PARAMUS – Former New Jersey Amateur champion Michael Hyland won his first New Jersey Mid-Amateur title.
Hyland, 36, won the 32nd NJSGA Mid-Amateur crown today with a 3-and-2 victory over fellow South Jersey resident Matt Finger in an on-and-off rain at Arcola CC.
Hyland, who lives in Medford in Burlington County and plays out of Little Mill, won the par-5 15th with a birdie and the par-4 16th with par to win the title.
“I can’t believe it – it’s been so long since I won a big tournament,” Hyland said.
Finger, 38, who lives in Woolwich Township in Gloucester County but represents Darlington in Bergen County, missed a chance to extend the match after missing a 4-foot putt for par on the 16th. It was one of the few short putts that the Bergen Catholic graduate and former Bergen County resident missed in the three days.
Hyland hadn’t won an NJSGA title since capturing the 1998 Amateur at age 19. He had reached the Mid-Amateur semifinals in 2012 and 2013, and he had multiple top-five finishes in other events.
Hyland played his 16 holes at 3-under, and he scored the first of his six birdies by rolling in an uphill 60-footer on the par-4 first. Finger played at even-par.
“Match play on one of my favorite courses in New Jersey, it was so worth driving up every morning,” said Hyland, who drove more than two hours each way daily from home. “This place is so good.”
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