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By Chris Lang
POWHATAN — Scott Shingler, who went off a 8:30 a.m. and finished well before the much anticipated solar eclipse bathed The Foundry Golf Club in a brief bit of darkness, didn’t think his 70 at a U.S. Mid-Amateur qualifier would hold up. Even if you’re in early, a qualifier for a USGA championship is a marathon of a day, because you never know if you’ll have to navigate a playoff once the rest of the field finishes.
“It’s a little nerve wracking, I guess,” Shingler said. “A lot of these guys are your friends, so you don’t want to see them play poorly either. You always want your buddies to make it as well. At the same time, you want to qualify. The wait? There’s mixed emotions. There’s anxiety. It’s a little stressful. You just try to stay in the right frame of mind.”
Shingler (Dominion Valley CC) and Keith Decker (Chatmoss CC) turned in early 70s on Monday afternoon and waited for nearly five hours to see if they had to play more golf. Both hit the driving range. Both practiced putting. In the end, 70 was enough to earn the pair co-medalist honors and berths in the championship proper, which will be held Oct. 7-12 at Capital City Club in Atlanta, Georgia.
After sweating out the round on an oppressively humid day—Decker said he went through 11 bottles of water—the pair earned return trips to the U.S. Mid-Amateur. Shingler will be making his third appearance; Decker his seventh.
“I was 4 under at one time, and a made a couple of bogeys coming in,” Decker said. “But I made some good pars. You just try to survive.”
This will be the second USGA championship this year for both players. Shingler competed in last week’s U.S. Amateur in Los Angeles. Decker leaves later this week for the U.S. Senior Amateur in Minnesota.
They’ll be joined in Atlanta by Jeff Long (Evergreen CC), who shot 71 and made a birdie on No. 18 to advance out of a 3-for-2 playoff. The other playoff participants—Timothy Driver (Holly Springs, N.C.) and Adam Houck (The Federal Club)—made bogey on 18, sending the playoff for the final spot to No. 1.
Houck hit his drive into a hazard and had to take a drop, and he was unable to scramble for par. Driver made a two-putt par to snag the final berth. Houck is the first alternate. Steve Serrao (Willow Oaks CC) was the second alternate after making birdie on No. 1 in a 3-for-1 playoff.
Long was 113 yards out on the playoff hole when he hit a gap wedge to 20 feet. He sank the putt for birdie and celebrated with a huge fist pump.
“I couldn’t move over the putt at first. My legs kind of went numb so I backed off,” Long said. “Then, I felt a little calmness, and it went in. I was really happy about this. Obviously, I’ve caddied for Lauren [girlfriend Lauren Greenlief, the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion] a lot in USGA events, and I’ve made the Four-Ball. But I’ve never gone individually. I’ve been very close. I’ve been an alternate a bunch of times, but I’d never broken through. So it feels really good.”
Chris Lang is the editor of Virginia Golfer magazine and the VSGA’s manager, digital media.