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By Chris Lang
HOT SPRINGS – Charlottesville’s Phil Mahone
slipped into the match-play field at the 72nd Virginia State Golf
Association Senior Amateur Championship by the slimmest of margins. Despite making
two bogeys during a four-for-three playoff on Tuesday, he earned one of the
final three spots, the No. 32 seed and a date with stroke-play qualifying
medalist Buck Brittain of Tazewell.
Afterward, he took a deep breath, got a good night’s rest,
and came to the practice range at The Omni Homestead Resort’s Cascades Course ready
to work on Wednesday morning.
“I have a little pump drill that I go to every now and then
when I’m hitting it bad,” Mahone said. “I just did that on the range this
morning, and it got my timing right. And I started hitting it really well.”
So well, in fact, that he shot 2-under in his round-of-32
match and ousted Brittain, draining a long birdie putt on 17 to win 2 and 1 and
become the second No. 32 seed in the last three years to eliminate the
stroke-play medalist.
“I played so bad in qualifying over the two days … I just
hit it terrible,” Mahone said. “I’m a better player than I showed in qualifying.
And I think Buck knows that too. So I don’t know how excited he was—because he
knows I can play. Not that he was afraid of me, or anything like that. He just
knows that I’m not the normal 32 seed.
“Then I found something on the range, and I played great
against Buck. No bogeys, I was 2 under. I never gave him a hole. I think he
only missed one green, so he played really well too.”
Mahone is two years removed from a semifinal appearance in
the Senior Amateur, and he’s been selected for the Virginia team for the Virginia-West
Virginia Matches. Mahone kept it rolling in the afternoon, defeating Yorktown’s
Bob Bailey 5 and 3 to advance to Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
Outside of Mahone and Virginia Beach’s Jeff Flax (the No.
28) seed, the championship quarterfinals feature the top seeds. Joining those
two are Gainesville’s Rich Buckner, Martinsville’s Keith Decker, Midlothian’s
Steve Serrao, Virginia Beach’s Roger Newsom, Williamsburg’s Dave Pulk and
Middleburg’s Robert Slavonia.
Brittain and Midlothian’s Scott Reisenweaver, the No. 5
seed, were the only top-eight seeds not to advance to Thursday’s quarterfinals.
Mahone and Slavonia—who defeated Chesapeake’s Tony Mitchum
and Centreville’s Tim Vigotsky—will meet in the first quarterfinal. Flax and
Serrao will face off in the other quarterfinal on the top half of the bracket.
Serrao (Willow Oaks CC) knocked off Charlottesville’s Neil
Davis 2 up in the morning before defeating Manassas’ Jeffrey Klatt 3 and 2 in
the afternoon. Serrao was a semifinalist in the 2017 VSGA Amateur at Creighton
Farms and part of the winning side at last year’s VSGA Senior Four-Ball
Championship. Searching for a spark after struggling for most of 2019, he found
one in his brother Jay, who was playing in his first senior championship. Jay
lost his first-round match to Marc Hogan.
“My swing has been way off and my putting has been way off,”
Serrao said. “I got some work in with Mike Hott last week. Working with him
helped me trust what I was doing was right. … And having my brother playing
kind of rejuvenated me. When I saw he shot 65 in the qualifier, I was like, ‘Oh
man, I’ve got to get my stuff together.’ It’s just fun having him here.”
The bottom bracket is loaded, featuring four
quarterfinalists who have won at least one VSGA championship. Pulk, a past
winner of the Senior Open of Virginia and VSGA Senior Stroke Play Championship,
defeated Quinton’s John Kinder 3 and 1 before ousting Hogan 3 and 2 to advance
to a matchup with Buckner, the 2017 Senior Amateur winner.
Pulk was a semifinalist the last time the championship was
held at the Cascades, and if he remembers anything about that experience, it
was that driver accuracy is a big key to having success.
“It’s a tough golf course, a great test of golf,” Pulk said.
“If you get it going a little off, this course will make you pay. If I can keep
the driver working good, and the irons and putter come through, hopefully I can
shoot around par and I’ll be in the match against Rich. The last time I was
here in the semis, the driver got a little wayward, and you can’t do that on
this golf course.”
The final quarterfinal is a rematch from last year’s
quarters at Golden Horseshoe. Decker defeated Newsom 3 and 2 in that match, and
another fantastic matchup between two of Virginia’s most decorated seniors
awaits on Thursday.
Newsom has qualified for both the U.S. Senior Open and U.S.
Senior Amateur this year. Decker is a 28-time VSGA champion who won the Senior
Amateur the last time it was contested at the Cascades.
“You know what, coming into this tournament, he was playing
better than anyone in this field,” Decker said of Newsom. “He had to be the guy
at the top of the list, anyway. So, I’m hoping for a good match.”
Lang is the editor of
Virginia Golfer magazine and the VSGA’s manager, digital media.