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By Chris Lang
KILMARNOCK – One new Virginia State Golf Association
champion was crowned on Thursday at Indian Creek Yacht & Country Club,
while three others added more titles to their championship resumes as the VSGA’s
Mid-Senior Amateur and Super Senior Amateur championships concluded.
Centreville’s Tim
Vigotsky, long a contender in VSGA events, claimed his first title, winning the
65-69 age division in the 25th VSGA Super Senior Amateur
Championship. The other Super Senior Amateur winners—Richmond’s John Cuomo
(70-74) and Virginia Beach’s George Owens (75-plus)—won their second titles in
the event, both having won 65-69 titles in the past.
In the 4th
VSGA Mid-Senior Amateur Championship, for players ages 60-64, Williamsburg’s
Dave Pulk won to claim his fourth individual VSGA title. He’s also won two Senior
Opens of Virginia and a Senior Stroke Play title.
4th VSGA Mid-Senior Amateur
Championship
Considering the
pedigree of the two players involved, it was no surprise that the final between
Pulk and Manakin’s David Partridge was tightly contested throughout. Pulk won 1
up when Partridge’s 10-foot par putt on 18 to extend the match to extra holes
lipped out.
Partridge, who won
last year’s Mid-Senior Amateur, was seeking his 14th VSGA
championship. Pulk won the opening hole with a par and never trailed. Partridge
never lost sight of Pulk, though. Pulk led by no more than two holes, the last
such lead coming after 15 holes.
Partridge made par
on the par-3 16th while Pulk made bogey, cutting the lead to 1 up.
Both players made par on 17, setting up the dramatics on 18.
“I kept my nose out
in front, and Dave played real solid,” Pulk said. “It’s one of those things
where a few putts here or there, and the match could have gone the other way.”
A huge hole in the
match was the par-5 10th. Up two, Pulk sprayed his drive left into a
penalty area and eventually played from the 18th fairway after a
penalty stroke and drop. He managed to get back to No. 10, hit his fourth shot
to within five feet and sank a putt to save par. Partridge had a birdie putt on
that hole but it slid just past, allowing Pulk to maintain his lead.
“I’m sure he felt
like that hole was definitely going to be his,” Pulk said. “But that’s match
play. Sometimes, things change.”
Super Senior Amateur (65-69)
Vigotsky, who
defeated defending champion Dayton Slater of Richmond 3 and 2, has won plenty
of golf tournaments. He just hadn’t found a way to break through in a VSGA
championship, save for the Intercollegiate, where he was medalist during his
time at George Mason University.
Vigotsky wasn’t
nearly as sharp as he was on Wednesday, when he made just one bogey in 30 holes
in winning two matches. But he still had enough to jump to an early lead and
hold on for the victory.
Vigotsky took a
2-up lead to the par-3 11th hole and reached the green in
regulation, albeit about 25 feet past the hole. He hit his tricky downhiller
perfectly, rolling it in for birdie and a 3-up lead. He led by at least two the
rest of the way and closed out the win when both players made par on 16.
“For whatever
reason, I had the right frame of mind,” Vigotsky said. “If I was up two, I
wanted one more, as opposed to just trying to hang on. ... There’s something about
going 3 up. Maybe the other guy starts getting a little ‘that’s a pretty big
hole to dig out of.’ With 2 (up), mentally, you’re saying, I can get this back.
But three with six or seven holes to play, that’s big.”
Vigotsky won the
championship in his debut year in the division. He reached the final of the VSGA
Senior Amateur in 2011 but finally broke through on Thursday.
“The Virginia
stuff, it’s just eluded me,” he said. “Being a native, it’s something I wanted.”
Super Senior Amateur (70-74)
Cuomo, who defeated
Woodbridge’s Ronald Janicki 4 and 3 on Thursday, didn’t make it past the 15th
hole in any of his three matches, winning the championship in dominating
fashion.
“Whenever you win a
golf tournament, it’s satisfying, because it shows that the work you’re putting
into your game is paying off,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo now has eight
VSGA championships to his credit, all at the senior or super senior level. He
won the 65-69 division of this event in 2013 and won the VSGA Senior Amateur in
2004.
Thursday’s
championship match wasn’t a runaway, at least not on the front nine. Cuomo took
a 2-up lead after six holes, but Janicki made a clutch birdie putt on No. 9 to
cut into the lead at the turn. But he made a mess of the par-5 10th,
making double bogey and dropping the hole. Cuomo then won holes 12 and 14 to go
4 up and closed out the match when both players made par on 15.
“The golf course is
your opponent,” Cuomo said. “You plug along, and hopefully it works out.”
Super Senior Amateur (75+)
Owens, who won the
65-69 title in 2011, rallied to defeat McLean’s David Stewart 1 up in the
championship match. The big hole: No. 13.
Stewart held a 2-up
lead after 12 holes, leaving Owens staggering a bit. His tee shot on 13 was
offline, and he had a difficult lie against tree for his approach, which he
left short of the green in the rough. But Owens managed to chip in for birdie,
turning the tide of the match.
“It does give you
lift, because once you get 1 down, anything can happen,” Owens said. “You could
make a birdie and he could make a bogey. It’s easy to get back even. You can’t
make up two holes in one hole.”
Owens won 14 with a
conceded birdie to even the match and took the lead with a par on 17. Both
players made par on 18, giving Owens the 1-up win.
He’s 2-2 in Super
Senior Amateur finals, a record he said “he’ll gladly keep.”
Chris Lang is the
Editor of Virginia Golfer magazine and the VSGA’s manager, digital media.