Top-seed Jack Wall Advances To Junior Semifinals
Top-seeded Jack Wall of Manasquan River won two matches on tuesday to advance to Wednesday's semifinals of the NJSGA 95th Junior Championship at Essex Fells Country Club.
In the Round of 16, Wall, 15, who attends Christian Brothers Academy, defeated No. 16 seed Ryan Lee of Edgewood, 5 and 4, then came back in the quarterfinals to oust No. 8 seed Clement Shao of Neshanic Valley, 3 and 2.
In Wednesday's 7:30 semifinal, Wall takes on No. 12 seed Colin Peters. On Tuesday, Peters topped No. 5 seed Bobby Weise of Eagle Oaks, 2 and 1, and edged No. 13 seed William Huang of Hopewel Valley, 4 and 2.
Seventh-seeded John Driscoll of Arcola, who won the Boys Championship two years ago, also reached the semifinals.
Boys semifinalist include No. 2 Allesandro Lamarca of Valley Brook, No. 4 Will Celiberti of Arcola and No. 9 Jack Strippoli of Francis Byrne, who outsted top-seeded Randall Lazzaro of Trump National-Colts Neck, 3 and 2.
JUNIOR MATCH-PLAY BRACKETS BOYS MATCH-PLAY BRACKETS
JUNIOR AND BOYS STROKE-PLAY REVIEW
Jack Wall of Manasquan River is the third brother of the successful golfing Wall family, following in the footsteps of his brothers, Ethan, 21, and Jeremy, 20, both members of the Loyola of Maryland golf team.
Jack, 15, a rising sophomore at Christian Brothers Academy, posted the low score of the day, a one-under-par 69, for the 95th William Y. Dear Junior Championship at Essex Fells Country Club.
Wall’s 69 in Monday’s stroke-play qualifying led the top 16 into two days of math-play beginning Tuesday and ending with semifinals and finals on Wednesday.
MATCH-PLAY BRACKETS, JUNIORS & BOYS
One shot behind Wall at 70 were Christopher Lee of Overpeck, bobby Wiese of Eagle Oaks, Anthony Colombino of Montclair and Max Johnson of Heron Glen.
In the concurrent 46thBoys’ Championship, Randall Lazzaro Jr. of Trump National-Colts Neck shot an even-par 70 to grab the top seed, two shots better than Alessandro Lamarca of Valley Brook.
“The Junior Amateur is a learning experience. My brothers have told me to take it all in. They’ve helped me a lot in getting ready for this,” said Wall, who competed in last week’s U.S. Junior Amateur in Tennessee.
Wall is playing in his first NJSGA event. He carded four birdies and three bogeys. His brothers last week finished in the top 10 but failed to qualify for the U.S. Amateur last week at Shackamaxon in Scotch Plains.
“I hit the ball good and putted good. I made a couple mistakes, but offset them with a few birdies. I hit a lot of good iron shots close to the pins and made the makeable putts,” Wall said.
Wall said he played a practice round at Essex Fells on Saturday and played well.
“I liked the course and felt I could go after birdies and be aggressive.”
At CBA, Wall was part of a team that won the Monmouth County and Shore Conference championships and placed third in the Tournament of Champions.
Wiese, 17, lives in Freehold Township where he goes to school as a rising senior. He was T-2 at the Monmouth County Championship and T-4 at the Shore Conference finals.
Lee, who was celebrating his 17th birthday, is a rising senior at Westwood High School. He missed a double eagle by six inches on the par-5 11th hole when his fairway wood from 243 yards was six inches shy of the cup.
Colombino, 17, lives in Garfield, but graduated William T. Doyle H.S. in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He will attend Division 2 McKendree University in Illinois and be a member of the golf team.
Johnson, 17, lives in Flemington.
Boys medalist Lazzaro is a rising sophomore at CBA and resides in Colts Neck. He reached the quarterfinals of the Boys Championship at year ago at Rumson.
The 70 was the best round of his young career.
“I didn’t drive it that well, but I putt well. I had no putts at all today,” Lazzaro said. “I was excited to be out there. I played the best I could.”
