At age 51 Andrea Kraus is enjoying her new status as a senior golfer while still showing she can still compete with local players of any age. On Thursday, the Pikesville resident won the 91st Maryland Women’s Amateur, 4 and 2, over a player less than half her age who she used to coach at Towson University, Elizabeth Herzfeld, 24.
As the reigning Maryland Senior Amateur champion, Kraus is the first player to hold both titles simultaneously. She won the Senior Am by seven shots last August. Last month she also dominated the Maryland Women’s Mid-Am (players 30 and over) by nine strokes.
Kraus, a member at Hayfields, has a long history of success in the state, winning the Maryland Junior Girls title in 1976 and 1977 as a student at Pikesville High. Kraus also won the first Maryland Women’s Open in 1999 and captured the Women’s Am in 1994 and 1999. She also has qualified for numerous USGA events, including this year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur. It will be her eighth appearance.
In college, she competed on the men’s team at Yale, then the women’s team when it was established in her junior year. She later earned a law degree at Columbia.
At Norbeck on Thursday, Kraus took control quickly with birdies on three of the first five holes, a continuing theme in a week in which she opened with a 69 to capture medalist honors.
Getting past Herzfeld was no easy feat however. After surviving a three-way playoff to notch the last of 16 slots in match play, Hertzfeld toppled former champions Kaitlyn Rohrbach (2010, 2011), Christy Larrimore (2004), and Carolina Sweet (2008).
