The most significant sign of Grayson Vlasac’s growing maturity in golf came on May 6 at Lakewood’s Eagle Ridge Golf Course.
It was the NJSIAA South Jersey Group II match and Vlasac was leading the charge until he had a triple bogey on the 15th hole that ruined his chances of victory. Maybe a year ago it might have blown up the final three holes and spoiled a stellar round.
But the Hopewell Valley Central High junior chastened himself.
“When I left that hole my mindset wasn’t, ‘Why did I do this?’” he said. “I left the hole and said, ‘Let’s go make a few pars and birdies.’”
Vlasac finished the round tied for third at 75, which made him one of just two Colonial Valley Conference players to reach the Tournament of Champions. He credited his new mindset as part of the reason for his advancement
“My mental state has improved a lot,” Vlasac said. “I’m realizing that hitting one bad shot or having one bad hole doesn’t define the round. You just focus on the next shot and try to get those shots back when you can.”
He also started learning from his mistakes.
“On that one hole I got myself in a tricky situation off the tee, it was kind of hard to recover from that,” he said. “It gave me more shots I had to take. That was more of a mental error than anything. I should have realized all I needed to do was hang on to the lead. I didn’t need to go for those shots.”
It was all part of his progression as the Bulldogs leader. Hopewell graduated 11 seniors from a team that finished 13-3 and had arguably the state’s best golfer in Megan Meng (now playing No. 6 for a talented Northwestern women’s team).
Vlasac became the guy with the most varsity experience as a junior.
“He had some big shoes to fill,” coach Bill Russell said. “He’s the only player that played any varsity matches. He basically had to take the leadership. He didn’t have a choice.”
Vlasac accepted the role.
“He stepped up,” Russell continued. “He’s a hard-working kid. He really impressed me this year with how much he improved, not just on the course but in the leadership role.”
The coach was quick to point out that a golf team leader isn’t like the captain of a full-fledged team sport like football or basketball – which Vlasac also plays.
“It’s totally different,” Russell said. “It’s not a team sport per say, it’s more individual. But as far as going to practice, working hard, he’ll do extra stuff. He gets to the course early and goes to the driving range and hits balls. He’ll stay after and do some extra putting.”
And he will put in the time with younger golfers. This season he tutored freshman Ryan Goodrich, who ended up being the team’s No. 2 player.
“Grayson took him under his wing and showed him what he should do on the course, how he should be acting,” Russell said. “He really took to Grayson, started asking him tons of questions. He always wanted to be paired with Grayson and work with him through our practice and when we went out for matches. Those are the little things that I can’t teach (Vlasac), he just took it up on his own.”
It was something Vlasac learned from watching his elders, so to speak.
“It was definitely a change of scenery for me,” he said. “I remember making varsity as a freshman, I had a couple seniors and juniors really helpful to me in matches, helping me stay composed. I tried to do the same thing for Ryan. He was a little nervous going into those first matches. It was important to stay composed, have that next-shot mentality. Don’t worry about your bad shots. He had a great season.”
As did Vlasac, averaging around 40 strokes per nine holes, carding 79 to tie for 12th in the CVC Tournament, having a strong SJ II meet and shooting an 83 in the Group II state meet that gave Grayson a nice taste of a truly big-time high school match.
“I was really proud of my sectional performance,” he said. “Through 13 holes I was two under par. Seeing how well I can play, if I can flip that switch and play like that and finish the round strong, my potential is endless.”
Vlasac started tapping into that potential the summer after eighth grade. He would play some rounds with his dad and brother and “I always had a natural swing,” but he played baseball through middle school.
Prior to ninth grade Vlasac gave up the diamond and began playing a lot of golf at Trenton Country Club – the Bulldogs home course and also where his parents are members.
Vlasac played in eight matches as a freshman and shot around a 43 while breaking 40 three times. He became a regular last year and shot a respectable 83 in the final Mercer County Tournament and an 84 in the Central Jersey Group II outing.
This past summer he played in his first youth tournament and “didn’t do as well as I liked but it was good and I’m gonna be playing more tournaments this summer.”
An all-around athlete, Vlasac is also on the Bulldogs varsity basketball team, but missed two months due to an elbow injury, and he’s the frontrunner for the starting quarterback job after being the JV starter last year.
“But you gotta stay hungry and fight for that position and earn it,” he said. “They’re not gonna give it to me.”
Russell feels that playing quarterback can transfer to the course and help Vlasac’s mental approach to the game. The golfer could not agree more.
“As a quarterback, you have to know what everyone on the offense is doing during the play and how to manage all that,” Vlasac said. “It’s like that in golf. Before each shot you have to think about ‘How’s my lie? How far am I? Where’s the wind?’ You have to factor all these key elements into your shot and I definitely think my golf shots have some impact from football.”
Aside from the mental aspect, Vlasac has also improved physically. He went from 5-6, 120 pounds to 5-10, 155 this year and has been happier with his drives.
“He’s definitely gotten longer off the tee, he’s gotten straighter,” Russell said. “His body gets bigger and he’s learning to use that body to help him on the course a lot. He’s hitting the ball a lot farther and the best part is he’s hitting straighter. He’s keeping it on the fairway a lot more than he has the last couple of years.”
Russell pointed out that at the sectional meet, despite his new-found power, Vlasac played it smart and used shorter clubs to stay in the fairway and out of trouble
“That’s something high school kids don’t always do,” Russell said. “They think they can overpower the ball, whereas Grayson realized he could go long, but that was a course he didn’t need to.”
The coach feels this is an important summer for Vlasac, who wants to play in college. Coaches pay attention to how players perform entering their senior year.
Vlasac is ready for the challenge. In fact, he can’t play enough as the game has gripped him like it does so many.
“Today I’ll be going to the weight room to prepare for football season but even this morning I was like ‘Should I go to the weight room or should I go to the course?’” he said on a rainy Wednesday in mid-May. “I just want to be out there as much as I can. I’ll try and be recruited for college, I need to get a few more tournament scores out there, put my name out there more.”
He will try to impress coaches while also working on his game.
“You can get better at everything but for me it’s consistency, finding that balance,” Vlasac said. “I’ll have a couple holes where I’m playing really well then all of a sudden not playing as well as I’d like to. So it’s just finding consistency in my golf swing and trying to make my errors not as big. I don’t want my misses to be bad.”
On those occasions when they are bad, Vlasac has proven he can put them out of his mind and focus on getting more birdies and pars.
Hopewell Valley’s Grayson Vlasac tees off against Pennington, April 17, 2025. (Photo by Mike Schwartz/mikeschwartz.photo.),
