CR North senior Erica Herr captured the SOL Championship Thursday. To view photos of the match, please visit the Photo Gallery.
By Ben Reese
NORTH HILLS – Barring a huge upset, it was expected that either Council Rock North's Erica Herr or Pennsbury's Jackie Rogowicz would be crowned champion at the Suburban One League girls golf championship.
No upset, except of the LuLu Country Club course.
Herr shot a 5-under 68 to run away from the field with the title. She finished with six birdies and one bogey over the 5,456-yard course.
Rogowicz took third, shooting a 78. Madelein Herr, Erica's sophomore sister, took second at 1-over 74.
“It was a good round,” Erica said. “It started off with a birdie, and once I got that birdie, I birdied the next hole and just kind of got into a zone after the second hole.”
That start put her 3-under after four holes, following a par on No. 3 and a birdie at No. 4. If that had continued, she might have finished with 12 birdies and six pars and shot a 51. But it didn't
“It's an awesome way to start this thing,” Herr continued. “Coming in (on the back nine), I had some easy birdie putts that I barely missed here and there.”
Meanwhile, Rogowicz was struggling with her tee shots. She was having difficulty keeping the ball on the fairway.
“Normally, that's the best part of my game,” she said of her drives. “But I guess that's golf. Everything was just a little off.”
Rogowicz appeared to be pushing a lot of her shots to the right.
“Yes, I was,” she said. “I'm not sure (why) and I haven't been missing it right so I don't know where that came from.”
But while Rogowicz was trying to correct her drives, Herr was splitting the fairways. And it was due to a slight change in her swing.
“I was straight off the tee, which is good,” she said, “because I went through sort of a swing change and I wasn't hitting the ball as well as I hoped a few weeks ago, but now I'm hitting it awesome.
“To be able to keep the ball in play like I did and give me the opportunities to stick the ball close and make putts was huge.”
What change was made?
“In my back-swing,” she said. “I kind of had to do a little more rotating and less sliding. That was a little bit hard to grasp for me.”
But it must have worked. And worked well.
She toured the par-36 front nine in 34, birdieing the first, second and fourth and bogeying the par-3 sixth. The back nine was more of the same with three birdies, on Nos. 10, 17 and 18 for another 34 on the back.
A large part of her success also came from her wedge play. She knocked the ball stiff on a lot of the holes.
“It's a short course so your wedges need to be on,” Herr said. “It's an awesome way to start this thing (the chase for the PIAA championship).”
Madelein Herr rallied on the back nine to take second place. She shot a 3-over 39 on the front but came back with a 35 on the back, eagling the par-5 13th hole and birdieing the 10th and 14th holes and bogeying the 17th.
Rogowicz had an atypical front nine. She shot a 5-over 41, which included a bogey on No. 7, a double bogey on two and a triple bogey on No. 5.
She came back with a 37 on the back nine. She eagled the par-5 14th but bogeyed 12 and 15, two par-3s.
Hatboro-Horsham’s Cassidy Gavaghan trimmed four strokes from her front-nine score on the back. She shot a 43 on the front and a 39 on the back.
“I played pretty well for me,” the Hatters’ freshman said. “It was nice to hit the ball the way I wanted to because I haven't been playing my best lately, but I tried to put it all together today.”
Erica Herr played in the U.S. Women's Open at Sebonek Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y. this summer. She said the experience wasn't on her mind during the SOL championship.
“It was a great experience and it's something nice to have under your belt,” she said. “It was awesome but I didn't really think about it too much.
“Yeah, it gives me confidence, but I'm never like 'Oh, gosh, I'm so good now.' I don't think that way at all.
“It makes me want to work harder because that's the level I want to play at one day. Hopefully, what I am doing now will continue to help me so that I can do that again.”
Both Erica Herr and Rogowicz agreed that winning the SOL championship wasn't the end of things.
They both are looking forward to the District One Tournament which begins at Gilbertsville on Monday, Oct. 7, and continues at Turtle Creek on Oct. 8.
“It's nice to win, but I'm focused on moving up to districts and regionals and states,” Herr said. “(I'm set on) giving people a run for their money and see how it goes.”
“That's the main goal,” said Rogowicz, “to advance. It would be nice to win (but) advancing is just as good.”
Herr will have a tough act to follow after firing the 68. Plus she is also the two-time defending PIAA champion.
“It's awesome to go out there and shoot 5-under today,” she said. “I wasn't expecting that today when I came.”
As for states, well, she's got that in perspective also.
“It's a little pressure but nothing that I can't handle,” she said with a laugh when asked about the pressure of a three-peat. “Of course, I want to win (states) but if that doesn't happen, I've got the next step, which is college and I'm totally looking forward to that.”
In addition to the top four finishers, nine other girls qualified for the District One tournament. They are (followed by their score): Debbie Park of Upper Dublin (83), Rebecca Chiger of Abington (84), Council Rock North's Lauren Muhlbauer (84), Michayla Siemion of Central Bucks West (85), North Penn's Caleigh Rich (90), Julianna Lee of Upper Dublin (92), Abington's Danielle Carr (92), Catherine Cropp of CB East (93) and Norristown's Sharon Nam (95).
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