Usually when a golfer wins a tournament, they receive the trophy for the event. However, things went differently at the Central Massachusetts Division 3 boys’ golf tournament last week.
Emily Nash, a student at Lunenburg High School in Lunenburg, Mass. finished the tournament with a score of 75, which was the best score in the tournament. She did this while playing from the same tees as the boys on the par-72 track at the Blissful Meadows Golf Club in Uxbridge.
Nash was not awarded first place, was denied the trophy, and will not be advancing to the state tournament based on the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association rule. The MIAA released a statement on the matter.
“The individual tournament opportunity for female golfers takes place during the spring season. As stated in the official MIAA 2017 Fall Golf format, ‘Girls playing on a fall boys team cannot be entered in the boys fall individual tournament. They can only play in the boys team tournament. If qualified, they can play in the spring Girls Sectional and State Championships.’”
“It’s a real injustice that she wasn’t announced as the winner,” said volunteer rules official Robert Dufresne of the Mass. Golf Association, who helped oversee the tournament.
Nash said she wasn’t upset, but it is disappointing. She was informed before teeing off that as a girl she would not be eligible to participate in the state tournament unless her team qualified. She would not be able to move on as an individual.
“But I wasn’t aware until after my round that if I won, I wouldn’t be able to get the title or the trophy,” Nash said to Bill Doyle of the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Mass. in a phone interview. “So I was definitely disappointed, but I understand that there are rules in place. I don’t think people expected for this to happen, so they didn’t really know how to react to it. None of us are mad at the MIAA or anything like that, but I was definitely a little bit disappointed.”
Kevin Riordan, the Division 3 boys’ golf tournament director for Central Mass., said he let Nash and her coach know about the rule before the tournament started. After she finished first, Riordan double-checked with MIAA assistant director Ann Trytko.
Nico Ciolino of Advanced Math and Science Academy in Marlborough, Mass. Was named the winner of the tournament. He offered Nash the first-place trophy, but she would not accept it.
Riordan plans to personally pay for a first-place trophy for Nash.
Paul Helmers
Reporter