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By Arthur Utley
WILLIAMSBURG — The golf course was the winner on the first
day of the 34th Virginia State Golf Association Super Senior Stroke
Championship.
No player in the
55-man field broke par on The Club at Kingsmill’s 6,030-yard Woods Course on
Monday, but the scores are bunched.
The leader, Fairfax’s
John Hoffman (Evergreen Country Club), was the only player to shoot par 72. He
holds a one-stroke lead over Forest’s Bert Allen (Boonsboro CC) who returned
1-over 73. The second and final round of the 36-hole championship will be
played Tuesday.
Bristol’s Charlie
Green (The Virginian) and Midlothian’s Jimmy Angel (Salisbury CC) trail by two
shots after posting 2-over 74s. Green won the Super Senior Stroke Play at Fawn
Lake CC in 2016.
Six players are at
75: 2015 champion John Cuomo of Richmond (Stonehenge G&CC), Manakin-Sabot’s
Leon Roday (Kinloch GC), McLean’s George Kapetanakis (Trump National,
Washington), Lynchburg’s John Bruce (Boonsboro CC), Troutville’s Chips Wooddy
(Roanoke CC) and Virginia Beach’s George Owens (Princess Anne CC).
Roanoke’s Bill Nunnenkamp
(Blue Hills GC), Williamsburg’s Jeff Fleishman (Two Rivers CC) and Midlothian’s
Pat Gregory (Salisbury) are four back.
Playing in the
second from the last threesome of the day, Hoffman logged four birdies against
four bogeys in sunny, breezy conditions.
“Playing in this
Bermuda (rough), I’m not used to it. If I hit in it, it’s rough for me to get
up and down, but my putter bailed me out today big time,” Hoffman said, noting
he plays mostly on bentgrass at his home club in Haymarket.
Hoffman has had a
top 10 in this tournament – “Hopefully I can do a little better this year,” he
said – and was a member of the Virginias team at last year’s Captain’s Putter Matches.
“I had the speeds
down and I was just dropping putts. That saved my round,” said Hoffman, whose
longest made birdie putt was a 15 footer. “I was hitting some decent iron
shots. Like I said the putter was really working saving pars, dropping
birdies.”
As the leader,
“I’ll tee it up and hopefully do all the same things I did today.”
Allen had 15 pars,
a birdie and two bogeys in his round. He said unfamiliarity with the course
(it’s Kingsmill’s private club) and its nuances were factors in the lack of low
scores.
“I was on the edge
of playing good, I didn’t get any putts to go in,” he said.
Past Virginia
Amateur champion Wayne Jackson shot 82 to lead the way in the 80+ Division.
Defending champion
Jack Vardaman (The Homestead) posted 78. Alexandria’s Bill Engel, who won
back-to-back in 2012-13, had an 80.
Retired Richmond Times-Dispatch sports writer Arthur Utley is a
frequent contributor to VSGA championship coverage and Virginia Golfer
magazine.