By Richard Rapp
rrapp@massgolf.org
HAVERHILL, Massachusetts (August 4, 2026) — After a gloomy Monday of rain, the Brian Silva designed Renaissance Golf Club sparkled in a bath of welcome daylong sunshine throughout two USGA Championship qualifying competitions.
First off in the morning were 19 women vying for four spots at the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship at Portland Golf Club, in Portland, Oregon. Jayne Purdus (Boston, MA) and Kim Zenisky (Cumberland, RI) earned co-medalist honors with rounds of 3-over 75. Pam Kuong (Wellesley Hills, MA) and Christine Gagner (North Oxford, MA) will join them out west.
Then came a wave of U.S. Mid-Amateur hopefuls, eyeing a go at pseudo-modern marvel The Lido, a golf course resurrected by Tom Doak from CB Macdonald’s original design and relocated at Sand Valley in Wisconsin, about 1,000 miles from it’s original dwelling on the Long Island shoreline.
Matthew Naumec (Boston, MA) led the way with a 6-under 66, claiming medalist honors with a two-putt birdie on the 18th hole. Robert Henley (New London, NH) nabbed his spot with a 67, leaving James Pleat (Nashua, NH) and Sam Grindle (Deer Isle, ME) to battle it out for the final ticket. Grindle prevailed with a par on the second playoff hole.
“This is the one I circle, right? I think a lot of being in mid-am golf, everyone wants to play in the U.S. Mid. And so you try not to think about it, you just try to come out here and make birdies, and so that’s kind of what I went for,” said Matthew Naumec. Sure, a lot of golfers try to make a lot of birdies, but not many pencil in eight of them on one card.
Naumec noted that he’s been hitting the ball well this year, as evidenced by a trip to the semi-finals at the Massachusetts Amateur, but he admitted to some difficulty getting rounds all the way across the finish line. “A couple time I felt like I opened strong on the front nine and then kind of let it go on the back. So I was kind of heightened. I kept my awareness and just tried to hit some fairways and greens.”
He cruised through the first 10 holes in 5-under. A flicker of back-nine doubt may have intruded on the 14th, when he three-putted from about 15 feet. But the ball striking was undeniable. He hit a bullet to 18 feet on the 253-yard par-3 15th, and two putted for a comfortable par on a hole that did not yield a single birdie all day. He overpowered the par-4 16th with a 330-yard drive over the corner, then hit a deft pitch that skidded on a precarious spine before stopping abruptly a foot from the hole. He then used the backstop on the 222 yard par-3 17th to hit it to inside four feet, but lipped out the birdie putt.
After a drive up the gut on 18, Naumec took a look at the leaderboard for the first time. “I knew I was T-1, and I knew that par or better was my goal. Had a 5-iron in, same club I hit on 17, it was like the same swing, thinned it a little bit, but it worked out.” The low-flying approach settled in the center of the smallish green, around 15 feet from the pin. From there, he two-putted his way to Wisconsin, which will mark his third trip to the U.S. Mid-Amateur.
Sporting a straw Top-Flite hat, Robert Henley looked like he dropped in from a pre-performance fabric era, but he handled the modern Silva design like a 2026 golfer, booming drives and attacking with wedges. It was his first time at Renaissance, but as he pointed out, that’s not the worst thing: “No demons, which is good.”
With some difficult sight lines, players could often be seen walking 50 yards ahead of their ball to scope out the next shot. The uncertainty led to some conservative tee balls for Henley, but from there, he fired away, notching seven birdies. “Into greens I was just trying to get a look that’s not like straight down a cliff. It’s not a super long course, so you know, it’s hitting short irons into almost every hole.”
The shot of the day undeniably belonged to Jose Aguilar (Venezuela), when his drive on the blind, 338-yard par-4 10th found the bottom of a cup positioned in the center of the punch bowl green. Albatross.
Naumec, Henley and Grindle will head to Sand Valley on September 26th.
View this post on Instagram
Jayne Pardus and Pam Kuong have plenty of USGA championship experience to draw on. They’ve been fixtures of the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur bracket in recent years, even playing each other in the round of 32 in 2024. So while the leaderboard fluctuated quite a bit throughout the morning, it was no surprise to see the two stalwarts posing for photos, golden ticket in hand, behind the 18th green.
Pardus and Kim Zenisky earned co-medallist honors with rounds of 3-over 75, but took different routes to get there. Zenisky birdied the 11th to get to 1-under on her round, but promptly made a triple bogey and bogey consecutively. Faced with a difficult closing stretch, Zenisky reeled off five consecutive pars to punch her ticket.
