'Eager to learn, nice, polite, prompt': Matt Strzepa make fine impression as Green Hill's new assistant golf pro

Apparently, if you want to work in the pro shop at Green Hill Municipal Golf Course, your chances are better if your name is Matt.

Matt Strzepa , a St. John’s High graduate and Shrewsbury resident, is in his first year as assistant golf pro at Green Hill Municipal Golf Course. He replaced Matt Foley , who left the golf business late last summer. The head pro is Matt Moison . Last summer, one of the pro shop workers was Matt Ober , who will be a senior at North Carolina State this fall, but he didn’t return to Green Hill this season.

“I think Matt Moison got lucky with me applying, considering my name is Matt,” Strzepa said.

Moison rolled out the welcome mat for Strzepa, and he joked that Green Hill should get a discount on name tags for the staff because only one name is needed.

Actually, there are staffers who have other names, but there have been a few Matts.

Strzepa, 24, grew up in Shrewsbury and lives in Worcester. He had worked most recently at the PGA Tour Superstore in Natick. Previously, he worked at Cyprian Keyes GC in Boylston and at courses in Florida.

“Matt’s been great,” Moison said last week. “Eager to learn, nice, polite, prompt, on time and ready to go.”

Strzepa worked with people with special needs at the PGA Tour Superstore, and he helped organize a similar program at Green Hill. In partnership with Seven Hills Foundation, Green Hill formed a “Skills and Drills” team for those new to the game, and Strzepa instructed them for several Saturdays. The program was free, and a NEPGA grant paid for golf balls and long sleeve T-shirts.

Strzepa, Moison and pro shop worker Logan Kiley ran Green Hill’s first Golf With Pride instruction program for seven weeks for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

About 14 people took part each week in the program, which also was free.

Strzepa was born in Seoul, South Korea, and adopted in 2001 by Michael and Donna Strzepa of Shrewsbury. He came to Shrewsbury in 2003 at age 3 after the paperwork was completed.

When he was 5 or 6, he was impressed by a set of Maxfli golf clubs at Dick’s Sporting Goods and asked his parents if they could buy them for him. They agreed as long as he took the sport seriously, and they signed him up for junior golf camps at Cyprian Keyes GC in Boylston.

“I just fell in love with the game,” he said.

Strzepa graduated from St. John’s High in 2018 and was the No. 3 golfer as a senior. Foley graduated from St. John’s two years before him. Strzepa played junior varsity golf when Foley played varsity.

After he graduated from St. John’s, Strzepa attended the Junior Players Golf Academy in Orlando, Florida. He lived with friends and practiced golf every day for a year and a half. The hard work helped him win two events on the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour in Florida.

Strzepa then turned professional and played in a few mini-tour events before realizing that the competition was too stiff. So he began taking online courses at Keiser University in West Palm Beach, Florida, to earn his associate degree in professional golf management in 2021.

Then he worked as an assistant at the Club at Ibis in West Palm Beach and in the cart barn at Cyprian Keyes before taking a position as a teaching pro at the PGA Tour Superstore last summer.

Strzepa joined Green Hill as an assistant pro on March 8. He had missed working at a golf course, and he asked Foley about what it was like working at Green Hill. Foley had left the club last summer to sell cars for his uncle, R.J. Foley , but he highly recommended working at Green Hill and called Moison the best boss he ever had.

“It kind of sparked a candle in my eye,” Strzepa said. “So I kind of wanted to go after it.”

At the PGA Tour Superstore, he usually saw only his students, and he wanted more interaction with more people.

“I’m a big people person,” he said. “So when I’m kind of stuck in a simulator all day and only see 10 faces a day, I kind of get a little bit crazy.”

Strzepa grew up playing at Cyprian Keyes and Green Hill.

Strzepa’s parents also adopted a girl named Alexandria from Seoul, and they have two biological children, Ryan and Elizabeth .

Green Hill has a few members who are from South Korea, but Strzepa can’t speak Korean with them. He speaks only English.

Keeping fun in game at Rossetti Junior Golf Camp

Seventy Worcester boys and girls ages 8-11 took part in the annual Danny Rossetti Junior Golf Camp Aug. 12-14 at Green Hill.

The free camp has been held in each of Moison’s 28 years as head pro except for 2020, when it was canceled due to the pandemic. In 2009, Moison named the camp after Rossetti,  a former camper and Green Hill employee who had died in a car accident the previous fall at age 26.

Moison said he was proud of the camp because of its fun atmosphere.

“It is instructional, it is fun, you learn about golf,” he said, “you hit golf balls, you do all the things that other golf camps do except here you get to be a kid, you get to have fun, you get to laugh, run around, which isn’t going to happen at other golf courses.”

Moison called the camp the blueprint for how he tries to run Green Hill overall — learn the game, challenge yourself and have fun.

Rossetti’s parents, John and Pam , and brother Dave usually volunteer at the camp, but Pam and Dave were ill this year, and John attended the first day before tending to Pam.

Tatnuck club champion at last

Andrew Reed finally can call himself the men’s club champion at Tatnuck Country Club.

Reed defeated Joe Murphy , 5 and 3, in the 36-hole final on Aug. 11. The 33-year-old Boston resident has played in the club championship in 10 of the past 11 years and reached the semifinals every time. He also lost in the final six times, three times to Tim Umphrey and three to Matt Umphrey . Last year, Reed didn’t play because he had COVID.

“It was a great feeling,” Reed said of finally winning the championship. “I’ve had the heartbreak of coming in second so many times. To finally get over that hump was kind of an emotional day. The whole family was there. A lot of people were following me around, which was nice.”

Plenty of relatives and friends watched Reed in the final, including his 95-year-old grandfather, Dr. Robert Harper , who has been a member at Tatnuck for more than 50 years, his parents, Dana Reed and Betsy Harper , and his uncle Robert Harper , who won the club championship in 1997 and 2006. Tim Umphrey, who is playing professionally now, was also on hand.

Reed played in the qualifier in the rain on that Friday and then played in two 18-hole matches that Saturday to reach the Sunday 36-hole final.

“I was pretty exhausted afterward,” Reed said. “It was a lot of golf. I don’t play as much as I used to.”

Reed, a graduate of WPI, works in sales for an athletic recovery device company.

Youngster prevails at The Haven

Adam Trani may be only 16, but he captured the A bracket of the men’s net club championship at The Haven CC in Boylston.

Trani lost a playoff to get into the gross club championship, so he competed in the net club championship and won all three of his matches against golfers much older than him. He defeated Alex Bartholomew , 4 and 2, in the final on Aug. 11.

Lead assistant pro Patrick Sharron said Trani is the youngest golfer to win the men’s net club championship at least since he began working at the club in 2017.

“It was cool that he was able to play against people of a lot of different ages,” Sharron said. “For someone that young to go through that bracket is quite impressive, especially for someone who doesn't have a ton of golf experience. He played very well.”

Trani, son of Bryce and Nicole Trani , lives in Shrewsbury and is about to enter his junior year at St. John’s High School. He competed in The Haven’s PGA Junior League program, has played for the St. John’s junior varsity golf team the past two years and hopes to make the varsity this fall.

Dylan Greenwald of Boylston repeated as the men’s gross club champion by defeating Joe Angnelli III , 3 and 2, on Aug. 11 in the final of the 16-player field.

Ideas welcome

You can suggest story ideas for this golf column by reaching me at the email listed below. Comments are also welcome.

—Contact Bill Doyle at bcdoyle15@charter.net. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @BillDoyle15.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: 'Eager to learn, nice, polite, prompt': Matt Strzepa make fine impression as Green Hill's new assistant golf pro