Wayne Hills senior Marina Alex won the TOC with a 4-under 70 at Bamm Hollow Country Club.
St. John Vianney's Paige Pillar shot a 92 for the Lancers at the TOC.
By Bob Badders - Senior Writer
MIDDLETOWN -- Seven Shore Conference golfers joined many others from around the state on Wednesday at Bamm Hollow Country Club with hopes of being crowned as New Jersey's best. But everyone from players to coaches to reporters knew this tournament belonged to one girl.
Wayne Hills senior Marina Alex dominated the field once again with a marvelous 4-under-par 70 on the 5,746-yard par-74 combination of the red and blue courses to win the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions for the second straight season. Her brilliant round included a 5-under 32 on the front nine that featured a 35-foot eagle putt on the par-5 red seventh.
"That's really impressive," said Point Boro junior Kelsi Kavanagh. "Good for her, she deserves it."
Alex's eight-shot win over Williamstown's Amber Smith and Mahwah's Crystal Lee broke her own record for margin of victory set last season at six strokes. Kavanagh had an impressive tournament in her own right, though. Last season she shot a 100 on the very same course at the TOC but was able to come back this season to shoot a 12-over 86 and finish tied for 10th. She earned a medal for her top-10 finish and also some bragging rights as the best scorer among Shore Conference golfers.
"I played pretty well," Kavanagh said. "I had two par-5s where I could have had a 12, but I kept grinding it out and had sevens on both. That's where I saved my round. Other than that I played pretty much bogey golf or a little better at times. I'm happy with the way I played. I was striking the ball well."
"I felt she could finish in the top 10 today," said Panthers head coach Pete Casalino. "To me, she's one of the top five golfers in the Shore easily and it's just a matter of if she plays good on that day when there's a big tournament."
Kavanagh had been playing well leading up to the tournament, but said she had plenty of butterflies as start time grew near.
"I was a little nervous warming up this morning because I wasn't hitting my driver too well," Kavanagh said.
She calmed down nicely, however, and her driver actually did her very well on the wet fairways. Being long off the tees helped her avoid the pitfalls that plagued much of the field as the course played longer than its 5,700 official yards.
"I carried the ball pretty far, at least 200 yards or over, so the wetness didn't really affect me much," Kavanagh said. "I was never in any area with much water and the bunkers weren't too damp. The greens rolled pretty well, but they were a little slow. I probably could have lowered my score a little bit if they were faster but still didn't have any really bad putts."
A top-10 finish at the TOC is a fine accomplishment in and of itself, but Wednesday's confidence-building round by Kavanagh came at a great time with the Shore Conference Tournament looming on Tuesday at SunEagles Golf Course. Wall senior Christina Hall is the defending champion and prohibitive favorite going in. Also, Toms River North's Sung Song is expected to be at the top of the leaderboard. Now Kavanagh has thrown her name in the hat.
"I wanted to place in the top 15, so to be up in the top 10 is pretty good," Kavanagh said. "To be ahead of Christina Hall, who is a great player, and Sung Song, who is very good, gives me confidence. It (the SCT) is up in the air. It's anyone's game."
Hall, the aforementioned defending SCT champion, finished in 20th place by carding an 88. Unlike Kavanagh, Hall felt the wet conditions hurt her round, especially on the putting surface. She left a long putt short on her final hole and said that shot, "was pretty much how things went for me all day.''
" I didn't play very good," Hall said. "I prefer fast greens and they were slower than usual. The course was wet and I knew it would play longer."
"I'm sure she's disappointed," said Crimson Knights head coach Matt Stefanski. "But she still has next week where she'll try to defend her Shore Conference championship. It's a little firmer where she usually plays at Colts Neck (Golf Club) and Manasquan (River Golf Club), and it was so wet today it kind of took her out of rhythm."
All the attention was on Alex on Wednesday and even though she didn't shoot her best round, Hall knows she will be in that same situation on Tuesday.
"I guess there's a little more pressure," Hall said. "I'm just looking to go out and win again."
"I think her mentality is she likes being chased, likes being in the spotlight," Stefanski said. "It's going to be the end of her high school career so I'm hoping she plays very well."
Song played in the lead group with Alex and shot an 89 for the third-best result by a Shore Conference golfer. Rumson-Fair Haven's Shelby Glass and St. John Vianney's Paige Pillar each shot 92 while Red Bank Catholic's Meg Dolley carded a 96. St. John Vianney was the only area squad competing for team honors and finished eighth out of 10 teams with Pillar's 92 and Corrine Freeman's 113 giving the Lancers a 205.
The team champion was Ridgewood, which got an 84 from Julia Rappa and an 86 form Eunae Jo for a 170. Haddonfield was second with a 172 and Hunterdon Central was third with a 174.
2008 Girls Golf Tournament of Champions
At Bamm Hollow Country Club, Lincroft
Par 74, 5,746 yards
Team scoring
1. Ridgweood 170
2. Haddonfield 172
3. Hunterdon Central 174
4. Mainland 177
5. South Brunswick 190
6. J.P. Stevens 195
7. Immaculate Heart 200
8. St. John Vianney 205
9. Montgomery 206
10. Bridgewater-Raritan 222
Individual Top 10
1. Marina Alex (Wayne Hills) 70
2t. Amber Smith (Williamstown) 78
2t. Crystal Lee (Mahwah) 78
4. Heather Petronis (Mainland) 80
5. Kristina Wagner (Hillsborough) 81
6t. Louise Yi (Cinnaminson) 84
6t. Julia Rappa (Ridgewood) 84
8t. Kristina Lee (Haddonfield) 85
8t. Elesa Mateer (Ocean City) 85
10t. Kelsi Kavanagh (Point Boro) 86
10t. Eunae Jo (Ridgewood) 86
10t. Kimberly Smith (Hunterdon Central) 86
10. Esther Park (Northern Valley Regional-Demarest) 86
E-mail:
badders@digitalsports.com