By Joe Miegoc
Record Sports Writer
May 09, 2010

Sports have always been a big part of Karen Cash's life.

As a child, Cash was encouraged to play sports by her mother, Louise Cash, a member of the Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame and nationally ranked tennis player.

Cash "played every single sport I could" growing up, with tennis having a heavy influence. When she wasn't playing tennis, Cash was traveling all over to watch her sister Lauren Cash, who went on to play at Boston College, play in tournaments.

Golf was one of the many sports Cash played, but she didn't take to it right away. Only with the insistence of her mother did Cash stay with the sport and it finally grew on her.

After a stellar high school career at Northern Highlands Regional in Allendale, N.J., where as a senior she tied for seventh in the girls state tournament, helped the boys team tie for second at states and finished fifth in the Bergen County girls championship, Cash decided to make East Stroudsburg University her next stop.

Cash thrived as a freshman, winning medalist honors in three of the seven tournaments ESU played in. She capped her first year by finishing tied for third at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference tournament last month to earn All-PSAC honors.

Get to know Cash, what made golf her sport of choice, how she ended up at ESU instead of playing Division-I golf and why distance isn't always the most important thing on the course.

POCONO RECORD: You were a pretty accomplished player coming from New Jersey. What were your expectations coming into ESU?

CASH: I felt pretty confident coming in. I knew it was definitely going to be a lot more challenging. I knew that a lot of the girls were really good. Generally everyone that plays college golf can play. I just came in trying to be confident and perform as well I as I possibly could.

PR: After you got to ESU, was there a specific instance when you felt comfortable and could just go out and play?

CASH: I just went out and said, 'Try to do as best as you can,' and I did.

PR: Is it as simple as saying that to yourself?

CASH: At first I'm always a little bit nervous. The first hole, especially the first tournament in the fall and in the spring, it's always nerve racking at first, but I kind of just know by now that there are so many tournaments that I've played in there's no point in being nervous. Although at the tournament you're trying to do well, you need to play your game and when you do, if you're confident out there, you can perform well.

PR: Both your mom and sister are accomplished tennis players and you played tennis all four years in high school. How did you end up on the golf course?

CASH: That's a tough question. I enjoy both of them a lot, but I think that I excelled more in golf. I enjoyed golf better. I still enjoy tennis. I mean I played varsity for both golf and tennis, but I think I just excelled more in golf and enjoyed the sport more than tennis.

PR: Your mom pushed you and your sister to play sports to help build your confidence. How important was getting involved in sports in your life?

CASH: That's actually how my parents met, playing golf, and my mom would never let me quit. When I was younger I played every single sport I could play. I played any sport, you can virtually name any team sport and I played it, and I didn't really like golf at all. I wanted to quit and I told my mom I hate it and she said, 'you're not quitting, you're sticking with it and, you'll see, it will be good for you in the long run,' and I listened to her and I'm really glad that I did. I stuck with it and I excelled in it and I thanked her a lot for not letting me quit.

Especially with other sports, too, because I still play tennis, even though I focus more on golf, and still am, what I would say, pretty good at tennis, but with her support with my golf and coming to all my tournaments, she always helped me.

PR: How do you go from not liking golf to choosing it over tennis?

CASH I didn't hate golf, hate is a strong word, but I wanted to excel in other sports that I was more interested in. It just grew on me. I started realizing that I am a really good golfer. All my other sports I was good at and at first I wasn't very good at golf. That's why I probably didn't like it and then I started practicing more and more and I started excelling in it and that's when I really started liking it and realizing that it could be good for my future. Golf is a lifetime sport that you can always play and I think that's a great attribute that a person can have.

PR: From reading some stories about you, it sounds like you have a pretty competitive spirit on the course.

CASH: Yeah it really is. I just enjoy that, I enjoy being competitive, especially in golf. Even though it's an individual sport, and although I try to stay calm out there when I play, I'm very serious. In practice, every so often I'll joke around with my friends, but in tournaments if you watch me play I'm pretty serious.

PR: Did you get that way from watching another golfer or another athlete and model yourself after that person?

CASH: I've grown up watching my sister play tennis tournaments my whole childhood. She was nationally ranked and so was my mom, and I grew up playing at a tennis club and I realized if you want to win you've got to be devoted to something and be focused.

PR: I know length off the tee isn't your strong suite, but your short game and accuracy is something you're known for. Is that something, early on, that you knew you were going to have to focus in on?

CASH: I realized you've got to be accurate with your iron shots and it's funny that hitting a driver counts just as much as one putt does, as one stroke. I just know that if I'm a 150 yards in or even more I just have to aim it pretty much right on to get a close putt to make a birdie or a par.

PR: I read that in one tournament you played 36 holes in one day and your high school coach couldn't remember you being in trouble once off the tee.

CASH: It's funny. Everyone just knows me as that. One of my coaches jokes around that he's never seen me miss a fairway. I don't know, I just feel that that's one of my more confident shots, my driver. I generally make almost every fairway. Occasionally here and there I may pull it a little left, but generally I hit it straight and am very comfortable with it. I hit a slight draw, but it generally ends up straight.

PR: In high school you played all four years on the boys team. What was that like?

CASH: I actually enjoyed it because I liked, well not impressing them, but it was nice to shoot almost equal to the guys. I guess you could say it helped my confidence when I could shoot equal scores or even better than the guys.

PR: You had a chance to play Division-I golf at Hofstra, but you picked ESU. Why?

CASH: I looked through both of the schools and I just liked ESU better and especially with the education major, I know that this school is one of the better known schools for education. A good amount of students here are education majors and I looked into that as well, aside from the golf. Hofstra, I didn't really talk to the coach about the major, but I knew from here that was definitely a key and a big part of why I came here; not just for the golf but also for the education major.

PR: Did you meet with (ESU women's golf coach) Dustin McCormick before you came to ESU?

CASH: I met with him twice. I talked to him for a while through e-mail and then I met with him at the school and I met with him at (Water Gap Country Club) and I got to play it before I decided to come.

PR: What was your first impression of it?

CASH: Hilly. Definitely hilly and very long.

PR: What was it like to experience that right away?

CASH: I knew it was going to be a lot different than where I usually play because in New Jersey most of the courses are pretty flat and (Water Gap) is pretty much the complete opposite of that. There were some blind holes. I've played some courses that were hilly, but the majority of them that I've played are generally flat. You can see the holes, but (Water Gap) is a lot different and I'm just going to have to get used to it.

PR: That's obviously going to be a challenge, but it seems like you enjoy challenges.

CASH: Yeah, definitely. I love playing hard courses. When we went to Pinehurst we played Tobacco Road (Golf Club). That was definitely challenging, but I actually played real well. I shot an 82 I think there.

PR: What's the toughest course you've played on so far?

CASH: I played at Bethpage, not the Black Course though. Tobacco Road was definitely challenging and original and something I've never played before.

PR: What made it so difficult?

CASH: It was a lot of sand, but it wasn't your normal kind of bunker sand. It was unlike any other course I ever played before. It was different, but it was cool. It was a really cool course to play.

PR: Back to ESU golf, you had such a good freshman season. What are the expectations for yourself going forward?

CASH: I'm just expecting to play even better than I did the first year. I'm just trying to excel each year that I play. I'm going to be practicing a lot over the summer and hopefully tournaments that I placed third or fourth in, I'll hopefully win and shoot lower scores and just play better.