Arbes and King Pick Up Medalist Honors; Match Play Set at 92nd Four-Ball Championship
DEAL, N.J. - Watchung Valley’s duo of James Arbes and Kevin King finished at 7-under par 64 in the stroke play portion of the 92nd New Jersey Four-Ball Championship at Hollywood Golf Club to earn the top seed in match play.
“We took the same approach as we did in the qualifier. I hit all my tee shots first and made sure to put it in play,” Arbes said. “Kevin's a little bit longer off the tee than me, so at the very least I made sure that we had par secured and Kevin can do his thing and be more aggressive.”
Arbes and King opened up with a 3-under par on their front nine and then turned things up a notch firing four birdies off on the back nine.
“Putting was the key today,” Arbes added. “We had a lot of good iron shots, so we had a few three, four, five footers for birdie. On the back nine, both of our putters got hot and we made, we made some bombs - it was fun."
On the heels of a Round of 16 appearance in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball in 2023, Pat Wilson and partner Marc Kunesch finished right behind the leaders at 6-under par. They started off rocky, but turned things around the remainder of the way.
“It was the worst start you could have imagined,” Wilson recalled. “I had about 12 feet on the first for birdie and three putted then Mark drove the green on two and three putted. We said, oh boy. We settled down and cruised from there.”
Two other teams join Wilson and Kunesch at 6-under par; the duo of Andrew Trask and Fraser Graham and Daniel Macdonald and Devin Drobbin.
Hollywood, ranked No. 8 in New Jersey according to Golf Digest, served to be a tough test for the field of 42 teams.
“It's a great golf course,” Wilson said. “It's one of the best courses in the tri-state area. It's friendly off the tee where you don't have to hit it perfect, but I think that's what makes it so fun. You can try to be aggressive if you want, but if you hit a bad shot, you're probably going to be penalized, especially with the fairway bunkers out here - they're very well placed.”
“We handled the elements really well,” explained King. “Hollywood's in perfect condition, so if you're hitting it well, you should be able to score around here.”
Scores of 3-under par and better advanced to match play on Wednesday morning. The Round of 16 matches will begin 7:30 a.m. ET at Hollywood.
Round of 16 Matchups
7:30 a.m. - Arbes/King vs. Brown/Barron
7:42 a.m. - Brewington/LeFante vs. Porter/Cox
7:54 a.m. - Macdonald/Drobbin vs. Vellari/Feldschneider
8:06 a.m. - Wall/Wall vs. Wolfle/Rudisill
8:18 a.m. - Trask/Graham vs. Hart/Campanile
8:30 a.m. - Linker/Wagner vs. Ryan/Brigham
8:42 a.m. - Wilson/Kunesch vs. Patterson/Stevens
8:54 a.m. - Pallis/Lankler vs. Kaskel/Zebrowski
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