NOTE TO MEDIA: Links to scoring, photos, the Day 1 recap and the event preview can be found on the event portal at the link posted above. Please click on the “Media” tab to find those items. Photos are downloadable and usable for print. Please credit Ben Walls/VSGA.
By Ben Walls
RICHMOND—Answering how he felt about Wednesday’s second stroke play round at the 31st Junior Match Play Championship, Xander Goboy, who only shot 2-under-par 70 Tuesday, mentioned that he “woke up feeling dangerous” before heading to Willow Oaks Country Club.
Giving thanks to consistently hitting greens and having a couple good bounces on the back nine, Chesapeake’s Goboy surged into first place on Wednesday after posting a two-day aggregate 7-under 135.
Goboy who was 2021’s Junior Match Play Championship medalist at Winchester Country Club outperformed himself by one stroke compared to last year’s championship after Wednesday.
“Today I played the same,” Goboy said. “This course is playing really nice right now—solid. You just have to put yourself in the right spot to go, though.”
After Wednesday afternoon, Goboy again earned the top seed in match play beginning Thursday morning—he also one of four players who shot under 70 on Tuesday and Wednesday. David Zhang from Blacksburg (66-70), Garrett Kuhla from Richmond (67-69) and Preston Burton from Charlottesville (69-69) joined his ranks. Zhang and Kuhla tied for second in stroke-play qualifying.
“I’m a little bummed I didn’t get medalist, but I’m excited for match play and just excited to be in top 16, which was my goal coming into the week,” Kuhla said, who shared that a couple short putts throughout the morning were skills he would need to fix for the rest of the week.
As a Willow Oaks member, Kuhla had pulled his ball into No.18’s bunker but managed to use a 54-degree wedge to set himself up for par to finish the round.
“(Shooting under 70 back-to-back) was really tough,” Kuhla said. “I feel like a lot of people look at it as ‘oh, it’s his home course; he’s expected to play well,’ but I feel like there was a little pressure on me to play well, being this is my home course.
“I just trusted my game and didn’t try to do anything different, and I’m just really happy how I played. These are probably some of the best rounds I’ve played out here—I’m really excited.”
Zhang, who led after Tuesday’s round at Willow Oaks, noted a shot on No. 10 which landed into a penalty area and longer putts throughout the day may have made the difference in his game.
Goboy and Zhang will hope for better results than last year, when they were seeded 1-2 at Winchester but both lost in the round of 16. Goboy opens against No. 16 seed Sam Hahn. Zhang will face No. 15 seed Grady Williams.
Burton had bogeyed holes No. 1, 2 and 3 before finishing 3-under Wednesday, and Logan Reilly finished 3-under Wednesday as well after posting 2-over the day prior.
“I hit the ball way better, so I gave myself definitely more birdie opportunities and converted on a lot of them,” Reilly said, who tied for 10th with Major Ewing. “I knew I had to go low today…I let the birdies come to me—I didn’t try force anything.”
Like Reilly, Joseph Winston came from behind and finished 3-under aggregate 141 and tied for eighth with Ryan Wheeler.
According to Winston, his short game and burying a few 5-footers which he did not encounter Tuesday helped his round.
Thursday’s play will feature the rounds of 16 and quarterfinals. The semifinals and 18-hole championship match are scheduled for Friday.
Walls is a P.J. Boatwright intern for the VSGA.