Shannon Johnson leads after first day of 122nd Massachusetts Women's Amateur
Advertisement
Both players took advantage of the four par 5s as Smith was 4 under and Johnson 3 under.
Isabel Brozena, a rising sophomore at Xavier from North Reading, shot even par and is third.
Rebecca Skoler, who won this event two years ago and reached match play at last week's US Women's Amateur, leads a group of four at 2-over 74.
Defending champion Morgan Smith, who missed the cut at the national amateur, was 6 over in a tie for 20th.
With temperatures in the 90s, conditions were difficult with the average scoring being 84.6.
The top 32 players after Tuesday's second round of qualifying will make the match play bracket with an 18-hole final scheduled for Friday. The winner earns a spot in the 2026 US Women's Amateur.
Advertisement
Keith Pearson can be reached at
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC Sports
4 hours ago
- NBC Sports
Nate Smith – no, not that one – into U.S. Amateur match play at Olympic
SAN FRANCISCO – Will the real Nathan Smith please stand up. While U.S. Walker Cup captain Nathan Smith is observing the action this week at the Olympic Club, where his 10-man squad for Cypress Point will be filled out following Sunday's U.S. Amateur final, another Nathan Smith is putting on a show. Nate Smith, a 42-year-old from Tetonia, Idaho, fired back-to-back 1-under 69s, on Olympic's Lake and Ocean courses, to breeze into match play as the seventh seed. 'I still have a few tricks up my sleeve,' Smith said with a laugh, before adding, 'I didn't have any expectations.' Why should he? After all, while many of his fellow competitors were going through their skillfully crafted, pre-round routines and then slipping into their NIL-logoed apparel, Smith woke up early before his afternoon tee time to order some roofing materials and dial into a job site. 'I'm fully aware that I'm a full-time home builder, and these guys are dedicating their lives to the game and they're some of the best amateurs in the world,' Smith said. 'I used to be at one point; not anymore, but maybe I still am, who knows?' Smith once was a hotshot amateur, too, a product of municipal golf out of Santa Cruz, less than two hours south of San Francisco, who played four years at Duke. He was a two-time All-American there before turning professional in 2006. He traveled the Hooters Tour with fellow Blue Devil Kevin Streelman, won there, and then won again on the then-called Nationwide Tour in 2010. That year, he fell out of the top 25 at that tour's season finale, though later earned his PGA Tour card through Q-School. But after only one season, during which he made $154,814 on eight of 24 cuts and failed to notch a top-25 finish, Smith lost his card. Two years later, he was quitting competitive golf after left-knee surgery and heading to graduate school at College of Charleston, where he not only earned his M.B.A. but met his wife, Amra. 'I had felt like I'd lost a lot stuff in my life, and I just wanted to turn the page,' Smith said. The couple moved to Idaho, where Smith spent a few years getting his business off the ground. By 2022, he had the itch to compete again, so he applied to have his amateur status reinstated started playing some local events, which eventually led to state and national tournaments. He won the 2024 Idaho Amateur and the Snedeker Memorial earlier this year while making a run to the Round of 16 of the 2023 U.S. Mid-Amateur and tying for fourth at the Huddleston Cup. He's qualified for three of the last four U.S. Amateurs, three times as many as he played during his first stint as an amateur. 'I still love the game, and I love competing; I just didn't like the way I felt playing professional golf,' Smith said. 'I have a much greater appreciation now for this game, which has given me everything in a lot of ways. I'm just so blessed to be here competing.' Smith knows how crazy this game can be. He recently failed to qualify for the U.S. Mid-Amateur by a shot, and now, over the hill, he's into the knockout stage at Olympic Club, which he'd occasionally play as a teenager if he was fortunate enough to score the invite. He finds himself doing math often these days, and his head spins when he realizes that some of his peers this week, including 16-year-old Miles Russell, who was just two shots better than Smith in stroke play, were born after Smith graduated college. And speaking of math, his odds of playing the Walker Cup next month at Cypress Point were astronomical before this week. But with the two main contenders for the one mid-amateur berth, Stewart Hagestad and Evan Beck, missing the cut, perhaps the door has been cracked open for Smith, the lone 25-and-older competitor left in this championship, to force his way onto the other Nathan Smith's team. The Smiths are familiar with each other. When it comes time for the Darrell Survey each year, surveyors are often confused when they see Nathan Smith has completely changed his bag of clubs. 'Wrong guy,' Nate will then tell them, though he wishes he had four U.S. Mid-Amateur titles and three Walker Cup appearances under his belt. 'I gave him Nathan a while ago,' Nate explained. 'That's exactly why I did it because we kept getting confused. I really respect Nathan and what he's accomplished in the mid-am game, and he's older than me and he has seniority, so he got to keep Nathan.' Back in 2004, they were both invited to attend the Walker Cup practice session ahead of the next year's event at Chicago Golf Club. During the trip, captain Bob Lewis paired the Smiths in a match against Brian Harman and Roberto Castro at Old Memorial. 'Nate and Nate; it was the best!' Nate Smith said with a smile. Now, 21 years later, could there be a Nathan Smith reunion at Cypress? 'I've been politicking with him a little bit,' Nate Smith said. 'If I were to win, maybe there'd be an argument for it…' That's when Smith was interrupted. A win, as he's then informed, would earn him an automatic spot.
USA Today
18 hours ago
- USA Today
Watch Jonathan Smith provide a MSU update following team's first fall scrimmage
Michigan State football is halfway through fall preseason camp, with the team holding their first scrimmage this past weekend. That scrimmage provided head coach Jonathan Smith, with some interesting insight on the team -- which he shared on Monday. Smith met with the local media on Monday to talk about the first few weeks of fall preseason camp as the Spartans enter week three of practice. This was also the first time for media availability following the Spartans' first preseason scrimmage, which was a hot topic during Smith's press conference. Check out what Smith had to say about the team's first scrimmage and how practice has gone the first two weeks of fall camp in the highlights and full video sections below: Highlights Some of the notable topics covered during Smith's media session on Monday were... Full Video This video is courtesy of SpartanMag. Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on X @RobertBondy5.
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
Jonathan Smith provides interesting update on MSU O-Line depth
Depth within the offensive line was a concern last season for the Spartans, but that doesn't appear to be the case anymore. Michigan State is in the midst of fall preseason camp, with the Spartans kicking off week three of practice earlier on Monday. As part of progressing into week three, Spartans head coach Jonathan Smith met with the media on Monday to discuss a number of topics surrounding his team. One of those was the depth he's seeing at offensive line. According to a post from Emmett Matasovsky of Spartan Shadows, Smith said there's a battle for the starting five spots on the offensive line, with "close to 10 guys" still in the mix. This quote is particularly interesting because, to me, this suggests they feel pretty good about essentially their entire two deep at offensive line. Michigan State's offensive line has been a weakness for the Spartans for what feels like a decade at this point. Sure, there have been bright spots along the way, but it hasn't been a unit that has given the fan base much faith over at least the last few seasons at a minimum. If Michigan State can put together an average Big Ten offensive line, I feel very confident in what they can achieve this season on that side of the ball. The skilled position groups all seem to be upper-tier in the league, with the offensive line being the biggest question mark. However, it's starting to sound like we should be putting more faith and expectations into that unit as we inch closer and close to the start of the 2025 season. Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on X @RobertBondy5. This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Jonathan Smith provides positive update on MSU O-Line depth
