Fleming, Sim, Maertz Lead New Jersey To 10th-place Finish At U.S. State Team Championship
2017 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur semifinalist and NJSGA Mid-Amateur champion Tara Fleming of New Jersey National, Women’s Amateur champion Kelly Sim of Alpine and Mixed Pinehurst champion Noelle Maertz of Hyatt Hills comprised Team New Jersey that competed this past week and finished 10th among 50 teams in the 2017 USGA Women’s State Team Championship. The event took place on the Jack Nicklaus-designed Sunset Course at The Club at Las Campanas in Santa Fe, N.M.,Sept. 26 – 28
Thanks to a two-under-par 70 by Maertz on the final day, Sept. 28, and a one-under-71 by Sim, New jersey vaulted from 16th place to 10th, and totaled 13-under-par for the event. Tennessee won at 1-under-par.
New Jersey is entered the final day in 16th place. On Sept. 27, Fleming shot 75-152, Sim 76-152 and Maertz 78-157 (top two scores count) to give New Jersey a plus-16, 304 total. The score was 17 shots behind leader New York (287) and landed New Jersey in 16th place..
New Jersey began play Sept. 26, paired with players from Maryland and California. Sim shot 76, followed by Fleming at 77 and Maertz at 79 for as plus-9 153 (only top two scores count), good for 16th place. New York led at minus-2 142.
On Aug. 29 at New York’s Knollwood, Fleming and Maertz teamed to win the first alternate spot into the 2018 U.S. Four-Ball Championship to be contested April 28-May 2 in Tarzana, California. Maertz and Fleming were runners-up at the NJSGA Women’s Four-Ball Championship this summer at New Jersey National Golf Club.
It has been a great season for team captain Fleming, a native of Canada and former LPGA Tour player. In early September, the 50-year-old played in her first U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur and won four matches on her way to reaching the semifinals.
Besides winning the NJSGA Mid-Amateur title, the Jersey City resident also was medalist on August 15 at the Sectional Qualifying Round of the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur contested at Forest Hill Field Club in Bloomfield.
After winning the NJSGA Mid-Amateur, she went on to participate in the NJSGA Amateur and won in the Round of 16 before losing in the quarterfinals.
Sim, 17, a rising senior at Holy Angels Academy in Demarest, defeated 20-year-old Yeji Shin of Valley Brook, 3 and 1, in the final match of the NJSGA Women’s Amateur championship at Somerset Hills in early August.
In the event, Sim, a resident of Edgewater, won medalist honors for the third time in her young career, also doing it at U.S. Girls’ Junior qualifiers in 2015 and 2017. At this year’s U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, she reached match play, unfortunately meeting eventual champion Erica Sheppard in the Round of 64.
Maertz, 23, is a resident of Clark and a graduate of Wagner College where she played golf. She was the Northeast Conference Player of the Year in 2015 for Wagner.
Maertz won the NJSGA Women’s Public Links championship as a teenager in 2012 at Knob Hill G.C. Earlier this summer, she won the 2017 Mixed Pinehurst with Dan Chernosky of Mercer Oaks by four shots. She was a semifinals in the NJSGA Women’s Amateur. It was the fourth time in five years that she advanced to the semis.
In the U.S. State Team Championship, All 50 states plus Washington, DC and Puerto Rico are eligible to field three-woman teams of state residents that can’t include any active college golfers. This will be the last State Team Championship contested – for males or females – as the USGA is ending the popular national competition. The final Men’s title was won last year by Michigan.
USGA Announcement to discontinue State Team Championship
New Jersey has enjoyed tremendous success in the Women’s State Team Championship. Fleming captained a squad that won the 2013 National Championship. She was joined on that team by Alice Chen of Neshanic Valley, winner of six NJSGA majors and a rising senior at Furman, and Cindy Ha of Valley Brook, who played golf at Vanderbilt and has since turned professional.
