Photos by New Jersey State Golf Association (NJSGA)

By John Beisser, Feature Writer

Rutgers University rising sophomore Derek Gutierrez captured the 2024 New Jersey State Open championship at the venerable 7,033-yard par-71 Plainfield Country Club in Edison on July 25, finishing at 6-under par in the 54-hole tournament contested at a venue that for decades has been listed among the nation's Top-100 by various golf magazines and organizations.
 
This was an emphatic wire-to-wire victory that may have come as a thunderbolt out of left field to those on the outside but to Gutierrez himself, as well as Rutgers head men's golf coach Rob Shutte, it wasn't nearly as surprising.
 
"It's obviously a great field with a lot of tremendous players and professionals, so I don't think anyone would've said, 'hey, Derek's definitely one of the favorites.'" Shutte said. "But at the same time, behind the scenes, the way he's been conducting his summer and the way he's practiced, coupled with what he learned this past year with us as a freshman, I can't say Derek winning the state open was a complete shock. Somewhat surprising but, at the same time, not surprising since you saw what was happening behind the scenes."
 
If his head coach wasn't shocked with Gutierrez's stirring victory, how about Gutierrez himself?
 
"Any tournament that I enter, I know I've worked hard enough and I expect to go out there and play well," he said. "I was fairly confident entering the week. I've been playing pretty well all summer and my scoring average has definitely dropped this summer," said Gutierrez. "I was pretty familiar with the course and pretty comfortable with it. And I kind of expected to go out there and play well.
 
As a freshman in 2023-24, Guitterez had difficulty finding a permanent home in the talent-laden Rutgers lineup. In the wake of the success of former RU All-American and PGA Tour champion Chris Gotterup, the Scarlet Knights under Shutte have established themselves as the top golf program in the Northeast and a force to be reckoned with in the Big 10 Conference. Guitterez had to pay his dues as a frosh, seeing action in four of RU's six spring matches, competing as an individual vs. a starting role on several occasions, while being the alternate at the Big 10 Championship. Through it all, he averaged a more than respectable 72.6 strokes per round.
 
 
Guitterez wasn't the lone Scarlet Knight to make an impact in the state open as former RU standout Rhett Sellers, now an assistant professional at Plainfield, finished in a tie for sixth at even par, cashing the first check of his young professional career.
 

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Coming in as the top-ranked golfer in the state out of Cranford High School, Gutierrez thought he'd make an early college splash. Undaunted by not becoming a mainstay in the RU lineup, Gutierrez put his head down, went to work and never complained once according to his coach.
 
Unlike many young players in golf, Gutierrez's family doesn't belong to a private country club. Instead, the Cranford native cut his golfing teeth at public driving ranges and on public courses, most notably the nine-hole Plainfield West-Nine as well as the Galloping Hill course in Kenilworth.
 
"I immediately think of his parents when I think of Derek," says Shutte. "They're just a wonderful blue collar family. Derek's just a grounded kid. His parents are phenomenal. You talk about just salt of the earth people. So Derek, he knows where he's come from and he's so appreciative of what his parents have provided for him to be able to grow in the sport that he does. He takes what he's been given and his talents.  And he just works his butt off.  It's not it's just been handed to him and I think that's what keeps him so grounded and so real."
 
In winning the State Open, which was comprised of a field of 120 players including 56 professionals, the 18-year old Cranford native became the youngest champion since current PGA Tour player Max Greyserman won the 2014 Open at Essex County Country Club.  Gutierrez also became just the 14th amateur to win the storied major championship which has now been played 104 times.
 
Gutierrez opened his tournament by firing a pair of 4-under par 67's in taking a whopping 5-shot lead into the final 18 holes of play. In his final round, Plainfield bared its teeth and Gutierrez's swing was slightly off, which combined to cause things to get a bit close at the end as Gutierrez  held just a two-shot lead heading to the tournament's penultimate hole. But on the 17^th hole of that final round, a brutish uphill 460-yard par-4 that normally plays as a shortish 509-yard par-5 for members, Gutierrez sank an 18-foot birdie putt which allowed him to walk to the 18th tee with a three-shot lead.
 
On the back nine, 2023 New Jersey Amateur Champion Jack Wall made a run, sinking birdie putts at 12 and 13 to get within one stroke of Gutierrez, who bogeyed 10 and 13 before Gutierrez bounced back, draining that much-needed birdie on 17. On 18, two shots and two putts later, Gutierrez had himself had himself a safe par, a two-over par round of 73, and a three-shot victory. Moments later, he had two hands wrapped around the large, silver trophy.
 
Gutierrez is quick to credit his utility knife of a caddy, Noah Krumar, for his help on the bag all week. The two make a comfortable, and confident pair as Kumar is a fellow member of the RU men's golf team as well as Gutierrez's roommate.
 
"Noah was phenomenal all week, keeping me calm and grounded while helping me with the yardage and reads," said Gutierrez.
 
As Shutte put it, "I think Noah was a great whisperer in Derek's ear all week."
 
Asked to assess his championship week form, Gutierrez shared that "I hit it well right from the start of the first round. During the whole week I was just trying to take it one shot at a time and stay patient. I didn't really try to get too far ahead of myself. The first two days I had good ball control and hit it where I needed to. On the last day, something was kind of off in my swing and I missed it both ways (to the left and to the right of the fairways) a little bit," he added. "But I just played smart, hit really good shots when I needed to, and walked up 18 with a three-shot lead."
 
With a New Jersey State Open title under his belt, even bigger and better things appear to be in store on the links for Gutierrez. And he has the full confidence of his coach behind him.
 
"I'm just super excited for him. In sports it's just fun to see when there's a positive correlation between hard work and getting that result," Shutte said. "And sometimes you have guys who step into a pile of you know what, maybe didn't work that hard for it. And eventually, they get a false sense of what life is like. Derek's one of those guys who rolls up his sleeves and works. He doesn't complain about anything. I can't wait to see what his sophomore year and beyond has in store for him."
 
A recipient of seven NJ Press Association Awards for writing excellence, John Beisser ('86) served as Assistant Director in the Rutgers University Athletic Communications Office from 1991-2006, where he primarily handled sports information/media relations duties for the Scarlet Knight football and men's basketball programs. In this role, he served as managing editor for nine publications that received either National or Regional citations from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). While an undergraduate at RU, Beisser was sports director of WRSU-FM and a sportswriter/columnist for The Daily Targum. From 2007-2019, Beisser served as Assistant Athletic Director/Sports Media Relations at Wagner College, where he was the recipient of the 2019 Met Basketball Writers Association "Good Guy" Award. Beisser resides in Piscataway with his wife Aileen (RC '95,) a four-year Scarlet Knight women's lacrosse letterwinner, and their 15-year old daughter Riley.