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By Chris Lang
BRISTOL — Andy Heye and Rich Buckner hit The Virginian Golf Club on Tuesday for a practice round, and afterward, Heye had a number in mind for Wednesday’s first round of the 36th VSGA Senior Four-Ball Stroke Play Championship: 10 under.
Buckner essentially dismissed the comment, thinking it was a tad unrealistic. Then Heye’s putter got scorching hot, the birdies kept coming, and all of a sudden, the pair had recorded a 10-under 62 to take a three-shot lead heading into Thursday’s second and final round.
“I just made everything I looked at,” said Heye, a member at Chantilly National Golf & Country Club. “I mean, it was stupid. It was a really fun. I birdied all of the par 3s—four 2s on the card. That just doesn’t happen. One of them was from 45 feet. It was great, everything was clicking.”
Buckner (Robert Trent Jones GC) and Heye shot 32 on the front and 30 on the back, and they “never even sniffed a bogey,” Heye said. At one point on the back nine, Heye went birdie-eagle-birdie. They played in the final group off the front nine on Wednesday, paired with defending champions Pat Tallent (Westwood CC) and Keith Decker (Ballyhack GC), one of four sides tied for second after returning 7-under 65s.
Days of rain left the venerable Virginian soft and scoreable, and plenty of sides took advantage. Four sides posted 6-under 66s; five finished at 5-under 67. In all, 13 sides will enter Thursday within five shots of the lead.
“With the way the course was playing, we knew it was going to be a bunched leaderboard,” said Jim Gallagher, who along with partner Jim Nirich posted one of the four 65s. “We’re just happy to be part of the bunch.”
Gallagher (Sleepy Hole GC) was happy to be playing at all, truth be told. Multiple back injuries have forced him to miss plenty of time on the course in the last two years and have changed the way he plays. He called Wednesday a “pleasant surprise.”
“I’m still learning,” Gallagher said. “I can’t swing the way I used to, and I’m certainly not hitting the ball as far as I once did. So those are big factors. I’m learning what a lot of guys already know—how to hit a hybrid from 190 yards. I’ve never had to do that before, so it’s different for me. But it’s a pretty small complaint compared to what I could be dealing with.”
“But he’s still hitting the ball solid,” said Nirich, a member at Stonewall Golf Club. “He doesn’t miss the ball. With the trouble he’s gone through with his back, to be able to hit the ball in the center of the clubface every time, it’s unbelievable. It really is.”
Jon Zampedro (Chantilly National G&CC) and Jack Allara (Hidden Valley CC) also shot 65, a three-putt bogey on No. 13 preventing them from reaching Allara’s stated goal of an 8-under 64.
“We’ve been playing together for three years now, and our games are very complementary,” Zampedro joked of the talkative Allara. “I just let him talk all the time and I don’t say anything.”
The final 65 belonged to Steve Serrao (Willow Oaks CC) and Cam Young (Independence GC). Serrao recently joined the senior ranks and is competing in his first VSGA senior championship. Both players were exempt from qualifying and looking to play with Hank Klein in the event, but Klein was unavailable to participate.
“He asked Hank, and Hank said he couldn’t do it because he had work stuff going on,” Serrao said. “I was actually sitting with Hank at Hank’s new card shop, and I called Cam and asked if he wanted to play in the Four-Ball. He said, ‘I can’t, I’m waiting on Hank.’ I said, ‘I’m sitting here with Hank, he told me to call you!’”
Everything worked out, considering they posted a bogey-free round that featured seven birdies.
“We stayed in it all day and left nobody hanging,” Young said. “I think that’s really important.”
Among those at 66 were Buck Brittain and Charles Green III, both of whom are Virginian members. Brittain played in the 53rd VSGA Four-Ball Stroke Play Championship at Cedar Point 10 days ago and tied for runner-up honors, paired with Green’s son Garland.
Chris Lang is the Editor of Virginia Golfer Magazine and Manager, Digital Media for the VSGA.