NC graduate making strides since high school

Sometimes high school athletes have a problem making the transition to the college level.

Northern Cambria graduate Samantha Formeck had no such issues. In fact, when asked how Formeck has improved since she began her career at Youngstown State, Penguins women's golf coach Roseann Schwartz explained that there was just simply almost nothing to improve on from her first collegiate performance.

"When Samantha came in, we played at the Bucknell Invitational in her first meet," Schwartz said. "Penn State was there among some other teams. We played well as a team, and she was the medalist overall as a freshman in her first meet.

"She started off as a freshman the way coaches would always hope someone would turn out at the end of their career. She's phenomenal with her attitude, focus, school work and dedication to her golf game."

In just two years at Youngstown State, Formeck already has an individual Horizon League Championship under her belt, two appearances on the All-Horizon League first team and has been named the Horizon League Player of the Year in each of her first two seasons.

Youngstown State won the Horizon League team title her freshman year before finishing second this past season. Formeck was the highest finishing Penguin with a third-place effort.

She owns the lowest strokes-per-18 holes average in the history of the women's golf team at the school with an average of 77.8 strokes per 18 holes as a freshman. She followed that with a solid 78 strokes per 18 holes average this past season.

"I'd say winning the Horizon League Championship my freshman year has been my proudest accomplishment so far," Formeck said. "I didn't know what to expect going into the season, and to win the championship was a lot more than I expected."

Now Formeck is carrying that success into the summer. On July 12 at the Country Club of York, she won the U.S. Women's Amateur Qualifier with a score of 73, edging Waynesburg's Rachel Rohanna by a stroke.

That performance gave her an entry to the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship Aug. 9-15 at the Charlotte Country Club in North Carolina.

"It was really exciting, because it was the second time I tried to qualify and the first time I made it," Formeck said. "It was just really exciting. I'd like to go [to the Championship] and make it through stroke play, get into the match play and whatever happens happens."

It will not be the first time Formeck has participated in a major event played in that format. Earlier this year, Formeck qualified for the U.S. Women's Publinks in South Bend, Ind. and shot back-to-back scores of 73 to move past stroke play into the match-play round before losing 3&1 to Pepperdine's Lisa McCloskey.

"The U.S. Women's Amateur Championship will be a higher caliber field than the Publinks was," Formeck said. "I will be going down the Saturday and Sunday before it, and we're allowed two practice rounds before it. That will be the first time I ever get to play that course."

Though she won't get a chance to play the Charlotte Country Club until just days before the event, that won't stop Formeck from preparing. She plays at least nine holes of golf every day and sometimes plays as many as 27 to 36 holes a day.

"She's dependable, she's focused and that's how she is as good as she is," Schwartz said. "I tried to make her stronger, and I think my program did a little extra for her to become stronger with her core, and I think that's probably what she needed the most."

During her career at Northern Cambria, Formeck was a four-time state qualifier. She finished fourth overall her junior year and eighth her senior campaign, earning all-state honors each season.

Despite all her success, Formeck hopes to carry the dedication she's shown to her golf game in a different direction.

"I'm not sure yet whether I'd pursue a professional career in golf," Formeck said. "I definitely plan on going to pharmacy school and getting licensed in pharmacy first, and then it depends on how much golf I can play and what I can do from there."