Maddie Smith Captures Victory By Sinking 8-foot Playoff Putt; Tara Connelly Wins Third Straight Senior Division Title
By Tori Schuller
HAVERHILL, Massachusetts (June 26, 2025) — Playing the 18th hole at Haverhill Country Club was rarely a problematic task for Maddie Smith (Vesper Country Club), attack it with the same plan for every tee shot. A baby cut followed by a comfortable wedge was the objective, and Smith was successful off the tee four out of the five times she played the hole this week.
Playing her 47th hole of the week Thursday in a playoff to determine the winner of the New England Women’s Amateur, Smith slipped on the dampened tee box and pulled her tee shot left. However, even with the tricky lie, Smith had an angle and committed fully to her next shot, which clipped part of a tree but rested 8 feet from the cup, unbeknownst to her, until walking up to the green.
“I thought I might be in trouble… and then I started to hear people clapping,” Smith said. “I was like, ‘Oh, it must be on the green’ because I thought any chance of me getting that ball on the green was a good shot. And then I got up there, and it was 8 feet. So I was pretty excited.”
Smith drained the putt for birdie after her competitor, Amelie Phung (eClub of Connecticut), missed her birdie bid in the head-to-head playoff. Smith then breathed a sigh of relief just before getting doused with water by 2024 champion Carys Fennessy and a few other spectators who came to watch on the breezy, overcast day. Smith is not the first of her family to take home the trophy of the New England Women’s Amateur. Her older sister, Morgan, won the event in 2022 and 2023.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Smith said. “Coming out here playing in a great field, a great week, a great course, and there’s nothing better than to come out with a trophy.”
The final round started off with the lead in the hands of Lillian Guleserian (Blue Hill Country Club), the 2024 Mass Golf Girls’ Junior Player of the Year and Penn State commit. Guleserian started with a 2-shot lead, but by the turn, it had slipped from her grasp due to an errant tee shot that led to an untimely triple-bogey on the par-5 8th. She continued to battle, shooting just 1-over the rest of the way and finishing in solo third at 2-over-par total.
Smith climbed into the lead with a 6-foot birdie putt on hole 14, and though she bogeyed the next, she parred the remainder of the round to send her to the playoff. The first playoff hole left both players with 15-20 foot putts for birdie, each of them sniffing the hole. Returning down the hill to the 18th tee box, Phung hit her drive down the middle while Smith’s drifted to the left under a tree. While Smith stuck her next to just 8 feet, Phung left herself a longer putt, around 10.
This is not the first win for Smith, who won the 2023 Massachusetts Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship and was knocking on the door at several others over the past year. Smith, who played in the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur, placed 4th in the 2024 New England Junior Amateur, 5th in the 2024 Ouimet Memorial Tournament, and was top 10 in this event last year.
When she won the New England Women’s Amateur at her home course of Marshfield Country Club in 1995, Tara Connelly (The Kittansett Club) called it the most gratifying victory of her career. Nearly 30 years later, she’s still finding ways to win hoist trophies in this event.
Connelly captured her third consecutive Senior Division title by following up a tough opening round of 5-over 41 with back-to-back rounds of 1-under 71. Her final round on Thursday was a masterclass in staying composed, even when the margin narrowed late.
Tara Connelly won the Senior Division title for the third consecutive. (Teddy Doggett)
Despite opening with a bogey, Connelly found her groove on the front nine, carding three birdies on the 4th, 6th, and 8th holes to build a 3-shot lead heading into the final stretch. On the par-3 15th, after leaving her tee shot just short of the green, she three-putted for bogey, a rare stumble that opened the door for Debbie Johnson (Blackhawk CC-CT), who made a remarkable up-and-down for par after hitting a tree with her tee shot. That pulled Johnson within two.
Unfazed, Connelly sealed the victory in bold fashion. Playing the extremely reachable par-5 17th (409 yards), she pulled a 9-wood, a club she added to the bag at age 50.
“Yesterday, I hit the seven wood, and I should have hit the nine wood,” said Connelly, whose approach skipped over the green during Round 2 on Wednesday. Today, it was a little closer, and I was like, ‘Now it’s not even really a nine wood, it really should be a five iron.’ But I’m like, ‘I like the looks of the 9-wood.’ And I was like, ‘Yep, we’ll use it.’ So I kind of hit an easy grip-up 9-wood and just let the wind take it in there.”
The result: A close approach and a made eagle putt that all but locked up her third straight title. “I just decided to start the week if it was a par 5, and I was going for it two, that I was going to go for it two. Like, don’t kind of half commit to the shot. So that’s kind of just how I played it, and let it fall where it may, and that one worked out.”
And the feeling of winning certainly never gets old.
“It’s really neat because we have a pretty tight group in New England,” Connelly said. “It’s been all different kinds of ways the last couple of years and had a rough start Tuesday, so I feel fortunate enough to pull it together and get it going.”
The New England Women’s Amateur also recognizes the low scorer in the Legends Division (age 65+). This year’s Sydney Arnold Legend Champion Trophy went to Danielle Lee (Renaissance), who finished with a three-day, 45-hole total of 200, firing consecutive rounds of 78 over the past two days.
Next year’s New England Women’s Amateur is set to take place June 23-25, 2026, at Concord Country Club in New Hampshire. The club previously hosted in 1978, won by Rhode Island’s Julie Greene.
Watch: The Final Word From The New England Women’s Amateur
Social Media
For the latest updates on all New England Golf Association events, visit Negagolf.org. You can also follow Mass Golf on Facebook, X and Instagram at @PlayMassGolf.
