North Jersey Male Athlete of the Week on his way to become his school's next great golfer

As a left-handed golfer, Jimmy Veale draws parallels to Bubba Watson.

The Wayne Hills junior welcomes them. Getting the chance to meet Watson is one of his earliest memories in the sport.

“A long time ago, my dad got to play with him, and I got to walk with Bubba Watson the whole round,” Veale said. “It was really amazing. … I was probably 6 or 7 years old, and it was in Boston for some pro-am event.”

The 2024 Passaic County individual champion found out back then that he and the two-time Masters champ had similar origin stories.

“He [Watson] would get these small, plastic golf balls and would just hit him around and just learn how to really curve the ball,” Veale said. “And that’s exactly what I did, too, when I was little.”

Honing his shot paid off in last week’s Passaic County Tournament at Preakness Valley’s East course. With five holes remaining, he faced a dogleg left on No. 7.

“You have to hit an iron shot to get onto the fairway, and I hit a really bad 7-iron into the water,” Veale said. “So I took a drop, then I hit my gap wedge to about three feet and made the putt for par. A huge par save.”

Wayne Hills was able to dethrone two-time reigning champion Passaic Tech by five strokes and wound up with its first team and individual Passaic titles in six years.

A check of The Record archives shows that the Patriots’ last four county medalists went back-to-back: Mike Jerauld (2003-04), Marina Alex (2007-08), Anthony Alex (2010-11) and Robert McHugh (2017-18).

Veale, who was interviewed before that fact came to light, seemed hopeful that Wayne Hills can start another string of team championships after winning four in a row from 2015-18.

“I still have another year left, and so does the rest of team – some of them have multiple years left, because they’re younger than me,” he said. “So, I think this was a big step for us to finally put Wayne Hills back on the map.”

The Patriots also prevailed at the April 29 Big North Independence Division meet, where the 5-foot-11 Veale carded a 1-under 34 at Preakness Valley. His 34 in a dual match at Darlington the following day was 2-under par.

“That was his second consecutive week of being below par in regular-season matches,” Wayne Hills coach Ryan Bayley noted. “Last week, Jimmy was minus-4 for an average of 34.5.”

There is an irony in the fact that while his father helped foster Jimmy’s interest in the game, Jim Veale was never a golfer in high school. The 1991 Cliffside Park grad grew up as a basketball lifer who went on to play at William Paterson.

“He did not start playing golf until like 12 years ago,” the younger Veale said. “He did not touch a golf club, and then all of a sudden, he got really into it.”

Jimmy Veale is invested enough to have given a verbal commitment to play golf at Manhattan College.

“I first visited almost a year ago, and I just loved it from the start,” he said. “The whole golf program is new, [with a] new coach. They’re trying to build something, like we’ve done at Wayne Hills.”

Jimmy Veale

Sport: Golf

School: Wayne Hills

Class: Junior. Age: 17

Accomplishment: Veale won the Passaic County individual title with a 3-over 73 at Preakness Valley, leading Wayne Hills to the team crown. He also shot under par in two nine-hole matches, carding a pair of 34s.

Also nominated: David Acevedo of Paramus Catholic, Domenic Maucione of Becton, and Luis Placido-Fana of New Milford for baseball; James Alati of Rutherford, Kyle Keyes of Lakeland, Seven Garcia of Hackensack, Jack Small of Old Tappan, and Corey Sanders of Paramus Catholic for track and field; Luke Biello of Westwood for lacrosse; and Shah Nasher of Bergenfield for volleyball.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bergen Record Male Athlete of the Week: Jimmy Veale, Wayne Hills