Wayne Hills’ McHugh enjoying “McHuge” year by Greg Mattura of The Record
WAYNE – Naming all the golf titles won in the past year by Wayne Hills junior Robert McHugh is a mouthful:
Passaic County Amateur Championship
New Jersey Men’s Public Links Championship
And now, McHugh is the undisputed amateur king of his county after winning the Passaic County high school title on Wednesday at Preakness Valley Golf Course.
“It’s been a good past year for me,” McHugh said after also helping Wayne Hills repeat as team titlist. “I’ve played pretty well, started winning a couple of tournaments here and there, and it’s been a lot of fun.”
McHugh shot a 5-over-par 74 on the West Course to finish two shots ahead of DePaul senior Ryan Fitzsimmons and four ahead of Lakeland senior Mike Mazza.
Almost as impressive as McHugh’s list of titles is Wayne Hills’ team performance Wednesday. The senior-less Patriots carded a shoot-five, count-four score of 317 to finish 30 strokes ahead of Wayne Valley.
McHugh was supported by junior Cassandra Lee’s 80, sophomore James Bradley’s 81 and sophomore Seth Friedman’s 82. No such records are kept, but Wayne Hills’ 30-stroke win has to be among the tournament’s largest margins.of victory.
“The team did as expected. I was happy to see how they played today,” said Wayne Hills coach Mark DuBois. “They’re a young team, a junior team, they work had all season long, and they even work in the offseason. They play a lot during the year and it shows.”
McHugh has played a lot over the past 12 months. He took the lead Wednesday with pars on his first eight holes. He finished with one birdie, 12 pars, four bogeys and a double-bogey.
McHugh earned his birdie on the 12th hole, a downhill, 367-yard par-4. He hit his drive in the fairway, but had a terrible lie. He “hacked it,” onto the green within 7 feet and sank the putt.
“I drove the ball pretty well,” said the loquacious McHugh. “On the front nine, I really struck the irons well. And when I didn’t hit the greens, I was getting up and down for the most part, so that was a big help.”
Passaic County Championship
At Preakness Valley GC, Wayne
West Course
Par: 69; Yardage: 6,239
Robert McHugh, Wayne Hills, 74; Ryan Fitzsimmons, DePaul, 76; Mike Mazza, Lakeland, 78; Cassandra Lee, Wayne Hills, 80; James Bradley, Wayne Hills, 81; Stephen DiPaola, Wayne Valley, 82; Seth Friedman, Wayne Hills, 82; Preston Chen, Wayne Valley, 83; Chris Zaleski, Passaic Tech, 83.