North Jersey Wins 47th Best-ball-of-four At Galloway

Rich Forlenza, playing for the first time at Galloway National Golf Club, found it much to his liking as he birdied five holes to lead North Jersey Country Club’s foursome to first place in the 47th NJSGA Best-Ball-of-Four Championship on Tuesday, September 24, at Galloway National Golf Club.

North Jersey fired a round of 16-under-par 55, to best three other foursomes by three shots. Tied for second place at 58 were defending champions Jumping Brook and teams from Hyatt Hills and Flanders Valley.

Forlenza combined with Erv Allaghi, Charlie Kohut and Paul Samanchik, who was part of a winning North Jersey foursome in 1984 when he played with the late Bob Wood, Bill Travis and Jack Dunn.

VIEW PHOTO GALLERY FINAL RESULTS

“It came down to ball-striking. I got into a nice rhythm,” said Forlenza, a five handicap who counted four straight natural birdies in succession on the back nine (holes 11 through 14) to go with another natural birdie (9th hole) on the front side.

“The green are beautiful. I got comfortable reading them, I got a good pace, and they were true,” said Forlenza, 59, a Wayne resident.

Allaghi, 57, who lives in Franklin Lakes, had one birdie on each side. Kohut birdied the par-4 fourth hole, while Samanchik was low man for the team on three holes.

“The fairways were good, and the greens were really good,” Allaghi said. “We had good karma going. Once we started getting better out there, we said “Let’s just play golf.’”

“Rich was unreal with five natural birdies,” said Samanchik, 65, who lives in Wayne. “But it was really a team effort.”

“I told my teammates, if Rich gets going, he can really keep it going, and that’s what he did,” said Kohut, 59, who lives in Franklin Lakes.

The Jumping Brook team consisted of Howard Popyer, Jim Doyle, Bob Skowrenski and Joe D’Agostaro. The Hyatt Hills foursome was Brian Byrne, Dan Moriarty, Mike Kozlow and Steve Grieco. Flanders Valley’s foursome included Doug McGowan, Pat Egan and his sons, Todd and Scott.