Westhampton Beach Pair Zach Berger, Harry Maloney Are Youngest Pair To Win Sebonack Challenge, And With A Record Score To Boot

Zach Berger and Harry Moloney couldn’t have started their seasons any differently.

Berger, an eighth-grader, began the season as the number one golfer for Westhampton Beach and has continued to play as such. Moloney, on the other hand, a freshman, started the season trying out for the Hurricanes junior varsity team only to catch the eye of varsity head coach Fred Musumeci, who liked what he saw and pulled him up to varsity.

While the Westhampton Beach pair may have come from opposite ends to start the season, they came together at the right time on Friday to win the coveted Sebonack Challenge, which brings the top pairings from the four Southampton Town teams — Westhampton Beach, Hampton Bays, Southampton and Pierson/Bridgehampton — together for a best-ball formatted tournament.

Berger and Moloney are not only thought to be the youngest pair to ever win the challenge, they did so by shooting an even par (72) on an extremely difficult course, and edged a pair of strong Southampton golfers in senior Jack Blackmore and junior Jack Brown in the process. The Mariners shot a combined 74, which most years would win the event easily. The 72 score is thought to be the lowest in the event’s history.

Hampton Bays senior Aidan Kamp and sophomore Erik Sandstrom shot an 81 to place third while Pierson senior Brenden Burke and sophomore Nathan Dee shot an 88.

Berger and Moloney’s impressive victory allowed Westhampton Beach to retain the Sebonack plaque for the fourth straight year. Mackenzie Kim and Thatcher Cord won the very first Sebonack title four years ago, then Kim and Cole Federico won it in back-to-back seasons, most recently in 2019, the last time the tournament was held. There was no tournament last year due to the pandemic.

“My two kids, an eighth-grader and a ninth-grader, had nerves of steel all day long,” Musumeci said. “They were so mentally tough playing against two older kids who are such good golfers in their own right. But we talk about it all the time, and what Westhampton Beach golf is all about, which is grinding it out no matter what happens out there, they’re only as good as their next shot. I can’t tell you how amazing of a job those two kids did.”

Only a mere shot or two separated both Westhampton Beach and Southampton all day, with both teams swapping leads throughout. The ’Canes took a one shot lead on 16, then Moloney hit a drive that landed three inches from being a hole-in-one. Maloney then sunk his putt to birdy the hole. Blackmore and Brown bogied the hole allowing Berger and Maloney to take a three shot lead heading into the final 18th hole.

Berger recalls his father, Josh, talking about the Sebonack Challenge at least four years ago when he was around 9 years old. Since then, it’s “always been a goal of mine to win that tournament.”

Once Moloney made the varsity team, he said his goal was to play Sebonack, but his shot at doing so almost didn’t happen. All of the teams that play in the challenge let the numbers decide which pair represents them by the top two averages at that point in the season. Ryan Springer, a junior, was expected to play with Berger at Sebonack, but in the final regular season match for Westhampton Beach on October 6 against Southampton, Maloney shot a 38 and erased Springer’s six-shot lead to become the ’Canes number two golfer just days before Sebonack.

“It’s been a crazy couple of days. It’s been an amazing experience,” Moloney said.

While it was the first time they were paired up this season in school ball, Berger and Moloney had experience playing together in PGA Junior League tournaments, which helped, Berger said. And Maloney agreed.

“As soon as I knew Harry was going to be my partner for Sebonack, I knew we had some chemistry together so our mindset was really let’s get ready to go to work,” Berger explained. “We already knew we had the skills to win it, we just had to be in the right mindset.

“Zach was a great teammate to have. He was reliable. If I had a bad hole, he’d make up for it, and if he had a bad hole, I’d make up for it. We were just in a groove all day,” Moloney said. “The Southampton kids played amazing. They put up a great score, but Zach and I had really good chemistry. We played great together and we were just good throughout the day.”

Berger and Moloney’s play impressed Hampton Bays head coach Pete Meehan, who was involved in the event for the first time after having been the JV coach in previous years.

“It’s a challenging course in many ways. We play on some tough courses, but never like that. The greens are so challenging, there are traps all over the place. Getting out of those were really tough. It was a pretty neat day and a pretty special day.”

Although they had caddied for teammates in previous years, both of Meehan’s golfers Kamp and Sandstrom had never actually played the course themselves. Meehan thought his golfers played really well considering that fact. Sandstrom, being a sophomore, could very well find himself back there with one of his classmates, Mike Poremba and Rieve Nydegger, who were on the bag for their teammates on Friday.

The same pretty much went for the Pierson pair Burke and Dee. Burke had caddied for teammates in 2019 and Dee had never played the course before. Regardless of their score, Whalers head coach Clint Schulman said his pair enjoyed the day.

“I think they just appreciated the fact that they played on a great course,” he said. “They may have been a little disappointed in their scores, but they had fun despite the outcome. They grinded it out. I was proud of them.”

As the teams finish up their regular season schedule this week, they will then prepare for the Conference IV Championships, which will be this Monday, October 18, at Rock Hill Golf and Country Club in Manorville. The top 50 golfers from that tournament will advance to the county tournament.

With the way they are playing, the ’Canes are confident they can make some noise this postseason.

“It’s not only these two in Harry and Zach, the whole team is starting to peak,” Musumeci said. “They are starting to believe in themselves. It’s still a young team, and talent is one thing, but you have to deal with playing competitive golf and being able to handle the pressure. We’re in a good place coming into the conference tournament. We’re disappointed we didn’t win the league title, but they’re getting better and they’re starting to believe they can beat anyone.”

“It was definitely a big confidence booster and a really good experience,” Moloney said of winning Sebonack.