Long-hitting Isabel Brozena shook off a late rally by opponent Shannon Johnson to win the 122nd Massachusetts Women’s Amateur at Concord CC Aug. 15, defeating Johnson 2 up.
Brozena, of North Reading, didn’t flinch when Johnson stuffed a shot to three feet on the par-3 15th, officially erasing a 3-up lead and tying the match. She nodded, gave Johnson her due and then stepped to the 16th tee with a plan.
“She deserved to win that hole,” Brozena said. “I think that’s how I’ve been getting through this week, by saying, ‘if someone deserves to win the hole, they should win it. I want to win it by beating them out.’”
With the match tied and two par-5s ahead, Brozena, a 19-year-old f rising sophomore at Xavier University, didn’t overcomplicate the moment. Driver in hand, she leaned into her length, the weapon she’d trusted all week.
She dialed up another 300-yard drive flush down the fairway on 16, then locked in on a 156-yard approach, which spun back inside three feet and for a moment appeared like it would drop in for an astonishing albatross. The downhill eagle putt dropped instead, and the match tilted back in her favor.
“I hit an absolute bomb. I put something extra on that one,” Brozena said of the decisive 16th, which played 440 yards. “You have to take the opportunities when they come, and I just hit the right number.”
That swing gave Brozena a 1-up lead she wouldn’t give back. She held steady through two tense closing holes, including a fairway bunker shot to the middle of the green on 18, capping a breakthrough week where she drove the ball as far as anyone in the field and showed the nerve to match it.
The victory not only marked her first state amateur title, it also earned her a spot in the 2026 U.S. Women’s Amateur at the Honors Course in Tennessee.
“You could ask any player that starts this week. We know how big this tournament is, so to know that I made it to Friday, let alone the end of it, is really exciting,” Brozena said.
Like many of her matches, Brozena set the tone early. Johnson, 42, of Thorny Lea Golf Club, the 2018 Massachusetts Women’s Amateur and U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion, found herself 2-down early after hitting her opening drive into the penalty area. It took some time to settle into the match, but Johnson responded with a clutch par save on the 4th and won the 5th after Brozena’s second shot found a greenside bunker.
But Brozena’s driver, the difference all week, reasserted itself. After winning the 6th by getting up and down from the bunker, she smashed a driver downwind to about 50 yards short of the green to go 3-up. She nearly gave Johnson a window on the par-4 8th, leaving two putts to win the hole, but left the first short and pushed the second wide.
Both players made birdie on the par-3 9th with near identical shots into the green. Brozena pumped her fist when hers dropped. Johnson, needing to keep pace, walked hers in.
“Obviously, making that birdie putt on nine kind of set the wheels in motion a little bit,” said Johnson, the stroke play medalist at Concord. “Today I just got a little out of sorts to begin the match, a little quicker tempo than I had the last couple days. I know I have the game in there, and it’s just sometimes those swings come out under pressure.”
At the turn, Brozena had the edge. But Johnson wasn’t done.
Brozena airmailed the 10th green with her approach for the second day in a row and lost the hole. A bogey on the 11th dropped her lead to just 1-up. Johnson applied constant pressure with steady ball striking and well-read putts, forcing Brozena to dig in.
Brozena answered with gritty par saves on 12 and 14, each about six feet, both followed by fist pumps to maintain her narrow lead after Johnson earned conceded pars.
Johnson finally pulled even on 15, stuffing her tee shot that was tracking toward the hole and converting the birdie to square the match. Brozena didn’t flinch. She respected the shot, even admired it, but kept her focus forward. It displayed a form of respect combined with competitiveness, the kind that says, “I’ll win by playing my best, because I expect you to do the same.”
While the match gradually got more intense throughout the morning, with Brozena increasingly frustrated with a few of her putts, especially after the turn, she and her father finally shared a smile on the 13th green, seemingly providing a much-needed reset amid the biggest match of her life.
“We were just standing there thinking, this is pretty fun, because she was playing incredible,” Brozena said. “She was 3 down, and I knew she was playing pretty darn good. This is at the point where it was kind of hilarious how good she’s playing, and I knew I had to have my best game to beat her.”
With a 1-up lead on 18, it came down to execution. Brozena’s tee shot found the fairway bunker, 130 yards out. Her approach climbed out clean and landed safely in the center of the green.
“With the way she was playing today, she was probably going to get that up and down,” Brozena said. “So I figured, make my life easy.”
Johnson, needing to win the hole to extend the match, hit a cut just short of the green despite her second shot leaving her in a suboptimal position behind a tree. But her pitch came out heavy and stopped short on the front edge. When the par putt missed, she reached out her hand, ending one of the most exciting final matches this event has seen in recent years.
The three Smith sisters of Westford qualified for match play. Brozena ousted Molly Smith 3&2 in the semifinals. Maddie Smith bowed out in the Round of 16 and Morgan Smith was eliminated in the Round of 32.
