Jim Wilson
| Special to the Telegram & Gazette
Matt Strzepa has left his position as assistant pro at Green Hill Municipal Golf Course to become head pro at Cohasse Country Club in Southbridge.
Strzepa, 25, was in his second season at Green Hill. His last day there was Thursday, Aug. 28, and he started at Cohasse the following day.
When Strzepa worked as a club fitter at the PGA Superstore in Natick, he fitted a family and stayed in touch with them. Through that family, he learned about the opening at Cohasse, and he interviewed with owner Ken Uracius in early August at Hardwick Crossing CC, which Uracius also owns. Then Strzepa visited Cohasse.
“Everything moved so fast,” Strzepa said. “The hardest part is leaving everybody here at Green Hill. We don’t have members, we don’t have employees, we have a family. It’s tough. (Green Hill head pro) Matt Moison, and I’m sure everyone could attest to it, is the greatest guy you could ever work for and one of the greatest guys in golf. So it’s tough leaving this place.”
“We’re here to support Matt,” Moison said. “Whether he’s here or Cohasse, it doesn’t matter where. He’s part of our Green Hill family, and he will succeed wherever he goes, and we’ll help him for as long as he wants.”
Greg Farland became the head pro this year at Cohasse, where he learned to play as a youth, after serving in the same role at Marlboro CC for 12 years, but he decided to move on in his career. His last day is Sunday.
“I love this place,” Farland said. “I wish nothing but the best. I have some of my lifelong friends who are members here, my family has history here. I’m a huge fan of Cohasse and wish nothing but the best for this place.”
Before Farland left Cohasse, he showed Strzepa around the course.
Strzepa feels fortunate to land his first head pro job even though he’s only 25 years old.
“It’s definitely a big step,” he said. “Definitely a little nervous, but everyone is giving me a little boost and a kick in the butt, telling me it’s going to be good, and that I should be good for it, so that’s made me feel better.”
Uracius purchased Cohasse CC from the members in March with plans to upgrade the course and facilities, as he did when he purchased the nine-hole public course Dunroamin CC, which closed in 2018, and reopened it as Hardwick Crossing CC in 2022.
Improvements on the course have not yet begun, but remodeling of the clubhouse kitchen has.
Cohasse CC changed this year from a private course to a semi-private club that allows public play. The club hopes enough of the public players will like the course enough to join as members. Once enough of them do, the club will return to being private.
Strzepa said the membership at Cohasse needs to get younger to survive long term.
“We’ve got to get some new faces in there, younger faces,” Strzepa said. “There’s nothing wrong with older faces, but I know those guys who have been there for a while want to see some new faces, some new people walking through those doors. So get some new tournaments, maybe a kids camp, you never know. Whatever it takes to get more faces over there.”
Cohasse CC is a nine-hole course that opened in 1918 and was designed by noted architect Donald Ross.
“It’s great,” Strzepa said. “It’s nine holes, so it’s definitely different than what I’m used to, but it’s a long nine hole I’ve been telling everybody. If you don’t hit it where you need to hit it, your ball is gone. The greens are tricky. There’s fescue. It’s a tough nine-hole course, I will say.”
Strzepa grew up in Shrewsbury and lives in Worcester. Prior to working at the PGA Tour Superstore in Natick, he worked at Cyprian Keyes GC in Boylston and at courses in Florida. He played golf at St. John’s before graduating in 2018. Then he attended the Junior Players Golf Academy in Orlando, Florida, and went on to win two events on the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour in Florida.
Moison said Stzepa will be replaced as assistant pro next season.
Moison hired Strzepa to replace Matt Foley in the pro shop at Green Hill at the beginning of the 2024 golf season. Foley left the golf business to sell cars for his uncle, R.J. Foley. Strzepa joked that Moison will need to find another Matt to replace him.
“Probably so,” Moison said. “That would be three in a row. We’ll have to put that in the job description.”
Please heed this caddie’s advice
When Jake Mrva caddies at the International in Bolton, the members and their guests should probably listen to what he says.
Mrva knows how to play the game. The 22-year-old Shrewsbury resident graduated last spring as the only Fordham University golfer to win three tournaments in his collegiate career. As a junior, he captured the Hartford Hawks Invitational and the Abarta Coca-Cola Collegiate Invitational hosted by Lafayette College. As a senior, he won the Metropolitan Intercollegiate hosted by Wagner College. His career scoring average of 75.5 tied for the third lowest in Fordham golf history.
Mrva joined the caddie crew at the International in July, and he works nearly every day. Caddies are required on the redesigned Pines Course, which opened on June 6, and are available on the Oaks Course as well.
Earlier this summer, he caddied at Concord CC, and while in college, he caddied at Wykagyl CC in New Rochelle, New York. He also caddied a few times at The Country Club in Brookline.
“It’s my favorite job in the world,” he said. “I’m going to miss this. This is my office every day. I’m on the golf course every day, and it feels like I can be part of the round, reading putts and telling people what certain shots do. Everyone I caddie for, I’m rooting for. So I have a horse in the game.”
Mrva believes caddying helps his own golf game. He used to take more time reading putts for others than himself, but he has remedied that.
Mrva plans to continue to caddie at the International until October, when he will put his finance degree to use by working in financial consulting for Ernst & Young, an accounting firm in New York City. He hopes to play golf with clients.
Last fall, he made two holes-in-one in four days. The first came on a Friday in October while playing with friends at Wykagyl CC when he hit a 6-iron on a downhill, 193-yard par 3. The following Monday during the opening round of the two-day Metropolitan Intercollegiate, he used a pitching wedge to ace a 150-yard par 3. His mother, Carrie, was on hand to see it. He went on to win the event by a shot.
His first career ace came on the 176-yard ninth hole on the par-3 course at Cyprian Keyes GC when he was 16.
Golf is in his blood. His grandfather, Jim Mrva, was the head pro at Monroe GC outside of Rochester, New York, for 33 years. His father, Matt Mrva, has done some golf course landscape architecture.
At St. John’s High, he played varsity golf as a junior and senior and was named a Catholic Conference all-star, but lacrosse was his best sport. He was a T&G Super Teamer in lacrosse as a senior. He also made honorable mention for the T&G Hometeam All-Star team in hockey as a senior. So it was no wonder that he received the Greg McNulty Award as the school’s most outstanding athlete.
Mrva was more focused on lacrosse when he was younger, so he didn’t play in a competitive golf event outside of high school until his junior year.
“I’m kind of an underdog,” he said, “and showing everyone that you don’t have to play this game from the time you’re 4 years old super competitively to be good at it.”
Mrva is 6-foot-5 and weighs about 185 pounds. Some may think that controlling a longer swing and maintaining proper body mechanics would be challenging for someone that tall, but he considers his height to be a strength.
“I think it’s easier,” he said. “You have so much extra rotational power. The driver head compared to where my shoulders are is so much further than the average person so the head is moving that much faster.”
Mrva grew 6 inches from the time school closed due to COVID in March 2020 until he came back to school in the fall for his senior year. His best golf came after he grew.
In the Mass. Amateur Championship, he has reached the round of 16 in each of the past two years. He carries a handicap of plus 4.
Mrva grew up playing at Worcester Country Club and he shot 6-under 64, two off the course record, three times from the back tees. He won a junior club championship and lost to Kyle Alexander on the final hole of the men’s club championship in 2024.
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.
