58th VSGA Four-Ball Championship Event Hub
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Dates: Monday, May 8 and Tuesday, May 9
Format: Two rounds of four-ball stroke play. Starting times beginning at 8 a.m. off holes #1 and #10 both days. If there's a tie after 36 holes, a sudden-victory playoff will be utilized to determine a champion.
Host site: The Piedmont Club, Haymarket
Round 2: Beach brothers claim another partner title
HAYMARKET -- Brothers Ben and Sam Beach completed a clean sweep of the Virginia State Golf Association partner events, winning the 58th VSGA Four-Ball Championship on Tuesday at Piedmont Club by one stroke over their three closest pursuers. The Beach brothers opened the season in April by winning the VSGA Multi-Format Team Championship at The Dominion Club.
The Beach brothers, members at Hermitage Country Club, posted an aggregate two-round total of 12-under-par 132, following their opening-round 68 with a second-round 64 that included a birdie binge at the end. Ben Beach clinched the win by sticking his wedge approach from 112 yards out on No. 3 to inside of two feet and converting the ensuing birdie putt.
Due to rain in the area on Tuesday morning, scheduled starting times beginning at 8 a.m. were scrapped in favor of an 11 a.m. shotgun start. As the Beaches were four shots off the first-round lead, they began their day on No. 4.
First-round leaders Alex Price and Robb Kinder of Christopher Newport University were among the sides tied for second at 11-under 133. Joining them were southwest Virginia brothers Garland and Charles Green IV and Richmond's John Rosenstock and Brandon Ramsuer.
Notable:
- Ben Beach won his second VSGA Four-Ball Championship and third VSGA title. He teamed with Kevin Miller to win the title at Fawn Lake in 2015. Sam Beach, a reinstated amateur, won his second VSGA title.
- Ben and Sam are now exempt from qualifying for the VSGA Amateur Championship, which will be held during the last week of June at Boonsboro Country Club.
- The Beaches made their initial surge by making four birdies in a five-hole stretch between holes 8 and 12. They finished with three birdies in their final four holes.
- Ben Beach recorded the final two birdies for the winners. In addition to his clinching birdie on No. 3, he rolled in a downhill 7-foot putt for a 3 on the par-4 1st.
- Ben and Sam are just the second set of brothers to win this championship, joining Bill and Charles Baskervill, who won the title in 1973.
- The Greens, whose father Charles won multiple Four-Ball titles, opened with an eagle on No. 3. They needed birdie on No. 2 to tie the Beaches but settled for par.
- Rosenstock has now been runner-up in this event with three different partners--Brett Chambers in 2017, Jeff Long in 2019 and Ramsuer in 2023. Rosenstock and Ramsuer made seven birdies but a bogey on the par-3 17th on Tuesday proved costly in their pursuit of a playoff.
- 2016 champions Harold Dill and Kyle Bailey started on No. 1 and shot 5-under on the front but were 1-over on the back. They finished at 10-under 134, two shots off the lead.
- Daniel Goode and Patrick Gareiss finished at 10-under 134 and had the best finish of the three Radford University sides in the field.
- This was the ninth time in the last 10 years that the Four-Ball Championship has been decided either by one stroke or in a playoff.
Quotable:
- "He's just played so well, and I've just been able to jump on his back. When he doesn't play a good hole, I've actually felt like I've played a good hole. So I've jumped in when he needs me, which has been fun." -- Ben Beach
- "I think it's a lot of ham and egging. I've had bad holes. He's had bad holes. But yet, we're still right there, having looks at birdies. It's worked out." -- Sam Beach
- "I actually told him when it was in the air that I thought it was going to be pretty good. I played like a dog yesterday, so it was just nice to be able to help." -- Ben Beach on his approach on the final hole.
