Rolling Green Golf Club’s Sydney Yermish made her debut on
the national stage this summer when she earned a trip to the U.S. Girls’ Junior
Championship at the Poppy Hills Golf Course on northern California’s Monterey
Peninsula.
Yermish could have played better at Poppy Hills, but the
experience she gained as a 12-year-old teeing it up in a United States Golf
Association event was invaluable. Yermish can bank on that experience when she
competes on another national stage in the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals
April 7 of next year at Augusta National Golf Club the Sunday before the
Masters.
Yermish, a Wynnewood resident, has turned 13 since Poppy
Hills and last Sunday at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md. she
punched her ticket to Augusta by winning the Girls 12-13 division in the regional
competition. Yermish topped the division in the driving part of the competition
and finished third in chipping in capturing the top spot in her division.
And Yermish was quick to acknowledge how her experience in
the U.S. Girls’ Junior will help her when The Golf Channel cameras are on in
the Drive, Chip and Putt Finals in what has quickly become one of the most
anticipated events in junior golf.
“It really helped a lot,” Yermish told Joey Flyntz in his
story about the Congressional regional on the Drive, Chip and Putt website.
“Playing with those players in that atmosphere helped me to learn to play with
pressure. The TV cameras will be on at Augusta, so playing in a championship
like the Girls’ Junior will help my game translate to Augusta. It you can do
that, you can do anything.”
Yermish advanced to Congressional by capturing her division
in a local qualifier conducted by the Philadelphia Section PGA at Applebrook
Golf Club earlier this summer.
Yermish’s parents were members of the committee that helped
stage the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Rolling Green and watching girls not
much older than she was inspired her to reach for that level.
Yermish competed in the K.J. Choi Foundation Junior
Championship, presented by SK Telecom, an American Junior Golf Association
event held at Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club in Bedminster, N.J. in August.
Yermish captured the top spot in the girls 13-to-14 division
in the Seaview Open, a U.S. Kids Golf regional event held Labor Day weekend at
the Seaview Resort across the bay from Atlantic City in Galloway Township, N.J.
The Bay Course at Seaview is site of the LPGA ShopRite
Classic each year. It looks like both the Bay Course and the Pines Course were
utilized for the event, but either way Yermish had a pair of 76s for an 8-over
152 total that gave her a three-shot margin of victory over Samantha Galantini
of West Orange, N.J.
The only other Pennsylvanian to earn a trip to Augusta out
of the regional at Congressional was Matthew Vital of Bethlehem, who won the
Boys 12-13 Division.
Megha Ganne of Holmdel, N.J. captured the Girls 14-15
division and will be making her fourth appearance in the Drive, Chip and Putt
National Finals at Augusta. Ganne was the runnerup last spring. Nathan Drogin
of Essex Falls, N.J. won the Boys 14-to-15 Division.
Ellen Yu of High Point, N.C. captured the Girls 10-11
Division and Mihir Roperia of Cranbury, N.J. won the Boys 10-11 Division.
Mckenzie Mueller of Wake Forest, N.C. won the Girls 7-9 Division and Rayhao
Feng of Short Hills, N.J. won the Boys 7-9 Division.
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