became the first Smith sister to win the Massachusetts Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship in 2023. Molly, Mass Golf’s Junior Player of the Year in both 2022 and 2023, opened eyes last year by becoming the first woman to qualify for the men’s Massachusetts Amateur Championship. She wasn’t able to reach match play, but produced respectable rounds of 74 and 73, She is coming off an impressive freshman season at the University of Central Florida during which she had three top-three finishes and set a tournament record of 12-under par in a dominant win in the Mercedes-Benz Championship.
Reportedly, Molly’s swing speed is an amazing 107 miles per hour, 13 mph higher than the LPGA Tour average. She is said to average 275 yards with her driver. The trio made history this past weekend at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla.
, by becoming the first trio of sisters to qualify for and play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.
Molly and Maddie missed the cut while Morgan lost in the first round of match play. While those in their teens and 20s have been super impressive, Thorny Lea Golf Club members Megan Buck, age 36, and Shannon Johnson, 41, remain threats. The duo won the Mass Women’s Four-Ball Championship for the Townshend Cup for the fifth consecutive season this year.
Johnson won both the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and the Mass.
Women’s Amateur in 2018. When the golfers tee it up on Monday, they will be playing a course in pristine condition despite the week of rainy days that finally ended on Friday. “The rain hasn’t had an impact,” said Hillman.
“[Course superintendent] Jim Easton has the course in fantastic shape, the greens have championship speed and the quality of the grass is amazing.”.
