Weary Herman Rallies From 4 Down To Beat Puckett In 19-Hole Semifinal Thriller

By Rhonda Glenn, USGA

Hot Springs, Va. – Robyn Puckett and Sherry Herman were weary when they stepped to the first tee. They had already survived Tuesday’s double round, and Wednesday morning’s quarterfinals, and now they were about to tee off for their fourth round in two days.

Puckett, of Irvine, Calif., against Herman, of Farmingdale, N.J. The winner would win the right to play in the final for the national championship – the USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship – and neither had really ever won a national title.

Herman had picked up some state titles, while Puckett had claimed four LPGA Teaching & Club Professional senior titles, but nothing is quite like being the national champion. Puckett had come closest, finishing as runner-up in 2007 to Anna Schultz.

Sherry Herman (left) and Robyn Puckett went extra holes in their semifinal match on Wednesday before Herman prevailed. (Fred Vuich/USGA)

But this has been a hard week for Puckett. Her husband, Bernard, was hospitalized in California just when she was planning to leave for this championship. “He’s breathing better, though,” Puckett told a friend who asked about her husband Tuesday night.

She hadn’t arrived until Saturday morning, just before she teed off in the first qualifying round. There would be no practice rounds this week. No studying of the greens. No checking out the clubs to use on the par 3s. It was just tee it up, and go.

Herman was accompanied by her husband, Ben, who suffered over every stroke of every match.

 
Ben strolled along, a big guy kicking at horse chestnuts in the rough, trying to keep his cool as Sherry battled through the brackets. She’d been trying to make it to a USGA final for some 30 years, and this was her chance.

Both players are reinstated amateurs. Coincidentally, they were both teaching professionals who competed only occasionally. Sherry Herman married Ben in 1982, had two daughters, and tried to qualify for the LPGA Tour a couple of times.

“But I didn’t make it, and I wasn’t playing enough golf,” she said. “So, I got my amateur status back. No one has supported me more in my life than Ben. When I want to play in amateur tournaments, he’s never said no.”

Herman is a natural. “No instructor wants to touch that swing,” said Ben. “When she was a kid, every year her dad, Sam Kamens, bought Sherry a locker at the golf club and she spent all summer playing golf. That’s how she learned. She just has natural ability.”

The match started badly for Herman and a slew of bogeys put her in a terrible position; four holes down after the 10th. Lose two more and her opponent would be dormie 6. She seemed headed south before she rallied.

But Herman won the 11th with a par and hope glimmered.

Both players leveraged the downhill roll at the 365-yard, par-4 12th and had short irons to the green. Puckett hit first. Short-siding herself, she was in the high rough with barely 15 feet of green to work with. Herman hit a lovely approach, 18 feet left of the hole. Herman’s par beat Puckett’s bogey. Puckett was now 2 up.

Herman had the honor at No. 13. She’s a big, strong player and her swing is of the classically old-fashioned variety. A narrow stance, a strong grip and she holds nothing back, ripping her tee shots high and far. She bashed another down the fairway.

The Australian-born Puckett looks slight, but she has sturdy legs and generates good clubhead speed. Her swing is efficient, and she has a little signature move before she begins her backswing. Using her right hand, she takes it back, then through in a throwing-motion, as if she is willing herself to hit from the top once she swings the club. It has been effective all week and she has played wonderful golf, but now she is tiring and beginning to spray the ball.

Puckett hits her drive into a bunker, 30 yards short of Herman, then hits a clean shot that skips through the green. Herman hits a towering iron to within 14 feet of the hole. Puckett makes bogey, Herman a par, and now Puckett is just 1 up.

Puckett finds another bunker at the 14th hole, makes bogey, and Herman a routine par. The match is all square and Herman allows herself a slight smile.

Then comes the long, torturous 15th, a 195-yard par-3 that eats your lunch. All week players have been hitting into the bunkers or, worse, into the evergreens. The 15th makes a player grip the club in a death grip.

Herman hits first, smashing a 4-iron that she had shipped to her expressly for this course. She winces when the ball bounds into the bunker. Puckett, with a chance to score, hits a big pull and is trapped in the evergreens. She makes a good decision, pitching backwards, and then chips up to within 4 feet.

Herman’s ball is in an impossible lie – downhill against the back lip. She skulls it over the green, makes 5 and Puckett’s 4 is good enough to put her ahead by one hole with three to play.

The 16th is a cruel match-play hole. A pond fronts the green and the wind blowing off the mountain can stall a high shot and send it splashing. That’s what happens to Puckett. Out of high rough, she finds the water. Herman hits a nice approach, makes a par and again, the match is all square.

Herman and Puckett trudge up the 20 steps to the 17th tee. They are close to the end, in a lot of ways.  But both hit good drives, good fairway woods, and good short irons, making pars. Still all square.

The 18th shows the difference in their power. It’s 145 yards, but Herman blasts a towering 8 iron, just a bit too far to the left. Puckett hits a beauty, but it’s strong and skips to the back fringe. Both players must aim at least 20 feet to the left of the hole, and both go at least 12 feet past. They halve the hole with inglorious bogey-4s.

On to the 19th hole, or in this case, the first tee.

Puckett cannot regain her great accuracy and drives her ball into the right rough, a bit above her feet. Herman, too, made a weary swing and she’s 30 yards ahead in the rough. Puckett swung mightily, but her ball was pulled off the lie and she found the left-greenside bunker. Herman makes the best shot she has hit in nine holes, hitting a towering short iron that comes to rest about 15 feet from the hole.

When Puckett bogeys, Herman is left with a 4-footer for a par to win the match and get to that long-awaited USGA final. She stands over the putt for 5-6-7-8 beats, strokes it and it falls in. It is finally over, and the players shake hands.

“I’m just glad it’s over,” Puckett says, exhausted.

Ben walks toward his wife, beaming. “She’s still my girl,” he says.

On Thursday, Sherry Herman will get that chance she’s always dreamed of – a crack at a USGA national title. She wants it badly. But she’s playing against Carolyn Creekmore, the 2004 champion, and Creekmore also wants a second title badly.

It should be quite a match.

Rhonda Glenn is a manager of communications for the USGA. E-mail her with questions or comments at rglenn@usga.org.