Emmaus’ Wong earns silver medal in 3A
Zerfass, Vital tied for 12th in boys event
Evelyn Wong wanted PIAA gold, but walked away from the scoring area Tuesday afternoon at Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York knowing she played well to get silver.
The Emmaus senior shot a 1-under-par 71 to finish second in the Class 3A girls competition behind Lower Merion’s Sydney Yermish, who made six birdies in a 10-hole stretch to shoot 68.
It was Wong’s second medal (fourth last year) in her two seasons at Emmaus.
“I’m not upset at all,” she said. “I played with a great group of girls, so I was happy the whole time even if I missed a putt.
“Like last year, I hit a lot of good shots and a few bad shots. I’m happy with how I played.”
Wong was steady all day, avoiding any major trouble. She led for a large chunk. She birdied Nos. 2, 4 and 8 offset a bogey at the third to make the turn in 2-under.
“Putting was good [on the front nine], surprisingly,” Wong said, “because it wasn’t good on the back. Putting is very mental.”
The Green Hornet was still tied until a bogey at the par-3 15th. Yermish also bogeyed the 15th, but picked up two more birdies on the way in to secure the title.
Wong won EPC gold and repeated as District 11 champion before adding to her medal collection Tuesday.
She plans to polish her physical and mental skills ahead of next year at Lehigh by playing tournaments as long as the weather cooperates this fall and early winter. She said she may return to China during the winter to continue playing if she can get a visa.
Bangor’s Natalie White (89) tied for 31st and Saucon Valley’s Emma Shelby (91) tied for 33rd in her second state event.
Boys
Emmaus’ Matt Zerfass and Liberty’s Matt Vital finished Tuesday’s round the way they started the postseason — tied.
The two shot 3-over-par 74s to finish tied for 12th, one shot out of a medal.
Zerfass beat Vital by one shot in a playoff to win the EPC title. Vital returned the favor by winning the District 11 3A championship by one.
Vital bounced back from a bogey at No. 1 with a birdie at 2,
then followed a double-bogey on the sixth with an eagle on No. 7. But the junior couldn’t answer the bogeys on 12, 14 and 15.
“I played all right for the most part,” he said. “I had a rougher back nine. I just didn’t make any putts when I needed to and didn’t hit the shots as close as I needed to think about making [the putts].”
Vital drove the ball well for all but a few holes, but those were costly.
“I hit driver [on the 260-yard, par-4 6th hole] to try to go for the green and pulled it,” he said. “It didn’t come back. I hit my second tee shot with a 6-iron then hit my approach to 6 feet. Then my putt
did a 360 around the cup and sat on the lip facing me.”
Vital was able to counter that quickly by smoking a driver long and straight on part-5 eighth. His 8-iron approach landed 25 feet short and rolled to within 5 feet. He made the eagle putt.
Zerfass was 1-under for 17 holes, but golf ’s founders in 15th century Scotland decided 18 were needed. The Emmaus senior found the water twice on that other hole, the par-4 ninth on his way to a quadruple-bogey 8.
His tee shot was just a little right of the 150-yard stake in the middle of the fairway but had a little cut to it. The wind also was working to the right, so the ball found the first pond on the right. His approach from the right rough found the second pond.
The drop spot left his shortsided to a short, right pin placement. His pitch went 30 feet past the hole. He then two putted.
Zerfass shook all that off on the way to the 10th tee, then promptly hit his drive 320 yards. He played the last nine holes in 1-under.
“I was pretty steamed about [No. 9] because I was playing well,” he said. “Then I also remembered that I was playing really solid. If I can string together some more good numbers here with the wind picking up, if I can manage and turn in a respectable score, who knows.
“I was able to stay mentally focused and get back to [playing well] and move on.”
Aiden LeBlanc’s round was summed up by an unfortunate series of events on the 373-yard, par-4 14th. The Emmaus senior hit his ball under the trees. His punch-out hit the concrete lip of the cart path and ricocheted back into the woods.
The Lehigh-bound LeBlanc repeated the trick on his next swing and ultimately took a triple-bogey 7. He followed that with bogey, double bogey and double bogey to shoot 44 on the back nine.
It did not diminish his stellar return season to the Green Hornets after living and playing as a junior in South Carolina. LeBlanc also had a solid front side Tuesday. He rebounded from bogeys at Nos. 3 and 5 with an eagle on 7 and a birdie on the par-3 eighth to move to 1-underpar and atop the leaderboard.
Stroudsburg’s Hunter Probst (83) completed his impressive freshman season by tying for 55th. Liberty’s Michael Vital (84) tied for 54th. Northampton sophomore Trent Moyer (88) tied for 67th in his first state appearance.
PIAA 3A team subregional
Liberty lost a chance to make a state tournament run by losing 288-318 Monday to La Salle College.
Matt Vital shot 72, followed by brother Michael (80), Matt Ronca (82), Jase Barker (83) and his cousin, Jimmy (93).
Coach Steve Bradley’s Hurricanes, who were tied for second last year at states, return all five for next season.