2009.06.26
Salem golfer advances to final eight at state tournament
Fielding Brewbaker of Salem has advanced to final eight at the Virginia State Golf Association's amateur championship.
Here's the full release from the VSGA:
EIGHT GOLFERS REMAIN AT THE
96th VSGA AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP
SUFFOLK –– Brinson Paolini said he’d been having trouble sleeping all week after returning from a junior tournament in Japan late Sunday night.
The reigning VSGA State Amateur champion’s game was in full flourish as match play opened on Thursday at the event’s 96th edition on Thursday at Cedar Point Country Club (7,109 yards, par 36-36—72).
The 18-year-old Virginia Beach resident ripped through his first two matches, ousting two-time VSGA State Am champion Keith Decker (Martinsville), 3 and 2 in the morning, before scoring a 5 and 4 victory over 16-year-old Ji Soo Park (Centreville) in the second round of match play.
Paolini, a No. 2 seed for match play, held 4-up leads after nine holes in both encounters and estimated he was the stroke play equivalent of three under par in his morning match and five under through 14 holes in the afternoon session.
Apparently, some sleep as well as the arrival of match play, which comprises the last three days of the championship, have provided the perfect recipe for victory. Paolini has won seven straight matches dating back to his triumph last year at Kingsmill’s River Course.
“I love match play. It’s great for my game,” said Paolini, a recent graduate of Frank W. Cox High School who is headed to Duke University in the fall. “I like to think I think my way around the golf course and my caddie [Mac Thayer] helps me plot my way around the course really well. As they say in match play, ‘Fairways, greens and lag putting’ and I’ve been doing all three well.”
Teenagers and 20-somethings comprise five of the remaining eight players in the match play field. Additionally, five of the remaining eight players are from western Virginia.
Paolini, the only local left in the field, will face recent James Madison University graduate Fielding Brewbaker, 22, of Salem in Friday’s quarterfinals. Brewbaker bested northern Virginian Scott Marino (Fairfax), 3 and 2 in the round of 16.
In the lower half of the same bracket, 16-year-old Jake Mondy (Blacksburg), the youngest remaining player in the field, outlasted central Virginian Jordan Utley (Richmond) in the second round. Mondy birdied five of the last six holes to register a 2-up victory; Utley made four birdies in that same span of holes. The stretch included an important halve at the par-3 16th; bunkered off the tee, Utley holed his 30-yard bunker shot for an unlikely birdie, but Mondy drained his 5-foot birdie chance to retain his 1-up lead, an advantage he held the rest of the way until holing a 15-birdie putt at the par-4 18th.
A rising junior at Blacksburg High, Mondy will take on 21-year-old Garland Green of Tazewell, a rising junior at Virginia Tech. Green defeated recent St. Christopher’s School graduate Jeremy Wells, 18, of Hopewell, 3 and 2 in the second round of match play. Green scrambled successfully during the encounter and holed a 35-yard bunker shot at the par-3 16th hole to close the match.
On the opposite side of the bracket, Blacksburg’s Lanto Griffin bested medalist Mikey Moyers (Stanardsville), 2 up in second round action. Trailing 2-down after 13 holes, Griffin won Nos. 14 and 15 to square the match and rolled in a right-to-left breaking 20-footer for birdie at the par-5 17 to go 1 up. After pulling his tee shot way left at No. 18, Griffin drilled a 3-iron over a group of pine trees and he got up and down from off the back edge of the putting surface to complete a late surge that saw him win four of the last five holes.
A semifinalist at last year’s VSGA State Am, Griffin will face ’07 VSGA State Am champion Pat Tallent (Vienna) in Thursday’s morning session. The 55-year-old Tallent showed he still has plenty of game, scoring a pair of wire-to-wire wins to open match play.
“I think I have just as good a chance as anybody – and I’ve been here before. These young guys can play, but I can play, too,” said Tallent, who bested 16-year-old Bryce Chalkley (Glen Allen), 3 and 2 to open match play before notching a 5 and 3 victory over mid-amateur Scott Huneycutt in the afternoon session.
Meanwhile, mid-amateurs Ben Keefer (Glen Allen) and Buck Brittain (Tazewell) will meet in the other quarterfinal round encounter. Keefer scored a pair of 20-hole victories, outlasting central Virginians Nicholas Austin, 17, in the morning before getting past Longwood University sophomore Austin Gray in the second round of match play.
