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WHAT DO GOATS HAVE TO DO WITH THE STATE OPEN? PAGE 12 compiled by CHRIS LANG
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Christina Herbert after achieving her goal of winning the Division III Women ' s Golf National Championship.
NCAA
Living the Dream
If you’ re going to dream, why not dream big? Such was the story for VSGA member Christina Herbert( College Prep Golf Tour), who set a not-so-modest goal for herself at the start of her junior season at Bridgewater College: Win the Division III Women ' s Golf National Championship.
“ While I knew it was a lofty goal, I did not think it was out of reach,” she said.
Even facing a three-stroke deficit on her final nine of the college season in May, she still felt that way. One of six players to earn her way into the national championship field as an individual— Washington & Lee’ s Liza Freed( Mount Vernon CC) was another— Herbert posted a final-round 74 at Houston’ s Bay Oaks Country Club. With a four-day total of 295, Herbert finished two shots clear of Rhodes’ Nikki Isaacson and Wittenburg’ s
Macy Hubbard to win the individual national championship and fulfill her lofty goal.
“ We talked at the start of the week about this event being a marathon, and that it did not require explosive golf all week to win— it required steady golf and no big mistakes,” Bridgewater coach John Rogers said.“ She ended up having three solid rounds and one excellent round, and that was enough to get the job done. Christina is an amazing young lady, and she deserves this for all her dedication and hard work.”
Herbert, who turned 21 in April and lives in Williamsburg, posted one of two sub-70 rounds at the championship, turning in a second-round 69 that put her in the thick of the title hunt. Rhodes’ Emily Salamy( The Club at Kingsmill) returned the best round of the championship, a second-round 68 that played a key role in Rhodes’ two-shot win over George Fox for the team championship. That 4-under round was the lowest in relation to par in DIII Women’ s Championship history.
With six holes to play, Herbert trailed Isaacson by three strokes. But Isaacson opened the door for a Herbert comeback by making three straight bogeys. Herbert, who started on No. 10, took advantage. She made a birdie on No. 5 and recovered from a bogey on No. 6 with another birdie on the par-5 7th hole.
Herbert was already in the clubhouse when Isaacson bogeyed No. 17, essentially sealing Herbert’ s two-stroke victory.
“ Coach has a great poker face,” Herbert said.“ He knew I took the lead after that tough two-putt on my 17th hole, but I had no idea I was in the hunt. I thought the bogeys I made on the back nine probably took me out of it. He did not tell me until I putted out on 18 that I was the leader in the clubhouse.”
vsga. org J ULY / A UGUST 2017 | V IRGINIA G OLFER 7