Scoring [icon name="external-link" class="" unprefixed_class=""] | Preview [icon name="file-pdf-o" class="" unprefixed_class=""] | Day 1 recap
By Arthur Utley
WILLIAMSBURG — Buck Brittain (The Virginian) left no doubt as to who would be the medalist in stroke-play qualifying for the 71st Virginia State Golf Association Senior Amateur Championship.
Brittain toured the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club’s Gold Course on Tuesday in 5-under-par 66 for the second day in a row and finished the 36 holes of qualifying with a 10-under-par score of 132.
The two rounds of qualifying determined the 32 players who advanced to match play that begins Wednesday with two matches. Brittain claimed the top seed. A blind draw determined seeds for those players who finished with the same 36-hole aggregate. The quarterfinals and semifinals are Thursday, and the scheduled 18-hole final is Friday.
Brittain, last year’s Senior Open of Virginia champion, finished five strokes clear of two-time Senior Amateur champion David Partridge (Hermitage CC) and past Senior Open of Virginia champion Roger Newsom (Elizabeth Manor G&CC). Each finished with 5-under totals of 137. Partridge posted a second-day, 3-under 68 and received the second seed. Newsom shot 69 and is the third seed.
Three-time Senior Amateur champion Keith Decker (Chatmoss CC); defending champion Rich Buckner (Robert Trent Jones GC); and first-day co-leader Buddy Patch (Springfield G&CC) tied for fourth in the qualifying with a 3-under aggregate of 139.
Patch (73) drew the fourth seed. A year ago, he was the No. 32 seed and eliminated medalist Michael Keating in the first round. Buckner (72), who was the runner-up to Decker in 2016, is the fifth seed. Decker shot 70 on Tuesday and is the sixth seed.
Steve Serrao (Willow Oaks CC) is the seventh seed after shooting 71-140, and Golden Horseshoe member Rob Harrell (68-140) is the eighth seed.
Rounding out the top 10 seeds are No. 9 Jim Gallagher (Sleepy Hole GC), the 2013 Senior Amateur runner-up who posted 70-141, and No. 10 Vinny Giles (Kinloch GC), a member of the Virginia Golf Hall of Fame inaugural class and a two-time winner of the Senior Amateur. The 75-year-old Giles rallied from a first-round 75 to shoot 4-under 67 (seven birdies, three bogeys) on Tuesday for the second best score of the day.
Nineteen from last year’s match-play field, including 2017 runner-up Duncan Hardcastle (Magnolia Green GC), qualified for this year’s bracket.
Brittain set a tournament record for score in relation to par with his 10-under, 132 total. Decker won the qualifying medal at Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club in 2015 with a 131 aggregate that was 7 under-par on the par-69 layout.
Brittain logged six birdies against one bogey in Tuesday’s round after ringing up eight birdies in the first round.
Taking the medal “makes you feel good going into match play…I know I’m playing well. I played good [Monday]. Trying to follow up a good round, sometimes it’s tough,” Brittain said. “I started on the back today and birdied 10. I found myself a time or two sort of playing conservatively and kept trying to be a little more aggressive. I hit it close to the hole several times and made some birdies.”
Brittain, who was the No. 3 seed and lost in the first match in 2017, knows anything can happen in match play.
“I’m hitting it good. I’m hitting it where I want to hit it. As long as I keep it in play, hit fairways and greens…I think I can putt with anybody…just keep giving myself chances and see what happens,” he said.
Brittain’s first opponent is David Price (Stoneleigh G&CC). Price became the last player to make the match-play field by winning a four-for-one-playoff with George Kaptanakis (Trump National), David Tolley (Ole Monterey GC) and Randall Newsome (The Piedmont Club). Price won with par on the third extra hole.
Partridge, whose first opponent is Hardcastle, played bogey free in the second round, hitting 16 greens in regulation and carding 15 pars and three birdies. He won his second Senior Amateur in 2015 and is coming off a recent victory in the Middle Atlantic Golf Association Senior Championship.
Going into match play “you’ve got to be ready to play. When I looked at the field this year, it was probably the deepest field I’ve ever seen,” Partridge said. “There are a lot of players fully capable of winning the golf tournament. It’s great to see, but it also means it will be a lot harder to win than it might have been in the past, so you better be ready to go right from the get-go because if not, somebody’s going to eat your lunch.”
Newsom was the No. 2 seed at Keswick a year ago and was among the first-round upset victims. He faces Neil Davis (Birdwood GC) in Wednesday’s first match. Davis knocked off Decker in the first round last year.
“I’m just playing the golf that I play. I’m not looking at where I am, high or low, I’m just going out trying as hard as I can try,” Newsom said after a round that included an eagle (No. 2), a birdie (No. 15) and a bogey (No. 11).
Newsom and Brittain agree with Partridge about the quality of the match-play field.
“I want to play good players. You want to beat who you are playing and you want the guy you’re playing to play well and you beat him,” Brittain said. “It does get you excited knowing you’re going to have some good players to play.”
For Newsom, “That’s when you know you are playing your best golf. When you are playing with these guys, you know you’re right where you want to be.”
Retired Richmond Times-Dispatch staff writer Arthur Utley is a frequent contributor to VSGA.org.