NORTON, Massachusetts – Mass Golf today has announced its roster for the 119th Griscom Cup Matches, as it will attempt to defend its title. The annual interstate team competition features standout amateur women’s golfers from Massachusetts, the New York metropolitan area and Philadelphia area.
The tournament returns to Somerset Hills Country Club (NJ) from May 31-June 1. A top 100 course in the U.S., Somerset Hills hosted the Griscom Cup in 2008, which was the last time a team from Massachusetts won the title away from home soil. The A.W. Tillinghast layout also hosted the 1990 Curtis Cup and the U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur (1973 & 1983).
Led incoming Georgetown first-year Morgan Smith, Mass Golf’s roster features eight amateur golfers from across the state, including captain: Chelsea Curtis. Smith, who is making first appearance in the competition, won both the Mass Women’s Amateur and New England Women’s Amateur in 2022, and made match play in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur.
Allison Paik will make her fourth straight appearance on the team. Paik, who earned Academic All-Ivy League honors at Columbia this year, tallied 5 points in her singles matches last year, helping lift Team Mass Golf to victory. Lindsay Cone also returns to the team for the first time since 2021. Last year, she placed T3 in the Mass Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship. Fellow mid-amateur Wendy Colby also finished T3 in last year’s Mass Women’s Mid-Amateur.
Mary Chamberlain, who qualified for the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur last year, is back on the Griscom Cup roster this year. In 2008 at Somerset Hills, Chamberlain tallied four points in the final round to help the Massachusetts women win their first Griscom Cup since 1997.
Three college golfers will round out the squad. Mackenzie Whitney, who recently finished her first year at Siena College, shot the low 54-hole total of 230 in the 2022 New England Junior Amateur. Merrimack College sophomore Charlotte Cute will make her first Griscom Cup appearance, as will Middlebury College commit Piper Jordan, who made the quarterfinals of the 2022 Mass Women’s Amateur Championship.
COMPETITION FORMAT
The three teams will compete in a three-way, Nassau-style match-play competition. Points are awarded for winning the front nine, back nine and the 18-hole round. On the first day, the matches will be a team (foursomes) format, and on the second day, the players compete in singles matches. The team with the most points over two days will take home the Cup.
The Griscom Cup Matches date back to 1898, but 1902 marked the first year that teams from three states – Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania – competed in this inter-city challenge. The event was named after Frances Griscom of Pennsylvania and has been conducted every year with the exception of the World War II period (1942-1945), 1984 due to inclement weather, and 2020 due to COVID-19.
Most of the early Griscom Cup players were familiar with one another through their participation in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championships. In fact, in 1900 Miss Frances Griscom defeated Margaret Curtis, from Boston, for the Women’s Amateur title. The next year, Boston petitioned to challenge for the Cup. That first three-city challenge took place in 1902 at Baltusrol Links (NJ). The following year saw the beginning of the annual rotation of the tournament among the three cities.
Mass Golf is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is dedicated to advancing golf in Massachusetts by building an engaged and inclusive community around the sport.
With a community made up of over 110,000 golf enthusiasts and over 360 member clubs, Mass Golf is one of the largest state golf associations in the country. Members enjoy the benefits of handicapping, engaging golf content, course rating and scoring services along with the opportunity to compete in an array of events for golfers of all ages and abilities.
At the forefront of junior development, Mass Golf is proud to offer programming to youth in the state through First Tee Massachusetts and subsidized rounds of golf by way of Youth on Course.
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