Ku Sisters Qualify For Us Women's Four-ball Championship
Sisters Hana and Anina Ku of Basking Ridge attained two goals in one day when they qualified for the first U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship on Tuesday Sept. 30, at the Somerset Hills Country Club in Bernardsville.
The Ku sisters shot even par 72 to garner the second qualifying spot of four for the U.S. Women’s Four-Ball championship to be held at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Ore., May 9-13, 2015. The New Jersey State Golf Association administered the event.
Medalist honors at 1-under 71 went to a pair of 16-year-old Pennsylvania high school golfers, Maddy Herr of New Hope and Brynn Walker of St. Davids. Herr has committed to Penn State and Walker to North Carolina.
Brenda Pictor and Susan Rheney of Georgia also qualified with even par 72s. Alyssa Roland of New York and Callie Kemmer of Washington, D.C., a pair of Yale golfers, defeated Adrienne MacLean of Basking Ridge and Sue DeKalb of Middletown in extra holes to gain the fourth and final qualifying spot. Both teams had shot plus-3 75.
Just playing the venerable Somerset Hills venue was the first goal for the Ku sisters who live in nearby Basking Ridge. Each had only played the course once before Tuesday’s championship. The second goal was to make it to Bandon Dunes.
“I played here once before. The condition of the course was absolutely perfect,” said Hana, a sophomore at Princeton, who was second team All-Ivy League last spring.
“I loved how old and firm it was here,” said Anina, a freshman at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge.
Each has played in USGA events before. Hana played twice in the U.S. Girls Junior, and also in the U.S. Public Links and U.S. Women’s Amateur.
“I feel a personal connection with the USGA. When I was in high school I volunteered to work at the USGA Museum on Far Hills,” she said. Hana was also on three Ridge H.S. state championship teams and this summer won the WMGA Women’s Amateur and Public Links.
She recently returned from Peru where she was part of a six-person team from Engineers Without Borders who helped install a 3.5 kilometer water system to a remote village.
Anina has also played in the USGA Girls Junior and Public Links events.
Diane Herndon, 60, of Rockville, Md., carded the fifth ace of her career using a 4-wood on the 186-yard eighth hole.
Saturday was my birthday. I’ve now had five aces in four different states, two in Maryland, one in Delaware one in Virginia and now one in New Jersey,” said Herndon, the first woman elected to the Maryland State Golf Association Board. She also serves on the USGA Women’s Senior Committee.
