JULY 27, 2015 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JULY 27, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY GREG MATTURA
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
John Driscoll has set his sights on winning the New Jersey Junior Championship and has given himself five years to do it.
New Jersey’s reigning Boys champion is foregoing his final two years of eligibility in that 15-and-under division and stepping up in class against many of the Garden State’s premier 18-year-olds.
The 14-year-old from Ridgewood hopes to join a prestigious list of golfers who have won the New Jersey State Golf Association’s Boys and Junior titles since the former debuted in 1971. Six have won both, most recently Wayne’s Anthony Alex in 2009.
“I just wanted to give myself an opportunity to do it,” Driscoll said.
The 94th Junior and 45th Boys championships open today at Rumson Country Club and Driscoll, an incoming freshman at Don Bosco, will compete against golfers who in the spring were chosen All-State by the New Jersey PGA and in late summer will head to college.
“To be honest, my goal is just to make match play in the Junior,” said Driscoll, who plays out of Arcola CC in Paramus, “because I know there’s a lot of good players there. And I know if you can make match play, anything can happen. That was my mind-set last year.”
The Junior has a field of 77 who today will compete in an 18-hole, stroke-play qualifier, with the low 16 advancing to Tuesday morning’s first round of match play. The final is Wednesday afternoon.
https://www.northjersey.com/sports/golf/ridgewood-s-driscoll-steps-up-in-class-1.1381447