Scoring [icon name="external-link" class="" unprefixed_class=""] | Preview [icon name="file-pdf-o" class="" unprefixed_class=""] | Round 1 recap
By Arthur Utley
HOT SPRINGS – A four-birdie back nine and a three-shot swing at the par-3 16th hole propelled Jack Vardaman to victory in the 33rd VSGA Super Senior Stroke Play Championship at The Omni Homestead Resort.
Vardaman (The Homestead, Washington) posted a 2-under-par 70 on the resort’s Old Course on Wednesday and finished the 36-hole tournament with a 2-under aggregate of 142. The victory was his first in the Super Senior Stroke Play. He has won his age group twice and been runner-up once at the VSGA Super Senior Amateur Championship.
The tournament’s overnight leader, Vardaman was one of three players to break par on Wednesday after no one posted a score in red figures on Tuesday.
Barrett Cawood (The Waterfront CC, Moneta) turned in the best score of the tournament, a 3-under 69, and wound up two strokes behind Vardaman at par 144.
Charles Green III (The Virginian, Bristol), the 2016 Super Senior Stroke Play champion, carded a 2-under 70 for a two-day total of 3-over 147 and shared third place with Pat Gregory (Salisbury CC, Midlothian), the Richmond Golf Association Super Senior champion. Gregory shot a 1-over 73 on Wednesday.
Bert Allen (Boonsboro CC, Forest) and Mark Stephens (The Virginian, Bristol) each shot a pair of 74s to finish at 4-over 148.
Three players tied for seventh at 149: Dayton Slater (Shenandoah Valley GC, Richmond), Bill Nunnenkamp (Blue Hills GC, Blue Ridge) and Mike McDonald (Two Rivers CC, Williamsburg).
“I feel great about [this]. You don’t win these things very often and I don’t care how good you are,” the 78-year-old Vardaman said. “To get a win is really neat. At one point I had it 3-under and I thought if I could get one more and shoot 10 under my age, I thought that would be pretty good, but as it was, I shot eight under my age and doing that in competition is pretty special.”
While Vardaman usually shoots better than his age, he added, “It’s one thing to shoot your age on a daily basis. It’s another to shoot your age in competition and to do it by six shots and eight shots. Admittedly it’s not the hardest golf course, and 78 I don’t regard as my par but still when you do it in competition and win you have a good feeling.”
Vardaman didn’t make a birdie on the back nine in Tuesday’s first round. He made the turn at 1-under on Wednesday with birdies at the third and seventh holes and a bogey at No. 8. He birdied the 10th, 12th, 13th and 16th but made bogeys at Nos. 11, 14 and 15.
“I had a hard time driving the ball today which is unusual because I usually drive it quite straight. I missed seven fairways. Trying to come out of the rough, it was very hard,” said Vardaman, who had little information about the groups playing in front of him.
Cawood, who began the day at 3-over and played two groups in front of Vardman, birdied the seventh, ninth, 10th and 12th holes to reach 1-under for the tournament. He slipped back to even with a bogey at No. 13, but he birdied the 15th to get to 1-under again. He dropped two strokes with a double bogey at 16, and shortly thereafter, Vardaman hit his tee shot on 16 to 5 feet and made the birdie putt to give him the margin of victory.
Green got off to a fast start with an eagle at the par-5 first and sandwiched birdies on Nos. 3 and 6 around a bogey at No. 4 to turn in 3-under for the day. He bogeyed the 10th and finished with eight consecutive pars.