For the first seven holes of his round, St. Joseph (Mont.) freshman Rory Asselta was sitting at 1-under. After that, some would say a legend was made. Asselta shot a sizzling 8-under 64 to win by two strokes over fellow teammate and Loyola (MD) commit senior Liam Moloney to capture individual medalist honors at the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions at Raritan Valley Country Club in Bridgewater. On his remaining 11 holes, Asselta fired 7-under with seven birdies, highlighted by six straight over holes 4 through 9 (his 11th through 16th holes) including three par 4s, three par 3s, and one par 5. “I started sticking a few close. I drained one putt on hole 4 to get me going from like 10 feet. Then I hit two in a row to about two feet and tapped those in. I just started making three in a row outside of 10 feet,” said Asselta after his round. “On the front nine, I played super consistent just burning the edges for par and then once they started dropping, it opened my eyes a little bit to see they could actually go in.” Asselta’s score was the second-best score ever in Tournament of Champions history, one stroke off the mark set by Westfield’s Colin Summers (63) in 2021 at Hawk Pointe Golf Club in Washington Township. Moloney had a similar round with five birdies over his first seven holes, after starting on the fourth hole. He birdied holes 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10, but managed just one birdie on his remaining 11 holes to finish with an amazing 6-under 66. In all eight golfers shot red numbers including CBA sophomore Jack Stamberger (4-under 68), who finished solo third. Pingry freshman Rayhao Feng (3-under 69) placed fourth and Mendham senior Anders Farley (2-under 70) finished in a two-way tie with Chatham sophomore Roger Rice (2-under 70) to finish fifth on a match of scorecards. Overall individual and team, along with five individual and team group championships were contested on the par-72, 6,194-yard Somerset County layout. A field of 99 golfers (39 schools, 20 teams) competed under warm and sunny conditions. The N.J. High School Sports newsletter is now appearing in mailboxes 5 days a week. Sign up now! Follow us on social: Facebook | Instagram | X (formerly Twitter) Lou Monaco can be reached at lmonaco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X: @loumonaco.