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By Chris Lang
NELLYSFORD — When a special round is in the books, it’s hard to
keep it a secret, even at a place like Wintergreen Resort, where the surrounding
mountains render smartphones useless over large portions of the golf course.
But word spread like wildfire Thursday
after Yorktown’s Bob Bailey and Richmond’s Robert Nussey Jr. returned a
13-under-par 59 in the second round of the 37th Virginia State Golf
Association Senior Four-Ball Championship. It even got to first-round
co-leaders Keith Decker and Matt Sughrue, who were in the middle of Stoney
Creek’s Tuckahoe nine, one of those cell phone dead zones.
“We heard with about five holes
to play,” Decker said. “We knew what we had to do.”
In the end, Bailey and Nussey’s
score held, though Decker and Sughrue had chances. Decker was inches away from
chipping in for birdie on 17, and Sughrue made a game effort at a tying eagle
from the fairway on 18. Bailey and Nussey finished with a two-day aggregate
128, one shot better than Decker and Sughrue, which shot 63-66--129 and
finished second.
The 59 broke the single-round
championship record by two shots and is believed to be the first 59 ever
recorded in a VSGA championship.
“It’s a
special round,” said Bailey, a member at James River Country Club in Newport
News. “I’ll never forget it.
“There’s a guy
at our club who likes to do these prop bets, and he asked me what I thought I’d
shoot if I played a four-person captain’s choice with me hitting all four
balls. I told him, 12 (under), maybe. You have to roll a lot of putts in. So to
do that in two-person best ball, that’s special.”
Naturally,
Nussey and Bailey didn’t really think they had much of a chance when they
started their round on Thursday. They were two starting times deep on the back
nine and six shots behind 28-time VSGA champion Decker and past U.S. Senior
Amateur finalist Sughrue. In short, there were 24 sides between them and the
lead when the day started.
But the bogeys
that led to Wednesday’s 69 evaporated on a warm, windy day in the Nelson County
mountains. After opening with consecutive pars, they ran off four straight
birdies. Then after two more pars, Nussey chipped in for eagle from about 25
yards out on their ninth hole (Tuckahoe 9), and Bailey drained a 15-foot eagle
putt on their 10th hole (Monocan 1). They made par on the next two
holes before ripping off five straight birdies to end the round.
“We knew we
had to hit some good drives on that last hole to give us some eagle
opportunities,” Nussey said. “I thought we were at 60, actually. I didn’t
realize we had a chance at 59.”
Added Bailey: “When
we got to 10 under, I thought if we could make a couple of more, we could at
least get the other guys thinking.”
Decker and Sughrue
were certainly doing that, but they simply couldn’t get putts to fall in the
end. They made five straight pars before Sughrue’s tap-in birdie on 18.
“Those five
holes, we could have made three birdies, very easily,” Decker said. “Could
have, and probably should have, but we didn’t get it done.”
Before they
could even turn in their scorecard, Decker and Sughrue sought out Bailey and
Nussey to congratulate them on their historic round.
“We played
with those guys yesterday, and I didn’t see a 13 under in there – for us or
them, or anybody else,” Decker said. “That was a great score, and you’ve got to
shake their hand.”
The 10-stroke
discrepancy between Nussey and Bailey’s first and second rounds was the largest
in tournament history. Twice before, a side had bettered itself by seven
strokes from day one to day two.
Stoney Creek
yielded plenty of low scores Thursday. Bill Williard/Jeff Flax and Michael
Keating/Richard Lion both shot 9-under 63s after first-round 68s, allowing them
to finish in a tie for third at 131 with Charles Green III and Buck Brittain,
who returned 64 Thursday after a first-round 67.
Nussey and
Bailey were playing together in a VSGA championship for the first time. Both
were exempt into the event but needed to find a partner who was also exempt if
they wanted to avoid having to go through qualifying. Bailey contacted Nussey,
and the two played their first round together last week at the member-guest
event at James River CC. They shot 6 under to win.
“If he hadn’t
called, I probably wouldn’t have played,” Nussey said. “So this was pretty
cool.”
And it sounds
like they’ll play together more often.
“Why not?”
Bailey laughed. “We’re 1-0!”
Chris Lang is the Editor of Virginia Golfer Magazine and Manager,
Digital Media for the VSGA.