For the holiday edition, I sat down with Mass Golf Girls Junior Player of the Year, Women’s Amateur Runner-Up, and recent Big 12 Golfer of the Month, Molly Smith to talk about all things golf from when she started her career to now.
Hi everybody welcome back to the holiday edition of the up and down I’m here this month with Molly Smith who is a Massachusetts golfer and now is in her first season of her collegiate career hi I’m Molly I’m a freshman at UCF okay Molly so tell us about yourself
How did you get started in golf and how did you grow into the game yeah so I come from a family who’s super passionate about golf so my dad played um so he’s kind of the one who got me started um and both my sisters play so
It’s definitely a a family event when we go out and play and go and compete in tournaments um so I guess like having people in my life who are really big into golf kind of helps you get into it when I was younger and then once you
Really start to enjoy it and and grow from there um they definitely help with you know guidance and competitive edges and things like that yeah that’s great um I’ve definitely seen you compete with your sisters um kind of on and off the course there you know your teammates and
Your competitors so it’s great to see all three of you now um get out onto the course um can you talk about your transition from kind of junior golf to high school golf to now kind of entering the big stages of playing in college golf I mean I’m sure everything is
Different from what you’re used to um I mean obviously played the mass golf events over the summer um but those kind of big levels yeah so I’ve always loved golf um and when I was really little I just played for fun and enjoyment and things like
That and then when I was 10 or 11 I kind of got started in in junior golf tournaments um started with us kids in the Boston area then moved to us challenge cup then got into Mass golf events and then agga and kind of just
Kept when I was seeing success at uh the level I was playing at I kept trying to find another level of competition um which I think kind of helped me when I’m transitioned from like Junior to high school and then High School to college um because I was used to kind of looking
For that next level competition to compete against um so when I did get to College it was definitely an unfamiliar landscape but I knew that IID played against a lot of really great college players so I knew that I was ready for that that next step in my golf game so
In that sense it it kind of made it easier that when I was a junior golfer I was still trying to play with the highest level of competition in Amateur Golf um so when I got to college I wasn’t as Star Struck or shocked or kind
Of surprised by how the courses and the tournaments were set up which was definitely good yeah well obviously it didn’t catch you by too much of a surprise because you earn the honor of Big 12 golfer of the month in your first season which is a huge accomplishment to
Be recognized not only by your team but by the conference as a whole um so how does that feel and how does that just inspire you as you continue in your college career yeah I mean it I didn’t really go into the college season with too high of expectations um I tried to
Just do my best and honestly I went in with the mindset of like okay like let’s just help my team out and I feel like when I kept my expectations not necessarily low but kind of smaller than you know like let’s go out and let’s play Super Duper good right off the bat
Um it really helped me and I definitely feel like um winning like the big 12 player of the month and things like that it does show me that like my game is where the college level’s playing which I guess it’s not like when I went in I
Didn’t think I was ready for it but it’s just like proof that okay like the work I’m doing is uh helping me progress and I’m getting closer to where I feel like I want my golf game to head in the future so it’s definitely like wouldn’t
Say proof but kind of proof in a way that like I’m I’m doing the Small Things each and every day to help get better which is nice yeah I mean it’s it’s an amazing accomplishment that’s for sure um we definitely I mean from the Massachusetts side we’ve been paying
Attention to all our College golfers um and I mean that just stood out as a huge accomplishment to see so your level of competitiveness brought you just Strokes away from qualifying for a US Open um winning the Women’s Amateur championship in Massachusetts this year and to
Compete as the first female at the mass amateur which is a huge accomplishment in itself um so can you talk about how you stay motivated to keep pushing yourself and what inspires you to take those large leaps of Faith to really just I mean to be the first to compete
At that high level yeah I guess I would say like from how I grew up my parents definitely instilled in me that like they there is no barrier to like what you’re able to accomplish so when I go into like these bigger tournaments um and like when I play in men’s fields and
Certain things like that it doesn’t necessarily scare me or make me feel uncomfortable because I I felt like from a very young age I was playing in events that made sense for me to play in but kind of looking from the outside perspective people would be like oh like
Why why is Molly playing in that event it’s kind of a weird one so I guess they kind of um helped prepare me for things like that and then I would definitely say like over over the summer I felt like I came up short in a lot of
Different events um and didn’t exactly I mean I I played well but um I didn’t feel like I I played as well as I could have so that definitely kind of motivates me going forward um that like I don’t want to be in some of the
Positions I was in over the summer where I felt like I could have done more more and I didn’t do more um so I guess when you kind of look at it from that perspective it does motivate you um it’s definitely super cool to to play in new environments that are super competitive
Um and again it just goes back to kind of playing if you’re here you kind of want to play with that next level of competition so that I mean that’s the only way you’re going to kind of Step Up so that’s kind of just my mindset with a
Lot of the tournaments and events I play in so if you had to give the younger version of yourself um one piece of advice what would it be I would just say like keep having fun with golf um cuz I do feel like when in certain periods
Over the last few years when I have struggled I’ve stopped having fun on the course and I I felt like this fall I had a ton of fun on the golf course which definitely helps you um to see success and I feel like getting back to just
Like going out having fun being being with your friends is kind of where you need to be at in the in the mental space to play well and kind of just like take the pressure off don’t don’t be too hard on yourself um feel like if you just
Keep being disciplined in your practice um then you don’t really need to put pressure on yourself cuz you know you’re taking the right steps to get better um and then when you get to the tournament you can just go out and have fun and just do what you’ve worked for um and I
Feel like going forward if I can continue to keep that in my mind even though it it’s definitely really hard to say okay we’re we’re going to have fun because it is something you put a lot of time into and with the amount of time you put into golf the pressure
Definitely builds um from the inside like the pressure you put on yourself so I feel like if you can just or I could tell myself to just prepare how you know how to prepare stay consistent with that and then when you get into a tournament setting just go out and have fun and
Never stop enjoying golf um would definitely be a big thing not only for myself but also like any kids trying to get into the game just have fun first have fun first I like it um so what are you looking forward to most about the rest of your college golf experience now
That you’ve kind of like crossed the barrier into the big stages yeah I mean obviously there are a lot of um different tournaments that I’m super excited for going into the spring um kind of hoping to continue some of the success that we had uh this fall so
Looking forward to that um and then also just like off the course with my teammates and things like that just enjoying the small uh fun stuff we we can get up to when we’re on the road or even when we’re back at school just en enjoying the Small Things um then even
When you have fun off course you tend to play well on the course too so that’s definitely a a good thing yeah so kind of depends on the day but it’s either driver or Potter um you really never know when you wake up what it’s going to be but it’s definitely between those
Two um I wouldn’t really say I idolize people I definitely like enjoy watching golf swings so I enjoy like Cameron Young’s swing will zat forus his swing those are like two right now that just love to look at I definitely really enjoy hot dog um
And then some sort of candy bar combo so my usual go-to is a Snickers it’s definitely Worcester right now I just think has everything a good golf course should have um and it’s just a really really good good setup
