By: Richard Rapp
rrapp@massgolf.org
FITCHBURG, Massachusetts (August 13, 2026) — Molly Smith (Mount Pleasant Golf Club) was on a mission this afternoon. After a birdie on 10, a near miss but win on 11, and another birdie on 12, she stood on the par-3 13th tee with a 4-up lead over Lillian Guleserian (Blue Hill Country Club).
About 170 yards away, just right of the 12th fairway, Morgan Smith (Mount Pleasant Golf Club) had her back against the wall. The two-time champion was 7 down against reigning champion Isabel Brozena (Indian Ridge Country Club). From a thick lie in the rough, Morgan hit a low scooter that bounded up to the front of the green. Just as her ball came to rest, Molly let fly on 13. It was the type of shot that you knew was good from any angle, and sure enough, the ball plunked down two feet from the hole and stopped. Morgan chanced a peak through the trees separating the two holes and grinned. She wouldn’t make it past the 12th, but for the fourth time in the past five years, a Smith will be in the Massachusetts Women’s Amateur Championship final.
Though she’s come close, the title has remained out of Molly Smith’s grasp. As I write this on the back patio of Oak Hill Country Club, in the wake of two dominant match wins, Smith is grinding on the practice green—suffice it to say she wants this one. Or, take it from Smith herself, “I would be lying if I said I didn’t want it bad.” To get a hold of that trophy, she’ll have to get through Isabel Brozena. The very player that thwarted her in the semi-final a year ago.
There was a ripple of surprise on the grounds this morning when Erika Redmond (The Haven Country Club) won the 9th hole to take a 3-up lead at the turn. From that point on, Brozena proceeded to mount a spirited charge, which carried all the way through the afternoon match. Match play scoring is slightly unreliable, but she essentially played the next 21 holes in 6-under par.
“In the first match, I had to battle so much, and you know, I had to make birdies when it counted. To take that confidence into the second match was so helpful to know that I have already beaten somebody when I was three down, and it looked grim. And so, I just think I came out here with a lot of confidence, and I didn’t let good shots scare me,” said Brozena.
With the greens firm and slick in the afternoon breeze, Brozena’s powerful drives left her with a series of high apexing approach shots that landed softly. Her distance control was impeccable. Morgan Smith, playing from a good thirty yards back on approach shots hit several accurate irons that kicked too hard to hold the surface.
Molly Smith has those booming drives and towering irons in her repertoire, which should make for a fascinating duel between the top two seeds come Friday morning. Despite not playing her best golf on the front nine of both matches today, she did enough to build a lead, then accelerate on the back nine. “I thought it again seemed to take me a little bit to get settled into the matches, and then once I feel like I got settled into the match, I felt like I made some good swings coming down the stretch and gave myself a lot of opportunities to make some putts and things like that, so overall, pretty solid day,” said Smith.
The talented final pairing will feature two standout Division 1 golfers that have shared a national stage. Brozena and Smith both competed in the U.S. Women’s Amateur this year, which Smith noted as she turns her attention to the final, “Obviously, she’s played really well this summer, and she played well at school this year, and I feel like I’ve played pretty good over the summer. So, I feel like it is fitting to have two Mass golfers who have played a lot of national stuff recently kind of go up against each other for the championship. So, it should be a good match.”
Brozena’s match concluded before Smith’s, and when asked about her potential opponent, she said, “I feel like that would have definitely some power to it there, but especially like in stroke play, we were the one and two, and it just feels like maybe it’s bound to happen.”
The final match gets underway at 7:30 a.m. on Friday. Tune in to live coverage on our Instagram, @playmassgolf, or come out to Oak Hill and follow along. This is appointment viewing.
Age: 21; Hometown: Westford, MA
Club: Mount Pleasant Golf Club (Lowell, MA)
School: University of Central Florida ‘27
Accolades:
ROAD TO THE FINAL
Stroke Play: 66-73—139 (-5) (Medalist)
R32: Def. Georgia Beland, 7&6
R16: Def. Adriana Eaton, 3&1
Quarterfinals: Def. Emma Abramson, 3&2
Semifinals: Def. Lillian Guleserian, 5&4
Age: 20; Hometown: North Reading, MA
Club: Indian Ridge Country Club (Andover, MA)
School: Xavier University ‘28
Accolades:
ROAD TO THE FINAL
Stroke Play: 72-72—144 (E)
R32: Def. Jacqueline Gonzalez, 5&3
R16: Def. Kylie Eaton, 7&6
Quarterfinals: Def. Erika Redmond, 2&1
Semifinals: Def. Morgan Smith, 7&6
1-Molly Smith def. 24-Emma Abramson, 3&2
Molly Smith took the mega-line on 9, driving it left into the 5th fairway, then stuffing the approach to within a few feet for a birdie that put her 3-up. When asked her favorite hole on the course yesterday evening, she mentioned that the 11th fits her eye. Sure enough, she nearly holed out from the fairway, dancing an approach around the cup to go 4-up. Abramson got one back with a birdie on 12, but four consecutive matching pars after that secured Smith’s trip to the final four.
5-Lillian Guleserian def. 4-Shannon Johnson, 1up
Guleserian led 3-up with 4 to play, but Johnson made things interesting with wins on 15 and 16. Guleserian stood in the center of the par-5 18th fairway 1-up, and proceeded to hit the shot of the year. Her fairway metal landed into the shaved slope of the raised green, bounded up onto the surface and out of sight. Spectators on top of the hill raised their arms and shouted a muffle of unintelligible excitement back towards the fairway. Turns out it went in. A walk off albatross.
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2-Isabel Brozena def. 10-Erika Redmond, 2&1
The defending champion Brozena stood behind the 10th tee like a bull waiting to enter the arena. She trailed 3-down to Redmond. Ignoring a beeping truck in the parking lot behind her, she slammed a drive down the middle of the par-5, then hit it to 10 feet and two putted for birdie. Then she birdied 11 to cut the lead to 1. Redmond hung tough, matching another Brozena birdie on 14, but Brozena was too much. She dropped an 18-foot downhill birdie putt, walking it in and fist pumping before it disappeared into the cup to tie the match. She won the next two holes with pars to seal the win.
6-Morgan Smith def. 3-Rebecca Skoler, 4&3
Smith outlasted Skoler in a rematch of the 2022 final (won by Smith) and the 2023 semi-final (won by Skoler). Smith won the first hole with a birdie and led wire-to-wire. Skoler looked to have a chance to get back in it on 14, when her approach found the back of the green and Smith’s birdie putt raced 15 feet past the hole. But Skoler’s slippery birdie try rolled off the back tier leading to a three-putt. Smith holed her par come-backer to go 4 up with 4 to play.
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