Thomas O’Neill of Hackensack Wins 99th W.Y. Dear Junior Championship
August 26, 2020 - It was a great finish for Thomas O’Neill of Hackensack, a rising junior at Bergen Catholic High School.
The left-handed player won five of his final seven holes en route to a 6 and 5 victory over Shawn Blandine of Black Bear in the final match of the 99th NJSGA William Y. Dear Junior Championship on Wednesday at the par-72, 6,566-yard Watchung Valley Golf Club in Watchung.
The victory concluded an outstanding tournament for O’Neill, 16, who never saw the golf course before posting a 73 in the stroke-play portion of the event on Monday to garner the ninth seed in match play. On Tuesday, O’Neill defeated eighth-seeded Isaiah Marseille of Plainfield West, 4 and 2, and then ousted defending champion Dean Greyserman of Hamilton Farm, 1-up, in the quarterfinals.
In Wednesday morning’s semifinal, he bested fifth-seeded Max Sorger of Montclair, 4 and 3, enabling him to reach the final match against Blandine, the 15th seed and recent graduate of Don Bosco Prep, the rival school to Bergen Catholic.
“I couldn’t work it out to practice here, but the pin sheets worked pretty well for me on Monday. On paper, it wasn’t too long of a course, and that’s perfect for my game. I knew the course was firm, so the idea was to put it in the fairway and play it smart,” O’Neill said.
“I love this golf course. It’s a position course and I’ve been able to shape my ball off the tee. You are definitely penalized if you miss the fairways, so I just wanted fairways and greens.”
Against Sorger, O’Neill swept holes seven through 10, including birdie victories on the par-4 eighth and par-3 ninth holes
“I played pretty well this morning. I felt super confident going into the final because I was hitting it so well,” said O’Neill. “It was so fun to play against Shawn. I’ve known him for a while because we compete for rival schools.
“My plan against him was if I could keep it straight, I could keep applying pressure on him. That’s basically what I was doing all week.”
Blandine, a rising freshman at Rider University who defeated sixth-seeded Cade McLaughlin of Bedens Brook in the semifinal, 4 and 2, won the first hole against O’Neill with a par. O’Neill rallied by winning the par-5 third hole with a birdie, the par-3 fourth with a par, and the par-5 fifth with another birdie to take a 2-up advantage.
“Honestly, I was mentally focused. After Shawn took the early lead, I could have easily gone off the rails. I just wanted to stick to my plan, to make every putt and every shot and focus 100 percent ,” O’Neill said.
Blandine shaved one hole off the margin with a par victory on the par-4 sixth hole, but that began a stretch in which O’Neill would win five of seven holes.
He won the par-4 seventh and the par-3 ninth with a pair of pars. O’Neill annexed the next three holes, Nos. 10 through 12, on a 35-foot birdie chip-in from a slope in front on the green on the par-3 No. 11 and pars on the other two holes.
“I chipped in with a 56-degree wedge. I saw a lot of break in it, going hard from left to right. I wanted to get a true roll, and saw it tracking into the hole. I got real excited when it went in,” he said.
Coming into this week, not many would have picked O’Neill, a 20-handicapper just two years ago, to walk off as the champion.
“I’ve always thought that I have to believe in myself first. I have confidence just playing my game. There’s no cameras out here. I just wanted to be myself,” O’Neill said.
And now he can call himself champion.
