Top Amateurs Turn Out For Trump Invitational Benefit

Many of the top amateurs in New Jersey, including State Open champions Max Greyserman of Crestmont (2014) and Benjamin Smith of Little Mill (2012) and Senior Amateur champion Jay Blumenfeld of Mountain Ridge, were on hand for the newly created Trump Invitational on Monday, August 11, at Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster.

The Trump Invitational, which included 27 amateurs from New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, benefits the Boys & Girls Clubs of Newark and its affiliated LifeCamp, and included a total of 27 invited amateurs, each playing with three amateur participants.

The 18-hole event is the continuation of the annual fund-raiser for the Boys & Girls Clubs that was held at Somerset Hills Country Club beginning 28 years ago. Up until 2012, that event included many of the biggest names on the PGA Tour participating each year, including Ben Crenshaw, Vijay Singh, Fuzzy Zoeller and Hal Sutton. Over the three decades, the event has raised more than $5 million to benefit the two charities.

The newly-created Trump Invitational will be expanded to 36 holes next year and tentative plans have top amateurs garnering points in the standings for NJSGA Player of the Year and NJSGA Senior Player of the Year.

“Mr. (Donald) Trump is firmly behind this. He would have been here today, but had to fly to India this morning for hotel business,” explained Mickie Gallagher, Director of Golf at Trump National-Bedminster. “Beginning next year, we’re hoping players can shoot for points for Player of the Year and make this into a very attractive event. We see this as a great event down the road. Mr. Trump is all in on this one.”

As Gallagher explained, the invited amateurs will first play in a competition over the New Course, and then join a foursome of sponsoring amateurs in the afternoon over the Old Course for a 36-hole total competition.

Monday’s event also helped many of these same top amateurs prepare for next week’s Met Open to be played over the same “Old Course.”

According to co-chairman Paul Sylvester of Somerset Hills, who has been behind the fund-raiser for 24 years, the event was moved to Trump-Bedminster because of the availability of the 36-hole layout in conjunction with the event in coming years.

“This model fits better at Trump National. We hope to double the field to close to 200 golfers in coming years,” he said.

“We are excited about the new format,” said Ed Walsh of Trump National who played a vital role in having the revamped event come to Bedminster. “The logistics of getting the PGA Tour pros became increasingly difficult. We think the later date works. The only thing is we lost a few players this year because it coincided with the U.S. Amateur.”

“We hoping to be able to grow the event,” said Paul Scire, chief executive officer of Newark Boys & Girls Clubs. “We’re confident this can take root and grow significantly over the years and drive a lot of charitable contributors to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Newark and the LifeCamp. The LifeCamp provides an opportunity for hundreds of city kids to enjoy the outdoors, many who have never experienced the outside world.

“This is a fund-raiser for Newark’s kids. Without this type of support, we can’t continue. This is the best of both worlds: You have a wonderful round of golf at a first-class venue and at the same time, you’re helping those kids who need the support the most, and everybody feels great.”

Greyserman, who the first week of August won the NJSGA Four-Ball Championship with Jim Rosenthal of Crestmont, got a thrill when he was asked to play a practice round on Sunday, August 20, with none other than Donald Trump himself.

“It was fun. Mr. Trump is a lot more personable than you would think,” said Greyserman, 19, a rising sophomore at Duke University. “He’s different than you would expect. He talked a lot about golf. The course is in great shape. Mr. Trump said he’s going to let the rough continue to grow. He doesn’t want anyone to break par.”

Greyserman was also impressed by Rory McElroy’s performance in winning his second PGAChampionship that same evening.

“You don’t see anybody who is such a great ball striker who can keep it straight. That’s a big advantage,” said Greyserman, just a year removed from winning the NJSGA Junior. “That eagle he hit on No. 10, he said he wanted to hit a high draw and he hit a low cut shot, and it still got to the green. They always comment on how far he hits it.

“I was watching GolfChannel and they showed a special on Tiger Woods winning at Valhalla in 2000. They said the same things about Tiger as they said about Rory, that he was hitting it far and straight.”

Among others who played in the event on August 5 were Mike Deo of Black Oak, Jacob Stockl of Hyatt Hills, Allan Small of Fairmount, Eric LeFante, Mike Hyland, Peter Barron, and New York's David Pastore, the Met Amateur and Ike champion.

Winner of the inaugural Trump Inviational was New York's Sam Bernstein of Century, champion of this year's Arcola Cup, at 2-under.