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By Arthur Utley
WILLIAMSBURG — Buddy Patch’s second shot on the par-5 second hole on the Golden Horseshoe’s Gold Course found the bottom of the cup for the first double eagle of his golfing career.
Buck Brittain logged eight birdies, and reigning champion Rich Buckner carded seven birdies on the way to a score that was 14 shots better than last year’s opening qualifying round.
The trio resides at the top of the leaderboard after Monday’s first day of stroke-play qualifying at the 71st Virginia State Golf Association Senior Amateur Championship.
Patch (Springfield Golf & Country Club) and Brittain (The Virginian) posted 5-under-par 66s on a soggy Gold Course that absorbed 3 inches of rain during the weekend. Buckner (Robert Trent Jones GC), who was the tournament runner-up in 2016, turned in a 4-under 67.
Roger Newsom (Elizabeth Manor G&CC), the 2014 Senior Open of Virginia champion and twice a winner of the State Open of Virginia, is two shots back after carding 3-under 68.
Three players returned 2-under 69s: three-time Senior Amateur champion Keith Decker (Chatmoss CC); two-time Senior Amateur winner and recent Middle Atlantic Golf Association Senior Amateur champion David Partridge (Hermitage CC); and Steve Serrao (Willow Oaks CC), who is half of the reigning Senior Four-Ball Championship side.
Serrao’s partner in the Four-Ball, Cam Young (Independence GC), was one of six players to return even-par 71.
Tuesday’s second round of stroke-play qualifying will determine the 32 players who advance to the match-play portion of the tournament that begins Wednesday with two matches. Thirty-one players are at 3-over 74 or better after the opening round. Another 12 players are at 4-over.
Seven players posted scores in the 60s on Monday. Of the seven, only Partridge and Serrao started on the back nine.
Patch, who has qualified for the U.S. Senior Amateur later this month in Eugene, Ore., parred the opening hole then hit a tee shot on the par-5 second that left him 180 yards from the water-guarded plateau green.
”I had a 6-iron in and it flew straight in the hole. Normally when you hit a shot like that that flies into the hole it does some damage to the cup, but it must have flown directly in because there was absolutely no damage to the cup,” Patch said. “It was so soft today. If it would have touched anything around the cup it would have made major damage, but it must have hit the pole and went straight in.”
Scoring his first double eagle in a championship “makes it even more special,” he added.
His tee shot on the next hole, the par-3 third, came close to going in for an ace, but he didn’t make birdie. He added birdies at the par-5 sixth and the par-4 13th and didn’t make a bogey.
“It was a pretty stress-free round for me,” Patch said. “Tomorrow will be more of the same: aiming for the middle of the greens, sticking with my driver. It’s playing pretty short out there just because it’s so wet, and the ball’s not running out…so it’s going to be…aiming for the middle of the greens, trying to shoot right around par and get into match play.”
Brittain, who was the No. 3 seed in match play in his first Senior Amateur last year, recorded only two pars on the front nine on Monday. He logged four birdies and three bogeys before adding four birdies on the back nine.
“I hit it close…I probably had four putts inside of 4 feet that I thought I hit pretty good putts and bounced out the hole,” Brittain said. “I knocked it on two of par 5s in two and two-putted, and I made a long putt on the par-3, 12, probably 20 feet, and everything else I made was inside of 5 feet.”
Going into Tuesday’s second round, “I’m going to keep trying to hit fairways and greens. That was my goal today starting out. I hit a lot of greens where I hopefully could get that first putt within a foot or two, which I did most of the time.”
Three bogeys – a missed green and two three-putts – kept Buckner from going even lower.
“It was a good ball-striking day. The whole goal is to get into match play and figure out what happens,” said Buckner, who followed his opening 81 a year ago at Keswick’s Full Cry course with 69 and won the tournament as the No. 24 seed. “I didn’t start off well in stroke play last year so I wanted to do better this year to take a little pressure off. I think being the defending champion is a neat thing, and we’ll see what we can do this year.”
Retired Richmond Times-Dispatch staff writer Arthur Utley is a frequent contributor to VSGA.org.