Morgan Smith secures victory at Massachusetts Women’s Amateur
Morgan Smith (Mass Golf Photo)
Morgan Smith of Westford admits that she constantly puts pressure on herself to improve and win at a level she hasn’t achieved before.
With that comes a lot of intensity and adrenaline, which even with a 3-up lead and momentum two-thirds of the way through the 18-hole final against Brookline’s Julia Imai on Friday morning at the 121st Massachusetts Women’s Amateur Championship, was still pumping. Smith hit her second shot nearly out of bounds on the 13th hole, but still managed to win the match with a bogey putt, giving her a chance to win it all on the next hole.
Standing on the tee of the par-3 14th hole at the highest point of the Taconic Golf Club, with a beautiful sunlit view of the surrounding green mountain peaks, her younger sister and their caddie Maddie Smith decided to lighten the mood a bit and bring a smile to their sister’s face by saying, “Do what Nicklaus did,” referring to Jack Nicklaus’ famous hole-in-one in a practice round at Taconic for the 1956 U.S. Junior Amateur.
Morgan didn’t go home with an ace, but with a smooth shot and a final putt, she secured her place in the history of this hole and the club itself by doing something The Golden Bear had never done – winning a championship at Taconic. Smith sank an 8-foot birdie putt uphill on the 14th hole to defeat Imai 5&4 and claim the Women’s Amateur title for the second time in three years.
“It feels really good. I’m really excited. It’s a great way to end the summer and start college,” said Smith, who had already packed his car and was ready to head south to the University of Georgia as a transfer student from Georgetown. “You hope for a long week before this tournament and I think with that mindset, the length of the week will be a little easier.”
In addition to regaining the trophy, Smith received an exemption to play in the 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bandon Dunes in Oregon. Smith competed in the event last week, playing alongside her two sisters, Molly and Maddie, at Southern Hills in Oklahoma.
Smith’s win two years ago came shortly after she had proven to herself that she was worthy of playing golf at the Division I level. She had rededicated herself to the gym with the goal of gaining distance and developing a golf swing that could compete at that level. With two big wins in 2022, she secured a spot at Georgetown, where she was among the best players in the Big East. But when the opportunity to transfer to a nationally ranked program in the SEC came along, it was the culmination of several years of raising the bar.
As expected, the Mass Women’s Amateur presented its own challenges this time around, and that “prove it” mentality served as motivation once again. That was especially the case when Thursday saw the long-awaited clash between sisters Morgan and Molly, arguably the two best amateur golfers in the state. Morgan won that battle in 20 holes by making three crucial putts down the home stretch, finding a way to prevail in the emotionally draining match.
“When you have the transfer portal on your radar, it definitely adds pressure to the game of golf,” Smith said. “I felt like the last 2-3 years I had to constantly prove myself, whether it was to Molly or college coaches, because I put a lot of pressure on myself. Going into the transfer portal is a risk. I didn’t know how the coaches would take it. And now I’m playing golf for a top-25 program and I couldn’t be more excited.”
Smith’s distance was on display Friday as she outshot Imai on every hole except No. 4 (a non-par 3), keeping her 9-iron and wedges on most of the greens. Her balanced play impressed early as she won three of the first five holes. Imai got a point back by hitting a fairway wood to about 7 feet pin height on the 7th hole and making the birdie putt, drawing smiles from her and her brother and caddie James Imai, a three-time Mass Junior Amateur winner who graduated from Northwestern University. James flew in at 9 p.m. last night after competing in the U.S. Amateur in Minnesota, arriving in the Berkshires in time to caddy for his little sister.
After Imai’s birdie, Smith immediately got back to work, hitting his next drive to within 100 yards of the hole and regaining the lead with a birdie.
“I want to hit the ball farther than I have been and I think that will help my golf game go to the next level,” Smith said. “You have to want to hit the ball hard and when I was 17, all I was doing was trying to hit fairway finders and to play at the next level, you can’t hit fairway finders; you have to try.”
Imai won the 12th hole after Smith’s chip rolled off the back of the green and onto the lower level. Despite Smith’s nervous second shot on the 13th, Imai also missed the green, hit her third shot too long and her chip rolled past the hole on her fourth shot. Smith’s chip also rolled off the green, but she made a bogey there, giving her a chance to win on the 14th hole.
“I missed quite a few putts today,” Smith said. “I think the putt on hole 13 was important, and I felt like I could make the putt on hole 14, so that was a nice way to finish.”
While Imai’s swing had a steady pace, Taconic’s length caused problems as she found several of the course’s lurking bunkers and began missing the greens in regulation. On the 14th hole, she had an excellent up-and-down for par out of the greenside bunker, forcing Smith to make the putt to end the match. It was reminiscent of the Mass Open earlier in the summer when she watched her brother make a long, par-length putt on the closer at Willowbend, only to see his opponent make one after that and win the match.
Although Imai couldn’t pull off the upset, it was a gutsy performance all week from the Brookline native, who played well at the high school level but until recently hadn’t shown much promise in national summer competitions. In fact, this week was the first time she played multiple games in a single day. Still, she has developed into a promising player who enjoys the game regardless of the level of competition. She will now attend the University of Wisconsin-Stout this fall.
“When I got to middle and high school and started taking golf more seriously, that was definitely the goal,” Imai said of her college golf prospects. “When I saw my brother play and how much fun he was having, I wanted to have the same experience.”
Her most important conclusion of the week: “This week was very fun and special for me,” said Imai. “I didn’t expect to make it to the final. I just tried to enjoy the course because I’d never been here before and I’d heard so many good things about it. It was such a great course to play on. I played with friends and tried to enjoy the moment all week.”
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