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By Chris Lang
KESWICK – A pair of college sophomores from the Richmond area navigated Keswick
Golf Club’s Full Cry Course better than anyone Monday, and they share the
18-hole lead at the 106th Virginia State Golf Association Amateur
Championship.
Glen Allen’s Cameron Moore, a rising
sophomore at Virginia Tech, and Richmond’s Clifford Foster, who is set to begin
his second year at Virginia Commonwealth University, each returned rounds of
4-under par 68 to take a two-stroke lead over Fairfax’s Greg Pappas and Fairfax
Station’s David Rabil heading into Tuesday’s second round of stroke-play
qualifying.
After the conclusion of Tuesday’s round,
the top 32 players will advance to match play, which begins Wednesday morning.
The freshman seasons for Moore and Foster
at their respective schools unfolded differently. Moore struggled at the
beginning before cracking the lineup consistently in the spring, and he started
for Tech in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. Foster made three
starts for the Rams in the spring but didn’t play well enough to stay in the
lineup as VCU won the Atlantic 10 championship and advanced to NCAA regionals.
That turn of events seemed to spark
something in Foster, who last week advanced to the semifinals of the Richmond
Golf Association’s Amateur Championship.
“I had a poor fall, and coach (Matt Ball) kind
of lit a fire under me, honestly, going into the spring season,” said Foster,
who posted a bogey-free round with four birdies on Monday. “That made me work a
lot harder, and I had a better spring. I had some starts and kind of lost it a
little bit. We won conference as a team, which was awesome, but I didn’t play
in either conference or NCAAs, so there’s a lot of motivation there for me now.”
Moore was 2 over through four holes Monday
before turning his round with a birdie on No. 5. He made birdie on No. 8 and
made the turn at even par. Another birdie on the par-3 11th started
a run of four birdies in five holes.
“I kind of got in a groove,” Moore said. “I
chipped in on 11, and that got me going. I had two more birdies directly after
that. I just got in the zone and kept charging.”
Both players are seeking their first
appearance in match play at the VSGA Amateur. Moore came tantalizingly close to
advancing last year, losing out in a playoff at The Federal Club.
“I’ve learned a lot from the last two
years, coming close and not quite getting there,” Moore said. “I just tried to
stay focused today.”
PAPPAS
EMERGES: Pappas graduated from Greensboro College in 2014 and quickly gave up on
competitive golf after, partly because of work and partly because he just
wanted to play the game for fun.
This week’s championship at Keswick is his
first since returning to the competitive scene. Asked why he came back, he
responded simply, “I guess I got the itch again.”
Pappas, a lefty who plays out of Fauquier
Springs CC, made four birdies and two bogeys to keep himself within striking
distance of the leaders.
“The course is in good shape, and I was
keeping it in front of me pretty well,” he said. “I didn’t have to scramble or
grind too hard. I made a good number of easy pars, but had a little hiccup on
the 8th hole (his 17th, he started on the back), but
other than that, it was good.”
AFTERNOON
WAVE: Most of the low scores came in the morning session. The 90-degree heat
stifled players in the afternoon, and a sudden 15-minute windstorm wreaked
havoc with some players late in the second session. Connor Messick said the
wind became a big factor on No. 16 green, so much so that players had to back
off putts several times to make sure balls didn’t move during the actual
putting stroke.
“Putting on 16 was really tough,” Messick
said. “I stepped off twice, and one of my playing partners had to step off like
six or seven times.”
Messick, an International Country Club
member who played three years at the University of Virginia before transferring
to George Mason as a graduate student, was one of seven players tied for fifth
after returning 1-under 71s.
“I’ve played this course probably 60 times,
so I kind of knew where to hit it and where not to,” he said. “I just kind of
took advantage of some of the shorter holes and some of the longer ones were downwind
on the back nine.”
Others in that group at 71 included Fairfax’s
George Duangmanee, Richmond’s Adam Houck, Fairfax’s Milan Matneja, Alexandria’s
Jimmy Taylor, Alexandria’s Teddy Zinsner and Tazewell’s Buck Brittain.
Brittain, winner of the last two Senior
Opens of Virginia, is one of nine from the 50-and-over set in the field.
“I hit the ball pretty well and just tried
to stay patient,” Brittain said. “I played well, and I’m sort of tickled.”
Taylor was a finalist in last week’s 29th
VSGA Junior Match Play Championship and kept that momentum rolling with a
strong round Monday.
“I didn’t think I hit the ball great last
week, so I saw my swing coach over the weekend and tried to add a little more
hinge to my swing,” he said. “I hit it really well today. I just did not make a
lot of putts. I had at least four putts inside 15 feet on the back nine that
weren’t really getting there.”
Lang is the editor of Virginia Golfer magazine and the VSGA’s manager,
digital media.