Scoring [icon name="external-link" class="" unprefixed_class=""] | Preview [icon name="file-pdf-o" class="" unprefixed_class=""] | Day 1 recap | Day 2 photos [icon name="facebook-official" class="" unprefixed_class=""]
By Damien Sordelett
LYNCHBURG — Jayde Dudley vividly remembers her first appearance in the Virginia State Golf Association Junior Girls’ Championship. She played in the age 12-13 division four years ago at Old Trail Golf Club in Crozet and finished in a tie for 36th.
What the Roanoke native admired the most were the trophies. She turned to her grandmother, legendary golfer Dot Bolling, and said, “Nana, I really want one of these trophies one of these years.”
Bolling replied, ‘Well there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll win one one of these days.”
One of those days came Wednesday.
Dudley calmly sank two big par putts to close out her round of 1-over-par 73 and the Hidden Valley High School rising senior held off Appomattox’s Jillian Drinkard by two shots to win the 49th VSGA Junior Girls’ Championship at Boonsboro Country Club.
“This is definitely the biggest tournament I’ve won,” Dudley said.
The 17-year-old Dudley, a Hidden Valley Golf Club member who reached match play in the VSGA Women’s Amateur Championship earlier this month at Farmington Country Club, finished the two-day Junior Girls’ Championship with an aggregate total of 1-over 145.
She and Drinkard were tied after No. 13 Wednesday following Drinkard’s challenging birdie putt at the short par-3 hole.
Dudley converted a par attempt at No. 14 while Drinkard, who will join the Methodist University golf team in the fall, missed her par putt to the right side of the hole and fell a stroke behind.
Drinkard double-bogeyed No. 15 after her second shot almost went into a wooded area to the left of the fairway short of the green.
“I had two clumps of crabgrass on each side of my ball,” Drinkard explained. “I was just playing to the front of the green. I went and swung and [the crabgrass] grabbed my club and threw that under.”
Dudley was unable to take advantage of Drinkard’s misfortune, as she bogeyed the next two holes. Drinkard recovered to par the difficult par-5 16th.
Both golfers’ tees shots at the par-3 17th landed left of the green. Drinkard’s chip shot failed to reach the green, while Dudley reached the green right as a heavy rain began saturating Boonsboro’s fabled tract.
Dudley converted her par putt and Drinkard three-putted for a double-bogey to fall three shots back heading to the final hole.
“I don’t think it really affected it at all physically,” Drinkard said of the rain. “Mentally I was thinking hit it harder and I didn’t have to. In the end, it really didn’t affect me at all.”
Dudley flashed a wide smile and pumped her fist in the air after converting her up-and-down from the right greenside bunker at No. 18 for par to secure the victory.
“I knew I won,” Dudley said. “I pretty much knew I won and I knew I played a good two days. It was honestly so amazing to have that.”
Herndon’s Danielle Suh was one of four golfers to shoot 1 over Wednesday and she finished third at 5-over 149.
Victoria Tip-Aucha came up short in her bid to win three consecutive Junior Girls’ Championships. The VSGA Junior Golf Circuit member who spends her summers in Haymarket shot 6 over Wednesday to finish in fourth at 6-over 150.
Norfolk’s Rebecca DiNunzio finished fifth at 7-over 151.
Sordelett is a reporter for the News & Advance in Lynchburg.