Greyserman & Rosenthal Win 82nd Four-ball At Crestmont C.C.
For the second consecutive year, the home team won.
Home-standing Max Greyserman and Jim Rosenthal of Crestmont defeated Vince Totka of Old York at Chesterfield and Dave Hirschhorn of Peddie, 3 and 2, on Thursday, August 7, to win the 82nd NJSGA Four-Ball Championship at Crestmont Country Club in West Orange.
A year ago, Dominic Gatto and Riley Powers won the same title at their club, Eagle Oaks in Farmingdale.
The 19-year-old Greyserman, fresh off his victory as the youngest ever to win the State Open, was the catalyst in the four match-play victories that the duo rang up over the past two days.
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“I shot a 30 on the front nine this morning (semifinals), and that’s my low for nine holes ever. It was the same story both days, I was hot in the morning and not so hot in the afternoon. Winning this at Crestmont is great. It will give me momentum going into the Met Open in two weeks at Trump National in Bedminster. I hope to do well there before I go back to school.”
In the semifinals, Greyserman and Rosenthal bested Steve Zychowski and Sam Wallach of Mendham, 3 and 2 while Totka and Hirshhorn ousted Kevin McSorley of Charleston Springs and John Lay III of Howell Park, 19 holes.
“I’m at the end of my career and I never thought I’d play competitive golf again outside the country club arena. I want to thank Crestmont for putting me with Max. This is a state championship and to be part of the winning team and winning it at Crestmont is very important to me,” said Rosenthal, 56, an investment banker who lives in West Orange.
“To me, Max is going to be a superstar. He’s got the attitude and the big game. I helped him when he needed me, but he basically won this tournament single-handedly and that’s an unbelievable thing to do in four-ball. I will cherish the moments I spent with him in this championship,” added Rosenthal, a one-time club champion at Green Brook.
The final match was all square after nine holes before Greyserman’s par won the par-4 10th hole. Another par on the par-4 12thhole by Greyserman, a resident of Short Hills, upped the lead to two holes. It became a three-hole advantage after the par-4 290-yard 13th hole. There, Greyserman’s drive ended in a collection area 30 feet left of the hole. He needed two shots from there for a birdie.
Totka’s par on the par-5 14th hole cut the deficit to two holes, but Greyserman added another birdie on the 330-yard par-4 15th hole. His tee shot landed on the upslope of a fronting bunker and he managed to splash out to three feet. The match ended as the teams parred the par-4 16th hole.
“I’m proud of us as a team. We took them to the 16th hole on their home course,” said Totka, 46, of East Windsor. “I don’t think anybody expected us to go that far with them. But Max made some tremendous shots. They played well.”
“I hope the mindset of making birdies and scoring low carries over to the Met Open for Max. He knew he had to make birdies out there,” said his father, Alex, who caddied for Max in the State Open.
Totka and Hirschhorn finally subdued McSorley and Lay on the 19thhole, the par-5 first hole when Hirshhorn eagled from 25 feet off the green to end the back-and-forth match.
“Both teams battled. I’m glad it ended that way, with an eagle because both teams had a hard time with their putting,” said Hirschhorn, 39, the club champion at Peddie in 2013.
The one putt that was most important was the downhill eight-footer on the par-3 17thhole that Totka drained for par to halve the hole and send it to the 18th hole all square, where the teams again drew no blood.
“That putt was huge. We hate to lose,” Hirshhorn said. “We knew we could do well in this after we shot a 67 at the qualifier. We both hit the ball decent in the semifinal. We have to be more consisten in the final. We’ve seen the course a few times and hopefully we won’t be at such a disadvantage against the two guys from Crestmont (Greyserman and Rosenthal,” Hirshhorn said.
“I like being the visitor, playing two guys from their own club in the final,” said Totka, who has spent 21 years on the Woodbridge police force. “I think we’ll give them a game.”
Greyserman’s hot starts carried his team in both the Round of 16 and the semifinals. The Duke University rising sophomore was six-under par for the first nine holes in the semifinals against Zychowski and Wallach to open a 3-hole lead after seven holes that expanded to a four-hole lead after a birdie on the par-3 11th hole.
In the Round of 16, a 4 and 3 victory over Dan O’Rourke and Gregg Belardo of Oak Hill, he birdied seven of 10 holes.
“Local knowledge is definitely important. It helps us out,” Greyserman said. “It was especially important on the 11thhole, which we won with a par. I had never seen the pin up there in the upper right corner of the green,” he said.
“I’m really excited about being in the final, we’ll have a lot of members following us and watching us. You don’t play in this to reach the final, you play to win, “ Greyserman said.
“Max has been on fire,” said Rosenthal, 56, an investment banker. “He shot 30 on the front this morning (semifinals). A couple times, they were asking me for my spectator’s pass,” Rosenthal kidded. “Max is a combination or Rory McElroy and Adam Scott.
“He’s on balance, he has touch, power and finesse. He’s the whole package.”
