Golfer Smith Runner Up at Connecticut Amateur Championship

Hartford junior Matt Smith has been getting a lot done on his summer vacation. A month after earning a top-5 finish at the Russell C. Palmer Cup, the Connecticut State Golf Association's stroke play championship, Smith played his way into the championship match of the 109th Connecticut Amateur Match Play Championship before claiming the runner up distinction as he fell to Tommy McDonagh in a 36-hole final at Rolling Hills, 3-and-2.

Smith opened the tournament with a 2-and-1 victory over Nick Leibowitz in the Round of 32. Smith grabbed the advantage after five holes and never relinquished it, going as much as three up over the course of the round. Then in the Round of 16, Smith led from the jump, recording a birdie on the first hole against Max Adler and eventually earning a 3-and-2 triumph.

In the quarterfinal, Smith won four holes in a seven-hole stretch in what was otherwise an evenly-played match against Devon O'Rourke. That allowed him to take another 3-and-2 decision.

Smith survived a tightly-contested semifinal against Curtis Loop, who was one-up on Smith as late as the tenth hole. Smith parred the par-four eleventh, while Loop bogeyed to even the match. The duo stayed all square until the 15th hole, when Smith carded a par three while Loop took a bogey four. Both players parred each of the last three holes, all par-fours, to give Smith a one-up victory.

In Saturday's championship, Smith led for good chunks of the 36-hole marathon. He birdied the third hole and parred the fourth to overcome an early one-hole deficit and take the lead. After McDonagh birdied the par-four fifth hole, the match remained all square until Smith knocked in a birdie on the par-five ninth.

Things continued to seesaw back and forth until the duo reached the fourth hole for the second time. There, Smith began a string of winning three holes out of the next four to go three-up with 11 holes to play. Unfortunately for the junior, the seventh would be the final hole he would win, as McDonagh rattled off the next four and five of the next six to go up two with five holes remaining. Both players bogeyed the 14th and parred the 15th before McDonagh drained a par put on 16 that gave him the championship.

The Connecticut Amateur Championship is the oldest event conducted by the CSGA, and is one of the nation's oldest state amateur gold championships. The format tests the state's best amateur golfers over two rounds of stroke play to determine the low 32 match-play qualifiers. Two rounds of match play each day culminate in a thirty-six hole final to crown the top amateur player in Connecticut.