Teen eager to put USGA 1st on tee
When the USGA conducts its first championship of the year, there will be a familiar name among the 128 competitors at the Women’s Four-Ball.
Lunenburg High junior Emily Nash, who during the fall found herself thrust into the national spotlight when she was not credited with winning the MIAA Division 3 Central title despite finishing 4 shots ahead of all competitors, will team up with Allison Paik of Providence.
Nash and Paik, a sophomore at the Wheeler School in Providence, are headed to El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif., today in advance of the tournament that begins Saturday. There will be 36 holes of stroke-play as the field of 64 teams gets cut in half for the start of match play on Monday.
Nash and Paik earned their spot by finishing in a tie for third in an Oct. 2 qualifier at Boston Golf Club in Hingham, carding an even-par 72 for one of the four spots. They started slowly with a pair of double bogeys on their opening nine before making four birdies to get back to even and avoid a playoff.
“It was good to have the offseason to work on my swing,” said Nash, whose coach is Lee Khang, the father of LPGA player Megan Khang. “I think both Allison and I over the break have made swing changes and stuff. We’ve been playing a lot the past month or so, so hopefully it will work out well with the new changes.”
Nash went to Florida this winter to keep her game sharp, including to play in the Annika Invitational USA after receiving an invitation from LPGA Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam.
This will be the first time Nash competes in a USGA championship, having come up short in the past when trying to qualify for the Girls Junior Amateur and Women’s Amateur.
“I’ve heard they are amazing,” she said. “You get treated very well, pretty much like a professional. It will be really cool to see.”
The 17-year-old currently holds a 0.5 handicap index and is the defending state girls junior champion. Last month, Nash won the season-opening U.S. Challenge Cup in Rhode Island.
Events like the Challenge Cup created friendships for Nash, and in this case helped her find a playing partner in Paik, someone she has frequently competed against.
“We don’t hit it really far, but we hit it far enough,” Nash said. “We kind of rely on our short games a lot, chipping and putting. I think it helps that we’re kind of similar.”
Nash has been a member of the boys team at Lunenburg High since the eighth grade and received plenty of attention when she topped the boys at Blissful Meadows Golf Club on Oct. 24. She shot a 3-over 75 but was not declared the individual champion because girls, despite her being part of the boys team, compete individually in the spring during the girls season.
“I mostly do the golf team for the team aspect of it,” she said. “I have my own individual tournaments, so I’m not too worried about the individual part of it. Before, I just didn’t know that was a rule, so now that I know it, it doesn’t really matter to me that much.”
Nash does have a spot in the MIAA Girls Individual North/Central/West Sectional at Townsend Ridge Country Club on June 4. If she advances, the state championship is at Thorny Lea in Brockton on June 13.
The MIAA is considering changes to the rule prohibiting female golfers from competing as individuals at the boys tournaments. While nothing has been finalized, according to a March draft of next year’s tournament format, competitors would declare in advance if they were contending for the individual championship. Girls who chose to compete with the boys for the individual title in the fall would lose their opportunity to play in the girls individual championship in the spring.
“I’d be fine with that rule,” she said, noting that she should only get one chance as an individual because her male teammates only get one chance.
In addition to the high school golf tournaments, Nash has a busy season ahead of her. She intends to try to qualify for both the USGA Girls Junior and Women’s Amateur by playing in their state events. The highlight of her summer will be playing in the Junior North & South Championship in Pinehurst, N.C.
At the Women’s FourBall, there will be three other teams with Massachusetts connections, all coming from the Boston qualifier.
Chelsea Curtis of Boston and Claire Sheldon of Cambridge were the medalists with a 2-under 70.
Sue Curtain of Westwood and Pam Kuong of Wellesley, who are making their third straight appearance, were 1 shot back. Kuong reached the final of the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur in 2015 and also has reached match play in of each of the last two years and qualified for the Women’s Mid-Amateur last year.
Shannon Johnson, a U.S. Mid-Amateur finalist in 2016 and semifinalist a year ago, teams up with fellow Norton resident Megan Buck after they qualified with a 72.