End of the Road: OCC Golf Competes in NJCAA D-III National Championship

Toms River, NJ - The 2022 spring golf season ended on a high note for the Ocean County College Vikings, as its number 1 and number 3 starters, Joshua Kerley and Dane Bodziak, made a fine showing by finishing 42nd and 44th, respectively, at the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division III Men’s and Women’s National Golf Championship at Chautauqua Golf Club in Chautauqua, New York on Friday (6/10).

This year's tournament included top teams and individual qualifiers from North Carolina, Georgia, Minnesota, New York and New Jersey, led by the defending team champions, Sandhills Community College from Pinehurst, NC.

Shooting stellar opening rounds of 83 and 82, Kerley led the OCC hopefuls to a very impressive NJCAA national showing, with Bodziak bolstering the Vikings’ raid with opening rounds of 86 and 83. Kerley’s 82, highlighted by an incredible hole-in-one on Chautauqua’s Lake Course’s 8th hole, 150 yards, and Bodziak’s 83, were the duo’s lowest rounds of the entire 2022 campaign.

“The second round was really amazing,” said Ocean County College head golf coach Sean Fawcett. “Josh and Dane both carded their lowest rounds of the season on the very same day and put themselves into position for possible Top 20 and All-American individual placings.”

Kerley’s ace was just the 4th in the Championship’s 22-year history at the challenging and uniquely historic 109-year-old Donald Ross design.

Mohawk Valley’s Phoenix Weydig and SUNY Ulster’s Nick Puleo were playing with Kerley in the first two rounds and witnessed the hole-in-one.

“When I struck the ball, it did not feel perfect, but the ball was working left to right and looked to be a pretty decent shot,” described Kerley. “I saw the ball hit the green, roll right and then disappear. I was confused and excited all at once.”

Rounds of 90 and 95 and 95 and 94 for Kerley and Bodziak rounded out the rough, and sometimes grueling, 72 hole contest for the two, who placed the Vikings near the top half of the nearly 80 player field in OCC’s first NJCAA final appearance in more than five years.

“The boys played some of their very best golf of the whole year,” said Fawcett. “Dane shot 86 and 83, which were his two best rounds of the season, while Josh tied his best round, 83, which he had scored two times before, and then made an incredible hole-in-one to card a season’s-low (82) in his second round.

“The fellas competed hard with great spirit and represented OCC and Region XIX extremely well and I couldn’t be happier for them both. It was a terrific time getting to play along with, and also to hang out with, our competition from the County College of Morris and Rowan College South Jersey Gloucester County. It was a totally enjoyable, and extremely valuable experience for us all.”