Alexandra Hershberger Defeats Cindy Ha, 4 And 3, To Win 87th Women's Amateur
Alexandra Hershberger of Twin Brooks never veered from her game plan and it resulted in the championship of the NJSGA 87thWomen’s Amateur on Thursday at the Crestmont Country Club in West Orange.
Hershberger, 18, a recent graduated of Ridge High School and an incoming freshman at the University of Virginia, defeated medalist Cindy Ha, 15, of Valley Brook, 4 and 3, in the 36-hole final.
“My mindset was to play safe and secure,” said Hershberger, who last year was runner-up to Scotland Preston of Echo Lake. “I was very confident in my irons to the green. The reason I got ahead was because I was hitting it on the green and two-putting.
"Last year, I was getting too excited when I got ahead. This year, I was much more focused.”
Hershberger, the 2010 NJSGA Girls Junior champion, took a four-hole lead after the first 18 holes of the 36-hole match-play final. After that, the players took a 45-minute lunch break.
“It’s hard to pause when you’re so into it. But as soon as I hit that first tee shot on the 19th hole and it went down the middle, I knew the pause wouldn’t matter,” she said.
Hershberger was never really threatened in the afternoon session as Ha could only get as close as a 3-hole deficit. Hershberger wrapped up the triumph with a 12-foot par putt for a halve on the par-4 15th hole.
“This was one of the big events I really wanted. It was important to me,” said Hershberger, a member of Ridge’s scholastic state championship team the past two years.
“It means the world to me having my mom and dad here to share it with me. It will be one of my best childhood memories.”
Ha, the 2011 NJSGA Girls Junior champion, has enjoyed an outstanding summer season. In three AJGA events, she has placed second, third and fifth, and is one of 56 exempt players for the upcoming AGJA Girls Championship at the Furman University course in South Carolina.
“I really played OK, maybe one or two bad tee shots. But it was just that Alex played really well. I really can’t complain about how I played,” Ha said.
Hershberger was just 1-up after the first nine holes before recording victories on each of the first four holes of the back nine to go 5-up. That string included three birdies and an eagle on the par-5 12th hole.
Ha, who qualified for the 2011 U.S. Women’s Amateur and was co-medalist at this year’s U.S. Women’s Public Links, closed to 3-up after par victories on the par5 14th hole and the par-4 16th hole.
But Hershberger closed out the first 18 holes with a victory at the par-5 18th with a par to go 4-up. Hershberger was named this past fall to the Junior All-American Golf Team sponsored by Hewlett Packard Co. and the American Junior Golf Association.
Twenty-four male and female student golfers, nearly all seniors, were chosen on the basis of both golfing and academic abilities.
Preston won the First Flight championship over Claire Serruto of Montclair. Preston will attend Kansas State University in the fall. Serruto is a senior at Millburn High School.
Megan McLean of Fiddlers Elbow, a freshman at Voorhees High, won the Second Flight over 18-year-old Kelsey Solan of Burlington.
