Lillian Guleserian beat Shannon Johnson, 1 up, in their quarterfinal match Wednesday at the Massachusetts Women’s Amateur.
That doesn’t even begin to tell the story. It was no typical 1-up contest.
Guleserian is from Westwood, an hour southeast of Fitchburg, home to Oak Hill Country Club. She’s soon to be a sophomore at Penn State. Johnson, from Brockton, was the Mass Player of the Year three years ago and has played plenty of high-level golf in the state over the years.
When Guleserian was 3 up with four holes remaining, the final result seemed obvious. But Johnson won holes 15 and 16, they tied the 17th and both were in the middle of the 18th fairway after good drives with Guleserian holding the 1-up advantage.
Here’s what happened.
You can see from the video that Guleserian holed her second shot, which Mass Golf said was an albatross. The Oak Hill website lists the home hole as a 446-yard par-4, but it’s clear they’re playing it as a par-5 for this championship.
In the video, looks closely, you’ll see Johnson then pick up her ball in the middle of the 18th fairway, because she was 1-down, meaning there was no chance she could win the match, even if somehow she also happened to hole her approach for albatross. The official scoring show that they both made a 2 on the par-5 with Guleserian winning 1 up.
Guleserian then lost in the semifinal Thursday, 5 and 4, to Molly Smith, a UCF senior from Westford. Smith will face Isabel Brozena in the championship match on Friday. Brozena is a junior at Xavier from North Reading. Both just competed in the U.S. Women’s Amateur last week—Smith lost in the Round of 32 and Brozena missed the cut.