Emma Liu (left to right), Lauren Patullo, Kathy Liu, Macai Klein and Savannah Laverty represented the team at the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions on May 13. They won the Group B State Title.
The Moorestown High School Girls Golf team won the Group B State Title at the NJSIAA (New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association) Tournament of Champions last month for the first time in school history, shooting 323.
They were also the low public school in the tournament, topping Princeton High School – the Group A Title winner – and making Moorestown the top public school golf team in the state. Team members Lauren Patullo, Kathy Liu, Emma Liu, Savannah Laverty and Macai Klein participated in the 2025 Tournament of Champions.
“This year, to be able to see them be excited about carrying that trophy home and show people in the town, ‘Look what we did. We didn’t just get to the Tournament of Champions, we won our division,’ is very exciting,” said head coach Charlotte Heenan.
“They’re always excited for another and when one does not play well, their teammates are there to pick them up and that’s been how our season has been going all year long.”
This year’s team includes Astor Broering (2025 nine-hole match/tournament average: 52.62); Giuliana Chesner (2025 nine-hole match/tournament average: 50.13); Shree Desai (nine-hole match average: 54.13); Elena Ferri (2025 nine-hole match/tournament average: 56.20); Lena Hogg (2025 nine-hole match/tournament average: 50.23); Klein (2025 nine-hole match/tournament average: 44.35); Laverty (2025 nine-hole match/tournament average: 37.95); Emma (2025 nine-hole match/tournament average: 46.50); Kathy (2025 nine-hole match/tournament average: 38.21); Molly Massa (2025 nine-hole match average: 65.00); Patullo (2025 nine-hole match/tournament average: 39.60); and Phoebe Wang (2025 nine-hole match average: 54.60). Heenan took over as head coach in 2007 and is now in her 19th season with the team. Over time she’s had girls come into the program with experience already.
Following the Tournament of Champions, the team celebrated the victory together.
“Even in the last five years or so, the kids have been coming with tournament experience where girls golf has grown in leaps and bounds,” Heenan said. “The last several years, the depth that our program has been fortunate enough to experience has just been amazing.”
Besides winning the Group B State Title at Raritan Valley Country Club, the team also finished their 2025 season undefeated at 12-0 and won the 2025 Olympic Conference Tournament.
“The sport itself teaches you all of the things that you need to survive in life,” Heenan noted. “Honesty, integrity, perseverance, grit, and you have no one to blame but yourself. You’re dependent on yourself but bringing that philosophy of the game into a team atmosphere helps the girls realize that they may have a bad day, but on that same bad day, their teammate may be having a good day.
“They’re always there for one another.”
Heenan’s message for the team? Have fun on the course and be your own best cheerleader. Try and find joy in the process, she said, and take every shot one shot at a time.
“There are a lot of good golfers out there but what sets a good golfer apart from a great golfer is their mental game and their mental strength,” she said. “What sets the kids in our program apart is that when they shoot a bad shot or they have a bad hole, they double down on the next one and they have the mental strength and fortitude to pick themselves up and worry about what they’re going to do next.”
But all the team’s successes wouldn’t be possible without the support of the Moorestown Field Club (where practices are held), assistant coach Richard Corbin and of course the parents and families.
“My hat goes off to the parents who support these kids through their good days and their bad days, and who support them to play the game that they love,” Heenan said.
