Handley, Desai Share Lead After First Round Of Pre-senior Championship At Forest Hill
It was a long summer for Niall Handley of Essex Fells, who went three months without playing competitive golf.
“I hurt a muscle in my lower back in June, two weeks before the State Amateur. I gutted it out and played in the Amateur, but that set me back for the whole summer. I didn’t feel good again until mid-August,” said Handley, who was playing in his first tournament since on Tuesday, Oct. 3, when he took part in the 59thNJSGA Pre-Senior Championship at 6,455-yard Forest Hill Field Club.
Handley, 45, is a Pre-Senior rookie – the event is for golfers 45 through 54 years of age. “I’m the youngest guy out here.”
Handley , winner of two Met Mid-Amateurs, the NJSGA Tournament of Club Champions, two Suburban Cups and the Bergen Amateur, didn’t disappoint. The native of Ireland shot two-over-par 73 to share the lead with 2015 champion Nick Desai of Baltusrol.
In third place, one shot back, is Bill Bello, three-time Metedeconk National club champion. Tied for fourth are Lou Fulgoni of Howell Park, and Mark Stankiewicz of Neshanic Valley, both at 75.
The low 25 golfers who shot 81 or better return for Wednesday’s final 18 holes. Defending champion Dan Gregory of New Jersey National is not in the field pf 77 golfers.
“I got off to a shaky start. I was three over for my first four holes,” said Handley, who spent time this summer tutoring his son, Conor, 14, a six-handicapper. “I settled down after the fourth hole.”
Handley recorded two birdies, on the par-4 No. 1, his 10thhole, when his approach from 80 yards ended three feet from the cup, and on No. 3, where his pitch from 75 yards landed 10 feet from the cup.”
Handley sang the praises of Forest Hill superintendent Frank Tichenor.
“The greens were spectacular. They were perfect. the best I’ve seen all year. It’s a short golf course, so you have to be very straight. You have to wedge it well and putt it well. You don’t have to overpower the golf course. It was a very fair golf course today,” Handley said.
Desai, 50, had an uneven round with an eagle, two birdies, a double bogey and four bogeys.
The eagle came on the 500-yard, par-5 No. 4 when a pitching wedge from 123 yards stopped four feet from the cup.
“The golf course is in fantastic shape. There were good pin placements out there. It’s a second-shot golf course,” said Desai, a former club champion at Baltusrol. “”You don’t really need a whole lot length here. I hit a lot of three woods and hybrids, and not a lot of drivers. And you have to be on the right side of the pins.
“I like my chances as long as I can keep hitting fairways and greens and have some distance control and have my putter cooperating again,” Desai said.
Bello recorded three birdies against six bogeys.
“The greens were tough if you were on the wrong side of the pins. I had three three-putts today,” he said.
