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By Chris Lang
ROANOKE — Haymarket’s Scott Shingler opened last year’s Delta
Dental State Open of Virginia with a 67. Then, he admitted, he got ahead of
himself. He struggled to two over-par finishes in the subsequent rounds and
found himself well out of the running.
The one takeaway from that
experience was to remind himself to stay in the moment. After opening with a
4-under-par 68 at Ballyhack Golf Club on Thursday, he responded with a 5-under
67 on a brutally hot Friday to move into a tie for the 36-hole lead with Josh
Speight at 9-under par 135.
Those two players’ great rounds on Friday – Speight, a PGA professional from Indian Creek Yacht & Country Club in Kilmarnock shot a 6-under 66 – set up what figures to be a fantastic finish to the 54-hole championship on Saturday at Ballyhack.
Shingler and Speight are one
shot clear of first-round co-leader Mason Stutler, who battled a balky swing but
grinded out a 1-under 71 on Friday to stand at 8-under 136 after two days. Just
behind them, three amateurs are tied at 6-under 138: Collegians Carter Morgan
and Mark Lawrence Jr., and 15-year-old Will Watson. Lawrence, a rising senior
at Virginia Tech, returned a 9-under 63 Friday and tied the competitive course
record set last year by Justin Young.
“A really special round,”
Lawrence said.
In all, eight players enter
Saturday within four shots of the lead, on a course that has been known to
produce wild lead swings on the tournament’s final day.
“This is a course where if you
get it going, you can go low,” said Morgan, a rising junior at Old Dominion who
recently qualified for the U.S. Amateur. “But if you get it going the other
way, you can make some big numbers. This is definitely a course where coming
down the back nine, things can swing.”
The 47-year-old Shingler will
join Speight and Stutler in the final group. Shingler put together another
strong round on Friday, finishing with seven birdies and an unlucky double
bogey on No. 6. On that hole, he chunked a wedge into a bunker, leaving the
ball was lodged near the lip. His only option was to hit it out sideways, and
he was unable to get up and down to save bogey.
“I think last year, I may have
gotten ahead of myself, because I want to win this one,” Shingler said. “I just
did a better job of staying focused and playing golf this time around. Tomorrow’s
going to be even tougher than today. I just need to keep my mental process
consistent and my gameplan working. It’s just going to come down to executing
shots and hitting putts.”
Speight, who participated in the
2016 PGA Championship, got off to a rough start on Friday, making a triple
bogey on the par-4 12 that he called “relatively good,” considering the
circumstances.
“Hit a bad tee ball left,”
Speight said. “Re-teed, then hit that one right, in the worst lie I could
possibly get.”
Three over through three holes,
he rallied to finish with eight birdies and an eagle on No. 2, where he crushed
a drive and hit a 6-iron to six feet before converting the putt.
“I played that hole about as
perfect as you can,” Speight said.
Speight brought two-time VSGA
Amateur champion Sam Wallace along with him this week, and he said Wallace’s
insight and mental support were critical during his round Friday.
“I’m very lucky this week,”
Speight said. “I talked my very good friend Sam Wallace, who is a VSGA legend,
into coming out here, being 80 years old, braving this heat with me. He’s kept
me very focused. I had some moments even yesterday, and definitely today with
the triple, that I could have gone off the rails a little bit. He really kept
me reined in.”
Stutler said his round of 71 on
Friday was just as important as his 7-under 65 on Thursday, because things didn’t
go his way early and he didn’t let the round slip away from him. Stutler, who
works at Kinloch Golf Club, made four birdies and three bogeys to come in under
par and stay within striking distance of the lead.
“Yesterday, I got off to a good
start and everything was clicking,” Stutler said. “When you’re making birdies,
things seem really easy. Today, was the polar opposite. I got off to a really
rough start, not hitting fairways, not hitting greens. It was kind of just
scrambling and hanging on, a test of patience, for sure.”
Lawrence opened with a 3-over 75
on Thursday, though most of the damage came from big numbers on two holes. He
was completely dialed in Friday, finishing with 10 birdies and a bogey. He said
he made six putts from 10 feet and out, “probably the best I’ve ever putted out
here.”
“I started doing the arm lock
with the claw grip about four years ago, and I’ve pretty much stuck with that
since,” Lawrence said. “I actually just put a new grip on my putter. Elliott
Wilson (the pro at Independence GC, where Lawrence is a member) and I added an
inch extension to it last week, and I used it in the father-son (the Galloway
at Hermitage CC) and rolled the ball way better with it. It just keeps
working.”
Lawrence will be in the
penultimate grouping on Saturday with Morgan and Watson, who posted a wild 66
that included a 30 on the back nine in which he carded a whopping seven
birdies. That score could have been even better, considering he made double
bogey on No. 2, Ballyhack’s easiest hole.
Tied for seventh at 7-under 139
are teenagers Benjamin Kruper of Woodbridge and Christopher Zhang of
Blacksburg. First-round co-leader Peter Gasperini of South Boston struggled to
a second-round 75 but enters Saturday within five shots of the lead at 4-under
140. Also at 140 is Manakin-Sabot’s Jack Montague, a rising sophomore at the
University of Virginia who posted a 6-under 66 on Friday.
Chris Lang is the Editor of Virginia Golfer Magazine and Manager,
Digital Media for the VSGA. The Delta Dental State Open of Virginia is
conducted jointly by the VSGA and the Middle Atlantic PGA.