[Sly Fox]

It sounds like this kid has some talent from up in the Atlantic City area:

Golfers Andrew Nelson, Ben Walsh share Press Player of Year honors

By JOHN O'KANE For The Press, (609) 272-7210
Published: Monday, June 19, 2006


In the most talent-laden Press-area high school golf season in a long time, two players emerged as the top players.

Absegami High School's Ben Walsh and Oakcrest's Andrew Nelson are the 2006 Press Co-Players of the Year.

Both are seniors, and like good players, both came up with big performances in tough situations.

Nelson helped Oakcrest make its first trip to the TOC as well by finishing third at the South-Central Group III Tournament, but there were some impressive stops along the way.

The first was at the Garden State Cup with 21 of the state's top teams in attendance.

Nelson shot a 3-under-par 68 to tie Immaculata's Steve Foley for first — Nelson would lose in a two-hole playoff.

He beat Ramapo sophomore Morgan Hoffman, the two-time TOC champ.

“That was the best 18-hole tournament I've ever played.” he said. “The tournaments are what I look forward to the most. They're much bigger events with a lot more people and for me, I just like p laying 18 holes more.”

He showed that again by taking fifth place out of 228 golfers at the Carl Arena.

His scoring average for the year was 37.05.

The two are friends off the course.

It's a scary to think that just a year or two before Andrew arrived at Oakcrest, the Greater Egg Harbor Regional School District was re-zoned, sending students from Port Republic to Oakcrest instead of Absegami. Or else, the two may have been on the same team.

“I have thought about that,” Nelson said. “It would have been neat to play with Ben, but I think it was pretty good to play against him as well.”

Both are excited about playing at the next level.

Walsh will be attending Florida Atlantic on a partial academic and athletic scholarship and knows the type of competition he has to look forward to.

“I know I'm going to get my butt kicked as a freshman, but I don't care,” he said. “It's going to be awesome. I just can't wait.”

Nelson's skills will be on display at Liberty University where he hopes to pick up a scholarship while there.

“I'm looking forward to it,” he said. “I loved playing high school golf, but I know that once I get down there, it's going to be a whole new ball game.”

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/spor ... 2568c.html