Yermish earns trip to Augusta for Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals

   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.