Hernández started playing golf at 12 and had a successful amateur career. An eight-year member of the Spanish National Team, Hernández is a five-time European Team Championship gold medalist, and earned a gold medal at the 2005 Mediterranean Games both individually and as a team. She won the 2003 Junior Solheim Cup and was runner-up at the 2004 European Ladies Amateur Championship and again in 2008, losing a playoff to Carlota Ciganda. She was a semi-finalist at The Womens Amateur Championship 2005 and 2006.[1]
Hernández turned in a strong collegiate career at Purdue University, which was capped off with the 2009 NCAA Division I Individual Champion and NCAA Player of the Year award.[2] She won 13 times while with the Purdue Boilermakers, and in 2008, she won the Big Ten Conference Championship and was named the Purdue Female Athlete of the Year. She is a two-time Big Ten Conference Player of the Year, both in 2007 and 2008, and a two-time All-American First Team selection.[3]
Plagued by injuries, Hernández battled through spine and neck problems, a herniated disk, bacterial infections, ulcer on her colon, liver failure and other medical issues. She was forced to a break from golf, in danger of being crippled. She contracted a parasite in China, which the doctors couldn’t properly diagnose, and she kept getting sick over the next two years. The ulcer made her intolerant of fructose, glucose and gluten.[5][6]
