Hopewell’s Meng wins Tournament of Champions

Hopewell Valley’s Megan Meng had one goal in mind heading into this year’s NJSIAA Tournament of Champions: improve from last year and have a stress-free round.

Meng accomplished that at Raritan Valley Country Club in Bridgewater, a course she had never played before. The sophomore took a significant leap and won the state title by shooting one-under 71 on Monday. She finished seventh a year ago.

It is the second straight year a golfer from the Colonial Valley Conference has won the tournament. West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s Katherine Lu, who now golfs for Michigan State, placed first in 2021.

Hopewell Valley’s coach Bill Russell saw from last year’s tournament that his star golfer was poised for a championship run.

“I knew she had the ability. I knew that this course would work really well for her too,” Russell told The Trentonian over the phone. “I have all the confidence in Megan and I knew she could win this tournament.”

He had to know it from the sidelines since coaches are not allowed to be on the course with golfers during the match. The onus fell on Meng to manage the course. Russell saw Meng twice throughout the entire day and did nothing but wave.

Meng is used to making the decisions herself and is comfortable doing it for her own game.

The front-nine is where Meng saw most of her success. Holes three and five resulted in birdies for her and identified them as where she felt most comfortable on the course.

“Those two holes, I was really secure in my own putting and I think I had a lot of confidence starting out,” Meng said. “Toward the back, I was just settling for pars and being OK with that.”

She bogeyed back-toback holes later on and her ability to remain evenkeeled during those grueling holes is what Russell believes makes Meng a good golfer. Meng said that “short-term memory” can be a golfer’s best friend in that situation.

“You play your best golf when you’re not thinking about your performance, you’re thinking about just hitting a good shot,” Meng said. “One shot at a time.”

Having that mindset helped her relax and not take the course too seriously.

“I had a lot of fun today,” she said. “Even though I did win, I did feel it was a fun event, overall and the fact I was able to relax and keep my mind in a positive place, helped my game a lot.”