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By Chris Lang
LYNCHBURG — Familiarity paid off for the Virginias’ squad on the first day of the 35th Virginias-Carolinas Junior Boys’ Matches at Boonsboro Country Club, as a pair of sides featuring high-school teammates accounted for three of the home team’s four points in four-ball and foursome play Saturday.
The matches will head to Sunday singles tied 4-4, and those sets of teammates played a huge role.
Connor Johnson Jr. and Drew Brockwell, current teammates at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond and future teammates at Virginia Tech, went 2-0 in their matches. Jimmie Massie and Connor Burgess, Boonsboro members and former teammates at Lynchburg’s E.C. Glass High School, teamed for a critical point in the afternoon session.
“I think there’s a comfortability with somebody you know so well,” Johnson said. “You know their game. You know their misses. You know what they do well. You feed off each other a little bit, and I think we did that pretty well for the most part today.”
Brockwell (GC at the Highlands) and Johnson (CC of Virginia) defeated the Carolinas’ Danny Azallion and Jack Massei 3 and 2 in a morning four-ball match. In the afternoon alternate-shot match, they took the 18th hole against Azallion and Garrett Cooper to record a 2-up win.
“We ping-pong really well,” Brockwell said. “The last couple of months, we’ve played a bunch. And this is how we play.”
Brockwell and Johnson were partners at last year’s VSGA Four-Ball Match Play Championship, as well as during last year’s the Virginias-Carolinas Junior Boys’ Matches. Massie and Burgess haven’t played as much together in competitive four-ball play, but they’re longtime friends who know each other’s games well.
“I think we’re a good pair,” said Burgess, who won his first American Junior Golf Association tournament title earlier this week in South Carolina. “He drives the ball really straight. And we’re both good players. I always look forward to playing with him.”
Burgess and Massie closed the day with a 2-and-1 win over Massei and Michael Sanders, clinching the match on the 17th green. Burgess hit a 4-iron on the long par 3 to 15 feet, and Massie confidently rammed home the birdie putt for the win.
“I told Connor I was going to make it,” Massie said.
Burgess went 1-1 for the Virginias’ squad, as did Teddy Zinsner, the champion of the VSGA Junior Stroke Play Championship in July. Zinsner and Massie defeated Nicholas Mayfield and Fulton Smith 1 up in a morning four-ball match.
“We played well together, we were a good team,” Massie said. “If I had a bad hole, he had a good one. We were able to balance it out.”
Two Carolinas players went 2-0 on Saturday. Quinn Riley, the North Carolina Junior Boys’ Champion, paired with Cooper in the morning for a 3-and-2 win over Michael Brennan (River Creek Club) and Mason Williams (Bridgeport, W. Va.). Riley and Fulton Smith handled Brennan and Zinsner (Belle Haven CC) 5 and 3 in the afternoon.
Brady Hinkle also had a perfect day. He teamed with Sanders for a 1-up win over Burgess and Jack Montague (Hermitage CC) in the morning before pairing with Mayfield for a 3-and-2 win over Montague and Williams in foursome play.
The event concludes Sunday with eight singles matches beginning at 8 a.m. The Virginias team is looking for its second straight win on home turf, having won at Boonsboro in 2015. It will be the last Junior Boys’ Matches for Boonsboro head professional John Comninaki, who is retiring at the end of the year after 33 years with the club. Boonsboro has hosted the event every year is has been contested in Virginia.