Old Lyme, Connecticut (May 6, 2024) – The duo of Christopher Sica and Joseph Serrantino teamed to capture the 2024 Two Man Championship at Black Hall Club.
“We played together in the Two Man for the first time in 2019, and we played well, and we both came away thinking we’d love to win it and we thought we could,” explained 2023 Connecticut Four-Ball winner and 8th U.S. Four-Ball participant Christopher Sica. “We both have very busy work schedules, so it’s hard to find time to play sometimes but we are extremely excited to win this championship.”
On a warm spring day with intermittent sun and clouds the tandem out of Wallingford Country Club took the lead late in the morning four-ball and never looked back finishing 9-under and the winners by two shots.
Beginning their opening round on the par-4 3rd hole Sica and Serrantino, both personal injury lawyers at Rome, Clifford, Katz & Koerner LLP, got off to a strong start playing the first 14 holes in 5-under-par. However, it was their play over the last five holes of the first round that saw them surge up the leaderboard.
Beginning with a 20-foot birdie putt by Serrantino on the par-3 16th and another from the same distance on the par-4 18th both players birdied twice in the five-hole stretch to push their opening round tally to 9-under 62.
That late flurry of birdies gave Sica and Serrantino, who finished tied for fourth in the Two Man Championship last year, a one-shot lead over Black Hall Club members Jeff Riley and Brian Zito with the afternoon selected drive foursomes still to come.
“I think both of us being in the hole during the four-ball round really helped,” said Joseph Serrantino a winner for the first time in a CSGA event. “Then during those last five holes, we thought, let’s just keep going low.”
During the second round, the more difficult of the two rounds to score, Sica and Serrantino held serve putting together an even-par 71 that included two birdies and two bogeys. Their afternoon birdies dropped on Nos. 9 and 12 but the moment of the round came on the par-4 15th.
After finding the fairway off the tee their approach shot was pulled left ending up on the tee box of the par-5 13th well to the left of the green. Faced with a difficult third shot, Serrantino hit a beautiful chip shot that he had to deaden into the slope to 20 feet. With an opportunity to save par Sica drilled the putt.
“The par putt on No. 15 crept in and basically took the left door and fell inside,” Sica said. “That par save was huge. We saw that Brad Tilley and Conor McGovern were 10-under so that was a huge make, and that kind of kept us in it.”
Despite reaching 10 under McGovern (Brooklawn CC) and Tilley (Brooklawn CC) finished two shots back in second place at 7 under. The second-place finish marked the third straight year that McGovern and Tilley had finished as the runner-ups.
Third place was shared by Brian Zito (Black Hall Club) and Jeff Riley (Black Hall Club); Ed Day (Wallingford CC) and Ben Day (CC of Waterbury) at 6-under. Meanwhile, the top five was rounded out by two-time champions Jamie Sheltman (Wallingford CC) and Dan Murphy (H. Smith Richardson); Anthony Guerrera (Watertown GC) and Thomas Labbe (Watertown GC) at 4-under in a share of fifth.
The Day brothers fired the round of the afternoon putting together a 4-under 67.
About the Connecticut State Golf Association
The Two Man Championship is one of 20 championships conducted by the Connecticut State Golf Association. The CSGA functions as an extension of the USGA and provides stewardship for amateur golf in Connecticut. Founded in 1899, it is the country’s oldest state golf association and conducts over 60 Championships, Qualifiers, and One Day Tournaments throughout the year.
