Top photo caption: A veteran St. Rose, Belmar golf team features (from left) Griffen Matuch, Matthew Dayton, Thomas Dwyer, Ben Tilley, Blake Nitche and Jack Penkethman. Coach Scott Darby feels his team can challenge for a division title this season and compete well in the Monmouth County Tournament. Contributed photo
By Rich Fisher, Contributing Editor
With five starters back and a rearranged division alignment in the Shore Conference, St. Rose, Belmar, golf coach Scott Darby is feeling pretty good about life on the links this spring.
Darby took over the program prior to last season, and the Purple Roses went 7-7 against some formidable competition.
“I was hoping to do a little better, we had one match we lost that I thought we should have won,” Darby said. “But we competed. We were in a pretty strong division last year against some really good teams.
“This year they switched some teams around in the divisions. I think we should be able to compete very well for the division (title).”
The realignment was based on how schools finished last year, with teams being placed in a division with opponents who had similar records. The division names have also been changed from letters and geographic references to names of pro golfers.
St. Rose has gone from the B Central with Ranney, Tinton Falls; Red Bank Catholic; Shore Regional, West Long Branch; Point Pleasant Beach and Monmouth, to the Mickelson Division with Ocean Township, Freehold Township, Shore, Colts Neck and Red Bank.
“Last year I walked into it in February, and I didn’t know what I had,” Darby said. “I was fortunate to have a good tryout with some kids who had experience. And I have 90 percent of my starters back, which is great.
“I had three sophomores and two juniors last year and I got them back. And the juniors were my number one and number two last year.”
As they will be this year, with senior captains Blake Nitche and Matthew Dayton leading the way.
The Roses opened their season in the Wall Invitational at Jumping Brook Country Club in Neptune. They finished sixth out of 24 teams with a score of 337, just two strokes behind Point Pleasant Beach. It was St. Rose’s highest finish at that event in several years.
That was followed by a 165-173 win over Ocean Township, and a fourth-place finish in the St. John Vianney Catholic School Challenge Cup at Farmingdale’s Eagle Oaks Golf & Country Club.
In the Wall event, Nitche and Dayton each shot 82 to tie for 28th place out of 95 golfers. Dayton was medalist against Ocean Township with a round of 36 while Nitche finished third overall at 42.
In the Catholic School Challenge Cup, Nitche shot an 82 and Dayton an 85, with junior teammate Thomas Dwyer squeezing between them at 84. The Roses fourth finisher was Ben Tilley (89).
“Blake is my number one, he qualified for the Shore Conference Tournament last year,” Darby said. “Matt’s my number two. They’re just nice kids in general and they also have some skill. They work hard. They were like that before I got here.”
In assessing the two, the coach said, “Blake is smoother, he’s got a good swing, a nice, naturally lengthy, lanky swing. He hits the ball far. He’s got good hands, he putts well. Matt’s a lefty, kind of has a little bit of a curve to his shot and they’re both very hard workers.”
They also follow their coach’s mindset of not letting a bad shot ruin their focus moving forward.
“I kind of preach the ‘can’ attitude, not the ‘can’t’ attitude,” he said. “I’m just telling them the only thing that’s important is what you’re going to do next. It has nothing to do with what just happened. Try to get them to buy into that and we can always improve from where we are at any moment.
“They’re both good at that. They process (mistakes) very quickly and let them go. They don’t dwell on them.”
The other three returning starters are juniors Dwyer, Tilley and Griffen Matuch.
“They had a good opportunity last year,” Darby said. “Starting as sophomores, they saw almost every match. They are very well seasoned in terms of being young but having a lot of varsity time at that age. I just think there’s a potential to be really good looking ahead for that group of three.”
Rounding out the top six is sophomore Jack Penkethman, who “looks like he’s starting to come around.”
Aside from competing for the Mickelson title this year, Darby is also hoping to have a good showing at the Monmouth County Tournament on April 13 and feels he could have two or three golfers qualify for the Shore Conference Tournament.
As for other results from the Catholic School Challenge Cup, Christian Brothers Academy, Lincroft won the team title and the Colts Jack Stamberger tied for first with a score of 71. Filling out the Top 10 were St. John Vianney’s Jake Diamond, Red Bank Catholic’s Chace Schell and CBA’s Landon Marder (tied for 3rd, 72), SJV’s Mason Boles (6th, 74 ), CBA’s Layton Swanson (7th, 75) and SJV’s Tyler Koch and CBA’s Hudson Valvo (tied for 8th, 76).
