Pernicone surprises herself at state Amateur Marlboro golfer reaches quarterfinals

By tim morris

Pernicone surprises herself at state Amateur
Marlboro golfer
reaches quarterfinals


If there was such a thing as an outer body experience, Marlboro’s Becky Pernicone encountered it on the golf links.

Playing in the Amateur Championship of the New Jersey State Women’s Golf Committee last week, Pernicone, whose home course is Forsgate in Monroe, couldn’t believe how well she was playing.

"I never saw myself play this well every day," the Marlboro senior said. "I never got into any trouble. I just played so solid. I surprised myself."

Pernicone has been one of the hottest junior golfers in the state this summer. Prior to the state amateur, held at the Flanders Valley Golf Course, Pernicone had won back-to-back championships, capturing the Women’s Metro-politan Golf Association Maureen Orcutt Tournament and the WMGA Girls Junior Open.

"Those wins made me a more confident golfer," she pointed out. "I know I can win and I know I can play well under pressure. I was on a roll."

There was plenty of pressure for the 17-year-old at the state Amateur Championship. First, she had to finish in the top 32 in the 18 holes of stroke play to qualify for the grueling match play that followed.

"I felt pretty confident I would make the cut," she said. "I talked to my playing partner before we played and she said that 90 made the cut last year. I went out with the goal of not shooting above 85."

An 82 (39-43) easily put Pernicone, who will be a senior at Marlboro this fall, into the field of 32. She was the No. 7 seed for the match play that began on Aug. 1.

Many golfers have trouble with match play because it is so much different from stroke play, but not Pernicone. She is not intimidated about playing one on one.

Earlier in the summer she represented the Metropolitan Women’s Golf Association team that competed against teams from Massachusetts and Connecticut in a Ryder Cup-style format. Pernicone excelled at match play there winning all six points that were available.

"You don’t have to worry about shooting a high score," Pernicone said of match play. "You can be a little more aggressive."

Pernicone played flawless in her first two rounds winning 5&3 and 4&2. She never trailed in any of those matches. She kept the pressure on her opponents by staying away from mistakes and sinking big putts.

"In both matches I sank 20-foot putts for par and on the first hole to go one up," she said.

From one-up on the first hole in those matches against Fern Epstein (Crestmont) and Lori Bindler (Battleground), she never looked back.

With each round of golf Pernicone learned more and more about the Flanders course. The par-3’s and par-5’s were where the birdie opportunities lie and the par-4’s were treacherous. A par on them was a good score.

"It’s an extremely long course, especially the par-4’s," she remarked. "The par-4’s were so long I was hitting a lot of fairway woods to the green.

"I like my woods a lot more now," she added. "I tend to fade my fairway woods a little, but I didn’t make any errors with them this week."

Pernicone continued to play errorless golf in her quarterfinal match on Aug. 2 against Donna Young (Springdale), the No. 2 seed. Pernicone was one-up after three before Young took the lead on the back nine by two. Pernicone rallied on the 15th to narrow Young’s lead to one-up. It was still one-up when they went to the 17th hole, a par-3, that Pernicone didn’t like playing.

"The 17th green slopes down in the front," she pointed out. "They had the pin front left."

Pernicone drove her tee-shot on the green, but along on the top shelf, before three-putting. Young had a nine footer for par which she made for the par to win the hole and the match 2&1.

Those hardly dampened Pernicone’s spirits.

"I played so well," she said. "I was hitting fairways and greens and knocking everything close to the hole. I wasn’t choking. I didn’t make any mistakes mentally."

Pernicone credits her opposition at Flanders and the work she has been putting into her golf game for her superb play last week.

"The competition pushed me to a new level," she said. "I’ve been working so hard on my game and it’s really showing now.

"This is the first year I’ve ever played in this tournament and to get this far is incredible," she said. "It still feels like a dream."

It will be back to reality for Pernicone this week when she continues her busy schedule with a pair of tournaments. She will be the defending champion for the two-day Metropolitan Golf Championship of Trenton.

The tournament began on Monday and will conclude tomorrow at the Peddie Golf Course in Hightstown.

On Friday, she will shoot for the Rutgers Girls Tournament title. She was ninth there last year.