Tara Fleming Wins NJSGA Women's Mid-amateur Championship
Tara Fleming of New Jersey National never saw the 6,152-yard layout at The Bedens Brook Club in Skillman until Monday, but over the course of two days made herself right at home.
Fleming carded rounds of 77 and 78 for a total of 5-over-par 155 and won the Second NJSGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship by 10 shots over Alicia Kapheim of Hopewell Valley (82-83-165) and Katie Renoff of Trump National-Bedminster (85-80-165) at Bedens Brook.
The Women’s Mid-Amateur, for golfers ages 30 and above, ran concurrently to the two days of qualifying for the State Women’s Amateur. Fleming’s 155 garnered her the No. 4 seed in the Women’s Amateur match-play which began Wednesday.
“I never played the course until Monday. It makes you use every club in your bag. You can’t just have one shot and play well here. It puts pressure on your putting,” said Fleming, who didn’t participate in the inaugural Women’s Mid-Am – won by Fran Gacos of Copper Hill – due to her commitment to qualify for the U.S. Mid-Am which was conducted that week.
“I’ve been playing quite a lot this summer. I played the Elizabeth Goss Round-Robin last week at Somerset Hills and in May, Alicia Kapheim and I qualified for the First U.S. Women’s Four-Ball and made it to Match-Play at Bandon Dunes in Oregon,” Fleming said.
PHOTO GALLERY WOMEN'S MID-AMATEUR LEADERBOARD
Fleming and Kapheim, who shot 1-over-145 to make the cut, lost 4 and 3 to Angel Yin and Muni He, who advanced to the quarterfinals before losing in 21 holes to eventual champions Mika Liu and Rinko Mitsunaga.
“To be the second Mid-Amateur champion in New Jersey, especially following my close friend, Fran Gacos, is wonderful. I think it’s great that New Jersey has a Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, and I’m proud to be the champion this year,” Fleming said.
Fleming played seven years on the LPGA Tour from 1990 through 1996 and was reinstated as an amateur in 1999. She played golf at the University of New Mexico. A native of Houston, she is an Account Relationship Manager at AIG in New York.
“We’re very excited that three of the Mid-Amateur players (Fleming, Kapheim and Susan Sardi) qualified for the Women’s Amateur Match-Play,” said Lisa Lifer, tournament director of both events. “The word is getting out there to serious golfers who are competitive that we are conducting two outstanding championships. We are expecting the Mid-Amateur to continue to grow and in the future, we hope to see it as its own separate championship.”
Fleming, who lives in Jersey City, was second in qualifying for the State Women’s Amateur in 2013 and advanced to the match-play semifinals before losing to finalist Alexandra Hershberger of Neshanic Valley.
Fleming served as captain of the three-person New Jersey squad that included Alice Chen of Princeton and Cindy Ha of Demarest and won the 2013 U.S. State Team National Championship in Ohio. Fleming will return to her captaincy duties for the 2015 New Jersey team in the same event this fall.
She qualified for the U.S. Mid-Amateur two years ago and will attempt to qualify on Sept. 1 at North Jersey Country Club in Wayne.
