Rutgers University rising sophomore Derek Gutierrez captured the 2024 New Jersey State Open championship at the venerable 7,033-yard par-71 Plainfield Country Club in Edison on July 25, finishing at 6-under par in the 54-hole tournament contested at a venue that for decades has been listed among the nation’s Top-100 by various golf magazines and organizations.
This was an emphatic wire-to-wire victory that may have come as a thunderbolt out of left field to those on the outside but to Gutierrez himself, as well as Rutgers head men’s golf coach Rob Shutte, it wasn’t nearly as surprising.
“It’s obviously a great field with a lot of tremendous players and professionals, so I don’t think anyone would’ve said, ‘hey, Derek’s definitely one of the favorites.'” Shutte said. “But at the same time, behind the scenes, the way he’s been conducting his summer and the way he’s practiced, coupled with what he learned this past year with us as a freshman, I can’t say Derek winning the state open was a complete shock. Somewhat surprising but, at the same time, not surprising since you saw what was happening behind the scenes.”
If his head coach wasn’t shocked with Gutierrez’s stirring victory, how about Gutierrez himself?
“Any tournament that I enter, I know I’ve worked hard enough and I expect to go out there and play well,” he said. “I was fairly confident entering the week. I’ve been playing pretty well all summer and my scoring average has definitely dropped this summer,” said Gutierrez. “I was pretty familiar with the course and pretty comfortable with it. And I kind of expected to go out there and play well.
As a freshman in 2023-24, Guitterez had difficulty finding a permanent home in the talent-laden Rutgers lineup. In the wake of the success of former RU All-American and PGA Tour champion Chris Gotterup, the Scarlet Knights under Shutte have established themselves as the top golf program in the Northeast and a force to be reckoned with in the Big 10 Conference. Guitterez had to pay his dues as a frosh, seeing action in four of RU’s six spring matches, competing as an individual vs. a starting role on several occasions, while being the alternate at the Big 10 Championship. Through it all, he…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Rutgers University Athletics…