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By Chris Lang
RICHMOND — For the first time in its short history, the Virginia State Golf Association Super Senior Four-Ball Championship has a repeat winner.
Suffolk’s J.P. Leigh drained an 8-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole Thursday on another suffocating day at Jefferson Lakeside Country Club, giving Leigh and John Cuomo the victory over the Salisbury Country Club tandem of Jim Hudson and Pat Gregory in the 6th playing of the championship.
“It’s fun,” Leigh said. “We play well together. … (Hudson and Gregory) played great. We’re just lucky to win. … We’re champs, and we’re happy.”
Leigh and Richmond’s Cuomo (Laurel Hill GC) won the championship for the second time. Their previous title came in 2015 at the Country Club of Petersburg.
Both Leigh and Cuomo and Hudson and Gregory posted two-day aggregate totals of 134, putting them four shots clear of the field and necessitating a playoff on the par-5 18th hole. Hudson had a chance to clinch the championship for his side in regulation but missed about a five-foot putt for eagle on 18.
“It was one of those side hillers,” Hudson said. “I thought it would (break) and it didn’t. It didn’t bend.”
On the playoff hole, three of the four players hit the fairway with their drives. Hudson was the exception, as his tee shot strayed right under a tree near the cart path. He hit a solid shot to get back into the fairway, and reached the green in regulation, giving himself at least a look at birdie. He missed the long putt, opening the door for Leigh and Cuomo to win.
Leigh’s third shot was the key shot of the playoff, giving him an excellent shot at birdie, which he converted. Moments before, he had made birdie on 18 to help force the playoff.
“It was almost the same putt I had in regulation,” Leigh said. “It just felt good.”
Army Navy Country Club’s Peter Jacobi (Arlington) and Bill Engel (Alexandria), who were runners-up a year ago at The Homestead, shot 68-70 and tied for third with Roanoke’s L.B. Bailey (Blue Hills GC) and Troutville’s Chips Wooddy (Roanoke CC) at 138. Bailey and Wooddy posted a second-round 68 to follow up Wednesday’s first-round 70.
Last year’s champions at The Homestead—Tazewell’s Charles Green III (The Virginian) and Keswick’s Bob Rotella (Glenmore CC)—followed a first-round 71 with a second-round 68 to tie for fifth with Fairfax’s John Hoffman (Evergreen CC) and Richmond’s Dayton Slater (Shenandoah Valley GC) at 139.
Cuomo and Leigh rebounded from an uncharacteristic 22nd-place finish in last year’s Super Senior Four-Ball Championship. They don’t hit it as far as some of their contemporaries, but when their accuracy is on point, they’re extremely difficult to beat. That was the case this week, as they made only one bogey in 36 holes and played the tough opening four-hole stretch at Jefferson Lakeside at 1 under par.
“I’ll tell you one thing, when we had to make a shot over the two days, we made a shot,” Cuomo said. “And that’s exactly what happened today. On the playoff hole, (Leigh) made the best shot he made in the entire two days.”
Hudson and Gregory struggled to get going early in Thursday’s second round, but they caught fire on the back, making birdie on 12 and eagle on 14. But a bogey on the par-3 15th hole proved costly.
“We had our chances,” Gregory said. “We didn’t take advantage of them.”
Chris Lang is the Editor of Virginia Golfer magazine and is the VSGA’s manager, digital media.