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By Matty Madden
GREAT FALLS — Home-course advantage played a major role for Brandon Berry, River Bend Club member and the current leader of the 107th Virginia State Golf Association Amateur Championship. Berry posted a 5-under-par 66 Monday at his home club, finishing with five birdies and no bogeys. He credited his success to a boost in confidence after a stellar low-amateur performance at the recent Delaware State Open, as well as his familiarity with River Bend’s layout.
“I’ve seen every shot and putt imaginable out here,” Berry said. “I’ve probably played here more than anyone else since they redid it. I live a minute away, so I was pumped when they announced that they were coming here, I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.”
Berry, who played at Loyola University in Baltimore qualified for match play in last year’s Amateur Championship at Keswick Golf Club, where he made the round of 16 and fell to semifinalist Jimmy Taylor.
Behind Berry in shared second place was reigning Delta Dental State Open of Virginia champion Mark Lawrence Jr. (Independence GC), who posted a 4-under-par 67. Lawrence won the Amateur in 2017, and with his State Open victory, he became just the ninth player to have won a State Open and Amateur Championship. Lawrence now has a chance to become the fourth player to win both tournaments in the same year, and the first to do so since Tom McKnight in 1985. Lawrence said that would be an incredible accomplishment, but there’s a lot of golf to be played and he’s focused on the next round of stroke play.
“I just kept the ball in front of me, and just tried to get a decent score so I could make it to match play,” Lawrence said. “I’ll probably be a lot more aggressive once we get to match play. I’ll try to take on a few more flagsticks, put myself in a little bit better spots off the tee, overall just more aggressive play.”
Lawrence Jr. currently stands tied for second with his Virginia Tech teammate, Cameron Moore (The Dominion Club). Moore posted a 4-under-par 67 that included five birdies. Moore advanced to the quarterfinals in last year’s Amateur Championship, where he was eliminated by finalist Christopher Zhang.
Behind Moore and Lawrence was PGA Tour alumnus Michael Muehr (Trump National GC), a reinstated amateur who posted a 3-under-par 68 that included five birdies. Muehr, who played on the PGA Tour from 2001-03, is playing in his first VSGA event in nearly a decade.
Muehr took a six-year hiatus from golf in 2003 after being diagnosed with melanoma in 2002. During his hiatus, he founded Golf Pros Against Cancer, a non-profit that helps fund a melanoma clinic at Duke University. The organization raised nearly $250,000 in its first two years of operation.
Muehr is tied for fourth with Justin Young (Ballyhack GC), Matt Sughrue (Trump National GC), Dustin Groves (The Club at Glenmore) and current Old Dominion University golfer Carter Morgan (Hobbs Hole GC), all of whom posted rounds of 3-under-par 68.
“I got off to a good start, which is what I wanted to do, and after hole 9, I pretty much just put it on cruise control. You don’t need to go super low in stroke play, you just need to make match play, and then anything can happen,” Morgan said. “I’m just hitting a lot of center greens, putting a lot, I had a really solid round, but I’ll be way more aggressive in match play.”
Morgan made the cut for match play in last year’s Amateur Championship and lost in the round of 32 to Taylor.
Also in the mix is Blake Carter (Chatmoss CC), one of five tied for ninth at 69. He was 4 under through 16 holes before back-to-back bogeys to end his round. Carter was in the afternoon wave of golfers that was impacted by a two-hour weather delay.
“I’m a fair-weather golfer now,” he said. “I don’t play in the rain anymore. I had a lot of gloves that I brought from home and I went through all of them in about the last four holes. By the end of the day I was gloveless, so I had a lot of trouble gripping the club.”
Due to heavy rain associated with Hurricane Isaias, which was expected to make landfall in the Carolinas Monday night before moving up the Eastern seaboard, Tuesday’s second round of stroke-play qualifying has been pushed to Wednesday. As a result, everything on the championship schedule has been pushed back by one day. Match play will begin with round of 32 and 16 play on Thursday, with the quarterfinals and semifinals set for Friday, and the 36-hole championship match set for Saturday.
Madden is a P.J. Boatwright intern for the VSGA.