Hackensack’s Thomas O’Neill Advances in Quarterfinals of 99th W.Y. Dear Junior Championship
Thomas O’Neill of Hackensack, a rising junior at Bergen Catholic High School, made two birdies and two eagles to win a close match over defending champion Dean Greyserman of Hamilton Farm, 1 up.
In the other quarterfinal matches of the 99th NJSGA/William Y. Dear Championship at the par-72, 6,545-yard Watching Valley Golf Club, Max Sorger of Montclair beat Ethan Lee of Colts Neck, 1 up; Shawn Blandine of Black Bear bested Reed Greyserman of Hamilton Farm, 3 and 2, and Cade McLaughlin of Bedens Brook edged out Cole Ekert of Fairmount in 20 holes.
“This is my biggest win to date and I’m pumped for tomorrow,” said O’Neill, who lives in Oradell and was named second-team All-Bergen County by The Bergen Record as a freshman in 2018. “I was looking forward to playing Dean, looking forward to playing the defending champion and the runner-up in the State Amateur.
“I knew he was great. I just wanted to play the best I can. I’m happy that I could perform well in a match like that, with a lot of fireworks. If anything, there was no pressure on my shoulders because no one was expecting me to do anything,” he added.
O’Neill never trailed in the match. He took a 1-up lead with a birdie on the par-5 third hole as he drained an 18-foot putt. The players halved the par-5 fifth hole with eagles, each reaching the green in two shots. Greyserman tied it with a par victory on the par-4 sixth hole. O’Neill went ahead for good with a birdie victory, sinking a six-footer on the par-4 eighth hole to take a 1-up advantage.
He built a 2-up lead with a par triumph on the par-3 11th as Greyserman three-putted from 50 feet. When O’Neill missed the green on the par-3 13th hole, Greyserman cut the margin in half with his two-putt par from 20 feet.
But O’Neill was credited his second eagle on the par-five 14th hole, reaching in two, 20 feet from the hole. There, Greyserman hit his tee shot out of bounds to the right, struggled to get to the green, and conceded the eagle. Greyserman again cut the lead to a single hole, driving the green on the par-4, 287-yard 15th hole for a birdie.
The two halved the par-4 16th with bogeys, and the par-4 17th and par-5 18th with pars.
“He played really well. I made a lot of bad shots and got a bad break on 18 when my second shot from 240 hit a tree and ended in a divot in the fairway,” said Greyserman, who will be attending Stanford University in the fall of 2022.
“Dean made a lot of spectacular shots, like driving the green on 15 and hitting a three wood over water on 18,” said O’Neill, who shot 71-71 for runner-up honors in an NJPGA Junior event last summer at Architects Club.
“I kept my composure. I just tried to put my iron shots to the middle of the greens, putt smart and hope that some would drop. I just stuck to my game plan, played smart and took it shot by shot,” O’Neill concluded.
In Wednesday’s semifinals, O’Neill will face Sorger, a rising freshman at the University of Miami, while Blandine, a rising freshman at Rider University, will take on McLaughlin, a resident of Princeton and rising senior at Kent School in Connecticut. The 18-hole championship match will follow the semifinal matches later Wednesday.
In the Round of 16, played earlier Tuesday, Dean Greyserman defeated Derek Weaver of Panther Valley, 4 and 3; O’Neill topped Isaiah Marseille of Plainfield West, 4 and 2; Ethan Lee bested Michael Foley of Lake Mohawk, 2 and 1; Sorger ousted Chris Konefal of Deal, 2 and 1; Blandine outlasted Travis Dix of Eagle Oaks, 20 holes; Reed Greyserman beat John Clarke of Morris County, 6 and 5; Ekert bested NJSGA Boys’ Champion Liam Pasternak of Essex Fells, 7 and 6, and McLaughlin topped Blake Oppenheim of Crestmont, 5 and 3.
