Emily Nash has played about two full semesters without peer-to-peer competition because of the pandemic, and she used the extra time to change her swing, change her putting and chipping handles, and set higher goals, and this fall she’s seeing her like hers Efforts bear fruit.
Nash, a five-time T&G golf all-star and two-time home team player of the year during her illustrious career at Lunenburg High, finished third in the Hartford Hawks Invitational last weekend and led her Siena team to third. Nash, a junior, began her college career at Elon University in North Carolina. She came to Siena as a mid-year transfer in 2020-21.
In the summer of 2020, after Elon’s spring season was canceled, Nash began working with her swing coach, Derick Fors, who is golf director of Northern Spy GC, Nash’s home course in Townsend. Among the changes Nash made was her ball flight.
“I took my whole game apart and rebuilt it,” said Nash. “I wanted to get to a new level somehow. I was at a certain level for a long time and I felt that with COVID it was a good time to do it all over and see if I could improve my game even further. “
Nash started seeing the changes come together last spring, her first competition for Siena. She shared first place at the Hawks Spring Series in March and finished 12th at the MAAC Championships. She recorded the best laps of the season of 76 twice.
In August she reached the round of 16 of the Massachusetts Women’s Amateur Championship.
“First, last summer (2020), I didn’t play that well because I went through all the changes,” said Nash, “and then last spring it was fine, not as good as I wanted it to be. Now I feel good on the course. It’s more like muscle memory now. I think more about scoring and less about my swing. It is nice now. I feel like I can play more freely. “
Nash crowned her outstanding high school career by winning the New England Girls High School Championship and, with a 2 under par 69, was the only player to reach par in the tournament, which was played at Bretwood GC in New Hampshire. As a junior she won the national championship for girls.
In 2017, Nash, playing for the boys ‘team in Lunenburg, was known to have the lowest score in the Central Mass boys’ golf tournament. Division 3 at Blissful Meadows in Uxbridge, but the trophy for first place was denied because of a Massachusetts Interscholastic rule by the Athletic Association that allows girls to compete for their team but not as lone fighters. The MIAA has since changed the rule so that girls receive the same awards as boys.
Nash played in four events at Elon and averaged 78.42 strokes. At the Kiawah Island Classic Individual Tournament in March 2020, Nash fought for a part of the individual title with rounds of 76-74-73. It was Elon’s last event before the COVID shutdown.
“Elon is a great school and I was super excited,” said Nash. “It just didn’t suit me best personally, so during COVID when the season was canceled for everyone, I had a little time to think about what I wanted in a school and stuff. In the fall of my sophomore year at Elon, I started researching and entered the transfer portal. “
The business school and location of Siena, along with longtime golf coach Dave Wronowski and assistant Mike Behan, and the school’s state-of-the-art golf training center were among the charms of Nash.
Nash is studying finance and was an All-American Scholar for the Women’s Golf Coaches Association in 2021. The award recognizes outstanding academic and athletic achievements in women’s college golf.
“It’s a different game when you’re in (college) with classes, homework and travel,” said Nash, “but it’s been pretty good so far and I’ve learned a lot about time management.”
—Contact Jennifer Toland at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @JenTandG.