By Arthur Utley
WILLIAMSBURG – The annual meeting between the six-golfer
teams from Mount Vernon Country Club (Alexandria) and the Country Club of
Virginia (Richmond) will be held Tuesday at Williamsburg Golf Club in the
championship match of the 73rd Virginia State Golf Association
Women’s State Team Matches.
This will be the
sixth year in a row the teams have met in the second oldest tournament on the
VSGA women’s schedule and the fifth time in that span that the meeting has come
in the final. Each team has won two finals, and Mount Vernon won last year’s
match in the semifinals.
Championship and
all other flight finals begin play Tuesday with a 9 a.m. shotgun start.
Mount Vernon, this
year’s top seed, was the top seed in last year’s tournament and went on to win
its 14th title, defeating Belle Haven Country Club in the final. The
Alexandria club is trying to win three consecutive titles for the third time.
Mount Vernon’s first three titles in the event were consecutive from 1991-93.
The club duplicated the trifecta from 2008 to 2010. It has won eight of the
last 11 championships.
CCV, which has won
13 titles, last hoisted the victor’s trophy in 2016. Either Mount Vernon or CCV
has won the team title every year since 2006 with the exception of Elizabeth
Manor Golf and Country Club (Portsmouth) in 2011.
“We keep running
into each other. It’s a great rivalry so I don’t think anybody thinks anyone
owns anything,” said Mount Vernon captain Joan Gardner, “but it’s interesting
the last couple of years we’ve just kind of put it together and come
through…they’ve always been wonderful matches so we’re looking forward to
another one. What can we say?”
Mount Vernon
advanced to this year’s championship match with a 33.5-20.5 victory over
fourth-seeded Brandermill CC (Midlothian) in Monday’s semifinal. CCV, the
second seed, eliminated another championship flight newcomer, Sleepy Hole Golf
Club of Suffolk, 30.5-23.5.
In the format, each club is comprised of three
two-player teams with each hole worth a single point for 54 points total.
The Mount Vernon tandems
of Linda DiVall-Kim Franks and Gardner-Katie Cox were 11.5-6.5 winners in their
matches against Brandermill. Shawn McCullough and Debbie Simpson contributed
10.5 points with a win in their match.
Mount Vernon kept
their two-person teams the same for Sunday’s qualifier and Monday’s semifinals.
“We feel
comfortable playing with each other. That’s something we talk about after every
match,” Gardner said. “We’ll be chatting about [putting the pieces together] at
dinner. We haven’t been playing as much together as a team and today we just
felt comfortable after (Sunday’s qualifier)…and we hadn’t played Brandermill so
well, let’s just keep these teams together and see how it goes. We saw that CCV
mixed it up. Whether they will do it again, I don’t know.”
CCV had a tougher
time with Sleepy Hole in its semifinal. Lindsay Wortham and Eliza Lewis rolled
to an 11.5-6.5 victory, while Natalie Easterly-Boodie McGurn and Cheryl
Grigg-Brenda Baril squeaked by 9.5-8.5 in their matches with Tammy
Bouchard-Colleen Robertson and Casey Burley-Micki Campbell, respectively.
CCV shuffled their partnerships
each of the first two days and could do it again for the final. Even though two
of the matches were close, they featured good golf, and “we are pumped for
tomorrow,” McGurn said. “We may shake it up. We really feel like we can do any
combination [for the final] and we’ll be good. We just feel really good about
tomorrow.”
CHAMPIONSHIP FLIGHT
No.
1 Mount Vernon CC d. No. 4 Brandermill CC 33.5-20.5; No. 2 CCV d. No. 3 Sleepy
Hole GC 30.5-23.5.
Final:
Mount Vernon vs. CCV
FIRST FLIGHT
No.
1 Belle Haven CC d. No. 4 Hermitage CC 35.5-18.5; No. 3 Golf Club at the
Highlands d. No. 2 Fawn Lake CC 28-26.
Final:
Belle Haven vs. GC at the Highlands.
SECOND FLIGHT
No.
1 Washington G&CC d. No. 4 Cavalier G&YC 27.5-26.5; No. 2 Bayville GC d.
No. 3 Ivy Hill GC 34-20.
Final:
Washington G&CC vs. Bayville.
THIRD FLIGHT
No.
1 Williamsburg GC d. No. 4 Greenbrier CC, 27-27 (won on third playoff hole);
No. 2 The Piedmont Club d. No. 3 Belmont CC 30-24.
Final:
Williamsburg GC vs. The Piedmont Club.
FOURTH FLIGHT
No.
1 Ford’s Colony CC d. No. 4 Army Navy CC 29.5-24.5; No. 2 Willow Oaks CC d. No.
3 Evergreen CC 31.5-22.5.
Final:
Ford’s Colony CC vs. Willow Oaks CC.
FIFTH FLIGHT
No.
1 Fort Belvoir GC d. No. 4 The Dominion Club 27.5-26.5; No. 2 Golden Horseshoe
GC d. No. 3 Broad Bay CC 30.5-23.5.
Final:
Fort Belvoir GC vs. Golden Horseshoe GC.
Arthur Utley is a retired Richmond
Times-Dispatch staff writer and frequent contributor to VSGA championship
coverage.