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By Chris Lang
GLEN ALLEN — Somewhere around the 13th hole, when daylight at The Federal Club starting dwindling in quick fashion, Matt Chandler and Jeff Long agreed: They’d play in the dark if they had to, just to finish the second semifinal match at the 3rd VSGA Four-Ball Match Play Championship.
That’s precisely what happened as Saturday afternoon turned quickly into Saturday evening. With smartphone flashlights providing assistance on the pitch-black 18th green, Long sank a three-foot par putt halve the hole and clinch a 1-up victory. Long (Evergreen CC) and Kyle Bailey (Roanoke CC) exhausted every possible second of daylight and eliminated the defending champions, Chandler and Brandon LaCroix (Hunting Hills CC).
“I’ve watched Bagger Vance, and that’s the closest I’ve come to doing that,” Long joked of playing in the dark. “Trust me, I was very disappointed when I rolled that up there to three feet. I was like, come on man, don’t give yourself a tester like that.”
Long and Bailey, seeded third in the regular division, will face the top seed, Justin Young (Ballyhack GC) and Jimmy Delp (Laurel Hill GC) in Sunday’s championship match at 8:10 a.m. Young and Delp finished off Buck Brittain (The Virginian GC) and Garland Green (Tazewell County CC) 5 and 4, with plenty of daylight to spare.
The senior division championship match will begin at 8 a.m. Sunday. Scott Reisenweaver (Salisbury CC) and Leon Roday (Kinloch GC), the top-seeded side, rolled to their third straight convincing victory, taking out David Jordan (Willow Oaks CC) and Jim Woodson (Mill Quarter Plantation) 6 and 5 in the semifinals. Reisenweaver and Roday, who lost in a playoff at the VSGA Senior Four-Ball Championship in May, have yet to play past the 14th hole at The Federal Club, their closest victory a 5-and-4 triumph in Saturday’s quarterfinal match.
“The times we’ve played together, we’ve both managed to stay in the hole a lot,” Roday said. “We played 27 holes today and had no bogeys. And that’s a big advantage.”
Said Reisenweaver: “We kept the tee all day, which to me is huge. You play first, get it in the fairway, get it on the green. Just pressure, pressure, pressure. And when you get up (in the match), you just make pars.”
Reisenweaver and Roday will face the sixth seed, Dave Pulk (Two Rivers CC) and Skip Zobel (Princess Anne CC), in Sunday’s championship match. Pulk and Zobel collected a pair of 2-and-1 victories, defeating Randall Newsome and Scott Gilchrist (The Piedmont Club) in the semifinals.
Newsome and Gilchrist advanced with a fabulous rally in their quarterfinal match against Rich Buckner (Robert Trent Jones GC) and Bob Bailey (James River CC). Buckner and Bailey were dormie heading to 16, but Newsome and Gilchrist won the final three holes to extend the match, and Newsome made a birdie on the first extra hole to complete the comeback.
Delp and Young were playing as four-ball partners in a championship for the first time, and they clicked well in their matches on Saturday. They pulled off a 4-and-3 win in the quarterfinals before their comfortable semifinal triumph.
“My goal, is if I play my game and get it in the fairway, it frees Jimmy up to do his thing, and take advantage of his length,” Young said.
“Justin doesn’t miss many fairways,” Delp added. “He’s got a great iron and short game. He’s pretty comfortable over the ball, and I can be a little more aggressive. This week, it’s been great.”
In a matchup of the two past champions of this event, LaCroix and Chandler defeated Keith Decker (Chatmoss CC) and Jon Hurst (Fredericksburg CC) in 19 holes in the quarterfinals, a big reason why the second semifinal started so late and finished in the dark.
Chris Lang is the Editor of Virginia Golfer Magazine and Manager, Digital Media for the VSGA.