- "You always think about winning a VSGA event. You grow up playing junior golf here. So the first one was obviously fun. But the second just felt a little different, because we just hung in there today and got it done at the end." -- Ben Beach
- "I made birdie on 10, then Bennie made birdie on 11 and 12 and we kind of had it rolling, so we were like, OK, let's check the scoreboard. We're kind of in this thing. People weren't running away with it." -- Sam Beach
- "We had a good start. We holed out for eagle on the first hole. Then we had a few birdies coming in. But toward the last few holes, we just muster enough." -- Garland Green
- "We hit some good shots on the front and just didn't capitalize by making putts." -- Robb Kinder
- "I think I made a 15-foot birdie putt on 9 and we didn't make a putt outside of three feet the rest of the day. We had good birdie looks on the back and hit good putts, but they just didn't go." -- Alex Price
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Round 1: CNU duo of Price, Kinder snag early lead
HAYMARKET -- The Christopher Newport University duo of Alex Price and Robb Kinder jumped out to a scorching start on Monday morning at The Piedmont Club and posted an 8-under-par 64 to take a two-stroke lead after the opening round of the 58th Virginia State Golf Association Four-Ball Championship.
After opening with a par, Price and Kinder made seven straight birdies to blaze out into the lead. They added another birdie when Price sank a medium-length putt on the par-4 11th to get to 8-under before finishing their round with seven straight pars.
Four sides posted 6-under rounds of 66 and sit two shots off the lead heading into Tuesday's second and final round: Radford University teammates Daniel Goode and Patrick Gareiss; Chesapeake's Conner Doggett and Virginia Beach's Mason McCoy; 2016 Four-Ball champions Harold Dill and Kyle Bailey; and Henrico's Dan Snyder and Springfield's Ryan Mextorf.
Five more sides were tied at 5-under 67, three strokes off the lead.
Notable:
- Goode and Gareiss were one of three sides of Radford teammates participating. Bobby Dudeck III and Nathan Piatt were among the group at 5-under. Nick Taliaferro and Andrew Kennedy, who won the Four-Ball in 2020 at Poplar Grove Golf Club, shot a 3-under 69 and were tied for 13th.
- Later on Monday, Price and Kinder's CNU squad earned an at-large berth in the NCAA Division III championship, which will be held next week in Kentucky.
- Dudeck and Platt rallied with an eagle on 18 to join the 5-under group. They had dropped to 3-under after a bogey on the par-3 17th.
- Brothers Sam and Ben Beach, who won the VSGA Multi-Format Team Championship in April and were part of the winning Hermitage CC squad at the VSGA Club Championship, posted a 4-under 68 and are tied for 11th. Also tied for 11th was Adam Houck and Steve Serrao. Houck teamed with Blake Carter to win last year's Four-Ball at Bay Creek.
- The 450-yard par-4 14th hole played as the hardest hole at Piedmont on Monday, yielding just one birdie to the field. The easiest hole was the finishing par-5 18th, which yielded two eagles and 22 birdies.
- Buck Brittain and Jon Hurst, who have won the last two VSGA Senior Four-Ball titles, returned a 1-under 71 and are tied for 30th.
Quotable:
- "It's not like we were putting ourselves in bad spots, we just weren't making any putts. The back nine, things definitely went a little different." -- Patrick Gareiss
- "I went for it in two and just missed it, hole high right. I was able to chip it in on that one, and that fired us up a little bit. We were able to ride that momentum." -- Gareiss on his eagle on No. 12.
- "We were both in the hole for the most part. We did ham-and-egg it well. If one of us missed the green, the other had a good look at birdie. And we were able to capitalize. We just played solid all day." -- Mason McCoy
- "I'll take it, 100 percent. Considering that's the last time I played, absolutely. That was the last time I teed it up and played any kind of golf. I've hit balls one or two times, but I've just kind of rested since then." -- Conner Doggett, on he and McCoy carrying the momentum from last week's qualifying 66 at Bide-A-Wee into the championship.
- "(Alex Price) struggled a little bit on the first few holes, and I just started making birdies. Then he had a stretch where he made four in a row. So we just ham-and-egged it really well on the front." -- Robb Kinder
- "We thought the back played way harder. You had wedges into everything on the front, except for the par 5s where we were going for it in two. The back, at least starting on 13, we didn't have any less than a 9-iron into any of the par 4s, which made it really hard to score." -- Price
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