Former PVHS golfer Hannah Berman earns runner-up finish at Women’s Southern Amateur Championship

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Jacksonville University women’s golfer and former Ponte Vedra High School standout Hannah Berman finished runner-up in the 2019 Women’s Southern Amateur Championship at Lockwood Folly Country Club on June 7 in Holden Beach, North Carolina.

Caylene Rosholt, of Texas, sank five in the first 13 holes to win the tournament.

A par on the 14th hole allowed Berman to extend the match, but a 40-foot birdie putt by Rosholt allowed her to close things out 5-4. Both golfers missed only two greens in 14 holes. Rosholt became a repeat champion of the Women’s Southern Am, while Berman improved upon her first attempt at the championship last year, where she was unable to qualify for the match-play stage.

After qualifying as the No. 7 seed in the 32-player match play field, Berman won her first-round match 3-2 against Virginia’s Katharine Parker. It took extra holes in the second round to beat Riley Smyth, also of Virginia, and advance to the quarterfinals. On Thursday, June 6, Berman took on her third UVA player in a row, this time 2011 graduate and three-time defending Virginia State Amateur Champion Lauren Greenlief, who was also the winner of the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am Championship. Berman won that match 1-up to advance to the semifinals, where she took on Oklahoma State’s Emma Whitaker. The match came down to the last putt on the final hole, Berman dropping a 4-footer for birdie to win, with Whitaker poised to make a 2-foot birdie putt to extend the match. 

Berman hopes to carry the momentum from this week in North Carolina across the pond for the British Women’s Amateur Championship, which began on June 11 in Royalty County Downs in Northern Ireland.