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By Chris Lang
VIRGINIA BEACH — A cool, showery day at Bayville Golf Club produced a crowded leaderboard after the first round of the 44th Virginia State Golf Association Mid-Amateur Championship.
Four players posted 4-under-par rounds of 68 on Friday to share the lead after 18 holes of the 54-hole championship for players ages 25 and older: Martinsville’s Blake Carter (pictured), Stanardsville’s Mikey Moyers, Charlottesville’s Dustin Groves and Lynchburg’s Jeremy Alcorn.
Those four were a shot clear of a group of four who returned rounds of 3-under 69: Haymarket’s Scott Shingler (Dominion Valley CC), Midlothian’s Steve Serrao (Willow Oaks CC), Virginia Beach’s Evan Beck (Princess Anne CC) and Salem’s Justin Young (Ballyhack GC).
After Saturday’s second round, the field will be cut to the low 48 players and ties. Those remaining will be placed into flights for Sunday’s third and final round.
Moyers (Greene Hills Club) and Groves (The Club at Glenmore) each made match play at this year’s VSGA Amateur Championship and finished inside the top 10 at the Delta Dental State Open of Virginia. Carter (Chatmoss CC) also reached match play at River Bend in August. It was little surprise to see them find success at Bayville Friday.
Groves finished with five birdies and a bogey and made a run at the end of his round, making birdies on three of his final four holes and missing a fourth by mere inches when his putt for three on the par-4 8th slid just by the hole.
“Really good last four or five holes,” Groves said. “I really struggled in the middle of my round, so I’m thinking there at the end as I pull up that I really didn’t have my best stuff, but to be able to shoot that score, that’s great. Now let’s have a good day tomorrow and another on Sunday. I’m here to win this week. I’ve had a good year. Being able to finish like that after really struggling with ball striking, it feels good, yeah.”
Carter also posted his 68 in the morning wave, finishing with six birdies—including draining a 35-foot bomb on No. 14—and two bogeys. He credited his success Friday to strong iron play, as he didn’t miss a green until the 16th hole. He also hit a lot of fairways.
“I hit driver on every hole,” Carter said. “It’s the Bryson DeChambeau way of playing. My driver and short irons have been really good. When you play Chatmoss, you hit a lot of drivers and a lot of short irons. Every time you play, it’s like practicing that over and over. And then the putting. I started actually practicing putting for the first time in three years. So that helps a little bit.”
Moyers was playing in his first tournament since the Amateur, and he had to adjust a bit to the speed of Bayville’s greens, which are considerably faster than the ones he plays on every day at Greene Hills Club. He made four birdies and finished the round bogey free.
“It was just a well-rounded day,” Moyers said. “I just got it in play a lot. I just slapped it out in the fairway and slapped it on the green, two putted, maybe made one here or there. It wasn’t anything special.
“I’m not one of those guys who looks at the leaderboard. I know if I’m playing well, I’ll have a chance. It’s a three-day tournament, (being tied for the lead) really doesn’t mean anything. You don’t worry about that stuff until the back nine on the last day.”
Alcorn, an assistant men’s golf coach at Liberty University and member at Poplar Grove GC, is playing in his first VSGA championship. The former Baylor standout served as an assistant at Coastal Carolina and Texas Tech before making his way to Lynchburg. He also had a brief professional career and spent some time caddying on the PGA Tour.
Alcorn started on No. 10 and was 2 under through seven holes before making back-to-back bogeys. He recovered with a hot stretch on his back nine, making birdies on four of five holes to forge his way into a tie for the lead.
The group just behind the leaders features a pair of past Mid-Amateur champions in Shingler and Young, a past State Open of Virginia winner in Evan Beck, and a past Senior Amateur champion in Serrao.
Shingler, who said he has struggled to carve out practice and playing time during the pandemic, raved about how Bayville played on Friday.
“It’s in great shape,” he said. “The greens are fantastic. The rough is tough, especially because we had a little bit of rain this morning, which made that rough even tougher to hit out of.”
Four players enter Saturday’s round tied for ninth at 2-under 70, two strokes off the lead: Virginia Beach’s Joe Morton (Broad Bay CC), Midlothian’s Ryan Bishop (Hermitage CC), Ashburn’s Conor Cafferty (1757 GC) and Charlottesville’s Kyle Bailey (Spring Creek GC).
Lang is the VSGA’s manager of media and communications.