By Steve Derderian
sderderian@massgolf.org
FITCHBURG, Massachusetts (August 11, 2026) — Golf records have a way of reducing memorable days to their results. In the 1999 Massachusetts Women’s Amateur, Joanne Catlin finished runner-up to her friend Laura Torrisi after a record-setting 25-hole final at Catlin’s home club, Oak Hill Country Club.
Twenty-seven years later, that recap reveals little about what the day meant to her.
“I was happy to make the finals and play well that year,” said Catlin, standing between Oak Hill’s 11th green and 12th tee on Monday morning. She was on-site first thing for the opening round, following the action in running shoes with a small folding chair in tow. Catlin kept a keen eye on championship leader Molly Smith, Mackenzie Whitney and Emma Abramson during the first Women’s Amateur held here since 1999. Catlin watched Smith unleash powerful swings, listened as the players chopped it up between shots, and compared their games with those of her generation (and not just about the increase in distance).
Walking those familiar holes eventually returned the conversation to the final, and the person who walked all 25 of them beside her.
Three months prior to the 99th playing of the Mass Women’s Amateur, Catlin’s husband, Michael, had been diagnosed with leukemia. He was scheduled for a doctor’s appointment in Boston that Thursday afternoon, but when Joanne defeated Laura Day, 3 & 2, in the morning semifinal, he could not bear the thought of missing the final. Michael rescheduled the appointment and picked up his wife’s bag once more.
In an unlikely twist, he already knew her opponent’s game. Always gracious and adamant about being a good host, Michael had caddied for Torrisi during Monday’s opening round, sharing his knowledge of Oak Hill before jokingly taking back the advice when she advanced to face Joanne.
“It was really special having him here,” a misty-eyed Catlin said after the final. “We both thought maybe this will be my year. Just having him here was pretty neat.”
With Michael beside her, Catlin opened with seven consecutive pars and built a 3-up lead through nine holes. Torrisi, a left-handed Campbell University standout who had been the championship runner-up the previous year, began her comeback with an eagle on the par-5 10th. She pulled even by sinking a 60-foot birdie putt on No. 15 and moved ahead for the first time at the 16th. Catlin won No. 18 with a par, sending the match back to the first tee.
From there, neither player could end it. “Every hole, there was a chance one of us could have won, but we didn’t,” Catlin recalled. “More and more people would come out on the next hole, and the next hole, and the next hole. By the time we got to seven, there was a crowd up there.”
The final ended there, on No. 7, when Catlin failed to reach the elevated green with her third shot and Torrisi secured the title with a par. Catlin had played 41 holes that Thursday, every one with Michael carrying her bag and declining an offer to hand it off when the strain began to show.
“I hung with her for the next seven holes and just kind of ran out of gas,” Catlin said.
The years have changed both Catlin and the course. Trees that once guarded the left sides of Nos. 7 and 9, for example, are gone. Greens have been rebuilt, tees have moved and the everyday yardage for women has been slightly reduced from the nearly 5,900 yards Catlin played back in the ’90s.
Catlin, who will turn 70 next year, has won 22 women’s club championships, including the 1980 title she captured as Joanne Simila. Her name likely would appear beside even more years had she not spent a decade away from Oak Hill, from 2000–2010, while caring for Michael before his death.
Catlin said Oak Hill has a strong women’s golf tradition since joining as a teenager, but growing up in Winchendon, she also benefited from playing with the men around the region’s clubs, including fellow Oak Hill legend Jim Ruschioni, who passed away in 2024. She became a standout who represented the Women’s Golf Association of Massachusetts on several Griscom Cup teams.
Even before they were married, Michael had pledged his support for his future wife should she choose to pursue pro golf on the LPGA. Instead, she opted to raise a family and play amateur golf. She twice reached the Women’s Amateur final, including in 1981 when she was five months pregnant. She also earned medalist honors when Oak Hill hosted in 1994 and three years later qualified for the 1997 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Brae Burn Country Club.
She might even have attempted to qualify this year had her game — and her left wrist — been in better condition. As she explained, she held up the braced wrist she recently fractured in a dog-walking accident.
“I was really excited that it was here, and I thought if I had been playing better, I might even go out and try to qualify,” she said. “But I haven’t done it in years because I kind of stick with the senior stuff now.”
Instead, Catlin watched a generation of women who are stronger, fitter and equipped with preparation routines that increasingly resemble those of top professionals.
“We didn’t do any of that,” she said. “We just showed up and played. Some of us didn’t even warm up.” Catlin recalled seven-time Mass Women’s Amateur champion Anne Marie Tobin occasionally arriving minutes before her starting time, rolling a few putts and proceeding to beat everyone.
What has survived the years is competitive streak in the field that has produced a formidable collection of champions.
“I think you’re born with that competitive nature,” Catlin said. “We still all want to compete.”
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