Tara Fleming Reaches Semifinals Of U.S. Women's Senior Amateur
NJSGA Mid-Amateur champion Tara Fleming of Jersey City and New jersey National already found fame in USGA circles when she captained the New Jersey team to the 2013 U.S. State Team Championship.
Now, her fame is growing thanks to the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur Championship.
In the quarterfinal at Waverly C.C. in Portland, Ore., Fleming defeated Canadian Mary Ann Hayward, 3 and 2, to advance to Wednesday afternoon’s semifinals beginning at 3:45 EST.
In the semifinal, Fleming, 50, faced another Canadian, Judith Kyrinis, 53. Coincidentally, Fleming is a native of North York, Ontario. Fleming's great run, in her first Senior Amateur, came to an end, losing to Kyrinis, 2 and 1.
Fleming’s path to the semifinals: -Stroke play: 76-74—150 (5th)
- Round of 64: defeated Julie McMullin, 1 up
- Round of 32: defeated Kim Eaton, 2 and 1
- Round of 16: defeated Leigh Klasse, 5 and 3; Quarterfinals: def. Hayward, 3 and 2.
Kyrinis was playing in her fourth U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship (2016, quarterfinalist and medalist; 2015, round of 16; 2014, runner-up). She was a semifinalist in the 2000 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, she lost to eventual champion Ellen Port. She claimed the 2016 Canadian Women’s Mid-Amateur, Women’s Mid-Master and Senior Women’s titles in the same week in Alberta
In the Round of 16, Fleming, a member of the winning New Jersey team in the 2013 USGA Women’s State Team Championship, made five birdies in a 5-and-3 Round-of-16 triumph over Leigh Klasse. On the heels of a narrow 2-and-1 victory over Kim Eaton in the morning, Fleming reached new heights in USGA competition.
“This is the first time I’ve played in a USGA event and made it into the quarters, so I am absolutely ecstatic,” said Fleming, a former professional on the LPGA Tour. “I couldn’t be happier and more proud. I managed to eke through my first round where I played a lot of terrible golf and then put together a great round this afternoon. I stopped playing my opponent and started playing the golf course.”
Fleming birdied two par 3s, Nos. 6 and 14, nearly acing the 132-yard sixth with a 9-iron.made five birdies in a 5-and-3 Round-of-16 triumph over Leigh Klasse. On the heels of a narrow 2-and-1 victory over Kim Eaton in the morning, Fleming reached new heights in USGA competition.
“This is the first time I’ve played in a USGA event and made it into the quarters, so I am absolutely ecstatic,” said Fleming, a former professional on the LPGA Tour. “I couldn’t be happier and more proud. I managed to eke through my first round where I played a lot of terrible golf and then put together a great round this afternoon. I stopped playing my opponent and started playing the golf course.”
Fleming birdied two par 3s, Nos. 6 and 14, nearly acing the 132-yard sixth with a 9-iron.
A LOOK AT TARA FLEMING’S CAREER:
Born Jan. 25, 1967 in North York, Ontario, Canada
- The youngest remaining player in the field, she’s playing in her first U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur
- Member of New Jersey’s winning team in the 2013 USGA Women’s State Team Championship
- A reinstated amateur since 1999, she played in four U.S. Women’s Opens in the early 1990s
- Her former LPGA Tour caddie, Rick Kropf, has carried for her in all of her USGA championship appearances, except the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball
- Women’s Metropolitan Golf Association board member
- 2015 and 2017 New Jersey State Golf Association (NJSGA) Women’s Mid-Amateur champion
- 2016 NJSGA Women’s Player of the Year
- Received the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association Mary Bea Porter Humanitarian Award in 1994 for performing CPR on a spectator who suffered a heart attack while she was playing in the LPGA Toledo Jamie Farr Classic
- A member of the women’s golf team, she graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1989 and now works as a consultant