Pardus wasn’t concerned about playing a perfect round of golf, just one that was level enough to see her through to Portland. “This is not a tournament that you’re trying to win. I just need to avoid making big number here, because this golf course can certainly get you in trouble,” said Pardus. “You probably look at the scores today, there were quite a few of those, and I was trying to avoid that. So, even if I made a bogey, then I knew I could semi-recover.”
Pardus kept her card blissfully bland, four bogeys to one birdie, skirting around any detrimental big numbers. A veteran qualifying round if ever there was one. She’s currently idling in an alternate spot for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, and eagerly looking forward to her 7th appearance at the Am. “I’ll settle in and get ready and look forward to Portland. I really love that part of the world, I think it’s great golf. They always have fantastic golf courses in the USGA, just always putting on amazing tournaments.”
View this post on Instagram
When asked how many Women’s Senior Am she’s played in, Pam Kuong responded, “I think 15.” Based on my facial reaction (which was one of awe, but perhaps read as confused), she said, “Oh, you mean in general? This is my 36th one.” More awe.
Kuong is far from the biggest hitter in the field, and with a deluge of rain yesterday, the course was playing soft and long. Kuong adjusted her mindset. “We basically decided that I kind of had eight par fives, that’s what it was going to play. So I was thinking, okay, it’s anything 80 and under is going to be what I’m capable of doing.” And she did one better, posting a 79, comfortably within the cut line.
Kuong wasn’t watching the leaderboard, but based on the play occurring around her, she could tell the golf course was challenging everyone. Her first birdie of the day came on the par-5 18th, better late than never. “I finally made a birdie putt, that was like two feet of break, and it went center cut. I’d missed much easier putts that literally edged out, and then the hardest putt went in for birdie. And that’s just golf, right?”
Christine Gagner rounded out the qualifiers with an 8-over score of 80.
The 2026 U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur will be contested September 26 through October 1, at Portland Golf Club.
COMPLETE LIST OF MID-AMATEUR QUALIFIERS AND ALTERNATES FROM RENAISSANCE
QUALIFIER (Name, Home, Score)
Matthew Naumec, Boston, MA; (-6) 66
Robert Henley, New London, NH; (-5) 67
Sam Grindle, Deer Isle, ME; (-4) 68*
ALTERNATES (In Order)
James Pleat, Nashua, NH; (-4) 68
William Voetsch, Boston, MA; (-3) 69
*Advanced in a playoff
COMPLETE LIST OF SENIOR WOMEN’S AMATEUR QUALIFIERS AND ALTERNATES FROM RENAISSANCE
QUALIFIER (Name, Home, Score)
Jayne Pardus, Boston, MA; (+3) 75
Kim Zenisky, Cumberland, RI; (+3) 75
Pam Kuong, Wellesley Hills, MA; (+7) 79
Christine Gagner, North Oxford, MA; (+8) 80
ALTERNATES (In Order)
Loren le Gassick, Mattapoisett, MA; (+10) 82*
Jill Rippe, Tequesta, FL; (+10) 82*
*Advanced in a playoff
True to its name, Renaissance is a modern revival of golf’s Golden Age, combining classic architectural features with fresh, strategic twists. Designed by acclaimed architect Brian Silva, this 18-hole championship layout debuted in 2003, marking his first original creation.
Silva’s admiration for the greats, C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor, is evident in several of the hole templates scattered across the course, such as the Narrows, Cape, and Sahara. But Renaissance is no replica. Silva pushes boundaries, reimagining template holes in ways that surprise even seasoned players. Several holes feature large water hazards and massive bunker complexes that offer plenty risk-reward opportunities.
Some of the standouts include the panoramic 5th climbs to the course’s highest point and plays up to 558 yards with a large waste bunker guarding the right side. While “Long” is typically saved for the longest hole on the scorecard, such as the 14th at St. Andrews, the 15th at Renaissance earns that title as a long par-3 that can stretch to 250 yards. That wasn’t as much the case Monday as all players teed off from 149 yards with a favorable pin in the middle of the green.
Silva once called the par-4 10th Punchbowl his favorite on the course. At just over 300 yards from the back tees, the hole is a bold reinterpretation of the classic Punchbowl template, which invites aggression while punishing imprecision. The defining feature is the green: a sunken, almost square-shaped punchbowl surrounded by sharp slopes and rugged contours that funnel shots toward the center. It’s both a target and a trap. Tee shots that find the right line can tumble down into birdie range, even eagle opportunities. But miss the bowl, especially long or left, and the surrounding mounds leave players with tricky recoveries and awkward angles.
By: Steve Derderian
For the latest updates on all Mass Golf events, visit MassGolf.org or follow Mass Golf on Facebook, X, and Instagram at @PlayMassGolf.
