Dating back to 1940, the Crooked Stick is an annual boys’ golf competition between The Hill and Lawrenceville.  The teams play two, nine-hole matches, one at each school’s home course.  At the conclusion of the second leg, each team’s 18-hole score is aggregated, with the lowest score winning the Crooked Stick. 

Entering the second leg of the 2019 competition with a comfortable 17-shot lead, Hill ultimately held on for an 11-shot aggregate score victory, 445-456, despite dropping Saturday’s match by six strokes, 203-209.

This year’s victory marks the sixth-consecutive year Hill has won the Crooked Stick trophy, the longest winning streak for The Hill in the competition’s history.  Lawrenceville has held the Crooked Stick for seven years on two separate occasions, a mark Hill will look to equal next year.

On April 3, Hill opened the spring season with the first leg of the Crooked Stick in a match played at Brookside Country Club.  Blustery conditions led to inflated scores across the board, but at the match’s conclusion Hill had registered a 236-253 victory, providing a comfortable advantage heading into the second leg. 

The teams met again in New Jersey on Saturday, May 4, on Lawrenceville’s Alumni Day.  The Big Red historically have fared much better on their home course than at Brookside, a pattern that continued Saturday as a pair of Lawrenceville players tied for medalist honors, each carding a 38.  Hill captain JP Irizarry ’19, playing in his final match against Lawrenceville, fired a season-best 39 to lead Hill.  Billy Gussler ’21 and Joel Crooks ’19 each shot a 42, followed by Cam Miller ’19 and Echo Wu ’20 at 43. 

Hill concludes the spring season with a busy final week, hosting Hun on Monday, May 6 and Friends Central on Friday, May 10 before concluding the year with a trip to Peddie on Saturday, May 11.