Southampton Sixth-Grader Elie Poremba Continues Her Rise In Golf

In the spring of 2019, at the age of just 9, Southampton resident Elie Poremba was already the kind of golfer who could give most adult players a run for their money. Two years later, she’s only continued her rise in the sport, and has the potential to be one of the best female players to come out of her hometown.

Poremba, 11, is a sixth-grader in the Southampton Intermediate School, and is coming off a successful fall in what was her fifth year playing competitively in both local and out-of-state events and tournaments. She played in six tournaments on the Met PGA junior circuit, winning three of them while taking second in one, third in another, and also placing second in the Met PGA’s NYC Championship. She’s also won the Drive, Chip, and Putt competition, held at Sunken Meadow State Park, for three years in a row. In addition to those local and regional events, Poremba also took part in the U.S. Kids Golf Hartford Connecticut Tour, finishing in the top five to earn her third-straight trip to the world championships, which are held in July at Pinehurst Golf Course in North Carolina — the world-renowned course that has hosted the U.S. Open several times. The U.S. Kids Golf World Championship, a three-day tournament, is considered the most prestigious event in the world for players 12 and under, and attracts more than 1,200 participants from across the United States and more than 30 countries abroad.

Success has been a constant for Poremba since she first picked up a golf club at the age of 4, an interest that was sparked, in part, by her father, architect Jason Poremba, taking her to the U.S. Women’s Open held at nearby Sebonack Golf Course in 2013.

In some ways, the 2021 season was just more of what Poremba has become accustomed to — regular lessons with longtime coach Jason Russell, the senior assistant golf pro at Southampton Golf Club; training on the simulator across the street at the Southampton Driving Range when the weather forces her off the course; weekly strength training sessions that aren’t exactly hard core workouts but are meant more to help improve her swing. But it was also a year marked by some big changes and transition. For the 11- and 12-year-old age group on the U.S. Kids Tour, players make the transition from playing nine-hole events to 18 holes events, a test of both mental and physical strength and stamina. And at Met PGA junior tournaments — still nine-hole affairs for the 10- to 13-year-old age group — players must carry their own bag. (In the U.S. Kids Tour events, Elie’s father is her caddy).

The transition from 9 to 18 holes for the U.S. Kids Tour of course meant a bigger commitment of time as well, not only for Elie, but for her entire family, including her father and her mother, Jan Klein Poremba, and younger sister, Quinn. Elie competed on the Connecticut-based tour during the fall because the New York leg of the tour was canceled due to COVID.

Elie played more events on the Met PGA tour this year in an effort to make sure the family wasn’t on the road and away from home for such long stretches so consistently. While the need to carry her own bag was a big transition, Poremba said that Russell urged Elie to give it a try.

“Elie was capable of doing it on her own, and she ended up really loving it,” Poremba said. He added that Elie told him she liked the challenge of playing on the Met PGA tour because it was “all on her.”

“She knew if she made a mistake, it was only her fault, and she had to learn from it,” he explained. “She said it was gratifying winning the tournaments all on her own without any help.”

Although it is a more regional event without the kind of national attention attached to the U.S. Kids Tour, the competition is just as strong, Poremba said, pointing out that Elie would face many of the same girls in Met PGA events that she’d see on the U.S. Kids Tour.

Poremba said that in the years his daughter has been competing, he’s witnessed a wide range of parental approaches to the process of preparing young children for success in a sport. There are players who are clearly being groomed for superstardom, showing up to tournaments with a whole entourage, including a sports psychologist and, on occasion, a professional caddy with PGA Tour experience. Those children are often homeschooled to allow golf to become the main focus of their lives. Poremba said that he and his wife are trying to take a mindful, balanced approach when it comes to supporting their daughter’s ambitions in the sport.

“I told Elie, you have to earn going here,” he said of the tournaments. “You have to show you love it by practicing. For parents, it’s a big commitment, you’re spending hundreds of dollars, commuting and going to events. You want to do everything for your child and support their journey, but she needs to be equally invested in it. I constantly tell her, this is your journey, your story. You’re guiding the ship.”

The next goal Elie is steering toward is a spot on the Southampton girls varsity golf team, a likely outcome for her next fall when she enters seventh grade, which is the minimum grade level for competing in interscholastic sports. She’s already on the school’s radar, and is friends with standout varsity player Ella Coady, a junior, who won the Suffolk County Girls Golf Championship last year. They train together at the simulator over the winter months. With an eye toward that goal, Elie will focus on trying to increase her strength and stamina with winter training before competing on the U.S. Kids Tour again in the spring, starting in March. She’s also mixing it up by playing on an SYA basketball team this winter, trying out a team sport for the first time.

While she has clear goals she’s working toward in golf, and the kind of talent that makes it highly likely she will achieve them, Elie and her family are also trying to keep it all in perspective, and make sure it remains fun.

“Big picture, it’s a transition in maturity and personal growth,” Poremba said. “The courses and age groups are becoming more and more challenging, but she is holding her own while still being a kid.”