Molly Smith of Mt. Pleasant GC follows her first drive of the day during the last round of the Lowell City Golf Tournament at Long Meadow GC on Saturday. Smith was tied for the lead entering the 18th hole as of presstime. The tournament has never had a female winner. (James Thomas photo)
LOWELL — Molly Smith was trying to break through a glass ceiling using a driver.
The Westford resident and Mt. Pleasant golfer collected three birdies over her first 16 holes to go 1-under and maintain a one-shot lead heading into the home stretch of the 99th Lowell City Golf Tournament on Saturday at Long Meadow.
Going into the 18th hole, she was tied for the lead with Long Meadow’s Trevor Drew. They remained tied, forcing an extra holes situation. As daylight slipped away, Smith and Drew returned to the ninth/18th tee to play that hole again, the championship hanging in the balance.
Smith was shooting to become the first-ever woman to win the 48-player tournament in its near-century long history. Smith’s older sister, Morgan, became the first female to play in the tournament in 2019.
Tyngsboro’s Drew caught his second wind, earning five birdies, including back-to-back ones on holes 15-16, giving Smith a run for her money. Mt. Pleasant’s Chris Gentle, who fired an opening round 80 only to roar back, emerged from the field to sit third at 1-over with two holes to play.
Gentle finished with a 4-under 68 to surge up the leaderboard. The players had to deal with persistent rain and a couple of heavy downpours.
Vesper’s Andrew Conway, who was at 3-over at 16, was fourth at presstime.
It was a fight to the finish for Smith having to fend off Conway, Drew and Gentle on multiple occasions.
“Molly has been playing great golf all around,” said her sister, Morgan Smith. “She’s played very, very well in a lot of the amateur events we’ve been playing outside, so her playing as well as she is isn’t surprising. I think it would be pretty cool if she was able to win it.”
Molly Smith held steady to open the third round, taking the early lead off her first birdie on hole 3. She managed to stay a step ahead of both Conway and Drew for much of the front nine before Conway found his footing.
A Westford resident and Vesper golfer, Conway, 38, took the one-shot lead fueled by back-to-back birdies on 6-7. He managed to leapfrog over Smith, whose double bogey on 8 put her 1-over. She managed to regroup in classic fashion on hole 9, sparked by a terrific second shot which left her just five feet shy of the cup before breaking even at the halfway point at 36.
Drew, 19, had an up and down afternoon, especially on the front nine. The Tyngsboro resident picked up three birdies over the span of four holes, but was offset by a pair of bogeys in between, keeping him just two steps behind both Smith and Conway. He ended the front nine 2-over at 35. He caught his second wind on the back nine with a pair of birdies on 15 and 16, which lifted him to third and eventually second at even par.
Meanwhile, Gentle was gathering plenty of momentum. A former pro, the Lowell resident resurfaced on the back nine garnering four birdies, including one on 12, which pulled him ahead of Drew by a shot. He continued to land three birdies on the back nine, tying him with Smith and Conway by hole 14, before tying Molly at even par on the afternoon with five holes to play.
But Smith was up to the challenge. The Central Florida freshman earned her third birdie on 15 to maintain the one-stroke lead over Gentle at 1-under.
John DeVito and two-time champ Brandon Gillis rounded out the top five.
The tournament began Wednesday with eight former champions in the field.
There have been three truly dominant players since the tournament began in 1923 – Chick Grasse, Doug Parigian and Phil Smith.
Grasse won nine titles, the last in 1954. Parigian and Smith, meanwhile, have won 10 and eight championships, respectively, and both teed it up in this year’s tournament. In fact, the eight former champs have combined to win more than one quarter (26) of the overall titles entering this year.
The opening round at Vesper, with temperatures soaring to near 100, featured several surprises, including Smith rocketing up the leaderboard. Long Meadow’s Smith tied for third with a terrific 2-over par 74, leaving some to wonder if the eight-time champion could produce enough magic to collect win No. 9.
But it was not to be. A back injury forced Smith to withdraw from the tournament, leaving the field with two of his daughters, Morgan and Molly, two of the top amateur players in New England.
After an off day on Thursday, when the area was again hit with scorching temperatures and high humidity, the tournament switched across the Merrimack River to Mt. Pleasant GC in Lowell.
But Mother Nature wasn’t done throwing curveballs. Friday’s round at MP featured a rain delay of approximately one hour and more rain showers hovered over Long Meadow on Saturday, including a couple of downpours in the afternoon, soaking the course and cutting down the number of spectators considerably.
The medalist trophy was set to be presented in memory of the late Don McGillicuddy, a former Long Meadow member who was best known for being one of the area’s best high school basketball referees.