Female golfers triple at NJ high schools as girls claim their spot on the greens

Mary Korab first played golf with her older brother, Joe, and their father. Like most kids, she tried a lot of sports. But golf quickly won her heart.

Korab played on a coed PGA Junior League team at Flanders Valley Golf Course in Mount Olive, and later moved up to New Jersey PGA all-girls junior tournaments. She founded Morris Catholic's golf club, encouraging others at the Denville school to play for the first time.

A Harvard-bound Crusaders senior, Korab hopes to win her first Morris County Tournament girls title on Wednesday at Flanders Valley. She'll have to dethrone two-time champion Sammie Dolce, a Morris Tech senior.

Though both Korab and Dolce grew up in Florham Park, their paths to the green are a little different. Korab is one of three female golfers on Morris Catholic's varsity team. Dolce plays on the Devils' all-girls golf team.

"Golf was viewed as a male sport," Korab said. "But girls who are athletic and playing other sports are seeing that start to change and want to play. ... They're out there playing with the boys and playing well."

Checking the girls golf scorecard

There are 110 girls-only golf teams in New Jersey, about a quarter of NJSIAA member schools. That's almost double the 59 teams reported in the 2002-03 school year, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. Al Stumpf, the NJSIAA assistant director in charge of golf, thinks the older statistics likely include schools that have girls playing alongside boys on a single team.

Despite some official labels, there are no truly boys-only golf teams at New Jersey's coed schools. Three girls played with the boys — using the same tees — in the individual Tournament of Champions at Hawk Pointe last spring.

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By contrast, there are 293 boys-only or coed golf teams at NJSIAA-member schools. That, too, is a significant increase from the 187 in 2002-03.

The number of female New Jersey high school golfers more than tripled in that period, even as the boys stayed relatively stable.

"I don't think there's ever going to be a world where girls outnumber boys in golf, but who knows?" said Christina Paulsen, who manages junior golf and membership programs for the NJPGA. Paulsen, a former Immaculate Heart golfer from Ridgewood, spotted six girls teams and only two boys squads when she went to play a few holes at Fiddler's Elbow in Bedminster recently.

The Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference, which includes most Morris and Sussex county schools plus Hackettstown and North Warren, began sponsoring girls golf in 2018 at the request of Villa Walsh athletic director Jen Fleury. At the time, there was one division with nine teams.

Jefferson, West Morris, Mendham, Park Regional — a Hanover Park-Whippany Park co-op — and Sparta launched freestanding girls golf teams this spring. The NJAC now has 15 girls teams in three divisions, and will hold its nine-hole girls tournament on May 24, the day before the 18-hole coed event.

Girls can play in both NJAC tournaments if their score averages qualify. Korab usually does so, as well as in both MCT alongside her Morris Catholic teammates.

Vernon athletic director Bill Foley said the NJAC only recently updated its rules to acknowledge girls golf and to "keep up with the state, but also the growth of the game." Foley got a chance to see that growth firsthand while driving to junior tournaments with his son, former Sparta High School and current Wagner College golfer Michael Foley.

The interest "was always out there," said Foley, Vernon's former golf coach. "It was a matter of schools latching onto it and promoting it."

Teaching the next generation

Mike Andrusin and Jerry Carter have witnessed the changes from multiple perspectives.

As the Hackettstown golf coach, Andrusin talks golf with lots of parents at the high school's open house for eighth graders. Andrusin is also the Morris County Park Commission's teaching pro, guiding the PGA Junior League team where both Korab and Villa Walsh alumna Mia Nisivoccia of Montville played — as well as many adults.

Girls made up about 27% of the 700 NJPGA Junior Tour members ages 11 to 18 last year, according to Paulsen. The 86 girls in the older age division was the largest in history.

New Jersey will host four LPGA events over a six-week period starting May 11.

Andrusin has a freshman girl on the Hackettstown team, the first in at least five years. Carter, the PGA teaching professional at Black Bear in Franklin, was finally able to launch an independent girls team at Sparta, though most of the 15 or so players are inexperienced.

"You're getting the interest, which is good, because it's a great sport and you can do it when you get old, like me," Carter said. "Back in the day, I'd have one girl on the team, and for her to play she had to beat the guys. ... I wonder why they weren't more involved earlier. Maybe they viewed it as a guys' sport. But there's a lot of opportunity to get out and do things. You've got to get people to be conscious of it and desirous of it."

Dolce's parents both played golf in college, and they got her on the course "with the little plastic clubs." She was committed to the sport by age 8 after playing with First Tee, a nonprofit that supports youth golf programs, and started aiming for a college scholarship when she was in eighth grade.

Dolce volunteers with First Tee and LPGA/USGA Girls Golf, giving back to the programs that supported her development.

"Girls start getting into (golf) to meet new people, and through that they just start to love the game," said Dolce, who signed a National Letter of Intent to continue her academic and golf careers at Bowling Green.

"That's one of the reasons I love golf so much, because of the friendships I've made," she said. "That aspect of it gets people to join golf and continue to play."

Jane Havsy is a storyteller for the Daily Record and DailyRecord.com, part of the USA TODAY Network. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis, subscribe today.

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This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: NJ girls golf high school teams booming with help from PGA