Herman Leads N.J. Group In U.S. Sr. Women's Amateur At Hollywood
Four players from New Jersey, including former champion Sherry Herman of Jackson, are in the field of 132 or the 2014 U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur Championship at Hollywood Golf Club in Deal, N.J., which begins with stroke-play qualifying on Saturday and Sunday and continues with match-play through Thursday, September 18.
Other New Jerseyans in the field are Sue DeKalb of Middletown, the golf coach at nearby Monmouth University, Alicia Kapheim of Pennington and Donna McHugh of Montville.
The event — which will celebrate its 50th anniversary — is open to women amateur players who are 50 years old or older, with a USGA handicap index not exceeding 18.4. It is the second USGA championship for Hollywood, an historic club near the Jersey Shore — and the first in almost 100 years. Hollywood's only other USGA championship was the 1921 U.S. Women's Amateur, won by Marion Hollins.
Hollywood boasts a classic, nationally ranked championship golf course redesigned by Walter J. Travis in 1917 and restored by Rees Jones in 1998.
"Hollywood Golf Club is honored to continue our long history of hosting USGA and regional golf association events and is thrilled to have been chosen to host the 2014 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship," said Paul D. Drobbin, the club’s president. "We look forward to welcoming the United States Golf Association, the players, guests and spectators. Our members, staff, volunteers and the community are excited to provide an outstanding venue for this national championship."
Herman, who has won five NJSGA Women’s Amateur champions and a U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur Championship, reached the Round of 16 in the 2013 Women’s Senior Amateur at Cordevalle in San Martin, Calif.
The field is led by Ellen Port of St. Louis, Mo., who won the championship the past two years and this summer guided a team of 18- to 21-year-olds to a 13-7 victory over Great Britain and Ireland in June in the Curtis Cup matches in her hometown of St. Louis.
Port, 52, is a two-time Curtis Cup player herself, and a six-time USGA champion who is preparing for the defense of her back-to-back U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur titles. .
As a full-time teacher and high school golf coach, Port was heartened by her players’ approach to the 38th Curtis Cup Match, in which the USA regained the cup after losing, 10½-9½, at Nairn, Scotland, in 2012.
Port’s six USGA championships (Women’s Mid-Amateur titles in 1995, 1996, 2000 and 2011, along with Senior Women’s Amateur wins in 2012 and 2013) place her in lofty company: she is one of six women to have won at least six USGA titles. She is tied with Glenna Collett Vare and Hollis Stacy, one behind Anne Quast Sander and Carol Semple Thompson, and two behind record-holder JoAnne Gunderson Carner.
Semple Thompson, 65, who won the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 and is considered one of the country’s greatest amateur golfers with 10 championships, is in the field of this year’s championship at Hollywood. The World Golf Hall of Famer returns to New Jersey where she won the U.S. Amateur title in 1973 at Montclair Golf Club in West Orange. She has also played on 12 Curtis Cup teams.
“I laugh when I hear those names – I don’t put myself up there,” said Port. “I’ve won USGA events, but the highest pinnacle is when you’re a pro and playing in those events.”
Port was stopped in her tracks a bit when she visited the USGA for the first time in early August. She toured the USGA Museum after missing the cut for match play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Nassau Country Club, in Glen Cove, N.Y., and saw the game’s history reflected in the exhibits, as well as her name etched multiple times in the museum’s Hall of Champions.
“It was inspirational – it made me remember why we all love this game and how great it is to be a part of it,” said Port, who was joined by her husband, Andy, in the foray to Far Hills. “When you’re in the midst of playing, you don’t often pause and reflect. I want to keep competing and playing good golf, but it’s good for me to slow down and know that I’m a small part of the history of this game.”
Having won a USGA championship in each of the past three years, Port was asked whether she is focused on surpassing Carner’s eight titles.
“I think that golf has a strange way of, when you want something, it will keep eluding you,” said Port. “I buy into the idea of just keep doing what you’re doing. In the past couple of years, I’ve played some of the best golf of my life. If I keep playing as well as I can play – and that’s all I can control – I will put myself in a position to win again.”
The U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur is being played one week before the Senior Women’s Amateur, and despite being fully exempt, Port will not be in Noblesville, Ind., for that championship.
“I can only play in one of them – I teach school and coach golf, and it’s right during my season,” said Port, who turns 53 on Sept. 21. “At first I thought I’d rather play in the Mid-Am – I think part of it is that I don’t want to accept that I’m a senior. But I love the Senior Amateur and it’s going to be pretty hard to keep me away from the Senior now. The venues that I’ve played on for the Senior have been as good as any Women’s Amateur I’ve played in – and from what I have heard, Hollywood is going to be no exception.”