Brittain got past Jerry Burton (Charlottesville), 2 and 1 in Thursday’s second round action.
SUFFOLK –– Results from the first round of match play at the 96th VSGA Amateur Championship at Cedar Point Country Club (7,109 yards par 36-36––72) on Thursday, June 25 (qualifying score indicated in parentheses).
(1) Mikey Moyers (Stanardsville), 132 def. (32) Weston Eklund (Charlottesville), 147, 2 up
(16) Lanto Griffin (Blacksburg), 144 def. (17) Josh Apple (Lansdown), 144, 1 up
(25) Scott Huneycutt (Portsmouth), 145 def. (8) Scott Shingler (Haymarket), 142, 5 and 4
(24) Pat Tallent (Vienna), 145 def. (9) Bryce Chalkley (Richmond), 143, 3 and 2
(29) Ben Keefer (Glen Allen), 146 def. (4) Nick Austin (Richmond), 141, 20 holes
(20) Austin Gray (Midlothian), 144 def. (13) Vincent Nadeau (Penhook), 143, 2 and 1
(28) Jerry Burton (Charlottesville), 146 def. (5) Tim Kelley (Ashland), 142, 19 holes
(21) Buck Brittain (Tazewell), 144 def. (12) Daniel Walker (Earlysville), 143, 19 holes
(2) Brinson Paolini (Virginia Beach), 139 def. (31) Keith Decker (Martinsville), 146, 3 and 2
(18) Ji Soo Park (Centreville), 144 def. (15) Wes Smith (Virginia Beach), 144, 7 and 5
(7) Fielding Brewbaker (Salem), 142 def. (26) Jason Copeland (Virginia Beach), 146, 3 and 2
(23) Scott Marino (Fairfax), 145 def. (10) Allen Barber (Yorktown), 143, 2 and 1
(30) Jake Mondy (Blacksburg), 146 def. (3) Kyle Bailey (Fincastle), 140, 2 and 1
(14) Jordan Utley (Richmond), 144 def. (19) Evan Beck (Virginia Beach), 144, 3 and 2
(27) Jeremy Wells (Hopewell), 146 def. (6) Jeffrey Topp (Fairfax), 142, 2 up
(11) Garland Green (Tazewell), 143 def. (22) Trae Kresinske (Chesapeake), 145, 4 and 3
SUFFOLK –– Results from the second round of match play at the 96th VSGA Amateur Championship at Cedar Point Country Club (7,109 yards par 36-36––72) on Thursday, June 25 (qualifying score indicated in parentheses).
(16) Lanto Griffin (Blacksburg), 144 def. (1) Mikey Moyers (Stanardsville), 132, 2 up
(24) Pat Tallent (Vienna), 145 def. (25) Scott Huneycutt (Portsmouth), 145, 5 and 3
(29) Ben Keefer (Glen Allen), 146 def. (20) Austin Gray (Midlothian), 144, 20 holes
(21) Buck Brittain (Tazewell), 144 def. (28) Jerry Burton (Charlottesville), 146, 2 and 1
(2) Brinson Paolini (Virginia Beach), 139 def. (18) Ji Soo Park (Centreville), 144, 5 and 4
(7) Fielding Brewbaker (Salem), 142 def. (23) Scott Marino (Fairfax), 145, 3 and 2
(30) Jake Mondy (Blacksburg), 146 def. (14) Jordan Utley (Richmond), 144, 2 up
(11) Garland Green (Tazewell), 143 def. (27) Jeremy Wells (Hopewell), 146, 3 and 2
SUFFOLK –– Groupings and starting times for the quarterfinal round of match play at the 96th VSGA Amateur Championship at Cedar Point Country Club (7,109 yards par 36-36––72) on Friday, June 26 (qualifying score indicated in parentheses).
Friday (June 26), Hole No. 1
8 a.m.: (16) Lanto Griffin (Blacksburg), 144 vs. (24) Pat Tallent (Vienna), 145
8:10 a.m.: (29) Ben Keefer (Glen Allen), 146 vs. (21) Buck Brittain (Tazewell), 144
8:20 a.m.: (2) Brinson Paolini (Virginia Beach), 139 vs. (7) Fielding Brewbaker (Salem), 142
8:30 a.m.: (30) Jake Mondy (Blacksburg), 146 vs. (11) Garland Green (Tazewell), 143
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