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By Chris Lang
WILLIAMSBURG — Manakin-Sabot’s Cam Young played quarterback at Virginia Tech some 30 years ago, and the competitiveness learned from his football career has translated nicely to the golf course, especially when it comes to match play.
“I think it does,” Young said. “Having played quarterback, you have to stay very even keel during a game. You can’t get too high, and you can’t get too low. And I think I do that very well on the golf course.”
Young’s opponents throughout the 71st Virginia State Golf Association Senior Amateur Championship can attest to that. Young completed an impressive run Friday morning, closing out a five-match run to the championship with a 5-and-4 victory over Great Falls’ Mark Boedicker at the Golden Horseshoe’s Gold Course to secure his first VSGA individual title.
The win on Friday added to an already successful year for Young (Independence GC), who partnered with Steve Serrao to win the VSGA Senior Four-Ball Stroke Play title in May and won the Golden Horseshoe Invitational four-ball tournament with Robert Nussey in July.
One of the biggest bonuses of winning the Senior Four-Ball was that Young was exempt from qualifying for the Senior Amateur. His victory on Friday earned him a spot in the Senior Open of Virginia in September, a good thing since he failed to qualify for that event when he tried a couple of weeks ago at The Piedmont Club.
“Qualifying is never easy, and I didn’t play well that day,” Young said. “So exemptions are nice.”
Young struggled early on Friday to regain the form he showed in Thursday’s thrilling 1-up semifinal win over Buck Brittain. But once he got rolling, he was difficult to catch. Boedicker (Robert Trent Jones GC) won the first hole with the birdie. Young squared the match with a par on 4 and took his first lead on No. 7, when Boedicker ran into trouble off the tee.
Boedicker’s drive on the par-3 7th was short and settled in tall grass right of the green, leaving a nearly impossible up-and-down to make par. He got the ball on the green from the tall stuff, but he had 40 feet or so for par. After he missed, Young made a two-putt par from about 18 feet to take the lead.
Young took control from there. Another par-bogey swing on No. 8 put Young 2 up, and he made a birdie putt on No. 9 to take a 3-up advantage to the turn. Boedicker had an opportunity to cut into the lead but missed a birdie look from about 15 feet away on 10.
Both players made birdie on 11 and par on 12, and Young essentially put the match away when he hit his approach on 13 to two feet. Boedicker missed a 10-foot birdie look, and Young took a 4-up lead to 14. Boedicker’s approach on the par-4 hole went into the greenside bunker, and he was unable to get up and down to save par. Young secured the win with a two-putt par.
“I drove the ball very, very well,” Boedicker said. “I had some opportunities to make putts, but I didn’t. And that’s what it came down to. Cam played fabulous. Hats off to him. He deserved it.”
After surviving the first few holes Friday morning, Young’s game tightened up, and he was difficult to beat.
“I found something yesterday, playing Buck, that kind of clicked,” Young said. “When I had a wedge in my hand, I was hitting it pretty close. That was the key to the whole week for me. I was able to make some birdies from pretty close range when I got it in there. I played some really great players. … I was fortunate. I hit it well and played well, and I’m really happy right now.”
The loss didn’t take the shine off a tremendous week for Boedicker, who defeated three of the top six winningest golfers in VSGA history (Vinny Giles, David Partridge and Keith Decker) just to reach the final.
Before the match, as he always does, Boedicker opened his yardage book to find a photo of his 24-year-old daughter, Mackenzie, who two years ago was diagnosed with Amyloidosis, a rare and deadly bone marrow disorder that causes a buildup of abnormal protein in vital organs, eventually leading to organ failure.
After undergoing successful treatment at the Mayo Clinic, Mackenzie is now in complete remission, thanks in large part to early diagnosis.
Seeing the photo before teeing it up reminds Boedicker that golf, though competitive, is just a game.
“We’ve had a lot of things going on in our family, and my daughter got very, very ill last year,” Boedicker said. “So it helps to keep things in perspective. What do I take away from this week? It’s that I love the game, but it’s not everything. But I had an opportunity to do something that I’ve never done before. I’m proud of the way I played and proud of the way I handled myself. It was just a wonderful time.”
Mark and Mackenzie used golf to help raise awareness of Amyloidosis. Less than two weeks ago, Mackenzie’s charitable organization—Mackenzie’s Mission—hosted Play FORE the Cure at RTJ. Longtime PGA Tour player Fred Funk played a hole with each foursome at the event, which raised $135,000 for the Amyloidosis Research Fund at the Mayo Clinic.
(For more information, please visit the Mackenzie’s Mission website at mm713.org).
“She was one of the lucky ones, because the disease is in remission,” Boedicker said. “We never asked why. We asked what. What was going to come from this process? It started off as a conversation around the dinner table, and it became an idea. And the idea became a cause.”
Chris Lang is the editor of Virginia Golfer magazine and the VSGA’s Manager, Digital Media.