Royce Brook's Bido & Blumber Advance To Four-ball Semifinals
It took Royce Brook duo of Bob Blumber and Amateo Bido 37 holes to win two matches and advance to Thursday’s semifinal round of the 81st NJSGA Four-Ball Championship at the 6,759-yard Eagle Oaks Golf and Country Club in Farmingdale.
Blumber and Bido needed 19 holes to defeat the medalist winning team of Steve Zychowski and TJ Malman of Mendham in Wednesday morning’s Round of 16 and then they went 18 holes in the quarterfinals before beating Matt Ringen and Steve Zoeller of Sunset Valley, 1 up.
Blumber and Bido on Thursday will face Charles Cai and Mike DiMeglio of Mercer Oaks who beat PJ Halas and Jason Menges of Jumping Brook, in the quarterfinals, 1 up.
The winners of Wednesday morning’s semifinal matches play an 18-hole final match in the afternoon.
MATCH-PLAY BRACKETS VIEW PHOTO GALLERY
Blumber, 58, is an insurance executive who lives in Bridgewater while Bido, 24, caddies at Baltusrol and lives in Springfield. The pair met at Royce Brook and played together in some “fun” events, Blumber said.
“I enjoy playing with Amateo,” said Blumber, a former pitcher at St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia. “He is very consistent and never gets nervous. I’m confident in is ability to put the ball in play.
“While I’m a little more erratic, I know I can help him when he needs me.”
Two examples of that were on the long par-4 seventh hole, rated the No. 1-handicap hole on the course. Both in the morning and in the afternoon, Blumber put his approach shot to two feet for birdie victories.
The Royce Brook twosome seemingly had their morning match in their grasp when they were 2 up with two holes to play, but Zychowski birdied both holes to even the match after 18 holes.
Playing the par-4 first hole as the first extra hole, Bido put his approach to eight feet and calmly drained the side-hill putt for the victory.
In the afternoon, it was a similar story as Blumber and Bido, who were 3 up after 13 holes. But Steve Zoeller holed out from a bunker on the par-4 14thhole and birdied the par-4 15thwhen he landed his approach shot to five feet to bring the match within one hole.
But Zoeller and Ringen could never get even and Blumber and Bido won the 18thhole with a par.
“It helped that we had played the extra hole in the morning. We knew what to expect,” Bido said.
Riley Powers and Domenic Gatto of Eagle Oaks showed well at their home course, defeating Francis Costello and Scott Michels of Hackensack, 2 and 1, in the Round of 16 and later ousting North Jersey’s Luke Edelman and Mike O’Connell, who had reached the championship match last year before falling to Harris Podvey and Mike LoCastro of Rolling Greens in 18 holes.
Powers and Gatto topped Edelman and O’Connell, 2 and 1. They advance to the semifinals to face brothers Pat and Cory Wilson of Panther Valley, who stopped Marc Grinberg and Anthony Fioto of Charleston Springs, 19 holes.
Gatto and Powers are competing in the championship for a third time. They were runners-up in 2010 to Mike Deo and Brian Komline, then of High Bridge Hills.
The Eagle Oaks duo needed five birdies to subdue a red-hot O’Connell, who shot a 4-under 67 on his own card.
A 12-foot birdie putt at the par-4 10th hole by Gatto gave his team a 1-up lead. It became 2-up when Powers, 28, birdied the par-4 13th.. But O’Connell sliced the lead in half with birdie on the next hole. Powers added another birdie on the 15thhole for a 2-up lead.
“We were expecting to reach the final here because we know the course so well,” said Gatto, 39, one of the owners of Eagle Oaks. “But Riley has been putting like Ben Crenshaw. The very little pressure I feel is in supporting my partner. He is playing really well.”
DiMeglio won this event 2011 with partner Anthony Aloi, who is now on the E-Golf Tour.
“You have to have a good partner to win this. We both played well today,” said DiMeglio, 24. Cai, 18, is a sophomore at Dartmouth where he plays on the golf team and is a former Mercer County scholastic champion.
Pat Wilson, 22, last week won the Met Amateur and is a first alternate for the U.S. Amateur. His round included and eagle-2 on the short par-4 sixth hole when he drove the green and sank a 12-foot putt.
He reached the Four-Ball finals in 2010, losing to DiMeglio and Aloi iwhen he partnered with St. John’s University teammate Jeremy Quinn. Cory Wilson, 19, is a sophomore on the Seton Hall University golf team.
“We’re having a good time playing together. It’s fun, but it can get really competitive like it did in the final holes this afternoon,” Pat Wilson said.
The Wilsons won the match with a par on the 19th hole, the par-4 first hole.
