Dix & Lee, Devereux & Puorro Share Medalist Honors as Match Play Begins at 93rd Four-Ball Championship
WAYNE, N.J. - Former Monmouth University teammates Travis Dix and Ethan Lee as well as Manasquan River Golf Club duo Austin Devereux and Mike Puorro finished at 6-under par 65 to share medalist honors in the 93rd Four-Ball Championship at North Jersey Country Club.
Lee, 21, strung together four birdies on hole Nos. 1-4 to shoot up the leaderboard early on. Dix, 23, then caught fire, adding three birdies on the back.
“I feel like it was a pretty stress-free round for us today,” Lee recalled. “If one of us wasn't in position, the other was, so it's pretty easy out there for us to be in that situation.”
Their time as college teammates over the past few years has helped Dix and Lee build a seamless partnership on the course.
“It definitely makes it easier having played so many rounds together at school and then at work at Eagle Oaks,” said Dix. “A lot of time together definitely makes it easier.”
For Devereux and Puorro, Four-Ball partners for the third consecutive season, the pair combined for seven birdies, highlighted by three from Devereux and two from Puorro on the back side. Devereux is coming off a win at the 2024 New Jersey Mid-Amateur Championship.
“Mike played awesome today,” Devereux explained. “He played great at Little Mill in the qualifier and it always fires me up when he can go out there and make some birdies - that's huge for our team. I played pretty solid and I'm looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully we can just keep doing what we're doing and move on.”
A five for three playoff was played to help determine the final spots in the match play bracket.
North Jersey, recently revitalized through a series of renovations, has proven to be a formidable challenge for the field.
“The green complexes here are pretty severe,” added Devereux. “The pin locations were friendly for stroke play, but I think there's some spots that we'll see tomorrow that will be a little bit more challenging. The course is awesome.”
“The course speaks for itself,” Puorro expressed. “It's in phenomenal shape. The greens are rolling nice and this place was ready to go.”
The championship now switches to match play on Tuesday with the Round of 16 set to commence at 7:50 a.m. ET off holes No. 1 and 4.
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